CHAPTER 9
By Doug Krieger
Pergamos Ministries
The Tribulation Network
www.the-tribulation-network.com
THE DENIAL OF AN ACTUAL ANTICHRIST YET TO COME IS AKIN TO THE DENIAL THAT CHRIST IS COME IN THE FLESH
To my astonishment, and ignorance, many Christian denominations deny that there will be a future “vile person” known as the Antichrist—the physical embodiment of a latter day’s personage who will bring the globe from the euphoria of peace in our time to blatant destruction . . . waging war throughout the planet, culminating in Armageddon and the Second Coming of Christ.
For example, the website of the Churches of Christ, though for the most part intensely evangelical, has committed a glaring oversight by alleging that John’s First Epistle does NOT speak of the future, bodily personification of the Antichrist. Instead the emphasis is upon the “spirit of antichrist” and the doctrine that many “antichrists” are gone out into the world (which is true) and that he who denies that “Jesus Christ is come in the flesh” is indeed antichrist and that there are “many antichrists” that are gone out into the world who shall arise in the Last Days—yet, I contest, that there shall be the embodiment of a future end-times’ person called in the Bible: THE ANTICHRIST.
In essence, the Churches of Christ site denies the tangibility of the Antichrist and commits the issue to a “spiritual reality” only, while denying the preponderance of Biblical justification for such a future tangibility. Anyone who denies the Father and the Son bears the “spirit of Antichrist” only. Yet, they claim there is no such thing as THE Antichrist, yet to come.
Initially, I dismissed their doctrine as a casual oversight until I realized the profound nature of the error juxtaposed to the Gnosticism which John fought against in the early Church. Denying the “materiality” and thence, the “incarnation” that Jesus Christ came in the flesh—and that He resurrected with a physical body and ascended as the “Glorified Man” and is currently seated on the right hand of God the Father as the Son of Man—was the dastardly heresy that possessed the Gnostics and made their error so grievous in the early Church.
However, the Churches of Christ site subscribes to a new heresy by denying the future materiality of “The Antichrist” whose titles in Scripture are innumerable! I urge the brethren in the Churches of Christ to “come to your spiritual senses” and acknowledge the precise error which Satan desires you to embrace—for if he is unable to dissuade you of the Son of Man’s physicality, he will persuade you to deny his own personal materiality in the body of Antichrist where he shall find the most fertile of human temples—a temple which he shall utterly desecrate by his counterfeit incarnation; and hence, the prophesied “abomination of desolation” spoken of by both Daniel and Jesus shall take place (Daniel 11:31, 12:11; Matthew 24:15, Mark 13:14).
This future Antichrist is as physical and as spiritual a reality as the Son of Man and the Spirit of Christ!
DONALD GREY BARNHOUSE & OTHER LEADING EVANGELICALS ACCLAIM THE COMING OF THE ANTICHRIST –
The Word of God alone is sufficient to declare that THE Antichrist shall yet come—but scores of evangelical brethren have never wavered in their belief that the Church’s final contestation, and Israel’s peril, awaits the habitation of the Evil One.
Satan “entered into Judas” to commit the dastardly deed of betrayal (“Then Satan entered into Judas, surnamed Iscariot, who was numbered among the twelve” (Luke 22:3); and “Now after the piece of bread, Satan entered him (i.e., Judas) . . . Then Jesus said to him, ‘What you do, do quickly’” (John 13:26)), It was of Judas in Jesus’ High Priestly prayer in John 17 that the Savior declared: “Those whom You gave Me I have kept; and none of them is lost except the son of perdition (i.e., “destruction”), that the Scripture might be fulfilled” (John 17:12; cf. Psalm 41:9 and 109:8).
Donald Grey Barnhouse (former Editor of Eternity Magazine and Sr. Pastor of the Tenth Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, PA) elucidates the bodily appearance of the end-times’ Antichrist:
“The wild beast out of the sea is undoubtedly an individual personage. He cannot be identified as a system. There are too many distinguishing characteristics of individuality. It is the Antichrist. The same argument holds good for the false prophet. He is a man, as is the personal Antichrist. The pair is united in the source of the power. The pair shall be united in their doom, for they are both taken captive at the coming of the Lord in the midst of the battle of Armageddon (Rev. 19:20), and are cast together into the lake of fire forever (Rev. 20;10). All of this is sufficient to prove their personality and individuality, and to demonstrate that they are not governments, nations, religions or systems.
“The Antichrist will appear suavely, swiftly, quietly. He will be a man, first of all, of quietness before he manifests himself in his satanic form. He will be an anti-Christ, counterfeit Jesus—not a counterfeit devil. When we understand this, we will understand what to look for. If there is some truth in a false religion, men will take it more easily. That is why we must receive the love of the truth and measure everything by the Word of God. When we do this, we cannot be deceived . . . The first beast is the future Roman dictator who shall become the Antichrist by the incarnation of Satan; the second beast is the personal head of the religious system which will go along with the dictatorship and the Antichrist” (Revelation, An Expositional Commentary, Zondervan, pp. 247-251).
Arthur W. Pink has compiled one of the most exhaustive expositions on the subject of The Future Antichrist. He unequivocally states in his text, The Antichrist – A Systematic Study of Satan’s Counterfeit Christ:
“In the second chapter of his first epistle the apostle John declares, ‘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” (v. 18). In strict harmony with this, the apostle Paul affirmed that the ‘mystery of iniquity’ was ‘already’ at work in his day (2 Thess. 2:7) . . . There have been, then, and there exist today, many Antichrists, but these are only so many forecasts and foreshadowing's of the one who is yet to appear. But it is of first importance that we should distinguish clearly between an Antichrist and the Antichrist. As we have said, there have already been many Antichrists, but the appearance of the Antichrist is yet future” (The Antichrist, p. 13, Kregel Publications).
THE “CHURCHES OF CHRIST” VIEW OF “ANTICHRIST”
In I John 2:18 their web site quotes from the King James Version of the Bible; to wit: “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.” In order to substantiate their conviction that the Bible bespeaks only of a “spirit of antichrist” and not the ultimate manifestation of THE Antichrist, they’ve taken the liberty to consign their translation to the KJV and have circumvented numerous Greek texts which include the definite article the in the original Greek to “nail down” the actual meaning in the Greek—notwithstanding that the “sense” in the KJV itself commends itself to the personal Antichrist yet to come—“that Antichrist shall come.”
Their site goes on to quote I John 2:22: “Who is the liar but he that denies that Jesus is the Christ? He is the Antichrist who denies the Father and the Son.” Note: The same definite article appears (neuter in Greek) in front of the Antichrist in I John 2:22 as well. It can be contended that the specificity of the Antichrist is just as much a reality, for it will be Satan who will ultimately “inhabit” the “temple” (i.e., Grk. “naos”) of the body of the “son of perdition” (and/or “the man of sin” – i.e., “the lawless one”):
“Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the MAN OF SIN (my caps) is revealed, THE SON OF PERDITION (my caps), who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple (Grk. naos, which connotes the “body of a man” – not the Temple in Jerusalem, hieron—see Jesus’ exchange in John 2:13-22 wherein he juxtaposes the “physical temple” (i.e., hieron) in Jerusalem with his own “bodily temple” (naos) which would be raised in three days)).
Satan is THE Liar from the beginning—it was Satan who “entered into the body” of Judas Iscariot to commit the betrayal. When Jesus said “ye are of your father the devil” – that is precisely, I believe, what John had in his thought and human spirit regarding these statements of the Antichrist—all those who ascribe to the denial of “the Father and the Son” are of “their father the devil”—the liar. Satan would delight for us to believe that he will NOT “possess the body of Antichrist” wherein he shall become the BEAST of Daniel’s 70th Week and ipso facto (the “entering into the body of the wounded Antichrist”—having “received a wound in his head” – Revelation 13:3, 12, 14), the Antichrist will “miraculously recover”—again, as Barnhouse conjectures:
“Is there to be a death and a healing of the literal Antichrist? Satan imitates God in an incarnation. Will he imitate him in a resurrection? It is certain that there will be ‘all power and signs and lying wonders’ (II Thess. 2:9). Will there be an assassination and a resurrection? (Ibid. p. 238).
Their third verse from Scripture reads:
"By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God; and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; and this is the spirit of the Antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world." 1 John 4:2-3 –
Again, the Churches of Christ argument contends that this phrase – “this is the spirit of the antichrist” – depersonalizes the ultimate Antichrist. When Jesus said that “You are of your father the devil” to the religious leaders of His time, and then said to Peter, “Get thee behind me Satan,” He undoubtedly had reference to the “spirit of Antichrist” but also the very personality of Satan himself (John 8:44; Luke 4:8).
Yes, Satan entered into Judas for the betrayal. The “spirit of Antichrist” is in the world today—NO DOUBT ABOUT IT. But that does not in any way, shape or form DEPERSONALIZE either Satan or the future “Son of Perdition” who will be THE Antichrist!
Finally, the fourth verse they quote where the word “Antichrist” is used is in 2 John 1:7: "For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is the deceiver and the Antichrist." 2 John 1:7 – So, we have met the Antichrist, and it is us!
Yes, this is the Antichrist—make no doubt about it—THIS IS THE VERY SOURCE FROM WHICH SUCH DECEIVERS GET THEIR FALSE DOCTRINE. Just as the religious leaders in Jesus’ time were “of your father the devil” and just as Jesus rebuked Peter by stating: “Get thee behind me Satan”—even so, we are altogether clear the source from whence such evil expresses itself!
In all cases of the use of Antichrist there is absolutely no problem in so far as the “spirit of antichrist” is concerned—I think we concur here; however, in order for them to maintain their anti-Premillenarian (the Churches of Christ vehemently oppose premillennialism) posture it is MANDATORY for you to deny “a” coming Antichrist who shall be THE ANTICHRIST—the one in whom the ABOMINATION OF DESOLATION shall be committed and who shall undergo the abominable metamorphosis and become the BEAST. He will be “cast to the earth” – “ascend from the abyss” – come forth “from the sea.”
Obscuring the “personal Antichrist” who will YET ARISE in the Latter Days is altogether disconcerting to this brother and I will fight this error with all the God-given power that is within me because any so-called “Christian teaching” which denies the futurity of such a personage is, in and of itself: ANTICHRIST. As Jesus Christ is the MAN IN THE GLORY—even so, we have the SPIRIT OF CHRIST in us! Even as the “spirit of Antichrist” is gone out into the world today—even so, the coming revelation of the final Antichrist awaits an ill-prepared world—and especially, an ill-prepared Church!
Now . . . let us examine the various Biblical descriptions given to this personage . . . .
KING OF BABYLON - KING OF TYRE
Two of Antichrist’s most salient titles—and the ones which affect the end-times’ scenario in the most radical and universal manner—are those which demonstrate his hegemonic control over earth’s people and resources.
The Tribulation Network has repeatedly affirmed that the world in which we now live is radically changing in every way. Both the political/military and the economic conditions of this world have been so altered in the last fifty years, that today’s UNIPOLAR world (wherein the United States of America is the sole superpower, while at the same time she holds economic and political hegemony over the face of the whole earth), finds its closest resemblance in the “World that was Rome.”
The
ominous titles attributed to the final end-times’ Antichrist which allude to the
above paragraph, are those of the KING OF BABYLON and the PRINCE or KING OF TYRE—the
first dealing with political/military hegemony and the latter of universal
commercial dominance. Today’s USA, according to conservative political pundit
Charles Krauthammer, is the world’s first “Commercial Empire” – however, we beg
to differ with Mr. Krauthammer in that the ancient Canaanites (Semitic),
Phoenicians (Greek) and/or Punic peoples (Latin) of these ancient Mediterranean
peoples were precisely such an empire! Only the Romans subdued and absorbed
their commercial expertise into the Empire that was
Rome
around 200 B.C.
But what the Hebrew prophets saw and foresaw was the spiritual dynamic and personage BEHIND the King of Babylon and the King of Tyre. The pronouncements found in Ezekiel 26 through 28 see the “morphing” of an earthly figure into the cosmic personage of Satan himself—for when we arrive at Ezekiel 28:16 we read: “By the abundance of your (i.e., the King of Tyre’s) trading you became filled with violence within, and you sinned; therefore I cast you as a profane thing out of the mountain of God; and I destroyed you, O covering cherub, from the midst of the fiery stones.”
Likewise, the political aspirations of the King of Babylon not only witnessed the realities of the Neo-Babylonian King but of that awful and future leader that shall come—and behind this King is the very ruler of that final end-times’ Image seen in the Book of Daniel; to wit:
“Take up this proverb against the King of Babylon, and say: ‘How the oppressor has ceased, the golden city ceased!’ . . . Hell from beneath is excited about you, to meet you at your coming; it stirs up the dead for you, all the chief ones of the earth; it has raised up from their thrones all the kings of the nations . . . how you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground, you who weakened the nations! For you have said in your heart: ‘I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will also sit on the mount of the congregation on the farthest sides of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High.’ Yet you shall be brought down to Sheol, to the lowest depths of the Pit” (Isaiah 14:4, 9, 12-14).
A closer examination of these titles in the Hebrew Scriptures conclusively proves that both of these figures "morph" into cosmic beings—they transform from ordinary earthly rulers of Babylon and Tyre into far more universal characters whose true identity is more than obvious. Satan (a.k.a., Lucifer, the Morning Star, the Covering Cherub, the Profane Thing), is clearly portrayed as King of Babylon and King of Tyre—make no doubt about it, the one in whom INIQUITY has been found!
I bring out these two significant titles which dominate all the others because it is in Revelation chapter 18 (the King of Tyre—Commercial Babylon) and Revelation chapter 19 (Political/Civil Babylon) that the Scriptures highlight their demise—for behind the “administration” of the GREAT CITY BABYLON is the King of Babylon, and behind the commercial aspirations of Babylon—that Great City that “traffics in the bodies and souls of men”—is the very King of Tyre and his hideously exploitive economic system that dominates the entire earth to the extent that none can “buy nor sell” without the mark of the Beast.
The seminal Scriptures of Isaiah 14 (King of Babylon) and Ezekiel 28 (King of Tyre) unveil the future judgments of these fiendish figures of Death and War (Babylon) and of Commerce and Exploitation (Tyre). Let us read further of Isaiah’s cosmic metamorphosis of this figure:
"All the kings of the nations, all of them, sleep in glory, everyone in his own house; but you are cast out of your grave like an ABOMINABLE BRANCH, like the garment of those who are slain . . . I will break THE ASSYRIAN in My land, and on My mountains tread him underfoot . . . . This is the purpose that is purposed against the whole earth, and this is the hand that is stretched out over all the nations" (Isa. 14:18-19a, 25-27).
I embolden his titles in the above text to bring to our attention his descriptions are legion throughout the Bible. Even a cursory exegesis of these passages reveals that Satan himself is behind the morphed figure of the King of Babylon—who is also revealed as the Abominable Branch, Lucifer, Son of the Morning (i.e., Day Star), and as The Assyrian. Surely, Antichrist—that final figure of the End Times, who shall make ultimate "war against the saints" as the Son of Perdition, THE BEAST—is exposed throughout Scripture under many names and titles as counterfeits of the person and work of our Lord Jesus Christ—our promised Deliverer and Messiah.
Without controversy—his highest designations are invested within "King of Babylon" and his end-times’ network of terror and war: "Who is like the beast? Who is able to make war with him?" (Rev. 13:4b).
THE WORK OF ARTHUR W. PINK
The Bible does not casually mention names. As Arthur W. Pink in his book, "The Antichrist—a Systematic Study of Satan's Counterfeit Christ" cautions: "Devil" and "Satan" are not synonymous, nor are they used haphazardly, but with Divine discrimination. Upon the meaning of names found in Holy Writ rests a whole scheme of interpretation; even the order in which names occur is not fortuitous but designed, and constitutes a part of each lesson taught, or each truth presented." (Note: I will simply quote from the text—hereinafter, no pages are given.)
Though we here have already highlighted his titles as "King of Babylon" and "King of Tyre," because of their strategic placements in the end-times’ judgments of Babylon the Great in Revelation 17, 18 and 19, a quick, though partial, overview of his exhaustive titles by Pink will commence his exhaustive disclosures:
1. The Antichrist-I John 2:22
2. The Man of Sin, Son of Perdition-II Thess. 2:3
3. The Lawless One-II Thess. 2:8 (R.V.), vs. 9
4. The Beast-Rev. 11:7
5. The Bloody and Deceitful Man-Psalm 5:6
6. The Wicked One-II Thess. 2:8
7. The Man of the Earth-Psalm 10:18
8. The Mighty Man -Psalm 52:1
9. The Enemy-Psalm 55:3
10. The Adversary-Psalm 74-8-10
11. The Head Over Many Countries-Psalm 110:6
12. The Violent Man-Psalm 140:1
13. The Assyrian-Isa. 10:5 & 12
14. The King of Babylon-Isa. 14:4
15. The Son of the Morning-Isa. 14:12
16. The Abominable Branch-Isa. 14:19
17. The Spoiler-Isa. 16:4
18. The Nail-Isa. 22:25
19. The Branch of the Terrible Ones-Ezk. 21:25-27
20. The King of Tyre-Ezk. 28:12
21. The Little (i.e., "Younger") Horn-Daniel 7:8
22. The Coming Prince-Dan. 9:26
23. The Vile Person-Dan. 11:21
24. The Willful King-Dan 11:36
25. The Idol Shepherd-Zech 11:16-17
26. The Angel of the Bottomless Pit-Rev. 9:11
I would just like to comment at this point (though a much more exhaustive study shall be forthcoming in THE KING OF TYRE (Please see our main site at: www.the-tribulation-network.com for The King of Tyre), that the "King of Babylon" is the political/administrative and military leader of "Babylon the Great." The combination of these two titles is most disconcerting in that the amalgamation of the political (King of Babylon) with the commercial (King of Tyre) brings to our attention of how the “merchants of the earth” are intimately involved with political leadership, and visa versa.
NATIONAL SOCIALISM
Probably
the most fertile political-economic environment for absolute dictatorship to
emerge is within the context of Fascism, and in particular, the Fascism found
within National Socialism.
Hitler’s manifestation of Fascism was assuredly racial in its “nationalism.” However, National Socialism (i.e., Nazism) had a far more sinister expression than something purely racial. It was the intensely close relationship between private corporations and the public sector (i.e., government).
At the commencement of Hitler’s emergence as a political force to be reckoned with—his NSDAP was virtually bankrupt and actually in political freefall. It was at this juncture that Germany’s industrial magnates—her large corporations—came to Hitler’s financial rescue and Nazi Socialism was birthed. This marriage of the State and the Corporations was the ticket that would rid Germany of the strictures of the Versailles Treaty. The State would “cut deal after deal” with Germany’s privately-owned mega-corporations, creating one of the most successful models of economic revival in the midst of a worldwide depression. Though much of what “appeared” as economic success was “smoke and mirrors” – it, nevertheless, created an “atmosphere” of German vitality and rebirth—Hitler’s Joseph Goebbels took it from there and made it reality in the eyes of the German people.
“After World War II, many people in Germany's Western zones of occupation, and in the United States, also argued that businessmen, even free enterprise as a system, were responsible for Hitler's rise, his wars of aggression, and his crimes against humanity. In 1947 and 1948, the communist countries watched with bemusement as the United States, the preeminent capitalist country, prosecuted dozens of executives of three of wartime Germany's largest companies for war crimes and crimes against humanity. In the dock were directors of the Krupp and Flick (steel and coal) companies, both of which had built weapons of war and had employed forced labor, and board members of I.G. Farben, the chemical and pharmaceutical giant that had run a synthetic rubber factory at Auschwitz.
“During the trials at Nuremberg, the American prosecutors were careful not to portray the proceedings as attacks on the market economy, but rather as attempts to punish individuals who had committed crimes. Nonetheless, it was clear that they had established a strong link between German industry and all aspects of the Nazi economy and, more specifically, between German business and the crimes of National Socialism. The trials resulted in the conviction and imprisonment of a number of important company owners and directors” (German Industry and the Third Reich: Fifty Years of Forgetting and Remembering, by S. Jonathan Wiesen, ADL, Dimensions: A Journal of Holocaust Studies).
The point to be made here is the merger of politics and commerce to the extent that these large corporations literally sustained the State, and the State fed off their largess through one of the largest military buildups the world had witnessed up to that point in history. Today, in America, we have witnessed the economic ascendancy of Halliburton from 37th largest corporation in America to 7th largest—are we witnessing a repeat of history?
THE COMING PRINCE
His identification in Daniel is seen in "the
Prince who is to come" (Daniel 9:26) and as both the "little ("younger") horn(s)"
of both Daniel 7:7-8, 20-21 (the "Roman" and/or Fourth Beast with Ten Horns and
from whence an Eleventh Horn who speaks ". . . pompous words, whose appearance
was 
greater
than his fellows (i.e., the other Ten Horns of the Beast) . . . the same horn
(Eleventh Horn) was making war against the saints, and prevailing against
them."). Also, we read in Daniel 8:8-9:
"Therefore the male goat (Greece) grew very great; but when he became strong, the large horn (Alexander the Great) was broken, and in place of it four notable ones (Seleucus-Syria—King of the North; Ptolemy—The Holy Land with Egypt—King of the South; Cassander—Macedon and Greece; and finally, Lysimachus—Thrace, part of Bithynia and territories between these and the Meander) came up toward the four winds of heaven. And out of one of them came a little (i.e., "younger") horn which grew exceedingly great (Note: This is the "Greco" aspect of the Antichrist.) toward the south, toward the east, and toward the Glorious Land. And it grew up to the host of heaven; and it cast down some of the host and some of the stars to the ground, and trampled them."
THE EMERGENCE OF THE END-TIMES’ ANTICHRIST: Gog-Magog (the King of the North/King of the South) vs. Israel and the Antichrist.
The emergence of the Antichrist—whose personal identity shall yet be revealed—is of immediate priority in the Last Days’ chronology. The alignment of so many prophetical phenomena—including the final “falling away from the faith” (i.e., the Great Apostasy) assailing the Church (from New Age to Super Churchianity); Israel’s astounding rebirth as a nation and of her ingathering in unbelief; the ascendancy of Western Civilizations’ “younger horn” as manifested in the Great City, the Sodom and Egypt of the Last Days—the one who wages war and no one can defeat him and who holds absolute economic sway over the peoples of the planet; the astounding revival of radical Islamic Fundamentalism and its striking geo-political resemblance to the forces of Gog-Magog and their obsession to annihilate Israel; the pre-positioning of the King of Babylon’s forces in the region, which fulfills the “pincer movement” of the Gog-Magog forces to close in upon “him”—if there ever were a time for the “unveiling” of the Man of Sin: It is now!
Furthermore, the “Hoof Beats of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse” thunder across the planet and the Olivet Discourse with its “beginning of sorrows” (Matthew 24:8) has taken on ominous prophetic fulfillment as “false messiahs” (Matt. 24:5) abound and political “Wars of Liberation and Democracy” pervade the face of the whole earth (the “white horse” of Revelation 6:1-2); where “wars and rumors of war” (Matthew 24:7a) follow as the “fiery red” horse of Revelation 6:3-4 is unveiled; where the residual of famine and scarcity ensue as a result of the global wars in the name of Peace and Freedom (Matthew 24:7b and the “black horse” of Revelation 6:5-6); and finally, where persecution, death and destruction culminate this wretched discourse and foursome (Matthew 24:8-9 and the “pale horse” of Revelation 6:7-8).
Donald Grey Barnhouse warned us some 70 years
ago of these “wars of liberation” in the name of democracy by 
quoting
an elder evangelical sage; to wit:
“Thus, in the name of Democracy and popular rights, comes absolute Dictatorship and Imperialism; in the name of Freedom, comes complete and universal enslavement; in the name of the better Reason, which tramples on religion and revelation, comes a great consolidated system of gross idolatry; in the name of a charitable Liberalism, which disdains allegiance to any creed, comes a bloody Despotism, which compels men to worship the base image of a baser man, or die. Here is one star in the crown of this world’s boasted progress.” (Ibid., p. 246)
Finally, Western Civilization now witnesses the inexorable alignment of the Mother of Harlots—Religious Babylon—atop the Beast to fulfill the Religious-Political Alliance seen in Revelation 17. The true AXIS OF EVIL—where Religion (i.e., the “Christian Religion”) under girds the greatest political/military power ever to countenance the face of the earth! Europe sees it—the whole world witnesses the phenomenon—but the Woman who Rides the Beast: Both could care less!”
The end-times’ manifestation of Antichrist, according to Daniel, will be what the Bible entitles, the Gog-Magog War as seen in Ezekiel 38-39, in which Israel becomes the centerpiece of the conflagration when the armies of Gog-Magog assault the ingathering of the Diaspora of Modern-day Israel. Naturally, Israel would have to be in her land—which she is today! The description of this war has NEVER occurred—but Israel is now in her ancient homeland and the ancient tribal designations of the Principality Gog, and the forces allied with Gog (i.e., Magog) are virtually all found in today’s Islamic nations which surround Israel.
Later on in Daniel 11:40-45 we read that the Antichrist (according to Robert Duncan Culver in his classic: "Daniel in the Latter Days" - Moody Press) has, apparently, positioned his forces in the area between the King of the North and the King of the South (NOTE: These North/South forces are referred to in Ezekiel 38-39 as Gog/Magog (northern nations-Gomer, Magog, Tubal, Mesheck, Beth-Togarmah and Iran or Persia—all of these nations are located in Turkey or the Trans-Caucuses); in addition to these "King of the North Nations," a number of nations to the south of Israel (the Beautiful Land) are mentioned, among which are Egypt, Ethiopia (i.e., Modern Sudan) and Libya.
In Daniel 11:44-45 the Gog-Magog war is expanded upon; although this time instead of Israel being the object of attack (as in Ezekiel’s accounting), Antichrist is the object—he has evidently PREPOSITIONED HIS FORCES somewhere in the Middle East north of Israel—the Bible doesn't specify where. In Daniel 11:40-45 Gog is referred to as the King of the North; and another entity is introduced as the King of the South. Egypt is introduced as being allied with Ethiopia and Libya, along with other unnamed countries south of the Holy Land. The King of the North and the King of the South attack—and the object of their attack is Antichrist.
WHAT OF AMERICA’S MILITARY DOMINANCE IN THE MIDDLE EAST?
Today’s ominous signs of the “Rise of Antichrist” or “King of Babylon” must be understood to be both a King/Antichrist and a Kingdom/Empire (Political and Commercial).
One would be geo-politically remiss, in light of America's current invasion and troop placements, to adjudge that we are fast approaching a convergence of events which are of historic magnitude. The unbelievable significance of the above Gog-Magog conflict is nigh upon us. Radical Islamic Fundamentalism is emerging as the most worrisome geopolitical phenomenon of the 21st Century—but today’s King of Babylon—the leadership of Western Civilization, the “New Roman Empire” (as Vladimir Putin called America)—has exceedingly extended its military and commercial interests into the region to such an extent that “there is no turning back!”
Virtually, the entire Presidential Campaign for 2004 is caught up in war fervor and riveted upon this endless subject of the war in Iraq—each candidate trying to “out gun” the other in “cleaning up the mess.” I have referred to the fact that the current invasion by America and the incredible placement of nearly a quarter of a million troops in Iraq (air, land and sea) is the fuse that will light the Gog-Magog conflagration.
(*I John 2:18c – NKJV & The Englishman’s Greek NT from The Greek Text of Stephens 1550 and various readings of the editions of Elzevir 1624, Griesbach, Lachmann, Tischendorf, Tregelles, Alford, and Wordsworth)