The Assyrian Antichrist book simply documented—chapter and verse—the prophecies of the Bible. So the story here is about what the Bible says. Biblical prophecy existed before any book, and before I, or any of us, was ever born. But I am going to make reference to The Assyrian Antichrist because, as I said, and as was the case, I documented chapter and verse the Biblical prophecies. And those prophecies foretell the end-time rise of Syria-Iraq into a single-state geophysical facsimile of the Assyrian Empire, with its demonically demented “king of the North,” the Assyrian Antichrist.

I will attempt to summarize this “Syria-Iraq Connection” in 7 points, and then elaborate on them in the remainder of this article.

--SEVEN STEPS TO THE ASSYRIAN ANTICHRIST--

SUMMARIZED

1. The Revival of the Roman Empire will be a recognizable rebirth of the original Roman Empire which included both Europe and the Mid East.

2. The Revived Roman Empire will be divided 3 ways:

             (1) a Western-Eastern division (European and Middle East);

            (2) a division into 10 Dominant Nations (5 in the West and 5 in the East);

            (3) a division of disparate “iron” and “clay” cultures commingled within these 10 nations.

3. The focus of Bible prophecy is on the Eastern Division, with repeated references to 6 End Time nations located in the Mid East.

4. The prophetic focus narrows to 4 of these Mid East nations, and then further narrows  to 2 nations—Syria-Iraq in the North, and Egypt in the South.

5. The prophetic focus finally locks in on the Northern nation, recognized today as Syria-Iraq (ancient Assyria).

6. The prophecies identify Antiochus Epiphanes, as the fore-runner of the future Antichrist, and as the King of ancient Syria-Iraq, .

7. The prophecies of Antiochus suddenly leap into the future to become  prophecies of the end-time Antichrist, depicted as King of the same region, Syria-Iraq. Thus, “the Assyrian” Roman. (Micah 5:5-6; Dan. 9:26)

            1--The Euro-centric distortion identifies Europe as the sum-total of Revived Rome, ignoring both prophecy and history regarding the Eastern-leg.
   

            2--More recently with the rise of the Mid-East headlines and Islamic terrorism there has arisen the Islamo-centric distortion. It lumps all the prophecies into the Mideast-leg and elevates the Muslim factor as the taproot of the entire prophetic record, reducing the European-western-leg to amputee status.

Neither of these is Biblical, and both must be rejected. Both see a revival of HALF of the Roman Empire. The balance in the Scriptures is Rome-centric. Both Bible prophecy and history testify to the Roman Empire as a European-Mideast kingdom. Though the prophecies witness to a dominant role for the Eastern-leg in the last days, it is not exclusively so, by any stretch. For there are 10 “horns-kings” on the “head” of Revived Rome, not 5.

Second—a division into 10 Dominant Nations (5 in the West and 5 in the East). There may be 20, 30, 40 or more nations making up the Revived Roman Empire (there are 28 in the European Union). There were a dozen breakout nations after Alexander the Greats’ Greek Empire split up. But Daniel foresaw 4 DOMINANT kingdoms (7:6; 8:22; 11:4). History confirms those 4 kingdoms in modern terms as Greece, Turkey, Syria-Iraq and Egypt. In the same way prophecy foretells of 10 DOMINANT nations comprising the Revived Roman Empire. (see below “Who Are The 10 Kings?” and “10 Kings?...5 & 6=11”)

Third—a division of disparate “iron” and “clay” cultures will commingle within these 10 nations. (see “Unmixable Peoples”) 

 Again, HISTORY as fulfilled prophecy does name the 5 dominant nations which came out of the Western Roman Empire. Every world history book identifies them as
   

                    1. Italy,    

                    2. France   

                    3. Spain

                    4. Britain    

                    5. Germany...
...still the cornerstone nations of Europe—& the European Union (checkout Britain & "BREXIT").
“...there appeared [in the western empire] what has been called a ‘horizontal’ [continuing through history] division’ which was to remain in other forms until our own time.  In Germany, England, France, Spain and northern Italy, barbarian kings ruled, although the sense of belonging to the Roman Empire still existed…”
(A History of the Arab Peoples. Albert Hourani. Warner Books, New York, 1992, p. 7)

10 Kings?...5 + 6 = 11!
Why does the Bible refer to “10 kings” (Dan. 7:24; Rev. 17:12) in the Revived Roman Empire when in fact 5 are projected in the Western division, yet 6 are IDENTIFIED in the Eastern division, making a total of, not 10, but 11?

The answer is that “among” (i.e., contemporaneous with) the 10 kings  an 11th king will arise “after them” (the 10 come first, Dan. 7:8, 24). Both Daniel and Revelation depict the Revived Roman Empire coming together through the union of 10 dominant kings—5 in the West, 5 in the East. Then, subsequent to but contemporaneous with them, the 11th, the Antichrist, arises.

The Antichrist overthrows 3 of the kings replacing them with his proxies, so that, besides him, there are still 10. (Dan. 7:24) Then the 10 give their kingdom—the Revived Roman Empire—to the 11th. (Rev. 17:12-13) Since Daniel identifies 6 nations in the East, then the 11th king (Antichrist) must come from the Eastern-leg.
UNMIXABLE PEOPLES
Disparate “iron & clay” Cultures—The prophecy in Daniel 2:41-44 depicts UN-MIXABLE peoples CO-MINGLED with one another in the 10-nation Revived Roman Empire. As seen, 5 nations West, 5 nations East. What more graphic fulfillment could we expect than the Revival of the Roman Empire in the form of Secular (anti-Islamic) Europe and the Islamic Middle East?

SEVEN STEPS TO THE ASSYRIAN ANTICHRIST continued
STEP 3—The focus of Bible prophecy is on the Eastern Division, with repeated references to 6 End Time nations located in the Mid East.
   

            1. Daniel identifies these nations in its symbolism of “head-kingdoms”  as 7 beast-kingdoms arising  through the course of time (in history), with 6 EASTERN nations identified in today’s terms as Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Greece. (Dan. 2:38-40; 7:17; 8:20-22; 11:2-4)   

            2. Revelation pictures these same 7 “head-kingdoms” united at the end of time in the form of a single beast super-kingdom—the Revived Roman Empire. Again, the 6 EASTERN nations dominate the 7 “heads.”   

            3. According to Daniel 2 these 6 EASTERN nations will exist in the last days, and will not be destroyed until the destruction of the Revived Roman Empire at the Second Coming of Christ. (Daniel 2:35, 44) All 6 of these nations are located in the MID EAST “leg” of the Roman Empire.

STEP 4—The prophetic focus narrows to 4 of these Mid East nations, and then further narrows  to 2 nations—Syria-Iraq to the North, and Egypt to the South.
   

            1. Daniel 8 focuses on 4 nations that would arise from the breakup of the Greek Empire. (v.21-22) History records the fulfillment. The Greek Empire broke into, in modern terms, Greece, Turkey, Syria-Iraq & Egypt. The prophecy foresees these 4 nations in power “at the time of the end.” (v. 17,23; Note: Syria & Iraq at various times were united as Syria-Iraq)
   

            2. Daniel 11 hones in on 2 of these 4 nations—Syria-Iraq & Egypt.


STEP 5—The prophetic focus finally locks in on the Northern nation, recognized today as Syria-Iraq (ancient Assyria).   

            1. Daniel 11 describes a long series of ancient wars between Syria-Iraq (ancient Greek breakout-kingdom of Seleucid-Assyria) and Egypt.   

            2. From verse 36 to the end of chapter 11 (and the end of the age), Daniel foresees the ascendancy of Syria-Iraq (“King of the North”) “at the end time.” (v. 36 & 40; Today’s events are a FORESHADOW, not the reality)

STEP 6—The prophecies identify Antiochus Epiphanes, as the fore-runner of the future Antichrist, and as the King of ancient Syria-Iraq.

STEP 7—The prophecies of Antiochus suddenly leap into the future to become  prophecies of the end-time Antichrist, depicted as King of the same region, Syria-Iraq. Thus, “the Assyrian” Roman.  (Micah 5:5-6)

Who is the King of the North in Daniel 11:40?
For 32 verses Daniel 11 (4-35) records wars between “the king of the South” and “the king of the North.” The subject never changes. We know exactly where these two kingdoms are:
“North” =Syria-Iraq;
“South” =Egypt.

Within the context itself there is no warrant to change the subject throughout the remainder of the chapter, including the account of the Antichrist in verses 36-45. Yet many expositors insert a third person into the scene in v. 40 when the pronoun “him” is used alongside the phrases “king of the South” and “king of the North.” Most are agreed that the Antichrist has been in view since v. 36.

Since the Antichrist must come from the Roman Empire, for many interpreters the ‘Euro-centric’ Revived Roman Empire (see Step 2, p. 3) kicks in here and determines the meaning of verse 40. In this reasoning The Antichrist couldn’t possibly be “the king of the North” (Syria-Iraq)  since he must be a European. This fallacious assumption ignores,
first, the prophetic record of Daniel 2, second, the historical record of the Roman Empire, and third, the context of Daniel 11.
The prophetic record in the Daniel 2 statue-symbol shows a clear prediction of the West-East (Euro-Mideast) span of the Roman Empire continuing in the  End Days. The historical record shows the fulfillment of this in the actual West-East division of the ancient Roman Empire, and further records the fact that

                                16 Roman emperors were born & raised outside of Italy—6 or them outside of Europe—3 in the Mid East!

Elagabalus was Emperor of the Empire as long as a 2-term U.S. president;  Severus Alexander presided over the Roman Empire longer than our longest-serving president, Franklin Roosevelt; BOTH Emperors WERE SYRIAN! Philip the Arab was the other middle eastern Roman Emperor. Do these Mideast Roman emperors qualify as “prince” of the Romans, as the  Antichrist must be (Dan. 9:26)? Of course.
The context (apart from importing fallacious assumptions) also evidences the 2 “him (s)” of v. 40 as referring to the same 2 “kings” (“North & South”) that have dominated the entire chapter 11—and thus referring to the Antichrist first introduced in v. 36.

An example of Daniel’s literary style mixing the “he/him (s)” with the “kings North/South” is even more apparent in verses 16-19, yet all are agreed that these personal pronouns refer to the “kings North/South” in that passage. No one tries to import a third person into that context.

Hebrew scholar and Daniel commentator Gleason Archer says about this issue in Dan. 11:40,    

                                “It seems much simpler and more convincing...to take the ’king of the North’ in this verse to be none other than the latter-day little horn (Dan. 7:8, 24), the Antichrist.”
(Introduction to Daniel, Expositor's Bible Commentary, ed. Gaebelien)
Other commentators such as Clarence Larkin and Philip Newell, who are not encumbered with a Euro-centric view of the Revived Roman Empire, agree.
Thus the whole chapter 11 of Daniel discusses the centuries-long conflict between the “king of the North (Syria-Iraq)” and the “king of the South (Egypt)”, a conflict which reemerges in the Last Days (v. 40) with the Antichrist at the helm of “the North”—Syria-Iraq— in the Eastern-leg of the Revived Roman Empire. Remember. The events discussed in this article (2014 newsletter) are in God’s Word, which is a “lamp into our feet shining in a dark place.” (Psa. 119:1052 Pet. 1:19)  And that “lamp” shows us that a platform for the Antichrist is being built up only to be torn down and destroyed, replaced by Christ the King!

                    Glory to our Savior and King!