I remember a few year ago trying to witness to my neighbor about the Lord. At the time I had been studying Bible prophecy for a little more than a year and I was trying to use Bible prophecy to convince my unbelieving neighbor about the Bible. When talking to him I mentioned that the kingdom of the Antichrist was already present with the formation of the European Union as a revival of the Roman empire and that the Antichrist was going to rise from that region. My neighbor laughed at me and said:
''No, the Antichrist does not come from Europe. He must come from the Middle East''
I left the conversation and said to myself:
''This guy is crazy. He does not know what he is talking about. After all, he is an unbeliever''
Today I look back and ask myself:
''How could that unbelieving neighbor be right about something which I as a believer and a student of Bible prophecy should know but didn't?''
The problem is that we in the West have been analyzing the Bible which is an Eastern book with Western eyes. We must remember that the Bible, especially the Old Testament was written by Eastern peoples to Eastern peoples at a time when Western civilization did not influence the world as we see today. We tend to approach Bible prophecy as a professor of politics who is teaching his students how to be political analysts for their day and age, thus turning Bible prophecy into a political fairy tale. By that I mean that we come up with political ideas that sound great but which will never take place. Here is an example:
A guy by the name of Irvin Baxter who runs a ministry called End Time says that the Beasts of Daniel 7 represent the major powers of today. It goes as follows:
Lion with Wings: Represents Great Britain and the United States
Bear: Represents Russia:
Leopard: Represents Germany
This interpretation is based on the symbols of the modern nations. Great Britain has a lion for its symbol. Since the eagle's wings came out of the lion, it represents the independence of the United States which came out of Britain. Since the symbol of Russia is a bear, Mr. Irvin says the beast in Daniel 7 is Russia. The Leopard is the official symbol of Germany and Mr. Irvin says that the Leopard in Daniel 7 is Germany. Mr. Baxter teaches that these nations will form the government of the beast with the exception of the United States whose eagles wings are not present on the beast in Revelation 13, but on the woman in Revelation 12, that being a reference to the United Sates siding with Israel (the woman) against the beast (Russia, Great Britain, Germany and the rest of Europe). Mr. Baxter says that these are the most poweful nations on the earth today, therefore they must be the nations of the beast.
This is presuming that we are almost in the Tribulation period when it could take another 20 or 40 years for the Tribulation to take place at a time when the Western nations might not be the superpowers of the world. Today we see that the nations of the Middle East are rising to power bringing back to life the ancient empires. Consider Iran for example. It is acquiring nuclear weapons, buying arms from Russia, threatening Israel and the West and so on. The beast of Revelation 13 had the feet of a bear. The bear in Daniel represents Persia which is modern day Iran. If the beast has the feet of a bear in Revelation 13, which destroys with its feet in Daniel 7, it means that Persian will come back as a superpower to be part of the kingdom of the beast. Is it a coincidence that Iran which is ancient Persia is becoming so hostile because of its military accomplishments? I don't think so.
Anybody who has spent a little time in Daniel 7 knows that the 3 beasts represent the Babylonian, Medo-Persian and Grecian Empires which dominated the area of the Middle East for the most part. Mr. Irvin Baxter has turned Bible prophecy into a political fairy tale. His ideas sound good to the casual reader who knows nothing about prophecy but are not going to happen.
Another example is the fact that most of us in the West have made the fourth beast of Daniel 7 which had 10 horns represent the Roman empire in a revived form. Most prophecy teachers say that the European Union is that beast and 10 nations will rise out of Europe to be the 10 kings of Daniel 7.
I myself used to believe this theory until I began to look at the Bible with Eastern eyes. When we get to Revelation 13 we see that the fourth beast of Daniel is described by John as having seven heads and having the same ten horns. Now think with me; if the beast that John saw was like a leopard (Grecian Empire), had the feet of a bear (Persian Empire) and the mouth of a lion (Babylonian Empire), does that beast represent any Western power or confederacy of nations such as the European Union? If we are really honest with the text, we will notice that the beast of Revelation 13 is the rise of Babylonian, Persian and Grecian Empires combined together into a geopolitical mega empire which will cover the entire Middle East region from Turkey in the West all to way to Pakistan and Afghanistan in the East encompassing all the Islamic-Arab world under its dominion.
Look at the map of the 3 empires and try visualizing them together as one single map. You will notice that the Middle East is the center of this future kingdom which will give rise to the Antichrist. What my unbelieving neighbor had told me some five years ago about the Antichrist coming from the Middle East began to make sense in my little imperfect mind. As I began to search the Scriptures with the help of the Holy Spirit, not of popular prophecy books, everything began to fit like a glove. God says something very interesting in Isaiah:
''Remember the former things of old: for I [am] God, and [there is] none else; [I am] God, and [there is] none like me, Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times [the things] that are not [yet] done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure:'' (Isaiah 46:9-10)
In this passage God says that He declares the end from the beginning, that the future is already revealed in the past. The Hebrew word translated beginning in this passage is the word re'shiyth. Guess what the book of Genesis is called in Hebrew? You guessed it! It is re'shiyth! This might give us some insight into the future, for God said that the end is already declared in re'shiyth, that is, in Genesis. We know from Bible prophecy that the major theme of the end is the struggle between Israel and the Antichrist. Another major theme is where the Antichrist will come from and where his government will be based.
If God told us in Isaiah that the end is already declared in Genesis, I think we have a very vivid picture of what is going to transpire in the not too distant future. In Genesis we find that the struggle is not between Israel and some European confederacy, between Nicolas Sarkozy of France and Ehud Omert, between Javier Solana of Spain and Livni Tzipi, the new elected Prime Minister of Israel. In Genesis we find that the struggle is between Isaac and Ishmael, Jacob and Esau, Jews and Arabs, God and Satan, or in more modern language, a struggle between Yahweh and Allah.
We also find in Genesis that the center of this Anti-God government is created by a king by the name of Nimrod, the founder of Assyria and Babylon (Genesis10:8-12) who organized a political and religious system in the land of Shinar (Genesis 11). Shinar is the region of modern day Iraq where ancient Assyrian and Babylon were. Is it a coincidence that the coming Antichrist is called the king of Babylon (Isaiah 14:4), the Assyrian (Isaiah 14:25, 30:30-33), that his wicked form of government will return to its own base in the land of Shinar (Zechariah 5:5-11) and will be the economic and political center of his kingdom called Babylon the Great? (Revelation18)
The amazing thing is that this major theme of a struggle between Jews and Arabs is confirmed throughout the rest of the Bible. The Old Testament prophets mentioned every single one of Israel's last days enemies by name. Zechariah and Joel referred to them as Israel's ''surrounding neighbors'' or '' the people round about''. Isaiah, Jeremiah, Amos, Obadiah, and Ezekiel gave us their very names:
Babylon - Iraq (Isaiah 13-14, Jeremiah 50-51)
Assyria - Assyrians of Northern Iraq (Isaiah 14:25, 30:30-33, Zephaniah 2, Micah 5)
Edom - Jordan and Arabia (Isaiah 21, Jeremiah 49, Ezekiel 35)
Moab - Jordan (Isaiah 15, Jeremiah 49)
Ammon - Jordan (Jeremiah 49)
Damascus - Syria (Isaiah 17, Jeremiah 49, Amos 1, Zechariah 9)
Gaza and Philistines - Palestinians (Isaiah 14:28-33, Jeremiah 47, Joel 3)
Egypt (Isaiah 19, Jeremiah 46, Ezekiel 29-32)
Tyre - Lebanon (Ezekiel 28, Joel 3)
Magog, Meshech, Tubal, Togarmah and Gomer - Turkey (Ezekiel 38)
Persia - Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan (Ezekiel 38)
Arabia - Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates (Isaiah 21, Jeremiah 49)
Ethiopia - Sudan (Isaiah 18)
Libya (Ezekiel 38)
Elam - Iran (Jeremiah 49)
All these nations surround Israel. Why is it that we in the West insist that the beast will be a confederacy of European nations? Was God mistaken when he said ''Babylon, Assyria, Arabia, Persia, Damascus (Syria) Gaza, Egypt etc'' and did not say ''Italy, Spain, Germany, France, etc.?'' God was not using Middle Eastern names as code words for modern European nations as we have done with Babylon by saying it is a reference to Rome.
If Babylon is a reference to Rome, then Syria must refer to Spain, Lebanon to France and so on, after all we can't spiritualize one nation and leave al the others literal, right? Prophecy teachers of the so popular Tomorrow's World Magazine say that Assyria is a reference to Germany. If this is true, then why do most Assyrians live in the Nineveh Plains of Northern Iraq, right at the heart of their ancient homeland? God is not the author of confusion, man is.
I mentioned French president Nicolas Sarkosy and the Secretary General of the European Union, Javier Solana because these two guys are labeled as candidates for the Antichrist by many prophecy web sites. As already mentioned, Israel's struggles is not with these guys nor with any coming European leader, but with the descendents of Ishmael and Esau who got together and gave birth to the people who would perpetually hate the descendents of Isaac and Jacob until the end.
Western prophecy scholars have been searching for 10 European nations to fit the 10 horns of the Beast mentioned in Daniel 7 and Revelation 17. I have a video where Chuck Smith, the Pastor of Calvary Chapel taught in the 1980's that the joining of 10 European nations to start the European Common Market (ECM) was the formation of the beast. I have another video where Jack Van Impe was teaching in the 1990's that the three other nations that were joining the 10 nations of the European Common Market were going to be the three horns to be uprooted by the Antichrist as seen in Daniel 7.
Today the European Union has 27 members, not 10 and people are still trying to find 10 European nations to fit the 10 horns of the beast. Mark Hitchcock who is considered one of the most sought-after authorities in biblical prophecy says the following:
''The Bible predicts that in the end times, the reunited Roman Empire will be ruled by a "Group of Ten" leaders, or a governing oligarchy, much like the present European Council or European Commission. Interestingly, the European Commission has just been trimmed from 27 to 17 seats. This could easily be further whittled to 10 seats, and the stage would be set for the Group of Ten predicted in Daniel 2 and 7, and Revelation 17. Also, the new full-time EU presidency, with its term of up to five years, could easily set the stage for the rise on one man to take over the EU and use this platform to forge key alliances and dominate the world—just as the Bible predicts.'' [1]
See what I am talking about? Mark Hitchcock is looking for ''Ten Leaders'' to come out of the European Union to be the 10 kings of the beast. Hal Lindsey teaches that the 10 members of the Western European Union could be the 10 kings of the beast:
"We believe that the Common Market and the trend toward the unification of Europe may well be the beginning of the 10-nation confederacy predicted by Daniel and the Book of Revelation."
– "The Late, Great Planet Earth," 1969
Hal Linsdey continues:
''Daniel 2:41 says the revived Roman empire will be like iron mixed with clay, partly strong and partly weak, "but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay." This empire will initially be ruled by 10 "kings," (Daniel 7:24) and, ultimately, "another" that "shall rise after them." That "other" is the Beast of Revelation 13, often referred to as the "antichrist."
There are, today, two distinct and separate entities that make up the Greater European Union. The European Union as it exists today consists of 25 member states and counting. It was created under the authority of the 1957 Treaty of Rome.
The other Europe is the Western European Union, or the WEU. The WEU was, according to its website, "created by the Treaty on Economic, Social and Cultural Collaboration and Collective Self-Defence signed at Brussels on 17 March 1948."
It went dormant in 1973, but was reactivated as Europe's collective security arm under the authority of the Rome Declaration in 1984. The same meeting decided to open negotiations with Portugal and Spain regarding their accession to the modified Brussels Treaty. Those countries formally became full members of WEU on March 27, 1990.
Earlier agreements called for the Western European Union to merge with the EU and was scheduled to be completed in 2000. But the WEU is very much alive and appears more to be in a state of revival than shutdown, with most of Europe's military planning concentrated in the hands of the WEU's constituent cells.
The WEU is broken down into membership tiers: full members, associate members, observer countries and associate partner countries. In all, the WEU consists of 28 nations, but only 10 are full member countries.
All 10 full members of the Western European Union are, as a condition of membership, part of both the EU and NATO.'' [2]
Again we see another prophecy scholar looking for 10 nations to come out of the European Union to be the 10 kings of the beast. Please don't get me wrong. I am not criticizing these great men of God. I learned much from both of them. I also used to believe the same thing they believe, but I came to realize that we have been looking toward the wrong direction. We are looking toward the West when the Bible is pointing us to the East. I said and I repeat. The struggle is not between the Jews and some European confederacy. The struggle is between Isaac and Ishmael, between Jacob and Esau, between God and Satan, between Jehovah and Allah, between the Judeo-Christian faith and Islam. We in the West need to wake up to the reality and realize that we have been guilty of turning Biblical prophecy into a political fairy tale. We have come up with little political fantasies in our minds which are never going to come true.
The sad thing is that many don't see that. Good prophecy writers still don't get it. More books are printed with the same old ideas. Like my good friend Ray Gano of Prophezine says: ''We have been parroting the parrots''. Today some say that Islam will be defeated by the Israeli Defense Forces, that Israel will become larger and more powerful and that soon some guy will appear in Europe and claim to be the answer to the problems of the world as some kind of a New Age savior. This is not how the Bible describes the Antichrist. The Bible calls him a king of fierce countenance, the man of sin, the son of perdition, the man of lawlessness, the king who speaks blasphemies against the God of heaven, the king who seeks the help of god of war (yes, he will be religious, not an atheist), the Antichrist, the beast and so on. Some say that Antichrist means in place of Christ. The context where the word appears speaks about a person who denies Christ, who is in total opposition to him. This is exactly what the Arab world stands for. They are in total opposition to Christ because of the teaching of their ''sacred book'' called the Koran. Satan knows that in the end the Jews will receive Jesus as the Messiah and he has created his religious system to prevent that from happening.
Islam teaches the following:
'Fight those who believe not in Allah and his apostle, nor acknowledge the religion of truth [even if they are] people of the book [i.e. Jews and Christians] , until they pay with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued [enslaved] ''(Sura 9:29).
''Fight and slay the pagans (i.e. non-Muslims) wherever ye find them, and seize them, beleaguer them and lie in wait for them in every stratagem; but if they repent ... then open a way for them (Sura 9:123).
Now consider this phrase from the Hadith (sayings of Muhammed), the second most important piece of Islamic literature after the Koran:
''The Hour (last day) will not be established until you fight with the Jews, and the stone behind which a Jew will be hiding will say. ‘O Muslim! There is a Jew hiding behind me, so kill him.” (Sahih Al-Bukhari, vol. 4, b. 52, Hadith # 177).
The Bible says that the Antichrist will seek to exterminate the Jews from the face of the earth. This is the very thing that Islam and the Arab world has been trying to accomplish for so long, yet we are blind to this reality and expect some European devil to accomplish this. You might say:'' Wait a minute, Adolph Hitler was from Europe, not from the Middle East and he tried to destroy the Jews''. Many don't know that Islam was behind Hitler's ''final solution''. Today Arab leaders like Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah say:
''If the Jews all gather in Israel they will save us the trouble of going after them worldwide''
The events predicted in the Bible about the final struggle between Jews and Arabs are becoming reality before the eyes of the world and many ignore them. Prophecy teachers have been so caught up with traditional eschatological views that them don't seem to understand what is going on around them.
Conclusion
We in the Western world have become blind to the fact that the Bible is to be read with Eastern eyes. When we read Bible prophecy, we try to fit current personalities, nations, religious organizations whose teachings we do not agree with and so on into such prophecies. God was very clear about his message for the end times. He gave us names of nations, geographic locations, ethnic groups to be involved in the final drama and so on. These nations are specifically named in the prophets as Middle Eastern nations, the geographic location God points to is the Middle East and the ethnic groups mentioned by God to be the players of the final drama are Jews and Arabs, descendents of Isaac and Jacob (Jews) struggling against the descendents of Ishmael and Esau (Arabs). Because we have turned Bible prophecy into a political fairy tale, we have been trying to find a battle between Israel and Germany, Israel and Italy, Israel and France, but God did not forget to tell us who the real enemies of his people are. We have forgotten to listen to what God has been saying all along. May our Christian leaders who teach Bible prophecy to the body of Christ realize that we have been looking at the wrong direction, step back, and look at God's message for these last days from a new perspective, an Eastern mindset perspective and forget our Western presumptions about which God never intended for us to have. The 10 nations of the beast I believe will not come from Europe, but from the Middle East as explained in our article titled: The 10 Kings of the Beast: They Come From The East
God bless you!
Rodrigo Silva
9/23/08
Endnotes
