Citizens of the World?
Citizens of the World?
By Jack Kinsella
According to the Bible, there must exist in the last days a three-tiered world system consisting of a global economy, global religion and global government.
Before going further, let’s establish some definitions. To be a ‘world’ system does not mean that everybody in the world is a member. Not every nation participated in the First and Second World Wars, either.
But as in the two world wars, a ‘world’ system is one that is acknowledged as such due to its world influence. A ‘global’ system is not necessarily one in which everybody participates. It is a system that has global reach.
Not everybody is part of the global government of antichrist. The antichrist’s government is but one of four major spheres of world power in the last days; together with the Kings of the East, Kings of the South and Gog-Magog powers.
The antichrist’s system rules what we traditionally consider “the West”. Defining “the West” is a rather interesting exercise, in terms of Bible prophecy. The generic West generally refers to the nations of Western Europe, their North American colonies, [reluctantly] Israel and [improbably] Australia/New Zealand and Japan.
In 21st century real-politik, “the West” doesn’t so much refer to direction as it does ideology. Japan, Australia and New Zealand are the Western nations of the Far East, making “The West” a global entity.
So when we are speaking in terms of ‘global’ and ‘world’ we are generally referring to those parts of the world that we refer to today as “The West” under the direct rule of the antichrist. That is not to argue that the antichrist won’t rule the entire world indirectly — in much the same way the US indirectly rules the entire world today.
Another way to understand it is by the process of elimination. The antichrist’s government directly rules the entire world, except the Kings of the South, the Kings of the East and the Gog-Magog nations — all of whom he eventually destroys or conquers.
But the revived Roman Empire is merely the seat of the antichrist’s rule. It is also important to understand where Scripture identifies the antichrist as a leader of the Roman Empire.
“And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for Himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.” (Daniel 9:26)
The ‘people of the prince that shall come’ were the Romans who destroyed the city and sanctuary in AD 70 — about six hundred years after Daniel’s prophecy. There are other verses that, taken in conjunction with Daniel 9:26, tend to lend themselves to the identification of a revived Roman Empire.
Daniel interprets Nebuchadnezzar’s dream of an image as representing four successive world empires; Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece and Rome. Rome is pictured as two legs of iron with two feet and ten toes of ‘iron mixed with clay’ — ‘partly strong and partly weak’ the Scripture says.
Daniel says that in the days of these kings “shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed…” (Daniel 2:44)
The Western European Union consists of ten FULL members. The same ten are the only FULL members of the European Union.
But by and large, that’s about all the Scripture there is to argue that the antichrist’s government headquartered in Europe.
From our vantage point on the timeline, we can look backward to the fulfillment of prophecies that were still future to the great Bible expositors of the past. When Sir Robert Anderson wrote “The Coming Prince” — (considered the Gold Standard work on the antichrist and the last days, Israel did not yet exist).
Sir Robert was the first to use the 360-day calendar to calculate the meaning of Daniel’s 70 Weeks — while Jack the Ripper was still terrorizing London!
Assessment
The American president recently traveled to Cairo to announce that “one nation (America) should not be exalted over another” and promised the world that he would take land from one people (Israel) and give it to another people, (Palestinians) and apologized for America in every other sentence.
The Left was ecstatic.
Newsweek editor Evan Thomas brought adulation over President Obama’s Cairo speech to a whole new level on Friday, declaring on MSNBC:
“I mean in a way Obama’s standing above the country, above the world, he’s sort of God.”
Thomas, appearing on Hardball with Chris Matthews, was reacting to a preceding monologue in which Matthews praised Obama’s speech:
“I think the President’s speech yesterday was the reason we Americans elected him. It was grand. It was positive. Hopeful…But what I liked about the President’s speech in Cairo was that it showed a complete humility… The question now is whether the President we elected and spoke for us so grandly yesterday can carry out the great vision he gave us and to the world.”
Matthews discussed Obama’s upcoming speech marking the 65th anniversary of D-Day and compared it to that of Ronald Reagan. He then turned to Thomas and asked: “Reagan and World War II and the sense of us as the good guys in the world, how are we doing?”
Thomas replied: “Well, we were the good guys in 1984, it felt that way. It hasn’t felt that way in recent years. So Obama’s had, really, a different task. We’re seen too often as the bad guys. And “he has a very different job from” Reagan was all about America, and you talked about it. Obama is “we are above that now.” We’re not just parochial, we’re not just chauvinistic, we’re not just provincial.”
Thomas elaborated on Obama as God: “He’s going to bring all different sides together…Obama is trying to sort of tamper everything down. He doesn’t even use the word terror. He uses extremism. He’s all about let us reason together… He’s the teacher. He is going to say,”now, children, stop fighting and quarreling with each other.” And he has a kind of a moral authority that he can do that.”
For the record, I’ve not changed my view that the coming antichrist will be a ruler [a prince] of the European Union. But at the same time, the Scriptures are not adamant that he be European — merely that he be considered a ‘prince’ of that people.
I still think that the traditional view is probably correct, but we are living in exceptional times. What used to be prophecy is now history, and as the saying goes, “hindsight is always 20-20.”
The Scriptures are unbreakable, eternal, immutable, but one cannot say the same thing about the interpretation of Scriptural prophecy. Prophecy is subjective; that is to say, it can be read literally, figuratively or symbolically.
I believe that the Scriptures are intended to be taken literally unless the context or the topic are clearly symbolic or allegorical.
Parables are intended to allegorical. The Seven Churches of Revelation are symbolic of the Seven Epochs of the Church Age. The “people of the prince who is to come” is a literal statement.
The prince who is to come will be of the people that destroyed Jerusalem and the Temple in 70 AD. The city and Temple were destroyed by Titus of Rome, with Julius Alexander as his second-in-command.
That prince will confirm a covenant between Israel and the Palestinians. The confirmation of the covenant is the event that signals the beginning of Daniel’s 70th Week, or the final Week of The Age of the Law.
We learn more about the coming prince of the Roman Empire from John the Revelator and the Apostle Paul. He will be a master deceiver whose charisma and charm will win him the adoration of the entire Western world.
He will partner up with the leader of a global religious system and eventually, he will demand worship as a god. Those who refuse to join his combined religious/economic/political system will face decapitation.
As we get closer to the end of this present age, some of the old understandings are being challenged by events on the ground. Previous generations were only interpreting prophecy. We’re living it.
There’s a difference.
Originally Published: June 9, 2009.