Continuing my series first posted in 2007:

Damascus lies in nuclear rubble, completely cut off from ever becoming a city again. The major jihadist terrorist heads were cut off in Israel’s preemptive strike. But the collective wrath of the rest of the world’s nations–led by the UN Israel-haters—surrounds the tiny Jewish state, figuratively, at least.

The Islamic hordes of every stripe are in full rage. The battle cries scream from every media and diplomatic venue, as well as in the streets of Europe and other nations where Islam’s populations have grown exponentially.

Israel’s leadership—particularly the military leadership—knows that it is fight or die as a nation, as a people.

But, just as the Samson Option is about to be invoked (bringing the house of Israel and all its enemies down with nuclear holocaust), a man from the EU steps from among his fellows, speaking great things of the diplomatic sort:

“And of the ten horns that [were] in his head, and [of] the other which came up, and before whom three fell; even [of] that horn that had eyes, and a mouth that spake very great things, whose look [was] more stout than his fellows” (Daniel 7:20).

This European leader tells Israel he is their friend—almost the only friend they have among the voices of the UN and the newly developed superstate, thanks to the Rapture of the Church and America coming under the European umbrella, bringing with it the most powerful and sophisticated nuclear weapons arsenal on the planet.

He may be but one voice, but what a voice! No one would dare make war with this man, who commands such awesome might. As a matter of fact, this man will one day be worshipped as a god. But not quite yet.

“And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who [is] like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?” (Revelation 13:4).

This leader promises Israel that he, personally, will guarantee they are not attacked, and that they’re accepted by other leaders of the nations now threatening an all-out assault on the Jewish state.

He will begin with his wondrous works of convincing all the mesmerized world that he is the man of the hour. He is the ultimate negotiator–the great, longed-for peacemaker.

He even promises Israel they can build a temple on the most sacred spot to religious Jews—atop Mount Moriah, the Temple Mount.

But, in exchange, Israel must agree to put down all its defense, especially its great nuclear arsenal. Israel must agree to rely totally on the leader to be their national protector, their savior. They once rejected their true Messiah but will readily accept this great leader’s overtures of peace. Jesus prophesied about this:

“I am come in my Father’s name, and ye receive me not: if another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive” (John 5:43).

Although Israel and the world have been forewarned, this proud, arrogant, nefariously ambitious man will invoke his peace. It will–ultimately—produce catastrophic results.

However, he will appear at first to be a miracle worker of unprecedented magnitude:

“And through his policy also he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand; and he shall magnify [himself] in his heart, and by peace shall destroy many” (Daniel 8:25).

He is called the “man of sin,” the “son of perdition,” “Antichrist,” the “Beast,” the “king of fierce countenance,” the “prince that shall come,” and other names. But interestingly, he is called “the Assyrian.”

I recommend that you get a book by my great friend, Phillip Goodman, The Assyrian Connection, to read about the Bible’s reference to this man. He and Antichrist seem to be one and the same in terms of considering the future tyrant referred to as “the Beast” most prominently in Revelation 13.

Antichrist, though coming out of the geographic area of the ancient Roman Empire, based upon Daniel 9:26-27, will nonetheless be of Middle Eastern extraction.

I will let you read Phillip’s much-studied thoughts on the whys and wherefores surrounding this postulation, but suffice it to say that the following prophecy seems to reference, to some extent, the Beast’s ethnic origin:

“Neither shall he regard the God of his fathers, nor the desire of women, nor regard any god: for he shall magnify himself above all” (Daniel 11:37).

Who is this “God of his fathers?” If this terrible tyrant is Assyrian, based upon ethnic and/or religious history considerations, the “god” referred to might be the “god” of Islam. However, the “God of his fathers” could refer to God Jehovah, Abraham, and Abraham’s predecessors. The God of Heaven. The use of the capital G in God makes it almost certain that this refers to the One True God.

He rejects the true God of Heaven. (And I don’t mean that he will be a Jew. Abraham–and Abraham’s fathers before that great patriarch—sired many, many people who are not Jewish. The whole of the Arab nations, for example, have Abraham as their Gentile father-progenitor.)

This man, the son of perdition, who stands above all others of like mind–to rule the world, by hook or by crook—is out of the geographical area that comprised the old Roman Empire. While he is a prince who comes forth out of territories encompassed by the ancient Roman Empire, his ethnic origin is from people (his fathers) of Middle Eastern extraction.

He honors the “god of forces.” This is a most interesting proposition. And there are other fascinating factors and considerations in pursuing this line of conjecture.

But that will have to await next week’s space allowances.

—Terry

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We continue with my series first posted in 2007. Understand that this is a scenario, thus is postulation, but that based upon Bible prophecy truth.

We live in the last time. This is undeniable, if we accept God’s Word. It is indisputable to anyone who holds the Bible as truth. Proof is found right here:

“Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time” (1 John 2:18).

So, this is the end of days, for sure. At least, that’s how I read the apostle John’s words. It was already the end of days at the time he wrote his epistles and the Revelation. I’m aware some don’t believe the same John wrote both. I profoundly disagree. And there are those who believe the reference here is to the “spirit of Antichrist,” not to “Antichrist,” as the Beast of Revelation 13. I profoundly disagree with that assessment, too. John, here, is writing about BOTH the spirit of Antichrist and a specific man who will come on the scene at some point. He will both come posing as (the counterfeit of) Jesus Christ, and as against all that is Christian. He will be the worst man who has ever walked the surface of this fallen planet.

We will begin to postulate how this Beast might come to power while we continue with our hypothetical, though well-studied and scripturally-based, consideration of things that will quite possibly happen from this point in time forward.

Following the rapture of all born-again believers, the leadership of Israel will look around to find its world support gone with the disappearance of millions of people. All who truly believe Israel has a God-given right to the land, based upon passages in Genesis, will be missing. America will be in total turmoil and desperately searching for ways to regain its national equilibrium. This can only be accomplished by reestablishing a government that will provide structure for restoring order. The European Union, somewhat shaken, nonetheless will remain solid. All civilized parts of the Western world will rush to the EU for help in trying to regain and/or preserve things lost in the greatest catastrophe in recorded human history.

The Islamists of the Middle East, who have for centuries held the people under their despotic thumbs, will not be cowered by the disappearances—even of all of their young children. Rather, they will be emboldened to look toward Israel and see an Allah-sent opportunity to once-and-for-all scour the Jew from the face of what they consider to be their land. This rumor of war will not escape Israel’s leadership.

While the Arab-Islamic forces gather in council of war, the military leadership of Israel will be given the top spot in doing whatever is necessary to ensure the nation’s continued existence. The liberals and woolly-minded who harbor delusional thoughts that peace is primary will be pushed to the margins. Israel must survive.

Gamel Abdel Nasser will be remembered in the councils of both Israel and its enemies who spawned that Egyptian warlord. Nasser gathered the combined forces of Arab nations and attacked Israel in 1956. He was in the process of again doing so in 1967, when the Israeli Defense Force pre-empted the Egyptian dictator’s plans and thoroughly defeated that collective foe. The people who declare they will never again sit still while forces gather to destroy the nation will now be in charge in Israel. Dramatic action is called for; it will be taken.

Leadership of the major Mideast terrorist organizations will gather at the one place they’re all headquartered—the oldest inhabited city on earth, Damascus, Syria. Their drumbeat of blood-vowed hatred will make the inevitable obvious to the Israeli hawks–most all within Israeli leadership. They will decide to cut off the heads of the hydra-headed serpent in one mighty blow. That blow will be delivered by the nuclear sword:

“The burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap” (Isaiah 17:1).

One Israeli jet with a fifteen-kiloton bomb will cut off the heads, bringing much of Islam into confusion and immense rage. Then, there will be jihad of the most nightmarish sort. But preparation for such jihad will take time. Much of the diabolical terrorists most proficient at planning such a holy war will have gone to their seventy-two virgins.

Now, America will agree to agree with EU brainstorming. Something, all agree in the Western power sphere, must be done—immediately. World War III—that some have said has already begun with the War on Terrorism—will be about to get underway in full-blown fury. Israel will then sense the collective wrath not just of its Islamic neighbors, but of the entire world, including its former staunchest ally—the United States of America.

Israel, through its preemptive destruction of Damascus with a nuclear weapon, will have enraged everyone, who now looks at the tiny Jewish state as the number-one troublemaker on the planet:

“The burden of the word of the LORD for Israel, saith the LORD, which stretcheth forth the heavens, and layeth the foundation of the earth, and formeth the spirit of man within him. Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about, when they shall be in the siege both against Judah and against Jerusalem. And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it” (Zechariah 12:1-3).

Israel will be friendless. Most all Jews will know they are doomed. There will be no choice but to invoke the Samson Option. They will bring all who come against them down with their own deadly fall.

But there will be one man within the hierarchy of the EU who wants to try a diplomatic tact others haven’t considered.

Again, we are at the end of space limitations. We will hear this fellow out next time.

—Terry