Vice President Mike pence and the negotiating team have just returned from a meeting with President Erdogan of Turkey. For five days Turkey will cease or have a pause in military operations in Syria against the Kurds on the condition that the YPG evacuate the 20 mile safe zone between on the border between Syria and Turkey. President Erdogan has said that if the withdrawal of the YPG is a complete one then he will cease hostilities permanently but can he be trusted? It seems from what Vice President Mike Pence has stated that even the YPG and the Kurds are happy with this solution. Clearly the prayers of God’s people have contributed to this peaceful outcome and prevailed. President Trump has agreed that he will lift sanctions on Turkey and impose no more and it would seem everything is ‘hunky-dory’ between President Erdogan and President Trump, at least for now.
If there is a lasting peace this is preferable of course as thousands of lives are at stake in this troubled region if Turkey recommences its military campaign. Having said this no one likes to see war as the collateral damage to civilians is horrendous as we have seen in the powder keg that in the Middle-East. In this 5 day cessation of hostilities one cannot stop to think about what happened prior to WW11 when Neville Chamberlain came back to Britain waving a piece of paper signed by Adolph Hitler that Hitler would not go to war. Chamberlain gleefully declared to the press “Peace in our time!” Not long after that Adolph Hitler kick started WW11.
President Trump, Vice President Mike Pence and his negotiating team have spoken well of President Erdogan to the press but is the Man from Turkey practicing Taqiyah? This is the Islamic art of deception and disinformation when engaged in Jihad with their enemies. The prophet Daniel spoke of a time when the antichrist would arise on the world’s stage at the end of this present age and described what he would do. The vision was for the distant future or the last days. (Daniel 8:26)
Daniel writes; “His power will be great, but it will not be his own. He will cause terrible destruction and succeed in whatever he does. He will destroy the mighty men along with the holy people. Through his craft and by his hand, he will cause deceit to prosper, and in his own mind he will make himself great. In a time of peace he will destroy many, and he will even stand against the Prince of princes. Yet he will be broken off, but not by human hands. The vision of the evenings and the mornings that has been spoken is true. Now you must seal up the vision, for it concerns the distant future.” (Daniel 8:24-26) Daniel also wrote; “The king will do as he pleases. He will exalt and magnify himself above every god and will say unheard-of things against the God of gods. He will be successful until the time of wrath is complete, for what has been determined must take place.” (Daniel 11:36)
Paul confirms this fact when he wrote centuries later about the same man, “Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way, for that day will not come until the falling away (the apostasy) occurs and the man of lawlessness (sin) is revealed, the man doomed to destruction. He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped, so that he sets himself up in God’s temple, proclaiming himself to be God.” (2 Thessalonians 2:3-4) Now coming back to Daniel chapter eight we see five things about the man of sin.
#1. “His power will be great, but it will not be his own.” This man will be supernaturally empowered by Satan. One translation calls him “the son of perdition” the same title given to Judas Iscariot into whom Satan himself personally entered. Judas was a past master at deception and only the Lord Jesus could see this. His disciples did not see it when they walked with the Lord Jesus. The man of sin will be indwelt by Satan and have supernatural wisdom that will be greater than any human wisdom but it will be a dark satanically inspired wisdom and that of a man skilled in intrigue and craft. The King James Bible says he will be “a king of fierce countenance, and understanding dark sentences.” (Daniel 8:23) He will be a practitioner of the occult but it will be masked!
#2. “He will cause terrible destruction and succeed in whatever he does. He will destroy the mighty men along with the holy people.” He will have powerful weaponry that will be unleashed against all who oppose his conquest and many political leaders and their countries will fall by his power. (Daniel 11:39-43) He will be successful for a time and his hand will also reach out to persecute faithful Jews and Christians.
#3. “Through his craft and by his hand, he will cause deceit to prosper, and in his own mind he will make himself great.” He will be a past master of peace and be able to successfully accommodate deception in this matter to all he deals with. He will believe himself to be invincible!
#4. “In a time of peace he will destroy many, and he will even stand against the Prince of princes.” Because he is indwelt by Satan he will be able to broker peace while masking his true intentions. He will in fact be standing against the Messiah our Lord Jesus because the Antichrist’s agenda is to be worshipped at Jerusalem as God incarnate.
#5. “Yet he will be broken off, but not by human hands.” The Messiah Himself at the head of His armies will destroy the man of sin and his empire with its armies and they will all go down into the pit ‘lock, stock and barrel!’ (Ezekiel 32:18-32) (Isaiah 14:9-11)
#6. “The vision of the evenings and the mornings that has been spoken is true. Now you must seal up the vision, for it concerns the distant future.” For now it seems a peace has been brokered by Turkey but will it last? Will it be “Peace in our time?” Will President Erdogan ultimately reveal his real intentions and reveal himself in the character of Adolph Hitler? Are President Trump and his administration falling for the same ‘deal’ that Neville Chamberlain fell for? As believers we will not be taken out of the world until we know who the man of sin is. (2 Thessalonians 2:3)
If the Man from Turkey proves to be the man of sin then his true character will be revealed and Daniel once again will prove to have prophesied correctly. The Antichrist’s rise to power will be brief and after three and a half years of the caliphate God Himself will cut even those days short and send our Lord Jesus back to destroy the man of sin and all opposition, to save Israel, to rapture and resurrect the saints and to inaugurate the Messianic Age on earth! (Matthew 24:21-22) (Revelation 19:15)
Our blessed hope as believers is the glorious appearance of our Great God and Saviour, Jesus the Messiah. (Titus 2:13) At the end of days the Second Coming to earth of our Lord Jesus will be all that matters for us as believers because the world will be on the verge of annihilation when He arrives on the scene with great power and glory for all to see! (Matthew 24:22) (Revelation 1:7) After this we will see the only true peace established by the Prince of Peace. As Isaiah writes; “In that day the branch of the Lord shall be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the land shall be the pride and glory of the survivors of Israel.” (Isaiah 4:2)
