All over Europe, average citizens seem to be waking up to the
reality of their situation far better than the political elites that run
their countries.
In Germany, pepper spray has disappeared from stores as buyers
worried about waves of migrants emptied the shelves. In Sweden, angry
arsonists set fire to 17 existing or planned immigrant housing centers in
October and November. In Austria, citizens concerned about the flood of
refugees have bought tens of thousands of handguns and rifles in recent
months, and stores are running out of shotguns.
Support for anti-immigration political parties is growing more
widespread. British voters are so fed up with the European Union’s open
borders policy that Britain may soon elect to leave the
EU altogether rather than continue to be subject to invasion by thousands of non-European migrants.
Anti-immigrant voters have already replaced governments in Poland
and Croatia, and made huge gains in Sweden, France, Denmark and Greece.
In Germany, support for Angela Merkel, who opened the nation’s doors to
1.5 million migrants, is plummeting.
Clearly the ground is shifting in Europe. Much like the United
States, where voters are increasingly frustrated and turned off by their
political leaders, Europeans are looking for alternatives to a political
establishment viewed as more and more out of touch with the average man
on the street.
These trends were well under way even before nine jihadists using
automatic rifles, hand grenades and suicide-bomb vests slaughtered 130
people and wounded hundreds more in Paris restaurants and a concert hall
the night of Nov. 13. An attack at a soccer stadium was thwarted;
otherwise the casualties would have run far higher. In a particularly
callous act, the gunmen singled out and shot disabled people in an area
of the concert hall set aside for wheelchair users.
Particularly unsettling are the identities of the killers. Most were
French or Belgian citizens born of Muslim-immigrant parents. At least
two others were among the waves of immigrants who entered Europe by boat
via Greece only six weeks earlier, and two others remain unidentified.
Throughout Europe, people are deeply concerned about what these things
mean for their lives, their countries and their future. The continent is
changing before our eyes.
Where could these trends be heading? Does the Bible give us any indication?
Insights from Bible prophecy and history
The 11th chapter of the book of Daniel gives a detailed prophecy of
events in the Middle East that began in Daniel’s day and continues down
to events that take place at the return of Jesus Christ to establish the
Kingdom of God on earth. Much of the prophecy concerns individuals
called “the king of the North” and “the king of the South.” These denote
leaders of geopolitical powers to the north and south of Jerusalem, the
focal point of Bible prophecy, but they have a connection to both the
Middle East and Europe.
Originally these terms applied to the successors of Alexander the
Great, whose vast empire was divided up among his chief generals after
his death. The two major resulting kingdoms, centered in Syria to the
north of Jerusalem and Egypt to the south, would be the key powers
Daniel’s prophecy would center on for the next several centuries.
Most of this prophecy was fulfilled many centuries ago between the
time of Alexander the Great and the rise of the Roman Empire. But in
verse 40 the prophecy jumps forward to our day,
“the time of the end” before the return of Jesus Christ.
What is this verse describing? We need a good grasp of history to understand.
In the 600s and 700s
A.D. the new religion
of Islam spread from the Arabian Peninsula across much of the Middle
East, as well as through Egypt and across North Africa. Over time Muslim
conquerors captured Spain and invaded France, and later took over large
portions of southeastern Europe. Along the way they also invaded and
held portions of Italy, and in
A.D. 846 Muslim
raiders attacked Rome itself and plundered the original St. Peter’s
Basilica, at that time outside Rome’s protective walls.
Another wave of Islamic expansion in the 1100s vastly expanded the
territory under Muslim control to include most of the northern third of
the African continent, much of the Indian subcontinent, a large swath of
southeastern Europe and part of what is today southern Russia and some
of the former Soviet republics.
For centuries the Islamic world was ruled by a series of
caliphs—
an Arabic term meaning “successor,” in this case a religious and
political successor of Muhammad, founder of Islam and considered its
greatest prophet. The territory over which the caliph ruled was known as
a
caliphate. This system existed until 1924, when it was
abolished in the aftermath of World War I with the fall of the Ottoman
Empire, the last embodiment of the caliphate.
Throughout Islam’s history its leaders have desired to see Muslims
worldwide unite under a caliphate and establish Islam in what they see
as its rightful place as the dominant religion of the world. In recent
decades al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden called for the reestablishment
of a caliphate, as has the Muslim Brotherhood (which spawned al-Qaeda
and other terrorist groups).
In June 2014 the Islamic State, formed out of the rubble of the
Syrian civil war and the collapse of central authority in Iraq after the
withdrawal of American troops, declared itself a new caliphate with Abu
Bakr al-Baghdadi as its caliph.
Thousands of Muslims from around the world have flocked to Syria and
Iraq in support of this long-held Muslim dream to reestablish the
caliphate. (The world also has seen the Islamic State’s vision of a new
caliphate as it has instituted Islamic law in the territories it
controls and its fighters have butchered any who stand in its way.)
Many Muslims also believe in the imminent coming of an individual they call the
mahdi,
a messiah-like Islamic figure who will arise in the end time and lead
Muslims in ridding the world of evil and converting it to Islam. Some
also believe the mahdi will be accompanied by Jesus Christ (called Isa
by them), whom they believe to be a Muslim who will forcibly convert
Christians to Islam.
Obstacles standing in Islam’s way
But for these goals to succeed, several obstacles must be removed.
One is the modern state of Israel, which is why this tiny nation has
been the target of unrelenting hostility from the Islamic world ever
since its establishment in 1947. This is also why Iran, whose leaders
and millions of its citizens believe in the mahdi, calls repeatedly for
Israel’s elimination or annihilation.
Another obstacle is the United States, often referred to as “the
great Satan” in the Islamic world, and Britain, often called “the little
Satan” (along with Israel). This is why Islamic terror groups regularly
call for attacks and
jihad— “struggle” or holy war—against America.
But another obstacle standing in the way of Islamic conquest is
Europe.
Perhaps you have been puzzled by Islamic terrorist leaders such as
Osama bin Laden and Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi referring to European and
American soldiers as “crusaders.” This sounds bizarre to Western ears,
but in the Islamists’ view the Crusades of centuries ago
never really ended.
As they see it, the recent American-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan
are simply another phase in the Crusades, and this ages-long struggle
will not end until Europe—the land from which the Crusades originated—is
vanquished and converted to Islam.
Calls for Islamic conquest of Europe
Several Muslim leaders have openly called for such a conquest of
Europe and spelled out how this can be accomplished—by force if
necessary, but also by Muslim immigrants simply moving in and taking
over (through political pressure and high birth rates).
Muammar Gaddafi, leader of Libya before he was overthrown and
executed in 2011 by even more radical elements, said this: “There are
signs that Allah will grant Islam victory in Europe—without swords,
without guns, without conquests. The fifty million Muslims of Europe will
turn it into a Muslim continent within a few decades.”
Yunis al-Astal, member of the Palestinian parliament and a Muslim
cleric, boasted the following in a sermon aired on Hamas-run Al-Aqsa
TV
in 2008: “Very soon, Allah willing, Rome will be conquered … as was
prophesied by our prophet Muhammad. Today, Rome is the capital of the
Catholics, or the Crusader capital, [but it] will be an advanced post
for the Islamic conquests, which will spread through Europe in its
entirety …”
As recently as Sept. 11, 2015, Muslim imam Sheikh Muhammad Ayed
spoke in Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque, the third holiest site in Islam,
saying: “Soon, we will trample [the Jews and Christians] underfoot,
Allah willing … Throughout Europe, all the hearts are infused with
hatred toward Muslims … But … we will breed children with them, because
we shall conquer their countries—whether you like it or not, oh Germans,
oh Americans, oh French, oh Italians, and all those like you. Take the
refugees! We shall soon collect them in the name of the
coming Caliphate.”
Islam’s holy book, the Quran, praises migration as a way to spread
Islam to new lands. Surah 4:100 reads: “He that leaves his home in the
cause of [Allah] shall find many a refuge in the land and great
abundance” (Dawood translation).
While hundreds of thousands of Muslim refugees have made the arduous
and risky journey to seek refuge in Europe, wealthy Muslim nations like
Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar and Oman have accepted only a relative
handful.
Why? These countries’ leaders fear terrorists among
the refugees who could pose trouble for their own regimes as in Syria.
And the dirty little secret is that
these nations want to see Muslim refugees overwhelm Europe.
Yes, Islamists clearly have designs on taking over Europe, and it’s
not something that they see as centuries off in the future. They’re
openly talking about it
now.
Conflict between north and south
Now let’s read the prophecy in
Daniel 11:40: “And
at the time of the end shall the king of the south
push at him:
and the king of the north shall come against him like a whirlwind,
with chariots, and with horsemen, and with many ships; and he shall
enter into the countries, and shall overflow and pass over” (
Daniel 11:40, emphasis added throughout).
This tells us that “
at the time of the end” a king of the south will
“push at” the king of the north. Who are these prophesied figures, and what does this mean?
The king of the South most likely will be a Muslim figure, since the
lands to the south of Jerusalem are overwhelmingly Muslim and have been
for centuries. As noted earlier, many Muslims desire and expect an
Islamic messiah, the mahdi,or a new caliphto arise to unite Muslims in
their struggle against the West. Either of these are
likely possibilities.
The Arab world also has a history of populist leaders such as Saddam
Hussein, Osama bin Laden and Muammar Gaddafi who saw themselves as
leaders of the Arab or wider Muslim world.
Any such leader would naturally want to see Islam take over Europe,
just as we are seeing now with massive Muslim immigration, high birth
rates, and random violence and terror attacks to cow Europeans
into submission.
Who is the end-time king of the North?
And who is the king of the North in this prophecy? Again, we need historical background to understand.
Anciently, the lands of the kings of the North were absorbed into
the Roman Empire. Other prophecies in Daniel chapters 2 and 7 describe a
series of empires beginning in Daniel’s day and lasting until the time
of the end of man’s self-rule on earth. History makes it clear that
these were, in order, the Babylonian, Persian, Greek and Roman Empires.
These prophecies show that the last of these—the Roman Empire—exists
in a resurrected form at the time of Jesus Christ’s return (
Daniel 2:42-44;
Daniel 7:23-27).
While Muslims have dreamed for centuries of a united Islamic world, so
too have Europeans longed for a unified European state. Some even
describe their goal with the term “United States of Europe.”
In the centuries since the fall of the Roman Empire, various kings,
emperors and despots openly proclaimed their desire to rebuild that
dream. The current European Union (
EU) was born of this desire decades ago, and it is a major economic power by any measure, rivaling America in important respects.
And Bible prophecy also reveals that a new European-centered
superpower will become a reality—possibly as an outgrowth of the current
European Union, which in its current form appears too politically weak
and divided to continue indefinitely under its current pressures.
This new superpower is depicted prophetically in Revelation 17 as a
creature with 10 horns representing an alliance of 10 leaders of nations
or groups of nations who “give their power and authority” to another
leader called “the beast” (
Revelation 17:12-13).
The time setting for this is just before Jesus Christ’s return (
Revelation 17:14),
as this union “will make war with the Lamb.” The leader of this
end-time superpower and the king of the North appear to be one and the
same, as the king of the North also comes to his end in this same time
frame—“the time of the end” (
Daniel 11:40,
Daniel 11:45).
Keys trends to watch
To sum up, this prophecy gives us the following keys to look for:
• Efforts to unify the Muslim and/or Arab world under a single caliphate or leader.
• Continued efforts from the Islamic world to take over Europe via violence or migration or both.
• Shifts in European thinking toward anti-immigration leaders and
parties, culminating in greater European unity and military and economic
power—and ultimately in a coming military invasion of Egypt, Libya and
Israel that sets the stage for a new world war that will threaten
humanity with extinction.
We live in increasingly dangerous and sobering times. Those of us at
Beyond Today are here to help you navigate these troubling waters. Continue reading
Beyond Today so you can be better prepared for what lies ahead—and join us in praying to God always,
“Your Kingdom come!”
Gianluca Cosetta/Unsplash 
artolympic/iStock/Thinkstock 
Kalispera Dell (http://www.panoramio.com) via Wikimedia Commons 
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