“I know where you live-where Satan has his throne…in your city where Satan lives” (Revelation 2:13).
The man from Turkey has once again managed to win the Presidential election lengthening his rule into a third decade. His determination to see a resurrected Turkish Caliphate is paramount in his thinking and as a result distancing himself increasingly from NATO and Europe and the western democracies. He is now forging military and economic deals with Russia and Iran. He is not your average run of the mill Sunni Muslim but a radical Islamist who supports and endorses the ideology of the Muslim Brotherhood that has an agenda to see all the nations under the Islamic banner where Sharia Law reigns supreme.
It is clear that Recep Tayyip Erdoğan wants to position himself, not as a democratically elected leader as such, but as a demagogic dictator. For years he has attacked Israel verbally and withdrawn the Turkish ambassador. He has allowed Sunni radical terrorists to pass through Turkey to come to Israel to create all kinds of problems in Gaza. He has used propaganda against Israel claiming Jerusalem as his own while also welcoming radical Islamists into Turkey. He has also shown his contempt for Christendom when he sat to lead his fellow Muslims in prayer in the Hagia Sofia Basilica, historically the former “Vatican” of Eastern Orthodox Christendom now reconverted into a mosque.
He has also allowed ISIS fighters to cross Turkey into Syria and today you have Turkish Russian and Iranian military forces stationed there today just over Israel’s Northern border. Last year with elections pending he made overtures of seemingly friendship with Israel but in reality it was Taqiyya. Now that he is elected the man from Turkey will really nail his colours to the mast and I am persuaded will now seek to rally the whole Islamic world to his cause for a revived Turkish Ottoman Caliphate. He clearly seems to believe he is in Turkey to stay and has a lot of power. Turkey has the biggest and strongest army in all of Europe. Turkey is also the bridge that straddles Europe and Asia. From there a dictator with enormous political and military power could have access to European and Asian countries.
When the Messiah our Lord Jesus wrote His personal letters through the apostle John to the seven assemblies (Churches) they were all located in modern day Turkey. Pergamum we are told was the city “where Satan has his throne” and “the city 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).
The Great Altar of Pergamum was moved to Berlin in the 19th century by German archaeologists, who evidently had an easy time getting permission for its removal from the indifferent authorities of the Ottoman Empire. In the early 20th Century it was in Berlin that Adolph Hitler came to power. Hitler’s power and dominance and despotic leadership were the result of a very powerful principality that controlled and even possessed him. Hitler was just an ordinary unsuccessful artist until through his dabbling in the occult, as did the Nazi leaders, he was possessed by a satanically inspired principality that motivated and empowered Hitler to move the masses in Germany and start WW2.
Some years ago Recep Tayyip Erdoğan wanted to bring back the Altar of Pergamum to Turkey but it didn’t happen at the time. However, now he has consolidated his power in Turkey in the Middle-East and is rapidly becoming a powerful dictator with a view to a restored Turkish Ottoman caliphate of global proportions, he may well bring the Pergamum Altar back to Turkey.
Now the seven Assemblies to which the Messiah wrote His letters through John were seven literal assemblies that existed in John’s time. Prophetically they can apply to the corporate Body of Messiah down through history since the first century but more so to the last days. It is also interesting to note that the seven assemblies were all located in modern day Turkey. We are also told that at Pergamum there were problems with some who were eating food sacrificed to idols involving sexual immorality, and those dominating others in the fellowship (A possible Clergy class). However, many of the believers had remained faithful to the Lord Jesus and even to the point where Antipas Jesus’ faithful witness was killed. Another point to note is that it was at Pergamum where Emperor worship really kicked in with Caesar Augustus who had himself deified.
Prophetically the Holy Spirit may be telling us that in the last days that the Antichrist will be Islamic and arise in Turkey and through Satan’s power establish an empire like nothing else ever established in the past or to be established in the future and one of global proportions and an empire hard to defeat in military prowess (Revelation 13: 4). It will be superior in military power, in world finance, in economics, in political circles and in controlling every aspect of society within the realm and boundaries of the empire. The governments of the Islamic world are not backwards in technology.
The leader of the Islamic beast empire will be an autocratic despotic totalitarian persecutor of the faithful Body of Messiah. Already we see the faithful Body of Messiah being savagely and relentlessly persecuted wherever Islam has spread in the nations under Islamic rule. This would be the nature of a revived Turkish Ottoman Empire under Recep Tayyip Erdoğan if he has his way. To this day his creed or ideology and goal are that of the Muslim brotherhood which clearly wants to see a world dominated by Islam. The day will come when the faithful Body of Messiah in the western democracies will be persecuted by the Islamic beast empire and there will be many martyrs (Revelation 6:9-11; 7:14).
Already the Islamic Trojan Horse is well ensconced in Europe, Great Britain, and is growing in America, Australia and New Zealand. The prophet 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 until the heavenly thrones of judgement are set in place and sentenced passed and then suddenly his end will come at the command of the Rider on the White Horse accompanied by the armies of heaven. 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).
Let the man from Turkey seek to establish his global Caliphate and enforce his despotic rule throughout the whole realm of his empire of global proportions, and if he is the man of sin then his total defeat and fiery destruction and that of his military forces will come at Jerusalem and he and his armies will be slain in wholesale lots on the mountains of Israel with no one to help him in the end! (Ezekiel 39:1-6) (Daniel 11:45).
Dear brothers and sisters in Messiah the end is not yet and the faithful Body of Messiah in the western democracies are to face the beast empire of Islam and the fury of the Islamic Antichrist just before the Messiah our Lord Jesus returns to this earth, but no matter what happens in the end we win!!!
As John also writes; “These kings (under the power of the Antichrist) have one purpose: to yield their power and authority to the beast. They will make war against the Lamb, and the Lamb will triumph over them, because He is Lord of lords and King of kings; and He will be accompanied by His called and chosen and faithful ones” (Revelation 12:13-14).
