Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, we ask you, not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as if from us, as though the day of Christ had come. Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.

5 Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you these things? 6 And now you know what is restraining, that he may be revealed in his own time. 7 For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only He who now restrains will do so until He is taken out of the way. 8 And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming. 9 The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, 10 and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. 11 And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, 12 that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

13 But we are bound to give thanks to God always for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God from the beginning chose you for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth, 14 to which He called you by our gospel, for the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. 15 Therefore, brethren, stand fast and hold the traditions which you were taught, whether by word or our epistle.

16 Now may our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and our God and Father, who has loved us and given us everlasting consolation and good hope by grace, 17 comfort your hearts and establish you in every good word and work. (2 Thessalonians 2)

Then I stood on the sand of the sea. And I saw a beast rising up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and on his horns ten crowns, and on his heads a blasphemous name. 2 Now the beast which I saw was like a leopard, his feet were like the feet of a bear, and his mouth like the mouth of a lion. The dragon gave him his power, his throne, and great authority. 3 And I saw one of his heads as if it had been mortally wounded, and his deadly wound was healed. And all the world marveled and followed the beast. 4 So they worshiped the dragon who gave authority to the beast; and they worshiped the beast, saying, “Who is like the beast? Who is able to make war with him?”

5 And he was given a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies, and he was given authority to continue for forty-two months. 6 Then he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme His name, His tabernacle, and those who dwell in heaven. 7 It was granted to him to make war with the saints and to overcome them. And authority was given him over every tribe, tongue, and nation. 8 All who dwell on the earth will worship him, whose names have not been written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.

9 If anyone has an ear, let him hear. 10 He who leads into captivity shall go into captivity; he who kills with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints.

The Beast from the Earth

11 Then I saw another beast coming up out of the earth, and he had two horns like a lamb and spoke like a dragon. 12 And he exercises all the authority of the first beast in his presence, and causes the earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed. 13 He performs great signs, so that he even makes fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men. 14 And he deceives those who dwell on the earth by those signs which he was granted to do in the sight of the beast, telling those who dwell on the earth to make an image to the beast who was wounded by the sword and lived. 15 He was granted power to give breath to the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak and cause as many as would not worship the image of the beast to be killed. 16 He causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads, 17 and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.

18 Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man: His number is 666. (Revelation 13)

The Tower of Babel and the Confusion of Tongues

The building of the Tower of Babel and the Confusion of Tongues (languages) in ancient Babylon is mentioned rather briefly in Genesis Chapters 10 and 11. Genesis 10 is the so-called "Table of Nations"--a list of 70 names of Noah's descendants through Shem, Ham, and Japheth. The list is probably not complete, but we are given a good picture of the division of our race into three branches each having been gifted special giftedness and unique qualities by God, highlighting the spiritual, intellectual and physical sides of man as he was created in the image of God. Genesis 10:6-12 includes a parenthetical section on one of the sons of grandsons Ham, Nimrod the son of Cush.

Nimrod's name is from the verb "let us revolt." He is said to be a mighty hunter (gibbor tsayidh) in the sight of the Lord, but the language has a dark meaning. He becomes a tyrant or despot leading an organized rebellion against the rule of Yahweh. He hunts not animals, but rather the souls of men. Cain, a condemned murderer had started the first cities before the Flood. Nimrod builds the first post-Flood cities. The region he settles in is now mostly modern Iraq--unusual for Ham--most of the sons of Ham went south to Africa or East to China. The people of Shem stayed close-in to the region where the Ark landed, the Japhethites headed mostly North and West. Genesis 10 continues with a list of the other descendants of Ham, then presents a list of Shem's lineage. Chapter 11 resumes the account of Nimrod's Babylon:

"Babel" is composed of two words, "bab" meaning "gate" and "el," "god." Hence, "the gate of god." A related word in Hebrew, "balal" means "confusion."

Nimrod probably began to build his cities within a hundred years of the Flood. The confusion of tongues is usually thought to have occurred during the days of Peleg (Genesis 10:25). The chronology one derives from most English Bibles, which are translated from the Masoretic Hebrew text, places the time of Peleg only about 100 years after the Flood. This is probably incorrect.

Barry Setterfield dates Peleg as living 530 years after the Flood, using the Vorlage Text and the Septuagint (LXX). See his Creation and Catastrophe Chronology. The dates computed by Setterfield seem to be a much better fit to what we know from archaeology and recorded history about the ancient civilizations of Egypt and Fertile Crescent Region. The world population at the time of the Dispersion at Babel may have been of the order of tens of thousands of persons.

Babylon becomes, in history, the fountainhead of false religion in the Post-Flood world. The city Babylon and Iraq figure in Biblical prophecies connected with the end of the age. "Mystery Babylon" is an even more theme in Bible prophecy. Revelation 17-18 depicts God's final judgment of world religion plus world commerce and trade since these man-made systems have sprung from the source rebellion of Nimrod and Babel. See Thy Kingdom Come, Thy Will be Done... for a description of the place of Babylon in Biblical eschatology.

It was founded by the first world dictator, Nimrod, and it may well be destined to be the capital of the final world dictator, commonly called the Antichrist! And this all may be emerging on our near horizon.

Don't be misled by confusing the Fall of Babylon in history with the Destruction of Babylon, as prophesied in the Bible.

Many Bible handbooks, dictionaries, and commentaries give you the impression that Babylon was "destroyed" in 539 B.C. But it is important to realize that when Cyrus the Great captured Babylon he was able to take it over without a battle . In fact, this feat is celebrated in the famed Cylinder of Cyrus that is featured in the British Museum in London (see photo).

Babylon served as a secondary capital of the Persian Empire for two centuries until Alexander the Great conquered the Persians in 325 B.C. He made it his capital; in fact, he died there.

Four of his generals then divided up the empire, and subsequently Babylon gradually atrophied over the centuries. Yet, when Robert Koldewey, the German archaeologist, excavated it at the end of the 19th century, he was able to hire local residents to assist him.

The prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah each spend two chapters detailing the catastrophic destruction that awaits this fabled city. The result of this final devastation will leave it uninhabitable; even the building materials will never be reused. This clearly has never happened in its history-its rebuilding was begun by Saddam Hussein, and it apparently is yet destined to reemerge on the world scene to receive the destruction which is so detailed by Isaiah and Jeremiah.

What further complicates this perspective are the details that are added in the Book of Revelation. These passages alone have prompted numerous books, and many fanciful conjectures, regarding the potential allegorical and metaphorical applications from the Patmos vision John recorded. It is illuminating to read-at one sitting-the six principal chapters dealing this topic: Isaiah 13 and 14, Jeremiah 50 and 51 and Revelation 17 and 18. (Some of the specific issues that emerge are summarized in this chart.

Clearly Babylon, as a literal city on banks of the Euphrates, has a climactic destiny yet ahead of it. The destruction described in both the Old and New Testaments has never happened , and if we take the Bible seriously then Babylon is destined to rise again to power to receive the judgment that Isaiah, Jeremiah, and the Apostle John have described.

We also need to recognize that during the successive empires, the "mystery religions" that began in Babylon were subsequently transported to the various world capitals: to Pergamos under the Persians 1 and subsequently to Rome, where they became the foundation of all that was (and still is) pagan in that city.

And, of course, when Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire under the second successor after Constantine, Theodosius II (A.D. 378-398), many of these idolatrous trappings were repackaged with "Christian" labels.

Many of these traditions are still very visible in the practices of the Roman Catholic Church, but are also visible, in more subtle forms, in many other denominations as well. Perhaps the most significant study of these practices and their history is Dave Hunt's milestone work, The Woman That Rides the Beast 2, which is a modern response to Alexander Hislop's classic, The Two Babylons , published in 1916. 3

Are the prophetic references to "Babylon" to be taken literally-an actual city on the banks of the Euphrates-or metaphorically, to include the Vatican and the final apostate ("ecumenical") world church? There are many good scholars on both sides of this debate. It may well be that both views are true.

The key to this apparent paradox seems to be hinted at in the enigmatic vision given to Zechariah, in which he sees a woman, labeled "wickedness," sealed in an ephah (the standard commercial volumetric measure in those days), with a lead lid enclosing her for transport:

Then lifted I up mine eyes, and looked, and, behold, there came out two women, and the wind was in their wings; for they had wings like the wings of a stork: and they lifted up the ephah between the earth and the heaven. Then said I to the angel that talked with me, Whither do these bear the ephah? And he said unto me, To build it an house in the land of Shinar: and it shall be established, and set there upon her own base. (Zechariah 5:5-11)

(Remember, this vision is Jewish: the "wings of a stork" implies something sinister: the stork was an unclean bird.)

This vision seems to portray the woman, labeled "wickedness" (perhaps the same woman portrayed in Revelation 17 as the "Mother of Harlots"), being relocated to where it all began: the plain of Shinar, the original location of Babylon and its sinister occultic religion. It would seem that it is located there to again rise to power and to receive God's final judgment.

Incidentally, Jeremiah includes a detail that would seem to be a technology statement:

For, lo, I will raise and cause to come up against Babylon an assembly of great nations from the north country: and they shall set themselves in array against her; from thence she shall be taken: their arrows shall be as of a mighty expert man; none shall return in vain. (Jeremiah 50:9)

The word "arrow" is #xe chets, which can mean a dart, arrow, or javelin; or "any missile fired from an engine of war." In the Septuagint, the Greek boli.j can mean anything thrown: a missile, such as an arrow or javelin. Notice, however, that the adjective clause "as of a mighty expert man" is a descriptor of the arrow, not the shooter of the arrow. The key Hebrew word is lk;f'sakal, which means prudent, wise, circumspect; with insight and comprehension. It is the arrow itself that has the intelligence! This, indeed, is further emphasized in the final clause: "none shall return in vain." They can't miss! Sounds like "smart weapons": a guided missile or smart bomb. And this was written over two thousand years ago.

The future of its modest rebuilding will be instructive to follow. The Shiites in Iraq are agitating to take over Babylon as their capital-in contradistinction to the Jewish Jerusalem.

My friend Tim LaHaye has indicated that there is even talk of the UN moving to Babylon. At first this may sound fanciful, but it seems that the UN is highly desirous of moving out of New York for several reasons: they feel too cramped to contain badly needed growth; and, they also have a desire to get out from under the domestic policies there. But where to go? There are numerous suggestions that are too politically complex to analyze in this brief review.

It is interesting to recognize that there are also scattered pockets of Assyrian communities throughout the world that have been without a national homeland for 2400 years! Some have expressed elation in the impending changes in Iraq as harbingers of more changes yet to come.

Let's keep in mind that there are a number of passages that indicate that the Antichrist will be-in some sense-an Assyrian.4 It is a good time to set aside our presuppositions and prejudices of the past, and carefully reexamine all the prophetic passages that pertain to the end times. (The only certain barrier to truth is the presumption we already have it .)

Last month, ten nations joined the fifteen that had previously made up the European Union. They are now twenty-five, with a population base 60% larger than the United States and with a combined economy that is-today-20% larger. 5 In 2007, Romania and Bulgaria are also scheduled to join the EU.

There is another country that has been very serious about joining, but whose membership continues to appear problematical: Turkey. For over 80 years, Turkey has changed its laws, its alphabet, its calendar, etc., all in a determined effort to be accepted by "the West." They have joined the UN, the IMF, the OECD, NATO, and were also accepted as an "associate member" in the precedent European Community under the specific stimulation that they would be allowed full membership eventually.

Yet, after more than a decade of deferrals, it appears to many that they really are not welcome. Their entrance into the European Union is a hotly debated topic, especially in the private chambers of power. It seems likely that this will all come to a head before the end of this year. Either they will be allowed membership or they will have to face the reality that their future is eastward rather than westward-toward the Islamic Middle East rather than with the West.

There are some of us who have assumed that their denial of entrance to the EU, and their subsequent entrancement of the Islamic East, would seem to set the stage for the "Magog Invasion" that is detailed in Ezekiel 38 and 39. 6 All the other allies described by Ezekiel would seem to be in position, except for Meshech and Tubal, which were prominent cities in Anatolia, the country that makes up the eastern two-thirds of modern Turkey (see map). (Some scholars are concerned over a disturbing hint of a possible intercontinental ballistic missile exchange in Ezekiel 39:6.)

On the other hand, if the European Union does admit Turkey, that might suggest a longer-term view: perhaps subsequent EU acquisitions could ultimately include additional neighbors to the east: Syria or Iraq. The pragmatics of Europe's desperate dependency on Middle Eastern oil would play a strategic role in such considerations. It would also bring them into a consistency with borders of the original Roman Empire, and that should give us all serious pause for scholastic reflection.

Further, a deliberate strategy of either controlling the UN, or eclipsing it, is undoubtedly a dynamic behind many EU political agendas.

There are several other factors that threaten the global horizon this year. With (a) Al Qaeda's likely agenda-prior to or subsequent to-our own national election this November; and (b) with the emergence of Saudi Arabia's nuclear ballistic missile capabilities, 7 and, thus, (c) the likelihood of a preemptive strike by Israel on El-Solayil (which could also include both Mecca and Damascus), many in the strategic community are becoming increasingly apprehensive.

Clearly, it is a crucial time for each of us to dig in and do our Biblical "homework." It is important to review and study these issues, and they, in turn, should have an impact on our personal priorities. It is time to take God seriously, and determine His agenda for each of us, personally and professionally, in the days ahead. Our Grand Adventure continues!

The prophecy thus indicates that before the advent of the warrior-king in Revelation 19:11-16, Babylon will rise to its greatest heights, not only of idolatry (chap. 17), but also of luxury (chap. 18).

Babylon of the future, therefore, will be the center for both false religion and world economic prosperity." [Note: Thomas, Revelation 8-22, p. 317.] Apparently it is the city that will be the prison of demons, a place where they are safe but kept against their wills (cf. Isaiah 13:21-22; Isaiah 34:11-17; Jeremiah 51:37).

Thomas Constable: Commerce in the Great Tribulation ch. 18

God next led John to reveal the destruction of the commercial and economic system that Babylon also symbolizes to inform his readers of its end in the future. "Wall Street" identifies a particular geographical location in New York City, but it also represents an economic and commercial system that has its center there. Likewise "Babylon" has throughout history represented a particular economic and commercial system that originated in the geographical city of Babylon as well as a particular religious system.

Many commentators believe chapters 17 and 18 describe the same thing, namely, the destruction of Babylon.

"Having portrayed the fate of the harlot-city through the onslaught of the Antichrist and his allies, John composes a dirge over the city in the style of the doom-songs of Old Testament prophets." [Note: Beasley-Murray, p. 262. Cf. Beale, p. 890.]

What Babylon symbolizes in this chapter is somewhat different from what it symbolizes in chapter 17. Nevertheless, the literal city is also in view in both chapters since it is the historical and philosophical headwaters for both systems. In this chapter there are many references to Babylon’s commercial activity. Though God did not identify Babylon’s religious influence expressly in chapter 17, the harlot seems clearly to symbolize that. The vision in chapter 18 gives further information about the announcements in Revelation 14:8 and Revelation 16:19-21. The belief that salvation is by works is the bedrock of religious Babylon (Genesis 11:4: "Come, let us build for ourselves a city, and a tower whose top will reach into heaven."). The desire to glorify self rather than God is the foundation of economic Babylon (Genesis 11:4: "and let us make for ourselves a name").

"The striking parallels between the chapters go beyond coincidence to point to a unified system. That system is identified in both chapters as a city that rules the world." [Note: Charles H. Dyer, "The Identity of Babylon in Revelation 17-18," Bibliotheca Sacra 144:575 (January-March 1987):311.]

"The distinction between the two chapters is that between two systems or networks that have the same geographical headquarters. In chapter 17 it is a religious system that operates independently of and in opposition to the true God, but in chapter 18 it is an economic system that does the same." [Note: Thomas, Revelation 8-22, pp. 313-14.]

Johnson did not believe we should look for the rebuilding of ancient Babylon but saw the city only as representing a system.

"He [John] is not writing a literal description, even in poetic or figurative language, of the fall of an earthly city, such as Rome or Jerusalem; but in portraying the destruction of a city, he describes God’s judgment on the great satanic system of evil that has corrupted the earth’s history." [Note: Johnson, p. 565. The New Scofield . . ., pp. 1370; Pentecost, Things to . . ., pp. 368-69; Heater, pp. 23-43; and Wiersbe, 2:614, also held this view.]

I expect that the literal city may be rebuilt and may suffer destruction at the end of the Tribulation. However, I also believe that what is in view here is more than just the literal city. It is also what the city has stood for and promoted throughout history, namely, a satanic system marked by every form of idolatrous humanism. Harris preferred the view that a literal city is in view, but he did not know what city. [Note: Harris, p. 240.]

Verse 1. John next saw another scene on earth (Gr. Meta tauta eidon, "After these things I saw," cf. Revelation 4:1). Another angel of the same kind as in Revelation 17:1 (i.e., one who descends from heaven to fulfill a special mission; cf. Revelation 10:1; Revelation 20:1) announced the next scene that John saw in his vision. This angel possessed great authority and glory, probably indicative of the importance of the judgment he announced. His description has led some interpreters to conclude that he is Jesus Christ. [Note: E.g., M. Robert Mulholland, Revelation, Holy Living in an Unholy World, p. 284; and Chilton, The Days . . ., pp. 445-46.] However his clear identification as an angel and the function he performs seem to mark him as an angel (cf. Revelation 14:8). [Note: Düsterdieck, p. 442; Beckwith, p. 712.] Evidently his task required great authority. [Note: Wilcock, p. 166.] His great glory, with which he illuminated the earth, probably suggests that he had just come from God’s presence (cf. Exodus 34:29-35; Ezekiel 43:2).

2. The repetition of the word "Fallen" (cf. Revelation 14:8; Isaiah 21:9; Jeremiah 51:8) probably indicates that God guaranteed this judgment and that it will happen quickly (Genesis 41:32; cf. 2 Peter 3:8). This is another proleptic announcement in which the angel described a future action as already having happened. The prophetic aorist tense of the Greek verb makes this clear.

"It is the prophetic way of declaring that the great purpose of God in triumphing over evil is a fait accompli." [Note: Mounce, p. 323.]

The description of Babylon in this verse is what it will be after God judges it (cf. Isaiah 13:21; Isaiah 34:11; Isaiah 34:14; Isaiah 47:7-9; Jeremiah 50-51; Ezekiel 26-28; Nahum 3; Zephaniah 2:15). Ancient Babylon fell to Cyrus the Persian in 539 B.C., but that fall did not fulfill Old Testament prophecies about Babylon completely (cf. Isaiah 47:11; Jeremiah 51:8). [Note: Kiddle, pp. 359-60; Wilcock, p. 168; Bullinger, p. 553.] John had described God only through hymns of worship to this point, and he now similarly described the fall of Babylon through the laments of onlookers. [Note: Caird, p. 227; Sweet, p. 267; Mounce, p. 323.]

"The prophecy thus indicates that before the advent of the warrior-king in Revelation 19:11-16, Babylon will rise to its greatest heights, not only of idolatry (chap. 17), but also of luxury (chap. 18). . . . Babylon of the future, therefore, will be the center for both false religion and world economic prosperity." [Note: Thomas, Revelation 8-22, p. 317.]

3, This verse is very similar to Revelation 17:2. However it seems that in view of the description God gave of Babylon in the rest of chapter 18 it is not exactly the same Babylon pictured in chapter 17. The political, economic, commercial system that originated in Babylon and that leaves God out seems to be in view here. Her philosophy has influenced all the nations that have acted immorally as a result and grown rich at the expense of and in defiance of others. Babylon’s influence has been worldwide. Political self-interest and materialism are its chief sins (cf. Revelation 18:23). [Note: Wall, p. 213.]

4. Another voice from heaven instructed God’s people to separate from the system that the city symbolizes so they would avoid getting caught in her judgment. The being speaking is evidently an angel who speaks for God (Revelation 18:4-5; cf. Revelation 11:3; Revelation 22:7-8). He called God’s people to leave a city (cf. Genesis 12:1; Genesis 19:12; Exodus 8:1; Numbers 16:26; Isaiah 48:20; Isaiah 52:11; Jeremiah 50:8; Jeremiah 51:6-9; Jeremiah 51:45), but beyond that to forsake the enticements of the idolatry, self-sufficiency, love of luxury, and violence that the city symbolizes. The people addressed are faithful believers living in the Tribulation. Unless they separate from her sins, they will be hurt by the judgment coming on her, but if they do separate, they will enjoy protection (cf. Revelation 12:14; Matthew 24:16). They should not have the attitude of Lot’s wife who hankered after another worldly city that God destroyed (cf. Genesis 19:26; Luke 17:32).

This section contains a call for believers to leave Babylon, laments over Babylon’s destruction by those afflicted by it, and rejoicing in heaven over Babylon’s fall.

5. Another reason for abandoning Babylon and Babylonianism is that God is about to judge her. Her sins, like the bricks used to build the tower of Babel (Genesis 11:3-4), have accumulated so they finally reach heaven. She has exhausted God’s patience (cf. Jeremiah 51:9). God has noticed and remembered her sins, and because He is righteous, He must judge them.

"This is not a prayer for personal vengeance by the persecuted saints, but a heavenly interpretation of the divine response to cruelty committed by wicked persons who have passed the point of no return in their moral choices. The last hour has now struck, and it is too late for repentance. This is a judicial pronouncement against a sinful civilization that has reached the ultimate limit of evil." 7

Luxurious living provides another reason for Babylon’s judgment. Her claims of superiority and self-sufficiency echo those of ancient Babylon (cf. Isaiah 47:7-9; Ezekiel 27:3; Ezekiel 28:2; Zephaniah 2:15). They also recall the words of the Laodicean church (Revelation 3:17).

8. The "one day" may very well be literal (cf. Daniel 5:1; Daniel 5:3-5; Daniel 5:30). "One day" also expresses suddenness, as does the "one hour" in Revelation 18:10; Revelation 18:16; Revelation 18:19 (cf. Isaiah 47:9). Likewise we could interpret the burning literally (cf. Isaiah 47:14). Rebuilt Babylon and the cities that are the centers for this worldwide network of political, commercial activity will evidently burn up in the great earthquake (Revelation 16:18-19). She will collapse suddenly, like the World Trade Center towers in New York City in 2001, not decline gradually. The strength of the Lord God will accomplish this destruction, but He will use means (Revelation 17:16-17).

9. World government leaders will mourn when they see the collapse of the system that has sustained them and enabled them to live luxuriously. Committing fornication with her is a way of expressing sharing in Babylon’s luxury (cf. Ezekiel 26:16; Ezekiel 27:30-35). [Note: Johnson, p. 567.] Evidently fire will be the main cause of the city’s destruction (cf. Revelation 18:8; Revelation 18:18; Revelation 14:11; Revelation 17:16; Revelation 19:3). The smoke of her burning, the evidence of her fall, is what caused these rulers misery (cf. Genesis 19:28; Isaiah 34:10; Ezekiel 28:18).

10. Babylon will fall quickly, in "one hour" (Revelation 18:10, cf. Revelation 18:19; Jeremiah 51:8; Ezekiel 27). These kings mourn because they have lost their power suddenly. These rulers must be different from the 10 kings who destroy the city (Revelation 17:16). These woes are an exclamation of sorrow; the earlier ones in the book are announcements of doom (Revelation 8:13; Revelation 12:12). [Note: Lee, 4:770; Robertson, 6:440.] Doubling the woes increases the perception of the strength of the sorrow (cf. Revelation 18:6). This city was strong, but its Judge is stronger.

11. The merchants also lament over the destruction of this system, further indicating that this is a different system than the religious one symbolized in chapter 17. The collapse of economic Babylon results in merchants being unable to buy and sell goods. They sorrow over the loss of customers and profits that its destruction causes. However the city itself is a treasure that they also regret losing (cf. Ezekiel 27:25-31). [Note: Beasley-Murray, p. 267; Wall, p. 216.] The wailing of the merchants is greater than that of the kings and sea people in this context because their loss is greater. They bemoan the loss of customers, but they previously denied the right to buy and sell to anyone who did not have the mark of the beast (Revelation 13:17).

12-13. The variety of the goods John listed suggests how extensive trade will be at this time in history. The market is the world. Most of the items listed were luxuries in John’s day (cf. Isaiah 23; Ezekiel 16:9-13; Ezekiel 27:12-24). There are seven categories into which these 29 items fall. These categories are precious metals and gems, clothing, furnishings, spices, food, animals and implements, and people. People are even buying and selling other human beings.

"Persons are ’bought and sold’ (and even traded!) by athletic teams; and our great corporations more and more seek to control the lives of their officers and workers. As people become more enslaved to luxury, with more bills to pay, they find themselves unable to break loose from the ’system.’" [Note: Wiersbe, 2:615.]

14. The fruit (Gr. opora, lit. ripe autumn fruit) these merchants so desire is no longer available (cf. Jeremiah 40:10; Jeremiah 40:12; Judges 1:12). "Luxurious" and "splendid" refer to food and clothing respectively. [Note: Swete, p. 235; Charles, 2:108.] The merchants will also lose their luxurious possessions. People will not be able to find the treasures they once collected. The Greek construction of the last clause indicates that these things will never ever return. [Note: Robertson, 6:442.] There are two double negatives in the Greek text.

15. Again the merchants bewail their fate. Selfishness and greed characterize these individuals. They too, like the kings, stand at a distance viewing the destruction of the city (cf. Revelation 18:10; Revelation 18:17).

16. The description of the city here is very similar to that of the harlot in Revelation 17:4. One city is in view in both chapters. This dirge begins and ends the same way as that of the kings in Revelation 18:10 did. However the merchants bewail the city’s lost opulence and splendor whereas the kings grieved over its broken strength (cf. Ezekiel 16:23; Ezekiel 28:13).

17. The first clause of this verse concludes the mourning of the merchants. It expresses the reason for their sorrow. The second part of this verse begins the description of the mourning of sea people. The four groups of sea people represent helmsmen (Gr. kubrnetes), passengers (pas ho epi topon pleon), sailors (nautai), and those who work the sea (ten thalassan ergazontai) such as fishermen and divers for pearls. [Note: Thomas, Revelation 8-22, p. 339.] These too stand at a distance watching the city burn. Perhaps these sea people are of special interest because they represent distributors of goods.

18. They also lament because of the collapse of this great commercial empire. Their question echoes the one about Tyre in Ezekiel 27:32. [Note: Lee, 4:774; Wall, p. 217.] The implied answer is that no city can match Babylon in its material greatness.

"How do we see the luxury of this world? Do we see it as it really is? Can we use it without getting it into our hearts? How would you feel if the luxuries in your life which you have come to consider necessities suddenly went up in smoke?"

"Would it break your heart if you saw the things of this world go up in smoke? Or is your heart in heaven, fixed on Christ?" [Note: McGee, 5:1041.]

In contrast to the earth-dwellers, God’s people will rejoice when Babylon falls (cf. Revelation 11:10). The songs in Revelation 19:1-5 may be their response to this invitation. Heaven rejoiced over the fall of ancient Babylon too (Jeremiah 51:48-49). [Note: Hughes, p. 194.] What causes bitter mourning on earth brings great exultation to heaven.

The speaker is evidently the angel (Revelation 18:4; cf. Revelation 12:12). Saints are all believers. Apostles, who died as martyrs, and prophets are special groups of saints (cf. Revelation 11:18). The similar exhortation in Revelation 12:12 suggests that all these believers are now in heaven. The reason for this merry-making is that God has pronounced a verdict in their favor. He has vindicated them by punishing their oppressors (cf. Revelation 19:2-3). This seems more likely than the interpretation that they should rejoice because God was punishing their enemies in kind.

Believers characteristically have greater interest in glorifying God and helping other people than they do in hoarding earthly treasures for themselves (Matthew 6:19-34; Matthew 22:34-40). The desire of unbelievers to accumulate wealth for themselves has resulted in untold opposition to the gospel and God’s servants throughout history (cf. Revelation 6:9-11).

21. The angelic act of throwing the millstone into the sea is symbolic of Babylon’s fate (cf. Jeremiah 51:63-64; Matthew 18:6). As it is impossible for that huge stone to rise to the surface, so the economic system that has driven this world virtually throughout its history will sink. It will never rise again (cf. Exodus 15:5; Nehemiah 9:11). Millstones in John’s day often measured four or five feet in diameter, were one foot thick, and weighed thousands of pounds (cf. Mark 9:42). [Note: Johnson, p. 568.] The strong angel (cf. Revelation 5:2; Revelation 10:1) also explained his symbolic action. Babylon’s destruction will be sudden, violent, and permanent.

22-23. Many things will end with the destruction of this system. John mentioned the rejoicing of unbelievers, the work of producers of goods, the use of their tools, the light their activities produced (literally and figuratively), and the happiness that resulted. No music, trades, or industry will continue (cf. Jeremiah 25:10). Where there had previously been hustle and bustle, there will then be silence.

The angel gave three reasons for this devastation, two in Revelation 18:23 and one in Revelation 18:24. The Greek word hoti, "because," appears twice in Revelation 18:23. Each time it introduces a reason. First, men whom the world regards as great have enriched themselves and lifted themselves up in pride because of Babylon’s influence (cf. Isaiah 23:8). Second, as a result of the first reason Babylon has seduced all nations. She deceived all the nations into thinking that joy, security, honor, and meaning in life (i.e., "success") come through the accumulation of material wealth. She used sorcery (cf. Revelation 9:21) to seduce the nations into following her (cf. 2 Kings 9:22; Isaiah 47:9; Isaiah 47:12; Nahum 3:4).

24. The third reason for Babylon’s judgment is that she slew the saints (cf. Jeremiah 51:35-36; Jeremiah 51:49). The angel stated this reason as a fact rather than as an accusation. The responsibility for the blood of God’s servants martyred for their testimonies lies at the feet of this system. The murder of prophets is especially serious since they bore the word of God, but killing any saint is bad enough. Unbelievers have killed many believers, directly and indirectly, in their pursuit of material possessions. This verse could hardly apply only to the city of Babylon, though it includes that city. Through her example Babylon has been responsible for all the slayings on the earth (perhaps hyperbole), so guilt rests on her shoulders.

"Blood violently shed cries out for vengeance until it is rewarded by the punishment of the murderers. The destruction of Babylon answers to that punishment." [Note: Thomas, Revelation 8-22, p. 347. Cf. Genesis 4:10.]

To summarize, it seems that the Babylon John described in this chapter is the commercial system of buying and selling goods to make a profit. As religious Babylon includes all forms of religion (non-Christian as well as Christian religions), so economic Babylon includes all types of economies (capitalism, socialism, communism, etc.). This economic system will have its headquarters (at least ideologically if not also geographically) in Babylon on the Euphrates River during the Tribulation, and it will burn up. Self-interest is at the root of this system. Whereas believers have always lived within this system, we have always known that we must not adopt the philosophy that drives it, namely, selfishness. Possession of wealth is not the problem so much as the arrogant use of it. [Note: Sweet, p. 264.] This system has become so much a part of life that it is hard for us to imagine life without it. Nonetheless this chapter teaches that it will end just before or when Jesus Christ returns at His second coming, and it will exist no longer. This system began when people first assembled to make a name for themselves at Babel (Genesis 11:1-9). As Christians, we need to make sure that we are not citizens of this Babylon, by laying up treasure on earth, but truly citizens of heaven, by laying up treasure there (cf. Matthew 6:19-21). This chapter should challenge us to evaluate our financial goals and to repudiate selfish, arrogant living.

"The destruction of the city of Babylon is the final blow to the times of the Gentiles, which began when the Babylonian army attacked Jerusalem in 605 B.C. (cf. Luke 21:24)." [Note: Walvoord, "Revelation," p. 973.]

Following this revelation concerning the destruction of the major religious and commercial systems of the world, God moved John along in his vision. He proceeded from the Great Tribulation (chs. 8-18) to the Second Coming of Jesus Christ (ch. 19), the climax of this book.

Thomas Constable on Daniel 11:36ff

In the revelation given to Daniel about the 70 sevens (Daniel 9:24-27), we observed that what Gabriel told the prophet in Daniel 11:24-26 has already happened. Those verses described what would happen in the first 69 sevens. Daniel 11:27 predicts things that have not happened yet. It reveals what will happen in the seventieth seven. There is a similar break between Daniel 11:35-36 of chapter 11. What was predicted in Daniel 11:2-35 has happened. What follows in this chapter has not happened. [Note: See Andrew E. Steinmann, "Is the Antichrist in Daniel 11?" Bibliotheca Sacra 162:646 (April-June 2005):195-209.] Young also believed that the preceding verses describe Antiochus Epiphanes, but with Daniel 11:36, Antichrist becomes the subject. [Note: Young, pp. 246-249.] Even liberal scholars, who believe that a second-century writer wrote the book as history rather than as prophecy, admit that all of what follows has had no literal fulfillment in the past. [Note: E.g., Montgomery, p. 465.] A few scholars, liberal and conservative, believe that Antiochus Epiphanes fulfilled some of these predictions, especially those in Daniel 11:36-39. [Note: E.g., ibid., p. 461; R. Jamieson, A. R. Fausset, and D. Brown, Commentary Practical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, pp. 762-63; Goldingay, p. 304; Baldwin, p. 197; and Chisholm, p. 326.] However, I am not aware of anyone who believes that he fulfilled them all literally.

"No commentator claims to find precise fulfillment in the remainder of this chapter." [Note: Walvoord, Daniel . . ., p. 270.]

In view of later revelation, in the Olivet Discourse and in the Book of Revelation particularly, what the angel told Daniel in these verses must refer to the last one of Daniel’s seventy weeks. This is the last seven-year period before Jesus Christ returns to the earth to establish His kingdom. Jesus called the end of it a time of great tribulation (Matthew 24:21), and Daniel’s angel called it the worst period of distress that the Jews have ever seen (Daniel 12:1; cf. Jeremiah 30:7). Therefore it seems reasonable to conclude that what follows will occur in that seven-year period, the Tribulation. [Note: Culver, "Daniel," p. 797, gave seven reasons for believing that the prophecy shifts from Antiochus to Antichrist at Daniel 11:36.]

36. "Then" signals a leap in time to the distant future, as the context indicates.

36-39. This verse gives more information about the ruler’s religious convictions. The phrase "the God of his fathers" is similar to one that occurs elsewhere in Scripture describing the God of the Jews (cf. Daniel 2:23; Exodus 3:15-16; Exodus 4:5; et al.). This has led some interpreters to conclude that this king will be a Jew. [Note: E.g., J. N. Darby, Studies in the Book of Daniel, pp. 107-14; Gaebelein, pp. 180-95; Young, p. 249; Ironside, p. 218; and Culver, "Daniel," p. 797.] However, the phrase does not require this interpretation. The name "God" is "Elohim," the general word for God, rather than the covenant name "Yahweh," that God often used when stressing His relationship to His chosen people. This word can have a plural translation (gods) or a singular one (God). Moreover, in the light of other revelation about this man, he seems to be a Roman (Daniel 7:8; Daniel 7:24; Revelation 13:1-10). Of course, he could be a Jewish Roman, but the description of him in this verse does not identify him clearly as a Jew. Probably the angel meant that this king will abandon the religion of his past (or ancestry), whatever that religion may have been. He will do this because he will set himself up as the object of worship in place of all gods.

The identity of "the desire of women" is also problematic. It may be a reference to the Messiah. [Note: Pentecost, "Daniel," p. 1371; Gaebelein, p. 188; Walvoord, Daniel . . ., p. 274; Feinberg, p. 175; Ironside, p. 221; Wiersbe, p. 304.] Supposedly the supreme desire of every godly Jewish woman in Daniel’s day was that she bear the Messiah. Another view is that the reference is to Tammuz (Gr. Adonis), a pagan goddess in Daniel’s day that women found very attractive. [Note: Montgomery, pp. 461-62; A. A. Bevan, A Short Commentary on the Book of Daniel, pp. 196-97.] Others believe that the meaning is that this king will have no desire for women. Some even speculate that he will be abusive toward women. In other words, he will be devoid of natural affection. [Note: Keil, pp. 464-65; Young, 249; Archer, "Daniel," p. 144; Whitcomb, p. 155. Cf. Leupold, pp. 515-16.] I tend to favor this third view.

38. What this king will really trust in is a "god" who he believes can give him military success. Evidently this is not a god in the religious sense. He will probably idolize power. His forefathers typically acknowledged some supreme being or some pagan god or gods. He will honor his "god" by spending money to build his military arsenal. In other words, he will be a materialist. Feinberg and Ironside believed the god in view is the Roman beast (the political leader), whom they distinguished from the Antichrist. [Note: Feinberg, pp. 175-76; Ironside, pp. 221-22.] They identified the Antichrist with the religious leader in Jerusalem. This is a minority view among premillennialists.

39. The foreign god referred to in this verse may be the god of military might mentioned in Daniel 11:38. Alternatively, it may be some other foreign god that he uses for his own ends, or it may even be himself. As Antiochus before him, this ruler will reward those who are loyal to him, and support them by bestowing honors and positions of authority on them. Perhaps he will also take bribes, as Antiochus did, and give land to those who pay him off. Another possibility is that he will reward with lands those who are faithful to him.

40. Finally the very end time of the seventieth week will arrive (cf. Daniel 11:27; Daniel 11:35; Daniel 12:4; Daniel 12:9). Then this king will be the focus of attack by the king of the South (cf. Daniel 11:42-43), a power south of Palestine, and the king of the North, a force to its north. Evidently these two rulers will attack him simultaneously. Apparently this king is neither the king of the South nor the king of the North himself. In view of Daniel 9:26, he will probably be a western ruler, the little horn arising out of the Roman Empire (i.e., Antichrist; Daniel 7:8; Daniel 7:24). [Note: Walvoord, Daniel . . ., p. 279; Pentecost, "Daniel," p. 1372; and Leupold, p. 521.] Other interpreters believe the king of the North is the Antichrist. [Note: Archer, "Daniel," p. 148; and Young, p. 251.] Still others hold that this king was not the Antichrist but only a minor ruler. [Note: E.g., Ironside, pp. 222-23.]

The conflict will be great, but he, apparently the ruler described in Daniel 11:36-39 (i.e., Antichrist), will invade many countries, overwhelm them, and pass on to conquer others. The Nazis were able to do this early in World War II.

"Presumably the warfare will be carried on by armored vehicles and missiles such as are used in modern warfare-though in order to communicate with Daniel’s generation, ancient equivalents of these are used here. Likewise, the ancient names of the countries or states occupying the region where the final conflict will be carried on are used in the prediction, though most of those political units will no longer bear these names in the last days." [Note: Archer, "Daniel," p. 147.]

Ezekiel described a great military force descending on Israel from the far north in the future (Ezekiel 38-39; Ezekiel 38:15). Ezekiel did not mention a power from the South. Part of the fulfillment of Ezekiel’s prophecy is probably the same invasion Daniel recorded here. I believe part of what Ezekiel prophesied to take place in his description of the battle of Gog and Magog will find fulfillment at the end of the Tribulation and part of it at the end of the Millennium. This aspect of the fulfillment will probably occur in the second half of the Tribulation, when Israel is suffering intense persecution. One writer argued that this king of the North will be a ruler from the area that Assyria formerly occupied, not someone from farther north in the area of Russia. I believe "Gog" is a code name (meaning "Dark") describing two similar invaders who will descend on Israel at two different times: at the end of the Tribulation and at the end of the Millennium. The first of these invaders is called the King of the North here. [Note: Carl Armerding, "Russia and the King of the North," Bibliotheca Sacra 120:477 (January-March 1963):50-55.]

41. The Antichrist will also enter Palestine (cf. Daniel 8:9), and many there will fall before his forces. He will also defeat other countries in addition to Israel. He will probably enter Palestine after he breaks his covenant with Israel, which would confirm that these events will happen in the last half of the Tribulation. There will be a few areas that he does not overpower, however, namely those in the former territories of Edom, Moab, and Ammon. These nations were to the east and south of Israel. Today Jordan occupies this region. The "foremost" of the sons of Ammon probably refers to the best part. [Note: Baldwin, p. 203.] Young believed the names of these nations are symbolic, but he confessed ignorance concerning the meaning of the symbols. [Note: Young, p. 253.]

42-43. This ruler will then press his attack and invade other countries, particularly Egypt. It will fall to his control. He will plunder the treasures of Egypt and will bring those living in the ancient territories of Libya and Ethiopia under his control. Libya lay to the west of Egypt and Ethiopia to its south.

44-45. Rumors of enemy armies from the East (cf. Revelation 9:13-21; Revelation 16:12) and from the North (cf. Daniel 11:40) will irritate him, resulting in his killing "many" more people (cf. Zechariah 13:8). Compare the invasion sequence by Sennacherib (Isaiah 37:7-8). He will also return to Palestine. His headquarters there will evidently be in Jerusalem. This city stands between the Mediterranean and Dead Seas. The NIV translation "at the beautiful holy mountain" confirms this location, since Jerusalem stands on Mt. Moriah. It is evidently there that he will meet his match and suffer defeat. Later revelation says that Jesus Christ will return from heaven and destroy him (Revelation 19:19-20; cf. Zechariah 14:1-4).

One writer summarized the revelation about Antichrist in Daniel 11:36-45 as follows. He will act in self-will (Daniel 11:36), will exalt himself (Daniel 11:36), and will magnify himself above every god (Daniel 11:36). He will blaspheme the true God (Daniel 11:36), will succeed for a limited period of time (Daniel 11:36), and will be an irreligious person (Daniel 11:37). He will also place confidence in military might (Daniel 11:38-39), his military might will be challenged (Daniel 11:40), and he will be initially victorious in battle (Daniel 11:40-43). However, he will face renewed conflict (Daniel 11:44), will establish his headquarters in Jerusalem (Daniel 11:45), and will finally come to an end (Daniel 11:45). [Note: Campbell, pp. 132-34.]

John MacArthur on Daniel 11:36ff

...Now as we approach verse 36, we leap across centuries to the final king, Antichrist, and we meet him in verses 36-45. We’ve seen the Persian era, the Greek era, and now we see the final form of the Roman era, the final chapter of the chastening of the people of Israel. And this amazing figure will be all the evil power of Ahasuerus, Alexander, Antiochus the Great, Antiochus Epiphanes combined and more. He is the counterfeit Christ who makes artwork treaty or a covenant or a pact with Israel. He promises to protect. He aligns Israel with the west. And then in the middle of the seven-year tribulation, he breaks that pact. He desecrates their temple. He desecrates their religion. He blasphemes their god and precipitates the holocaust of Armageddon, which is ended in the return of Jesus Christ.

Now beginning in verse 36, there’s a sharp break. It is introduced to us at the end of verse 35. “Even to the time of the end,” that’s the key phrase. This is gonna go on to the time of the end. Up to this point, the prophecy has dealt with history past. Now we come to a different scene, history future, the time of the end. Now some Bible commentators, and you who get into the depth of these things will be interested in this, but some Bible commentators want to apply this to some historical point. They want to apply the rest of the chapter to Antiochus Epiphanes or some other personality; primarily Antiochus Epiphanes is selected. But they don’t want to allow for prophesy in the future so they want to tie it all to some past event, but that just doesn’t work very well. Let me suggest several reasons. First of all, in verse 35, the time of the end is an eschatological term; it deals with last things. In verse 40, it begins, “And at the time of the end.” And both of those uses indicate a future last days’ point.

Secondly, the scope of the prophesy is beyond just the Persian and Greek area. The angels said this in chapter 10, verse 14: “Now I am come to make you understand what shall befall your people in the latter days.” So from the very beginning, the prophesy was said to stretch much further than just Persian-Greek times. Further, we can follow with minute absolutely-accurate detail all of the prophesy up to verse 35. But after that, we have no historical data that can at all relate to what happens from verse 36-45, certainly not in the life of Antiochus Epiphanes.

Notice also in verse 36. It says near the end of the verse, “All of this is going to prosper ‘til the indignation be accomplished.” Now the indignation which is to be fully accomplished simply means the final outpouring of God's wrath, and that demands the last days. In fact, the indignation is almost a synonymous term with the tribulation. Further, the description of the ruler in this passage absolutely detail by detail parallels other Scripture accounts of Antichrist. Also, chapter 12, verse 1 tells us that at the time shall Michael stand up and there will be a time of trouble such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time. In other words, there is coming a time that will be worse than any other time in the history of man. In verse 2, “It’ll be followed by the representation.” Now that has to be the last time.

Furthermore, the last three revelations in the book of Daniel have closed with a word about the Antichrist; it is fitting that this one follow that same pattern. I just wanted you to know that there are reasons why we interpret this in relation to the Antichrist. And so we sweep across thousands of years of history to the final world ruler. Three things to see about him tonight: His character, his conflict, his condemnation. If you’ve read this, you may have been confused by it, but it really isn’t that difficult. Let’s flow through and see what it says.

First his character, what will he be like. And we’ve seen this several times in Daniel, and Daniel builds upon the past. “The king,” just calls him the king, “shall do according to his will. And he shall exalt himself and magnify himself above every God and shall speak marvelous things against the god of gods and shall prosper ‘til the indignation be accomplished, for that which is determined shall be done.” Now most Bible students have called him in this verse the willful king, the king who shall do according to his will. This particular figure comes under several titles in the Bible. In Daniel 7, he is called the little horn. In Daniel 8, he is called the king of fierce countenance, which has to do with his face, old fierce face. In chapter 9, he is called the prince that shall come. In 2 Thessalonians 2, he is called the man of sin and the son of perdition, which is a Hebraism meaning he is doomed to destruction. In Revelation 13, he is called the Beast.

Now all of these have reference to the same personality, and here he is called the king who does according to his will, or the willful king. Now the angel gives us several facts that indicate his character. First of all, his character is marked by prerogative, prerogative. In other words, he exercises the ultimate prerogative. He makes all decisions. He does according to his will. He is an absolute sovereign; he is an absolute dictator. He will rule alone. He will rule with utter selfishness, utter self-will. He will rule in a self-centered and self-energized approach, and behind the scenes moving it all along is Satan himself. One writer said he will come to the world with the baptism of hell. He will have full demon cooperation. He will establish an absolute world monarchy, and his credentials for pulling it off will be his ability to do signs and wonders and powerful miracles to deceive people. He literally rules the world, and in his ruling the world becomes the protector of Israel, because everybody wants Israel: Russia, the east, the Arab world, apparently even the south, a coalition of Africa. And the west becomes its protector.

It is true that there are other rulers. Revelation 17 says there are ten kings, but they are puppet kings under this one. Revelation 13 says he has a cohort called the false prophet, but the false prophet just simply does his bidding. You say to yourself, “Well what about the kings of the south that attack him? What about the king of the north that attacks him? What about the king of the east that attacks him?” Oh yes, there will be a fomenting revolution against his sovereignty, but that’s only after his sovereignty is established. So he has prerogative; he makes all the decisions. He rules the world. Every man on the globe, in order to function in human society according to Revelation 13, will have to take his mark, the mark of the Beast.

Secondly, he’s characterized not only by prerogative but by pride. He shall exalt himself and magnify himself above every god. Now Antiochus Epiphanes was proud; he was an egomaniac. But he never magnified himself above every god. In fact, he very religiously worshiped the gods of the Greeks, and he even tried to force the Jews to do the same. But the Antichrist will be an absolutely atheistic, irreligious, setting himself above every god. Paul makes this same point, in 2 Thessalonians 2 he says, “He will oppose and exalt himself above all that is called god or that is worshiped so that he is god, sits in the temple of god, showing himself that he is god.” Now there are egotists and there are egotists, but the guy who sits in the temple telling himself he’s God is the egotist of all egotists. And by the way, you notice it says, “He shall exalt himself and magnify himself above every god.” Paul says, “He opposes all gods and all forms of worship.” And Paul uses a participle. He is the opposer, or he is the adversary. The very name of Satan is ascribed to him, and that links him with the one behind him. He is the exalter of himself. Again, in 2 Thessalonians, Paul uses a participle. He is the one who exalts himself, and that same verb is used twice in 2 Corinthians 12 where it says, “Exalted above measure.” He exalts himself and he opposes all other form of religion, all that is called god. All that is worshiped, all deities, all shrines, all images, all altars, everything takes a second place to him. Oh, for a while the Bible tells us he’ll tolerate religion, and then all of a sudden, he’ll just consume it all. He devours, doesn’t he, the false church in Revelation 17 when the Bible says, “He consumes the whore, the harlot, the false church.” He lets Israel exist in their temple, and then all of a sudden in the middle of the tribulation he devastates the place, commits the abomination of desolation all over again, and desecrates the temple and the holy people and starts to slaughter them. And before he’s done, two out of every three Jews will die. So he gets to the place where he then sets himself up as the god of gods right in the temple and speaks great things.

And that leads us to the third thing. He is not only proud, he is profane. It says, “He shall speak astonishing things against the God of gods.” He is a blasphemer without equal, and in Revelation chapter 13 we find the same thing, he will blaspheme in ways that are without precedent. I’m thinking of a couple of verses there; I think it’s verses 5 and 6. “There was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies, and he opened his mouth to blaspheme against God, to blaspheme his name and his tabernacle and them that dwell in heaven.” He is the very mouth of hell. He opens his mouth and hell talks. He is profane. He even tries to change God's moral laws, Daniel 7:25 says. He even tries to change the standards that God has set.

And by the way, when it says he shall speak marvelous or astonishing things, that is a very interesting Hebrew participle that means he will speak things that are unbelievable. In other words, there is a uniqueness. He will be more blasphemous than anyone else. His blasphemy will be unique to himself he will go so far. He will blaspheme God in a degree of insolence and a degree of self-exaltation beyond what anybody’s ever done.

Suppose we could ask the question at this point, “Why does God let him do it? Why does God tolerate it?” And the answer is because it is part of the purging process of purifying God's people Israel. And by the way, God only lets it go for a short time. It says in Revelation 13 only for 42 months can he really carry this off, only for three-and-a-half years, just half of the tribulation. And it says it in verse 36 too, he’ll do it but he’ll prosper only until the indignation be accomplished, just until the final unfolding of the wrath of God is finished. God puts a time limit. And the reason again I say that God allows this and permits such oppression of the Jews is that it is this, people, listen to me, it is this ultimate, incredible, blasphemy and oppression of the Antichrist that finally brings Israel to the proper attitude where they will recognize Jesus Christ as their Messiah and turn to him. And the Bible shows us that nothing short of this will do that.

Verse 37, not only does he exercise prerogative, pride, profanity, but verse 37 tells us he’s perverted. He is perverted. And the angel shows us three things which normally men hold dear, which are just normal natural responses to human behavior, but not him. He is perverted in the very basics of human behavior. First of all, he does not regard the gods, that should be plural, the gods of his fathers. And the reason we know it’s plural gods is because the singular is used twice in the next few words. And so in using the plural he is referring as opposed to one god to many gods. He doesn’t even regard the traditional religion, the traditional worship of his fathers. Now watch this: He has no proper perspective of family. Remember when Paul said, “In the last days men will not have natural affection,” and he uses the Greek term which has to do with family love. In other words, in the last days the family will break down; the family will fall apart. People will no longer care about their families. They’ll have no respect for their parents, no respect for their heritage, no respect for the traditions of their fathers, no respect for the beliefs that have been handed down. That’s this kind of man. He has no respect at all, no natural affection, no family love for those who are his ancestors. Men normally have an affinity for and a respect for the gods of their parents, their ancestors, some sense of respect. Not him. He doesn’t have normal family love.

Secondly. This is very interesting. Neither does he regard the desire of women. Now this is a very difficult one to interpret. It could mean that he’s a homosexual; that could be very possibly the meaning. He has no normal desire for women. He has no capacity to love a woman. He has no interest in loving a woman. Some people think it means that he has none of the gentleness, none of the graciousness, nor does he appreciate any of it that women bring to society and give to their children. Some other commentators have felt that it means that he doesn’t care for the Messiah, that the desire of women is kind of a title that the Jewish mothers used to speak of Messiah. In other words, the ultimate desire of a Jewish woman would be to give birth to the Messiah. But I really believe that interpretation is foreign to the context here. Why should we introduce into this some Jewish element? We cannot distinguish Antichrist because he has no desire for the Messiah. A lot of people don’t have that. I think what it’s saying is he has no capacity for normal affection for a family. He has no capacity for normal affection for a wife, a mother, a sister. He’s perverted.

And thirdly, he doesn’t regard any god. You don’t have to travel very far around this world to find out that most people believe in god, some kind of god. You just watch them when they get into trouble and see if they don’t. all across the globe men invent religion. Everywhere, because they believe in the supernatural. This man does not. He is utterly irreligious. That’s a perversion of normal human response. He has no family love. He has no love for women. He has no love for god of any kind. He is perverted. Now let me tell you something, the world is ready for that kind of leader. The world is ready for that kind of leader. It wouldn’t bother anybody today that a man didn’t have a normal relationship to a family; 50 years ago they wouldn’t have looked at him. It wouldn’t bother anybody today if the man happened to be perverted in his sexual life. I read a textbook that’s used in the Glendale Public School System to teach sex education. They present homosexuality as an alternative; everybody’s different. We all have different noses, different kind of ears. Everybody likes different kind of flavors of ice cream. Everybody’s different. The world’s ready for that kind of thing. And God isn’t important in our society. We’d take an atheist, someone who didn’t believe, especially if he pretended to be religious. We’re ready for this.

So he’s characterized by prerogative, pride, profanity, and perversion. Fifth, by power. He will have power. He will magnify himself above everything, the end of verse 37. How can he do this? How can he pull it off? Verse 38: “But in his estate,” or literally Hebrew, “in its place.” What’s place? Normal human desires for family and women and God. In its place, he will honor the god of fortresses. That Hebrew word is used six times in this chapter: Verse 1, verse 7, verse 10, verse 19, verse 31, and verse 39. And every time it means a strong place, a fort, a strong place. And it has to do with military power. In place of normal affection, he will place a perverted worship of military power. He’ll worship power.

Chapter 7, verse 23 of Daniel, it says that when he comes he will devour the whole earth, this is the fourth and final form of the Roman Empire, “devour the whole earth, tread it down and break it in pieces.” Boy, he is gonna have power. That’s why he can magnify himself above all, because he’s gonna have military power. Unquestionably, he’ll have the intimidation of nuclear weapons and whatever else may be in vogue at that time, German warfare or whatever. He will honor the god of forces. “Even a god whom his fathers knew not shall he honor with gold and silver and precious stones and desirable items.” In other words, everything that was valuable his fathers would give to their deities. Everything that was valuable they would lay at the feet of their gods. They would give their gold, their silver, their precious stones, their desirable things, precious items to their gods. But he takes all of the silver, all of his gold, all of the precious stones, all of the desirable things to build a war machine. A god whom his fathers knew not shall he honor, and it is the god of fortresses. And war is expensive, isn’t it? It may be that he captures the riches of the world to buy his war machine.

Verse 39: “Thus shall he do in the strongest fortresses with a foreign god,” and the foreign god is the god of war, the war machine. “He’ll attach the strongest fortresses whom he will acknowledge and increase with glory and cause him to rule over many and divide the land for gain.” This is very interesting. Let me read you the literal translation: “Those who recognize him he will highly honor and cause them to rule over many, allotting land as a reward.” He’s gonna take the earth, and then in order to make sure he gets to hold onto it, everybody who honors him he’ll apportion out a large portion of the land. He’ll divide his spoil. He’ll give two things: Positions of leadership and possessions of land. He’ll cause them to rule, verse 39, and divide the land for their reward.

So what he does is obligate those that he conquers to himself and thus sustains their loyalty. This is the one who’s gonna rule the world, and he’s gonna apportion it out and it’s gonna look so good, you cooperate with me and I’ll give you the rule of your land, I’ll give you some independence, I’ll give you the territory. And he’ll be sitting on top of the whole pile. Boy, it’s amazing when you think about where communism is trying to take us today, to the place where it utterly and totally controls the whole world. And if you think communism is a system of sharing, you’re wrong. Communism is the ultimate dictatorship. So we see his character.

Secondly, his conflict. Verse 40, he’s doing all right. He’s sitting on the pile, ruling the whole show. Probably we’re in the first three-and-a-half years of the tribulation, although it’s hard to pinpoint all of these things in Daniel’s prophecy. And he’s having a great time, dominating the world. At this point, he lets the false church coexist. He allows Israel certain freedoms; he protects Israel. He’s got the world in his dominion. Verse 40, then the conflict begins. “And at the time of the end shall the king of the south push at him, and the king of the north shall come against him like a whirlwind with chariots and with horsemen and with many ships.” Stop there. You know what that is? That’s a revolution. Up ‘til now, everything’s been fine. But holding such a massive global empire together is an impossible task. Even hell can’t pull it off. Even hell won’t cooperate with itself, and the hellish system begins to disintegrate.

The Antichrist has come in peaceably. He has perhaps solved problems in the Middle East. He has become the protector of Israel. And then it all begins to fall apart. There’s an insurrection. The time of the end I believe would be during the tribulation. And as you move to the middle of the tribulation, it begins to happen. The king of the south and some African army, bigger than just Egypt but perhaps involving Egypt, a mass moves in. I hasten to add that little by little peace by peace bit by bit with a few exceptions Africa has been targeted for a total takeover, and they’re putting the pieces together. And certainly in the end time if they want that particular strategic location of Israel, they’re gonna get involved in the battle. So this great southern confederacy pushes, and the word push there is a word that means to push like a goat, or to attack.

Verse 40 then says, “And then king of the north shall come against him like a whirlwind.” Now here’s a great massive force from the north, and they’re more powerful than the south. Look at Ezekiel 38 and I’m just gonna give you this very quickly and we’re gonna wrap it up. But Ezekiel 38 and I think you’ll see this as fascinating how accurate God’s prophecy is. Ezekiel 38 tells us about the Russian army that comes, the king of the north. And it tells us several details. Verse 8, it says, “After many days thou shalt be visited.” – that is Israel – “In the latter years thou shalt come into the land.” Now when the king of the north comes down, Israel will already be in the land. Verse 11 says not only will you be in the land but it will be a land of unwalled villages, people who are at rest who dwell safely without walls or bars or gates. In other words, Israel will be in the land and it will be a time of peace. That’s the way it is in the first three-and-a-half years of the tribulation. The Antichrist becomes the protector. He makes a pact, Daniel 9 says that, for seven years. And he gives them initially peace. They don’t build any walls. They let their defenses down, they’re protected by this great world ruler. They’re in the land, the time of peace.

Verse 16 tells us that it’ll be, in the middle of the verse, “It will be in the latter days.” All right. In the latter days, when Israel’s in the land, in a time of peace, what’s gonna happen? Back to verse 2 of 38. “Set your face against Gog, the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshek and Tubal.” It names ancient locations. These are important. These are ancient names of people who lived in northern Mesopotamia and the region of the Caucasus mountains, which is modern Russia. There’s no question about the fact that this is the Russian area. Look at verse 6: “Gomer and all its hoards, the house of Togarmah of the north quarters.” Verse 15: “Thou shalt come from thy place out of the north parts.” Chapter 39, verse 2: “Will cause thee to come up from the north parts.” The Hebrew word here, get this one, is far north, not near north, far north; that distinction is made. Far north of Israel is only one thing, Russia. And when Russia comes, she won’t come alone. Verse 5: “Persia.” What country is Persia? Iran. “Cush,” which is the ancient name of Ethiopia, “Put,” which seems to be ancient Libya. And what it tells us is these are representatives of an Arab alliance. Some of the Arab nations are going to chafe under the power of the Antichrist in the western alliance. They’re gonna unite with Russia and they’re gonna come in against him in the Middle East. “With chariots,” it says in verse 40, back to Daniel 11, “with chariots, horsemen, many ships.” Of course they’ll come with a modern counterpart, all of the forces they’ve got.

“And he,” now we’re talking back about the Antichrist and we follow that all the way to the end. “And he shall enter into the countries and overflow and pass through.” What is that saying? Antichrist wins. Russia will substantially be decimated to retreat back to the north. This is history, people; it just hasn’t happened, but it will. And then after he overflows, passes through, verse 41 watch this: Having defeated the king of the south and defeated the king of the north, the African army and Russian army and its Arab allies, “he enters into the glorious land.” What’s that? That’s Israel, that’s Israel. And many countries shall be overthrown, but these shall escape out of his hand, even Edom and Moab and the chief of the children of Amon.” It’s so remarkable. Why does the Lord stick that in there? Just because God is so accurate. When Antichrist wins this big battle, he’s gonna wipe out the Russian army, and I think he’s gonna have to wonder how it happened because in Ezekiel 38 it seems as though God does it, or 39. Then he’s gonna devastate the south, and he’s actually gonna go into the south, verse 42, in the land of Egypt, in that area, and mop up after his victory. But he’s not gonna do a thing to Edom, Moab, and Ammon. You want to know something? Edom, Moab, and Ammon is southeast of Israel. Egypt and the African army come from the southwest. He’s gonna be busy in the southwest and not bother with the southeast, and frankly folks, Edom, Ammon, and Moab put together don’t have a whole lot to bother with, a lot of camels and a few bedewing people running around in the desert. But God just gives you specifics. He goes to the southwest, so he leaves the southeast alone.

Verse 42, he moves in against these countries, and Egypt shall not escape. Verse 43: “He shall have power over the treasures of gold and silver, over all the precious things of Egypt and the Libyans and the Ethiopians shall be at his steps.” He not only wipes out southern army, the northern army, but all of those Arabs who got involved with the north as well. You know what? He is the master of the world at this time. He has passed his first great revolutionary test, and now he really begins to feel his oats. Now he really begins to sense the power. It’s like sort of a bloodthirsty sense that he gets, and so he moves out. And I believe it’s at this time that he really begins to crash against the institutions that exist. I believe it’s very likely now that he consumes the false church and devours the harlot, that he begins to move in to Israel. He calls upon the whole world to worship him. He abolishes all false religion. He sets himself up as god. He will tolerate no other kings and no other gods and no other religions. He will rule in absolute supremacy, and all of the allies of Russia are at his steps, or literally in the Hebrew they’re in his train, they’re following along behind him. And you know what precisely happens at this moment? Revelation 6-18 begins to take place, and God begins to pour out his wrath. And you know what happens? Seven seals are opened. Seven trumpets are blown. Seven bowls are poured out. God's wrath on the earth, the whole thing explodes at this point.

Get the picture, verse 43, he’s sitting there, he’s got it all in control. He has desecrated the temple. He’s devoured all religion. He is god. And then something happens in verse 44. “Tidings out of the east and out of the north shall trouble him.” What’s going on? What’s going on in the north? Well, I believe it’s likely that they’re gonna come back. They’re gonna regroup. Verse 44: “He shall go forth with great fury,” – the Antichrist – “to destroy and utterly sweep away many.” You know what happens? He wins again. After all, he has Satan on his side, and most of hell is cooperating. And verse 45: “Then he plants the tabernacle of his palace between the seas.” The Mediterranean Sea and the Dead Sea are the seas that would be known to Daniel. “Between the Mediterranean Sea and the Dead Sea in the glorious holy mountain.” And what mountain is it between those two seas? It is Zion, the place of the temple, the city of god. He sets up a temple and sets himself up as god, and he has won two great victories, and now I believe we’re nearly at the end of the tribulation.

By this time, Israel is devastated. In these battles, Israel has been wiped out; two out of every three are dead. Is it over? Is that the way history ends? Look at the end of verse 45, the third point, his condemnation. “Yet,” I like that word, don’t you? “Yet he shall come to his end and none shall help him.” That’s all it says. You want to know how it happens he comes to his end? I’ll tell you how it happens. Just as soon as he is finished with his apart of Armageddon and the blood bath in which he’s victorious, the Bible says in Revelation 29 Jesus Christ comes out of the sky with a sword going out of his mouth. The Bible says that he will be slain with the sword that comes out of the mouth of Jesus Christ. You see he’s no match when he meets God's true king. He may have been a match for the king of the north, the king of the south and the king of the east, but he’s no match for the Lord Jesus Christ.

You know what happens to Israel in all this? Israel is at the deepest point of sorrow, the deepest point of suffering, the deepest point of humiliation in it all of its history, and it is at this very point that they look upon him whom they’ve pierced and are redeemed. I believe they’ve already had 144,000 special Jews given them the message all through this three-and-a-half years. And finally, they hear it...

To be added

Isaiah 13,14 and Jeremiah 50,51 are gold mines about the fate of Babylon.

Great highway to Egypt (the “king’s highway”?)

Waterway canal South to the Gulf? Great highway East to China? Will the city be built at Saddam’s Babylon or at Erirdu near Ur? Babylon: Crossroads of East/West ruled by a great Caliph? Puppet ruler in Jerusalem. Vatican gone.

Jerusalem the HQ of the new one-world religion, Babylon, Iraq center of commerce trade and the palace of the AC?

Jesus returns with Army via Edom.

The Euphrates is not currently a major River. Too many dams upstream.

From David Reagan

The Muslim Antichrist Theory

An Evaluation

By Dr. David R. Reagan
12th Imam

(Note: This paper was presented at the annual Pre-Trib Conference held in Dallas, Texas in December 2010.)
The question as to whether or not the Antichrist will be a Jew or a Gentile has been hotly debated by Bible prophecy experts ever since the revival of the study of end time Bible prophecy some 400 years ago. In recent years the debate has taken on a new flavor by some who are obviously impressed with the resurgence of Islam worldwide. They have developed a whole new scheme of end time events in which one of the most prominent features is a Muslim Antichrist.
For those of you interested in pursuing this topic in greater detail, I would recommend that you consult two books. The two books are Antichrist: Islam’s Awaited Messiah by Joel Richardson and God’s War on Terror: Islam, Prophecy and the Bible by Walid Shoebat with Joel Richardson.

Richardson and Shoebat

Richardson’s book, which was published in 2006 is considered to be the cornerstone of the whole movement.1 It was picked up by WorldNetDaily and republished by them in 2009 under the title The Islamic Antichrist.2 WorldNetDaily has promoted the book vigorously ever since. The book features ten endorsements by various pastors, professors, and heads of ministries. Not a one is a Bible prophecy teacher or recognized expert on Bible prophecy.
Joel Richardson is a excellent writer who knows how to make a persuasive argument, particularly if the reader knows nothing about Bible prophecy.

Walid Shoebat’s book is more detailed and is much longer (516 pages to Richardson’s 276 pages).3 As most of you know, Walid Shoebat is an outstanding speaker on the topic of Islamic terrorism. But he is not a writer. His writing is very tedious and difficult to follow. Even worse, the organizational format of the book is chaotic and confusing. I can say without hesitation that his book is one of the most difficult ones I have ever tried to wade through in my lifetime of reading. To me, it was like trying to read and make sense out of the Quran!

Although most of you are familiar with Walid, for those who are not, let me point out that he claims to be a former Palestinian terrorist.4 I doubt that few, if any of you, know anything about Joel Richardson. And it is difficult to find out anything about him because that is not his real name. He reveals that fact in the introduction of his book and then states that he uses a pen name due to fear of Muslim threats on his life.5
That revelation really turned me off because I believe that people who speak out publicly on political, social or theological issues should be willing to put their name to their words. It is one thing to use a pen name in writing fiction, it is another to resort to a pseudonym when writing nonfiction. It prevents the reader from being able to evaluate the credentials of the writer.
After reading Joel’s book, I contacted him by email and told him I saw no validity to his reason for refusing to divulge his true identity. I pointed out that I had found a website of his on the Internet and that on the site he provides his speaking schedule. “If someone wanted to kill you,” I wrote, “all I they would have to do is go to one of your speaking engagements and shoot you.”
That prompted him to give me a call. He said it was not so much his life he was trying to protect as it was the lives of his family members. I told him I still could not understand his hesitancy in revealing his identity. I pointed out that I have written extensively on Islam, that I have posted the articles on the Internet, and that I have made statements far more inflammatory than anything I had read in his book. “But,” he asked, “has you life been threatened?” I told him no. “Well,” he said, “mine has been.” Then, for some unknown reason, he suddenly told me his real name and asked me to keep it secret!
I took advantage of his call to ask him a question that had puzzled me ever since I had read Walid Shoebat’s book. I said: “Joel you are an excellent writer. Shoebat’s book is very poorly written, yet your name is on the cover. What was your contribution to the book? Did you do the research?” Joel responded by saying that he had written most of the book, but that when he got the manuscript back from Walid, “it look like it had been put through a blender.” He said he tried to repair the damage, but again it was returned to him in a disheveled state. He said that at that point he gave up. He then added that Walid has now hired a professional editor to try to salvage the book.

Background Information About Islam

Before I review the rather bizarre theories about the end times that are contained in these books, I think it would be wise to present some background material about Islam. I realize that many of you are well informed about Islam, but I have found that even those who have studied Islam rarely know anything about Islamic eschatology.
As all of you know, the holiest book of Islam is the Qu’ran, which supposedly contains statements of the Islamic god, Allah, which were given to his prophet, Mohammad, by the Angel Gabriel.
Mohammad was illiterate, so scribes wrote down what he said over a 23 year period of time, until his death in 632 AD. Much of the content of the Qu’ran was delivered to Mohammad while he was experiencing seizures that even his first wife considered to be demonic in nature. The scribes began compiling the Qu’ran shortly before Mohammad’s death. The Qu’ran is about the length of the New Testament.
The second most sacred book of Islam is called the Hadith. It is mainly a collection of Mohammad’s sayings that were not considered to be revelations directly from Allah. The Hadith also contains stories about things Mohammad did.
I think it is very important to note that the Hadith was compiled in the 9th Century, about two hundred years after the death of Mohammad. There were several compilations made during that time, but the most authoritative is considered to be the one by al-Bukhari. He collected a total of over 400,000 sayings of Mohammad and stories about him. These came from the writings of both friends and family members. Many came from Mohammad’s 15 wives. Al-Bukhari verified 7,000 as “genuine.” These became the al-Bukhari Hadith, one of several versions of the Hadith that have been produced by other compilers.6
Strangely, the Qu’ran contains very little prophecy about the end times. It mainly affirms that history will consummate with what’s called “the Hour.” This is when the resurrection and judgment will take place. So, the Hadith, containing hearsay statements by Mohammed, is the major source of Islamic eschatology.

An Islamic Puzzle

It is extremely difficult to piece together the Islamic concept of the end times. The information is greatly disjointed, being spread throughout the Hadith. Also, unlike Christian prophecy scholars, Islamic students of prophecy have not attempted to systematize their concepts into charts and diagrams which show how all the events are related to each other.
The most helpful source I was able to discover was a book by Dr. Samuel Shahid called The Last Trumpet.7 He attempts to show that the major concepts of Islamic eschatology were borrowed from the Hebrew Scriptures, the Christian New Testament, and the concepts of Zoroastrianism. The author is the director of Islamic studies at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Ft. Worth, Texas.
Dr. Shahid proves conclusively that Mohammad secured many of his ideas orally from Christians, Jews, and followers of Zoroastrianism.8 In the process he got many of the stories and principles confused. For example, the Hadith states that the mother of Jesus was Mary, the sister of Moses!
Dr. Shahid also points out that the Hadith was compiled at a time when Islamic authorities knew much more about the Bible and Christian traditions and literature. Thus, many Hadith passages were manufactured and embellished and were heavily influenced by Christian sources.
Complicating matters is the fact that Hadith passages concerning the end times are highly contradictory, and thus it is difficult to nail down a lot of specifics. Only a general outline of end time events can be compiled.

The Islamic Signs of the Times

One very interesting aspect of Islamic eschatology is that it presents signs of the times for people to watch for. Like Christianity, Islam teaches that only God knows the exact timing of end time events. But there are signs to watch for that will indicate the season of the end times, and these signs fall into two categories: major and minor.
Most of the minor signs have to do with general trends in society. The major signs relate to specific prophesied events that will occur between the time of the appearance of the Antichrist and “the Hour” of resurrection and judgment. The listings of both the minor and major signs vary greatly.

The Minor Signs

Let me give you some examples of minor signs. As I do so, you will see how they mirror the signs prophesied in the Bible.9

An increase in ignorance concerning the fundamentals of the faith.
Increasing instability of the faith (Muslims becoming Christians overnight).
An increase in false prophets.
An increase in apostasy (as evidenced by Muslims following false teachers).
An increase in religious pretentiousness (as in the building of luxurious mosques).
An acceptance of astrology.
An increase in alcohol use and illicit sexual relations.
An increase in natural calamities.
An increase in political corruption.
People longing for death (due to the increase in calamities and wickedness).
Increasing paganism. (Muslims will increasingly follow the life-styles of non-Muslims.)
An increase in war and civil wars (even wars among Muslims).

There are many other minor signs that are peculiar to Islam, most of which are fantastical in nature. Here are some examples:10

Women will outnumber men by 50 to 1. (No reason is given, but it is likely due to the expectation of many jihad martyrs in the end times.)
The Arabs must conquer Constantinople. (The city, now called Istanbul, was conquered by Muslims in the 15th Century, but not by Arabs.)
A people will emerge who eat with their tongues like cows.
Time will contract, with a year being like a month and a month like a week.
Wild beasts will speak to men.
The Euphrates River will uncover a mountain of gold.

The Major Signs

The major signs pointing to “the Hour” are all critical events that are part of the end time sequence of events, beginning with the appearance of the Antichrist. Muslim scholars generally do not try to present a strict chronological order of what is going to ultimately transpire, but the order presented below is representative:

The appearance of the Antichrist, called the Dajjal.
The rising of the Islamic Messiah, called the Mahdi.
The Return of Jesus.
The Reign of Jesus.
The Day of Resurrection, called “The Hour.”
The Day of Judgment.

There are many other end time events mentioned in the Hadith, but these are the most important. Let’s look for a moment at each of these key events in their chronological order.

End Time Specifics

1) The Appearance of the Antichrist, called the Dajjal.
He will be a Jew born in Iran to parents who have been childless for 30 years. He will have only one eye. He will claim to be a prophet, and then he will claim to be divine. He will deceive many by his godliness and his miracles. He will go forth with an army of 70,000 Jews and 70,000 Tartars, and he will conquer all the world except Mecca and Medina. His reign will last for 40 days during a time when one day will be like a year. Some passages of the Hadith indicate that he will have the word “Infidel” written on his forehead. His reign is characterized by cruelty and deceit. He has a militaristic mentality. His purpose is to be deified, worshiped, and to reign.11
2) The rising of the Islamic Messiah, called the Mahdi.
He will be a descendant of Mohammed who will come on a white horse. He will deliver the world from the reign of the Dajjal. In the process he will conquer Israel and slaughter the Jews. He will establish a new Islamic world headquarters in Jerusalem, and he will rule for 7 years (and possibly 8 or 9 years, depending upon differing Hadith passages). His rule will end with his death.12
3) The Return of Jesus.
It is not clear at what point in the career of the Mahdi Jesus will return. Some believe it will be as soon as the Mahdi is able to organize his Muslim army to oppose the Dajjal’s Jewish army. Jesus will return to the Mount of Olives and then head to Damascus where he will meet up with the Mahdi and submit himself to him as a subordinate. At some point in the Mahdi’s wars Jesus himself will be the one who will kill the Dajjal and see to the annihilation of the Jews. Jesus will then serve as an Islamic evangelist, proclaiming Islam as the one and only true religion, and he will establish Islamic Shari’ah law throughout the entire earth.13
4) The Reign of Jesus.
Upon the death of the Mahdi, Jesus will assume control of the Islamic worldwide kingdom. He will reign for 40 years. He will be a just ruler. Every harmful beast will be domesticated. There will be abundant rain and plentiful harvests. All weapons of war will be converted into tools of agriculture, and there will be world wide peace. (All of this imagery is taken, of course, from the book of Isaiah.) Jesus will go to Mecca regularly to perform rituals of pilgrimage. Twenty-one years into His reign, He will marry and begat children. Nineteen years later He will die. He will be buried in Medina next to Mohammad where He will await the Day of Resurrection like all other humans who have died.14
5) The Day of Resurrection, called “The Hour.”
There is only one resurrection in Islamic eschatology. The saved and the unsaved are resurrected at the same time. Mohammad will be the first human being to be resurrected. All those resurrected will be naked. Abraham will be the first person to be clothed by Allah. He will be seated facing Allah’s throne. Mohammad will then be clothed and will be seated at the right hand of Allah.15
6) The Day of Judgment.
At this point Allah descends from Heaven to judge all humanity. Allah will weigh the good and bad deeds of each person. This is called the concept of “the Scale.” The deeds of all people will be weighed in Allah’s scales to determine their eternal destiny.16

The Richardson Thesis

Now, with this brief background in Islamic eschatology, let’s take a look at the thesis that Richardson presents in his book.
He argues that the Mahdi will be the Antichrist of the Bible and that the Muslim Jesus will be the False Prophet of the Bible who serves the Antichrist and his purposes. Both will be destroyed when the true Jesus returns at the end of the Tribulation.17 The true Jesus will be viewed by Muslims as the Dajjal, or the Islamic Antichrist.
As proof of his thesis, he points repeatedly to the “amazing similarities” and “amazing parallels” between the biblical Antichrist and the Muslim Mahdi.18 He points out that both are pictured as an unparalleled political, military and religious leader who will come on a white horse and who will team up with a false prophet to conquer the world, and institute a one world religion.
The Bible says the Antichrist will change the laws and the times. Richardson asserts that the Mahdi would do just that, instituting Shari’ah law and imposing the Islamic calendar.19 Likewise, the Bible says the Antichrist will behead those who resist him, and Richardson spends an entire chapter emphasizing that execution by beheading is one of the cardinal characteristics of Islam.20
Richardson even points out that there is a Hadith passage that states the Mahdi will make a covenant with the Romans through a Jewish intermediary and that the covenant will be for a period of seven years, just like the seven year covenant the Bible says the Antichrist will make with the Jewish people.21

The Similarities Between Islamic and Biblical Prophecies

I personally find nothing startling or surprising about these similarities. As I have already pointed out, Mohammed got most of his ideas concerning the end times from discussions with Christians and Jews. And these ideas were later embellished by his followers who were even better acquainted with biblical prophecies concerning the end times. Furthermore, the one who inspired Mohammed and his followers, namely Satan, was an expert on Bible prophecy!
Nor am I impressed with the similarities he points out. It is only natural that the Mahdi, like the Antichrist, should be viewed as a great leader who will conquer the world and institute a one world religion. The assertion that the Mahdi will return on a white horse is, of course, borrowed directly from Scripture, as is the idea of the False Prophet.
As for the laws and the calendar, whoever the Antichrist may be, it is certain he will change the laws by instituting a totalitarian system devoid of individual rights, and he will most certainly change the calendar because the calendar followed by most of the world dates from the birth of Jesus.
The point about beheading is flimsy evidence at best. Beheading is not a unique characteristic of Islam. It was one of the stellar characteristics of the French Revolution, and is just the type of horror the Antichrist would institute, regardless of his nationality or religion.
And as for the seven year covenant, the Mahdi makes it with the Romans (which Richardson says should be interpreted as Christians). It is not a covenant with the Jewish people, as the Bible prophesies.

Richardson’s End Time Scenario

According to Richardson’s end time scenario, the Mahdi and the Muslim Jesus (the False Prophet) will unite the whole Islamic world, reviving the Ottoman Empire.22 They will conquer Israel and establish the headquarters of the Caliphate in Jerusalem. Their rule will come to an end with the Battle of Gog and Magog that is portrayed in Ezekiel 38 and 39, which will occur at the end of the Tribulation, when the Lord Jesus Christ returns. And, again, when Jesus returns, the Islamic world will view the true Jesus as the Dajjal, or the Islamic Antichrist.
One glaring problem with this scenario is that Islamic eschatology teaches that the Dajjal, the Antichrist, will come first, and his appearance will signal that the Mahdi is about to arise.23 Richardson’s scenario puts the appearance of the Islamic Dajjal at the end of the Tribulation instead of at the beginning. And so, I ask, “If some person arrives on the scene claiming to be the Mahdi before the appearance of the Dajjal, why would he be accepted by Muslims?”

Contradictory Concepts of the Mahdi

Nor is it likely that any person claiming to be the Mahdi would be immediately accepted by the whole Islamic world. The reason is that the concept of the Mahdi is one of the key elements in Islamic eschatology that separates the Shi’tes from the Sunnis.24
The Sunni branch of Islam believes that Mohammed’s successor, Abu Bakr, selected in 632, rightfully took his place as the leader of the Muslim world. The Shi’ites, on the other hand, believe that Mohammed’s successor should have been a blood relative and not just a person selected on the basis of Islamic piety or politics. Abu Bakr was Mohammed’s father-in-law. The Shi’ites favored Ali ibn Abi, the prophet’s cousin and son-in-law. Ali ultimately became the fourth successor of Mohammed, reigning from 656 to 661.
After the death of Ali, his heirs were overcome by a military leader named Mu’awiya Umayyad, who proceeded to establish the Umayyad Dynasty centered in Damascus. Shi’ites refused to recognize his leadership since he was not a blood relative of Mohammed. They looked, instead, to the surviving heirs of Ali for their leadership.
The blood line of Mohammed through Ali became extinct in 873 A.D. when the last Shi’ite Imam, Muhammad al-Mahdi, who had no brothers, disappeared within days of inheriting the title at the age of four. The Shi’ites refused to accept that he had died or been killed, preferring to believe that he was merely “hidden” and would one day reappear. This event is referred to in Shi’ite theology as “The Great Occultation” (the hiding).25 This boy was the Shi’ite’s Twelfth Imam, and he is the one they expect to return as the Islamic Mahdi. The Sunnis strongly reject this concept, particularly since many Shi’ites teach that the Twelfth Imam will declare that the Shi’ite version of Islam is the orthodox version.
Islamic historian Timothy Furnish has summed up the difference between the two groups over the Mahdi by observing: “For Shi’ites he has already been here, and will return from hiding; for Sunnis he has yet to emerge into history: a comeback versus a coming out, if you will.”26
The Madhi being heralded by Ahmadinejad is the Twelth Imam. If he were to suddenly appear, he would be rejected by Sunnis, and the Sunnis constitute 90% of all the Muslims in the world.

God’s Covenant with Ishmael

Another problem with Muslim unity is that the whole idea is contradictory to one of the promises God made in His covenant with Ishmael (Genesis 16:10-12). In that covenant, in which God promised that the descendants of Ishmael would be greatly multiplied and would be given all the land east of Israel, God also stated that the Arab peoples would be like wild donkeys for they would always be in conflict with each other.
As Jacob Prasch has pointed out in his writings on this subject, this aspect of the covenant with Ishmael has been manifested throughout history to this day through the internecine wars between the Arabs.27 They fought each other for centuries in pre-Islamic Arabia. Mohammed believed that he could unite them through the advocacy of a monotheistic religion, but he failed. Sunis and Shi’ites have hated and warred with each other since the 8th Century. Consider the modern day war between Iran and Iraq, and the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, with the intent of conquering all the Middle East.
Prasch sums up the problem of Arab unity by declaring, “The curse of Genesis prevents Islamic unity from developing a united empire over-running the West.”28 He further observes: “…the greatest Islamic Empire was strategically dominated by Ottoman Turks who subjugated the Arab Moslems as serfs and slaves…”29

The Extent of the Antichrist’s Kingdom

One of the most peculiar aspects of Richardson’s end time scenario is his insistence that the Mahdi’s revived Ottoman Empire will be a regional one and not a worldwide one as is claimed in both Islamic and biblical prophecy.
In order to sustain this totally revisionist interpretation of end time prophecy, Richardson goes to great pains to deny the clear meaning of Revelation 13:7 which reads as follows: “And it was given to him [the Antichrist] to make war with the saints and to overcome them, and authority over every tribe and people and tongue and nation was given to him.”
Let me ask you a question: What more would God have to say to convince us that the Antichrist will have a worldwide kingdom?
Yet, Richardson tries to dismiss this verse as nothing but hyperbole. He does so by quoting Daniel 5:18-19 where it says that Nebuchadnezzar, was feared by “all peoples and nations and men of every language.” Richardson then asks, “Did every single nation in the earth fear Nebuchadnezzar?” 30 My answer would be, “Yes, all nations that were aware of him.” That’s all the statement means in its context.
Richardson then quotes 1 Kings 4:34 which says that men of all nations came to listen to Solomon’s wisdom, “sent by all the kings of the world, who had heard of his wisdom.” He then asks derisively, “Was Solomon’s wisdom so impressive that not a single king in all the earth failed to hear of it?”31 That’s not what the verse says. Read it again. It says the kings who had heard of his wisdom sent representatives — not all kings.
Context determines meaning, and the context of Revelation 13:7 clearly means that the Antichrist kingdom will be worldwide, not just a regional coalition of Muslim nations. His attempt to limit the kingdom of the Antichrist to a regional area is reminiscent of the attempt of Genesis revisionists to limit the worldwide flood of Noah to the Middle East.
Furthermore, the worldwide nature of the Antichrist’s kingdom is affirmed in Daniel 7:23 where the prophet states that the Antichrist will “devour the whole earth and tread it down and crush it.” Richardson ignores this verse.

The Revived Ottoman Empire

Richardson’s claim that the final Gentile empire of the Antichrist will be the revived Ottoman Empire forces him to deal with Nebuchadnezzar’s vision of Gentile kingdoms, recorded in Daniel 2:31-45. The traditional interpretation of that vision is that its succession of empires ends with the Roman and that it is the Roman Empire that will be revived in the end times and provide the platform from which the Antichrist will arise.
To accommodate his thesis, Richardson argues that the Roman Empire continued to exist in the form of the Byzantine Empire until 1453 when it fell to the Ottoman Empire. It is therefore the Ottoman Empire, which ceased to exist in 1923, that will be resurrected in the end times, and not the Roman Empire, and thus the Antichrist will arise out of the revived Ottoman Empire.
The first problem with this interpretation is that it denies the historical fact that the Roman Empire ceased to exist in 476 with the collapse of Rome. What was left of the empire in the East, which is referred to by modern historians as the Byzantine Empire, was Roman in name only, reminiscent of The Holy Roman Empire that existed in the Germanic areas of Europe from 800 to 1806, a political entity that Voltaire characterized as “neither holy, nor Roman, nor an empire.”32
Another problem is that Nebuchadnezzar’s dream does not provide for the insertion of the Ottoman Empire. The head of gold stood for the Babylonian Empire; the chest of silver for the Medo-Persian Empire; the thighs of bronze for the Greek Empire; and the legs of iron for the Roman Empire. The feet of iron mixed with clay represent the final Gentile empire out of which the Antichrist will arise. The traditional interpretation has been that the feet stand for a revival of the Roman Empire.
But if the Ottoman Empire is to be inserted into the picture following the Roman, where is the symbol of it? Do the feet represent both the Ottoman Empire and its end time revival? There just are not enough body parts to provide symbols for both the Ottoman Empire and its revival.
The same problem occurs when you consider Revelation 17:10-11. In this passage the Apostle John is told that there are seven kings or empires to be considered in world history and that “five have fallen, one is, the other has not yet come; and when he comes, it must remain for a little while. And the beast which was and is not, is himself also an eighth, and is one of the seven, and he goes to destruction.”
At that point in history, the five fallen would have been Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Medo-Persia, and Greece. The one existing would have been the Roman. The one to come would be the revival of the Roman, out of which the eighth and final empire, the worldwide kingdom of the Antichrist would arise.
If you insert the Ottoman Empire into this list, where does it fit? If it is the seventh, then its revival would be the eighth, and there is no place left for the final worldwide empire of the Antichrist. I suspect this is the reason that Richardson insists that the revival of the Ottoman Empire will be the final empire out of which the Antichrist will arise, and that it will not develop into a worldwide empire, as both Islamic and biblical prophesies specify. There just are not enough empires mentioned in Revelation 17 to include the Ottoman Empire, its resurrection, and its evolution into the final worldwide empire of the Antichrist.
Another problem with Richardson’s Ottoman Empire thesis is that he completely ignores the prophecy in Daniel 9:26 that says the Antichrist will arise out of the people who will destroy the Jewish Temple. It was the Romans who destroyed the Temple in 70 A.D. and it is from the Romans that the Antichrist must come. To me, it is just incredible that Richardson would totally ignore this prophecy.

The War of Gog and Magog

The final problem with Richardson’s thesis that I would like to mention concerns his interpretation of the War of Gog and Magog that is pictured in Ezekiel 38 and 39.
Richardson denies that the war described in Ezekiel 38 and 39 will be led by Russia or that Russia will even have a part in it. Of course, he has to take this position since he argues that the invading force will be the revived Ottoman Empire, which Russia was never a part of.
He says that the only reason people have ever included Russia as part of the invading armies is because Ezekiel says the invasion will be led by the prince of Rosh, and that the word, Rosh, sounds like Russia.33 This assertion is, or course, patently false. Many authors, including Mark Hitchcock and Ron Rhodes have gone to great pains to present historical evidence that identifies Russia with Rosh.34
The passage in question, Ezekiel 38:2, says the invasion will be led by “Gog of the land of Magog, the prince of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal…” It is important to note that both Josephus in the First Century and Jerome in the Fifth Century identified Magog with Scythian tribes in Russia.35
Richardson favors Turkey as the leader of the coalition.36 Yet, Ezekiel 38 clearly states that the invasion will be led by the Prince of Rosh coming from “the remote parts of the north” or “the uttermost parts of the north” (Ezekiel 38:15). There is no way that Turkey could be considered a nation located in “the remote parts of the north.” Again, this is a verse that Richardson completely ignores.
Richardson never reveals when he believes the Ezekiel 38 invasion of Israel will occur, but it must be at the end of the Tribulation since the invading army will be the army of the Mahdi (the Antichrist) and will be destroyed by God. Thus, he must equate the battle of Gog and Magog in Ezekiel 38 and 39 with the Battle of Armageddon. But these are not the same battles.
The battle of Gog and Magog involves Russia and certain specified allies who come against Israel either at the beginning of the Tribulation or, most likely, before it begins. One of the tip-offs as to the timing of this invasion is the statement that following the defeat of the invading armies, the Jews will spend seven years burning the leftover weapons (Ezekiel 39:9).
Many have equated this seven years with the Tribulation, thus putting the invasion at the start of that period of time. But we know that in the middle of the Tribulation the Antichrist is going to turn on the Jews and try to annihilate them, causing them to flee the nation (Revelation 12:13-17). This will make it impossible for them to continue the burning of weapons during the last half of that terrible period. So, most likely, the battle will occur before the Tribulation begins.
In contrast, the Battle of Armageddon occurs at the end of the Tribulation. And there really is no battle at all. The armies of the Antichrist are destroyed in an instant when Jesus returns to the Mount of Olives and speaks a supernatural word, causing their flesh to drop from their bodies (Zechariah 14:1-13). In the Gog and Magog battle, the invading armies will be destroyed on the “mountains of Israel” (Ezekiel 39:4), not in the Valley of Armageddon, and they will be destroyed by pestilence, hailstones, fire and brimstone (Ezekiel 38:22).
Another difference can be found in the motivation of the wars. The War of Gog and Magog results from God “putting hooks in the jaws” of the invading nations and dragging them down against Israel to “capture spoil and to seize plunder” (Ezekiel 38:4 & 12). In contrast, the armies of the world that will be assembled at Armageddon will be gathered by demon spirits (Revelation 16:13-16).
Another serious problem with placing the Gog and Magog war at the end of the Tribulation is that Ezekiel 38 says the invasion will occur at a time when Israel is living in peace with unwalled cities (Ezekiel 38:11). That will not be the case at the end of the Tribulation. The land of Israel will be in absolute chaos at that time.

A Final Argument

Richardson wraps up his arguments with the observation that the Antichrist must be a Muslim because Islam is the most perfect incarnation of the antichrist spirit.37 He makes this assertion because Islam denies the Trinity, rejects Jesus as the Son of God, and repudiates the crucifixion of Jesus, arguing that someone else was killed in His place.
I do not agree with this observation. To me, the most perfect incarnation of the antichrist spirit is, and always has been, Humanism in all its various forms. Islam points people toward a god, even though he is a false god. Humanism encourages people to worship Man. God is denied. Man is exalted. And I believe the rejection of God, together with the exaltation of self, is the ultimate antichrist spirit.

Anticipating Objections

Richardson concludes his book by dealing with what he calls “potential problems with his thesis.” He mentions only two.
The first is the fact that the Bible states that in the middle of the Tribulation, when the Antichrist goes to Jerusalem and desecrates the Temple, he will declare himself to be God (2 Thessalonians 2:4). Richardson says this is possibly the strongest argument that can be made against his thesis since it is inconceivable that any Muslim would ever claim to be God. Nonetheless, he argues that the Muslim Antichrist will become so self-absorbed that he will do so, and he claims that when it happens, the Muslims will be too embarrassed to confess that they have been deceived!38
I’m sorry, but I find this very hard to believe. To me, that is like saying that the Muslims would be willing to agree that night is day and day is night. There is a limit to deception. A person would have to cease being a Muslim in order to believe that any man could be God.
I believe the bizarre behavior of the Antichrist described in 2 Thessalonians 2:3-4, where it states that he will proclaim himself to be God, rules out any possibility that the Antichrist might prove to be a Muslim.
An equally important fact that I think rules out the possibility of a Muslim Antichrist is that prophecy states the Antichrist will make a covenant with Israel that will guarantee the nation’s security (Daniel 9:27 and Isaiah 28:14-22). I think it is preposterous to believe that Israel would ever trust its security to a Muslim leader or that a Muslim leader would be interested in guaranteeing the safety of Israel.
The second problem Richardson anticipates relates to his scrambling of the Islamic order of end time events by placing the appearance of the Islamic Dajjal at the end of the Tribulation instead of at the beginning. Incredibly, he says that the Muslims will simply overlook this problem due to the inconsistency of Hadith traditions. As he puts it, once the Mahdi has conquered Israel and taken Jerusalem, the Muslims will accept him regardless of the fact that the Dajjal was supposed to come first.39
But again, this overlooks the fact that according to biblical prophecy, the first thing the Antichrist will do is make a peace treaty with Israel, not defeat Israel. And I would contend that any Muslim leader who would make peace with Israel would be rejected by the Muslim world, just as was the case with Anwar Sadat, the President of Egypt, when he signed a peace treaty with Israel. He was assassinated by Islamic fundamentalists almost immediately.
There are other serious problems with Richardson’s scenario that he does not acknowledge. How, for example, does he explain the miraculous resurrection of the Roman Empire in the form of the European Union? It’s a development that prophecy experts have been telling us to watch for, and those alerts go back several hundred years. Is the revival of the Roman Empire just an accident of history? I think not. I believe that, just as the Bible prophesies, it is going to serve as the platform for the ascension of the Antichrist.
Another problem Richardson must deal with is the worldwide destruction that Revelation describes in chapters 6-9. Those chapters reveal that one-half of the world’s population is going to die during the first half of the Tribulation. Is this going to happen as a result of a regional conflict? Or, is all this just more “biblical hyperbole”?

Two Questions

When I finished reading Richardson’s book, I found myself wanting to ask him two questions. The first was what is he going to do with Psalm 83?40 This psalm portrays an attack on Israel by a Muslim coalition consisting of Jordan, Egypt, Lebanon, Gaza, Saudi Arabia and Assyria (Syria). The Bible clearly teaches that God will protect Israel against all such attacks in the end times (Zechariah 12:6).
The outcome of this war most likely is detailed in Zephaniah 2:4-5. These verses indicate that the attacking nations will be devastated by Israel. It is during this war that Damascus, the capital of Syria, will probably be destroyed completely, never to be rebuilt again (Isaiah 17:1-14 and Jeremiah 49:23-27). That is most likely why Syria is not mentioned in Ezekiel 38 as one of the Russian allies.
The outcome of the Psalm 83 war is what will most likely produce peace for Israel, the peace that it is prophesied to be enjoying when Russia and its allies decide to launch the Ezekiel 38 invasion.
The war of Psalm 83 followed by the war of Ezekiel 38 will result in the annihilation of nearly all the armies of the Muslim nations of the Middle East, and these wars are most likely going to occur before the Tribulation begins! Thus, if the Antichrist is a Muslim who is going to rule a Muslim empire in the Middle East during the Tribulation, then he is going to rule over an empire that has been reduced to ashes!
The second question Richardson left hanging relates to the timing of the Rapture. He never mentions the event, leaving the clear impression that he identifies it with the Second Coming of Jesus.

Shoebat’s Book

The book published in 2008 by Walid Shoebat with the aid of Joel Richardson, adds very little to the debate, but it does clarify some issues.
With regard to the Rapture, Shoebat dismisses it out of hand as being of no importance. Specifically, he writes: “Whether the Rapture is a Pre-Tribulation, Mid, or Post-Tribulation event is irrelevant…” He then adds, “I do daily pray for a Pre-Tribulation Rapture, and always prepare for a Post. I am of neither position.”41
Regarding the timing of the war of Gog and Magog in Ezekiel 38 and 39, he confirms that he and Richardson believe it will occur at the end of the Tribulation and that it is, in fact, the same as the Battle of Armageddon.42
The meaning of Psalm 83 is specifically addressed.43 Shoebat attempts to prove that the war described in this psalm between Israel and its adjacent Arab neighbors is one that will occur at the end of the Tribulation, after the Second Coming of the Messiah. In other words it will be a part of the Armageddon Campaign that will include the Battle of Gog and Magog. Thus, he argues it will be a conflict between forces led by Jesus and those led by the Mahdi. I was astonished to read this interpretation because I have studied this psalm in detail, and there is not one verse in it that even implies that Jesus will be present on this earth when the battle occurs.
So, I looked for Shoebat’s scriptural proof of Jesus’ presence. Believe it or not, the proof he provided was quotes from two other psalms:

Psalm 82:8 — “Arise, O God, judge the earth!”
Psalm 80:14 — “Return, we beseech You, O God of hosts.”

Neither one of the psalms are related to Psalm 83. Both are prayers by Asaph for the Lord to return to the earth to bring justice. Neither one states that the Messiah is on the earth.
This kind of incredibly sloppy proof-texting can be found throughout Shoebat’s book. Whenever he wants to make a point, he goes fishing for a verse. When he finds it, he reels it in and applies it to the issue under consideration, whether it is related to that issue or not.
Another example can be found in the second argument he gives for placing the Psalm 83 war at the end of the Tribulation. He says it must occur at that time because it is a war triggered by the Antichrist’s desecration of the Jewish Temple — a temple that will be rebuilt during the first half of the Tribulation. And what is his evidence? He quotes Psalm 79:1 — “O God, the nations have invaded Your inheritance; they have defiled Your holy temple.”44 Once again, he tries to prove a point about Psalm 83 by quoting a verse from an unrelated psalm that is most likely describing the destruction of Solomon’s Temple.

Strained Logic

Shoebat displays some tortuous logic throughout his book. A good example can be found in his attempt to explain away the meaning of Daniel 9:26, a passage Richardson avoided dealing with in his book. The plain sense meaning of this passage is that the Antichrist will come from the people who will destroy the Temple.
Shoebat tries to dispel this meaning by arguing that the Roman legions that carried out the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple in 70 AD were composed primarily of Syrians and Turks. He therefore concludes that the Antichrist will arise from the Syrians or Turks and will be a Muslim.45
On the contrary, Bible prophecy scholar Sean Osborne has proved that the Roman legions were composed of Roman soldiers, recruited from what is present day Italy, and were led by Roman officers of historical renown. Local Syrians and Arabs were recruited as auxiliaries to take care of menial tasks, and had, at best, logistical support roles. “They were in no conceivable manner representative of ‘the people of the prince who shall come.'”46
But Shoebat’s argument here is really grasping at straws in the wind! For one thing, the ethnicity of the soldiers is irrelevant because the Romans never used mercenaries. All their soldiers were citizens of Rome. But it would not have made any difference if the legions had been composed of Australian Aborigines, for it was the Roman government that decided to destroy Jerusalem, it was the Roman government that gave the orders, and it was Roman generals who carried out the destruction. Rome was the rod of God’s judgment and it is from the Roman people that the Antichrist will arise.

Strange Points

At times Shoebat gets absolutely weird. For example, he says that one day while he was examining the Codex Vaticanus Greek text of the Book of Revelation, he noticed “that the supposed Greek letters (Chi Xi Sigma) that are used to translate to the number 666 very much resemble the most common creed of Islam…written in Arabic.”47
The lower case Greek letters for Chi Xi Sigma are as follows:

The condensed Islamic creed, shown to the right, literally means (reading right to left): “In the Name of Allah,” followed by the symbol of crossed swords.

He then observes that the Greek text for 666 (shown to the right) looks like the Islamic creed except that the word, “Allah,” is presented vertically, with the crossed swords to the left of it.

He then asks, “Is it possible that the Apostle John, while receiving his divine revelation, did not see Greek letters, but instead was supernaturally shown Arabic words and an Islamic symbol, which he then faithfully recorded?”48

A Recent Revision

While I was working on this presentation, Joel Richardson came out with a new explanation of Daniel 9:26, undoubtedly in response to the withering criticism that the previous explanation had received.49
He begins his new interpretation by pointing out that the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus in 70 AD did not fall within the first 483 years of Daniel’s 490 year prophecy. Rather, it occurred 40 years after the close of that period. Thus, he surmises that the prophecy concerning the Temple’s destruction most likely points to the last seven years of Daniel’s prophecy — the period of the Tribulation when he believes the Temple will be destroyed by the Mahdi.
He admits that the Scriptures do not specifically state that the Temple will be destroyed during the Tribulation, but he says the destruction is implied in Revelation 11:1-2 where it states that the Gentiles “will trample on the holy city for 42 months.” He also points to Luke 21:20 where it is stated that Jerusalem will experience “desolation,” but that verse clearly applies to the destruction of the Temple in 70 AD.50
So Richardson has gone from completely ignoring Daniel 9:26 to arguing that it was not the Romans who destroyed the Temple in 70 AD to now stating that the prophecy probably relates to a future destruction that is yet to occur during the Tribulation.
I think what we have here is a perfect illustration of a desperate attempt to manipulate both Bible prophecy and Islamic prophecy to conform to a pre-conceived end time scenario.
Even a cursory look at Daniel 9:26 reveals that the destruction of the Temple that it prophesies, occurs after the Messiah has been “cut off,” that is, after the end of the first 483 years and before the beginning of the final Tribulation period of seven years.

The European Union

Another recent article by Richardson gloats over internal problems being experienced by the European Union. It was titled “EU Collapse: Doom for popular Bible prophesies?”51 Richardson observed: “Many staunch adherents to the Euro-centered end-time theory are slowly awakening to the possibility that soon there may not even be a European Union at all.” He goes so far as to compare the prediction of an end-time revival of the Roman Empire to the Watchtower’s proclamation that Jesus would return in 1975! I found this comparison to be downright ludicrous considering the fact that Jesus did not return in 1975 but the Roman Empire has been revived, as predicted, in the form of the European Union.
Further, I found this attack to be amusing, because I consider the internal problems of the European Union to be a fulfillment of Bible prophecy. After all, what was the symbol of the revived Roman Empire in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream? It was the feet mixed of iron and clay. Such a mixture is inherently unstable, and I have always interpreted it to mean that the revived Roman Empire of the end times would be a loose confederation of states before being galvanized into a powerful empire by the Antichrist.

Muslim Triumph or Defeat?

Rather than a great Muslim triumph under the leadership of a Muslim Antichrist, I believe the most likely end-time scenario for the Muslim world will be one of overwhelming defeat, first in the regional wars of Psalm 83 and Ezekiel 38 and then in the world wars of Revelation 6, 8 and 9. Muslim power in the Middle East will be dealt a terrible blow in the wars of Psalm 83 and Ezekiel 38, both of which I think will most likely occur before the beginning of the Tribulation.
But the biggest portion of the Muslim world lives outside the Middle East. The largest Muslim nations today are Indonesia, Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh. It is these nations that I believe will offer the strongest resistance to the European Antichrist, and I believe they will be destroyed in the world war the Antichrist will launch, a war that begins as a conventional one in Revelation 6 but which appears to eventually morph into a nuclear one in Revelation 8 and 9, resulting in the destruction of one half’s the earth’s population.

Concluding Thoughts

Overall, I think what Richardson and Shoebat are presenting as a possible end time scenario of events is a hodgepodge of ideas drawn from Bible prophecy, Islamic prophecy, and their own rich imaginations. What they present is not true to either Bible prophecy or Islamic prophecy.
Two final observations. First, beware of Lone Ranger interpretations of prophecy that are not widely shared. God does not reveal the meaning of prophecy only to a person or two. 2 Peter 1:20 says, “no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation.” Private and peculiar interpretations like the recent “Pre-Wrath Rapture,” usually make a big initial splash and then fade quickly when submitted to critical review.
Second, I think the current rush to identify the Antichrist as a Muslim is a classic example of newspaper exegesis — of reading the news headlines into the Bible rather than letting the Bible speak for itself. It would be good to keep in mind a comment made by the great Bible teacher Ray Stedman: “What determines the future is what God has done in the past and what He has promised to do in the future. So don’t look horizontally at current events.”52

Notes

1) Joel Richardson, Antichrist: Islam’s Awaited Messiah, (Enumclaw, WA: WinePress Publishing, 2006), 276 pages.
2) Joel Richardson, The Islamic Antichrist: The Shocking Truth About the Real Nature of the Beast, (Los Angeles, CA: WND Books, 2009), 271 pages.
3) Walid Shoebat, God’s War on Terror: Islam, Prophecy and the Bible, (Lafayette, LA: Top Executive Media, 2008), 512 pages.
4) Walid Shoebat, Why I Left Jihad, (Lafayette, LA: Top Executive Media, 2005), 412 pages. Shoebat’s claim to have been a former Palestinian terrorist has been hotly disputed in several articles that can be found on the Internet.
5) Richardson, Antichrist, pages xv-xvi.
6) Wikipedia, “Sahih al-Bukhari,” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sahih_al-Bukhari#Number_of_hadith.
7) Samuel Shahid, The Last Trumpet: A Comparative Study in Christian-Islamic Eschatology, (Longwood, FL: Xulon Press, 2005), 305 pages.
8) Shahid, page 28.
9) Ibid., pages 30-33. See also: G. F. Haddad, “Signs of the Hour,” www.livingislam.org/n/signh_e.html.
10) Ibid., pages 34-42.
11) Mission Islam, “Who is the Evil Dajjal ?” www.missionislam.com/nwo/whoisdajjal.htm. See also, Shahid, pages 45-47.
12) Idara Dawat-o-Irshad, USA, Inc., “Identification of the Prophesied Imam Mahdi,” www.irshad.org/islam/prophecy/mahdi.htm.. See also Richardson, Antichrist, pages 40-51.
13) Mufti A.H. Elias, “Jesus (Isa) in Islam, and his Second Coming ,” www.islam.tc/prophecies/jesus.html. See also, Shahid, pages 73-89.
14) Elias, “Jesus in Islam…” See also, Shahid, pages 111-113.
15) Wikipedia, “Islamic Eschatology,” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_eschatology. See also, Shahid, pages 167-191.
16) HilalPlaza, “The Day of Judgment,” www.hilalplaza.com/islam/day-of-judgment.html. See also, Shahid, pages 192-210.
17) Richardson, Antichrist, pages 50-51 and 78-79.
18) Ibid., pages 80, 94, and 187.
19) Ibid., pages 67-68.
20) Ibid., pages 136-154.
21) Ibid., pages 66-67.
22) Ibid., pages 110-114.
23) Shahid, Pages 45-72. See also, Wikipedia, “Masih ad-Dajjal,” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masih_ad-Dajjal.
24) HNN Staff (History News Network), “What Is the Difference Between Sunni and Shiite Muslims � and Why Does It Matter?” http://hnn.us/articles/934.html.
25) Wikipedia, “The Occultation,” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Occultation.
26) HNN Staff, “What is the Difference…”
27) Jacob Prasch, “The Islamic Antichrist: the Unresolved Problems with Joel Richardson’s Theory,” September 11, 2009, www.moriel.org/MorielArchive/index.php/news/uk/the-islamic-antichrist, page 3.
28) Prasch, “The Islamic Antichrist…”, page 3.
29) Ibid., page 3.
30) Richardson, Antichrist, page 215.
31) Ibid., page 216.
32) Wikiquote, “Voltaire,” http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Voltaire.
33) Richardson, Antichrist, pages 103-104.
34) Ron Rhodes, Northern Storm Rising (Eugene, OR: Harvest House, 2008), pages 104-109. See also: Mark Hitchcock, The Coming Islamic Invasion of Israel (Sisters, OR: Multnomah, 2002), pages 31-32.
35) Ron Rhodes, Northern Storm Rising, pages 102-104.
36) Richardson, Antichrist, page 109.
37) Ibid., pages 121-128.
38) Ibid., pages 197-202.
39) Ibid., pages 203-204.
40) Bill Salus has written an excellent book on the prophetic implications of Psalm 83. It is titled, Isralestine, (Lecompton, KS: HighWay Publishers, 2008), 350 pages.
41) Shoebat, God’s War on Terror, pages 197-198.
42) Ibid., pages 267-274.
43) Ibid., pages 240-243.
44) Ibid., page 241.
45) Ibid., pages 349-353.
46) Sean Osborne, “Some Additional Thoughts on ‘Debunking the European Antichrist’ by Rodrigo Silva,” http://eschatologytoday.blogspot.com/2009/02/some-thoughts-on-debunking-european.html. Further comments by Sean Osborne can be found on the Prophecy Depot blog in response to an article by Bill Salus, “Does Daniel Debunk the Assyrian Antichrist?” http://prophecydepot.blogspot.com/2009/01/does-daniel-debunk-assyrian-antichrist.html.
47) Shoebat, pages 369-371.
48) Ibid., page 371.
49) Joel Richardson, “Daniel 9:26: Who Are the People of the Prince to Come?” www.joelstrumpet.com/?p=2440.
50) Ibid., pages 3-4.
51) Joel Richardson, “EU Collapse: Doom for Popular Bible Prophesies?” www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=160393.
52) Quote supplied by Lambert Dolphin (http://ldolphin.org).

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Isaiah: Proclamation Against Babylon

The burden against Babylon which Isaiah the son of Amoz saw.

“Lift up a banner on the high mountain,
Raise your voice to them;
Wave your hand, that they may enter the gates of the nobles.
I have commanded My sanctified ones;
I have also called My mighty ones for My anger—
Those who rejoice in My exaltation.”

The noise of a multitude in the mountains,
Like that of many people!
A tumultuous noise of the kingdoms of nations gathered together!

The Lord of hosts musters
The army for battle.
They come from a far country,
From the end of heaven—
The Lord and His weapons of indignation,
To destroy the whole land.

Wail, for the day of the Lord is at hand!
It will come as destruction from the Almighty.
Therefore all hands will be limp,
Every man’s heart will melt,
And they will be afraid.
Pangs and sorrows will take hold of them;
They will be in pain as a woman in childbirth;
They will be amazed at one another;
Their faces will be like flames.

Behold, the day of the Lord comes,
Cruel, with both wrath and fierce anger,
To lay the land desolate;
And He will destroy its sinners from it.

For the stars of heaven and their constellations
Will not give their light;
The sun will be darkened in its going forth,
And the moon will not cause its light to shine.

“I will punish the world for its evil,
And the wicked for their iniquity;
I will halt the arrogance of the proud,
And will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible.
I will make a mortal more rare than fine gold,
A man more than the golden wedge of Ophir.

Therefore I will shake the heavens,
And the earth will move out of her place,
In the wrath of the Lord of hosts
And in the day of His fierce anger.
It shall be as the hunted gazelle,
And as a sheep that no man takes up;
Every man will turn to his own people,
And everyone will flee to his own land.

Everyone who is found will be thrust through,
And everyone who is captured will fall by the sword.
Their children also will be dashed to pieces before their eyes;
Their houses will be plundered
And their wives ravished.

“Behold, I will stir up the Medes against them,
Who will not regard silver;
And as for gold, they will not delight in it.
Also their bows will dash the young men to pieces,
And they will have no pity on the fruit of the womb;
Their eye will not spare children.

And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms,
The beauty of the Chaldeans’ pride,
Will be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.
It will never be inhabited,
Nor will it be settled from generation to generation;
Nor will the Arabian pitch tents there,
Nor will the shepherds make their sheepfolds there.

But wild beasts of the desert will lie there,
And their houses will be full of owls;
Ostriches will dwell there,
And wild goats will caper there.

The hyenas will howl in their citadels,
And jackals in their pleasant palaces.
Her time is near to come,
And her days will not be prolonged.”

For the Lord will have mercy on Jacob, and will still choose Israel, and settle them in their own land. The strangers will be joined with them, and they will cling to the house of Jacob. Then people will take them and bring them to their place, and the house of Israel will possess them for servants and maids in the land of the Lord; they will take them captive whose captives they were, and rule over their oppressors.

It shall come to pass in the day the Lord gives you rest from your sorrow, and from your fear and the hard bondage in which you were made to serve, that you will take up this proverb against the king of Babylon, and say:
“How the oppressor has ceased,
The golden city ceased!
The Lord has broken the staff of the wicked,
The scepter of the rulers;
He who struck the people in wrath with a continual stroke,
He who ruled the nations in anger,
Is persecuted and no one hinders.
The whole earth is at rest and quiet;
They break forth into singing.
Indeed the cypress trees rejoice over you,
And the cedars of Lebanon,
Saying, ‘Since you were cut down,
No woodsman has come up against us.’
“Hell from beneath is excited about you,
To meet you at your coming;
It stirs up the dead for you,
All the chief ones of the earth;
It has raised up from their thrones
All the kings of the nations.
They all shall speak and say to you:
‘Have you also become as weak as we?
Have you become like us?
Your pomp is brought down to Sheol,
And the sound of your stringed instruments;
The maggot is spread under you,
And worms cover you.’

“How you are fallen from heaven,
O Lucifer, son of the morning!
How you are cut down to the ground,
You who weakened the nations!
For you have said in your heart:
I will ascend into heaven,
I will exalt my throne above the stars of God;
I will also sit on the mount of the congregation
On the farthest sides of the north;
I will ascend above the heights of the clouds,
I will be like the Most High.’
Yet you shall be brought down to Sheol,
To the lowest depths of the Pit.
“Those who see you will gaze at you,
And consider you, saying:
‘Is this the man who made the earth tremble,
Who shook kingdoms,
Who made the world as a wilderness
And destroyed its cities,
Who did not open the house of his prisoners?’
“All the kings of the nations,
All of them, sleep in glory,
Everyone in his own house;
But you are cast out of your grave
Like an abominable branch,
Like the garment of those who are slain,
Thrust through with a sword,
Who go down to the stones of the pit,
Like a corpse trodden underfoot.
You will not be joined with them in burial,
Because you have destroyed your land
And slain your people.

The brood of evildoers shall never be named.
Prepare slaughter for his children
Because of the iniquity of their fathers,
Lest they rise up and possess the land,
And fill the face of the world with cities.”

“For I will rise up against them,” says the Lord of hosts,
“And cut off from Babylon the name and remnant,
And offspring and posterity,” says the Lord.
“I will also make it a possession for the porcupine,
And marshes of muddy water;
I will sweep it with the broom of destruction,” says the Lord of hosts. (Isaiah 13:1 - 14:32)

Jeremiah: Proclamation Against Babylon

The burden against Babylon which Isaiah the son of Amoz saw.

“Lift up a banner on the high mountain,
Raise your voice to them;
Wave your hand, that they may enter the gates of the nobles.
I have commanded My sanctified ones;
I have also called My mighty ones for My anger—
Those who rejoice in My exaltation.”

The noise of a multitude in the mountains,
Like that of many people!
A tumultuous noise of the kingdoms of nations gathered together!

The Lord of hosts musters
The army for battle.
They come from a far country,
From the end of heaven—
The Lord and His weapons of indignation,
To destroy the whole land.

Wail, for the day of the Lord is at hand!
It will come as destruction from the Almighty.
Therefore all hands will be limp,
Every man’s heart will melt,
And they will be afraid.
Pangs and sorrows will take hold of them;
They will be in pain as a woman in childbirth;
They will be amazed at one another;
Their faces will be like flames.

Behold, the day of the Lord comes,
Cruel, with both wrath and fierce anger,
To lay the land desolate;
And He will destroy its sinners from it.

For the stars of heaven and their constellations
Will not give their light;
The sun will be darkened in its going forth,
And the moon will not cause its light to shine.

“I will punish the world for its evil,
And the wicked for their iniquity;
I will halt the arrogance of the proud,
And will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible.
I will make a mortal more rare than fine gold,
A man more than the golden wedge of Ophir.

Therefore I will shake the heavens,
And the earth will move out of her place,
In the wrath of the Lord of hosts
And in the day of His fierce anger.
It shall be as the hunted gazelle,
And as a sheep that no man takes up;
Every man will turn to his own people,
And everyone will flee to his own land.

Everyone who is found will be thrust through,
And everyone who is captured will fall by the sword.
Their children also will be dashed to pieces before their eyes;
Their houses will be plundered
And their wives ravished.

“Behold, I will stir up the Medes against them,
Who will not regard silver;
And as for gold, they will not delight in it.
Also their bows will dash the young men to pieces,
And they will have no pity on the fruit of the womb;
Their eye will not spare children.

And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms,
The beauty of the Chaldeans’ pride,
Will be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.
It will never be inhabited,
Nor will it be settled from generation to generation;
Nor will the Arabian pitch tents there,
Nor will the shepherds make their sheepfolds there.

But wild beasts of the desert will lie there,
And their houses will be full of owls;
Ostriches will dwell there,
And wild goats will caper there.

The hyenas will howl in their citadels,
And jackals in their pleasant palaces.
Her time is near to come,
And her days will not be prolonged.”

For the Lord will have mercy on Jacob, and will still choose Israel, and settle them in their own land.
The strangers will be joined with them, and they will cling to the house of Jacob.
Then people will take them and bring them to their place, and the house of Israel will possess them for servants and maids in the land of the Lord; they will take them captive whose captives they were, and rule over their oppressors.

It shall come to pass in the day the Lord gives you rest from your sorrow, and from your fear and the hard bondage in which you were made to serve,
that you will take up this proverb against the king of Babylon, and say:
“How the oppressor has ceased,
The golden city ceased!
The Lord has broken the staff of the wicked,
The scepter of the rulers;
He who struck the people in wrath with a continual stroke,
He who ruled the nations in anger,
Is persecuted and no one hinders.
The whole earth is at rest and quiet;
They break forth into singing.
Indeed the cypress trees rejoice over you,
And the cedars of Lebanon,
Saying, ‘Since you were cut down,
No woodsman has come up against us.’
“Hell from beneath is excited about you,
To meet you at your coming;
It stirs up the dead for you,
All the chief ones of the earth;
It has raised up from their thrones
All the kings of the nations.
They all shall speak and say to you:
‘Have you also become as weak as we?
Have you become like us?
Your pomp is brought down to Sheol,
And the sound of your stringed instruments;
The maggot is spread under you,
And worms cover you.’

“How you are fallen from heaven,
O Lucifer, son of the morning!
How you are cut down to the ground,
You who weakened the nations!
For you have said in your heart:
I will ascend into heaven,
I will exalt my throne above the stars of God;
I will also sit on the mount of the congregation
On the farthest sides of the north;
I will ascend above the heights of the clouds,
I will be like the Most High.’
Yet you shall be brought down to Sheol,
To the lowest depths of the Pit.
“Those who see you will gaze at you,
And consider you, saying:
‘Is this the man who made the earth tremble,
Who shook kingdoms,
Who made the world as a wilderness
And destroyed its cities,
Who did not open the house of his prisoners?’
“All the kings of the nations,
All of them, sleep in glory,
Everyone in his own house;
But you are cast out of your grave
Like an abominable branch,
Like the garment of those who are slain,
Thrust through with a sword,
Who go down to the stones of the pit,
Like a corpse trodden underfoot.
You will not be joined with them in burial,
Because you have destroyed your land
And slain your people.

The brood of evildoers shall never be named.
Prepare slaughter for his children
Because of the iniquity of their fathers,
Lest they rise up and possess the land,
And fill the face of the world with cities.”

“For I will rise up against them,” says the Lord of hosts,
“And cut off from Babylon the name and remnant,
And offspring and posterity,” says the Lord.
“I will also make it a possession for the porcupine,
And marshes of muddy water;
I will sweep it with the broom of destruction,” says the Lord of hosts. (Jeremiah 50:1 - 51:64)

The word that the Lord spoke against Babylon and against the land of the Chaldeans by Jeremiah the prophet.
“Declare among the nations,
Proclaim, and set up a standard;
Proclaim—do not conceal it—
Say, ‘Babylon is taken, Bel is shamed.
Merodach is broken in pieces;
Her idols are humiliated,
Her images are broken in pieces.’
For out of the north a nation comes up against her,
Which shall make her land desolate,
And no one shall dwell therein.
They shall move, they shall depart,
Both man and beast.
“In those days and in that time,” says the Lord,
“The children of Israel shall come,
They and the children of Judah together;
With continual weeping they shall come,
And seek the Lord their God.
They shall ask the way to Zion,
With their faces toward it, saying,
‘Come and let us join ourselves to the Lord
In a perpetual covenant
That will not be forgotten.’
“My people have been lost sheep.
Their shepherds have led them astray;
They have turned them away on the mountains.
They have gone from mountain to hill;
They have forgotten their resting place.
All who found them have devoured them;
And their adversaries said, We have not offended,
Because they have sinned against the Lord, the habitation of justice,
The Lord, the hope of their fathers.’
“Move from the midst of Babylon,
Go out of the land of the Chaldeans;
And be like the rams before the flocks.
For behold, I will raise and cause to come up against Babylon
An assembly of great nations from the north country,
And they shall array themselves against her;
From there she shall be captured.
Their arrows shall be like those of an expert warrior;
None shall return in vain.
And Chaldea shall become plunder;
All who plunder her shall be satisfied,” says the Lord.
“Because you were glad, because you rejoiced,
You destroyers of My heritage,
Because you have grown fat like a heifer threshing grain,
And you bellow like bulls,
Your mother shall be deeply ashamed;
She who bore you shall be ashamed.
Behold, the least of the nations shall be a wilderness,
A dry land and a desert.
Because of the wrath of the Lord
She shall not be inhabited,
But she shall be wholly desolate.
Everyone who goes by Babylon shall be horrified
And hiss at all her plagues.
“Put yourselves in array against Babylon all around,
All you who bend the bow;
Shoot at her, spare no arrows,
For she has sinned against the Lord.
Shout against her all around;
She has given her hand,
Her foundations have fallen,
Her walls are thrown down;
For it is the vengeance of the Lord.
Take vengeance on her.
As she has done, so do to her.
Cut off the sower from Babylon,
And him who handles the sickle at harvest time.
For fear of the oppressing sword
Everyone shall turn to his own people,
And everyone shall flee to his own land.
“Israel is like scattered sheep;
The lions have driven him away.
First the king of Assyria devoured him;
Now at last this Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has broken his bones.”
Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel:
“Behold, I will punish the king of Babylon and his land,
As I have punished the king of Assyria.
But I will bring back Israel to his home,
And he shall feed on Carmel and Bashan;
His soul shall be satisfied on Mount Ephraim and Gilead.
In those days and in that time,” says the Lord,
“The iniquity of Israel shall be sought, but there shall be none;
And the sins of Judah, but they shall not be found;
For I will pardon those whom I preserve.
“Go up against the land of Merathaim, against it,
And against the inhabitants of Pekod.
Waste and utterly destroy them,” says the Lord,
“And do according to all that I have commanded you.
A sound of battle is in the land,
And of great destruction.
How the hammer of the whole earth has been cut apart and broken!
How Babylon has become a desolation among the nations!
I have laid a snare for you;
You have indeed been trapped, O Babylon,
And you were not aware;
You have been found and also caught,
Because you have contended against the Lord.
The Lord has opened His armory,
And has brought out the weapons of His indignation;
For this is the work of the Lord God of hosts
In the land of the Chaldeans.
Come against her from the farthest border;
Open her storehouses;
Cast her up as heaps of ruins,
And destroy her utterly;
Let nothing of her be left.
Slay all her bulls,
Let them go down to the slaughter.
Woe to them!
For their day has come, the time of their punishment.
The voice of those who flee and escape from the land of Babylon
Declares in Zion the vengeance of the Lord our God,
The vengeance of His temple.
“Call together the archers against Babylon.
All you who bend the bow, encamp against it all around;
Let none of them escape.
Repay her according to her work;
According to all she has done, do to her;
For she has been proud against the Lord,
Against the Holy One of Israel.
Therefore her young men shall fall in the streets,
And all her men of war shall be cut off in that day,” says the Lord.
“Behold, I am against you,
O most haughty one!” says the Lord God of hosts;
“For your day has come,
The time that I will punish you.
The most proud shall stumble and fall,
And no one will raise him up;
I will kindle a fire in his cities,
And it will devour all around him.”
Thus says the Lord of hosts:
“The children of Israel were oppressed,
Along with the children of Judah;
All who took them captive have held them fast;
They have refused to let them go.
Their Redeemer is strong;
The Lord of hosts is His name.
He will thoroughly plead their case,
That He may give rest to the land,
And disquiet the inhabitants of Babylon.
“A sword is against the Chaldeans,” says the Lord,
“Against the inhabitants of Babylon,
And against her princes and her wise men.
A sword is against the soothsayers, and they will be fools.
A sword is against her mighty men, and they will be dismayed.
A sword is against their horses,
Against their chariots,
And against all the mixed peoples who are in her midst;
And they will become like women.
A sword is against her treasures, and they will be robbed.
A drought is against her waters, and they will be dried up.
For it is the land of carved images,
And they are insane with their idols.
“Therefore the wild desert beasts shall dwell there with the jackals,
And the ostriches shall dwell in it.
It shall be inhabited no more forever,
Nor shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation.
As God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah
And their neighbors,” says the Lord,
“So no one shall reside there,
Nor son of man dwell in it.
“Behold, a people shall come from the north,
And a great nation and many kings
Shall be raised up from the ends of the earth.
They shall hold the bow and the lance;
They are cruel and shall not show mercy.
Their voice shall roar like the sea;
They shall ride on horses,
Set in array, like a man for the battle,
Against you, O daughter of Babylon.
“The king of Babylon has heard the report about them,
And his hands grow feeble;
Anguish has taken hold of him,
Pangs as of a woman in childbirth.
“Behold, he shall come up like a lion from the floodplain of the Jordan
Against the dwelling place of the strong;
But I will make them suddenly run away from her.
And who is a chosen man that I may appoint over her?
For who is like Me?
Who will arraign Me?
And who is that shepherd
Who will withstand Me?”
Therefore hear the counsel of the Lord that He has taken against Babylon,
And His purposes that He has proposed against the land of the Chaldeans:
Surely the least of the flock shall draw them out;
Surely He will make their dwelling place desolate with them.
At the noise of the taking of Babylon
The earth trembles,
And the cry is heard among the nations.
The Utter Destruction of Babylon
Thus says the Lord:
“Behold, I will raise up against Babylon,
Against those who dwell in Leb Kamai,
A destroying wind.
And I will send winnowers to Babylon,
Who shall winnow her and empty her land.
For in the day of doom
They shall be against her all around.
Against her let the archer bend his bow,
And lift himself up against her in his armor.
Do not spare her young men;
Utterly destroy all her army.
Thus the slain shall fall in the land of the Chaldeans,
And those thrust through in her streets.
For Israel is not forsaken, nor Judah,
By his God, the Lord of hosts,
Though their land was filled with sin against the Holy One of Israel.”
Flee from the midst of Babylon,
And every one save his life!
Do not be cut off in her iniquity,
For this is the time of the Lord’s vengeance;
He shall recompense her.
Babylon was a golden cup in the Lord’s hand,
That made all the earth drunk.
The nations drank her wine;
Therefore the nations are deranged.
Babylon has suddenly fallen and been destroyed.
Wail for her!
Take balm for her pain;
Perhaps she may be healed.
We would have healed Babylon,
But she is not healed.
Forsake her, and let us go everyone to his own country;
For her judgment reaches to heaven and is lifted up to the skies.
The Lord has revealed our righteousness.
Come and let us declare in Zion the work of the Lord our God.
Make the arrows bright!
Gather the shields!
The Lord has raised up the spirit of the kings of the Medes.
For His plan is against Babylon to destroy it,
Because it is the vengeance of the Lord,
The vengeance for His temple.
Set up the standard on the walls of Babylon;
Make the guard strong,
Set up the watchmen,
Prepare the ambushes.
For the Lord has both devised and done
What He spoke against the inhabitants of Babylon.
O you who dwell by many waters,
Abundant in treasures,
Your end has come,
The measure of your covetousness.
The Lord of hosts has sworn by Himself:
“Surely I will fill you with men, as with locusts,
And they shall lift up a shout against you.”
He has made the earth by His power;
He has established the world by His wisdom,
And stretched out the heaven by His understanding.
When He utters His voice—
There is a multitude of waters in the heavens:
“He causes the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth;
He makes lightnings for the rain;
He brings the wind out of His treasuries.”
Everyone is dull-hearted, without knowledge;
Every metalsmith is put to shame by the carved image;
For his molded image is falsehood,
And there is no breath in them.
They are futile, a work of errors;
In the time of their punishment they shall perish.
The Portion of Jacob is not like them,
For He is the Maker of all things;
And Israel is the tribe of His inheritance.
The Lord of hosts is His name.
“You are My battle-ax and weapons of war:
For with you I will break the nation in pieces;
With you I will destroy kingdoms;
With you I will break in pieces the horse and its rider;
With you I will break in pieces the chariot and its rider;
With you also I will break in pieces man and woman;
With you I will break in pieces old and young;
With you I will break in pieces the young man and the maiden;
With you also I will break in pieces the shepherd and his flock;
With you I will break in pieces the farmer and his yoke of oxen;
And with you I will break in pieces governors and rulers.
“And I will repay Babylon
And all the inhabitants of Chaldea
For all the evil they have done
In Zion in your sight,” says the Lord.
“Behold, I am against you, O destroying mountain,
Who destroys all the earth,” says the Lord.
“And I will stretch out My hand against you,
Roll you down from the rocks,
And make you a burnt mountain.
They shall not take from you a stone for a corner
Nor a stone for a foundation,
But you shall be desolate forever,” says the Lord.
Set up a banner in the land,
Blow the trumpet among the nations!
Prepare the nations against her,
Call the kingdoms together against her:
Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz.
Appoint a general against her;
Cause the horses to come up like the bristling locusts.
Prepare against her the nations,
With the kings of the Medes,
Its governors and all its rulers,
All the land of his dominion.
And the land will tremble and sorrow;
For every purpose of the Lord shall be performed against Babylon,
To make the land of Babylon a desolation without inhabitant.
The mighty men of Babylon have ceased fighting,
They have remained in their strongholds;
Their might has failed,
They became like women;
They have burned her dwelling places,
The bars of her gate are broken.
One runner will run to meet another,
And one messenger to meet another,
To show the king of Babylon that his city is taken on all sides;
The passages are blocked,
The reeds they have burned with fire,
And the men of war are terrified.
For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel:
“The daughter of Babylon is like a threshing floor
When it is time to thresh her;
Yet a little while
And the time of her harvest will come.”
“Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon
Has devoured me, he has crushed me;
He has made me an empty vessel,
He has swallowed me up like a monster;
He has filled his stomach with my delicacies,
He has spit me out.
Let the violence done to me and my flesh be upon Babylon,”
The inhabitant of Zion will say;
“And my blood be upon the inhabitants of Chaldea!”
Jerusalem will say.
Therefore thus says the Lord:
“Behold, I will plead your case and take vengeance for you.
I will dry up her sea and make her springs dry.
Babylon shall become a heap,
A dwelling place for jackals,
An astonishment and a hissing,
Without an inhabitant.
They shall roar together like lions,
They shall growl like lions’ whelps.
In their excitement I will prepare their feasts;
I will make them drunk,
That they may rejoice,
And sleep a perpetual sleep
And not awake,” says the Lord.
“I will bring them down
Like lambs to the slaughter,
Like rams with male goats.
“Oh, how Sheshach is taken!
Oh, how the praise of the whole earth is seized!
How Babylon has become desolate among the nations!
The sea has come up over Babylon;
She is covered with the multitude of its waves.
Her cities are a desolation,
A dry land and a wilderness,
A land where no one dwells,
Through which no son of man passes.
I will punish Bel in Babylon,
And I will bring out of his mouth what he has swallowed;
And the nations shall not stream to him anymore.
Yes, the wall of Babylon shall fall.
“My people, go out of the midst of her!
And let everyone deliver himself from the fierce anger of the Lord.
And lest your heart faint,
And you fear for the rumor that will be heard in the land
(A rumor will come one year,
And after that, in another year
A rumor will come,
And violence in the land,
Ruler against ruler),
Therefore behold, the days are coming
That I will bring judgment on the carved images of Babylon;
Her whole land shall be ashamed,
And all her slain shall fall in her midst.
Then the heavens and the earth and all that is in them
Shall sing joyously over Babylon;
For the plunderers shall come to her from the north,” says the Lord.
As Babylon has caused the slain of Israel to fall,
So at Babylon the slain of all the earth shall fall.
You who have escaped the sword,
Get away! Do not stand still!
Remember the Lord afar off,
And let Jerusalem come to your mind.
We are ashamed because we have heard reproach.
Shame has covered our faces,
For strangers have come into the sanctuaries of the Lord’s house.
“Therefore behold, the days are coming,” says the Lord,
“That I will bring judgment on her carved images,
And throughout all her land the wounded shall groan.
Though Babylon were to mount up to heaven,
And though she were to fortify the height of her strength,
Yet from Me plunderers would come to her,” says the Lord.
The sound of a cry comes from Babylon,
And great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans,
Because the Lord is plundering Babylon
And silencing her loud voice,
Though her waves roar like great waters,
And the noise of their voice is uttered,
Because the plunderer comes against her, against Babylon,
And her mighty men are taken.
Every one of their bows is broken;
For the Lord is the God of recompense,
He will surely repay.
“And I will make drunk
Her princes and wise men,
Her governors, her deputies, and her mighty men.
And they shall sleep a perpetual sleep
And not awake,” says the King,
Whose name is the Lord of hosts.
Thus says the Lord of hosts:
“The broad walls of Babylon shall be utterly broken,
And her high gates shall be burned with fire;
The people will labor in vain,
And the nations, because of the fire;
And they shall be weary.”

The word which Jeremiah the prophet commanded Seraiah the son of Neriah, the son of Mahseiah, when he went with Zedekiah the king of Judah to Babylon in the fourth year of his reign. And Seraiah was the quartermaster. So Jeremiah wrote in a book all the evil that would come upon Babylon, all these words that are written against Babylon. And Jeremiah said to Seraiah, “When you arrive in Babylon and see it, and read all these words, then you shall say, ‘O Lord, You have spoken against this place to cut it off, so that none shall remain in it, neither man nor beast, but it shall be desolate forever.’ Now it shall be, when you have finished reading this book, that you shall tie a stone to it and throw it out into the Euphrates. Then you shall say, ‘Thus Babylon shall sink and not rise from the catastrophe that I will bring upon her. And they shall be weary.’ ”

References

Andy Woods on Babylon: The Bookends of History Part 1 Part 2

Wikipedia on Historical Babylon
The World Capital? by Chuck Missler
False Religion
Riches!
Treasures on Earth / Treasures in Heaven
Churches as Cabals
God and the Angels
God’s Rule by Means of the AngelsSeries: The Ego Papers

Money, Wealth and Power
World wide financial collapse coming soon!
https://www.prophecynewswatch.com/article.cfm?recent_news_id=4781

Five Signs That America’s Raging Inflation Crisis Is Accelerating
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The pace at which conditions are changing is catching a lot of people off guard. Here in the United States, we have been in a low inflation environment for most of the past four decades, and so many Americans don't even have a frame of reference for what a highly inflationary environment looks like.

But now we are facing an inflation crisis that is unlike anything that we have seen since the Jimmy Carter era in the 1970s.

In response to the COVID pandemic, governments around the world have been borrowing and spending colossal mountains of money, and global central banks have been absolutely flooding their respective financial systems with new cash.

These measures were taken to stimulate the worldwide economy, but in the process a horrific inflation monster has been created, and it will not be tamed easily.

In fact, national governments and global central banks continue to do the very same things that created the horrific inflation monster in the first place.

Moving forward, things look very bleak. The following are 5 signs that America's raging inflation crisis is accelerating...

#1 Inflation tends to hit those at the bottom of the economic food chain the hardest, but at this point even most millionaires say that they are "concerned about inflation"...

This is a major worry for most wealthy investors, according to CNBC's latest millionaire survey. As many as 65% of millionaires are concerned about inflation caused by recent government spending, according to the report. Of those, 34% said they were very concerned.

The survey, conducted online in April and May by Spectrum Group on CNBC's behalf, had 750 respondents with investable assets of $1 million or more.

#2 The biggest banks in the world are now sounding the alarm about the inflation crisis.

This week, a team of analysts from Deutsche Bank warned that "neglecting inflation leaves global economies sitting on a time bomb"...

We worry that inflation will make a comeback. Few still remember how our societies and economies were threatened by high inflation 50 years ago. The most basic laws of economics, the ones that have stood the test of time over a millennium, have not been suspended.

An explosive growth in debt financed largely by central banks is likely to lead to higher inflation. We worry that the painful lessons of an inflationary past are being ignored by central bankers, either because they really believe that this time is different, or they have bought into a new paradigm that low interest rates are here to stay, or they are protecting their institutions by not trying to hold back a political steam roller.

Whatever the reason, we expect inflationary pressures to re-emerge as the Fed continues with its policy of patience and its stated belief that current pressures are largely transitory.

It may take a year longer until 2023 but inflation will re-emerge. And while it is admirable that this patience is due to the fact that the Fed's priorities are shifting towards social goals, neglecting inflation leaves global economies sitting on a time bomb.

#3 Housing prices continue to soar into the stratosphere in the United States.

These days, investment funds, wealthy individuals and foreigners are all gobbling up homes in anticipation of making huge profits, and this is making things extremely difficult for ordinary home buyers. Earlier, I found the following message from one exasperated home shopper on a popular discussion forum...

It's crazy. Soon as it hits the market tons of offers.

Mostly Investors and flippers.

Real estate Agent's telling me things like.

"We've got Rich guys as far out as Hawaii buying houses sight unseen. They'll even buy them in bulk. Anything from dumps to mansions.'

We've got Chinese snatching up properties, Bill Gates, Businesses, and like I said flippers. It's Impossible!

Auction sites along with gov seized properties are flooded with the same types.

Can not compete you'll be outbid by thousands upon thousand of dollars way above market value.

Any tricks or strategies to buy a house? Anything that may not have all the greedy jerks swarming over them?

A family seriously needing to actually live in a place seems completely s.o.l

It's not just my area that's hot right now its everywhere.

Please if anyone has good advice would be appreciated. Thanks

#4 Used car prices have now officially entered "absurd" territory.

This week, we learned that the Used Vehicle Value Index has shot up by 26 percent so far in 2021...

Prices of used vehicles sold at auctions around the US in May spiked by 4.6% from April, by 26% year-to-date, and by 45% from April 2019, according to the Used Vehicle Value Index released today by Manheim, the largest auto auction operator in the US and a unit of Cox Automotive.

I used to recommend buying used vehicles to people because I thought that most of the time you could get a better value, but at this point I am reversing my recommendation.

In this environment, I would strongly encourage everyone to consider buying new vehicles because used vehicles have become so ridiculously expensive.

#5 Food prices continue to surge higher, and I continue to see reports of intermittent shortages around the nation.

Down in Florida, Papa Bee's Owner Lorie Hamm says that only a limited number of cases of chicken wings are being made available to restaurants in her area, and she also says that the price for such cases has nearly doubled since the start of 2021...

"There's 300 cases that are allocated for two counties I believe, they were gone in two minutes," Hamm said.

At the beginning of the year, a case of wings sold for $70-90 a case. Now they are about $150 a case.

When you begin to wildly create new money, this is what happens. Prices go haywire and shortages tend to occur.

Unfortunately, our leaders don't seem to have even a basic understanding of the laws of economics, and the pain that we have experienced so far is just the tip of the iceberg.

If they were smart, global authorities would be taking emergency measures to get inflation under control before it is too late.

Of course that is not happening. Instead, they just continue to feed the monster.

This crisis is going to go from bad to worse, and you should prepare accordingly.
Originally published at The Economic Collapse Blog - reposted with permission.

the king here is AC/political power/sea beast......the false prophet is in the temple leading religious worship.......my take.....

-----Original Message-----
From: Lambert Dolphin <lambertdolphin@comcast.net>
To: James Fielder <jlfdrilll@aol.com>
Cc: Lambert Dolphin <lambert@ldolphin.org>
Sent: Mon, Jun 14, 2021 12:59 pm
Subject: Daniel 11:36ff

“Then the king (the false prophet ruling as Messiah in Israel) shall do according to his own will: he shall exalt and magnify himself above every god, shall speak blasphemies against the God of gods, and shall prosper till the wrath has been accomplished; for what has been determined shall be done. “He shall regard neither the God (elohim ab)of his fathers nor the desire of women, nor regard any god; for he shall exalt himself above them all. “But in their place he shall honor a god (eloah, dual) of fortresses; (maol, protection, forces) and a god which his fathers did not know he shall honor with gold and silver, with precious stones and pleasant things. “Thus he shall act against the strongest fortresses with a foreign god, which he shall acknowledge, and advance its glory; and he shall cause them to rule over many, and divide the land for gain. “At the time of the end the king of the South (Egypt) shall attack him; and the king of the North shall come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots, horsemen, and with many ships; and he shall enter the countries, overwhelm them, and pass through. “He shall also enter the Glorious Land, (Israel) and many countries shall be overthrown; but these shall escape from his hand: Edom, Moab, and the prominent people of Ammon. “He shall stretch out his hand against the countries, and the land of Egypt shall not escape. “He shall have power over the treasures of gold and silver, and over all the precious things of Egypt; also the Libyans and Ethiopians shall follow at his heels. “But news from the east and the north shall trouble him; therefore he shall go out with great fury to destroy and annihilate many. “And he shall plant the tents of his palace between the seas and the glorious holy mountain; yet he shall come to his end, and no one will help him.”

https://www.raptureready.com/2021/06/13/coming-together-by-daymond-duck/

Coming Together:By Daymond Duck Published on: June 13, 2021 by RRadmin7 Category:Daymond Duck, General Articles
I recently attended the Mid-America Prophecy Conference in Tulsa, OK.

Here are a few interesting comments (in my words) that some speakers made.

Satan is the greatest deceiver ever.

Satan’s greatest deception or conspiracy is his effort to replace God and take over the world.

Satan uses people called globalists to execute his deception or conspiracy, and they are influencing many world leaders today.

Some people say a threat (aliens) from “outside this world” could unite this world and be used to establish a world government.

Some consider Satan to be an “outside this world” threat.

The New World Order (NWO) is not new.

Nimrod tried to build a godless system of world government and world religion at the Tower of Babel.

God created nations at the Tower of Babel because a world government is ruled by one power.

If the world’s only power is corrupt, the whole world is corrupt.

God created nationalism (nations and borders) at the Tower of Babel to protect the world from a corrupt world government and world religion.

It is possible to conclude from the story of Nimrod and the Tower of Babel that God has always been anti-globalism and pro-nationalism.

Current events indicate that the stage is being set for a godless world government and world religion.

Globalists dislike the Bible because it teaches that what the globalists are doing is wrong.

Christians do not need to be concerned about Covid-19; Christians need to be concerned about the globalist solution to Covid-19 (enslaving the world under a godless world government and world religion).

God will allow Satan and his globalists to have a godless world government and world religion for seven years, but He will destroy them in one hour near the end of the Tribulation Period.

Today, orthodox Jews in Israel know that when Israel is back in the Promised Land, Bible prophecy will be fulfilled, and their Messiah will appear.

Orthodox Jews will be surprised by their Messiah’s identity, but they will not be surprised by His coming (they know it is near).

One, on May 26, 2021, pollster George Barna reported that 51% of American adults say they have a biblical worldview, but data shows that only 6% of American adults have a biblical worldview.

This reveals an obvious inconsistency in what people say they believe and what they really believe.

People get a biblical worldview from studying the Bible, hearing sermons, associating with Christians that have a Christian worldview, etc.

There appears to be insufficient Bible study and preaching on a Christian worldview.

Insufficient Bible study and preaching is making it easier for globalists to push their godless world government and world religion.

Two, concerning world government: on June 5, 2021, the G-7 (Group of 7 nations with large economies) agreed to support a minimum global tax rate of 15% on multinational corporations (Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google, etc.), and more taxes in nations where the multinational corporations sell goods and services.

The G-7 will submit this as a recommendation to the G-20 (Group of 20 nations) in July and push for their approval.

Some nations are already saying 15% is not enough, and they expect to increase this global tax rate in the future.

Some in the UN want a global income tax, and it is a safe bet that after they impose a global tax on multinational corporations, they will enact other global taxes.

Three, concerning the Battle of Gog and Magog: on May 25, 2021, Russia’s Defense Minister reported that Russia has deployed three long-range supersonic bombers capable of carrying nuclear weapons to its base in Syria.

Four, more on the Battle of Gog and Magog: in an article published on May 25, 2021, Rafael Grossi, Director Gen. of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), admitted that it is too late for the U.S. to return to the 2015 nuclear agreement with Iran and that an Iranian nuclear weapon is “Inevitable.”

Grossi noted that Iran has 10 times (several other reports say 16 times) the amount of enriched, 60% purity uranium allowed by the agreement and that the only reason for nations to enrich uranium to that level is for use in weapons.

If the production of nuclear weapons by Iran is inevitable, an Israeli attack on Iran is inevitable because Israel is determined to keep Iran from getting nuclear weapons.

Many students of Bible prophecy believe the fulfillment of God’s Word is inevitable, and this will wind up triggering the Battle of Gog and Magog.

Five, more on the Battle of Gog and Magog: on June 1, 2021, Israel’s Prime Min. Netanyahu said if Israel is “pushed to choose between a lack of friction with the U.S. or defending the country against the nuclear threat from Iran, Israel will choose to confront the Islamic Republic.”

Netanyahu believes stopping Iran’s development of nuclear weapons is more important than anything, including Israel’s relationship with the U.S.

Six, concerning an economic collapse:

In Jan. 2021, Biden stopped construction of America’s Keystone XL oil and natural gas Pipeline, putting about 11,000 people out of work on the pipeline itself and about 42,000 people out of work in businesses producing supplies for the pipeline. (23 states are suing Biden for illegally undoing an act of Congress that will benefit the citizens of the U.S. Biden also halted oil and natural gas leases on federal lands.)

In Mar. 2021, Biden imported more than a million barrels of Iranian oil that was on a seized Iranian tanker that was violating U.S. sanctions.

In May 2021, Biden waved U.S. sanctions on Russia, allowing Putin to finish construction of Russia’s Nord Stream 2 pipeline to Germany.

On June 1, 2021, it was reported that Biden has temporarily (but probably permanently) blocked drilling for oil in the Alaskan Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Biden is helping Russia and Iran produce and sell oil and natural gas at the same time that he is blocking U.S. companies from producing and selling oil and natural gas.

Biden deliberately approved the employment of thousands of Russians and deliberately put thousands of U.S. citizens out of work about the same time on the same kind of jobs.

Perhaps, Biden was telling the truth on Feb. 19, 2021, when he declared he was replacing Trump’s “America First” agenda with “Globalism First.”

This self-proclaimed “good Catholic” does not realize it, but God intends to use the Tribulation Period to bring an end to the “Globalism First” agenda.

Seven, concerning hyper-inflation and an economic collapse, on June 4, 2021, it was reported that the senior economist at the UN’s Food and Agricultural Organization said as of May 2021, global food prices have increased 12 months in a row, and the May increase was the largest increase in more than 10 years.

The rise in inflation will impact the standard of living in lower-and-middle class families.

Eight, concerning a worthless peace treaty: on May 28, 2021, White House Correspondent Bill Koenig (Koenig’s Eye View) wrote that the Abraham Accords are taking the world on a path that will lead to the Covenant that will be confirmed by the Antichrist (Dan. 9:27).

Koenig believes the Abraham Accords are causing confusion about ownership of the Promised Land (particularly Judea and Samaria right now).

Since God will drag the nations into the Battle of Armageddon for dividing the land of Israel (Joel 3:2), Koenig believes Christians should oppose agreements that will lead to that.

Nine, concerning tracking all buying and selling, it is common knowledge that equipment and officials know where people are when they have their cellphone with them.

I cannot verify the accuracy of the reports, but there have been at least two reports that say vaccinated people are being tracked over the 5g Internet System.

According to information that I have received, some vaccines have nanochip transmitters in them that can send information (vital signs, GPS coordinates, etc.) on vaccinated people to receivers 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

On June 2, 2021, Brighteon reported that a new study in Japan reveals that “Lipid NanoParticles (LNPs) containing the mRNA code are widely circulated around the body after vaccination, reaching the brain, spleen, large intestine, heart, liver, lungs and other organs.”

According to the report “Labeled ‘Pfizer confidential,’ the study is known as a bio-distribution study that uses luciferase enzymes and radioisotope markers to accurately track the distribution of Pfizer’s mRNA LNPs across the body.”

This writer is not qualified to evaluate these reports, but if they are true, they could have major implications for the future Mark of the Beast.

Ten, on June 1, 2021, it was reported that pharmacists usually receive a list of ingredients and information on the drugs they sell, but J & J is not giving out that information on their Covid-19 vaccine.

According to the report, pharmacists can go to a website and get a list of ingredients and information, but J & J is not including this with the shipments because the FDA still has not approved J & J’s untested product (it is approved for emergency use, but not as a vaccine).

Eleven, concerning Covid-19 vaccinations: on June 3, 2021, the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that 10,262 fully vaccinated people got infected with Covid at least 14 days after their second jab, and about 160 of them died.

Critics say these numbers are grossly understated because they depend upon people voluntarily reporting the facts, and many do not make a report.

One article said the CDC has asked labs to use one test for unvaccinated people and a different test for vaccinated people.

According to the writer, the goal of the different tests is to make it look like Covid-19 is worse among unvaccinated people than it is among vaccinated people.

Twelve, concerning deceit: on June 6, 2021, it was reported that there is proof that Dr. Fauci and several medical elites conspired and used false information to block the use of hydroxychloroquine (an inexpensive and effective drug that some experts say could have saved hundreds of lives) for the treatment of Covid-19.

There were also calls for a Congressional investigation of reports that Fauci lied about the source of the Covid-19 outbreak (perhaps a lab in China that was receiving funds from Fauci and the NIH).

Some officials are saying deceit and lies have been used to unnecessarily close schools, lockdown churches and businesses, force people to buy masks, get expensive vaccinations, give up their rights, etc.

All of the signs of the Tribulation Period and Second Coming seem to be coming together (converging or falling into place).

Are you Rapture Ready?

Finally, if you want to be rapture ready and go to heaven, you must be born again (John 3:3). God loves you, and if you have not done so, sincerely admit that you are a sinner; believe that Jesus is the virgin-born, sinless Son of God who died for the sins of the world, was buried, and raised from the dead; ask Him to forgive your sins, cleanse you, come into your heart and be your Saviour; then tell someone that you have done this.

duck_daymond@yahoo.com

Lambert Dolphin's Place
Email Lambert Dolphin
May 31, 2021, June 14, 2021
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Revelation 17	Revelation 18
*World Religion symbolized as Harlot*	*Commerce, Banking, and Trade symbolized as a Great City*
Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and talked with me, saying to me, “Come, I will show you the judgment of the great harlot who sits on many waters, with whom the kings of the earth committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth were made drunk with the wine of her fornication.” So he carried me away in the Spirit into the wilderness. And I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast which was full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. The woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls, having in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the filthiness of her fornication. And on her forehead a name was written: MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH. I saw the woman, drunk with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. And when I saw her, I marveled with great amazement. But the angel said to me, “Why did you marvel? I will tell you the mystery of the woman and of the beast that carries her, which has the seven heads and the ten horns. The beast that you saw was, and is not, and will ascend out of the bottomless pit and go to perdition. And those who dwell on the earth will marvel, whose names are not written in the Book of Life from the foundation of the world, when they see the beast that was, and is not, and yet is. “Here is the mind which has wisdom: The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman sits. There are also seven kings. Five have fallen, one is, and the other has not yet come. And when he comes, he must continue a short time. The beast that was, and is not, is himself also the eighth, and is of the seven, and is going to perdition. “The ten horns which you saw are ten kings who have received no kingdom as yet, but they receive authority for one hour as kings with the beast. These are of one mind, and they will give their power and authority to the beast. These will make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb will overcome them, for He is Lord of lords and King of kings; and those who are with Him are called, chosen, and faithful.” Then he said to me, “The waters which you saw, where the harlot sits, are peoples, multitudes, nations, and tongues. And the ten horns which you saw on the beast, these will hate the harlot, make her desolate and naked, eat her flesh and burn her with fire. For God has put it into their hearts to fulfill His purpose, to be of one mind, and to give their kingdom to the beast, until the words of God are fulfilled. And the woman whom you saw is that great city which reigns over the kings of the earth.”	After these things (meta tauta) I saw another angel coming down from heaven, having great authority, and the earth was illuminated with his glory. And he cried mightily with a loud voice, saying, “Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and has become a dwelling place of demons, a prison for every foul spirit, and a cage for every unclean and hated bird! For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth have become rich through the abundance of her luxury.” And I heard another voice from heaven saying, “Come out of her, my people, lest you share in her sins, and lest you receive of her plagues. For her sins have reached to heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities. Render to her just as she rendered to you, and repay her double according to her works; in the cup which she has mixed, mix double for her. In the measure that she glorified herself and lived luxuriously, in the same measure give her torment and sorrow; for she says in her heart, ‘I sit as queen, and am no widow, and will not see sorrow.’ Therefore her plagues will come in one day—death and mourning and famine. And she will be utterly burned with fire, for strong is the Lord God who judges her. “The kings of the earth who committed fornication and lived luxuriously with her will weep and lament for her, when they see the smoke of her burning, standing at a distance for fear of her torment, saying, Alas, alas, that great city Babylon, that mighty city! For in one hour your judgment has come.’ “And the merchants of the earth will weep and mourn over her, for no one buys their merchandise anymore: merchandise of gold and silver, precious stones and pearls, fine linen and purple, silk and scarlet, every kind of citron wood, every kind of object of ivory, every kind of object of most precious wood, bronze, iron, and marble; and cinnamon and incense, fragrant oil and frankincense, wine and oil, fine flour and wheat, cattle and sheep, horses and chariots, and bodies and souls of men. The fruit that your soul longed for has gone from you, and all the things which are rich and splendid have gone from you, and you shall find them no more at all. The merchants of these things, who became rich by her, will stand at a distance for fear of her torment, weeping and wailing, and saying, ‘Alas, alas, that great city that was clothed in fine linen, purple, and scarlet, and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls! For in one hour such great riches came to nothing.’ Every shipmaster, all who travel by ship, sailors, and as many as trade on the sea, stood at a distance and cried out when they saw the smoke of her burning, saying, What is like this great city?’ “They threw dust on their heads and cried out, weeping and wailing, and saying, ‘Alas, alas, that great city, in which all who had ships on the sea became rich by her wealth! For in one hour she is made desolate.’ “Rejoice over her, O heaven, and you holy apostles and prophets, for God has avenged you on her!” Then a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone and threw it into the sea, saying, “Thus with violence the great city Babylon shall be thrown down, and shall not be found anymore. The sound of harpists, musicians, flutists, and trumpeters shall not be heard in you anymore. No craftsman of any craft shall be found in you anymore, and the sound of a millstone shall not be heard in you anymore. The light of a lamp shall not shine in you anymore, and the voice of bridegroom and bride shall not be heard in you anymore. For your merchants were the great men of the earth, for by your sorcery all the nations were deceived. And in her was found the blood of prophets and saints, and of all who were slain on the earth. (Revelation 17:1 - 18:24)

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بابل محافظة

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