The Myth of Antichrist Coming Out of Europe
April 19, 2009
http://www.tribulationperiod.com/
I spent a fair part of my life overseas in Europe, the Holy Land, and the Far East. I watched a devastated Europe crawl out of it’s bombed out cities on both sides of the Iron Curtain after WW-2 ended. I was curious to see how the new generation would evolve after two devastating world wars. Hal Lindsey and other evangelicals were confident the biblical Antichrist would arise in Europe, uniting ten European horns to form a European coalition to attack Israel and conquer the world. As I watched Europe come back to life, and a steady stream of Islamic believers flow northward into Europe out of Africa and the Middle East, it became apparent to me during the fifties that the Europeans were sick of war, and had their fill of it, even developing a phobia against it. I have never believed the Antichrist would come out of Europe, and I am more certain of it now than I was in the fifties. I certainly agree with Pat Buchanan’s article “Why Europe Won’t Fight,” which follows our heading.
When a best selling book was written in the fifties about six emerging European Common Market nations, it began to cause many theologians to rapidly change their minds as to where the antichrist would eventually arise. Prior to that time most had believed he would arise out of the old Seleucid dynasty, which was formed by one of the generals who divided Alexander’s Grecian Empire into four sections. Many believed the Assyrian, in the fifth chapter of Micah, would be the antichrist, and that he would arise in, and come out of, modern day Syria.
Before the European Common Market theory arose, a majority believed antichrist would come out of the southern half of the old Roman Empire, rather than out of the European northern half. But the great popularity of the aforementioned book ascended to the highest levels of acceptability, and previous beliefs were dwarfed to obscurity.
The book indicated that the six original members of the Common Market would soon be joined by four other nations to reach ten, and then be joined by the eleventh horn, who would be the antichrist of Daniel’s fourth beast in chapter seven. However, soon there were ten horns, then there were eleven,
then more, then fifteen, then 27 in 2008.
But the astounding popularity of this book, and the thousands of preachers and other teachers who have taught it, have left a legacy such that it is difficult to convince believers they might not be correct in what they have taught, and are still teaching.
It is difficult to picture the beast of Daniel 7 with 27 horns and the statue of Daniel 2 with 13 toes on one foot and 14 on the other.
Daniel 2:42 – And as the toes of the feet were part of iron, and part of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong, and partly broken.
I have been concerned, since the book was first published, about the possibility it might cause many to be deceived when Antichrist does not arise in Europe, but in Syria. Quite frankly, I watch both Europe and Syria just like a hawk, and, if I do see him rising in Europe, I most assuredly will accept it. I am prepared for both.
But many are so convinced he must come out of Europe, I doubt if anything would change their minds. In any case, in future blogs I will continue to show my reasons for believing he will come out of the Syria area.
Daniel 7:23-25 – Thus he said, The fourth beast shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth, which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces. [24] And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise: and another shall rise after them; and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings. [25] And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time.
The beast of Daniel 7:23 does indeed represent the old Roman Empire, and it certainly did tread down “the whole world,” that is, the “known” world of Daniel’s day. Have you ever thought that perhaps we were meant to take the expressions of Daniel’s day concerning the world, and believe that is the only part of the present world the antichrist will dominate completely
? The ten horns will arise out of “the whole world” of Daniel’s day. But why do they have to be European nations? Were not Syria, Lebanon, Turkey, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Egypt, northern Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, and northern Sudan part of the old Roman Empire under the Emperor Trajan? And are not these countries the descendants of Ishmael, the first son of Abraham, and Keturah’s six sons by Abraham, and the two sons of Abraham’s nephew Lot, Moab and Ammon by his two daughters? Are not these descendants of Abraham the ones who have hated and battled the sons of Abraham through Israel for many centuries? In any case, since I believe the attack is likely to occur before 2015, I expect to know where he will arise one way or the other in the next few years, that is, if I survive the grave before Jesus returns.
I do not question that Europe will come down as part of the mass of many nations that join antichrist in Jerusalem for the final battle of Armageddon, but I am confident that the initial attack of the tribulation period will be by the Antichrist leading Islamic nations against Israel.
Begin Excerpt from Creators.com via World News
Why Europe Won’t Fight
By Pat Buchanan
“No one will say this publicly, but the true fact is we are all talking
about our exit strategy from Afghanistan. We are getting out. It may take a couple of years, but we are all looking to get out.”
Thus did a “senior European diplomat” confide to The New York Times during Obama’s trip to Strasbourg.
Europe is bailing out on us. Afghanistan is to be America’s war.
During what the Times called a “fractious meeting,” NATO agreed to send 3,000 troops to provide security during the elections and 2,000 to train Afghan police.
Thin gruel beside Obama’s commitment to double U.S. troop levels to 68,000.
Why won’t Europe fight?
Because Europe sees no threat from Afghanistan and no vital interest in a faraway country where NATO Europeans have not fought since the British Empire folded its tent long ago.
Al-Qaida did not attack Europe out of Afghanistan. America was attacked.
Because, said Osama bin Laden in his “declaration of war,” America was occupying the sacred soil of Saudi Arabia, choking Muslim Iraq to death and providing Israel with the weapons to repress the Palestinians.
As Europe has no troops in Saudi Arabia, is exiting Iraq and backs a Palestinian state, Europeans figure, they are less likely to be attacked than if they are fighting and killing Muslims in Afghanistan.
Madrid and London were targeted for terror attacks, they believe, because Spain and Britain were George W. Bush’s strongest allies in Iraq. Britain, with a large Pakistani population, must be especially sensitive to U.S. Predator strikes in Pakistan.
Moreover, Europeans have had their fill of war.
In World War I alone, France, Germany and Russia each lost far more men killed than we have lost in all our wars put together. British losses in World War I were greater than America’s losses, North and South, in the Civil War. Her losses in World War II, from a nation with but a third of our population, were equal to ours. Where America ended that war as a superpower and leader of the Free World, Britain ended it bankrupt, broken, bereft of empire, sinking into socialism.
All of Europe’s empires are gone. All her great navies are gone. All her million-man armies are history.
Her populations are all aging, shrinking and dying, as millions pour in from former colonies in the Third World to repopulate and Islamize the mother countries.
Because of Europe’s new “diversity,” any war fought in a Muslim land will inflame a large segment of Europe’s urban population.
Finally, NATO Europe knows there is no price to pay for malingering in NATO’s war in Afghanistan.
Europeans know America will take up the slack and do nothing about their refusal to send combat brigades.
For Europeans had us figured out a long time ago.
They sense that we need them more than they need us.
While NATO provides Europe with a security blanket, it provides America with what she cannot live without: a mission, a cause, a meaning to life.
Were the United States, in exasperation, to tell Europe, “We are pulling out of NATO, shutting down our bases and bringing our troops home because we are weary of doing all the heavy lifting, all the fighting and dying for freedom,” what would we do after we had departed and come home
?
What would our foreign policy be?
What would be the need for our vaunted military-industrial complex, all those carriers, subs, tanks, and thousands of fighter planes and scores of bombers? What would happen to all the transatlantic conferences on NATO, all the think tanks here and in Europe devoted to allied security issues?
After the fall of the Berlin Wall, the withdrawal of the Red Army from Eastern Europe and the breakup of the Soviet Union, NATO’s mission was accomplished. As Sen. Richard Lugar said, NATO must “go out of area or out of business.
”
NATO desperately did not want to go out of business. So, NATO went out of area, into Afghanistan. Now, with victory nowhere in sight, NATO is heading home. Will it go out of business?
Not likely. Too many rice bowls depend on keeping NATO alive.
You don’t give up the March of Dimes headquarters and fund-raising machinery just because Drs. Salk and Sabin found a cure for polio.
Again, one recalls, in those old World War II movies, the invariable scene where two G.I.s are smoking and talking.
“What are you gonna do, Joe, when this is all over?” one would ask.
Years ago, we had the answer.
Joe stayed in the Army. He couldn’t give it up. Soldiering is all he knew. Just like Uncle Sam. We can’t give up NATO because, if we do, we would no longer be the “indispensable nation,” the leader of
the Free World.
And, if we’re not that, then who are we? And what would we do
?
Patrick Buchanan is the author of the new book “Churchill, Hitler and ‘The Unnecessary War.” To find out more about Patrick Buchanan, and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate web page at www.creators.com.
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