“in his [the king of the north’s] estate [i.e., as his successor but not precisely his heir] shall stand up [i.e. seize for himself] a vile person, to whom they shall not give the honour [military victory] of the kingdom: but he shall come in peaceably, and obtain the kingdom by flatteries…yea, also the prince of the covenant. And after the league made with him he shall work deceitfully:
- for he shall…enter peaceably even upon the fattest places of the province…
- and [then] he shall scatter among them the prey, and spoil, and riches…
- he shall go forth with great fury to destroy, and utterly to make away many.” (Daniel 11:21-24, 44)
“thus saith the LORD of hosts / armies…let none of you imagine evil in your hearts against his neighbour; and love no false oath: for all these are things that I hate, saith the LORD.” (Zechariah 8:14-17)
It is not within my purview to dissect the entire complex and lengthy history laid out in Daniel 11, just to pull out some information about the vile king who, as with all these prophecies, comes to pass over and over throughout time as making – then breaking – leagues / alliances / treaties.
His first mention identifies him as appearing “at the time of the end” of Daniel’s 70 weeks, and as “planting the tabernacles of his palace between the seas in the glorious holy mountain;” (Daniel 11:40, 45). We can match this time and event to Daniel 9:24-27
These four verses are not only prophecy, but they are also poetry. Hebrew poets would take subject A and contrast it with subject B.
A1: after the sixty-two weeks Messiah shall be cut off, but not for Himself.
B1: and the people of “the prince who is to come” shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.
A2: He / Messiah / Christ shall confirm a covenant with many for one week; but in the middle of the week He shall bring an end to sacrifice and offering.
B2: And on the wing / for the overspreading of abominations shall be one who makes desolate [the prince who is to come], even until the consummation, which is determined, is poured out on the desolate.
Both scripture and history identifies the vile king as the ruler of the 4th empire. At the time of Christ’s first coming, the title of the prince / ruler was Caesar.
Julius Caesar rose to power and popular acclaim as savior of Italy by his victories against the invading Gauls from the north, following which, in 49 BC he famously broke Roman law under which he had amassed his power and crossed the Rubicon River, boundary of Rome’s military-free zone, igniting civil war by defenders of the free Republic. After seizing control of the treasury and executing the existing law allowing him to function as temporary dictator to deal with the crisis of civil war he became dictator perpetuo. (I think we can all translate that Latin.)
Julius Caesar should be understood by Latin name convention as
- family name Caesar
- of the larger clan / descendants of Julus, the son of Aeneas, demi-god heir to Troy and founder of Rome. The American equivalent would be genetic identification as a Son or Daughter of the American Revolution.
From the Aenid:
Caesar from the Julian stock shall rise,
Our heav’n, the just reward of human toils Securely shall repay with rites divine;
And incense shall ascend before his sacred shrine. Then banish’d Faith shall once again return,
The Faith that was banished by republican Rome was the ancient practice of worshipping the human king as the incarnation of the national god’s spirit through which the god accomplished his will – the same as Holy Spirit possession.
Caesar’s claim to divine connections was demonstrated by:
- putting his image on Roman coinage – the first for a living Roman
- having his statues erected in public temples as the High Priest / Vicar of the national god
- Renaming his birth month after his divine lineage equating him with the gods Janus / January, Mars / March, Aphrodite / April, Maia / May.
Moves to legally declare him in actually a sacral king in the full ancient sense of incorporating the divine spirit were only pre-empted by his assassination in 44 BC.
Absent sons – at least any birthed by a legal wife or acknowledged by him even if illegitimate – Julius Caesar’s will announced that his great-nephew of the family Octavius was his formally adopted heir, which is to say “only begotten son”. Accordingly, his heir’s family name was legally changed from Octavius to Julius and his “new name” / identity was identical to that of his adoptive father. Historians retroactively continue to call him “Octavian” only to more easily distinguish the two Caesars in their writings.
Beyond genetics, we should be able to transfer the concept of the Holy Spirit residing in and controlling multiple individuals whose bodies die but whose souls remain connected to this Spirit to the identical pagan concept of the single spirit of a spirit god inhabiting and controlling a series of individuals.
So Caesar II in the first century Roman empire was certainly understood to continue the dynastic succession, by taking his family name Caesar – and the spirit of his ancestor god.
Caesar I’s staff prevented a smooth Republican transition of power by stirring up mob violence in the city which then flared into a 20 years war until the Romans welcomed a peacemaker at any cost.
Julius Caesar is seen as the main example of Caesarism, a form of political rule led by a charismatic strongman whose rule is based upon a cult of personality, whose rationale is the need to rule by force, establishing a violent social order, and being a regime involving prominence of the military in the government. Other people in history, such as the French Napoleon Bonaparte and the Italian Benito Mussolini, have frankly defined themselves as Caesarists.
The deification of Julius Caesar I was accepted by the masses because he was the (great great…grand) son of a god. However, Gaius Octavius did not share his maternal uncle’s genetic ancestry in the Julius clan. Therefore, playing off his “only begotten son” inherited status, Augustus became known as divi Iuli filius (son of the divine Julius).
Over time and familiarity this eased into simply divi filius (son of the god). In an unprecedented move in Republican Rome, he used this title to be worshiped as a deity. He became entitled Augustus, meaning Divine, i.e. a living god, not waiting until death to be deified like Caesar I, and he instituted the imperial cult by which all Caesars were deified and granted many titles, all of which attributed aspects of divine power.
- Divi Filius, meaning ‘Son of the Divine,’ or ‘Son of God,’ was his favorite title. This title appears on almost every coin minted by Augustus.
- Dominus in Latin, or Kyrios in Greek, which means ‘Lord.’
- Soter, meaning ‘Savior,’ a title conveying that he had saved the empire from internal political instability, financial ruin, and external threats by foreign powers by his victories in battle.
- Pontifex Maximus, meaning ‘High Priest’, i.e. vicar, human embodiment of the chief god Jupiter / Zeus who ruled through him.
From a biblical perspective, of all these named attributes are appropriated titles of The Promised Seed / Prophesied Savior / Christ.
Like his predecessor, August has no genetic sons, so like his predecessor Augustus adopted his successor, i.e. authorized his own “only begotten son” to succeed him.
Tiberius followed legal procedures still in use today to change his family and clan names to become Tiberius Julius Caesar. For the last 2,000 years aspirants to the Roman throne have claimed adoption into the “Caesar” family signifying legal entitlement via embodiment of the god’s spirit.
We can identify anyone taking the title Caesar – in any language such as Kaiser / Czar / Tsar – as claimant / heir to YHVH’s rival ruler of the last World Empire, i.e. the aspiring Antichrist.
When Tiberias ascended (get it? ascended) to the throne (emperor from 14 to 37 AD) as the living incarnation of divus Augustus his new identity once again merited a new name / title / entitlement of Tiberius Caesar Augustus.
“And Yeshua/Jesus said unto them, See ye not all these things? verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down… Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ / the Predicted God-Indwelt Ruler to Come; and shall deceive many.” (Matthew 24:1-5)
Jesus’ ID can be found in recent history in Hitler and Mussolini, both of whom exuded messianic pretensions for years.
Gentile refers to Il Duce’s form of rule as “totalitarian caesarism…” the cult of the Leader made Mussolini the equivalent of the greatest emperors, Caesar and Augustus. Scholar Piero Melograni notes that Mussolini came to believe the hype himself and “claimed to be the heir, if not the actual reincarnation, of Augustus”…
Hitler “saw himself as a redeemer . . . [and] claimed that his movement had discovered the true meaning of the New Testament. The Old Testament was to be excluded because it was ‘Semitic’. Once in firm control, these counterfeit christs willingly accepted the divinity their adoring publics granted them.
We can ID the more subtle successor of these openly messianic claimants as – who else? – the leader of the Allied Forces who destroyed them.
President Franklin Roosevelt absolutely fits Daniel’s description of “vile” by his underhanded strategies of covenanting to save while impoverishing thus replacing England as the leader of its world-wide empire with the Lend-Lease Act, while playing both sides against Germany and Russia. See the post England’s Fifth Column for details. Daniel’s prophetic details match up, item by item, most particularly in the deceitful relationship the Fourth Empire establishes with Israel.
“but he shall come in peaceably, and obtain the kingdom by flatteries…And after the league made with him he shall work deceitfully: for he shall come up, and shall become strong with a small people.“
On May 14, 1948, in Tel Aviv, Jewish Agency Chairman David Ben-Gurion proclaims the State of Israel, establishing the first Jewish state in 2,000 years. Ben-Gurion became Israel’s first premier. Despite the expected Arab invasion Jews celebrated…especially after word was received that the United States had recognized the Jewish state.
Allowing Israel to secure not only full control of their U.N.-allocated share of Palestine, but additional key Arab-designated territories.
During the Six-Day War of 1967 Israel again greatly increased its borders, capturing from Jordan, Egypt, and Syria the Old City of Jerusalem, the Sinai Peninsula, the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and the Golan Heights. As you read the prophecies, stay consistent with the ID of “he” – the ruler of the Fourth Empire.
- “HE shall enter peaceably even upon the fattest places of the province: a country or region brought under the control of the ancient Roman government
- and HE shall do that which his fathers have not done, nor his fathers’ fathers; he shall scatter among them the prey, and spoil, and riches:
- yea, and HE shall forecast his devices against the strong holds, even for a time.”
That war saw Israel defeat a coalition of Arab states and occupy swaths of new territory, including Gaza and the West Bank. The US had been concerned about Soviet influence in the region but was preoccupied with the Vietnam War and did not have the bandwidth to get involved militarily in the Middle East.
In 1979, Israel and Egypt signed a historic peace agreement in which Israel returned the Sinai in exchange for Egyptian recognition and peace.
Will this last? Not if scripture is to be believed.
“And both of these kings’ hearts shall be to do mischief, and they shall speak lies at one table; but it shall not prosper: for yet the end shall be at the time appointed.
Then shall HE return into his land / the United States with great riches; and his heart shall be against the holy covenant; and he shall do exploits, and return to his own land.”
In 1993 Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) signed a major peace accord which envisioned the gradual implementation of Palestinian self-government in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The Israeli-Palestinian peace process moved slowly, however, and throughout the 21st century major fighting between Israelis and Palestinians has resumed in Israel and the occupied territories.
“At the time appointed he shall return, and come toward the south;”
Stay consistent. “He” is not the Israeli Prime Minister, but the real power behind the throne.
In the current war, Israel’s overwhelming fire power has resulted in the killings of thousands of Palestinian civilians in Gaza and the destruction of entire cities—mostly with US supplied weapons…including blocking the supply of water, food, and fuel…electricity…
“The US government bears a special responsibility for the continuing Israeli attacks. It has supplied Israel with massive quantities of military aid and weaponry, and Israel has ignored US restrictions on the use of those weapons”…
“but it shall not be as the former, or as the latter. For the ships of Chittim shall come against him:”
Chittim, pronounced with a hard “C” as in “Melchizedek” or “Carchemish” so also spelled “Kittim“, is the land settled by and named for one of Japheth’s grandsons. Consisting of islands famous for, logically, its maritime occupations in ships and associations with close relatives in the area, multiple historical records allow us to identify its current location as Cyprus.
This allows us to update Daniel’s ancient prophecy of “the [battle]ships / weapons of Chittim to current weapons wielded by a current political presence on Cyprus.
In 1974 a Turkish military invasion took occupation of the northern third of Cyprus. Western powers, i.e. NATO, treat the ongoing military presence as occupation of the Republic of Cyprus. The Cyprus problem has international complications involving the guarantor powers split between Western and Eastern.
Why Turkey Will Emerge as the Leader of the Muslim World
Turkey is, perhaps, the most Muslim nation in the world. Due to its unique birth during the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, as a state forged…as an exclusive Muslim homeland…of Ottoman Muslims who faced expulsion and extermination in Russia and the Balkan states. Almost half of Turkey’s 73 million citizens descend from survivors of religious persecution. During the Ottoman Empire’s long territorial decline, millions of Turkish and non-Turkish Muslims living in Europe, Russia and the Caucasus fled persecution and sought refuge in modern-day Turkey…making Turkey a purely Muslim nation born out of conflict with Christians…
Turning to the present, post-September 11 world, states created on exclusively national-religious grounds are vulnerable to a…bifurcated worldview of “us (Muslims) versus them”… Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, along with his government, believe…that “Turkey’s traditionally good ties with the West…are a form of alienation”…Erdogan claimed that “the United States backs common enemies of Turkey and Pakistan and that the time has come to unmask them and act together”…setting the stage for a total recalibration of Turkey’s international compass.
- “therefore HE shall be grieved,
- Staying consistent with the identity of “he”, the person who is so freaked out about the Turkish ruler’s threat to add his country’s military force in the current fight against Israel is the leader of the United States.
- and return,
- In this context to return is not physical movement from place to place, but a reversal in planned course of action, as in “mischief shall return upon his own head” (Psalm 7:16)
- and have indignation against the holy covenant
- According to John Hagee, “The Lord has declared Israel as His chosen nation and given them the Promised Land as a blessed inheritance. There are blessings He has promised and reserved for you as you support Israel and its rightful claim to their land.” This pervasive Christian attitude will change when the benefits from militarizing Israel are crushed under the reaction of a militarized Islamic backlash, apparently led by Turkey’s resumption of Islamic leadership lost after WWI.
- and have intelligence with them that forsake the holy covenant.
- “Intelligence” must be interpreted in the context of war, as secrets known only to a few. Forsaking the holy covenant with YHVH is allying with ungodly nations to come under the power and protection of their rulers, whether or not they openly proclaim themselves to be incarnated by pagan spirits.
Since Israel has already forsaken the holy covenant with YHVH, the “intelligence” / top secret plan to gain victory in the latest war can only be an escalation in the use of deadly force.
“And arms shall stand on his part…
HE shall enter also into the glorious land / Israel, and many countries shall be overthrown…HE shall have power over the treasures of gold and of silver…But tidings out of the east / China? and out of the north / Russia shall trouble him: therefore he shall go forth with great fury to destroy, and utterly to make away many.
And the king shall do according to his will…And he shall plant the tabernacles / soldier’s tents of his palace / permanent political residence between the seas in the glorious holy mountain / Jerusalem;”
Other posts go further into detail, but focusing here on “vileness” = “broken promises”, we can anticipate that, in a crisis, the President of the United States will betray all promises to protect Israel and instead, as did Rome in the first century, turn on Israel.
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Kingdom Come 