Global SITREP E9-21: End of the Road Part IV

28 April 2021: It would be quite the task to accurately count the number of times Eschatology Today has made reference to the ḥălôm or dream of prophetic meaning that so obsessed Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar. It was an obsession so much so that that the Nebuchadnezzar issued an edict to his royal guards to kill all of the magicians, sorcerers, soothsayers and false prophets in the Babylonian Empire because they could not complete the utterly impossible task of telling the king what it was that he had dreamed and the meaning of that dream. 

There is doubt God had caused this dream to come upon Nebuchadnezzar because it served His purposes in any number of ways, but importantly, in order to fulfill the prophecy of Isaiah 46:10 - "Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things which are not yet done, saying 'My counsel shall stand, and I will do all My pleasure.'" 

Daniel 2 is where the prophet Daniel begins to tell us the end from the beginning. It's all right there in plain text what the end will be in these latter days. Daniel asked Nebuchadnezzar for some time and time was given to him. Immediately returning to his house and informing his Judean companions Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah that they all join in prayer in asking God in heaven to reveal what was unknowable to them about Nebuchadnezzar's dream. God's response was immediate and given to Daniel in a vision that night, to which Daniel awaoke afterwards and began thankfully praising God for His omnipotence, omnipresence and omniscience and for making known to him what was unknowable to any man.

And Daniel rose and approached the commander of Nebuchadnezzar's guard, saying don't kill the wise men of babylon, take me to Nebuchadnezzar and I will tell him his dream and its meaning. Fortunately for us, the meaning of Nebuchadnezzar's prophetic dream has a bit more meaning for us than it did for that ancient king, aside from assuaging his king-sized ego. So Daniel began telling Nebuchadnezzar that the one God in heaven had revealed to the king details about the future, even into the last days of the rule of men on the earth and that none of the wise men of the empire could possibly know what God had given to Nebuchadnezzar in his vision.  

From Daniel's description artists have long drawn representations of the human-form statue seen at the head of this SITREP. But the representation has always been a simple, static image, whereas what Nebuchadnezzar had actually dreamed was like a video of the future after him. Again, this vision came from God so we can only imagine how awesome it must have been. The conclusion was an illustration the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, as a stone cut without human hands to establish the Kingdom of God that would endure forevermore afterwards. Daniel also told Nebuchadnezzar the meaning of the great statue he saw in his videographic dream about the future, that it was one of both great splendor and of terror. The terror was such that Nebuchadnezzar would have slaughtered all in searching for its meaning.

Daniel's interpretation revealed the head of gold kingdom (Nebuchadnezzar's Babylonian Empire) was followed by an inferior kingdom represented as a chest and arms of silver (Medo-Persian Empire), which was followed by a third kingdom represented as a belly and thighs of bronze (Alexander's Macedonian-Greek Empire), and followed further by a fourth legs of iron (Roman Empire), and finally a fifth consisting of feet and toes as a mixture or iron and ceramic clay.

A Fifth Kingdom

Daniel's interpretation details how the Roman kingdom would divide ("that kingdom will break in pieces"), and as we know from history the Roman Empire indeed broke in two halves, Rome in the west and Byzantium in the east. Yet even this while represented as two legs is still the fourth in the line of succession of earthly gentile kingdoms. 

Daniel then focuses on the mixed iron and ceramic of the feet and toes and how ("the kingdom shall be divided") which represents both Rome and Byzantium further divided into individual countries and kingdoms that exist where Rome and Byzantium has previously existed. Collectively, the iron and ceramic toes are a fifth kingdom; the ultimate and last human-ruled kingdom of consequence in Scripture. 

In a further detail Daniel reveals about the feet and toes, "they will mingle with the seed of men; but they will not adhere to one another, just as iron does not mix with ceramics." This, for us, is an exquisitely important detail. It describes a society in each these countries of different ethnicities which will not adhere to one another. What is this saying about the elites in the European Union who have sought a unified super-state since the end of World War II. Will their efforts succeed in such a creation? No, according to the Lord's prophetic word, that continuing effort will not ultimately succeed. 

The so-called revived Roman Empire will not be. What will be is what Scripture found in Daniel 7:7-8 foretells will be. The ten toes representing ten kings or nations, three of which will be absorbed in the sudden rise of an eleventh king or nation, the Antichrist's kingdom, and to whom the other seven will pledge their kingdoms. 

These are the sum of the seven heads and ten horns foretold in Revelation 13:1. Are these ten the descendants of ancient Rome and Byzantium? Yes, there is no doubt about that, otherwise the consistency of a single human form from a single head down to ten toes in Nebuchadnezzar's vision would be erroneous, and there is no error in the Lord's revealed prophetic word.

Global SITREP A4-19: Current Developments - The Global Order PART II

NATO in IRAQ

13 January 2019: This new reality has been referenced as soon-to-occur on Eschatology Today in more SITREP's than we have fingers to count them on. For reference material, if one were to go into the blog archive from 2014 to the present and seek out SITREP's D6-14, E3-15, C2-16, C3-16 D11-16 and E1-16, this half dozen plus D7-18 and A2-19 would suffice for the referencing purpose.

The big picture is that the US withdrawal from Syria was never a unilateral decision by President Trump; it did not occur in a vacuum, nor was it ever envisioned to create one in Syria. Since taking office the POTUS has been on NATO's case to increase its funding of the military needs of the alliance, to become more involved in war zone operations. Even the Iraqi government requested a more robust NATO presence in the country. Now it is a reality.

Eschatology Today has discussed how the Syrian war was morphing into a global war (see also: SITREP D7-18 MidEast Wars Magnified). One global media report has coined a new phrase to name this morphing war as the "Syraq War." With U.S. forces in northern Syria withdrawing to Iraq, and the forces at al-Tanf staying put for the foreseeable future, the big link up and base of warfighting operations in the coming months will be from Iraq. 

This past December a significant conference occurred in Baghdad at the Iraqi Ministry of Defense. The conference was largely unheralded in major media, just a blurb here and there, yet the net result was the establishment of NATO Mission Iraq (NMI). The parent military command for NATO Mission Iraq is the NATO southern command in Naples, Italy. Formerly known as AFSOUTH, this long-time NATO base is presently known as NATO Allied Joint Force Command. The primary military entities that will fold their operations into the new NATO Mission Iraq will be the U.S.-led CJTF-OIR, the E.U.-led Mission in Iraq, the U.N. Assistance Mission Iraq, the Office of Security Cooperation-Iraq and several other diplomatic missions.

The NATO Mission Iraq presents problems for the Russian Federation, and Turkey, but most especially for the Islamic Republic of Iran. Iran will no longer be able to use Iraq as a high speed highway to transit its military supplies into Syria. Hence the near daily air-bridge flights of 747 cargo aircraft between Tehran's and Damascus' international airports. And given a little time for that air lifted material to accumulate in Damascus, Israel then strikes and destroys the hastily constructed warehouses that are filled with it. Checkmate.

This new reality was largely brought about by Israel. PM Netanyahu presented it to Donald Trump, and after a couple of phone calls in December our President demonstrated his acceptance and enthusiastic support for this new paradigm by making the surprise announcement that 2,000 U.S. troops would be exiting from Syria. But it's not really a withdrawal from Syria as it is actually a redeployment to Iraq. In fact, there are numerous OSINT reports of a U.S. military build up occurring in Iraq. More bad news for Iran.

The NATO Mission Iraq is also, in effect, the joining of Iraq into a military partnership with NATO. This is a muscle-up of the longstanding NATO-Iraq relationship which began after Operation Iraqi Freedom concluded which was so grossly ineffective during the rise of the Islamic State in western Iraq following the unilateral and ill-advised Obama withdrawal of U.S. boots on Iraqi soil. The NMI is not only a problem for Iran, but it guarantees there will be no Islamic State resurgence in the country.

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Also going to note in this SITREP the leaked information of yesterday. This past December President Trump's National Security Adviser, John Bolton, requested the Pentagon to advise him of contingency plans for a U.S. military strike on Iran. This strike would have been in retaliation for the recent "acts of war" committed on behalf of Iran by their Iraqi Shi'a proxy militias in mortar attacks against the U.S. consulte in Basra and and the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad.

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As of this morning, Tuesday, 15 January 2019, Lt.Gen. Aviv Kochavi is the IDF Chief of Staff (CoS). Eschatolgy Today has a high regard for anyone who began their military career by making combat jumps (700ft/213m) out of perfectly good airplanes. The military operations against Iran and Hezbollah in Syria now rests upon his very capable shoulders. Will he be the IDF CoS who will see through the fulfillment of Isaiah 17? Time will tell.

Hezbollah's chief, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, has been conspicuously MIA for some time now. Since 21 December his second in command, Naim Qassem, has been making the important speeches Nasrallah would normally make after events such as the IDF destruction of multiple Hezbollah tunnels or IAF strikes on Hezbollah positions. The rumor is that Nasrallah suffered a coronary stroke in late November or early December; he's not be seen or heard from since then. A speech braodcast yesterday is from the Hezbollah archives of 2015 when he was also hospitalized during his fight with cancer.

Iran's launch of of a Shahab-6/Simorgh, Iran's long desired nuclear-capable ICBM, failed this morning, the third stage (the "bow") did not ignite properly. No word on where the payload (i.e. simulated nuclear warhead), named "Message," returned to earth. Iran has acknowledged the failure of this launch. An attempt to launch a second Shahab-6/Simorgh with payload is scheduled shortly.  If it fails, will we begin to see the fulfillment of Jeremiah 49:35? “Thus says the Lord of hosts: ‘Behold, I will break the bow of Elam, the foremost of their might." The Shahab-6/Simorgh is the foremost of the Iranian nuclear weapons delivery systems.

Global SITREP C9:17: Fire, Fury and Power Like The World Has Never Seen Before

UPDATE 15 August 2017: I believe we have just witnessed a prime example of, as Paul referred to it, katechō, the withholding, the restraining upon the works of pure evil in the world. Probably none but the indwelt bride of Christ in this world would see the backing down of North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un as the work of the Holy Spirit. Most will attribute what has just occurred to newly invoked economic sanctions and the power of Communist China or the threats of the American president, or some such other worldly nonsense. However, we must know that it is the Holy Spirit executing the will of Almighty God which has, temporarily at least, restrained the ultimate expression of lawlessness upon the world. Praise God.

11 August 2017: Recently we all heard President Trump warn the North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Un of the apocalyptic-sounding 'fire, fury and power like the world has never seen before' should he chose to act stupidly. Make no mistake, what American president said was neither a bluff nor an idle boast. It was a very real potential should Kim Jong-Un follow through on the military plan North Korean generals have presented to him of launching a salvo of four IRBMs at the U.S. territory of Guam, Marianas Islands next week. In less than ten days we'll know if North Korea's Communist Chinese and Russian oligarchs have been able to convince the madman to stand down, shut up and prepare to give up his weapons; that the whole world stand against him and his regime.

President Trump's words immediately brought to mind a verse from Revelation 13:4 about the absolute power that the Antichrist will wield in the near future; power such that none would dare make war (Gk: polemeō) against him. This brings to mind what has been stated on Eschatology Today in recent months concerning American military power; that it is far more robust, deadly and immediately available than almost everyone tends to think - especially a great many prophecy teachers - and even after eight years of Obama Administration downgrades and financial sequestering. This kind of on-call kinetic military power, like an undetectable black cat in a totally darkened room, remains unseen by anyone in this world save for a few who are aware of its existence. 

Getting back to Revelation 13:4 there is something in the context of that verse which I feel the Lord wanted to make known as I studied it within the past couple of days. Taken in the context of other Scripture (II Thessalonians 2, for example) I believe the God-breathed words of this passage express the blessed hope of the Harpazo of the bride of Christ very unambiguously occurring PRIOR TO  the revealing of the Antichrist and his ascension to absolute power.

Revelation 13:1 begins with John standing on a sandy shoreline seeing the beast rising up out of the sea (gentile nations). Notice three of the ten heads spoken of elsewhere in Scripture are already gone, plucked out by their roots. So what John sees is a seven-headed beast wearing 10 crowns of political authority, with a blasphemous name written on each of the seven heads. 

The first part of verse two evokes the Babylonian, Persian, Greek and Roman Empire aspects of this coming fourth and final world empire. However, the second part of verse two is critical, and something we need take careful note of:

"The dragon gave him his power, his throne, and great authority."

In the night vision given to the prophet Daniel (Daniel 2:19-21) that Scripture tells us that it is God who puts kings on their thrones, or removes them.  In John's vision what is it that God says? "The dragon gave him his power, his throne, and great authority."  How can this be if the bride of Christ, indwelt by the Holy Spirit is still present on this earth? That God is still attendant on the Spirit-filled Church established by Christ? 

Quite simply and according to Scripture, it is not possible. Therefore, and at that time, the bride of Christ has already been taken in the Harpazo and as seen in Revelation 12:9 the dragon/Satan and his fallen angels are then forcibly thrown down to the earth. When Satan has been thrown down to the earth, and God is then focused on Israel, that's when Satan is allowed to empower, seat the Antichrist on his throne and have him act with great authority.

TEN TOES

The Roman Empire divided into Left and right foot per Daniel 2

11 January 2017:  This has been an ongoing work for some time now, through which I've read or studied umpteen eschatological books, papers and web postings on the subject the final "beast" empire. The vast majority of these focused on the European Union, or Europe exclusively, and that's not, pardon the pun, without iron-clad cause. The Roman Republic, and then Empire, began as a European, or more correctly, a Mediterranean power.  This can be seen in the above clickable image. This image begs for some detailed study with respect to several coming prophetic fulfillment's and issues discussed below. 

The angel Gabriel, in the 70 Weeks prophecy given in Daniel 9:24-27, specifically pointed to the Roman Empire as the origin of the Antichrist by saying "And the people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary." As we all know, Jerusalem and the second temple were destroyed by several Roman legions in 70 AD. But hold that thought because first we have to go back to the past of Daniel's lifetime in order to see the prophetic future more clearly.

In Daniel 2:36-45 the dream of Nebuchadnezzar regarding a statuesque image is vividly described and then interpreted with absolute perfection by Daniel after God had shown him the same dream and given him its meaning in a night vision. The fourth and final kingdom was symbolically described as having "legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of clay." Daniel 2:40-43 contains the details of the meaning of the final form of the fourth kingdom, the Roman Empire.

In Daniel 7 more details about this fourth empire, the fourth and final of the four and only four beast empires, are given. In verse 7 we read: "behold, a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, exceedingly strong. It had huge iron teeth; it was devouring, breaking in pieces, and trampling the residue with its feet. It was different from all the beasts that were before it, and it had ten horns." Pay careful attention here. What is the final beast with 10 horns doing? Would it be reasonable to interpret that this beast kingdom is at war and utterly crushing its enemies?

Now watch what happens as the interpretive narrative continues in verse 8: "I was considering the [ten] horns, and there was another horn, a little one, coming up among them, before whom three of the first horns were plucked out by the roots. And there, in this horn, were eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking pompous words."  

The fourth beast with ten horns is utterly destroying its enemies when suddenly from among the ten horns of this fourth beast an eleventh little horn comes up, and plucks three of the original ten horns out by its roots. This little horn is clearly the Antichrist. See also Daniel 7:19-20 where these events are repeated for what i believe is good interpretive measure. And they are again repeated for a third time in verse 24: 

"The ten horns are ten kings

Who shall arise from this kingdom.

And another shall rise after them;

He shall be different from the first ones,

And shall subdue three kings."

When prophecy is repeated three times in the Word of God its a pretty good indicator that something really, really, really important about future events is being stated. I am ashamed to admit that I had not noticed this important repetition previously, and that is after having studied this chapter of Daniel many, many times over. Yet last week I read it again and it was if I was finally seeing this prophecy for the first time, albeit in an entirely different light. This prophecy is in plain text; it means exactly what it says irregardless of the symbolism associated with it in other directly related prophetic verses. 

The fourth beast empire is at war, devastating its enemy when the Antichrist arises, he deposes three heads of state incorporating them into his own sphere. No wonder Daniel was troubled; I'm living in the days of this prophecy coming to fulfillment and I've never before thought of this prophecy in this way before. It is frightening to consider.

Western Part and Eastern Part of the Final Form Beast Empire

And about those ten toes from Daniel 2 on the two feet that are part iron and part clay. The map above shows that the iron legs above the feet are a literal type of symbol. Rome was a divided empire; you could literally draw a vertical line down the map between Italy and Greece and you'd have the Western Roman Empire, and the Eastern Roman Empire, which became the Byzantine Empire. (The line has been added to the above map for proper visualization of this point)

The western part, or more to the point, the toes on the right foot of Nebuchadnezzar's statue, are pretty easy to identify as they are the current major nations of western Europe: Italy, Spain, France, the UK and Germany. These nations can also be identified as "the merchants of Tarshish" of Ezekiel 38, and their young lions (former colonies) and their other regional allies will provide the bulk of the political and military power the final beast empire will have at its disposal for the Antichrist.

The eastern part, the five-nation group of the left foot is just a little bit more problematic, but I think its a solvable problem. Greece is easy. So too is Cyprus. And Israel. This new group of three and their mutual military alliance and financial and economic activities has been discussed here nearly one year ago. That leaves two nations to identify as toes on this foot. Turkey is an obvious choice. It will not be the same Turkey that we know today, particularly due to the aftermath of the brief Battle of Gog/Magog of Ezekiel 38/39. 

That leaves one toe to go. Given the prophetic demise of Syria in Isaiah 17, that nation is out. So too is Lebanon according to Joshua 13. Both of these nations have a national life expectancy that may well be measured in months or a very few years at most. Libya and Egypt and Sudan are covered and not to be considered according to Daniel 11:43. Jordan, the western-most part that matters, will be part of Israel when Psalm 83 has been fulfilled as seen in Ezekiel 39:11. So that leaves the nation recently noted here as emergent, even as we speak and into the near future - Kurdistan, or as Isaiah 19:24 refers to it - Assyria.

This interpretive view also clearly requires a whole lot of massive military and geopolitical change to occur, and most of it where war has been and is now running rampant. It should be obvious that all of the pre-70th Week prophetic wars will manifest profound changes in virtually every aspect of the Middle East as we know it today - political, religious, societal, financial, economic, military - all of these will be transformed into a new paradigm which can only be vaguely seen at this point in time.

This interpretive view is also standing on a potential threshold of providing a new understanding of what the "covenant among many" will be all about; that it very likely to be directly related to the final version of the last days "Roman Empire." A treaty of alliance between the western and eastern feet and toes of the fourth empire; a treaty which includes Israel as an integral part. And as for the betrayal of Israel in the middle of the 70th Week, what should we expect of the "son of perdition" who entered into this alliance by ripping three existent nations within it out by their roots?

Of these ten: Italy, Spain, France, UK, Germany, Greece, Cyprus, Israel, Turkey, and Kurdistan/Assyria which three will be uprooted by the Antichrist, and from which of them shall he arise are the remaining and likely unknowable eschatological questions to be answered. There are strong clues as has been discussed here previously, but this will have to wait a finality as the watchmen continue to watch.