The King of the South

The sermon I want to give is one that I've given recently in World News and Prophecy Seminars. With some of the matters that have been taking place this week in Egypt, especially in the Middle East, I thought that this would be an appropriate thing to bring out here and update with some of the riots that have been taking place in Egypt if you've been following the news. I was talking with some of you before services and some of you aren't following the news because of just other things going on with life. However, the Middle East is ramping up again and is really starting to be aflame. It's interesting, it was either two weeks ago, I believe we had a Beyond Today program that Gary Petty had done on peace in the Middle East or something to peace in the Middle East.

We had a good response. It didn't go off the charts. I remember commenting to Peter Eddington, well, the reason is we don't have a crisis in the Middle East. If we had a crisis in the Middle East, then we would have had a bigger response and website hits to the booklet on Middle East and Prophecy would have soared. But I spoke too soon because right after that things began to come unglued over there in Tunisia and in Egypt and as well in Jordan. So I thought that it might be good just to bring this out. I'm going to have to work up a Beyond Today program script in the next 10 days to do a program on this. This has been on my mind and I thought we'd just go ahead and talk about it here in regard to what's taking place. But this is just one scene of some of the riots that are taking place in Egypt, especially right now. I saw in this morning's headlines, I've been kind of following closely, there were 50,000 demonstrators in Egypt right now out on the streets as they have been rebelling and marching against the presidency of Hosni Mubarak, who has been the president of Egypt for nearly 30 years. Just as a side note, the United Church is planning to sponsor for the spring holy days one of these educational tours to Egypt. And if you want to sign up for that right now and go. You're welcome to go if you've got the money and want to do that. I didn't realize it, but I found out the other day that I was scheduled to be the minister that was going to lead the tour. And I honestly didn't know about that. And my name popped up on some email that came out from Ministerial Services that I was going to leave this. It had someone had mentioned it in passing in December and I didn't take it seriously and I just forgot about it with everything else. And so right now I'm going to tell them that I, for a number of reasons, I'm not planning to go to Egypt in April. And I really would question whether we would even have that trip. But it's on the books. There have been people who have committed to it. And I saw that tourists are jamming the Cairo airport to get out right now. So who knows how far this is going to go in this present crisis. But that's what's taking place. I'll come back to it here in a few minutes because this is not just a CNN news roundup here.

Really, it's a sermon about prophecy. You can either turn to Daniel chapter 12 or just follow along with what we have up here. The reason this is important, Egypt right now, is what's taking place over there. We'll walk you through that, but let's be reminded of certain things because Egypt is mentioned in prophecy in a number of ways. I think we all understand that. Certainly, we're told to come out of Egypt when we get ready to keep the spring holy days. We also read many prophecies about Egypt in the world tomorrow. Usually, it's the Feast of Tabernacles. We read a prophecy that talks about a highway out of Egypt to Assyria coming out of that area as peoples flow toward Jerusalem. So Egypt is mentioned. Of course, it is a very prominent nation biblically. Even today in the Middle East, even though Egypt has not been on the radar screen of a lot of us in the news for a number of reasons in recent years. We've been more occupied with Iran and Iraq and Afghanistan for the obvious reasons. We have not been engaged or really... Egypt has not been on our radar screen. It is now. We should have an understanding about it in terms of what the prophecies say about this. But in Daniel 12 and verse 1, we'll just pick up here, it says that at that time, Michael shall stand up the great prince who stands, watch over the sons of your people, and there shall be a time of trouble such as never was since there was a nation even to that time. Daniel 12 comes at a time right after Daniel 11, obviously, which is the longest prophecy in the Bible that lays out a scenario of events from the time of the ancient world, the time of Alexander the Great's empire breaking up, to the time of Jesus Christ's return. This is what is brought out here in that particular episode. This is the region of the world that we are talking about here. Egypt, of course, is right here on this Google map. As you see, the Suez Canal comes up through here in the Mediterranean. You've got Europe up here, Israel and North Africa, a very prominent area. And of course, in our booklet on the Middle East and Bible prophecy, we go through this whole subject quite well. If you haven't read that in some time, it might be good for you to pick it up or download a copy of it and look at it. If you've got an e-reader, you can get it free of charge on an e-reader there as well.

Melvin Rogues did a very good job writing this up a few years ago.

I would imagine there's going to be quite a bit of interest in this particular booklet as time goes along here, even in this current situation.

In Daniel chapter 10, you can just turn there. I didn't put these verses up there, but let's go back to Daniel chapter 10. There is a little interesting note there in Daniel chapter 10, a little story where Daniel was fasting for understanding. We have a bit of revelation about things that go on behind the scenes as the angel comes to Daniel in chapter 10, beginning in verse 10. We'll just pick up the story right there where it says, Suddenly a hand touched me, which made me tremble on my knees and on the palms of my hands. And he said to me, O Daniel, may a man greatly be loved, understand the words that I speak to you and stand upright, for I have now been sent to you. And while he was speaking this word, I stood trembling. And he said, Daniel, do not fear Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart to understand and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard. And I had come because of your words. Daniel is on about a three-week fast and prayer vigil here to come to understand certain things about other prophecies, the 70-weeks prophecy. But then it goes on, and the angel tells him, The prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me twenty-one days.

Behold, Michael, one of the chief princes came to help me, for I had been left alone there with the kings of Persia. So here's a kind of a revelation that there is a great spirit being that is associated with the kingdom of Persia called the prince of the kingdom of Persia. Persia was the second great empire of Nebuchadnezzar's dream in the image that he saw that Daniel identified. Babylon was the first, Persia was the second, Greece third, Rome the fourth.

And so in this we find that there is a prince of the kingdom of Persia. And that's interesting to note. I've said this before, but you wish you knew more, but God kind of peels the curtain back to let us know that these empires and these great kingdoms that have come and gone on the course of history, there's a spirit world behind them, which lets us know in other details that, you know, on the opposite side there are workings in the spirit world that influence the events that we see and read about in history or see even in our pages of our newspapers or on the internet and television today, that what happens in this world on that scale between nations does not happen in a vacuum.

There are spiritual forces at work raging back and forth. And here's a prince of Persia identified. He says, I've come to understand, I've come to make you understand in verse 14 what will happen to your people in the latter days. So the vision refers to many days yet to come. And so he goes on to talk to him about this. And then down in verse 19, I'll just jump down there to it.

He said, O man greatly beloved, fear not, peace be to you, be strong, yes be strong. And when he spoke to me, I was strengthened and said, let my Lord speak for you have strengthened me. And then he said, do you know why I have come to you? And now I must return to fight with the prince of Persia. And when I've gone forth, indeed the prince of Greece will come.

And so he identifies another spirit, angelic presence, a powerful, and these are evil demons, princes, that is associated with the prince as the prince of Greece with that great empire and that region. And so this angel reveals to Daniel is recorded here a struggle going on spiritually behind the scenes that lets us understand a little bit regarding the nature of the struggle between empires and nations, especially prophetically as they relate to the plan of God. We should always keep that in mind. You want to understand this particular prophecy in Daniel 11 that we're going into of the king of the south and the king of the north.

It's important to recognize that we have two regions identified, Persia and Greece. Persia today is occupied by the modern nation of Iran. Now, I don't want to focus just on Iran because the prophecy in Daniel 11 really does expand beyond just one nation. Greece, while it was that empire of Alexander the Great, it also represents something that has transformed down through history, the Bible prophecy talks about, as it has transformed essentially into representing Europe and the king of the north, which is what the prophecy goes on to talk about.

In Daniel 11, verses 5 and 6, this very long prophetic chapter, it begins to talk about in verses 5 and 6 two entities called the king of the south, who will be strong as well as one of the princes, and he will gain power over him and his dominion will be a great dominion. And at the end of some years they shall join forces for the daughter of the king of the south shall go to the king of the north to make an agreement. Now, I just will stop there.

I'm not going to get into all the details of how this prophecy is fulfilled historically and everything. Our booklet covers that. You can go into that in detail. But here is where these two figures are mentioned, the king of the north and the king of the south.

Just looking at this map will give you a little bit of an understanding of how, at the death of Alexander the Great, his kingdom that he had conquered coming out of Macedonia throughout the Middle East, Alexander the Great conquered Egypt, went up, conquered all of this area, all the way to the present-day area of Afghanistan and India before he died.

At a very young age in Babylon, his kingdom was divided between his four generals. Over a period of time, at least as far as the story of the Bible is concerned and what we're concerned with, these two entities in a sense came down to what is called the king of the north, which would represent this area up here, and the king of the south. The king of the south was the Ptolemies. This was under the initial general Seleucus, and the others in a sense don't pertain to us in terms of the designation because the others were wrapped up into the king of the south prophetically.

The king of the north was eventually overcome by Rome, and Rome takes on that title of the king of the north, and the various succession revivals of the holy Roman empire down through time, then are what we look to for understanding who this king of the north is, and the area that it is going to come from. So the king of the south and the king of the north, prophetically in this particular scenario, rise up as the two to watch and to understand.

The king of the south essentially then becomes this entire region of what we would look at as the Middle East and the Arab Islamic world today. And the king of the north is that of Europe.

Going back to the idea of Persia and Greece, then, these two princes that are identified very briefly in Daniel 10 at least should help us understand that what is really a historic age-long clash between powers coming out of this region and powers in Europe.

You don't have to be an in-depth student of history to know that the east and the west have been clashing going back and forth for centuries in terms of armies and nations and powers and going back and forth. The Persians attacked Greece. Greek under Alexander, they attacked the Persians. Rome even tried to subdue this area, but Rome never could. The eastern extent of the Roman Empire basically came to about right there. They never conquered this area over here. They couldn't do it. But that doesn't take away from the might of the Roman Empire and what it stood for and what it did. As you go down through history, leaving that particular point in time, you still see the waging of battles and armies moving back and forth from this region into the area of the king of the north or to Europe and from Europe here, largely over the issue of religion. When you look at the the spread of Islam, this is a critical factor to note and to understand. In the seventh century, Muhammad received his vision. He didn't write it. It was put together later, but the Koran came together. Islam gave birth as a religion here in the Arabian Peninsula, Mecca and Medina. When he died, within a hundred years, the armies of Islam spread out across North Africa up into Europe. They went up into these areas of the old Persian Empire, conquering in the name of Islam. Islam spread quite rapidly. That's a fact of history and it is important to understand in terms of where they went and what they did. They actually got up into what is modern day France before they were defeated up there. I'll come back to that in a minute. This is why these parts of the world are under the religious domination of Islam, Muslim religion to this day. But it did spread quite rapidly. Now, we jump into prophecy of Daniel 11 down to verse 40.

Because it jumps at this point to the time of the end. We're not concerned today with all the other in-between, but at verse 40 we come to what is identified at the time of the end, which jumps us down into our particular period here today. At the time of the end shall the king of the south push at him, which can mean to attack, to push at in terms of go after, the king of the north and the king of the north shall come against him, the king of the south, like a whirlwind with chariots and with horsemen and with many ships. So this is what verse 40 of Daniel begins to talk about here in terms of this clash taking place between these two powers. And if you would look at it this way on this particular map, you've got then a push that comes out of the region of the Middle East to the north, against the king of the north, at a particular time when it will be dominated by this particular combination of church and state that you see here. And I'm not getting into that subject today. That's a whole other issue, a whole other topic to talk about. But there is some type of an attack made in some way that causes the king of the north then to repel or to come against the king of the south and attack the king of the south. And again, you look at history, this will not be the first. It will be the last in history that it has happened, but it is not the first. Those of you that have studied history, I already mentioned the Islamic incursion into France in the eighth century when they were repelled. You fast forward to the time of the Crusades with the Holy Land under the control of the Muslims. The Pope called for a great crusade to liberate Jerusalem and the holy places and armies out of Europe poured into the Middle East and they captured Jerusalem and had a kingdom of Jerusalem for about a hundred years. Stories told in a movie that came out a few years ago called The Kingdom of Heaven, which was a good movie for what it was. It kind of told that story. But this back and forth has been going on for years, for centuries. The armies and nations out of the area of the king of the south have been pushing at the king of the north and there have been incursions from the king of the north there through history. What we read about here in Daniel 40 will be the last one and it will be the most significant one because of its implications. So that's what's important for us to understand.

This was the one I referred to in the eighth century, the year 732 AD, where the armies of Islam here on the right were stopped by the Christian armies. You see the cross here of the Christian leader named Charles Martel. Charles Martel was the grandfather of Charlemagne and at a place called Tours in modern France, he stopped the advance of the Islamic armies and essentially preserved European culture for what it was at that time and for its own development.

They had to retreat back into Spain, where they was their stronghold. France then was spared, as well as all of northern Europe. History would have been a different story, and you and I, probably speaking a different language, had they succeeded and overrun Europe at that time. It didn't happen because it wasn't according to God's prophecies that it would happen. That was not the last. There was another one in the 16th century. This time during the Ottoman Empire, Suleiman the Magnificent, who was the leader of the Ottoman Empire at that time, he decided that he wanted to expand and attack what was then the Holy Roman Empire. He got as far as Vienna in 1529. He besieged Vienna, but he was not successful. They pushed him back. Again, about 100 years later, there was another effort to attack in Europe, and they pushed him back from Vienna as well. So European culture, Christianity as it was, was preserved.

It is the point from this, but these pushes have been going on down through the years quite regularly with these efforts to overcome and expand Islam. When I was in Budapest, here recently, we went up to Vienna and I did a program in Budapest on the King of the South because it was a good setting to do that because the Islamic armies at this time, three years earlier in 1526, they came through the area of Budapest. They sacked the city.

Really, it's interesting, the history of Hungary. I got into being in the country and reading about it and looking at it is really a very interesting, tragic story. The Islamic armies, the Ottoman armies, were pushed back from Vienna, but they occupied what is Turkey or what is Hungary for about 150 years before they were finally expelled. That period of time was not a very happy time for the Hungarians. They suffered a great deal under the Turkish domination, but that is as far as they got. That's why that area of Eastern Europe and Bosnia and Serbia, you still today have very high levels of Muslim population. It's why, when Yugoslavia broke up after the collapse of the Soviet Union and we had the wars there in Bosnia and Herzegovina a few years ago, it was a clash between Christian and Muslim. The Muslim religion and adherence are still quite strong in these areas of Eastern Europe. It dates back to these years when they were occupied by the Ottoman Empire and Islam was planted in that area and is still there to this day. But it did not, at that time, come up into Europe. It has come into Western Europe now for another reason, which we'll get to in a minute. This particular map shows the concentration of Islam throughout the world here. The bigger the circle, the larger the number of population and Muslim inhabitants in these countries. You see it extending in an arc from North Africa all the way through the Middle East down into Southeast Asia. The largest Muslim country in the world is in Indonesia.

That may surprise you, but there are more Muslims in Indonesia than in Saudi Arabia or Iran or even in Egypt, even though Egypt has quite a number. But this shows the kind of distribution of Islam around the world. It is a rapidly expanding religion, more than a billion believers around the world. It is a force to be reckoned with and will be as we move into these areas of prophetic fulfillment. Now, let's come back to the question that we had here in Daniel 11, verse 40, where it says, the king of the south will attack him or push at the king of the north. What would be the factors that would cause this push at the time of the end, in this period during the time of the end? Let me check something out here, folks. Are we on now?

What could be some of the factors that cause this push at the end? All right, I think you're all probably ahead of me already. One of them would be oil and energy. Over 57 percent of the known resources of oil reserves in the world are in the Middle East today. And coming out of Iran, Persian Gulf countries, this is a very, very critical oil supply force. And those are the largest single area region of the world where oil exists. Russia has oil reserves.

Venezuela has oil reserves. Alaska has oil reserves. We have some offshore in the Gulf, we know about, and offshore California, which we can't get to. But the largest single concentration is in the Middle East. What if something would cause those to be cut off? Well, we know that would be a big problem. We have seen that happen in recent decades. If you remember the oil embargoes of the mid-1970s standing in line for gas, some of the younger folks will not remember that. And that's an alien concept to you. I remember you had to have an appointment to get a tank of gas in 1974-1975. Some of us will remember that because of the very first oil imposed by the OPEC nations. If something happened to trigger this being cut off, especially to Europe, which is heavily dependent upon oil from not only the Middle East, but also from Russia, they could not survive. I had a dinner when I was in the Netherlands a few weeks ago with an individual who's not a church member, but he's one of the chief petroleum engineers for Royal Dutch Shell. And they operate big, big interests around the world in terms of oil and natural gas development. And he was telling me how much was in the Middle East to verify that number of over half of the world known supplies. And again, Europe's dependence upon that. Cut that off, Europe would be brought to its knees, and they can't afford that. Their economy would collapse.

Europe is very, very wealthy, very much dependent upon the flow of oil for all of the necessary things that make a modern economy work. Cut that off, you've got a big problem. There's one other area that should be noted in what could be a push at the time of the end, and that is this.

In recent years, there has been a large influx of Islamic, Muslim, from the Muslim nations, laborers into Europe, into France, Germany, the Netherlands, that have provided a very cheap pool of labor. Beginning in about 1958 to 1960, as Europe really began to expand coming out of World War II, there was a need for labor. And Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, other Muslim countries provided a pool of labor of people who went to Northern Europe to work in the factories because they didn't have enough manpower in Europe. They thought that this would just be a temporary situation, but it wasn't because they stayed. And they had lots of power. And they had lots of kids, and their families have grown. Another problem developed in that they did not assimilate into the European culture. In other words, they kept their culture, their Muslim culture, their language, their religion. They built their mosques, and they did not become German, French, or English, or Dutch. And that's a problem. Those of us that are descendant of immigrants who came to America 150-200 years ago, we know that our ancestors assimilated. They shed the German language, the Italian language, the Czech language, and they became Americans. They even anglicized their names as they came through Ellis Island. And the next generation became Americans. This didn't happen with the Muslim immigration into Europe, and it is a problem to this day. You don't have to talk very long in the Netherlands to get on this conversation and see the wide variety of opinions that people have, especially in the Netherlands. There is growing friction between the Muslim segment and the native Dutch. From my hotel, we spent a weekend in Vienna two weekends ago, and from my hotel room I could look out, see several Catholic churches, the big spires of the Catholic churches, and I was looking closely one morning. Way off in the distance on a hill, I saw the dome of a mosque. I was a little bit surprised. I should have known that there would have been one in Vienna. The Austrians are very, very, very much against Muslim immigration, but there was, smack on the skyline of Vienna, a Muslim mosque. So they're all over the place, but this is beginning to be a problem. Just last fall, German Chancellor Angela Merkel gave a speech where she addressed this issue of immigration and multiculturalism in Germany, and she said basically it hasn't worked. For a German Chancellor to say something like that, you don't...it perks...causes the ears to perk up.

Some type of a reaction on a part of Europe against the Muslim inhabitants of Germany, or the Netherlands, or France, could also be a factor that would create a push, or an attack, or some type of a reaction from the Muslim world because of that. Any number of different factors could bring that about. So it's something that is important to note and to understand.

Oil, energy, Muslim immigration. We haven't had that so much as a problem in America, except as we are concerned about terrorism, but it is a growing problem in Europe, and it is something to at least note in regard to this.

All right, let's go back to Daniel 11 and verse 40 and 41. It says that, As this king of the north counter-attacks, he shall enter into the countries and shall overflow and pass over. He shall enter also into the glorious land, and many countries shall be overthrown.

But, he says, these shall escape out of his hand, even Edom and Moab, and the chief of the children of Ammon. All right? Excuse me just a minute.

I was working with two different presentations, and I think I've got the right one up here.

If I have to add a little bit more, I will. Okay, it says, these will escape out of his hand, even Edom and Moab and the chief of the children of Ammon.

Ammon, and the chief of the children of Ammon, is the area occupied by modern-day Jordan.

Jordan has had some riots in recent days as well. They've been upset with the prime minister, not the king, but the prime minister, and there have been people demonstrating in some of the cities in Jordan. They have not been untouched by what's been taking place in the Middle East as well. But the prophecy says that this area occupied by modern Jordan will not be, they will escape out of his hand, Edom, Moab, and the chief of the children of Ammon, which is the area occupied by modern-day Jordan. Why that is, is an interesting thing to talk about. If you recall, it's been a couple of years since I gave a Bible study on the place of safety, and I did speculate that it's interesting to at least to note that Jordan in that area is somehow kept out of the hands of this entity at this particular time. And yet, there's one nation that isn't, and that is the nation of Egypt. If you will, as we move along here, Egypt right here does not escape. It says in verse 42, "...he shall stretch forth his hand also upon the countries, and the land of Egypt shall not escape.

And the Libyans and the Ethiopians shall be." So here we see that as that king of the north comes out of the area, this power, it comes down into this area of Egypt. And Egypt is mentioned specifically. Now, Libya is mentioned here, and this is Ethiopia down here. It is also mentioned.

Why Egypt? Why is Egypt so prominently mentioned in this particular episode as to what is taking place here? It goes on to say in verse 43, "...he shall have power over the hidden treasures of gold and of silver and over all the precious things of Egypt. But tidings out of the east and out of the north shall trouble him. Therefore, he shall go forth with great fury to destroy and utterly to make away many." This is speaking of the king of the north. So he will plant himself right here in what is called the glorious land, which is the holy land in Jerusalem. And then there are some tidings out of the east and out of the north that will trouble him, causing a reaction there. Now, there are other prophecies that come into play at this point from the book of Revelation of armies that will come from the east in this direction, but we're not going to go into those. It says, "...he shall plant the tabernacles of his palace between the seas in the glorious holy mountain. Yet he shall come to his end, and none shall help him." All right. This brings us down to the end of chapter 11 and the end of this prophecy. His tabernacles will be planted there in the glorious holy mountain area, which is the land of Israel. And he will come to his end, and none shall help him. Now, there are other prophecies from Revelation chapter 9, Revelation 16 that will come into play here of armies converging upon the Middle East and upon Jerusalem, setting up that battle of the great day of the Lord that Revelation 16 talks about. But I'm not going to... I don't want to get off into that here at this particular point in time. Let's go back to Egypt. Let's look at this region here and try to understand a little bit about it because of what is taking place right now in Egypt with a potential overthrow of the existing government and try to understand just a little bit as to why this area is singled out in the Bible in this particular prophecy, why Egypt receives the attention of the king of the north when he comes into this area as he moves into occupying the area there. Why Egypt? And again, with what is taking place here at this time. In the Middle East, in Islam, the role of a strong man, strong individuals, are very, very prominent and very important. This particular individual was the Mahdi. His name was the Mahdi. He was a messianic Islamic figure that arose late in the 1800s down in the Sudan.

He defied the British Empire at that time, which occupied Egypt in this part of the world.

And the British sent troops into Sudan to deal with him, and they did. This particular man annihilated a force of British troops under General Gordon in Khortoum. And a few years later, they came back with full force, and they dealt with him. But he rose up out of this area as a leader of Islam, according to some of their prophecies, as a messianic type figure to try to unite these Arab tribes and countries. Whoever the king of the south will be, the personification of this particular prophetic figure, there will be some leader, just as there will be a leader of the king of the north that is identified as the beast, power, who will eventually rise up. This person was a figure from history who did that, and there are a number of those when you just look at the story of Egypt and the Middle East that fit this particular pattern. This is Gamal Abdul Nasser. Nasser was a military general who overthrew the king of Egypt in the 1950s and set up an Arab republic. He was quite a charismatic figure. During the 50s and the 60s into the early 1970s, before he died, Nasser was the dominating figure within the Muslim world. He actually sought to unite all of the various Muslim nations of Libya, Syria, Jordan, Iran, Iraq, under what they call the United Arab Republic. It did loosely exist for a period of time, but it kind of fell apart. He died and Egypt began to be eclipsed. We know this figure as another charismatic figure of Osama bin Laden that has arisen within the last few years to create certain problems. I don't think he's the king of the South, but again, it just illustrates that particular bent within the Muslim world. And this Ahmadinejad, the current president of Iran, has been rattling his sabers. That of Iran during this particular period of time, as they have marched toward an effort to raise a nuclear bomb and arm Iran into a nuclear power, he's become a figure. I'm not saying, and I don't think he's the one that's going to lead it all, but these figures come and go within the Arab world in an attempt to lead a very desperate groupings of people that represent the Arab world at this particular time. And what has happened in Egypt since Nasser was succeeded by Anwar Sadat, who concluded he fought a couple of wars with Israel, and then in the late 1970s he made peace with Israel. You remember Sadat came to Camp David with Menachem Begin, with Jimmy Carter, and they hammered out a peace agreement. And Egypt made peace with Israel in 1978-79. Since that time, Egypt essentially went into a different state of being within the Arab world. Under Sadat, that peace was maintained, but in 1982 you will remember Anwar Sadat was assassinated. And he was succeeded by the current president, Hasni Mubarak, who was his second at that time. Mubarak has been president for nearly 30 years. And during that time, he has been closely allied with the United States, and he has kept a profile going with virtually every president. This is Mr. Mubarak meeting with President Obama. He's now in his 80s. He's 82 or 83. They suspect that he may have cancer. He's certainly in his last years, if not months.

But he has kept, in a sense, that peace. And Egypt has, in a sense, taken a backseat to other events in the Arab world. Guys like Ahmadinejad have stolen the spotlight in recent years.

Osama bin Laden and others. And Egypt has been, in a sense, at peace with Israel. That peace has not been cheap. I saw a figure last night. I think we have put in over $65 billion in aid to Egypt, alone, since that peace treaty was set with Egypt or with Israel. Billions of dollars go to Egypt every year from the United States to help maintain the peace. We give a lot of money to Israel, too, as a result of that treaty. The point is that there has been a great deal behind what's taken in recent years. Now, Egypt has not been in a normal state for three decades.

As I tried to show earlier, they, under Nasser and other influences, were leaders in the Arab world.

And they kind of took a backseat under Sadat and now Mubarak. And that is not normal for history. So what is taking place in the streets of Cairo right now? The potential overthrow of this man and whatever will follow is a great concern for the world. And I think it should be understood in the light of this particular prophecy of Egypt being mentioned here. Because should drastic changes be made in Egypt as a result of what's taking place, it will reshape the entire map of the Middle East and America's interest and concerns there. And it will, one day, it's going to lead to some part of this prophetic fulfillment. But Mubarak is old. He has wanted to pass off his legacy to his son, Gamal.

But the army doesn't accept him because he's not of the army. Mubarak was of the army, and that is basically the glue that holds Egyptian society together. He is not, and he will likely not become the successor to his father. Who will or what will is up in the air right now? The great concern and the fear is that Egypt could turn into a radical Islamic nation like Iran did when they overthrew the Shah in 1979, and an Islamic republic was declared under Ayatollah Khomeini. The great concern right now is that Egypt would revert to an Islamic republic because of the crisis in the streets and what is taking place in Egypt right now. Should that happen, some reporters say, that would be more dangerous to stability in the Middle East than Iran having a nuclear weapon. If Egypt is the most populous, they're the largest Arab nation, they have the largest standing army, they have the largest Arab population. Egypt has always traditionally been a center of Islamic culture and Islamic theology. Al-Qaeda has its philosophical roots in Egypt. The number two man of Al-Qaeda came out of Egypt. There is in Egypt today a group of people called the Muslim Brotherhood. It was a very large, influential Islamic grouping. They have gained seats in Parliament. They have been suppressed by Mubarak.

They have not been allowed to exercise their full power, yet they provide social services for the poor, health. They provide food and bread for the poor. They are quite large. By reports, they are not the ones that have instigated this rioting. This came up, it seems, spontaneously among young people, but now the other reports have said that the Muslim Brotherhood is beginning to engage.

One of the great fears has been that if they gained enough control and power, that they could then put their own person in control of Egypt and make Egypt a radical Islamic state. Trust me, we don't want to see that happen. Whether that will happen now or at some later point, I don't know. The army could get control and settle things down in Egypt and put one of their men in, and for a while things kind of revert back to normal. But there are some interesting forces that have been unleashed in Egypt, Tunisia, even in Jordan, and who knows where else before it's all over right now with what's taking place. I think this is where this dovetails into what we're reading here in Daniel 11 and this pushing by this power from the south against the north at some point because it rises to a stature under some form of leadership where they feel that it needs to assert themselves on the world stage in some way that creates a reaction from another power to the north and then sets in motion these events that the prophecies talk about.

I'm not saying that this is what's happening right now in Egypt. However, I have personally been watching Egypt and reading about it for the last few years and watching things kind of lead up to this. Nobody can predict when things like this will take place, but I've watched it because of what Daniel 11 says, trying to again just understand why is Egypt the particular focus of attack when the king of the north retaliates? Well, will it be because Egypt is at the leadership focus, the center of this king of the south power, that by their actions they make a push? I don't know. It could be. Historically, Egypt has been the center of the Arab world. And I said for the last 30 years they've taken a back seat while Saddam Hussein, Ahmadinejad and others have kind of rattled their sabers and created their problems and in Iraq and Iran. But that's not the norm of history and the modern history of the Arab world. However, at some point, something is going to cause these nations to coalesce for a period of time to to assert themselves as this prophesied power. And so that's why these events bear watching right now and to see where they go. And I'm not sounding the level five alert or DEF CON 4 or 5 right now on a prophetic scale. That's not what I'm doing. But every time these things happen, I do think we move ourselves a little bit further toward the fulfillment of some of these things. And when you start to see an isolated event just a few days ago, they ran out of Tunisia, their prime minister, ran him out of the country. And then that begins to spread to Cairo. Now you take notice.

I don't know if you've noticed. I saw a big jump of about 25 cents in gasoline from like Thursday to yesterday. Well, they're talking about oil going to $100 a barrel because of the fear that because of these problems, the Suez Canal could be closed to traffic, which and the most important traffic to the Suez Canal is oil. So it impacts your pocketbook and mine, and it does have an impact. I did see, I put this up here because I did see this morning that the looters in Cairo started going toward the Egyptian Museum with all of its treasures from the pharaonic Egypt. And the biggest treasure they've got in there is this gold face death mask of King Tut, which you've all seen. When we were there in 2005, we saw that, and that's of course the biggest attraction within the museum. Worth a lot of money. But the army, even some of the citizens barred some of the worst elements from going in there, and eventually the army showed up and they barricaded the Egyptian Museum, which is their number one big treasure outside of the pyramids to see in there with all that they have. When Baghdad was sacked after we went in in 03, they did sack all the museums there, and they've never recovered all those treasures. They just scattered. And there's a, the fear is that this would happen in Cairo with something like this and some of the other mummies and artifacts that they have in the Egyptian Museum. So this is a, this is a part of the scriptures. This is a part of prophecy. This is a part of what's taking place today in the world. It's important that we understand these things because of what they lead to in terms of the fulfillment of prophecy. Again, I'm not sounding a Defcon 5 to know that this is when and this is, this is what's going to be leading to a fulfillment within the next few days.

However, brethren, I do bring it up now just to bring up this one point, because it does matter to us. You know, when it comes to prophecy, sometimes we throw up our hands and some of us are not interested in it because it doesn't matter about what we're going to be doing Monday morning at work. And it doesn't help our kids, they think, or it doesn't really relate to our needs in our life. And granted, there are, we find ourselves at different times and at different needs, but prophecy is a very important part of the Bible. And it's important, not so much that we figure out the time of Christ's return, or chart a timeline of events leading up to that event, or try to figure out who's who and what's what in these prophetic things. That's not what's really important about prophecy. Why does this matter to you? Well, it matters to you and to me, because Jesus Christ, your Savior and mine, said to make it, to watch it, to understand it, and to let it motivate us not to some esoteric knowledge about prophetic charts and timelines, but to motivate us to better living, to better Christian standards, to better levels of righteousness. That's why it matters. That's why we should be knowledgeable of prophecy, have a working knowledge of it. That's why we should understand that when certain things do begin to take place in the news and on the world scene, that it does impact these prophetic scriptures, and that prophecy is moving forward. And that in one day, these events will transpire. And they just might transpire in your lifetime and mine, because I do believe we are living in the time of the end, which Daniel 11.40 talks about. I'm convinced of that.

But I don't live my life every day getting up and checking Fox News to see where we are along the prophetic timeline. However, I have come to understand and to appreciate the role of prophecy to motivate me to be a better Christian. To the degree any of us do that, we are fulfilling the words of Jesus Christ. And I think our Savior's intent for prophecy being the integral part of the scriptures that it is. Turn, if you will, back to Revelation 16. I didn't put this up on the slide for you, so you had to do something at this point and wake up.

Revelation 16.

As I said, I'm fully aware that for some of you, prophecy is meaningless. You're not interested because you still don't get it. You just don't get it. That's okay. God's Spirit will eventually help you to get it and understand why. And this is part of what I try to do as we talk about prophecy in some of our seminars and whenever I do speak about it. And this is a scripture that helped me to get it. And let's look at it here. In Revelation 16, verse 12, this is part of the scenario that transpires during this particular period of time. The sixth angel poured out his bowl in the great river Euphrates, and its water was dried up so that the way of the kings from the east might be prepared. And this is this movement of armies from out of the east, this 200 million person strong army that other scriptures talk about, into the Holy Land.

Now verse 13, I saw three unclean spirits like frogs coming out of the mouth of the dragon, which is Satan, and out of the mouth of the beast, which is really the king of the north, and this political figure, and out of the mouth of the false prophet, this religious leader that Revelation 13 talks about coming onto the scene at the time of the end. These three individual, well, these two individuals, the beast and the false prophet, we're told here, are directly motivated, inspired, and led by the dragon. And unclean spirits, the spirit world. Remember that I talked about what Daniel 10 talked about, of the prince of the kingdoms of Persia and Greece, these powerful spirit beings that somehow act behind the scenes that are involved in the events that we read about, either in history or in our news headlines, of these clashes between nations. And especially as we move toward this time of the end, the spirit world is going to be agitated. They will be orchestrating these events that lead to the fulfillment of this time.

Because unclean spirits will be coming out of the mouth of the dragon and out of these other figures. For they are spirits of demons, performing signs which go out to the kings of the earth and of the whole world to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty. So this movement of nations and armies at this particular juncture of prophecy and world history is done and is motivated because of what is taking place in the spirit world. All right? This is what these scriptures are teaching us. Now if I could just add one other little aside for us to at least understand and bring in a little bit. I've touched on this in other sermons, but going back to Revelation 12 and showing the continual attacks of Satan upon the people of God down through history, you don't think Satan is stirred up right now among and within and at the body of Christ?

What cave are you living in? What cave? What hole have you got your head stuck in?

If you cannot understand that Satan is stirred to anger at what is taking place in God's church among the people of God, not just currently, but let's go back 15 years. Let's go back 20 years.

And let's look at, you know, even our modern example. Look, Mr. Armstrong warned us time and time again through the years of these important principles. Do you think that that just passed because he died 25 years ago? Satan has been stirred against the people of God since the time of Egypt. He sought to kill the Israelites off there. And then he sought to destroy and to have Christ killed when he was born. And where did Joseph and Mary have to go down into Egypt to escape the wrath of Herod at that time? Revelation 12 walks us through that all the way to the time of the end. The spirit world gets stirred up at various times for various reasons.

And this particular prophecy here should at least highlight us along with Revelation 12 that the church is not immune to the upheavals individually and collectively. We should discern that at any given time. Now, going back to what it says here, these spirits of demons, they perform signs. They are going to be so great that they will deceive the kings of the earth.

The prime ministers, the presidents, the leaders of this earth, and of the whole world to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty. Nations will be stirred to move. Now, you don't read about that. We'll not read about that. They'll be stirred to move because of global interests, economic concerns, keeping their level of living high, preserving their retirement, their high standard of living that they've grown accustomed to, their power.

Those will be the stated reasons, even to impose peace by occupying Israel and Jerusalem and the holy sites, the glorious land, to keep peace. And you could be reading those stories and seeing the rationale behind it, and you could say, well, that makes sense. That's a noble cause, peace.

I'm talking about you or me in the church, having cut our eye teeth on prophecy, the beast and the false prophet. If we're not watching, if we're not discerning, if we're not understanding really what is at stake from the Scriptures and what's happening in the world, we could get caught up in some philosophy of multiculturalism, patience, tolerance. We could grow spiritually lethargic. We could be turned off to the church, organized churches, men, the ministry, each other, an organization, God, the Bible, and grow weary in well-doing and lose our love.

To where we don't, you know, we could be caught up at a time like that where there's a mass worldwide deception and begin to look at what these individuals are doing and say, well, it sounds plausible to me. I hope they create peace until that vice finally clamps down and the world is caught in a box canyon. And the full spiritual terror of these, the forces behind these beings is somehow revealed. Where for some among the people of God, then it will be too late. Here's what Jesus says in verse 15 to you and to me today.

It's in red, which means it's from Christ. Christ, behold, I am coming as a thief. Blessed is he who watches and keeps his garments, lest he walk naked and they see his shame.

Behold, I'm coming as a thief in the night when you're not expecting it. And then he pronounces a blessing to watch. That doesn't mean watch Fox News. Even though you could watch Fox News or whatever is your place of choice, it's far more than that.

It's really in this context, it's a watch upon us spiritually.

Because he says, keep your garments. The garments are symbolic of righteousness.

Righteousness. God's life in us. The good works that God's Spirit produces within us.

Keep your garments white. White. Don't let them be soiled.

By our own actions, by our own decisions, by our anger, by bitterness, by sin, by sin, ours or someone else's, don't let our garments get soiled, Christ says, lest he walk naked and they see his shame.

Blessed is he who watches. So let prophecy motivate you to righteousness, not to figure out who the king of the south is, and to look for this figure to arise, or the king of the north, of the beast, of the false prophet, or to figure out a timeline.

Look, for some of you, it's too much. I understand that. Get the overview.

Most importantly, get what Christ says. And go back to Matthew 24. And look at what Jesus said about, he was the greatest of the prophets, and he inspired all the prophecies. And he inspired this book of Revelation. When you really peel all the layers down and you get to the core, is understand this to the level that we can and need to in our own lives, so that it drives us to righteous conduct, godliness. If it does that, that's the ultimate purpose.

I will never be able to predict or write in an article when Christ is going to return. I have no desire to do that. I don't desire to proclaim that. But I do desire to preach what the Scriptures say about it, to motivate us to good works today and to righteousness. And if we do that, we are fulfilling the words of our Savior, and we are understanding then why this does matter to us.

Because in the end, that's what really counts, is to have that blessing pronounced upon us that Jesus gives here of watching. So those events should serve as a reminder to us. And we don't just keep them completely out of our life. But when we see what's taking place right now, we have a working knowledge, when we talk about it in the Middle East and Egypt, and understand where that fits. And if it drives us to deeper prayer, a little closer introspection of ourselves, a relationship with God at every level, that's what it should do. The situation in Egypt will pass. It may calm down, things go back to a normalcy for a period of time. Then again, something completely different might emerge out of this particular crisis that sets the stage for something else that will lead to what Daniel 1140 talks about. But let's understand that those prophecies are sure and that they will happen and they will usher in the kingdom of God, the events leading to that time.

That's why it matters. And to the degree we can bring that into our life, we'll be better off for it, having a balance toward the subject of prophecy and also having a balance in our own personal lives. So I wanted to bring that out and cover that with you here today. I hope it helps to highlight some of those things and help us to understand why it does matter to us.