NEWSBITE 2.7.2026
(Revelation 2:13) “I know where you live-where Satan has his throne…in your city where Satan lives”
Last Sunday Israel’s government unanimously approved a resolution recognizing the Armenian Genocide, marking a historic shift in Israeli policy after decades of avoiding a formal recognition.
Israel has now joined 32 countries that have recognised this historical truth when an estimated 1.5 million Armenians were killed or died during mass deportations and massacres beginning in 1915 and rejecting attempts to deny it much to the fury of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
There are already strained relations between Israel and Turkey. In recent weeks Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has intensified his attacks on Israel, accusing it of destabilizing the Middle East, comparing its actions to Nazi Germany. He has openly stated that Israeli military operations in Syria and Lebanon could eventually threaten Turkey.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded by calling Erdoğan “an anti-Semitic dictator,” accusing him of supporting Hamas, oppressing his own people, and committing atrocities against the Kurds.
The President of Turkey has long rejected the distinctive characteristics of the mass killings of Armenians during the final years of the Ottoman Empire as genocide.
The resolution will now be brought before the Knesset for a vote, completing the legislative process for Israel’s official recognition.
With the Iranian regime, including the IRGC now being hammered by US and Israeli strikes, there is a rising vacuum in the Middle-East region for a strong Middle-Eastern political leader capable of uniting the Arab Muslim world to oppose Israel.
Since he has held his office from 2014 it has been clear that President Erdoğan does not support Israel and that his desire is to resurrect the Ottoman Empire of his Turkish forebears.
Syria is a very strategic to his ambition to establish the Caliphate. He knows that if he controls Syria then he will have access to Israel.
Currently the IDF presence in southern Syria is primarily aimed at securing a buffer zone to prevent hostile militant groups and Syrian forces from threatening its borders but also a deterrent to Turkish ambition to control all of Syria and inevitably become a clear and present danger to Israel.
The Israelis are also aware of Turkey’s proxy namely the regime of Al Jolani, whose real name is Ahmed al-Sharaa, the self-appointed President of Syria. Israel is also watching him even though he has swapped his military fatigues for a suit and a tie to hobnob with so called luminaries of the political world including western politicians.
The presence of the IDF in Syria hinders the man from Turkey expanding his Turkish empire. As for Lebanon, President Erdogan sees the IDF with boots on the ground decimating Hezbollah in the southern region of Lebanon.
In the past Turkey has provided assurances of support for Hezbollah’s role in Lebanon. Statements from Hezbollah officials indicate that Turkey has engaged with the group and expressed backing for its activities in the region.
Despite these assurances, Turkey’s relationship with Hezbollah is multifaceted. The country maintains strong ties with Western allies, including the United States, and seeks to balance its influence across the Middle East.
This balancing act means that while Turkey may support Hezbollah’s presence, it also aims to preserve its diplomatic relationships with other regional actors.
Turkey’s engagement with Hezbollah can be seen as part of a broader strategy to enhance its regional influence. By maintaining dialogue with various groups, including Hezbollah, Turkey aims to position itself as a key player in Middle Eastern politics, particularly in relation to countering Israel’s influence.
It would seem that the man from Turkey wants to somehow unite the Muslim world to support the caliphate. Islam as a whole is awaiting the arrival of the Mahdi.
Sunni Muslims view the Mahdi as a wise leader who will emerge from the lineage of the Prophet Muhammad, while Shia Muslims believe the Mahdi is Imam Muhammad al-Mahdi, a historical figure that is currently in hiding and will return. The concept of the Mahdi is more central to Shia beliefs than to Sunni beliefs.
The Iranian regime is Shia and according to their eschatology there has to be chaos in the world in order for the Mahdi to bring a united peace and a global caliphate where Islamic law is supreme. Shia Jihadists work chaos in order to bring the Mahdi to power.
President Erdogan would be aware of this eschatology and more than likely in his deep mind actually believes that he is the one the Muslim world has been waiting for.
Strategically Syria is vital to the man from Turkey, which maintains a military presence with numerous bases and outposts as part of its so called national security policy. This presence has been described as permanent and is aimed at countering threats and supporting regional stability.
The IDF’s presence in southern Syria is primarily aimed at securing a buffer zone to prevent hostile militant terrorist groups and Syrian forces from threatening its borders and keeps tabs of Turkish military movements in Syria. Israeli forces have conducted air strikes in Syria targeting the regime led by Ahmad al-Julani.
These air strikes are part of Israel’s strategy to counter threats from those Iranian-backed terrorist groups operating within Syria, preventing weapons from falling into their hands. This is part of Israel’s broader strategy to address security threats along its northern border.
Now looking at our text in Revelation 2:13 Pergamum was one of the seven assemblies (Churches) that the Messiah our Lord Jesus wrote to through His servant the apostle John. While the seven assemblies were specific assemblies that existed in the time of John they were all located in modern day Turkey.
Prophetically they can also apply to the Body of Messiah corporately in the last days. While each assembly in John’s time had various situations that were addressed we see a specific feature about the assembly at Pergamum. It was “the city where Satan has his throne” and “where Satan lives.”
At Pergamum in the time of John the Great Altar of Pergamum was one of the most magnificent and outstanding structures in the Greco-Roman world.
The great structure was built to honour the Greek ‘gods’ by the Greco-Roman world, ‘gods’ which in reality were demons. The worship of idols is in fact the worship of demons (Deuteronomy 32:16-17) (Psalm 106:36-37) (1 Corinthians 10:20).
Zeus was the chief ‘god’ over all of the other ‘gods.’ In reality the worship of Zeus was the main purpose for building the Pergamum Altar.
Zeus was the chief deity over all of the other deities and in reality the worship of Zeus as the chief of all the ‘gods’ was the worship of Satan himself who commands the principalities and powers in the fallen unseen spiritual world, those wicked principalities and powers which we wrestle against as New Covenant believers (Ephesians 6:12).
It was at Pergamum where Emperor Worship really kicked in with Caesar Augustus having himself deified. This is what the Antichrist will do when he arrives on the world’s stage and demands all who live within the vast realm of his empire to worship him as God.
He will specifically target Israel and install himself as God in the reconstructed Temple in Jerusalem demanding the Jews to worship him. The apostasy or the falling away of multitudes within wider Christendom will pave the way for this to happen (Daniel 11:36-37) (2 Thessalonians 2:3-4).
Prophetically the Holy Spirit may be telling us that in the last days that the Antichrist will be Islamic and arise in Turkey and that through Satan’s power establish an empire like nothing else ever established in the past or to be established in the future. It will be in fact one of global proportions being an empire hard to defeat in military prowess (Revelation 13: 4).
What we see the man from Turkey doing in relation to Syria may well be the prelude to Turkey leading the Ezekiel 38 invasion of Israel from the North crossing over the Golan Heights that lies at the southwest corner of Syria, directly bordering northern Israel.
President Erdogan clearly despises Israel and on several occasions has called for the Islamic world to rise up against Israel and to take over Jerusalem and the Temple Mount.
Having Israel’s government unanimously approving a resolution recognizing the Armenian Genocide will inevitably add fuel to the fiery rhetoric of the man from Turkey.
The same fallen powerful principality in the unseen spiritual realm that ruled over Pergamum is still around today and undoubtedly at work through President Erdogan in his virulence for Israel.
Whether he turns out to be the man of sin remains to be seen. However in the Middle East his rise to political power is clear. His rage over Israel’s recognition of the Armenian Genocide will, in reality, further his desire to attack Israel and that with an Islamic army accompanied by the armies of other non-Islamic nations.
Daniel tells us the Antichrist will wear down the saints of the Most High for three and a half years at the end of this present age (Daniel 7:25; 12:7b) (Revelation 13:5-8), until the heavenly thrones of judgement are set in place and sentenced passed.
Suddenly his end will come at the command of the Rider on the White Horse accompanied by the armies of heaven (Isaiah 63:1-6) (Revelation 19:11-16). After all opposition has been eliminated and the dust of battle settles the saints will inherit the Kingdom of God on earth under the reign of the Messiah our Lord Jesus (Daniel 7:9-14, 21-27).
And it will also be on that day when “All Israel will be saved!” (Zechariah 14:14) (Zechariah 12: 10-13:1) (Romans 11:25-29).
Click here to see the NEWSBITE published In June 2023
