The current push for peace in the Middle East promoted by Turkey and Syria is causing many prophecy students to point to one of those two players as the nation of the Antichrist. Some are considering Syrian president Bashar Al-Assad as the Antichrist whereas others are considering Turkish Prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan as the Antichrist. Although there are biblical evidences that can be used to back up either a Syrian or a Turkish Antichrist, there is another piece of the prophetic puzzle that must not be ignored, that is, the formation of a 10 nation confederacy that will give the Antichrist all of its political, military and financial support.
In Daniel we read:
''7 After this I saw in the night visions, and behold a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly; and it had great iron teeth: it devoured and brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with the feet of it: and it was diverse from all the beasts that were before it; and it had ten horns.
8 I considered the horns, and, behold, there came up among them another little horn, before whom there were three of the first horns plucked up by the roots: and, behold, in this horn were eyes like the eyes of man, and a mouth speaking great things.'' (Daniel 7:7-8)
This passage talks about the fourth beast which is the composite beast of Revelation 13 with the same 10 horns. The beast in Revelation 13 has the same physical characteristics of the first three beasts of Daniel 7 which represented the Babylonian, Persian and Grecian empires, therefore this fourth beast of Daniel 7 must be a political and geographic combination of the first beasts Daniel saw with 10 nations coming out of the geographic boundaries of the 3 empires combined.
In my article titled The 10 Kings of the Beast: They Come From The East, I argued for the possibility of a confederacy of 10 Islamic-Arab nations being the 10 horns of the beast. The nations mentioned in that article all are located within the boundaries of the first 3 beasts of Daniel. Many good prophecy scholars believe that the Roman empire must be part of this beast and they argue that Western Europe must play a role in this final kingdom. I myself believed this and although I could be wrong, I think that only the Eastern sectors of the Roman empire which included Turkey, Syria, Jordan, Egypt and Lebanon will be part of this final kingdom. The Middle East is the main focus of this beast kingdom. The book of Revelation emphasizes this fact by pointing to Jerusalem and Babylon as the center of end time struggle, Jerusalem being the city of God and Babylon the city of Satan.
Going back to Daniel we read:
'' 23 Thus he said, The fourth beast shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth, which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces.
24And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise: and another shall rise after them; and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings.''( Daniel 7:23-24)
Here Daniel says that the fourth kingdom shall be the fourth kingdom upon the earth which will be the kingdom of the Antichrist. Note that he says that the 10 horns of the beast are ten kings that shall arise and another, the eleventh shall arise AFTER them. Why is the angel making sure that the eleventh king shall arise AFTER the first ten? I personally believe that the angel who is explaining the vision to Daniel is emphasizing the fact that before the Antichrist appears, there will be a confederacy of 10 nations already in place. The last sentence says that the eleventh king will subdue 3 of the first 10, that is, he will militarily conquer them before all the others agree to give him their power as we read in Revelation:
'' 12And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast.
13These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast.'' (Revelation 17:12-13)
Note that the 10 kings will receive power as kings with the beast (the composite empire of Daniel 7 and Revelation 13) and will give their power and strength to the beast (the eleventh king of Daniel 7)
Revelation 17 confirms that before the Antichrist appears, there will be a confederacy of 10 nations that will be formed. This confederacy of 10 nations will encompass the area of all the 7 kingdoms of biblical history with a special focus on the Middle East since the 10 horns are scattered upon the 7 heads of the beast which represent 7 mountains which represent 7 kingdoms, namely the Egyptian, Assyrian, Babylonian, Persian, Grecian, Roman, and Ottoman empires. In the article mentioned above, I wrote that these 10 nations or kings could be:
King #1 Egypt
King #2 Sudan or Libya
King # 3 Lebanon
King # 4 Syria
King # 5 Turkey
King # 6 Jordan
King # 7 Iraq
King # 8 Iran
King # 9 Afghanistan
King # 10 Pakistan
If these are indeed the 10 kings of the beast, these 10 nations must agree to form a confederacy, some sort of a parliament that brings together all these nation in an attempt to create a block of nations with a common political and economic policy. Currently such a parliament or confederacy does not exist, but it is not far from becoming a reality. One thing we students of prophecy tend to do is fit current events into the prophetic portions of the Bible in order to create our own prophetic agenda. This can cause us to become sensationalists and twist the meaning of the biblical text as many have done in the past. I believe that Jack Van Impe also known as the ''walking Bible'' is a very good example of that. On the other hand Jesus told us to watch for the sign of the times when he said:
''And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh.'' (Luke 21:28)
Jesus is this passage is expecting us to know that his return is near as we see the signs that will precede his return. Since the subject of our article is the formation of a confederacy of 10 Middle Eastern nations to be in place before the Antichrist appears, is there anything in the political arena today pointing to such development? I believe so and I will show what the Iranian government has suggested should be done in the Middle East political arena.
On February 12, 2008 Iran Focus News Agency reported:
Iran suggests formation of new Middle Eastern Parliament
Tehran, Iran, Feb. 12 – Iran suggested on Tuesday that a new Parliament be formed to group much of the Middle East and Southern Asia, operating much like the 27-nation European Parliament does today.
The announcement, the first of its kind by a senior Iranian official, was made by the country’s Prosecutor-General Qorban-Ali Dorri Najafabadi. His remarks were carried by the official news agency IRNA and other state media.
Speaking at a conference dubbed 'Building a Confident Future for Southwest Asia', Dorri Najafabadi also urged states situated next to the Persian Gulf to draw up a joint defense plan.
"If a powerful bloc was formed in the region, the foreigners would never dare to interfere in the region’s affairs, and we would not witness problems such as those currently existing in Iraq, Lebanon and Palestine”, he said.
He called for more judicial cooperation among states in the region – a controversial call given the Islamic Republic’s strict interpretation of Sharia Law.
The radical Shiite cleric proposed that a “unified regional parliament” be formed to meet the interests of all countries in the region.
Southwest Asia is generally considered to include Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey. It stretches from the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt to Afghanistan.
Dori Najaf-Abadi was for several years the chief of the theocratic state’s dreaded secret police, known as the Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS). He resigned when an MOIS top deputy was implicated in the murder of dozens of dissident Iranian intellectuals and writers. [1]
Although the above headline proves nothing, it is interesting to note that the idea of forming a Middle Eastern parliament much like the European parliament already exists in the minds of Iranian leaders. Iran must be one of the main players in the kingdom of the beast since the beast in Revelation 13 had the feet of a bear which was the second beast of Daniel 7 which represented the Persian empire. Iran was still called Persia in 1935 and must be the feet of the beast which ''crushed'' the residue according to Daniel 7:7. Could it be that Iran will be responsible for shaping most of the beast's political policies? Only time will tell.
There has been talks about creating a common currency for the Middle East. This would bring most of the Arab states together in a financial union which would compete against the American dollar and the Euro. Such an economic union would be backed up by oil, the modern day gold which would cause the Middle East to have one of the strongest economies in the world. Is it a coincidence that in Revelation 18 we read about Babylon being the economic center of the kingdom of the Beast with so much luxury mentioned in the biblical text? Babylon or the country of Babylonia is modern day Iraq which is believed to have the second or third largest oil reserves. Can you imagine Iraq, Iran and Saudi Arabia having a common currency backed up by oil besides being members of a Middle Eastern parliament?
On December 12,2008 the EU OBSERVER reported:
Iraq plans EU-style Middle East union
Iraq has unveiled plans for the creation of a regional economic and security union for the Middle East explicitly modelled on the European Union.
''Official government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh announced the proposal on Tuesday (9 December) in Washington at the Institute of Peace, a US government-linked think-tank, saying that talks on the plan with the country's neighbours were already underway. Informal discussions on "Regional Economic Partnership" have reportedly been launched with Kuwait, Syria and Turkey, though not yet Iran. The aim would also to be to bring on board Jordan and Saudi Arabia and - in a subsequent phase - the Gulf states of Bahrain, Oman, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates, but not Israel. "The new Iraq could convert the region into the EU model," the UK's Daily Telegraph quotes the Iraqi official as saying at the meeting. "Iraq is going to play a major stabilising factor," he added.'' [2]
Here we see Iraq planning to create a Middle East economic bloc. We saw above that Iraq which is ancient Babylon will be the economic capital of the Antichrist according to Revelation 18
Many prophecy teachers who support the European centric Antichrist kingdom say that the Middle East does not have the infrastructure to be the kingdom of the Antichrist. If this is true then why are many Middle Eastern nations building man-made islands, man-made ski resorts in the middle of the desert and building the tallest buildings in the world with the most incredible architecture? If these oil rich nations can do all of that, don't you think they can come up with a parliament and an economy that will challenge the Western hemisphere to its very core? Would the European Union be chosen to be the kingdom of the Antichrist who already comes from the Middle East instead of such a rich and powerful political entity? I doubt it.
Going back the the beginning of the article, those who are in a hurry to point to who the Antichrist may be are missing this important chapter of Bible prophecy. The Antichrist can only appear after a confederacy of 10 nations probably all in the Middle East is formed. Such a confederacy still does not exist today and it could take another 5, 10 or 15 years before it becomes a reality. Iraq must be the economic center of this final kingdom according to Revelation 18 and that is not yet on the horizon. Perhaps it will not be so until the Western powers still have so much influence over that region. As soon as the US and allies and leave Iraq, the surrounding oil rich nations will make Iraq the financial center of their united Islamic-Arab kingdom.
Some great prophecy scholars believe that the 10 nation confederacy will be a East-West kingdom which will include 5 Western nations from Europe and 5 Eastern nations from the Middle East. Phillip Goodman who is one of the contributors to the Beast From The East web site points to that direction in his excellent book entitled The Assyrian Connection.[3]
In a recent conversation I had with Phil Goodman on the phone, he told me that he believes the Mediterranean Union or Union for the Mediterranean which is bringing Europe and the Middle East together could be the beginning of this East-West 10 nation confederacy.
In my article titled The Kingdom of the Antichrist: An Alternate View I explored the same possibility but later came to explore the possibility of Western Europe being totally excluded from this final kingdom. I explored the possibility of only the Eastern portion of the Roman empire being part of the beast kingdom since only the Eastern portion of the Roman empire was within the geographic boundaries of the Babylonian, Persian and Grecian empire which are emphasized in the physical description of the beast as being like a leopard (Greece), having the feet of a bear (Persia) and the mouth of a lion (Babylon). Although the Grecian empire came from the West, the focus of Daniel 11 shrinks to the Seleucid division of the Grecian empire which ruled the areas known today as Syria, Iraq and other sectors of the Middle East.
Although Phil Goodman and I may disagree whether the 10 nations will include Western Europe or not, we agree in one major point. The Antichrist who is the eleventh horn of Daniel 7 must be an Assyrian. Mr. Goodman emphasizes more on the general geographic region of the rise of the Antichrist. He points to Syria/Iraq as the area where the man of sin will appear. I go even further than that. I zero in to the region between the River Euphrates and the Tigris River region of Northern Iraq known as the Nineveh Plains of Northern Iraq located near the modern city of Mosul as the area where the man of sin will come from. This area today is inhabited by many Assyrians and the Bible makes it clear that the Antichrist will be an Assyrian who will be associated with the land of Nimrod which is Asshur where he built Nineveh (Micah 5:5-6, Genesis 10:8-11)
Conclusion.
It appears to me that the Antichrist cannot appear on the Middle East political arena until there is a confederacy of 10 nations formed. This confederacy could begin to be formed as a Middle Eastern parliament is created with a common political and economic policy. As mentioned above, there are biblical passages that support either a Syrian or a Turkish Antichrist, but we should not hurry in pointing who the Antichrist may be since the Bible seems to clearly point to his rise only after the rise of a 10 nations confederacy that could include East and West as suggested by Phillip Goodman or that will include only Middle Eastern nations as suggested by myself and many others such as Richard Perry, Dave Watchman, Joel Richardson and others who contribute to the Beast From The East web site.
God Bless You!
Rodrigo Silva
10/22/08 - Updated 12/14/08
Endnotes
