King Solomon wrote; “When you sit down to eat with a ruler, consider carefully what is before you; and put a knife to your throat, if you are a man given to appetite. Do not desire his delicacies, for they are the bread of lies (Proverbs 23:1 – 3). And again he wrote; “A lying tongue hates its victims, and flattering words cause ruin (Proverbs 26:28).
Two days ago it was reported in IsraBite News on the Honest Reporting Website that President Erdogan of Turkey spoke with the new Israeli President Isaac Herzog. According to the article it stated; “Israeli President Isaac Herzog spoke with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, indicating that the frosty relationship between the two countries could be thawing. Erdogan is said to have congratulated Herzog on being sworn into office last week. “The presidents emphasized in their call that the ties between Israel and Turkey are of great importance to the security and the stability of the Middle East,” the Israeli account of the conversation stated.
In addition, Herzog and Erdogan agreed that there is huge potential to cooperate in the fields of energy, tourism and technology. Both men are said to have agreed to maintain an ongoing dialogue “despite the differences of opinion, with the goal of making positive steps toward a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.” Erdogan recently struck a less conciliatory tone while hosting Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in Istanbul. In a private discussion, the Turkish leader reportedly predicted that there could not be lasting peace in the region “as long as Israel’s policies continue.”
Why any leader in Israel would trust the man from Turkey or even be willing to cooperate with him in the fields of energy, tourism and technology defies all logic. In the past President Erdogan of Turkey has made it very clear, and has gone public, on his distain of Israel and his desire to see the Jewish nation become a Palestinian State, and to have the whole of Jerusalem under the flag of a resurrected Turkish Ottoman Empire as his Turkish Ottoman forebears had for around 600 years until Turkey was defeated in WW1 and the Caliphate dissolved in November 1922.
The Ottoman Empire was an empire that controlled much of South Eastern Europe, Western Asia, and Northern Africa between the 14th and early 20th centuries. It was founded at the end of the 13th century in North Western Anatolia. This is the empire that the man from Turkey is seeking to resurrect. One can see that he has two faces. One face is to show Israel a seeming friendship and economic partner in the region while his other face is to show his disdain for Israel and his favour towards the Palestinian cause.
Behind this seeming facade, his real desire it seems, is to control Jerusalem and the Temple Mount. In the meantime if he can improve the economy of Turkey he will do so by any means possible but when he has the upper hand financially and economically and militarily he will openly “nail his colours to the mast!” At present he needs to stabilize Turkey’s economy and deal with the leaders of Europe until he is in a position to start a war of a conquest of global proportions as His Ottoman forebears did.
As for the current political situation in Israel it is in reality fragmented by three leaders whose ideologies do not match up. The whole Islamic world is now focused on Israel including the Gulf Arab States who are “hedging their bets” in relation to doing future deals with Israel. The man from Turkey is aware of Iran’s development of its nuclear capability goaded on by the EU and America pushing to re-negotiate the 2015 Iranian Nuclear Deal brokered by Obama. It seems Obama is the ‘Puppet Master’ that dangles Biden by the strings attached.
When one reads about this situation with the Turkish leader willing to discuss economics with the Israeli President, it reminds us of what the prophet Daniel said about the character of the man of sin who will be revealed in the last days who will target Israel and by extension the faithful Body of the Messiah who have been spiritually grafted into the Commonwealth of Israel.
Daniel writes; “And at the latter end of their kingdom, when the transgressors have reached their limit, a king of bold face, one who understands riddles (dark sentences) shall arise. His power shall be great—but not by his own power; and he shall cause fearful destruction and shall succeed in what he does, and destroy mighty men and the people who are the saints. By his cunning he shall make deceit prosper under his hand, and in his own mind he shall become great. Without warning he shall destroy many. And he shall even rise up against the Prince of princes, and he shall be broken—but by no human hand. The vision of the evenings and the mornings that has been told is true, but seal up the vision, for it refers to many days from now.” (Daniel 8:23-26)
What are we told about this coming man of sin?
Firstly, we are told that he will be “a king of bold face, one who understands riddles (dark sentences) shall arise. His power shall be great—but not by his own power”
He will be one who has a bold and aggressive nature. (Daniel 7:8) He will have this kind of character which will surface at certain times as we have seen with the Turkish leader in his tirade against Israel at other times and his desire for a resurrected caliphate and control of Jerusalem for Islam. He is also described as one who “understands dark sentences” in other words he will be a practitioner of the occult. He will be able to effectively mask his true motives and his ability to practice the art of deception will be unsurpassed. He will arise out of obscurity but become great. (Daniel 7:8; 8:9-10) His rise to power will mirror the same way as Adolph Hitler rose to power by a very powerful principality that controlled him.
Secondly, we are told, “…and he shall cause fearful destruction and shall succeed in what he does, and destroy mighty men and the people who are the saints.”
His power of his armies will destroy many armies that come against him. He will wage a war against the mightiest fortresses with the help of his foreign ‘god’ which would have to be Allah, who in reality is the Arabic moon-god of war. The crossed swords that point upwards on Islamic emblems, flags and war banners denotes conquest by the sword, which is in keeping with the character of Islamic ideology and practice as history confirms. (Daniel 11:38-40)
As we see the leaders of Europe trying to unite against a common enemy we may well see a war erupt between Islam and Europe as we have seen in past history. Also the man of sin will attack the saints and wear them down through persecution. A stark reminder was demonstrated in the Armenian genocide perpetrated for the most part on Armenian Christians by the Ottoman Turks in the early part of the 20th Century. The Armenian genocide refers to the physical annihilation of ethnic Armenian Christian people living in the Ottoman Empire from spring 1915 through autumn 1916. There were approximately 1.5 million Armenians living in the Empire. At least 664,000 and possibly as many as 1.2 million died during the genocide.
Earlier this year we saw President Erdogan re-convert the Hagia Sofia Basilica (the Vatican of Eastern Christendom) into a Mosque and then lead the Muslim prayers in the sanctuary which was a forerunner of what the man of sin will do on the Temple mount in Jerusalem. (Daniel 11:36) (2 Thessalonians 2:4) The empire of the man of sin will persecute Bible believers who will not compromise their faith. Both faithful Jews and Christians will suffer this persecution throughout his empire. (Daniel 7:21, 25; 12:7) (Revelation 13:5-7) (Revelation 12:17)
Thirdly, we are told, “By his cunning he shall make deceit prosper under his hand, and in his own mind he shall become great. Without warning he shall destroy many.”
Through his masterful occultist art of deception he will be able to position himself in the enclaves of political power with the ability to ultimately destroy them when he has the upper hand. This too is an art of disinformation practiced in Islam in a time of Jihad. He will seek to be acknowledged by men and make himself to be God much in the same way Antiochus Epiphanies had sought to make himself to be God. Antiochus came out of Syria to attack Israel and his name meant “god-manifest.” In the Bible he is a major type of the man of sin.
Turkish military forces are now in Syria. The Golan Heights is a militarily strategic region to Israel and to Syria, Iran, and Hezbollah in Lebanon and of course Turkey. The day will come when Israel will be suddenly and viciously attacked without warning by the man of sin and his Islamic army that will most likely come over the Golan Heights. (Ezekiel chapters 38 and 39) (Zechariah chapters 12 and 13) (Joel Chapter 3)
Fourthly, we are told, “And he shall even rise up against the Prince of princes, and he shall be broken—but by no human hand. The vision of the evenings and the mornings that has been told is true, but seal up the vision, for it refers to many days from now.”
This attack against the people of God will be effectively an assault on the Messiah our Lord Jesus. Just s Nimrod raised a revolt against the God of heaven so the man of sin, in the same character trait as Nimrod, will raise a rebellion against God. The man of sin will be utterly broken and his kingdom dismembered by the Lord. The thrones in the heavenly courts will be set up and the Ancient of days will pronounce this judgement on the man of sin and his cohorts from Hades and upon all the nations that have arisen against Israel and persecuted the saints of God. (Daniel 7:9-12)
Only after this last judgement and the return of the Messiah our Lord Jesus with great power and glory will the saints inherit the Messianic Kingdom on earth. (Daniel 7:13-14, 18, 22, 26-27) This vision applies to the very last of the last days in which we are now living. The man from Turkey may well prove to be the man of sin, whom it seems the Holy Spirit is telling us will arise out of Turkey. (Revelation 2:13) It would seem that the new President of Israel does not seem to, or does not want to see through the subterfuge of the man from Turkey playing Israel’s leaders like a fiddle.
