Prophecy

The Western Confederacy - PR03-01

Now we want look at a confederacy that has particular interest to us because it is a confederacy of the western nations of which we are a part. The trend in our world today is for unification in politics and in religion. There is a time which is coming in which there will be a worldwide political unity with a man totally dominated by Satan, and controlled by him in charge. We're going to look at the particular union that this man directs, and which he controls in a very bestial way.

World Empires

Daniel

However, there are biblical scholars of considerable reputation who have ably demonstrated that the Book of Daniel indeed bears all the authentication of having come from the period of time of the Babylonian Empire, and from the hand of Daniel. This is a book that indeed sticks in the craw of the liberals like a broken chicken bone because they simply gag upon the fantastic details of this book. If Daniel was written in the time of the Babylonian Empire, by Daniel, then you have a tremendous evidence for the supernatural qualities of the Bible.

The Roman Empire

The final stage of the Roman Empire was described in detail just as the previous empires and the first part of the Roman Empire were. The first part of the description of the Roman Empire indeed came to pass in specific detail. But suddenly, you come to a point in the description of this empire, and it seems like a curtain drops. All of a sudden, everything that was predicted about the last part of the Roman Empire and about its leadership suddenly phases out when it comes to looking in history and seeing this fulfilled. We have to come to the conclusion that the last part of what was predicted concerning the Roman Empire has never been fulfilled.

This was, for example, in the form of an image that Daniel saw, and the part of the image particularly where the empire is reduced to a confederation of ten nations has never been true upon the scene of human history. From 200 B.C., Rome began to dominate. This empire of Rome (that Daniel concentrates on) began to dominate the western end of the Mediterranean Sea. Its power extended around 200 B.C. all the way in the north to the Alps. Gradually Roman power moved eastward, and as the Greek empire declined, the Roman Empire arose and replaced it in Macedonia, Greece, and Asia Minor, ever moving eastward. Finally Rome conquered Palestine under General Pompeius, and in 63 B.C., took the city of Jerusalem. This was the condition when the Lord Jesus Christ was born when Rome was in control of the land of Palestine, and the Jewish people were under the authority of the Roman Empire.

The Roman Empire continued to expand after this time until it included Britain, Switzerland, France, Belgium, and all the areas south of the Rhine and the Danube rivers. By 200 A.D., most of Mesopotamia in the area up to the Euphrates River were under Roman control. Rome became a tremendous world empire in the extent of its geographical control. Rome was able to handle this. For one thing, Rome had a unique and supremely expert military force. Rome had produced, particularly under Julius Caesar, a system of governmental administration that stabilized the government for hundreds of years after the time of Julius Caesar. Rome knew how to deal with conquered peoples. Rome imposed a peace upon the world, and it took no foolishness from anybody who threatened that peace in any way. The Pax Romana was supreme. It would seem the glory of Rome could never fade. It was a frightful thing.

As Daniel tells us about this empire, he presents this as something very frightful that nobody could resist. In Daniel 2:40, he says, this fourth kingdom "shall be strong as iron, for as much as iron breaks in pieces and subdues all things, and as iron that breaks all these, shall it break in pieces and bruise." When the Romans moved into a territory, they immediately removed anybody who was a threat to their control or their authority, and millions of people that they conquered were sent into slavery. That's why the Roman Empire had such a fantastic number of slaves throughout the area of its control.

The final state in destruction of this empire, for it does come to a point of being destroyed, is predicted in Daniel 2:42. Daniel says, "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. And whereas you saw iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of man: but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay." There comes a time when the Empire begins to break up, and it can't hold itself together. "And in the days of these kings (that is, these ten toe kings), shall the God of Heaven set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed."

Now that tells us that when the fifth kingdom, the millennial kingdom of Jesus Christ is going to come about. It will come after the Roman Empire has come to its final stage where it is now in the form of a confederacy of ten nations represented by these ten toes and confirmed by many other Scriptures. It is when it is in that ten-nation Confederacy stage that Jesus Christ returns.

Therefore, as you look upon the territory of the Mediterranean area of the day, and the nations that compose the Mediterranean area, and you see these nations that were once part of the Roman Empire joining themselves together into a confederacy, you are seeing the preview of the creation of this revived state of the Roman Empire. That's what's going to happen. While the Roman Empire came in the 15th century to a place where, in all practical effects, it no longer existed, it will come to a place where it again will exist and where it will again assume its worldwide control.

Daniel 2:44 says, "In the days of these kings shall the God of Heaven set up a kingdom which will never be destroyed, and the kingdom shall not be left to other people. But it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever. Forasmuch as you saw that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands (a supernatural devastation) and that it broke in pieces the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold (of the image that Daniel saw), the great God has made known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter (the King of Babylon): and the dream is certain, and the interpretation of it is sure."

There has never been this kind of a union of nations on the territory of the old Roman Empire. Daniel 7:7-8 speak again of that fourth empire. Daniel says, "After this I saw in the night visions, and behold a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly; and it had great iron teeth: it devoured and broke in pieces, and stamped the residue with its feet: and it was diverse from all the beasts that were before it; and it had ten horns. I considered the horns, and, behold, there came up among them another little horn, before which there were three of the first horns plucked up by the roots; and, behold, in this horn were eyes like the eyes of man, and a mouth speaking great things."

There has been no historical conquest of the Roman Empire in this form. But the time came when this empire did decline, never having arrived at a ten-nation stage, but it did decline. It took four centuries for Rome to rise to a place of world domination, and that has not fully ended yet. In 364 A.D., the Roman Empire split into an eastern and western section as was represented by the two legs of Daniel's image. The non-Roman people who are beyond the boundaries, beyond the Danube, and beyond the Rhine River, were referred to as barbarians.

The barbarians gradually began encroaching upon the territory of the Roman Empire. The invasions came in the 5th century A.D. even from North Africa. In time, the western part fell first, and under Mohammedan attack, the Eastern Roman Empire fell. Persia, Syria, Palestine, Egypt, North Africa, and Spain one-by-one were absorbed by the followers of Muhammad. The Turks in turn conquered the Mohammedans, and they extended their control over still greater areas of the old Roman Empire. Finally in 1453 A.D., Constantinople, the capital of the Eastern Empire, fell. On that day, the Roman Empire officially came to an end. Moslem worship was installed, and the Rome of old ceased to exist in all practical effects. World War I freed Palestine from Turkish rule. Things began moving in Europe in our day which had begun to tend the revival of Rome in its final stage of a ten-nation federation. For 1,500 years then, Rome existed, but it never existed in this union of ten-nations.

1. Ten Nations

   There are going to be ten nations who, on their own, decide to cooperate. These will be ten nations who are facing political and economic stresses, and these ten nations get together and they say, "Why don't we cooperate?" Immediately you can't help but think of the European Economic Market which is doing exactly that. This is a group of nations which has banded together for political and economic advantages. It has created a tremendously strong competitor economically in Western Europe to the United States. The word is regularly coming out of the European Economic Market that it now wants to expand itself to, of all things, 10 nations. And every time this gets on the air and every time this gets in print, Bereans start tearing magazines apart like crazy and putting articles in my box because it is a very exciting development. It was exciting enough that there are seven in there now, but for them to come along and say, "We want to take this nation, this nation, and this nation in order to expand it to ten," it does get a little bit awesome to consider. So that's going to be the first stage--just ten nations getting together.

2. Uniting under One Ruler

   The second stage is their uniting under one supreme ruler. We read here in Daniel 7:8 that there arose, among these ten rulers of these ten nations, a little horn. This little horn plucked up three of the other horns which means he conquered, he defeated, three of the other kings, three of the other nations. When the other seven nations saw that, they concluded that there was no one like this ruler and that no one could stand up to him. So instead of fighting him, they joined him. The result is the second stage of this revived Empire's reach, where now there is one dictator over ten nations, and these ten nations are no longer a confederacy, but they're now united into a single nation--a federation, sort of like the states of the United States--the United States of Europe, with this man in charge.

3. The Dictator

   There is going to be a third stage of the revived Roman Empire, and that takes place in the middle of the tribulation period, the final seven years of the world's history before Jesus Christ returns. In the middle of that tribulation period, conditions will arise on the world scene which will make it possible for this little horn dictator to take over rule of the whole world. He will no longer be the ruler of simply his federation of ten European nations, but he will now be ruler of the whole world. This western Confederacy has to exist before Jesus Christ returns because he's the One who destroys it. So it's going to form up early in that seven-year period. It will undoubtedly begin to form up before the tribulation, but in the first part of the tribulation period, these nations are going to get together. This future dictator is going to rise very rapidly to power and join the ten nations.

You and I may be living in the last generation before the Lord's return. And remember that a generation is 40 years. In 1948, the nation of Israel came into being again after centuries of dispersion. The Lord said that certain things would be realized when this nation was restored; that certain things would then follow; and "this generation" of Jews would see these things come to pass. We saw some of these things in Ezekiel 37 where the vision of the valley of dead dry bones, representing the nation of both the northern and southern kingdoms of Israel, are brought together, sinews and muscles and blood put into the body, and the whole thing brought to life. This is probably what took place in 1948.

Then in a generation, all of these things that are to take place upon the world scene in its final days, we've been told, are to come to pass. That means that we could be dealing with perhaps 1988. And we're just thinking out loud, so don't go running home telling your folks that we told you when the end of the world is going to be. We're dealing here with 1988. So, we're in 1971, and we have maybe 17 years. If we are that last generation, who's going to run around following a 17-year-old teenager as a world ruler? Obviously, this man has to come on the scene early enough to have some maturity. We've got some 17-year-olds around here. Who's going to run around and follow one of these guys to doomsday?

This man obviously has to be on the scene. If this is our anchor point, 1948, when Israel came a nation, and that's Ezekiel's picture that that was fulfilled, and we've got a generation to go, then we're down close to the end of the line. That means that this man is already on the scene and he is rising, no doubt. He certainly is active in political circles, and he is no doubt rising to some degree of prestige within the political world. When he shows up, he's going to make an impressive mark, and before long, he's running the whole show.

The nature of this dictator who will be running this western confederacy is described as one of great blasphemy. Daniel 7:25: "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 hands until a time and times and the dividing of time." Now here's an expression again in Scripture, "time and times (plural) and the dividing of time" which is an Old Testament way of referring to a period of time that keeps recurring here in the prophetic Scriptures, a period of three-and-a-half years.

So what the Word of God is saying is that the rapture takes place, and the saints (the Christians) are taken to heaven. Then begins a period of seven years of tribulation. Then comes the Millennium when the Lord returns with the church from heaven. The seven-year tribulation is divided into three-and-a-half and three-and-a-half-years. This latter part is called the Great Tribulation. This dictator comes to world power in the middle of the seven-year tribulation. Then, the Scriptures say, he has three-and-a-half years (time, times and a half-time). Then he is brought to judgment.

So this man is destroyed at the second coming of Jesus Christ. Daniel 7:26: "But the judgment shall sit, and they shall take away his dominion, to consume and to destroy it unto the end. And the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him." The Lord Jesus Christ returns and He takes over.

Where is this Roman Dictator going to come from? What is his racial background? Well we may make a deduction concerning what his background is going to be, racially. Daniel 9:26 says, "And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off." Daniel was given a vision, and he was told that God had 490 that He intended for dealing with the people of Israel. 490 years, and then his dealings with the people of Israel would be at an end. 483 years in history passed. The chronological scholars have very accurately put this together, and figured this out for us, and found that these 483 years came to the point of the death of Christ on the cross--to the week. The result is that this is the time in which the Messiah was cut off. "Threescore and two weeks"--these are weeks of years. 483 years, and Jesus Christ was cut off.

Well, when that happened, God discontinued his dealings with the Jewish people as a nation. Since the death of Christ, God has no longer been dealing with the Jews as a nation. Now he deals with Jews like he deals with gentiles, just as human beings. They all must be saved by personal faith in Jesus Christ, and enter the church body. 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 sanctuary." Notice that expression, "the people of the prince that shall come." The prince that shall come here is the world dictator, the antichrist. The people that shall come are going to destroy the city and the sanctuary of Jerusalem, and the temple. This was done by the Roman general Titus in 70 A.D.

The Antichrist

The Jews will be in the tribulation. They have reconstructed the temple, during this three-and-a-half year period, and perhaps preceding the rapture. They have now re-instituted all of their sacrifices and their offerings. They are now under a security pact with this dictator who has risen from these Western nations. The Jew finally thinks that he has come to peace. However, they come to the middle of the tribulation period and something big takes place. That something is the attack by the northern confederacy that we looked at last time--the northern confederacy, in association with the confederacy of the south--their attack upon Israel.

The Roman Dictator has a treaty with them to protect them, but he doesn't have to use it. As Ezekiel 38-39 indicate, Russia and her allies of the north and the south are destroyed supernaturally by God on the field of battle. He never had to come to grips with them. Immediately, overnight, the whole political picture has changed. He's been sitting there as a very dominant personality around the Mediterranean Sea. He has conquered three of the kings, and the other seven have thrown in with him, so he's got a nation of ten kingdoms put together. He has made a security pact with Israel. They're going along enjoying life under his protection. Then, suddenly, Russia is no longer in the picture. Suddenly, the life has been beaten out of Egypt, the Arab nations, and her African allies. All of the communist world under Russian control is crushed.

What do you think the antichrist is going to do? He's going to make a worldwide proclamation at this point that declares that he is now the supreme political authority of all the world. That's when the Roman Empire comes to this third stage, and he becomes the world ruler. In the process of doing that, he double-crosses the Jewish people and the covenant that he has made with them. He moves into Jerusalem and he sets up his own image. He says, "This is now your God. Start worshiping it at the threat of your life." His false prophet moves in, and as always, supports him, and creates certain miraculous experiences.

Satanic Healing

Here are parents that are desperately doing anything. So we had to talk a little about the faith rest technique. We had to reminder her a little bit as to what the future could be, if indeed it is in the providence of God that this child's life should ebb about. I told her that she needs to remind this mother where this baby is going. This child is going straight to heaven. The mother is a Christian. The friend told me this morning that the mother and her husband prayed over this, and they committed this child in faith rest to the Lord, that His hand would deal with him, and they are going to accept it. They are considerably at peace about it now.

This child could grow up. Could you imagine the devastation that could come into a life with a child who is under such extreme mental and physical retardation? The burdens and the agony and the problems that could be created because we get pushy with God, and insist that we must have something, instead of resting by faith and letting Him solve the problem in His good judgment.

The demonic world of the healers produces healing. I didn't tell this lady that that isn't ever the case, because demons can make you sick. When you get these healings, it is the demonic world which is performing for you. There are thousands of Christians who are totally incapacitated and ineffective in the Lord's work because they're caught up in the healing racket and in the tongues movement.

This man is going to be very very impressive. His demonic power will seem to give life to the image of the antichrist, and people will be impressed by the miracles like they are today. People will make the same mistake they're making in Dallas today, in thinking they're seeing God working, and not realizing that they're seeing Satan putting on some of his best performances for them.

The security pact will be broken, and the Jew will come into the time of his great tribulation. The dictator takes control of the whole world. His other world organizations are out of the way--the confederacy of the north and the confederacy of the South--and he moves in. Revelation 13:7-8: "And it was given unto him to make war with the saints and to overcome them. And power was given unto him over all kindreds and tongues and nations." When in history has there been a ruler of the Roman Empire who controlled the whole world? He controlled the known world of the Mediterranean area. When in modern times has there been a ruler who controlled the whole world? Never. But this man, this Roman ruler, will control the whole world.

The United States

The explanation of how this comes about is that the northern confederacy and the southern confederacy are out. It indicates that this leader will rule from the middle of the Tribulation. But the power of this dictator begins to deteriorate during the last three years. The result is that when we get to the end, we discover that he is faced with the final World War. This is the war that is triggered by nations rebelling against his rule. This is the series of campaigns of the campaign of Armageddon. This is where the nations are gathered on the plain of Megiddo in order to do battle with one another when Jesus Christ returns. The Bible says that the weapons are so frightful that if Jesus Christ didn't return, there wouldn't be any humanity left on the earth. So He returns, and they turn to do battle with Him, with the result that they are destroyed.

This dictator is associated with one other element so that we have the picture about this western confederacy. We're going to have to deal with them a little more, and tie them into how they are related to this world scene. But he is associated with the World Church. This dictator, in the first part of the tribulation period, joins forces with the apostate church of Christendom. The Bible pictures this, in Revelation 17, as a harlot woman who is riding this political ruler, which means that she controls him. As you read through Revelation 17, you'll discover that this church has in it the elements of the Old Babylonian religious system originated by Nimrod and Semiramis, the mother and cult worship which was absorbed into the Roman Catholic Church, and which is so prominent in it today.

In the middle of the tribulation period, when Russia and the nations of the south are out of the way, this leader doesn't need the world church anymore. So he turns against this church and destroys it with the help of this false prophet, and instead sets himself up as the God in the Jews' temple to be worshipped. This is the cult then of the beast. Revelation 17:16: "The ten horns which you saw upon the beast, these shall hate the harlot (the false church), and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh and burn her with fire. For God has put in their hearts to fulfill his will and to agree, and give their kingdom unto the beast until the words of God shall be fulfilled."

What we see again in our day is that religious groups are joining together. The liberal world is fanatic for the idea of an ecumenical joining together of all religious groups. They're pursuing this with a vengeance. Well what are they doing? They're laying the ground for the false church that the dictator of the revived Roman Empire will himself dominate. The antichrist set himself up. He rejects, Daniel says, all the gods of his fathers. He totally rejects what he's always been associated with.

The question arises time as to whether this man is a Jew. Daniel 11:37: "Neither shall he regard the gods of his fathers nor the desire of women, nor regard any God, for he shall magnify himself above all. In the Bible, when the Jews speak about God, their name for God is Jehovah. That is the name which is uniquely related to the Jews. But there is another name for God which is Elohim, which is actually a plurality. This is the word which is used here in Daniel. It is the Elohim of his fathers which means, and it can be translated as, gods.

Some people have said, "Well, the God of his fathers must be the God of Israel, and therefore this man has to be a Jew." That's not true. If it had said the god of Jehovah, "the Jehovah of his fathers," then we would have had confirmation that it is the Jewish people. But we have the Elohim of his fathers. That means true or false gods can be called this. It is whatever gods he may have worshipped, he rejects. And the desire of women is a reference to the desire of women to be the mother of the Messiah. Well, he rejects the Messiah of the Jews, and he rejects all the false gods. The God that he does worship in Daniel 11:38 is a military God: "But in his estate shall he honor the God of fortresses: And a God whom his fathers knew not shall he honor with gold, and silver, and precious stones, and pleasant things." So this man honors military power.

So here's the picture of a western confederacy. As you watch today's trends and today's news, this is what you should be observing. The world is moving so that in the western nations there is going to be a revival of Rome in its ten-nation (ten-toes) state. These nations are going to join together for one reason or another. Out of them will arise a strong man who will take over the whole group and form them into one nation. He will then become the dominant personality of the Mediterranean. After the confederacy of the northern king under Russia and the southern king under Egypt are destroyed, he becomes the world ruler. Then he who has been the friend of Jews moves in upon the Jews and takes over their temple and sets himself up as the God that they are to worship.

He is a blasphemous, arrogant, foul-mouthed, big-talking personality who has no respect for anything that has ever been in the past, and who indeed acts as the God who is in control of all that has ever been. He just takes over all of humanity and all of society, and begins forming it as per the directions of Satan who controls him. It is this man who is probably on the world scene today, rising to political power, who will be the instrument to bring the final devastating judgments upon the Jewish people as they have returned to their land. All of their temple worship and sacrifice is set up, and they seemingly have finally come to that point of peace, only suddenly, in the middle of the Tribulation, to come to the worst persecution the Jews have ever faced.

So whatever comes out of Europe that shapes up towards this end is the signal of the nearness of the Lord's return.

Dr. John E. Danish, 1971

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