Global SITREP B9-18: The Kings

"the kings"

15 June 2018: Our brother Nick posed a question to me via email the other day about the kings mentioned in the Book of Daniel. his question was in an Email because - for whatever reason - Nick simply couldn't get online to pose his question as a comment in the last SITREP. And I thought my plan of action of sending an Email back to Nick with my answer would be a simple thing to do; I thought my understanding of Daniel that has developed over many years is fairly solid, so writing an Email response would be not issue at all. 

Well, I'm here to tell you no sir and no ma'am, that plan of action was simply not going to happen. Firstly, every time I tried the words never got to be more than four or five and the train of thought would fizzle. Dead stop. Try again. Same thing. Forty-five minutes later I fully understood because the LORD let me know very clearly that my response had to be done here, in this manner. There was something important I had to learn anew and pass along to others who read here. 

Have you ever had the thought or wondered why God sent the angel Gabriel to provide the prophet Daniel the specific information that we read in Daniel chapters 10 and 11? I've never read an expose that speks to this question by any biblical eschatologist. Why was it important for Daniel, and, by extension, all of us, to learn about the kings of the north and south in chapter 10? What more important lesson could there be within all of the dialog foretelling a couple hundred years in advance specific details regarding two of the four empires that came out of Alexander the Great's Empire (i.e. the third beast empire)? This is directly related to Daniel 8:21-22, but we'll get to that shortly. So, for us this is ancient history; fulfilled prophecy, right? Or is it? Could it be a two-fold prophecy?

The two empires I'm talking about are the Greek Seleucid in southwest Asia, and the Ptolemaic Empire centered in Egypt and the Levant. The king of the north and the king of the south. Long story short, over hundreds of years and several successor kings of these two empires and umpteen battles between them, it finally came to pass that the king of the south emerged victorious over the king of the north. But not by his power did the king of the south be victorious over the king of the north. 

God sent another empire, another "king" to subdue the king of the north. The new king was Rome, the fourth (and final) beast empire which put an end to the king of the north's plan to conquer the Ptolemite throne in Egypt. I've written of this part before on Eschatology Today, but not in this manner. The king of the north was Antiochus IV Epiphanes, and his encounter in northern Egypt with a Roman consul who drew a line on that sandy beach and informed the precursor of the coming Antichrist, if you cross this line you will be at war with the Roman Republic. Antiochus thought wisely and turned his army north, marching them to Jerusalem where the precursor of the coming "Abomination of Desolation" took place in the Second Temple in 167 BC. A hudred years later, circa 64 BC, Rome would complete the conquest of the Seleucid Empire, and thereby all of what had been the third beast empire because part of the fourth beast empire just as God had revealed to Daniel back in Daniel 2:36-45. 

The Daniel 2 prophecy is expounded upon in Daniel 7, but with an over 2,000 years twist. The fourth beast which consumes the third beast, which had consumed the first and second beast, is now send as a ten-horned beast. But Rome isn't to be a ten-horned beast until the time of Israel's 70th Week. In Daniel 7:7 we have it in plain text, absolutely unambiguously i would add, that ancient Rome, which was never a ten-headed beast, is the same as the fourth beast of the 70th Week. This beast will control territory in Europe and well as in southwestern Asia, exactly as ancient Rome did. Two feet representing two land masses, with five toes on each foot. those five toes are the ten horns. And (Daniel 7:8 and 7:24) the eleventh, the little horn, which rises up among the ten is Antichrist.

Hopefully, I haven't lost anyone yet and you're following this eschatological trail of bread crumbs. Like the Revelation of Jesus Christ the Book of Daniel bouces forward and backward in time as we understand it. So we come to Daniel 8 and Daniel 8 has a great deal to do with what follows in Daniel 10 and 11. Now we're launched back to Daniel 8:21-22. Greece, which we know all four horns, which stood up in place of Alexander's Empire, are conquered by Rome. And read verse 23: "And in the later time of their kingdom..." Here again is a 2,000+ year leap forward in time to the present era, to the era of Israel's 70th Week as detailed by the angel Gabriel in the subsequent chapter, Daniel 9.

Now moving along, Daniel 10 gets really, really interesting. It should be fresh in your mind, yet recall that Gabriel has just given Daniel the 70 Weeks prophecy that we read in Daniel 9:24-27. Yet in Daniel 10:10-21 we see the same over-arching prophecy tied-in directly with various angelic beings which are manifested as prices or kings over a couple of specific nations of interest: Greece and Persia. These angelic beings are engaged in fighting each other as well as manifesting in the events that directly affect these nations and their futures. There is also an incredible, little mentioned note here regarding what had been previously written in what gabriel refers to as "the Scripture of Truth" and which this angel intends to reveal to Daniel for the specific purpose of fulfilling what was stated in verse 14: "I have come to make you understand what will happen your your people (the Jews) in the latter days, for the vision refers to many days yet to come." 

The Bible, especially the Old Testament in which the Book of Daniel is a key part, has not yet been written as the time this meeting between Gabriel and Daniel takes place, i.e. the third year of Cyrus, king of Persia. So the "Scripture of Truth" Gabriel is referring to must be some Heavenly tome of the things that will be; an angelic book of God-breathed prophecy.

Daniel 11 begins with the warring kings of the north and south. This time is the first year of Darius the Mede which turns the clock back to Daniel 5:30 and the aftermath of the "writing on the wall." So Daniel 11 begins by recapping a foretelling of future events which we've also seen in Daniel 8:21-22, and the wars between the Seleucid Greeks (kings of the north) of Babylonia and the Ptolemaic Greeks of Egypt (kings of the south). At verse 20 the text begins speaking specifically about Antiochus IV Epiphanes, the forerunner of the coming Antichrist. At Daniel 11:30 we see Antiochus IV Epiphanes being turned back by Rome (western ships of Kittim that sailed from Cyprus). Again, this was fulfilled in 168-67 BC. And the blasphemous actions at verses 30-31 are an exact foreshadowing of the mid-70th Week 'Abomination of Desolation."

Suddenly as verse 36 the narrative Gabriel is giving to Daniel jumps forward in time, from discussing the forerunner of the future Antichrist, Antiochus IV Epiphanes, and his battles against Greeks in Egypt, to the actual man who will be the coming Antichrist. An intantaneous forward leap of approximately, 2,100 years into the future, our present era, this generation. Instantly, we see in this prophetic Scripture that the king of the north and the king of the south are no longer fighting each other as they did for all of the 3rd and 2nd centuries before Christ- they are suddenly allies standing against the Western Antichrist of the 70th Week.

And it is here that some error has been made. In earilier eschatological works various writers had erroneously assigned the 'king of the north' nomenclature upon the coming Antichrist. Nowhere is the made more clear than in Daniel 11:40 where both a future king of the north and a future king of the south will together attack the Western Antichrist, and whom we know for certain is directly associated with both Greece and Rome, and a kingdom which begins wth ten horns, or kings of nations, among whom he was the eleventh to rise up among them and pluck a certain three of those ten out by the roots for himself. Those ten horns (kings) are represented in the image at the top.

In Daniel 11:40-43, as a direct result of the Western Antichrist being attacked by a king of the north (probably Russia) and a king of the south (North African nations), a great war erupts in the Middle East. This could very well be a world war as well, as we can see in Daniel 11:44 the king of the north and those from the east cause Antichrist to go on an even greater warfighting campaign. This I believe is the lead in to the final battle of Har Megiddo and the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.

The Prophetic Road to Revelation: Part VI - The 70th Week

Har Megiddo National Park in Israel

12 June 2016: (Continuation of this post is Below) As seen in the image above, the vast Plain of Jezreel lies before the elevated land mount known in Hebrew since ancient times as Har Megiddo. This mount and the plain before it have on the whole become a byword for the end of the age, and known simply as Armageddon, as taken directly from The Revelation of Jesus Christ, chapter 16, verse 16:

"And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Harmagedōn."

This prophetic event is final 70th Week global war between the alliance of governments under the leadership of the Antichrist and his earthly enemies, known rather simplistically in Biblical eschatology as the "kings of the east." This war is prophetically announced in the concluding words of Daniel 9:27c:

"Even until the consummation, which is determined,

Is poured out on the desolate." 

As discussed previously in Eschatology Today blog items, this final global war occurs during the finale of the  angel Gabriel's prophecy concerning Israel's 70th Week (Daniel 9:24-27). However, in real-world terms it almost certainly will occur during the terminal 42 months 7th year (Daniel 11:40-45). Global wars are prosecuted for years, as we have seen in real-time since September 11, 2001 to the present. As can be seen in that passage of Scripture from Daniel, this final global war commences with an Islamist/Russian attack upon the Antichrist's dominion of nations and results in a devastating counter-offensive against those enemies. This global war is vividly described in Jeremiah 25:32-34:

"Thus says the Lord of hosts:

“Behold, disaster shall go forth

From nation to nation,

And a great whirlwind shall be raised up

From the farthest parts of the earth.

And at that day the slain of the Lord shall be from one end of the earth even to the other end of the earth. They shall not be lamented, or gathered, or buried; they shall become refuse on the ground.

 “Wail, shepherds, and cry!

Roll about in the ashes,

You leaders of the flock!

For the days of your slaughter and your dispersions are fulfilled;

You shall fall like a precious vessel."

It is at this time that the consummation the Lord's determined wrath poured out upon the earth and its inhabitants is completed. 

And it is also at this point in time during the 70th Week that the Lord Jesus Christ suddenly appears in space above and entering the earth's atmosphere with His army of saints to put an end to the global war which Jesus  revealed in His 'Olivet Discourse'  that no living flesh would have survived were He not to intervene directly. 

So, this is how human rule on the Earth comes to an end and the Kingdom of the Lord becomes established. But what happens during the earlier portions of the 70th Week? 

As we have seen in the recently revised Part V: Ezekiel 38/39 as a transitional Event to the 70th Week of The Prophetic Road to Revelation, there is a global war involving weapons of mass destruction which serves as the transition in that it completes the stage setting necessary for the Antichrist rise to absolute power through his confirming a covenant (peace treaty) among many nations. That covenant will appear, falsely, to have settled all issues which brought about the brief but extremely violent events described in Ezekiel 38/39.

This is the point during my composing this post at which I sat relatively idle and necessarily prayerfully silent for the past couple of weeks, not knowing where or how the Lord would have me go in furthering in this eschatological interpretation of the events of the 70th Week. 

My prayers did not have to wait very long for a response. Out of the blue I am informed by an Email that I am to receive Dr. David Reagan's (Lamb & Lion Ministries) newest book (image above), "Wrath and Glory: The Meaning of the Book of Revelation." This is a revised or second edition of the original first published in August 2001, a month prior to September 11 and the start of the long war between Islamists and the West which has continued to the present moment, and according to Gabriel prophecy of Daniel 11, will continue into the 70th Week. I stated in earlier posts that the past is prologue for the future. It is my personal view that since 9/11 we have been living in an almost benign prologue of what will occur during the 70th Week when WMD use (nuclear, biological and chemical warfare) will be the norm rather than the dreaded exception it is today.

Now, there are a great many books written concerning the Revelation of Jesus Christ, which is in essence the story told in prophecy about the coming events of the 70th Week. Some of these great many books are, quite frankly, very bad and not worth your time in reading them. However, there are some, more than a few actually, which are very, very good. One such book was the first one of this type I ever read and was written by Jack Van Impe (pub. 1982), titled "Revelation Revealed". 

However, since my opening and commencement of virtually non-stop reading of Dr. Reagan's book this weekend, there is no question that his book is fully a cut above all of the rest of the good books on this subject, not that this is any sort of a surprise given the years of Bible scholarship that have come from Dr. Reagan's pen and keyboard. And, yes, this is a boldly certain endorsement of Dr. Reagan's book; it is without question fully a Spirit-guided book. Its content and resources make it indispensable for any student of Bible prophecy library, even if you happen to already possess the original 2001 edition.

While I will not at this point quote from Dr. Reagan's book directly, as that will require a specific permission to do so, I will in the coming days address many of the keys he identifies as necessary in coming to a greater understanding of what the Revelation of Jesus Christ is. As always, the Holy Spirit will be your guide.

I was immediately drawn and fascinated by the cover artwork for this book. Look closely, down towards the Earth below and behind our triumphant returning Messiah. You will see the 70th Week version of Har Megiddo which stands in stark contrast to the image at the top of this post. Look even closer and you will see combat aircraft at full afterburner, attack choppers, missiles and all manner of modern military hardware in full battle array engaged deep into a pitched battle rhythm. This image precisely illustrates what the angel Gabriel and John the Revelator describe to us in their respective Scriptures. The cover art is an image of ancient Bible prophecy coming to fulfillment in a 21st century world with 21st century hardware, and which which has been a consistent theme of Eschatology Today. It puts a 21st century face on Biblical prophetic texts which are in excess of 2,500 years old. 

The Book of Daniel and the Revelation of Jesus Christ are Spiritual companions of each other. They come from the same Source. They prophesy about the same period of time which is the finality of the 70th Week. The difference for us is that neither is about the distant future with respect to our time. As Daniel was twice informed (Daniel 12:4 and Daniel 12:9) in the book which bears his name, "Go your way, Daniel, for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end."  This book, and this blog, are about the fact that these prophetic Scriptures are no longer sealed up, they are about the end times in which we live and which we can and should fully understand. The watchmen have been enabled and know with great precision what they are to watch for.

The discussion of Part VI: The 70th Week began with a virtual snapshot of the ultimate and final battlefield at Harmagedōn  and linked that to how the 70th Week commences with the Antichrist's confirming of a "covenant (treaty) among many" nations following the chaos of Ezekiel 38/39.

This was intentional and is similar to how the text of the Revelation of Jesus Christ is put together by an omnipotent and utterly sovereign God who exists independent of time and space. As you read through its chapters the texts will jump in time, going either forward or backward at will, but always with the purpose of foretelling the wrath-filled future of the 70th Week and revealing Jesus Christ throughout the process, and in so doing revealing the very nature of God the Father. 

The Revelation of Jesus Christ is understandable today simply because the time for its fulfillment is near. That's the work of the Holy Spirit manifest. Just as the Book of Daniel has been unsealed and is understandable simply because we are living in the days of the time of the end of mankind's political rule over the Earth. The end results in the beginning of Jesus Christ's eternal rule as King of kings and Lord of lords.  

We should all be reading this book, in prayerful study and in conjunction with the other prophetic books of the Bible, such as Daniel. Do you know why? Because God promises that all who do so (as well as those who hear and those who heed these words) will be Blessed! The Greek word for blessed in this text is makarios, and it means to be blessed in the most supreme manner possible by God the Father. Good reason to start reading, right? 

So, what will come next in Part VI: The 70th Week are some of the essential details, given in an orderly fashion so that they make sense and through the power of the Holy Spirit enabling a full, big picture view of the text. God not only whats you to read this book, of which He is the original author, but He wants you to understand it so that you can teach it to others in your family, friends and perfect strangers if and when that potential arises for you.

I am sure we have all seen the various graphically illustrated timelines for the 70th Week. If on the rare chance you've not seen one before simply Google "end of days timeline" and select images Dozens of different variations will be presented for your viewing. Most, if not all, are a simplistic combination of pictures and brief descriptions illustrating the passage of time future from the point of the Harpazo (Rapture) of the bride of Christ to the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.

I will present the same information but in a slightly different manner. 

The Harpazo/Rapture occurs prior to the revealing of the Antichrist. In less than a microsecond the millions upon millions of deceased true believers of Jesus Christ will be instantly raised from the dead in eternal spiritual bodies just like Jesus has after His resurrection, and those who are alive on the Earth will be instantaneously transfigured into the same type of eternal spiritual bodies. Both groups will meet Jesus Christ in the air and enter into Heaven with Him.

The 70th Week begins with the appearance of a rider on a white horse (left in the below image). This is the first of the so-called "four horsemen of the apocalypse" which are symbolic representations of the Antichrist, Global Warfare, Scarcity of Food, and Death. These four are present whenever and wherever war occurs, however, during the 70th Week their effects will be more terrible and unprecedented than at anytime in the history of the Earth. The event which reveals the Antichrist is a covenant (peace treaty) that he will confirm among many nations for a period of 7 years. From the Biblical perspective, the most important of the nations within the provisions of the treaty will be Israel. Antichrist will unilaterally abrogate this covenant with Israel exactly 42 months after he confirms it.

The Antichrist a/k/a the "first beast" of Revelation 13:1-8 is literally an extremely charismatic man who initially mimics the Lord Jesus Christ; he is an imitation Christ, a false, satanically-empowered messiah, a man who orthodox Jews will accept as being Moshiach ben David according to Jesus Christ as recorded in John 5:43. Antichrist brings with him the other three "horsemen" and their appearances are rapid sequential. Also with the Antichrist is a false religious leader, the false prophet, a/k/a the "second beast" of Revelation 13:11-17 who will also be satanic in nature, and in combination with Antichrist and Satan forms an unholy trinity, a false godhead. What the false prophet will do as empowered by Satan is clearly and plainly written in the text

Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse

Concurrent with the appearance of the Antichrist and his confirming of the covenant among many nations are the sealing of God's elect: the 144,000 Jewish evangelists and the non-Jewish believers in Christ. The are sealed so that no harm comes from God's wrath being poured out upon the planet during the 70th Week. Also concurrent is the ministry of the Two Witnesses. The details of their ministry is given to us all clearly and plainly written in the text of Revelation 11. 

Notice that I have now used the phrase "clearly and plainly written in the text of..." twice. This is of great importance because it is through the plain text that God communicates prophecy directly to each of us. Nothing is hidden, everything is completely understandable and all of it is literal as literal can be. Anyone who says you cannot understand the Revelation of Jesus Christ by simply reading the text of this book is a liar. Again, the Holy Spirit is your guide and comforter in this endeavor, He will convict you of its absolute truth.

If you have any questions as you read the Revelation of Jesus Christ post them in a comment and timely answers will be provided.