The Location of the Antichrist's Empire (Part 4)

And then there were five. In this series of articles, we’ve been “graphing” the location of the Antichrist’s empire. We have created three lists of modern nations that could be his chief headquarters — the neighbors of Israel, the nations north of Israel and the nations of the former Assyrian empire. When these lists were compared there were five modern nations left — Lebanon, Syria, Turkey, Iraq and Iran.

The suspense of finding the location out of the five was crushed in the first article which looked at Rev. 17:9-11 that pinpoints the final empire to be a revival of the Ottoman Empire headquartered in modern-day Turkey. But it’s important to see if the rest of the evidence points to that conclusion.

We’ve already looked at Ezekiel 38, which said the Antichrist would come from the far north; but in that same chapter, God gives the prophet a list of the nations that make up the empire of the Antichrist and his chief headquarters. The list is found in Ezek. 38:1-6: “The word of the Lord came to me: “Son of man, set your face against Gog, of the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshek and Tubal; prophesy against him and say: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: I am against you, Gog, chief prince of Meshek and Tubal. I will turn you around, put hooks in your jaws and bring you out with your whole army — your horses, your horsemen fully armed, and a great horde with large and small shields, all of them brandishing their swords. Persia, Cush and Put will be with them, all with shields and helmets, also Gomer with all its troops, and Beth Togarmah from the far north with all its troops — the many nations with you” (NIV).

This is a loaded passage, and there is debate on when this battle takes place. Many popular prophecy teachers teach that this is a war that happens early in the final seven years. Their conclusions aren’t based on biblical evidence, but rather are to shoehorn other views about the end times. I’m convinced this passage is about Armageddon. The oldest manuscripts of Numbers 24 tell Gog is the one who has the final showdown with the Messiah. There are also direct quotes from this chapter in Revelation 19 which tells about Armageddon. The description in Ezekiel 38 and 39 also parallels other prophecies of Armageddon.

This invasion and the ensuing battle is Armageddon.

Gog is the Antichrist. He is a ruler from Magog — modern-day Turkey. He is the chief prince of Meshek and Tubal — modern-day Turkey.

He is joined in the battle against Israel, and ultimately God by troops from Gomer and Beth Togarmah — which are also best understood to be modern-day Turkey. He is also joined by Persia (modern-day Iran), Cush (modern-day Sudan), Put (modern-day Libya) and other unlisted nations.

And then there was one.

Ezekiel pinpointed the Antichrist’s empire to be led from modern-day Turkey. This is one of the five from our “graphing,” as well as the location given in Revelation 17. 

If Revelation 17 is truly speaking of the Antichrist’s empire being the former Ottoman Empire, we should look at the nations of that former empire. This empire was ruled from Turkey and made up of the modern nations of Turkey, Syria, Iraq, Iran, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Lebanon, Israel, Jordan, Egypt, Sudan, Eritrea, Somalia, Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, Greece, Albania, Macedonia, Bulgaria, Kosovo, Montenegro, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Slovenia, Romania, Moldova, Hungary and part of Ukraine.

The empire was huge. Following World War I, the empire was dissolved and divided up into those nations listed. Notice all the nations listed in Ezekiel 38 are in this list of the nations from the former Ottoman Empire. Interestingly, Ezek. 38:13 lists three other nations or regions: “Sheba and Dedan and the merchants of Tarshish and all her villages will say to you, ‘Have you come to plunder? Have you gathered your hordes to loot, to carry off silver and gold, to take away livestock and goods and to seize much plunder?’”

Sheba and Dedan are typically considered to be nations on the Arabian Peninsula. Tarshish refers to western Europe. I’ve seen it connected to Spain and even Great Britain. It’s also fascinating that it speaks of the young villages of Tarshish. It’s possible these would be the colonies of the western European nations. Within this passage, these nations are, in a sense, looking on.

We’ve worked through several passages identifying the location of the Antichrist, all of which send us to the same location — modern-day Turkey.

There’s still one more passage to consider from Daniel. It not only points to the location of the Antichrist, but may detail the empire’s rise.

Jake is available for revivals and preaching learn more at standfirmministries.com.