This brings us to the final kingdom on the trail to identifying the kingdom of the anti-Christ, i.e. the kingdom to succeed the Sasanian Empire. So which kingdom succeeded the Sasanian Empire? In the year 610 AD the prophet Mohammed introduced Islam into the earth[1]. Just forty years later the Sasanian Empire ceased to exist when it fell to Muslim conquest in the year 650 AD[2]. From that year the kingdom of Islam has continued to dominate that geographic region even until today. And so we see that the kingdom of Islam is the final kingdom on the trail that the angel Gabriel has given us to follow. As an aside, it is interesting to note that Mohammed’s testimony is that the angel Gabriel appeared to him to give him his first revelation from God. Obviously Islam does not only control the geographic region in question, but continues to expand and at the current growth rate it is estimated that by the year 2030 Muslims will make up more than one quarter of the world’s population.[3] Nevertheless it is again important to note that the map of the Islamic Kingdom shown below incorporates the geographic location of the anti-Christ’s kingdom shown to Daniel.
Map of the Islamic kingdom (650 AD – present)
The angel Gabriel revealed to Daniel that in the last days the kingdom of the anti-Christ would arise from the geographic location where he was standing, i.e. next to the river Ulai in the citadel of Shushan in the province of Elam. When we look at today’s map we see that the geographic point where Daniel was standing was in fact modern day Iran. And so we see an extremely important truth revealed to us in this passage, i.e. the anti-Christ will come from Iran. We will explore the significance of that truth in more detail in a later section. The Lord showed Daniel that the kingdom of the anti-Christ would from that point; grow exceedingly great toward the south, toward the east and toward the Glorious Land. The GloriousLand in this vision refers to the land of Israel. The nations to the south of that position today are Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman and Yemen. The nations to the east of that position today are Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan. The nations to the west of that position today are Iraq, Syria, Jordon, Lebanon, Turkey and Israel. Obviously with the exception of Israel, all of those countries today are almost one hundred percent Muslim nations, having a combined population of approximately six hundred and fifty million people. Clearly the fourth kingdom, i.e. the kingdom of the anti-Christ is the kingdom of Islam, which is already in place and waiting for the manifestation of the anti-Christ. We saw earlier in Daniel’s first vision that the angel described the fourth kingdom as being different from all others. And so we see that the reason the fourth kingdom is different from all others is because it is firstly a religious kingdom i.e. the Islamic faith, and secondly it is a kingdom of secular power i.e. nation states. When the anti-Christ is finally revealed in the earth, all Muslim countries will align themselves with him and submit to his rule. The reason that they will do that is because he will emerge from within the Muslim faith. It is important to note that in Daniel’s first vision the angel Gabriel revealed that there will be ten leaders who will emerge to reign over the fourth kingdom. Of the fifteen nations listed in this section ten are significantly larger than the rest, accounting for ninety seven percent of this kingdom’s population; the remaining five nations being rather insignificant, accounting for only three percent of the kingdom’s population. The ten nations of significance are Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Yemen, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Syria, Jordon and Turkey. It is therefore more than probable that the leaders of these nations are the ten kings referred to by the angel Gabriel. Three of these nations are ruled by monarchs i.e. Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Jordan. And so it is possible that these three rulers will be the ones who will initially resist the anti-Christ’s reign; not wanting to give up their thrones to him. We have seen earlier that the fourth beast will be destroyed by the Lord when He returns; because the ten nations listed in this section make up the core of the fourth kingdom, it is these nations that will be destroyed when the Lord returns. The map shown below highlights Daniel’s location when he received his vision, which we can see is in south western Iran today.
Map of Daniel’s location during his vision (561 BC)
To summarize; from our examination of the scripture quoted in this section we have established that God gave Daniel a vision which pointed us to the location of the kingdom of the anti-Christ. We have seen that the reason Daniel recorded his exact geographic location when he received the vision, was so that we could identify the location of the anti-Christ’s kingdom. We have seen that Daniel described the expansion of the anti-Christ’s kingdom to the south, east and west from the point where he was standing at the time. We have seen that Daniel was shown various kingdoms in his vision beginning with the Babylonian kingdom and ending with the kingdom of the anti-Christ. We have seen that each kingdom shown in the vision, including the kingdom of the anti-Christ, was centred on the geographic location where Daniel was standing. We have seen that the angel Gabriel explained the succession of the various kingdoms shown in the vision, thus providing us with a trail that leads us to the kingdom of the anti-Christ. The first empire being the ram representing the Babylonian Empire; the second empire being the smaller horn on the ram representing the Median Empire; the third empire being the larger horn on the ram representing the Persian Empire; the fourth empire being the goat representing the Grecian Empire; the fifth empire being one of the four horns emerging from the Grecian Empire break-up, i.e. the Seleucid Empire. We then saw that there were a further two empires, both centred on that same geographic location, which came between the Seleucid Empire and the final empire of the anti-Christ. The sixth empire to succeed the Seleucid Empire was the Parthian Empire. The seventh empire to succeed the Parthian Empire was the Sasanian Empire. And then finally we saw that the eighth and final empire to succeed the Sasanian Empire was the kingdom of Islam, which has continued to exercise control over that geographic region even until today. And so we identified that the kingdom of the anti-Christ is in fact the kingdom of Islam. We also identified the nations of the ten leaders that will arise before the anti-Christ is revealed, i.e. Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Yemen, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Syria, Jordon and Turkey. And then finally we have also seen that the anti-Christ will ultimately emerge from the nation of Iran.
Michael E.B. Maher
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muhammad
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rashidun_Caliphate
[3] From Wikipedia, Muslim population growth. Accessed November 21, 2017 through https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muslim_population_growth
Comments