The leader of the Islamic world?
Watching President Erdogan of Turkey speak at the recent UN Assembly leaves no doubt that he is positioning himself and Turkey as great humanitarians and advocates for peace and justice and for resisting aggression and terrorism. For most of his speech it seems he was almost boasting of how Turkey is immerging as a great humanitarian nation to be recognized. Reading the comments from some of those who obviously watched his speech on You Tube there were many comments such as; “The king of the Islamic World. The hero of Muslim countries, the most admired personality.” Lots of love and wishes from Pakistan,” “Leader of Islamic world, love form India,” “The greatest leader in the world,” “Amazing speech the best of all.” “Strong leader, more power to President Erdogan,” “You’ve got to love this man, thank you Erdogan for opening my eyes,” “Long live president Erdogan from London,” “word leader Erdogan….number one,” “The most bold and charismatic president worldwide,” “Congratulation Mr president Erdogan of Turkey.” “Brave sultan love from Kashmir,” “Live long the real human leader,” and so the accolades continued.
The Caliphate
There were some unfavourable comments expressed of course as well but by enlarge he is being hailed as a great Islamic leader, humanitarian and supporter of oppressed people globally and especially the benefactor of the so called ‘Palestinian Cause.’ Of course his track record and that of Turkey historically is just the opposite. People still raise questions as to the genuineness of the coup that sought to remove him from power. When you look at the historic Turkish Ottoman Empire it was anything but democratic or humane and the Caliphate was a despotic rule that oppressed all who did not comply with Sharia law and customs. The single goal of the Turkish Ottoman Empire was to establish and impose Islamic Sharia ideology and law upon all nations and to see Islam spread around the globe.
The man of sin
Right now, at President Erdogan’s request, Turkey is funding the erecting of Mosques in many countries that are not Islamic. Also he is the personification of a ‘globe-trotting’ Caliph. He has made no excuses or apologies for his disdain for Israel and his outspoken rhetoric for the so called ‘Palestinian Cause’ and liberation of Jerusalem for the Palestinians and for the Islamic world. It is clear from scripture that the man of sin mentioned by the Apostle Paul will be a Muslim who will be able to integrate with both Middle-Eastern and western governments and politics and that his empire will spread throughout the Middle-eastern region into much of Europe especially as we see Islamic migration invading Europe. The UN and the EU will be ineffective to stand against this man because his power will be great and that by Satan himself. Daniel the prophet spoke prophetically when he wrote concerning the coming man of sin who will seek to be worshipped as God.
The prophet Daniel
Daniel writes concerning the Antichrist; “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 (or by 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) There are several things Daniel tells us about this “man of sin”, this “son of perdition” also called the Antichrist.
#1. “His power will be great, but it will not be his own.”
In other words the source of his power will be satanic and being the son of perdition he will be personally indwelt by Satan in the same way as Judas Iscariot was when he betrayed the Lord Jesus. Judas was also called the son of perdition. A Sufi Muslim or one with a Sufi Muslim background would be a good candidate because Sufism is the mystical branch of Islam and prone to demon possession. President Erdogan has a Sufi Muslim background.
#2. “He will cause terrible destruction and succeed in whatever he does. He will destroy the mighty men along with the holy people.”
With his thirst for conquest and global domination his armies and military might will affect many. He will be an instigator of war and not peace and one who seeks to establish his own laws and customs. According to a report in Reuters online concerning President Erdogan it said; “Turkey’s president has said he wants to create a “pious generation” to change the nation. So the government is pouring money into schools that teach Islamic values.”
On his rise to power in 1997 President Erdogan, delivering a fiery speech that reminded the masses of these words from the poem “The Soldiers Prayer,” he quoted; “The minarets are our bayonets, the domes our helmets, the mosques our barracks and the faithful our army,” clearly defining his real agenda for a future revived Turkish Ottoman caliphate which at that time was just a dream.
Adolph Hitler was the same way with his dream to establish a 1,000 year Reich. We are also told in Daniel that the man of sin will be opposed by other nations and that with the help of a foreign god will attack the mightiest of fortresses. (Daniel 11:39-40) This “foreign god” is not the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob but in context of these last days would have to be the Arabic moon-god of war that is called Allah; hence, we see the crescent and crossed swords on the emblems of Islam. Added to this he will defeat many mighty men or the leaders of nations and along with this persecute Jews and Christians.
Wherever his empire extends he will persecute faithful Jews and Christians who will not go along with his agenda or submit to his rule. Many will be beheaded as is practiced in Islamic countries today where fundamentalist Islamic Sharia law prevails. (Revelation 20:4)
History shows that Turkey has a long and bloody history of murder and mayhem. Three of the major genocides were firstly the Greek genocide between 1913-1922 which saw the massacre of 500,000 to 900,000 people where villages were destroyed, Churches and monasteries destroyed and where looting and terrorism was perpetuated on a vast scale. Then secondly you had the Assyrian Genocide between the years 1914-1918 which saw between 270,000-750,000 people killed and this was denied by the Turkish government. The third major genocide was the Armenian genocide between the years 1915-1918 where between 850, 000- 1,800,000 Armenians were systematically butchered by the Ottoman Turks, and all in the name of Islam. The Turkish government also denies this ever happened.
Nothing has changed in Turkey’s current regime. According to an article in the Middle East Forum online, part of it read; “A little over a century ago, in 1915, the Ottoman Empire’s Committee of Union and Progress (CUP) passed legislation authorizing the deportation of “persons judged to be a threat to national security.” Deportees, many of whom were Armenian Christians, were instructed not to sell their assets but rather to provide a detailed list of what they owned: The edict read; “Leave all your belongings—your furniture, your beddings, your artefacts. Close your shops and businesses with everything inside. Your doors will be sealed with special stamps. On your return, you will get everything you left behind. Do not sell property or any expensive item. Buyers and sellers alike will be liable for legal action. …You have ten days to comply with this ultimatum.”
The exact extent of confiscated properties during this period of mass extermination of Armenian Christians is unknown. But according to the private documents of Talaat Pasha, the Ottoman interior minister and chief architect of the confiscation legislation, a total of 20,545 buildings and 267,536 acres of land were confiscated by the government as well as agricultural land: 76,942 acres of vineyards; 703,941 acres of olive groves; and 4,573 acres of mulberry gardens. During the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, an Armenian delegation estimated the worth of material losses suffered by the Armenian Church at $3.7 billion (about $51 billion today.
A century later, Turkey’s civil codes still give the executive far-reaching powers to confiscate property on the basis of protecting “the national unity” of the Turkish republic. Under Erdogan’s leadership, especially after the 2016 coup, Turkey’s religious minorities find themselves marginalized and isolated from the Sunni majority.
Anti-Western and anti-EU rhetoric often morphs into rabid anti-Christian incitement with the clear message that the country’s Christian citizens are not true Turks, a message that the state-controlled media and government officials have either actively promoted or refused to denounce. Exacerbated by government policies such as the addition of jihad teaching to the school curriculum, these measures place Turkey’s non-Muslim minorities in an increasingly precarious situation.”
It is clear that President Erdogan has an agenda and that to achieve this he will eventually have to go to war even after he has appeared at the negotiating table for peace just as Adolph Hitler did in 1939 when he kicked of WW11 after “pulling the wool” over the eyes of Prime Minister Chamberlain.
Untold numbers of Christians died in the Armenian Genocide. All of these three genocides mentioned are just the tip of the iceberg where Turkey’s massacres are concerned. The UN and the EU either have no realization or do not want to have it as to the real agenda of President Erdogan, the man from Turkey. According to the prophet Daniel the Antichrist will persecute the saints for three and a half years. (Daniel 7:21, 25; 12:7) (Revelation 13:5-7)
#3. “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 (or by peace) he will destroy many.”
Watching President Erdogan extol the virtues of Turkish humanitarianism and their support of the less fortunate and oppressed people of the world one would think that he is a man who wants to work for peace but in reality he really wants it on his own terms which he is well able to mask. There is no doubt he has a Caliphate in mind and wants the top job as this is now public knowledge. If the truth be known he wants a Turkish Ottoman Caliphate that is greater than that of Suleiman I, commonly known as Suleiman the Magnificent in the West and Kanunî Sultan Süleyman in his realm who was the tenth and longest-reigning Sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1520 until his death in 1566.
Under his administration, the Ottoman state ruled over 15 to 25 million people. From 1520 to 1566 he not only undertook bold military campaigns that enlarged his realm but also oversaw the development of what came to be regarded as the most characteristic achievements of Ottoman civilization in the fields of law, literature, art, and architecture. With their infantry corps d ’élite (the Janissaries), their artillery, and their cavalry, or sipahis, the Ottomans were the foremost military power in Europe, and it was fortunate for their Christian adversaries that Eastern preoccupations prevented them from taking full advantage of Western disunity.
Today the disunity in the UN and the EU is the cauldron and the catalyst that will bring forth a resurrected Turkish Ottoman Empire never equalled in the past and never to be equalled again. Islam will be to the western world the modern equivalent of the Ancient Babylonians under King Nebuchadnezzar in the ancient world. Islam’s religious roots go all the way back to the Babylon of Nimrod a major type of the Antichrist in the Bible.
The antichrist will not be a man of peace even though he speaks of peace and humanitarian support and a pretence to appear to care for the poor and the oppressed just as Judas pretended to care for the poor but in reality was a greedy satanically possessed man who was a thief and did not care for the poor but for his own interests. In Daniel chapter 11:36-45; Joel chapter 2:1-11; Ezekiel 38-39; Micah 5:5-6 we see the military campaigns of the Antichrist described.
#4. “..and he will even stand against the Prince of princes. Yet he will be broken off, but not by human hands.”
Here we are told that the Antichrist’s war will not just be with men but with the Lord Jesus because this man will be indwelt by Satan himself. After three and a half years of war and tribulation globally the Antichrist will come to an end and his empire smashed to pieces and never to arise again. After he has pitched his headquarters at Jerusalem there he will come to an end and that by the supernatural hand of God. At that time after the Lord Jesus has come back the saints will inherit the kingdom and Co-reign with the Messiah our Lord Jesus in his Millennial messianic and glorious kingdom centred at Jerusalem. (Daniel 2:32-35; 44-45; 11:45) (Isaiah 2:1-5).
#5. “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.”
Clearly these events will take place in the latter days or at the time of the end. In the light of what is happening in the Middle-east and with the establishment of Israel again as a nation 70 years ago, the last of the last days have arrived. Finally John writing to the Christian Assembly at Pergamum says; “These are the words of Him who has the sharp, double-edged sword. I know where you live—where Satan has his throne. Yet you remain true to my name. You did not renounce your faith in me, not even in the days of Antipas, my faithful witness, who was put to death in your city—where Satan lives.” (Revelation 2:12-13)
Pergamum was located in modern day Turkey, in fact all of the seven letters John wrote were written to the Christian assemblies located in modern day Turkey. While these assemblies were literal assemblies of believers existing in John’s time prophetically they represent the whole Body of the Messiah in every age of the Church and Pergamum is the only one where it specifically mentions the location of Satan’s throne and the city where he lives. It is interesting that the Lord Jesus also mentions His faithful witness Antipas who was put to death at Pergamum. His martyrdom perhaps teaches us something about the persecution of faithful believers at the hands of the Antichrist.
Undoubtedly President Erdogan has an agenda and it is not what he was conveying at the UN Assembly. Being, it would seem, a past master at taqiyya, it may well be that he is the one of whom Daniel writes; “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 (or by peace) he will destroy many, and he will even stand against the Prince of princes.”
As in all matters of Bible prophecy time will tell if this man from Turkey is the prophesied Antichrist or someone else in Turkey “waiting in the wings” as it were who will one day be standing “centre stage” in world affairs and arise to be the man of sin, the son of perdition, but at the end meet his demise at the hands of the rider on the White horse when He comes back to reign from Jerusalem!
