D.P. Weary March 2010
Longstanding views of eschatology are changing right before our eyes. World events, especially in the Middle East, are bringing new insights into the many prophecies dealing with the days and world conditions preceding the Lord’s return. It is just as the angel told Daniel:
Dan 12:8 NASB - As for me, I heard but could not understand; so I said, "My lord, what will be the outcome of these events?" Dan 12:9 NASB - He said, "Go your way, Daniel, for these words are concealed and sealed up until the end time. Dan 12:10 NASB - "Many will be purged, purified and refined, but the wicked will act wickedly; and none of the wicked will understand, but those who have insight will understand.
A very important part of these new revelations has to do with the role of Islam in the last days. In our November 2008 studies of the “Kingdom of Antichrist” (www.dpweary.blogspot.com) we discovered that Daniel’s last kingdom was the kingdom that overcame the Roman Empire. This was the Islamic Empire. The last form of this Empire was the Ottoman Empire.
The Ottoman Empire (1299–1922) (Old Ottoman Turkish: دولت عالیه عثمانیه Devlet-i Âliye-yi Osmâniyye, Late Ottoman and Modern Turkish: Osmanlı Devleti or Osmanlı İmparatorluğu), was a multi-ethnic and multi-religious Turkish-ruled state. The state was known as the Turkish Empire or Turkey by its contemporaries; see the other names of the Ottoman State. It was succeeded by the Republic of Turkey, which was officially proclaimed in 1923. At the height of its power (16th–17th century), it spanned three continents, controlling much of Southeastern Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, stretching from the Strait of Gibraltar (and, in 1553, the Atlantic coast of Morocco beyond Gibraltar) in the west to the Caspian Sea and Persian Gulf in the east, from the edge of Austria, Slovakia and parts of Ukraine in the north to Sudan, Eritrea, Somalia and Yemen in the south. The Ottoman Empire contained 29 provinces, in addition to the tributary principalities of Moldavia, Transylvania, and Wallachia. Note: The empire was at the center of interactions between the Eastern and Western worlds for six centuries. The Ottoman Empire was, in many respects, an Islamic successor to earlier Mediterranean empires — namely the Roman and Byzantine empires.
Today this area is basically the nations of Greece, Turkey, Syria, Iraq, Iran, Lebanon, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Egypt, Sudan, and Libya. All these nations are the Islamic enemies of Israel except Greece. If we eliminate Greece from the list we have 10 Islamic nations surrounding Israel that could possibly be the nations of the Beast’s kingdom. According to Daniel 11:42-43, 3 kings (Egypt, Libya and Ethiopia, called Sudan today) would be the three kings the Beast (the 11th king) puts down during his reign.
Dan 7:8 NASB - "While I was contemplating the horns, behold, another horn, a little one, came up among them, and three of the first horns were pulled out by the roots before it; and behold, this horn possessed eyes like the eyes of a man and a mouth uttering great boasts.
Dan 11:42 NASB - "Then he will stretch out his hand against other countries, and the land of Egypt will not escape.
Dan 11:43 NASB - "But he will gain control over the hidden treasures of gold and silver and over all the precious things of Egypt; and Libyans and Ethiopians will follow at his heels.
Daniel also tells us that the people of the old Babylonian, Persian, Greek and Egyptian empires are included as a part of this last empire and that in the end, the Lord destroys them altogether at His second coming.
Dan 2:34 "You continued looking until a stone was cut out without hands, and it struck the statue on its feet of iron and clay and crushed them. Jesus, the “great corner stone”, strikes the statue on its feet kingdoms and crushes them.
Dan 2:35 "Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver and the gold were crushed all at the same time and became like chaff from the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them away so that not a trace of them was found. But the stone that struck the statue became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.
When Jesus crushes the feet kingdoms, He crushed the whole statue kingdoms at the same time. No trace is found of them after this. Jesus, the stone, establishes the Kingdom of God that fills the whole earth.
Dan 7:12 "As for the rest of the beasts, their dominion was taken away, but an extension of life was granted to them for an appointed period of time. As for the first three beasts, their dominion or power is taken away, but their life is extended for an appointed time.
Dan 8:21 "The shaggy goat {represents} the kingdom of Greece, and the large horn that is between his eyes is the first king. The goat represents the kingdom of Greece; the large horn represents the first king, Alexander the Great.
Dan 8:22 "The broken {horn} and the four {horns that} arose in its place {represent} four kingdoms {which} will arise from {his} nation, although not with his power.
The kingdoms that developed out of Alexander’s Greece were the Kingdom of Cassander (Greece), the Kingdom of Lysimachus (Asia Minor), the Kingdom of Seleucus (greater Persia) and the Kingdom of Ptolemy (Egypt). This was called the Macedonian Empire and the nations included in this empire were the nations of the near and mid east from Greece to Afghanistan and Pakistan, and Turkey to North Africa. The nations that made up the Macedonian Empire evolved into the Roman Empire, and finally into the Islamic Empire. The final form of the Islamic Empire was the Ottoman Empire.
What we are witnessing today is the reestablishment of the Islamic Empire. The Sassanid Empire through the Ottoman Empire were all basically Islamic Empires and as such are often grouped together as the Islamic Empires. Their control over the Mid East was taken away through European Colonialism. Colonialism was replaced by nation-states. Currently we are witnessing the Islamic nations coming together to once again control and dominate the Mid East and desiring to totally destroy Israel.
There will be a leader of this revived Islamic Empire that will arise out from among the 10 kings (nations)(he will be an 11th king) that make up This Islamic Empire. We are told that this 11th king (the Antichrist) will arise out of the one of the four kingdoms that followed the kingdom of Greece.
Dan 8:21 NASB - "The shaggy goat represents the kingdom of Greece, and the large horn that is between his eyes is the first king.
Dan 8:22 NASB - "The broken horn and the four horns that arose in its place represent four kingdoms which will arise from his nation, although not with his power.
Dan 8:23 NASB - "In the latter period of their rule, When the transgressors have run their course, A king will arise, Insolent and skilled in intrigue
The most Biblical important king of the Macedonian Empire was Antiochus IV Epiphanies who came out of the Seleucid Empire. He ruled the Seleucid Empire from 175BC to 164 BC. This ruler of what was essentially Persia did fulfill some of Daniel’s prophecies concerning the Antichrist, leader of the fourth and last great beast empire. This included an excursion into Egypt, a retreat into Israel, desecrating the Temple in Jerusalem by putting a statue of Zeus in the Holy place and offering pigs blood on the altar. However, many of Daniel’s prophecies about Antichrist have yet to be fulfilled. Antiochus IV is considered by many to be a precursor or prophecy of the Antichrist. What we can deduce from this scripture is that the real Antichrist will arise during the rule of a 10 king kingdom that is made of present day nations that would be considered the area once ruled by the kings of the Macedonian Empire. If Antiochus was the prophecy of Antichrist, then we would suspect that Antichrist will also come out of the old Seleucid Empire. Today we would call this the Islamic nations north of Israel including parts of Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and parts of Turkey.
About Antichrist, we are also told that he does not regard the gods of his fathers, but that he will honor a god of fortresses, a god his fathers did not know. This would tell us that he honors the god of war. To any serious student of history, this god is Allah, or Allat (the feminine form). This is a moon god of the ancient Middle East and a god of war, destruction, and death. A study of Allah leads us back to Baal and Gog. In other words, back to Satan himself.
Also because this Antichrist does not honor the gods of his fathers it appears that he is a convert to Islam from perhaps the Greek/Roman gods, or the God of the Jews. Dan 11:37 NASB - "He will show no regard for the gods (or God singular) of his fathers or for the desire of women, nor will he show regard for any other god; for he will magnify himself above them all.
Dan 11:38 “But instead he will honor a god of fortresses, a god whom his fathers did not know; he will honor {him} with gold, silver, costly stones and treasures.
Daniel also reveals that the people of Antichrist are the people that destroyed Jerusalem and the Temple. These were Roman lead armies with many of the soldiers being conscripts from the Middle East, many of whom were Arabs or local tribal peoples. What this might be telling us is that the Antichrist could very well be a convert to Islam and has Roman ancestry.
Dan 9:26 “Then after the sixty-two weeks the Messiah will be cut off and have nothing, and the people of the prince who is to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. And its end {will come} with a flood; even to the end there will be war; desolations are determined.
To summarize, instead of a European Antichrist and a European, 10-nation kingdom of the Antichrist (a revived Roman Empire) we have a revived Islamic Empire with a leader (Antichrist) that comes from the Islamic nations north of Israel who is a convert to Islam and possibly has Greek/Roman ancestry. Current events in Israel, Iran, Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon, and Turkey and the militant rise of Islam in the world today seem to be telling us that this scenario is becoming more real every day.
Dan 12:10 NASB - "Many will be purged, purified and refined, but the wicked will act wickedly; and none of the wicked will understand, but those who have insight will understand.
Perhaps this Islamic scenario is the insight and understanding that the angel was talking about!
For a more detailed study of the Antichrist and his last-days kingdom see my teachings on:
“Antichrist”, Jan. 2009,
“The Kingdom of Antichrist”, Nov. 2008,
“The Kingdom of the Beast”, Nov. 2008,
And, “Islam-The Forth Kingdom”, Feb. 2007 updated Feb. 2010. The first 3 studies can be found on my blog: www.dpweary.blogspot.com. “Islam-The Forth Kingdom” is a longer study with graphics. I will gladly email it to anyone who is interested.
