WATCH OUT FOR TURKEY’S PM RECEP ERDOGAN!
A DANGEROUS PAIR COULD PROPHETICALLY ARISE,
TO ADVANCE THE THREAT OF DISASTER FOR ISRAELIS,
AS PART OF THE EVENTS ASSOCIATED WITH ANTICHRIST,
TURKEY IS ONE OF THE COUNTRIES INVADED BY ASSYRIANS,
TURKEY & SYRIA ARE EXCELLENT PLACES FOR HIS ASCENSION!
October 14, 2009
http://www.tribulationperiod.com/
The Assyrians invaded what is now Turkey and conquered the southeastern one-third of it to make it a part of the ancient Assyrian Empire at the time Micah wrote his Old Testament Book. I have always favored Syria as the most likely place for the Antichrist to arise, but I have always included Turkey as a possibility because part of it was a part of the old Assyrian Empire. I am not saying Erdogan is the Antichrist, only that he bears watching. He and Obama would make quite a pair as peace arbitrators in the Middle East.
Begin Archive Prophecy Update Number 66 from May 3, 2003
PROPHECY UPDATE NUMBER 66 ON MICAH 5
WHAT IS THE NATIONALITY OF THE ANTICHRIST
?
Part 5
May 3, 2003
Micah 5:1-4 – Now gather thyself in troops, O daughter of troops: he hath laid siege against us: they shall smite the judge of Israel with a rod upon the cheek. [2] But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.
[3] Therefore will he give them up, until the time that she which travaileth hath brought forth: then the remnant of his brethren shall return unto the children
of Israel. [4] And he shall stand and feed in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God; and they shall abide: for now shall he be great unto the ends of the earth.
These verses, exposited in Parts 1 through 4, were written more than 700 years before the birth of Christ. And yet they present: Bethlehem as His birthplace, His rejection as ruler over Israel, His last Passover in the daughter of troops Jerusalem, His head beatings by the troops of Pontius Pilate, Herod, and the High Priest, His rejection as the judge of Israel, His Father’s siege against Israel because of their rejection of the Son (which has lasted some 2000 years), Christ’s temporary rejection of Israel, His Second Advent as Messiah after Israel’s travail of 1260 days in the Negev Wilderness, at which time His brethren will return with Him to the nation of Israel, and the first 1000 years of His eternal kingdom, which phases into the final heaven age when the present earth and heavens pass away.
Micah 5:5 – And this man shall be the peace, when the Assyrian shall come into our land: and when he shall tread in our palaces, then shall we raise against him seven shepherds, and eight principal men.
Now, in verse 5, we find that “this man” will himself “be the peace” because He personally brings it in by Himself when he returns to be “great unto the ends of the earth” for 1000 years. “This man” who brings “the peace” of a thousand years is, of course, Jesus Christ. He is the primary contextual subject from verses 1 through 5. What happens to motivate His return to bring in the millennial reign is the movement of the Assyrian into the land of Israel. It is the final defeat and destruction of “the Assyrian” that will mark Christ’s Second Advent, and the beginning of His millennial reign.
When Micah wrote his prophecies the Assyrians had already driven into the northern Kingdom of Israel, and all that remained of Israel proper was its southern Kingdom of Judah. So what were the borders of the land of Assyria when Micah wrote the fifth chapter of his book? The borders of the Assyrian territory stretched northward from roughly where Ramallah is located in the West Bank to the present day southern border of Turkey, and eastward to the Mediterranean Sea to establish its western limits, then westward across the Euphrates River to the Tigris River north of modern Baghdad in Iraq. Technically, I suppose one might be able to say this future “Assyrian” might come out of southern Turkey, northern Iraq, or Lebanon, but since modern day Syria occupies some 85% of the area covered by the Assyrian empire at the time of Micah’s writings, I am persuaded the Assyrian antichrist will come out of Syria. The possible argument that Micah 5:5 was fulfilled during the old Assyrian invasion of Micah’s day, is thwarted by the context pattern of the four verses before it all still being unfulfilled at the time they were written, and then being linked contextually to verse 5 by “this man,” and “the peace.” Additionally, this argument is smashed by the verse that follows it.
Micah 5:6 – And they shall waste the land of Assyria with the sword, and the land of Nimrod in the entrances thereof: thus shall he deliver us from the Assyri an,
when he cometh into our land, and when he treadeth within our borders.
From the time of Micah’s writings to the present day, Israel has never “wasted the land of Assyria with the sword, and the land of Nimrod in the entrances thereof.” I will exposit specifically on both these locations in Prophecy Update Number 67, Lord willing.
The “Assyrian” of Micah 5:5 is not a European, an American, a Russian, an Eskimo, an Aborigine, an Ethiopian, or a platypus. He is an Assyrian, who becomes chief prince of the land where the descendants of Meshech and Tubal were dwelling when Ezekiel wrote his prophecies. I will elaborate on this in future updates, Lord willing. The expression involving “seven shepherds and eight principal men” is most assuredly an oft used Hebrew idiom. It was the Hebrew manner of expressing “more than enough.” Seven is the Hebrew word for “complete,” implying “enough,” and when “eight” is added to it, the expression means “more than enough.” When the Assyrian comes into Israel, and treads within its borders north of Beersheba for 1260 days, then Jesus will return to restore peace for 1000 years on this planet. Christ’s Second Advent is accompanied by some 5/6 of the Assyrian’s armies being destroyed by the brightness of His coming. His destruction of the Assyrian and his false prophet will make whatever force Israel is able to muster up in the Negev for the battle of Armageddon “more than enough.”
When the Assyrian sets on
the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, as the willful King of the North preparing to launch his final attack on Israel at the battle of Armageddon, he will be beyond all help by men and Satan.
I Thessalonians 5:3,4 – For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape. [4] But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief.
Ezekiel 38:14-16 – Therefore, son of man, prophesy and say unto Gog, Thus saith the Lord God; In that day when my people of Israel dwelleth safely, shalt thou not know it? [15] And thou shalt come from thy place out of the north parts, thou, and many people with thee, all of them riding upon horses, a great company, and a mighty army: [16] And thou shalt come up against my people of Israel, as a cloud to cover the land; it shall be in the latter days, and I will bring thee against my land, that the heathen may know me, when I shall be sanctified in thee, O Gog, before their eyes.
Zechariah 13:8,9 – And it shall come to pass, that in all the land, saith the Lord, two parts therein shall be cut off and die; but the third shall be left therein. [9] And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is my people: and they shall say, The Lord is my God.
Revelation 12:6 –And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days.
Daniel 11:45 – And he shall plant the tabernacles of his palace between the seas in the glorious holy mountain; yet he shall come to his end, and none shall help him.
II Thessalonians 2:8 – And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:
Revelation 19:19-21 – And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse, and against his army.
[20] And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone. [21] And the remnant were slain with the sword of him that sat upon the horse, which sword proceeded out of his mouth: and all the fowls were filled with their flesh.
Ezekiel 38:22 to 39:2 – And I will plead against him with pestilence and with blood; and I will rain upon him, and upon his bands, and upon the many people that are with him, an overflowing rain, and great hailstones, fire, and brimstone. [23] Thus will I magnify myself, and sanctify myself; and I will be known in the eyes of many nations, and they shall know that I am the Lord. [1] Therefore, thou son of man, prophesy against Gog, and say, Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal: [2] And I will turn thee back, and leave but the sixth part of thee, and will cause thee to come up from the north parts, and will bring thee upon the mountains of Israel:
Micah 5:5,6 – And this man shall be the peace, when the Assyrian shall come into our land: and when he shall tread in our palaces, then shall we raise against him seven shepherds, and eight principal men. [6] And they shall waste the land of Assyria with the sword, and the land of Nimrod in the entrances thereof: thus shall he deliver us from the Assyrian, when he cometh into our land, and when he treadeth within our borders.
Begin Excerpt 1 of Profile from About.com
Profile: Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan
By Pierre Tristam, About.com
Basics:
Full Name: Recep Tayyip Erduğan, also spelled Erdogan
Born: February 26, 1954
Significance: One of Turkey’s most popular and charismatic leaders, he led the resurgence of Islamic-oriented politics in the Muslim world’s most secular democracy.
Current Status: Prime Minister of Turkey (since March 14, 2003)
Notable Life-Markers: Was mayor of Istanbul, was imprisoned for 10 months on subversion charges related to his pro-Islamic stances, was banned from politics, returned as leader of the Justice and Development Party in 2002.
Early Life:
Erdogan was born on February 26, 1954, in Rize, a small city on Turkey’s Black Sea coast, in a poor family. He was one of five children. His father worked for Turkey’s coast guard. When Erdogan was 13, the family moved to Istanbul, hoping for better opportunities. Erdogan went to an Islamic school then studied business management at Istanbul’s Marmara University. While there, he joined the country’s growing political Islamist movement. He played soccer professionally and worked for Istanbul’s transportation authority until he was fired for refusing, on religious grounds, to shave his mustache.
Mayor of Istanbul:
After he was fired, Erdogan entered politics full time. In 1994, partly on the strength of his charisma and oratorical skills, partly on account of the deterioration of social services and the city’s exploding population, Erdogan was elected mayor of Istanbul, Turkey’s largest city. He promised better services and better jobs for the huge influx of rural immigrants into the city. He delivered on most of his promises.
Imprisoned for Subversion:
In 1997, Erdogan said in a speech: “The mosques are our barracks, the domes are our helmets, the minarets are our swords, and the faithful are our army.” He was the leader the Islamic-oriented Welfare Party at the time. In January 1998, Turkey’s highest court closed the Welfare Party and banned its members from politics, saying the party sought to undermine Turkey’s secular basis. Weeks later, Erdogan was indicted on subversion charges, including inciting “an army of jihad” and “using democracy to establish an evil order.” A military court sentenced him to 10 months in jail, which he started serving in March 1999.
2002 Parliamentary Victory:
Upon his release from prison, and facing the court’s ban on the activities of the Islamist Virtue Party and Welfare Party, Erdogan helped found the Justice and Development Party, known in Turkey as Adalet ve Kalkinma Partisi, or AK, in August 2001. It was the 281st political party created in Turkey since the first party was set up in 1859. Erdogan was elected its leader.
Two months later, the AK swept to power in parliamentary elections with 34.2 percent of the vote, winning 363 of 550 seats.
Prime Minister:
Because of his previous conviction, Erdogan was banned from serving as prime minister or holding any government post. His party’s parliamentary majority quickly changed that by passing a constitutional amendment effectively revoking the ban. Erdogan ran for office in a by-election and became prime minister on March 14, 2003. He replaced Abdullah Gül, who resigned to make room for Erdogan. Gul served as foreign minister until 2007.
Continued Rise of Turkey’s Islamists:
In July 2007, the Islamist Justice and Development Party won 46.6 percent of the popular vote in nationwide parliamentary elections, solidifying Erdogan’s position. Erdogan backed Abdullah Gul’s bid for the presidency, which Gul won on Aug. 28, 2007, becoming Turkey’s 14th president.
Head-Scarf Controversy:
In early 2008, Erdogan led the parliamentary charge to repeal Turkey’s ban on wearing the Islamic head scarf on private or public university campuses, in government buildings or in schools. Parliament voted in February 2008 to repeal the ban, handing Erdogan a major victory. But the changes must first be approved by the president and pass constitutional muster through the nation’s Constitutional Court, a secular institution.
Erdogan has moderated his positions the stronger his party’s hold on Turkish politics has become. Even though he once called the European Union a “Christian club,” he supports Turkey’s bid to join the Union. He supported the Bush administration’s request in 2003 to use Turkey as a staging ground for the invasion of Iraq, but Erdogan and Bush were rebuffed by the Turkish Parliament. Erdogan has overseen the moderation and reform of many Turkeish policies, including, in 2001, the abolition of the death penalty (except in times of war and for acts of terrorism), the abolition of torture in Turkish prisons, and allowing the use of the Kurdish language in broadcasting and education. But Erdogan has maintained a hard line against Kurdish separatists in eastern Turkey and has led the charge to pursue and bomb Kurdish militants in Iraq, or invade northern Iraq if necessary.
The European Union is resisting Turkey’s bid to join, saying Turkey’s human rights violations and its uneven economy remain a major concern.
Begin Excerpt 2 from Middle East Online via World News
The Erdogan-Obama Roadmap for Peace
October 13, 2009
Sami Moubayed
The hard-line Israeli government is refusing to commit to peace. A joint sponsorship of the peace process between Turkey and the US is what the region needs today — the wisdom, brains, passion, and credibility of two forceful men like Barack Obama and Recep Tayyip Erdogan combined, notes Sami Moubayed.
Eyebrows were raised at the 64th session of the UN General Assembly in September, when Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan rose to the podium and talked about the controversial report of South African judge Robert Golds
tone. The UN-mandated report, released only days earlier, accuses Israel of war crimes in Gaza during the 2008-2009 crisis and possible crimes against humanity.
Speaking at a press conference right after the speech, Erdogan said: “There should be accountability for anyone guilty of war crimes in Gaza!” The only other leader to speak of the report at the UN was Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who called it “biased and unjust”. Furious at Erdogan’s support of the Palestinians, Netanyahu defended his country’s war on Gaza; drawing parallels between it and the bombing of Nazi cities during the Second World War. Erdogan said that in its capacity as a rotating member of the Security Council, Turkey was willing to bring the situation to the Council.
Erdogan also conveyed his country’s intention to play an “active” diplomatic role in the region and beyond, defining Turkey’s foreign policy as “zero conflict with neighbours”. Israeli newspapers showered the Turkish prime minister with criticism, accusing him of hypocrisy for claiming to be an honest broker, yet siding with the Palestinians by upholding the Goldstone Report.
This is the same 54-year- old leader who stormed out of the Davos panel in Switzerland in January after a loud exchange with Israeli president Shimon Peres. Erdogan lost his temper when Peres defended his country’s stance on Gaza, replying — red in the face — “President Peres, you are old and your voice is loud out of a guilty conscience. When it comes to killing, you know very well how to kill!
I know well how you hit and kill children on beaches!”
Earlier in 2004, Erdogan had refused an invitation to visit Israel from then prime minister Ariel Sharon. Instead, he received a delegation from Hamas, headed by Khalid Mesha’al, in Turkey. He next turned down a meeting with then labour and trade minister Ehud Olmert in July 2004 and five months later, landed in Damascus, building bridges with the Syrians after relations soured with the international community, shortly after the UN passed Security Council Resolution 1559.
Erdogan’s Turkey has clearly been projecting itself as a mediator and a big sister to countries in the Arab and Muslim world, longing for a position that it once enjoyed as leader of the Islamic nation.
Champion
If anything, Erdogan’s loud stance on Gaza solidifies him as a champion and a problem-solver, more than ever before, in the eyes of millions around the Arab world. Turkish sources claim that Erdogan is not taking sides, but is willing to hear out all sides — Egypt, Hamas, Syria, Israel and Iran — to reach a consensus that would further strengthen Turkey’s role as an honest broker and political heavyweight in the Middle E
ast.
Given all of this luggage on Erdogan’s shoulders, however, many in the West are questioning whether Turkey can still mediate peace talks between Syria and Israel, as it did in April-December 2008. Those talks were famously suspended unilaterally by the Syrians, in protest of the Israeli war on Gaza.
The Israelis have said on more than one occasion that they no longer want the Turks to play the go-between with Damascus.
Meanwhile, Western observers have been asking whether the Turks can really fill in the oversized shoes of the United States. The Turks were needed, many believe, when there was no honest US broker willing to sponsor Syrian-Israel peace talks. Now that Barack Obama is in power, with a declared desire to bring peace to the Middle East, the Turks have to take the backseat in any peace talks.
Others argue that the Turks never intended to hammer out a peace treaty between Syria and Israel, only to buy time and maintain a momentum, while waiting for a credible US broker to enter the White House.
This theory is not entirely correct. The Turks never tried to impose themselves either on Damascus or the Israelis, but were rather, called upon to play the go-between by both parties.
The Israelis might have more faith in the Americans, but clearly, the Syrians want to maintain the Turks in the peace process, having absolute faith in Erdogan.
The current bottleneck is in Tel Aviv, however, not in Damascus. The hard-line Israeli government is refusing to commit to peace, meaning that a peace process without serious US pressure is meaningless. A joint sponsorship of the peace process between Turkey and the US is what the region needs today — the wisdom, brains, passion, and credibility of two forceful men like Barack Obama and Recep Tayyip Erdogan combined.
That would be a win-win solution where all parties, the Syrians, the Israelis, the Turks, and the Americans, would be satisfied.
Sami Moubayed is editor-in-chief of Forward Magazine in Syria.
Begin Excerpt 3 from THE JERUSALEM POST
Ankara must decide
Oct. 12, 2009
, THE JERUSALEM POST
Who would have thought – Turkey and Armenia agreeing to normalize political relations. Armenia’s president planning to attend a football match in Turkey.
And George Papandreou, the new Greek prime minister, making Turkey the destination of his first trip abroad.
These are encouraging examples of how age-old animosities are being relegated to the dustbin of history.
Too bad, then, that Ankara appears to be simultaneously doing everything it can to junk its relationship with the Jewish state.
On Sunday, in an unprecedented slap in the face, Turkey cancelled joint military exercises that were to have included pilots from Israel and NATO. At first, the Turkish Foreign Ministry lamely denied politics was involved.
Then Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu admitted on CNN that only when the “situation in Gaza” is improved could “a new atmosphere in Turkish-Israeli relations” be established.
Analysts in Jerusalem suspect the government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is using the unfortunate civilian deaths during Operation Cast Lead as a pretext for distancing Turkey from Israel – diplomatically, strategically and economically.
ORDINARY Israelis find it hard to believe that faced with similar provocations – its population pounded by 8,000 rockets, murderous cross-border incursions, the kidnapping of one of its soldiers, the refusal of the enemy to abide by a cease-fire – the Turkish military would have refrained from taking action to stop the rocket fire and reestablish its deterrence out of fear that in defending its own citizens the lives of enemy civilians would be jeopardized.
Indeed, it is debatable whether more Palestinians died at the hands of Israel in the Gaza conflict than Muslim Kurds died in Ankara’s repeated bombardments of northern Iraq (though Turkey insists that the only Kurdish loses were to livestock).
Political scientist Efraim Inbar is convinced that Erdogan’s Islamic AKP party places greater value on Turkey’s ties with the Muslim world than on its political and cultural links to the West. Or does Turkey expect to jettison its relationship with Israel, cozy up to Iran and Hamas, and yet maintain strong ties with Washington and Brussels?
ISRAEL’S relationship with Turkey has always had its ups and downs. Turkey voted against the 1947 UN Partition Resolution to create two states – Jewish and Arab – in Palestine, but it quickly established diplomatic relations with Israel. In the 1970s, weathering an economic crisis, it began building bridges to the Arab world.
By the 1980s, thousands of Turks were working throughout the Middle East. The Iran-Iraq War cemented ties between Turkey and the Arabs when Saudi Arabia began supplying oil to Ankara.
Even during periods when the Turkish military was in power, relations with Israel were sometimes sacrificed to persuade the masses that the government had Islamic bona fides. In 1975, Turkey recognized the PLO though the group was then publicly committed to Israel’s destruction. In 1979, Turkey refused to participate in the Eurovision Song Contest because it was being held in Jerusalem. Following the Knesset’s passage, in 1980, of the Basic Law affirming united Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, Ankara closed its consulate in our capital.
Turkey even condemned Israel’s 1981 raid on Saddam Hussein’s nuclear reactor.
Now, with the AKP in power, relations have deteriorated more systematically. In August 2008, Turkey broke ranks with the West by welcoming Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Just before the outbreak of the Gaza war, Erdogan became angry at what he felt was his shabby treatment by Ehud Olmert while Turkey was mediating between Jerusalem and Damascus – a factor in his vituperative outbursts against Israel during the conflict.
OTTOMAN Turkey sought to hold on to its empire by using pan-Islam to legitimize its rule over the Arabs. But Mustafa Kemal Ataturk founded modern Turkey as Western-oriented, secular and nationalist. Islam was disestablished. The Turkish army performed a watchdog function to protect these ideals. And Israelis knew that no matter what abuse Turkish politicians might heap on Israel, our two militaries continued to cooperate at the strategic level. Is that, too, now over?
Turkey is an irreplaceable ally. Israelis want our two countries to enjoy cordial relations despite everything that’s happened. The onus is now on Ankara to make plain that it, too, wants the relationship to continue. It would thereby also be signaling that Turkey wants to be a bridge between Islam and the West – instead of yet another barrier.
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