[Darris McNeely] It's been a very eventful period in the Middle East and especially in the nation of Egypt. Over the weekend, finally, election results were proclaimed and for the first time Egypt has an Islamist president, Mohammed Morsi, who is also a member of what is called the Muslim Brotherhood.

People are watching and waiting to see exactly how this will play out, what it will mean for Egypt and its role in the Middle East with the United States and the rest of the world. Again, a very eventful period - one we haven't talked about for some time. And I thought it'd be good to just have an update as to what exactly is taking place in this largest Arab state in the area of the Middle East and one that is very key and significant regarding Bible prophecy.

First of all, let's just notice a couple of things to understand about Egypt - what has been taking place in this country. Since the Arab Spring of more than a year and a half ago where they toppled Hosni Mubarak, the long president of that nation, they've been going through a period of turmoil. A new parliament was elected and then dissolved by the military. The Islamists under the Muslim Brotherhood gained a majority there. Now they're representative, their man Muhammad Morsi is the president.

You've got two factions in Egypt that we should understand. The Muslim Brotherhood is one - a longstanding association of Fundamentalist Islamic group, which has ties throughout the Middle East. In Egypt as well as we have the military, which is a key player. Since the 1950's basically the military has been involved in the selection of every president, every leader of Egypt and they really are the main power broker behind the scenes. The Muslim Brotherhood, over 80 years in existence, doing a great deal of work and again as I said has ties throughout the Middle East and now they have come into power, but they've come in power with the military. What you should understand about Egypt is nothing takes place in Egypt without the military supporting it. And as the Muslim Brotherhood now has elected one of their representatives as the President, we have to understand that that's been done with the cooperation and the approval of the military. How these two will then begin to function is what we will be watching as we move ahead in the coming days.

But, why is this important? We've covered Egypt in past Beyond Today programs. We also have in our booklet the Middle East in Bible Prophecy a great deal to say about this part of the world and Egypt in particular because there is a key prophecy in the book of Daniel 11:40 that helps us to begin to understand this. And I'll just note that here in verse 40, it is the setting of the time of the end, "When the King of the South will 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."

We have identified, especially in this prophecy, an entity called the King of the South. In Bible prophecy, directions are always taken from the center point of Jerusalem. To the south of Jerusalem, the largest nation with any historical significance to impact this prophecy is Egypt - again over 80 million inhabitants, the largest Arab state in the Middle East, and again, prophetically and historically very key to this prophecy and to other stories and episodes within the Bible.

And so when we look at this, we see a time of the end turmoil beginning to develop in and around this nation of the King of the South, which is going to be involving Egypt as that part of the - from that part of the world. And now with the development of a Fundamentalist Islamic President and the military, the largest military as well - the largest armed forces in the Middle East - coming into some type of a coalition type government to rule this vast country, we're seeing major changes beginning to take place that no doubt will long term impact the fulfillment of this Bible prophecy. That's why Egypt is important to watch and to understand.

We'll talk more about this in another episode of Beyond Today. For BT Daily, join us next time.