This is the most edited post I’ve ever done…Everything I say here I’ve had to wrestle with because I too have been taught many different theories and this is where “private interpretations” come from. Too many try to fit prophecy into a “current-events” model and until the events present themselves, it’s all speculation and private interpretation. If you read the Scriptures as they are written, without the lenses of preachers, theories, dogma and believe it is accurate when Scriptures say then the Antichrist is an Assyrian. It is man’s interpretation that the “north” is Russia. I’ll expand on this in a moment. Since there are a billion Muslims from Morocco to Indonesia, I don’t think 200 million fighting for their god is too much to believe that they’re Muslims, especially when a Caliphate is reinstated by Turkey. India could also produce that many, yet no one considers them, why not? Maybe it’s because they don’t have a beef with Israel. Yet, despite all the speculation, I do not believe that these are human men from some country, but those demonic insects loosed at the beginning of Revelation nine from the pit along with the four “angels” currently bound in the river Euphrates who were also loosed. Those loci are like horses whose tails where like scorpions. I don’t believe we humans could invent a “thing” that would prevent death for five months. Things in the end times won’t be like today in any way – a lot of supernatural “stuff” will occur which is the great deception and how the false prophet will be able to call down fire from heaven. No one is going to follow someone who can call missiles down from heaven, but the moment someone can call fire down like Elijah on CNN; half the world would become a follower overnight. Don’t forget the acts of the two witnesses either.
There’s no question where the Antichrist comes from – Assyria. “The Assyrian” is mentioned 13 times in 13 verses and never in a good light. Click the link to see a map of Assyria: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Map_of_Assyria.png
These compass directions of Daniel 11 and their meanings are no different than arguing the matter as to whether the Messiah would come from Bethlehem, Nazareth, or Egypt; they’re all correct when you’re given the whole story. Though Babylon is almost due east, any army would have to come from the north because no one wants to do what Laurence of Arabia did. Islam surrounds Israel so it can come from every direction except due east – Jordan – because the Antichrist doesn’t gain control of them for whatever reason and Jesus warns Israel to flee to the mountains. Isaiah 16 names Petra – aka Sela as the destination. If they’re in Petra, Jerusalem becomes west in relation to Israel trying to survive. East is where Assyria is as well as north if you look at the map. North could also mean someone from Turkey, the seat of the Caliphate, or even a Kurd, no? The fact that Assyria no long exists, could mean the Antichrist might actually be a Kurd and if three kingdoms surrender to him, could he not also call it Magog? Daniel’s statue contains all Islamic countries that have ruled over Israel. If anything Daniel 11 sounds like a battle between the Sunny and Shia’a legs of Islam. Verse 21 says that the Antichrist will rise up with peace and flattering (just as John said in Revelation).
Think of it this way – even though their beliefs are not all biblical, the Catholics still believe and state that Jesus is the Son of God and even if a Pope said that it was no longer true, would that be enough to turn Catholics to following him in a new religion? The more likely scenario is people will turn to Islam. Wow! That’s what’s happening right now around the world. There are a lot of specific things about the Antichrist that point to him being a Muslim (just from their own professed beliefs right now) that fit much more than trying to convert Catholics from believing Jesus is not the Son of God. Islam declares God has no Son that alone would lead me to believe the Scriptures that the Antichrist is a Muslim over being a Catholic. “…every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist …” This is why God warns about changing the book of Revelation but that’s just what the world has done. There’s almost a Pavlovian response by everyone to 666 but no one recognizes it’s really Arabic bismillah – In the name of Allah.
The ONLY reason the whole idea of the Catholics being the evil religion of the end times is because 400 years ago they ruled Europe and from a misunderstanding of Daniel nine verse 27 as to the identification of “who” the prince and “his” people are. When you study history, Titus didn’t have enough men, so he brought in the Alexandrian and Syrian legions and it was they who destroyed the Temple and literally gutted the Jews as they fled. Titus wanted the Temple for himself. So “his” people is referring to Arabs (thereby Muslims) and the prince who signs the “covenant” for seven years is the Assyrian, the Antichrist. Also, we use the word “anti” for the Antichrist, which means the opposite – if the Jews and Christians are on one side, who is then the “opposite”? Islam. Not to forget that every nation attacked by Jesus when He returns is an Islamic nation kind of puts the whole Catholic thing to rest. Also the Antichrist isn’t a homosexual because of what Daniel eleven verse 37 says, but that the Antichrist will not regard the God of his father (Abraham via Ishmael?), but also will not regard the desire of women. I can understand with the growth of homosexuality how one could come to this understanding, but when you study Islam you really see that the meaning is that women have no say in anything because they’re second class citizen. This is why when a woman is raped in Islamic nations, SHE is the one punished for being provocative.
Revelation 16 says the kings (plural) of the east will come and cross the Euphrates River. If you look at a map (http://g.co/maps/uuc9m) of the eastern part of the Middle East you can see the Muslim nations (Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan) would come to Babylon to march together to Har Meggedo. It’s not likely China would enter the Middle East via land due to the Himalayas. Why do people pick China? Because they mix the “army” number of 200 thousand thousand in Revelation 9 with “kings of the east” from chapter 16 and when you do that you figure only, incorrectly, that China could fit the bill with that many military members. India has a potential army of 319 million, why not choose them? China has a potential army of 385 million but currently has only 2.2 million on active duty. The FACT is that the two need not be mixed to understand. If the Caliphate calls for every able bodied Muslim to come and fight you could get that number from the Muslim countries I mentioned with only half their combined population of 385 million. My point is that all the end time events revolve around the age old battle between Isaac and Ishmael.
Finally, since so many use Paul’s words about the mystery of the Church, it’s applied to “mystery” Babylon and since Babylon hasn’t been around for thousands of year, it must mean some other “church”. The “evil” Catholics were in power so they were an easy target. Yet I say, that’s private interpretation, why can’t the “church” of Babylon be the religion of Babylon – Islam? What great lie than to have a pseudo-Jesus return to Jerusalem (a city of seven hills by the way – as recorded in The Book of Legends, edited by Bialik and Ravnitzky, p. 371, paragraph 111) and proclaim himself God? Also, what “wine” has the world become drunk? But if you look at this whole thing as being Islam, the “wine” is oil. Now we have something to hold onto in order to understand such a reference. Surely we all agree the world would do anything for that “black gold”.
I hope this helps shed some light or at least sparks the idea to re-evaluate the whole Catholic Antichrist idea. Re-examine all given prophecies with Islam in mind and you’ll see how easy it is to fit everything together.
God Bless 🙂