Daniel is to be trusted according to the words of Jesus. When the beginnings of the fulfillment of Daniel 11:21-31 is recognized in the Church, it allows one to know that the anti-Christ is but five or six years, at most I think, and as few as two, from his mission of setting up the Abomination of Desolation in verse 31. Daniel 11 tells us where Mr. Abomination will be before he arrives to Israel.The problem which I address to you in earnest is that many Christians are unaware of the anti-Christ's introduction at verse 21, the oversight being due to the widespread claim that the anti-Christ enters the prophecy well further, in verse 36. Those who have been led into that view, so that verses 21-35 are thought to portray an ancient king/situation, should be open to this alternative view, for it is a compelling view. See Antiochus IV for starters, if you wish.
If you believe along with Zondervan publishers, for example, that verses 21-35 refer to an ancient king/situation, you might consider me bent on making an ancient prophecy fit the shoe of current events. Not so. Two hundred years after Antiochus IV, Jesus referred to the Abomination of verse 31 as an event to his future (see Matthew 24:15). Already, we have cause to view verse 21 as an end-time prophecy. Therefore, the soldiers of the "king of the north," who in verse 31 procure the Abomination, must be the soldiers of the end-time anti-Christ, no matter how well Antiochus IV (175 BC) may fit some of the prophecy between 21 and 31.
Watch what you read in footnotes and commentaries. Throw your paraphrase Bible out and get one that sticks closely to the early Greek and Hebrew texts. All Bible quotes in this book, unless noted otherwise, are word-for-word translations from Hebrew or Greek interlinears, albeit I personally arrange those words into proper English structure where necessary (one doesn't always need to be a language expert to do this correctly; I have a Strong's concordance to boot).
Some believers today insist that the book of Revelation was written prior to the fall of Jerusalem in 70 AD, allowing them to make the further claim that the Revelation plagues, including chapter eleven's 42-month trampling of Jerusalem, occurred in relation to 70 AD. They furthermore make the mistake of placing the Abomination (and the "great tribulation" of Matthew 24:21 and Luke 21:23) in relation to 70 AD. That position falls wrong because the Abomination of Matthew 24 occurs, according to verses 15-31, in relation to Jesus' return at Armageddon. Therefore, unless Jesus returned in the first century, we shouldn't locate the Abomination and Tribulation (= invasion of Israel) in the first century in spite of the Roman invasion of Jerusalem in 70 AD.
In 1980, before Iraq was significant in world news, I interpreted verse 21 as the political seizure of Iraq by the anti-Christ. I was still 14 years from settling on the idea that he would be Ezekiel's Gog. I ruled Putin out as the anti-Christ when he openly began to support churches in his country. He seems too soft-spoken, anyway, to blaspheme the God of Israel openly.
Verse 21 of Daniel 11 indicates that the anti-Christ will not initially seize that country militarily, but rather a political seizure will precede a military one. The same verse indicates, in view of Gog = anti-Christ, that Gog will be rejected by the Iraqi people as he takes the ruling position over the country. It's even possible that the Daniel prophecy concerns Syria rather than Iraq, though Isaiah calls Mr. Abomination as "king of Babylon," which does not fit Syria alone.
Most prophecy watchers are set in their ways concerning Gog, that he is not to be confused with the anti-Christ. I don't see any textual conflicts by equating the two. It's actually a huge bonus to equate them, if correct to do so, because Daniel 11 adds to our view of Gog's invasion of Israel. In Ezekiel, he appears in Israel abruptly, without a revelation on the path he takes or any specifics thereof aside from greed as the motive. Daniel tells me he will first be in Iraq and/or Syria. Can you spot any benefit in this as concerns physical preparations for enduring the 666 system? The benefit is glaring. It gives us TIME.
In 1980, I interpreted verse 22 as the fall of Iraq's military by some other force besides the anti-Christ. I interpreted that fall as occurring at the hands of a large but unidentified army (i.e. God does not identify which nation will conquer Iraq). Years later, that fall was believed by myself to be the Iraqi invasion under the command of George Bush. The very sort of crisis in Iraq, that I had envisioned from 1980, was taking place in 2003, and lasting for a few years afterward, and yet the anti-Christ did not come to rule Iraq. It's like having a lottery ticket when all the numbers are correct, except the last one.
Along with the fall of Iraq, the prophecy (still in verse 22) indicates that there will be, at the hands of the same unidentified army, the fall of a "ruler of a covenant." I interpreted him as the leader of a multitude of parties sworn to destroy Israel. Until 2004 I did not know whom this ruler could be, but then I felt confident to interpret him as Osama bin Laden...a perfect fit for the phrase, "Ruler of a Covenant."
However, while Osama's military was broken just prior to the fall of the Iraqi army in 2003, we must look to someone similar, someone able to lead a multitude of in-fighting Muslim groups. There's a good chance that the Americans will be behind the formation / uplifting of this ruler and the pack he leads, and that the Russians will therefore oppose him, which has been true in Syria. It's common knowledge that ISIS in Syria was controlled, to a large degree, and protected too, by Obama. But, at any time, this could change, flipping on its head, with the Russians supporting an al-Qaeda-like army when they both come to the common goal of suppressing Israel.
Since the Trump years, I've been open to another invasion into Iraq as the fulfillment of verse 22. As there seems to be no logical expectation of another Iraqi invasion at this time, in September of 2024 as I go over this chapter, I'm becoming open to the Syria stage as the prophecy's fulfillment, a thing I did not believe when convinced in earlier years that it would be Iraq. Though Isaiah calls Mr. Abomination the "Assyrian," and while Assyria is now in Iraqi territory, some AsSYRIAns may have named "Syria."
In the aftermath of the Bush invasion, I predicted, from my interpretation of verse 23, that the fallen Iraqi military and its partners, including Osama's Sunni factions, would join Gog in a pact i.e. Gog will join the said "covenant". The aftermath of the war seemed perfect for such an event, and yet Russia remained on its best behavior, not showing any signs of launching into Iraq.
To complicate matters, what if Gog is the nation of Turkey, as some think it could be? After all, Gogarene and the Meshech at the Moschi mountains, and even Tubal, were in what is now Turkey. However, "Togarmah" looks like the Tocharians of Russia on the north side of Caucasia, which is the "far north" in comparison to Gogarene at lake Sevan.
Verse 23 (and subsequent verses) suggested to me that Gog and the factions-under-covenant, though few in numbers, would succeed over the faltering nation, Iraq. The verse reads like so: "He will come and be strong with a few people." I could see it happening with the determined and ambitious insurgents, if only they had a Gog powerhouse as their helper. But no Gog stood up...yet Russians did show up in Syria, making it possible that they will yet step boots into Iraq.
From verse 24, I predicted that Gog would use his insurgent supporters to seize the country militarily, especially the "rich places of the province," which I thought must include Baghdad and surrounding region. I predicted from the Old-Testament book of Nahum (chapter one) that the anti-Christ would enter / show presence at Mosul, by which I mean to say that modern Mosul (ancient Nineveh) will be the location of his initial base of Iraqi operations. Mosul and other areas of northern Iraq are bastions for Sunni. It made perfect sense that Gog would make headquarters there.
I predicted further that, according to verse 25, Gog and his supporters, after seizing Iraq, will invade Egypt. They will be successful as per verse 28, the same verse that tells of his military stab against Israel. The Egyptian leadership has traditionally been opposed to the Muslim insurgents, and it remained that way after a brief table-turning under Egyptian president Morsi.
I came to believe that Obama was weaponizing the Sunni (ISIS) in Syria, and simultaneously working to destroy Israel from its south in Egypt via the Muslim Brotherhood. As of mid 2019, I thought that Obama (not officially in the White House since early 2017) could be secretly working to open the door for the entry of the anti-Christ. But even with Joe Biden as president since 2021, nothing of magnitude has developed in Syria. Russians have changed focus to Ukraine, which has served to bring more Russian military to the brink of Syria i.e. Russia stopped pussy-footing. Caucasia is the brink of Syria, and the Russians are in northern Caucasia seeking to topple NATO intrusions into Ukraine. Doesn't this position there look like Gog of Magog? And Israel is on-side with NATO in that theater i.e. a mortal enemy of Russia.
Verse 29 gives yet more information: a second attempt against Egypt that will fail due to stern pressure on Gog from what look like Western powers upon the Mediterranean. Or, the pressure could come from the Russians at their Tartarus naval base, for he may not be a Russian, but only supported by Russia, yet Russia may not like it when he goes too far. In any case, whoever opposes him, the result is that Gog becomes furious and sets his heart against Israel, which leads to the Abomination that causes Israel's desolation, defined in verse 31 as a military invasion of Jerusalem, including the related profaning of the temple site.
The temple building is not needed because Daniel 9:27 speaks only to the Western-Wall sanctuary, in my opinion, when telling that the abomination will be on a "wing" (of the temple site)."
The invasion can be expected from the many rabid Muslims under Gog's umbrella, and some have suggested that Gog himself will be an Arab / Muslim rather than a Russian. I don't think that "far north" well describes a Muslin nation, however. On the other hand, there are Muslim Russians in Russia, and there could even be a Muslim Russian or Muslim Caucasian who becomes the anti-Christ on behalf of the Russian president, someone like Kadyrov of Chechnya. I absolutely do not think that he can be a Russian president, for that doesn't fit "small" beginnings.
In the earlier parts of the Daniel-11 prophecy, we see the Greek empire -- immediately after Alexander's death (v 6) -- leading into a succession of "kings of the north" until the prophecy extends to the end-time anti-Christ as the final king of the north. There ought to be a good reason for the Choosing (by God) of this specific picture; it seems that the end-time king must have some relationship to ancient kings of the north. In mid-2014, military Sunni units were spread, from middle Iraq, deep into Syria, the whole of which was the ancient domain of the kings of the north.
Do you know of any prophecies pertaining to the seven-year "week"? You won't find much. The Bible indicates that the Church will fall asleep in the first half of the Week, and it seems clear to me that erroneous prophetic commentaries will be responsible for much of it. For those with a will to watch and to hang on in the Faith, I share in this chapter, and the next two, some very important matters in relation to the following points:
1) If the personality in Daniel's verse 31 is the end-time anti-Christ, so also is the personality in the verses previous to 31, going back to verse 21.2) Bible footnotes and commentaries telling otherwise rob Bible readers of critical signs that are golden to those who wish to safely plan their tribulation security in time for the coming skincode.
Surely, the multiple signs of which I speak have been sitting patiently, more than 2500 years, for no better purpose than to benefit the end-time generation. And so be aroused! Jesus wants us to know that this section of the Daniel-11 prophecy represents the anti-Christ's activities prior to the successful invasion of Jerusalem, so that we have no less than eleven verses describing events BEFORE the midway point of the final seven years. This is the kindness of God, then, in allowing us to discern the identity of the anti-Christ with some certainty well before the skincode is enforced.
These eleven verses are crucial because there is not one section of prophecy in all the Bible that comes close to describing so many events pertaining to the FIRST half of the Week. I have grave doubts that the skincode will be an actual "666," as that is too blatantly obvious. I may be wrong, but I think that the masses will need to be fooled into taking that number. But when the one for which the number is framed is seen to arise in Iraq and/or Syria while fulfilling Daniel 11:21-31, we will be more sure that he has indeed arrived.
We cannot fully understand 21-31 unless we solve the previous verses...which expose the ancient kings of the north as belonging to the Greek faction known to historians as the Seleucid empire, originally centered in what is now downtown modern Iraq but including Syria to the one side and some of Persia (Iran) to the other; see Seleucid Empire (in yellow). One possibility is that the anti-Christ will build a neo-Seleucid empire in the sense of covering the same geographical regions as did the ancient empire. ISIS had mopped up that territory overnight, but I don't see it as a natural thing for ISIS to lend that domain to a Russian-based or Russian-backed anti-Christ, in a partnership. But naturalities aside, when things come to a crunch, compromises are made even with the enemy.
Otherwise, if not for geographical similarities, what would be God's purpose in connecting the end-time king of the north to the ancient Seleucids? I suppose it's possible for the anti-Christ to be of the same bloodline or ethnicity as those of the ancient empire, but tracking this down is not something the average person can do. If God is trying to convey geographical common ground, it's an easy clue for anyone as per where to look for the rise of the anti-Christ. That makes sense.
Seleucid kings occupied northern Israel at a time when Egypt occupied the southern half of Israel, for which reason Egypt is represented in the prophecy as the "king of the south." When the end times are suddenly and without textual notice in view -- as of verse 21 -- we can assume with confidence that the king of the south is still Egypt. To inform end-timers (the entire world that cares to listen) of these details seems to be the integral reason for the prophecy's inclusion of the ancient picture.
There is going to be, once again, a conflict between Egypt and a rising powder keg to Israel's north. It almost came to fruition under Obama. He may have paved the way for it, for the Muslim Brotherhood may yet have ongoing plots to re-take Egypt, and the prophecy under discussion tells that the anti-Christ doesn't take Egypt alone, but through people amongst the Egyptian leaders who betray the Egyptian rulers.
The ISIS set-back may yet become another powder keg. It seems that Netanyahu is foolishly lighting the fuse, as I write, by being BOMB-astic against Iran's forces in the Seleucid realm. [A couple of months after writing this, HTS, a neo-ISIS army, took down Assad in a fast sweep that could fulfill "overflow."]
Note that the anti-Christ's neo-Seleucid kingdom is found in Revelation 13:2, because we see the empire of the "beast" (same person as the "king of the north") depicted there with features combining those of a leopard (Greece), a bear (Persia/Iran), and a lion (Iraq). For proof of the identification of these animals as the nations in my brackets, see Daniel 7 in conjunction with Daniel 8:20-21. In Revelation 13:2, the Beast's kingdom is said to have "a mouth like a lion," which in my current opinion means that he will command from Iraq. "Feet like a bear" could mean that his military base and might is in the Iranians; Ezekiel 38 implies that Iran will be Gog's most-important ally. "Greek-like" may refer to his Westernization, democratization, and/or Aryanism at odd with Turk-Arabic.
As of 2019, the Iranian factor of the anti-Christ's kingdom creates a problem for identifying the kingdom with ISIS, for that group, along with Iraqi Baathists, despises Iran. I haven't been following the remnants of ISIS since that time to know whether they are able to get cosy with Iranians for a common cause, but we can imagine that opposition to Israel is a natural common cause.
Of course, one should never trust my words. We've learned the lesson many times that prophecy speakers can be blushing wrong. You who don't study prophecy could end up being more correct than we who do...just because there is a God who determines thoughts, but also because God opposes prophecy writers who think they have a special gift of prophecy when in fact all they have is normal human powers of reasoning.
I reason like so: as the anti-Christ is called the "king of Babylon" in Isaiah 14, where the "Babylon" of that text (13:9) is the ancient country on the Euphrates and Tigris rivers, I conclude that modern Iraq will be the military headquarters of the future neo-Seleucid empire, or that Iraq will become the anti-Christ's military state. This seems a logical approach because the country of Babylon held the capital (Seleucia) of the ancient Seleucid empire...several years before the Syrian co-capital city, Antioch, was chosen.
As the anti-Christ has been revealed in Daniel 11:23 as a supporter of a militarily-defeated kingdom that will become his kingdom, I concluded that the defeated kingdom will be Iraq under Saddam's Baathists. This concept, in 1980, was not part of any prophetic book I had known. You can imagine my deep interest when the Persian-Gulf War of 1991 came and went...but much more interest after Iraq had its back broken in the invasion of Bush Jr. But Gog never jumped into the fray. As of 2024, there's no one in the Middle-East who looks like a proper or compelling candidate for the anti-Christ, in my eyes, at least not one making the headlines.
The book of Nahum concerns the end times; 1:5-8 tips us off with clear mountain-melting (= Armageddon) terminology. The anti-Christ is evident in verse 11 because verse 12 speaks on his destruction while leading into Israel's eternal restoration i.e. the Millennium. In verse 11, the anti-Christ, apparently described as "one who devises evil against YHWH," is said to "come forth from" what appears certainly to be Nineveh. What can we make of this phrase, "come forth from," except that, early in his mission, the anti-Christ will have headquarters at Nineveh? But this is the land of the Kurds. How do Russians, or a Russia-backed Gog, set up shop there? As things now stand, only by force.
Nineveh was the capital city of the ancient Assyrian empire, but behold, the palaces of the Assyrian king, Sennacherib, though he is known to have ruled from Nineveh, were excavated across the Tigris river from Nineveh, in what is now the Iraqi city of Mosul (see map of the Middle East or of modern Iraq). That is, what is now Mosul was once a part of Nineveh. Therefore, or so is my understanding, the anti-Christ, prior to seizing Iraq, will set up headquarters in Mosul (pop. was 1.5 million). He doesn't necessarily need to have Russia's backing from the time of his launch in Mosul.
Saddam's two sons were killed while hiding out in Mosul, by the way, and many other Saddam supporters have been found in and around that city. Saddam once said that whoever ruled Mosul would rule all of Iraq. It appears that the anti-Christ will agree, if he hasn't already done so.
When the terrorists were ousted from their prime hide-out in the city of Falluja in November of 2004, Mosul became a major terrorist haven. Wikipedia writes: "Over a three-month period in 2005, al-Zarqawi's affiliates were reportedly responsible for more than 1,700 attacks on Coalition and Iraqi forces in the city of Mosul alone." Later: "Al-Mashhadani is the highest-ranking Iraqi leader in al-Qaida in Iraq. He was captured in Mosul on July 4 [2007]."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Qaeda_in_IraqWhen it says in Daniel 8:9 that the anti-Christ will start small, and then, en route to becoming a large kingdom spread "toward the south, toward the east, and toward the bountiful land," we might envision him spreading forth from Mosul, south into the rich province encompassing Baghdad, but also north along the banks of the Euphrates river where the desert is checked. It could make us think that the anti-Christ will be partnered with Mosul's Sunni.
In the following Daniel-11 text, the key word "enter" serves as evidence for the anti-Christ's foreign status amongst the Iraqis over which he comes to rule. That is, he will not be an Iraqi. Here is verse 21 as close as I could get it to a Hebrew manuscript:
"And a rejected one shall stand up in his place, and they shall not give to him the honor of the kingdom; but he will enter while at ease and seize the kingdom with smooth talk."Who would "they" be, who reject Gog when he "stands up" to run the kingdom? Not the defeated soldiers of verse 22 with whom he will ally, but rather other fighters, for example the Shi'ites now ruling Iraq. I once interpreted this situation as Gog supporting the fallen Baathists of Saddam Hussein, who, like al-Qaeda, are Sunni. They were opposed by Shi'ite Iraqis, who formed the Iraqi government at the fall of Saddam. Much of the violence in Iraq since the Bush invasion has been Sunni-versus-Shi'ite sectarianism. BUT, Gog's program has not yet shown up in Iraq.
The Hebrew word, "smooth," is translated by some Bible versions as "intrigues" (from "smooth/slippery talk"). It gives the impression that Gog will initially attempt to seize the power structures of Syria or Iraq, not with a military effort, but with political intrigues i.e. diplomacy, political wrangling. And this is exactly the expectation with Russians in Syria, where Assad has been under such dire threat that he's needed to tolerate Russian "intrusion" to the point of welcoming it. But we can also assume that, over time, Russia will have Middle-East eyes on more than Syria, which can explain why the West would want to make Ukrainian chaos for Russia, to weaken its abilities / plots in Syria.
Shouldn't verse 21 happen before verse 22? Not necessarily. Verses 22-24 amount to an expounded version of the latter portion of verse 21, so that, not easily discerned by the reader, verse 22 actually occurs in history before the verse-21 seizure of Iraq. Let me try to explain it this way: it appears that the end of 21 is repeated in 23 with slightly different terms. For example, the "smooth talk" of verse 21 becomes "deceit" in verse 23. And the "enter" of verse 21 becomes "he will come and be strong with a few people" in verse 24. In fact, note the comparison below:
VERSE 21: "he will enter while at ease and seize the kingdom smoothly."VERSE 24: "With ease, even into the rich places of the province, he will enter."
Therefore, it appears that the end of verse 21 doesn't occur until the events of verses 22, and the formation of an alliance in 23, have occurred. Or, put yet another way, beginning at verse 22, the text brings the reader back in time, before the events of 21, in order to reveal events that lead-up to verse 21 (explaining why events of 21 are repeated in 24).
If that confused you, I'm saying that the first event will be the fall of Iraq shown in verse 22. The sequence of events is like so:
The Iraqi (or Syria) president is defeated when his military falls.The king of the north joins the fallen army (not necessarily the fallen leader included) to get a foothold in the country.
The king of the north attempts to seize/share power but is rejected by people in general when attempting it. It's fine if he helps the fallen leader, but don't rule the country yourself.
The king of the north succeeds in seizing major portions of Iraq or Syria; if Syria, I figure he'll later take Iraq too.
The following translation makes it hard to determine whether the overflowing army is his own, or someone else's. In either case, the army appears as a loser in war, in this translation, yet by changing "of" to "from", the overflow then refers to a victorious army that sweeps away another:
(22)"And the army OF the overflow will be swept from before his face, and they will be broken, and also the ruler of a covenant. (23)And after they join him, he will practice deceit. For he will come and be strong with a few people.""The army of the overflow" makes not good sense to me if it is the army that loses. Compare by using "from" instead of "of," and I'll add two commas too so as to make the overflow appear like a second army:
(22)"And the army, FROM the overflow, will be swept from before his face, and they will be broken, and also the ruler of a covenant. (23)And after they join him, he will practice deceit. For he will come and be strong with a few people."In this translation, the defeated army is defeated from an overflowing army, which makes sense. The two losers then join him in what should prove to be a military alliance.
You need to give this problem the consideration it merits if your Bible has a similar translation. I have a serious problem with translations making the defeated army the one of the anti-Christ.
As the prophecy says that the broken ones will join him, it's the picture of a desperate situation, a Gog-to-the-rescue of the fallen armies. The defeat is his foot into the door, maybe like one who's wanted into the door all along. Like someone watching closely even now. I naturally imagine a West-Russia conflict, with the victorious army being from the United States.
I was convinced that the overflowing army, depicted as a flood, was the Bush invasion of Iraq. Nothing of that sort has yet taken place in Syria. Obama's military was shy of putting military boots on Syrian ground. Therefore, the prophecy has not yet come to pass.
American bullishness has successfully caused Putin to go back into the Arms of Iran rather than finding the makings of galvanization with the West. Putin was open for the latter, but the American war hawks, to whom Trump has catered, to a fair degree, sent Russia back to Iran. The natural expectation now is that Russia will seek a consolidated Shi'ite bloc spreading from Iran to Syria. The neo-Seleucid domain could thus be born.
The translation of 22-23 above might be wrong. One Hebrew word is used twice in verse 22; the word where "overflow" is used is "shataph" (#7857 in Strong's dictionary), while the Hebrew word for "swept away" is "sheteph" (#7858). Both words can mean "flood," although the first word can also be the verb, "to gush," according to Strong's Concordance. But that's the kicker: "to gush" is an action, but the second term is a noun. The translation above, and perhaps the one in your Bible version, has the noun ("overflow") first and the verb second, which is "swept away" in the translation above, which in a military context can mean, "wholesale defeat." Another way to translate 22:
"And the army will gush [verb] a flood [noun] before him, and they [not him] will be broken, and also the ruler of a covenant.."Now, rather than the flooding army being swept away DEFEATEDLY, the army is gushing a VICTORIOUS flood while Gog watches on, implying a defeated "they" whom join Gog as a result. As they join him in verse 23, it seems proof that the defeated army can't be his own.
In the previous verse (21) "they" refers to the end-time Seleucid domain, wherefore I view the phrase, "they will be broken," as the military defeat of the Iraqis, or perhaps the Syrians of the future. Within the phrase, "they join him," one can (and probably should) include the armies of the Ruler of a Covenant. That is, both entities join Gog and look to him as their survival strategy and ultimate-success story.
But which Muslims are these, the Sunni or the Shi'ites? As of 2019, the Sunni have been defeated by the Russian-Syrian alliance, and by the Kurds, with the Americans throwing in a few bombs and doing minimal damage probably by design.
Before moving on to the next chapter (a continuation of this topic), see all four verses together:
"A rejected one shall stand up in his place, and they shall not give him the honor of the kingdom; but he will enter while at ease and seize the kingdom with smoothness. And the arms will gush a flood before him, and they will be broken, and also the ruler of a covenant. And after they join themselves to him, he will practice deceit. For he will come and be strong with a few people. With ease, even into the rich places of the province, he will enter. And he will do what his fathers nor his father's fathers have not done. He shall plunder and spoil, and scatter goods among them."
NEXT CHAPTER
Will Liberals Love Gog?
American Democrats and other Liberals
are playing into the hands
of the anti-Christ.
