North-South Struggle for the Middle East

So here's the final battle that's yet to come, and likely in our day today. So who are these two kings today? These two kingdoms? Well, this is where we're gonna get to this the handout. We believe that the King of the North, the Seleucid dynasty, was overthrown in 65 BC by the Roman Empire. So starting in 65 BC, the Roman Empire became the King of the North, we believe. So the King of the North, Roman Empire. We believe that the King of the South is a confederation of Muslim nations. Let's read this. I want to take just... it's literally gonna take four minutes to read this this handout. I debated whether to take the four or five minutes to read this, but it really solidifies why we believe that that's the fact. The Roman Empire, the King of the North, a collection of confederation of Muslim nations, the King of the South. So look at your handout.

This is posted by Tom Robinson in our UCG website. In ancient times, Kings of the two great river valley civilizations Mesopotamia and Egypt dreamed of controlling the entire Middle East. Invariably, their path to imperial conquest ran north and south through the Holy Land. The narrow land bridge between Eurasia and Africa, through which trade and military traffic had to flow. Whenever it involved... whether it involved Babylonian, Assyrian, or Persian emperors from the north, or Egyptian pharaohs from the south, the threat to the inhabitants of this crucial strip of land at the eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea was almost constant.

We saw that. Throughout the course of history, rule over the Holy Land has often changed hands, the inhabitants being at times autonomous, but usually subject to some great regional power. Around 536 BC, in the third year of the reign of the Persian emperor Cyrus the Great, an angel delivered to the Hebrew prophet Daniel a prophecy of what would happen in the years to come. At that time, Persia under Cyrus was the dominant power in the Middle East. Daniel told of three more prominent rulers of Persia who did indeed arise.

The prophecy further mentioned the rise of a great... the ruler of a great dominion whose kingdom would be divided into four parts. Combining this with another prophecy of Daniel, in chapter 8, we find that the anticipated ruler foretold 200 years in advance was Alexander the Great. In fact, after his death, Alexander's Greek Empire was partioned into four kingdoms, each ruled by one of the generals, the two major dominions being Egypt under Ptolemy, the south of Judah, and Greater Syria under Seleucus to the north.

The remainder of Daniel 11 focuses on the north-south divide. It details events and reigns of successive Seleucid and Ptolemaic rulers, referred to as the king of the north and king of the south, respectively, with the Holy Land passing back and forth between them several times. Receiving the most detail is the reign of the evil Seleucid Syrian king named Antiochus Epiphanes, though he wouldn't arise until 350 years after Daniel prophesied. So, on the back of the page, Antiochus was a tyrannical oppressor who did his utmost to destroy the Jewish religion altogether.

He instituted the laws that forbade the practice of the Jewish religion under penalty of death. Those who held fast to God's commandments were often brutally murdered. As predicted by Daniel, he desecrated the temple by erecting a massive statue of the pagan god Zeus in it and offered swine on the altar. Daniel's prophecy then shifts to the New Testament. In 65 BC, the Romans took possession of Syria and the Roman state thus became the kingdom of the north.

So, there you have it. There in 65 BC. Rome also later annexed Judea. Verses 36 through 39 appear to show the Roman Emperor proclaiming himself divine. We read that. And later honoring and expanding the power of the previously unrecognized God in a high religious office, the former occupying early in the succession of Roman emperors, and the latter commencing with Constantine the Great in the fourth century. The honoring of this false religion would progress through the various resurrections of the western part of the Roman Empire until the end time.

That brings us to the next verse where we are today. At the time of the end, the king of the south shall attack him. But who will the northern and southern powers be at the end of the age? The western part of the Roman Empire has been revived numerous times in Europe by Justinian, Charlemagne, Otto the Great, Charles V, Napoleon, Hitler, Mussolini Access. At 1947, Treaty of Rome, which brought the European economic community into existence, the signers were, according to the former NATO secretary, conscientiously recreating the Roman Empire once more. Thus, it appears that today's European Union, which traces its roots to that starting point, is paving the way toward a final revival of the Roman Empire that the Bible elsewhere prophesies.

It'll be led by a dictator whom Antiochus Epiphanes was a forerunner. But what about the southern ruler? Though the East Roman or Byzantine Empire continued until 1453, Egypt was separated from the northern power during the Arab conquest 639 to 642 and became an integral part of the Muslim world. Thus, the Caliph of Islam became the king of the south, eventually ruling from Baghdad over a huge empire stretching from southwest Asia all the way across North Africa, including the Holy Land. The struggle between north and south never really abated. The Muslims were repelled by Charlemagne's grandfather from taking control of Europe in 732.

The 11th through the 13th century saw a crusade launched by European Christendom in the north to regain the Holy Land from Muslim powers of the north. From around 1250 Egypt was ruled by Mamluk sultans until the Ottoman Turks seized it in 1517. The land remained part of the Ottoman Empire for hundreds of years. The north-south struggle then broke out again when Napoleon attempted to military arrest Egypt, Palestinian and Syrian from the Turks. Russell, I think that meant to say. But the British aided the Turks in repelling him. With the fall of the Ottoman Empire toward the end of the World War I in 1917, Egypt became a British proctorate.

What is that? Protectorate. Yeah, that's okay. Should look that up. In 1937 it finally gained its independence. Then in World War II, the north-south struggle erupted yet again when Axis forces tried to take over the whole of North Africa and Middle East.

The Allies, though, prevented them from doing so. After the War of Egypt, Egypt became a key member of the fledgling Arab League in 1945. In 1948, the Arab League jointly attacked the newly formed state of Israel. Later, from 1958 to 1961, Egypt, Syria, Yemen and the United Arab States were merged into a political union, the United Arab Republic. In 1965, the Arab common market was founded. These events may merely represent the beginnings of the Arab Confederacy prophesied in Psalm 83. Dedicated to wiping out Israel, it comprises the tents of Edom. This is here the tents of Edom, including the Palestinians and some of the Turks and the Ishmaelites, Arabs in general, Moab, Central Jor of Jordan, the Hagarites, North Arabians, Jabal, a mountain region of Jordan, Ammon, and Amalek, Philistia, with the inhabitants of Tyre. So that's, I believe, that's Psalm 83. And that was actually, we mentioned that in the break as well. So we believe these are the ones that consist of the King of the South. It seems then that the final King of the South will be the leader of a coming Muslim confederation encompassing at least several Arab nations as indicated in Daniel 11. When the King of the North invades the Holy Land, he will conquer Egypt, Libya, Ethiopia, through Edom, Moab, and the prominent people of Ammon. The ancient names for what is today Jordan shall escape from his hand. That's verses 40 through 43 that we're about to read in Daniel 11. As we've seen from Daniel 1140, at the time of the end, the King of the South will act against the Northern ruler. So there you have it. So there's purpose that we look at that because this is what we believe will be the King of the North and King of the South. So as we're reading today's newspapers, if there's newspapers anymore, virtual newspapers, this is what we should be looking for. So there's the identifications of the King of the North and King of the South. Do we see some of these some of this happening today? You have a comment? Mr. Ward?

It's a zeal.

The Pharisees and the second siblings never were part of the church. Perhaps it wasn't even Israel. I wanted to know if you ran into in your study, a name by John Hank, it was John I. Crane, who forced conversion of the southern Edomites and Judea down there that had been arrested for years, forced a conversion to either accept Judaism or leave the country or be killed. Wow. Many of them converted over to Judaism. It's being speculated a lot by a lot of people, including the internet, and I don't get on with that much, but that these converted people probably would have comprised, at that time, some of these Pharisees and Sadducees. And that's why Christ feared to go back to Jerusalem, and most of his work was done in Chaldea, or where the name of it was down there. You have to border Jerusalem, where a lot of the Benjimites and the Levites lived. Yeah, that's where most of his work. So he did the most of his work of going to the disciples from that earth. That's interesting. So the foreseen of the converting was occurring. He said he wouldn't go back. They wanted to kill him. They wanted to kill Paul, too. And he never said one good thing about them. And I believe it's in Matthew 23, 15.

I think I'm not. Let me just take a quick peek at that. But I believe that's weird.

He told them they had been the ones spreading the gospel across land and sea and seek one convert. And then, verse 35 of it, if I've got the right chapter, states that they were guilty of all the murders from Cain down to the president. Wow. From the court. Wow. So I wonder if there could have been a connection between this guy, Francis, and her, and now one of the Israelite background. Yeah, and you look at those events that God's people went through and the persecutions of Christ. And that environment, I think, is going to be replicated in our day today. There's going to be so much pressure and so much forcing and converting to come over to the other side and not stand with God.

They did the same thing in the record of the Jews. The Judeans coming back from captivity in Babylon.

But, it was Silas, wrote the decree that anybody that bucked up, that cost him their head, supposedly had a false conversion then. And also under, at the time, who was it, the woman, the lady, that wanted to let the Jews go back? What was her name?

Anyhow, there was a big conversion.

At the time, they were coming back. A lot of people were afraid they were going to get killed. A false conversion, yeah. And that's a lot of people are going to fall by the wayside. If it's not a real conversion, you know, that's a shaky foundation to stand upon.

And there is pressure being happening right now. So, if this is the identification of the North and the South King, then the second question we might ask is, what would cause a confederation of the Muslim nation to come against this King of the North?

What would cause them to come against them, you think?

One of the thoughts or one of the speculations, it is just this. We see in Europe whole sections where the Muslim community has taken over. Have you seen this? And I know we have. Where the country's police force is not even able to go into those areas, you know.

So, one speculation is, and it seems like the Europeans are becoming more intolerant of this, so if they start to do something about that, it may anger the Muslims in this confederation.

They may feel like they have to go protect their people. That's kind of, you can see how that would really escalate. Overarching, though, and had this discussion in the break, too, what's the dream of Muslims, we know, is the restoration of the caliph. The caliph.

Muhammad, the prophet, established the Islamic religion in the 1600s AD.

Ever since that time, they've been looking for a caliphate.

Or a caliphate just simply means an Islamic empire to influence and to rule the world, take control of the world. There's been what's considered four great caliphates that have governed the Middle East and North Africa. The Turkish Ottoman Empire, that was the last one, which fell after World War I. But the Muslims yearned for an authoritarian leader. Their Messiah, if you will, they call him the Mahdi.

And they yearned for him to come to be divinely led to become the authoritarian to lead their religious force throughout the world.

The Mahdi will probably be a charismatic leader, just as we believe the Antichrist from the King of the North side will be charismatic as well. We read a little bit about Antiochus Epiphanes and his skill.

So the King of the South may attack here in verse 40 the King of the North, because the King of the North is becoming a power block in the world, and the King of the South wants world domination.

So it might act against this aggression.

So verse 40, at the time of the end, the King of the South, King of the South, probably an end-time Muslim leader, shall attack the King of the North, the final beast power.

So you have these clashes, perhaps the Mahdi from the King of the South, fighting against the beast power, a political power individual, who is also attached with the Antichrist, so three individuals going after one another.

The King of the North is going to move into the Holy Land. So continuing here in the middle of verse 40, the King of the North shall come against him like a whirlwind with chariots, horsemen, with many ships. He, the beast power, shall enter it. The countries overwhelm them and pass through.

We know about the abomination of desolation. So the European powers enter into the Holy Land.

The one who calls himself the Antichrist, who we call the Antichrist, proclaims himself as God.

Whatever kind of temple, whatever kind of religious structure is erected there, he will stop the sacrifices and defile.

That'll be the final fulfillment of the abomination of desolation.

So as the King of the North comes into the Holy Land, this will probably be the Pope, we speculate, who will do this.

Verse 41, he, referring to the beast power, shall also enter the glorious land.

This is the modern state of Israel. And many countries shall be overthrown, but these shall escape from his hand, Edom, Moab, and the prominent people of Ammon.

These three territories constitute modern-day Jordan.

The Jordanian people, various Palestinians, Turks, Middle Eastern peoples, will be spared. We're not sure why they will escape.

If you've been in the church a while, some speculate this is the area of the place of safety.

Petra is in this area. We don't know.

Again, it's all speculations. They escape his hand. Verse 42, he, referring to the beast, the king of the north, shall stretch out his hand against the countries, and the land of Egypt shall not escape.

So as this is happening, you wonder how the confederation of the Islamic peoples are going to respond to this. So the king of the north is possessing the area of the temple and the altar here. So some would speculate this is, so as the king of the north moves in there, as this final beast power with the Antichrist is in this area of the temple and the altar, that the Muslim nations that will then be beyond mad, seeing a Christian occupying force in their part of the world. So this may be where the conflict takes place here, and was really escalated. Verse 43, and he shall have power over the treasures of gold and silver and over precious things of Egypt. Also the Libyans and the Ethiopians shall follow at his heels.

So verse 40 gets in a little bit more interesting. We start branching into other areas of prophecy here with verse 44. But the news from the east and the north shall trouble him.

So news from the east and the north shall trouble the king of the north. So as the king of the north is doing all this, news from the east and the north shall trouble him. So prophecy directions always come from the perspective of the Holy Land. So if you go east of Israel, or northeast of Israel, you look at what nations that's directing to. So if you're going to go that way, and where this troubling news is coming from, you're going to head toward nations like India, China, and Russia.

So you have some power blocks that are wrestling for world domination here. And you got the king of the north, Europe, and you got these Eurasians. North, northeast.

They're all going to be wrestling for world power at this time. These power blocks.

So maybe the king of the north hears something from these areas.

India, China, Russia. Verse 44 again, but the news from the east and the north shall trouble him. Troubles the beast, the king of the north. Therefore he shall go out with great fury at this time to destroy and annihilate many. So this is really the straw. When he hears this news, whatever it is, it's really going to move him to great fury to annihilate many.

So we got these power blocks that are involved here. Huge power blocks.

So put your marker here. Let's move over to one other place in the Bible study today.

Revelation 9.

Revelation 9. This is so this great fury. Now he's going to go out to annihilate many. We're going to come to that moment now in Revelation 9. What we believe is this moment.

By the way, you don't hear anything about the United States at this time. Many speculations about that.

I'll leave that to you.

But, you know, there's going to be the fall of great nations. The fall of our nation will happen at some point, of course. And we are at the end time now in this point in history in Revelation 9. So he hears the news from those large power blocks. Now the king of the north is moved with fury. And we're going to see this moment when he just turns. It escalates to a degree unimaginable here. Revelation 9 verse 1. So this is the king of the north. We know the beast power who's aligned himself and has the union with the Antichrist's political and religious union. Revelation 9 verse 1. Then the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star falling from heaven to the earth. To him was given the key to the bottomless pit.

So this is speaking of the king of the north here we're going to see. But just go down to verse 11 for just a moment before we go to verse 2. Chapter 9, stay here, but verse 11. I just want to show you who's behind this union, this king of the north. Verse 11. And they had as a king over them the angel of the bottomless pit whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon. But in Greek has the name Apolian. So Abaddon, Apolian, this is referring to the angel of death, to Satan the devil himself.

So they had over, had as king over them, ultimately Satan himself.

So this is the army coming from the bottomless pit run by, generaled by, if you will, ultimately by Satan himself.

So in the end, this is Satan is here and he's behind these powers. And if you look at, that's why we believe, if you look at this in history and where this king of the north and where they have come from and this this influence, that's why we believe he's he was behind the great atrocities of so many of the great wars, behind the Nazis, behind Mussolini and all of those.

Well, once again, he's going to be behind this final army. So go back up to verse two, if you will, staying here in Revelation 9. Verse 2. And he opened the bottomless pit and smoke arose out of the pit like a smoke of a great furnace. So here's the final battle. So the sun and the air were darkened because of the smoke of the pit and out of the smoke locusts came upon the earth and to them was given power and the scorpions of the earth have power.

Lots of damage here. Verse 4. They were commanded not to harm the grass of the earth, though, or any green thing, or any tree, but only those men who do not have the seal of God on their forehead.

So this is interesting. Verse 4. So at this point in history, the earth, we believe, is going to just be doing all it can to sustain human life. Just before Christ's return, after all the this that has happened, the grass of the earth is going to be essential. There's maybe not going to be much left of it. Grass. We need grass. We need trees to help, obviously, sustain human life, to sustain the atmosphere. So the army is told to leave those things alone. If they go through and kill off all the green things with a thermonuclear bomb or whatever it might be, then no one would be able to survive, of course.

Verse 5. And they were not given authority to kill them, but to torment them for five months.

This may be some chemical or biological agent. You can't just nuke everything.

If you nuke everything, you can't go back to that area for generations, of course. So if you just go in and kill the people, you can take their land, but you can keep their infrastructure and keep the environment. Continuing here in the middle of verse 5, their torment was like the torment of a scorpion when it strikes a man. In those days, men will seek death and will not find it. They will desire to die, and death will flee from them. So human, horrible situation here. Verse 7. The shape of the locust was like horses prepared for battle. On their heads were crowned of something like gold, and their faces were something like the faces of men. And their hair was like women's hair, and their teeth were like lion's teeth. Maybe symbolic of different types of weaponry. Verse 9. And they had breast plates like the breast plates of iron. The sound of their wings was like the sound of chariots with many horses running into battle.

Is this jets? Is this jet engines? Appearance of helicopters? We don't know, perhaps.

So he's describing to his era, John is, what appeared to him. Verse 10. They had tails like scorpions, and there were stings in their tails. Their power was to hurt men five months.

So we see the different launching of various weaponry here. Of course, Satan is in it all, as we saw there in verse 11. So this is the beginning stage of World War III, if you will. The Europeans want world domination fighting against the Eurasians. These other power blocks here.

Where is the army from the south? Well, verse 12 says, One woe is past. Behold, still two more woes are coming after these things.

So one woe is when the European power block attacks the Eurasians. Now we're going to have stage two, we believe. The second woe, stage two of war. The counter-attack, we believe is briefly referenced here. Verse 13 and 14. Then the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar, which is before God, saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates.

So release those that are bound at the great river Euphrates.

Well, the Euphrates river back in ancient times was the boundary of the Roman Empire.

So perhaps this is the power block, the army of the south, now being released, able to come into what used to be the Roman Empire and now may be in new times as well. Huge clash! So the first woe is the king of the north is coming in, taking their first swing, their first blow. Now is given. God, of course, is in control of this all. He gives authority for the second woe to occur, release them. They're at this boundary of the Euphrates. They begin to come in. You can imagine the clash at this time. So the king of the south is now released to have a counterpunch here.

Verse 15. So the four angels who had been prepared for that hour and day and month and year were released to kill a third of mankind. So huge chunks of humanity being killed here.

Complete clash of cultures. European culture and the Euro-Eurasia culture.

Verse 16. Now the number of the army of the horsemen was 200 million. I heard the number of them. 200 million. This is a big army. You'd probably have to have China and Russia, those two large populations, combining their forces to defeat Europe here. This is what we kind of suspect.

So in closing, I want to give you three possibilities of what comprises this army of the south. We could be looking for it. I think we have a good grasp on who the king of the north will be. Possibility number one of who is these mass numbers here, the 200 million. Possibility number one, speculation number one. This is possibly that the army of the south is a massive army of multinational Islamic force formed from the Islamic countries north and east of the Euphrates.

It would include nations like Syria, Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan, India. India being the second largest Muslim population in the world. Indonesia, which has its share of Muslims as well as Hindus. Further north and east from this point, you've got Russia and all the various nations that were once part of the Soviet bloc. So all those in this general direction possibly might be the possible number one here comprising of this huge army of multinational Islamic confederation that's coming against the Europeans. Possibility number two, it's possible this could be forces from Russia and China, two major world powers who often share common interest. They see Europe coming into the Middle East. What do we have in the Middle East?

Oil fields. If you want world domination, you have to have control of the oil fields.

Russia wants its share. You don't want the enemy to have everything in terms of oil.

So you might see Russia and China coming together with the common interest. They don't like the threat of Europe coming into the Middle East, so they look to expel the Europeans.

Possible. Possibility number three, all the above. All the above.

All struggling for world domination.

Let's go back to Daniel chapter 11 as we will conclude.

The time of the end is also the time of the end for our study. Chapter 11 verse 45.

Chapter 11 verse 45.

Daniel chapter 11 verse 45, speaking of the time of the end. There will be a time of the end of this great beast power in Antichrist. Verse 45, And he shall plant the tents of his palace between the seas and the glorious holy mountain. This is where all this is going to occur. Yet he shall come to his end, and no one will help him.

So he, the king of the north, the beast, shall plant his tents in the place, in the palace, between the seas. This is between, we believe, the Dead Sea and the Mediterranean, in the glorious holy mountain, talking about Jerusalem. And it will be there that the beast will come to his end, the final stage and ground, just outside of Jerusalem.

Why does he come to his end?

What's our only comfort in life and death? We know. We know. So this is all very daunting. We went through it pretty fast. It's worrisome, but we don't have to worry or fear as others fear.

We, as God's people, have been told what to look for.

What we want to look for in us spiritually is we want to make sure we're prepared for the return of Jesus Christ. We do not want to be like these armies fighting against Christ at his return.

We don't want to be fighting against Christ in our hearts right now.

So you see, the battle is now for us. We need to look for evil influences, deceit, look for where we may be swayed and flattery, look for where we may be swayed with the lure of prosperity, look for where we may be swayed in wanting prosperity financially, as well as physically, health-wise.

Many things can be intriguing to us to move away from God. So we need to look for all these things, the spirit of these things, and not ever allow it to take to plant its tent in our hearts. Yes.

I'm going to be talking about Donald Trump and conservativeism, but he'll be down. In fact, I learned that my own daughter is going to have a big fundraiser for Donald Trump. And all the liberal news media is calling for his companies to be boycotting. And one actually was a commentator who said they should boycott him before he's in control. Another commentator recently said, after one of the Trump rallies, that these people cannot be reasoned with, they must be controlled.

So, there's great pressure on people to convert to that way of thinking. How long will it take before it's necessarily up? Boy, you said it. A great pressure to convert to that way of thinking. That's exactly what Mr. Ward was also speaking of. So, what pressure will come to us to cause us to convert our way of thinking to them? Is it prosperity? So, if financially we're cut off, what justifications can come into the mind? I know as a husband and father, I would have the desire to say, well, God wouldn't want my family to starve. So, I'm going to start making compromises. It's a huge...there's going to be whatever pressure. I mean, Satan knows what pressure specifically speaks to you and to each of us. And that's where he's going to attack. But ultimately, we have to know what we know what we know. And we have to trust in God in the midst of the conflict and remind ourselves of the God of Daniel, chapter 11. I think that's one thing about Daniel 11. It's kind of neat that, you know, it...here's...you know, if you think about it, I expected that Daniel was this guy. He's been told all this stuff for thousands of years that will not affect him immediately. But God knows that throughout the years, for thousands of years later, people will see that. And that would just reaffirm their faith in him to see that, you know, here's this old God who knew all this. From the time now until, you know, till the time of the end. So that, you know, that's somewhat of a comfort, I guess you would say, to see his magnificent power. That if he knows all this, knows how it's going to end, and, you know, from everything else, that, you know, you can take comfort in the fact that he has your power. He'll make sure you're going to wait another year. And...yeah. And thank you for that. Yes? Yeah, one thing about this, what you've covered, seems to indicate that's the battle after the thousand years of Venice. Because what is the Arab world is conversing with Satan and devil, and all this smoke comes up from where he is. So that could be the time of his release. So the battle...is there two battles? So battles...yeah, that would be...yeah, we need to go through a different book coming up now that we're ending...getting to the end of Daniel. Ezekiel might be a good one. I would need to get my rest before taking on Ezekiel in my education. This Arab block has to have part in that battle. I mean, it's just overwhelming. You've got Pakistan, Iran, we would ship under the Obama administration, ship trainloads of money to them. I think they referred to it as a trainload. I don't know if it's up in the Philippines or not. Well, they turned around and used it to pay these haters of America, and most Arab countries hate America. Even the Philippines. Yeah. Hell, Islam is a major religion. And yeah, in your comment about the later battles, it makes me think Satan never...as brilliant, deceitfully brilliant, and evilly brilliant as Satan is, his tactics really don't change. So the same thing that God's people were going through then, the same thing we're going through today, it's the same thing when Satan's released in the millennial period.

The lures and the pitfalls are all the same. The intrigue is all the same.

One of the other interesting things to me was when they came out of Egypt, the children of Israel got commanded to kill every man, woman, and child.

They did, so the penalty was they'd be a thorn in your...and tricks in your eyes and signs. All right? I don't know if you heard us talk about the movies that are being made in Hollywood now that are encouraging those that are to the left to, quote, destroy all the horrible... Oh, The Hunt. Yeah. That movie...I just briefly saw that. What a horrible movie where they're actually hunting people like animals. There's just...there's nothing out of bounds anymore.