Persia In Prophecy - July 2009.PDF

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Iran Spooks the World

Persia in ProphecyBy Gary Stearman

If you mention Persia in the context ofbiblical prophecy, probably the first refer-ence that will come to mind is the latter-day invasion of Israel by a huge armedforce headed by "Gog, the land of Ma-

yg." The Prophet Eze-kiel graphically describesthis formation of a grandalliance with latter-dayRussia, with Persia at thetop of the list. Until 1935,Persia retained its ancientname. After that, it be-

came known as Iran, from a term in theirlanguage, meaning "land of the Aryans."Later, we shall see the prophetic impor-tance of this term.

Persia occupies an important centralposition in the Eurasian continent, andhas large reserves of oil and gas. In themid-twentieth century, it began to figurestrongly in the big-picture plans of West-ern financiers. As it grew in power, a polit-ical revolution followed, which led to theformation of the Islamic Republic of Iranon April 1s1, 1979.

From that time forward, it has increas-ingly forged military, political and eco-nomic alliances with Russia. SignificantlyRussia feeds Islamic nations weapons,technology and money, in return for powerand influence on their southern flank. Rus-sia's long-term strategy has its eyes on thePersian Gulf and the Mediterranean Sea.

Anyone with the slightest interest inBible prophecy observes the antics of Mah-moud Ahmadinejad (Iran's President at thiswriting) in the same way that they wouldwatch the sizzling fuse on a stick of dyna-mite. Volatile in the extreme, he now boastsnuclear capability and the means to deliverit all the way to Israel, the tiny country thathe has repeatedly sworn to annihilate.

Bible students who approach Scripturefrom the dispensational point of viewsee this development as perhaps the finalstep in the long escalation toward anotherworld war. The Bible asserts that this warwill come as Persia, along with Russia anda host of other nations, invades Israel, re-sulting in the Tribulation judgments thatlead to Christ's Second Coming.

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The territory of Ancient Persia reached east to India and west to Greece.

The classic Jewish view of this war de-scribes it as having three phases: The firstis marked by the invasion of Israel by aRussian-Persian confederation that in-cludes parts of Turkey, North Africa andEastern Europe. Remarkably, Egypt andthe Arab States are excluded from the alli-ance. Second, this localized war escalatesinto an international global nuclear holo-caust. Third, the invading armies are ut-terly destroyed, leaving Israel victorious,and burdened with the seven-year task ofweapons disposal.

It follows that at this point, the globalpolitical stability of the world has beenreduced to absolute chaos. The conditionsthat prevail at this point are described inRevelation, after the "Four Horsemen ofthe Apocalypse" ride forth on their ghastlymission, bringing millions of casualties,famine, pestilence and economic collapse.

At the same time, the antichrist begins aspectacular rise to power, presenting him-self as the one who can save humanity fromthis hour of great crisis. Dispensationalistsview this rapid-fire series of events as oneof history's great turning points. It is thecentral factor ... the tipping point ... inthe transition from the Church Age to theKingdom Age.

Over the years, there has been muchdiscussion about the relationship betweenthe Russian invasion and the Tribulation.We hold the view that the invasion takesplace prior to the seven-year Tribulation,which according to Daniel, is initiated bythe signing of a seven-year covenant be-tween Israel and the antichrist.

This would mean that his infamous sig-nature will be scrawled on the momentousdocument in the presence of the elders ofIsrael, even as the smoke of the great inva-sion still hangs in the air. Though the warhas ended, these will be perilous times,marked by economic pandemonium, fam-ine, disease and earthquakes. He will bold-ly promise to lead Israel and the world intoa new and prosperous age.

At that time, Gog and his invading forcewill have been miraculously wiped out,leaving Israel to rebuild, clean up aban-doned enemy war materiel and bury thedead. They will certainly regard their vic-tory as a miracle from God. Unfortunately,they will not have the spiritual discern-ment to recognize that the "messiah" intheir midst is not the Promised One.

Apparently, it is at this time that theybuild their Temple ... the so-called "Tribu-lation Temple," from which the antichrist,



posing as the true Messiah, sets forth torule the world. They will receive him astheir long-awaited king. Referring to thisman, Jesus said:

"/ am come in my Father s name, and yereceive me not: if another shall come in hisown name, him ye willreceive" (Jn. 5:43).

Persia, The HookThe Bible indicates that this series of

events that bring Israel to this sorry statewill be precipitated by biblical Persia - to-day's Iran. Significantly, at the end of May,President Ahmadinejad declared that hiscountry had over 7,000 nuclear centrifug-es in operation, producing weapons-gradeplutonium at a rate sufficient to begin pro-duction on nuclear warheads. At the sametime, he taunted the U.S. and its allies. Hechallenged American moral authority, as-serting that the Holocaust is a Western fic-tion, and saying that, "... the Holocaust isthe Achilles' heel of the West and its mainweakness."

On May 28, Dudi Cohen of YediotAha-ronot news service wrote, "Responding tocomments made by his opponents in an up-coming nationwide election, Ahmadinejadtold a radio station that 'the West has cre-ated a situation of false pity for itself andis using it to oppress other nations.'

"He added, 'We attacked the issue ofthe Holocaust and even they didn't believesuch a thing occurred, because we attackedtheir main weak point.'"

Ahmadinejad and other radical Islamicleaders believe that the World War TwoHolocaust that led to the subsequent flightof Jews back to Israel was a concoction ofthe Western governments and their media.Their international standing is challenged.Support of the Jews is regarded as illegiti-mate. In the world of Islam, this positionis not considered out of line. Yet, given thevideo, audio and written testimony that theHolocaust actually happened, such decla-rations border on the insane.

As we shall see, modern Persia hasmuch more influence than is generally rec-ognized. This fact is reflected in the open- jing words of Ezekiel's prophecy, wherePersia assumes a dominant position:

"And the word of the LORD came untome, saying,

"Son of man, set thy face against Gog, theland of Magog, the chief prince ofMeshechand Tubal, and prophesy against him,

"And say, Thus saith the Lord GOD;Behold I am against thee, O Gog, the chiefprince ofMeshech and Tubal:

"And I will turn thee back, and put hooksinto thy jaws, and 1 will bring thee forth,and all thine army, horses and horsemen,

all of them clothed with all sorts of armour,even a great company with bucklers andshields, all of them handling swords:

"Persia, Ethiopia, and Libya with them:all of them with shield and helmet" (Ezek.38:1-5).

Here, Gog, the Russian leader, is pic-tured as a great beast, bridled and literallydragged into the arena of conflict. No mat-ter how many thousands of words havebeen written about precisely what bringsthe Russians into the Middle East, the factremains that they will be unwilling partici-pants. They will not come voluntarily intothe fray.

The Lord depicts Gog as a brute beast,jerked around by the jaw into the MiddleEast and drawn into the midst of the con-flict.

Russia and Iran now continue in a mu-tual defense pact of many years. Further-more, the Russian construction of Iran'sBushehr nuclear reactor is well document-ed. Moscow has a powerful vested inter-est in Iran. Therefore, if its lunatic leaderfires a missile in misguided anger, Russiais obliged to enter the area to preserve itsown investment in the politics of the re-gion. And they will do so.

A "between the lines" reading of theprophecy above reveals that somehow,Russia is initially pulled into the MiddleEast by a conflict already out of control.This would certainly be the case if Iranlaunched a missile, perhaps provokinga retaliatory strike by Israel. If Israel ap-peared to be in control of the situation, thiswould be particularly undesirable from theRussian point of view.

In verse 4 of the prophecy above, Eze-kiel says, in effect, that Persia will launchan invasion that inexorably involves moreand more Russian commitment. This sug-gestion is subtle, to be sure, but can bedocumented by both historical and con-temporary events.

Traditionally, Russia has operated co-vertly, enjoying the art of manipulation bydoling out arms and military support in theregion, whether to Iran, Syria, Jordan orEgypt. In the fulfillment of Ezekiel's proph-ecy, they will be drawn into open conflict.And it will lead to their abject defeat.

It is probable that Persia will act as thehook in Gog's jaw.

To the North, and To the EastAs we shall see, modern Iran is geopo-

litically well placed to act as the initiatorof the prophesied latter-day war. But bib-lical Persia covers far more territory thanmodern-day Iran, which is really only thecentral portion of the ancient nation. In its

heyday, Persia was enormous ... the larg-est empire of the ancient world.

In the 5* century, B.C., its kings weresovereign over the territory that wouldcover today's Iran, Iraq, Armenia, Paki-stan and Afghanistan. In addition to itsnatural home ground, it also captured ter-ritories to the west and southwest. It as-similated parts of what would be today'sTurkey, Greece, Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Is-rael, Lebanon, the Caucasus region, Libya,and northern Arabia!

During the days of Daniel's captivity,from about 650 to 536 B.C., Persia alsoincluded Babylon, which served for a timeas its capital, after being moved there fromPersepolis.

From 485-465 B.C., Xerxes I ruled Per-sia. His Hebrew name, "Ahasuerus," isfound in the book of Esther as the name ofthe monarch who selected her as his favor-ite. Hers is the story of God's providence,as she became queen, and exposed thewicked plot of the power-mad schemer,Haman.

During his reign, Xerxes sufferedcatastrophic losses in battles against theGreeks. His treasury was exhausted andPersia began a territorial decline in power,which expanded again just before the riseand fall of Alexander the Great, who diedin 323 B.C., after conquering the territoryof Persia all the way to the Indus River.

It is certainly fair to say that from thebiblical perspective, greater Persia ex-tended from the Indus River at its eastern-most, to the Aegean Sea on the west. Onthe south, it was bounded by the PersianGulf and the Arabian Sea, and the desertsof Arabia.

Put in modern terms,'the territory of an-cient Persia corresponds to Iran, Afghani-stan and Pakistan. Remarkably, these arethe very countries that now seek to enterthe world of nuclear force, having the abil-ity to aim long-range missiles with atomicwarheads. Pakistan has held nuclear sta-tus for years, and now the followers ofAl Quaeda threaten to take over its gov-ernment. Should this happen, Afghani-stan would quickly become a hideout fornuclear weapons, effectively spreading theability to project nuclear power from vir-tually the entire region of ancient Persia.

Of course, with Russian help, Iran isnow able to launch nuclear-tipped ballis-tic missiles. In short, old Persia has risenagain.

Concerning Gog, it has often been saidthat if one extends a line due north out ofJerusalem, it will pass just west of Mos-cow on its way to the North Pole. Twice,Ezekiel uses an expression that indicates

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the "far recesses of the north:""And thou shah come from thy place out

of the north parts, thou, and many peoplewith thee, all of them riding upon horses, agreat company, and a mighty army:

"And I will turn thee back, and leave butthe sixth part of thee, and will cause theeto come up from the north parts, and willbring thee upon the mountains of Israel"(Ezek. 38:1 & 39:2).

Clearly, the invasion will gain its maxi-mum force when Russia is pulled into thetheater of battle.

But having noted this, it is also interest-ing to extend another line from Jerusalem.This time, a line projected directly to theeast from Jerusalem runs through Lahore,the second largest city in Pakistan, andcapital of the northern province of Pun-jab. That line also runs through Iran andAfghanistan. It is a line of force that cutsall the way from Jerusalem through the en-tirety of old Persia to the Indus River.

The two lines, one to the north and theother to the east, create a quadrant of thecompass that encloses the collective forcethat is now focused upon Israel.

Persia - A Spiritual ForceTo the north and east of Jerusalem, there

is a gathering storm. For four thousandyears, it has been a territory dominated byevil politics and wicked men. For manyreasons, perhaps most of them unknownto mankind, the earthly dynasties of Per-sia have constituted the bastion of forceshostile to Israel.

But Persia also bore witness of God'sgrace. Over the centuries, He used its rul-ers to bless Israel, in the same way thatAhasuerus was used. Though the Lorddisciplined His covenant people, He neverabandoned them, nor will He. One of thegreat testimonies of this fact is found inthe opening words of the Book of Ezra:

"Now in the first year of Cyrus king ofPersia, that the word of the LORD by themouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, theLORD stirred up the spirit of Cyrus kingof Persia, that he made a proclamationthroughout all his kingdom, and put it alsoin writing, saying,

"Thus saith Cyrus king of Persia, TheLORD God of heaven hath given me allthe kingdoms of the earth; and he hathcharged me to build him an house at Jeru-salem, which is in Judah.

"Who is there among you of all his peo-ple? his God be with him, and let him go upto Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and buildthe house of the LORD God of Israel, (heis the God,) which is in Jerusalem.

"And whosoever remaineth in anyplace

where he sojourneth, let the men of hisplace help him with silver, and with gold,and with goods, and with beasts, besidethe freewill offering for the house of Godthat is in Jerusalem " (Ezra 1:1-4).

Cyrus, King of Persia, moved by theLord's Spirit, decreed in 536 B.C. that theTemple of Israel be rebuilt, following itsdestruction by the forces of Nebuchadnez-zar in 586 B.C. Over a century earlier, theprophet Isaiah had written in precise termsthat Cyrus would act as the Lord's agent inthe difficult accomplishment of restoringthe ruins of Jerusalem. This great ruler'sactions constitute one of history's greatdemonstrations of God's sovereignty:

"That saith of Cyrus, He is my shep-herd, and shall perform all my pleasure:even saying to Jerusalem, Thou shall bebuilt; and to the temple, Thy foundationshall be laid.

"Thus saith the LORD to his anointed,to Cyrus, whose right hand I have holden,to subdue nations before him; and I willloose the loins of kings, to open before himthe two leaved gates; and the gates shallnot be shut" (Is. 44:28 & 45:1).

In the book of Daniel, written in the 6th

century, B.C., we find the dynasties of Per-sia prominently mentioned in the contextof a prophecy that reaches into the far fu-ture, even beyond our own contemporarymoment in history.

"In the third year of Cyrus king ofPersia a thing was revealed unto Daniel,whose name was called Belteshazzar; andthe thing was true, but the time appointedwas long: and he understood the thing,and had understanding of the vision.

"In those days I Daniel was mourningthree full weeks.

"I ate no pleasant bread, neither cameflesh nor wine in my mouth, neither did Ianoint myself at all, till three whole weekswere fulfilled.

"And in the four and twentieth day ofthe first month, as I was by the side of thegreat river, which is Hiddekel;

"Then I lifted up mine eyes, and looked,and behold a certain man clothed in linen,whose loins were girded with fine gold ofUphaz:

"His body also was like the beryl, andhis face as the appearance of lightning,and his eyes as lamps of fire, and his armsand his feet like in colour to polishedbrass, and the voice of his words like thevoice of a multitude " (Dan. 10:1-6).

The third year of Cyrus' reign wouldhave fallen in the year 533 B.C., just afterhis decree to restore the Jerusalem Tem-ple. At this time, Daniel received an as-tonishing vision that chronicled the ruling

dynasties that would take mankind to theend of the times of the Gentiles, and theestablishment of Christ's Kingdom.

Concerning those Gentile world powers,it appears that each of them is backed by asort of angelic oversight. As Paul wrote inthe New Testament, the world of the Gen-tiles is overseen by an array of powers inthe heavens: "For we wrestle not againstflesh and blood, but against principalities,against powers, against the rulers of thedarkness of this world, against spiritualwickedness in high places" (Eph. 6:12).

The manner in which Daniel receivedhis vision strongly supports this idea.His opposition was the principality whowatches over Persia:

"And, behold, an hand touched me,which set me upon my knees and upon thepalms of my hands.

"And he said unto me, O Daniel, a mangreatly beloved, understand the words that Ispeak unto thee, and stand upright: for untothee am I now sent. And when he had spo-ken this word unto me, I stood trembling.

Then said he unto me, Fear not, Dan-iel: for from the first day that thou didstset thine heart to understand, and to chas-ten thyself before thy God, thy words wereheard, and 1 am come for thy words.

"But the prince of the kingdom of Per-sia withstood me one and twenty days: but,lo, Michael, one of the chief princes, cameto help me; and I remained there with thekings of Persia.

"Now I am come to make thee under-stand what shall befall thy people in thelatter days: for yet the vision is for manydays" (Dan.' 10:10-14).

Here, we have the spectacle of Persia'sdark supernatural power standing in op-position to the Lord! (Of course, from ourperspective this is nothing unbelievable,since Jesus later allowed Himself to betested by Satan, before entering into hispublic ministry.)

Many, including us, hold the view thatit was the pre-incarnate Christ who cameto give Daniel his vision. This being thecase, it is astounding that He was resistedfor a twenty-one day period, as measuredby earth time. One well-known commen-tary says the following:

"This heavenly form has thus, it is true,the shining white talar common to the an-gel, Ezek. 9:2, but all the other features, ashere described — the shining of his body,the brightness of his countenance, hiseyes like a lamp of fire, arms and feet likeglistering brass, the sound of his speak-ing - all these point to the revelation ofthemn1 7133 [kvod Jehovah}, the gloriousappearance of the Lord, and teach us that



the B"N [ish, "man"] seen by Daniel wasno common angel-prince, but a manifesta-tion of Jehovah, i.e. the Logos." (Keil &ZtettzscA, Vol. 9, p. 410)

Still, we have here, a remarkable reflec-tion of the protocols of heaven. The dy-nasties of this world have rulers, and theirregimes are apparently considered inviola-ble. The Lord, Himself, recognizes them!He was detained until Michael somehowcame to his aid, no doubt, acting as therepresentative of national Israel.

The important thing to see here is thatthe ages of the Gentiles are placed intothe hands of powerful hierarchies underthe rule of Satan. Each of them is appar-ently given the oversight of a succeedingera in the march of Gentile powers. Thisperception is validated by the Lord's part-ing words. He left Daniel, stating His in-tention to do battle with Persia's rulingauthority. After that, He says, the positionof heavenly ruler would shift from Persiato Greece:

"Then said he, Knowest thoit whereforeI come unto thee? and now will I return tofight with the prince of Persia: and whenI am gone forth, lo, the prince of Greciashall come.

"But I will shew thee that which is notedin the scripture of truth: and there is nonethat holdeth with me in these things, butMichael your prince" (Dan. 10:20, 21).

Here, the Lord not only tells Daniel thatthere is about to be a shift in power, butthat no one is fighting alongside Him butMichael, the archangel guardian of Israel.This gives us deeper perspective of thebattle that has raged in the heavens sinceSatan's fall.

This proclamation concludes the tenthchapter of Daniel. Immediately follow-ing, in the eleventh chapter, we have thewords of the prophecy received by Daniel.It documents the shift in power from Per-sia to Greece:

"Also I in the first year of Darius theMede, even I, stood lo confirm and tostrengthen him.

"And now will I shew thee the truth. Be-hold, there shall stand up yet three kings inPersia; and the fourth shall be far richerthan they all: and by his strength throughhis riches he shall stir up all against therealm of Grecia.

"And a mighty king shall stand up, thatshall rule with great dominion, and do ac-cording to his will.

"And when he shall stand up, his king-dom shall be broken, and shall be dividedtoward the four winds of heaven; and notto his posterity, nor according to his do-minion which he ruled: for his kingdom

shall be plucked up, even for others besidethose" (Dan. 11:1-4).

In the closing years of Medo-Persianrule, the Lord tells Daniel that followingDarius, there would be three more rulersbefore the shift to a new dynasty. Histori-cally, they are Cambyses, Smerdis, andDarius Hystapses. The fourth is none otherthan Xerxes, the Persian king called Aha-suerus, who chose Esther as his queen.

With his great wealth, and expansive na-ture, Xerxes sought to put down all enemies.His expeditions against the Greeks finallyled to the exhaustion of his treasuries andthe destruction of his kingdom by Alexan-der the Great, who believed that the Persianshad attacked his kingdom without cause.

In the last two verses of the passageabove, the "mighty king, " is Alexander theGreat, who conquered all Persia, whichwas at that time considered to be the en-tire civilized world. Thus, Persia becameGreek territory. Following Alexander'sdeath in 323 B.C., it was divided amonghis four generals, Ptolemy, Seleucus, Cas-sander and Lysimachus. Of these, Seleucusbecame dominant. His dynasty ultimatelyspawned the proto-antichrist, Antiochus,IV, Epiphanes.

The Seleucid dynasty eventually mergedinto the royal houses of the Roman Caesarsaround the time of Christ. In the centuriesthat followed, Greece dwindled in power,followed by Rome. The eastern and west-ern divisions of the institutional churchpresided over the dark ages.

Still, though others gained power there,Persia was still called Persia. Sleepingthrough the centuries, its resident powerspatiently awaited the time of the latter-dayrise to power once again. Today, the ayatol-lahs, the Taliban and the political parties ofthe region sense that their time has come.

The TwelversIn October of 2007, Mahmoud Ah-

madinejad spoke before the United Na-tions General Assembly. In his address, hemade the following statement: "Withoutany doubt, the Promised One, who is theultimate Saviour, wil l come. The pleasingaroma of justice will permeate the wholeworld."

He spoke of the Twelfth Imam, Mo-hammad al-Mahdi, whom Shiite Moslemsbelieve was born in AD 869, but did notdie. Rather, he was hidden by Allah. Somesay that in the year 874, he entered into asecret cave or well, where he lives to thisday, awaiting the appropriate hour to re-turn. When he does, Jesus will follow himas his personal servant. This is the Mahdi,or "Promised One," whom Ahmadinejad

believes is about to appear.In modern Iran, over ninety percent

of the population is Shi'a Moslem. Theyalso constitute a majority in Iraq and arepowerful in Afghanistan, Syria and Leba-non. The leading faction of this group callthemselves "Twelvers," after their beliefthat al-Mahdi was the twelfth of a groupof Imams who lived in the years followingAD 622, the moment of Islam's foundingand the beginning of their calendar.

This Twelfth Imam is known as theImam Mahdi, the one in whom the major-ity of Iranians today place their messianichope. They think of him as the true savior.So passionate is their belief, that many ofthem regarded the late Ayatollah Khomeinias the manifestation of the Twelfth Imam.

Shiites believe that the world's latter-day descent into chaos will cause theTwelfth Imam to return and save the day.Some groups (one in particular, called the"Hojjatieh") believe that it is incumbentupon Muslims to accelerate the world'schaotic condition and in the process, speedthe Imam's return. It has been suggestedby authorities who claim to know the truthof the matter, that Ahmadinejad is a clan-destine member of this group. This wouldgo a long way toward explaining his ob-session with obtaining nuclear weapons.

It has also been reported that somemembers of the Iranian cabinet are Hoj-jatieh members. Certainly, it is true thatIranian cabinet members are required tosign a formal pledge that they believe inthe coming of the Twelfth Imam.

Iranian leaders almost certainly desireto stir up trouble, especially in the name ofeliminating Western influence, which theyregard as Satanic, from the Middle East.This goes double for Israel and the Jews,whom they have pledged to destroy on thebasis that their religious system of moral-ity and ethics requires it.

Once, There Was ElamThe early history of Persia involved a

people called the Elamites. Though theywere descended from Shem, scholarshave classified them as Caucasians. Theyare listed in the Bible as archers whosepowerful forces attacked ancient Israel.They were Persia's original Aryan stock,and may be regarded as the ancestral na-tives of the area. Their bloodline becamethe nucleus of Persia's later and greaterdynasties. From ancient days, until about640 B.C., they were a powerful and civi-lized people who occupied the heart of theregion now called Iran.

At that time, they were defeated, later be-ing forced to pay tribute to the Persian kings

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of the 5lh and 4"' centuries, B.C. Biblicallyspeaking, Elam was known as the enemyof the Jews. In the days of Zedekiah, thelast king of Judah, a prophecy was givento Jeremiah concerning the house of Elam,whose latter-day descendants now think ofthemselves as the Aryans ... Iranians:

"The word of the LORD that came toJeremiah the prophet against Elam in thebeginning of the reign of Zedekiah king ofJudah, saying,

"Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Behold,I will break the bow of Elam, the chief oftheir might.

"And upon Elam will 1 bring the fourwinds from the four quarters of heaven,and will scatter them toward all thosewinds; and there shall be no nation whith-er the outcasts of Elam shall not come.

"For I will cause Elam to be dismayedbefore their enemies, and before them thatseek their life: and I will bring evil uponthem even my fierce anger, saith the LORD;and I will send the sword after them, till Ihave consumed them:

"And I will set my throne in Elam, andwill destroy from thence the king and theprinces, saith the LORD.

"But it shall come to pass in the latterdays, that I will bring again the captivityof Elam, saith the LORD" (Jer. 49:34-39).

Note that this is a latter-day prophecy.The Lord knows who the Elamites are,and that they are an ancient enemy of Is-rael. Those who now inhabit the territoryof ancient Persia are proud of their gene-alogy and their ancient history of power.They feel that their dream of once againrealizing their ancient authority is about tobecome a reality.

But from Scripture, we know that theircurrent pact with the Russians will resultonly in a crashing defeat. In Ezekiel 39, wesee the global view of the aftermath of Eze-kiel's battle, in which Israel cleans up themess. It is what one would see when look-ing down upon the earth. For seven months,the dead are buried. For seven years, theyburn their vanquished enemies' weapons.

However, earlier in his prophecy, Eze-kiel gives us a different perspective of thesame scene. In the 32nd chapter, our viewshifts to a trans-dimensional, "behind-the-scenes," spiritual viewpoint.

In Ezekiel 39, the bones of the dead aregiven a decent burial. In Ezekiel 32, weare shown an x-ray view of hell, and thetrue destination of those whose bodies arebeing buried in the ground. We are nowunderground, looking up:

"There is Elam and all her multituderound about her grave, all of them slain,fallen by the sword, which are gone down

uncircumcised into the nether parts of theearth, which caused their terror in the landof the living; yet have they borne theirshame with them that go down to the pit.

"They have set her a bed in the midst ofthe slain with all her multitude: her gravesare round about him: all of them uncir-cumcised, slain by the sword: though theirterror was caused in the land of the living,yet have they borne their shame with themthat go down to the pit: he is put in themidst of them that be slain.

"There is Meshech, Tubal, and all hermultitude: her graves are round abouthim: all of them uncircumcised, slain bythe sword, though they caused their terrorin the land of the living.

"And they shall not lie with the mightythat are fallen of the uncircumcised, whichare gone down to hell with their weaponsof war: and thev have laid their swords un-der their heads, but their iniquities shall beupon their bones, though they were the ter-ror of the mighty in the land of the living.

"Yea, thou shall be broken in the midstof the uncircumcised, and shall lie withthem that are slain with the sword" (Ezek.32:24-28).

Thus, it may be seen that the Lord'smemory is long, indeed. He remembers thegenealogy of Elam, which may be tracedback to the ancient post-flood world. Lin-guistically, all tongues go back to a single"Indo-European" origin, at times referredto simply as "Aryan." The two terms aresynonymous. Not long ago, another term -Indo-Iranian - was in common use.

Their culture and language spread acrossthe early world. Latin, Greek, Sanskrit,and many European tongues are all Indo-European in origin, having come from the

land of Elam.Some have tried to awaken the power

of the old kingdom, as did Hitler, whenhe summoned up the specter of a mythi-cal Aryanism, which taught that ancientEurasians had invaded India. They weredeemed to be the original superior race, andfit perfectly into Hitler's plan to recreate thesuperior Aryan man in the German Reich,who would go on to rule the world. OneGustaf Kossina (1858-1931) depicted themas a master race, which arose out of Indo-European stock. Supposedly, they were ofstatuesque blue-eyed Nordic heritage.

In fact, the Germans are not descendedfrom the Aryans, nor was their imaginaryIndus valley invasion based upon true his-tory. In truth, Elam is the fountainhead ofa genealogical stock that sprang directlyfrom Shem.

"Unto Shem also, the father of all thechildren of Eber, the brother of Japheththe elder, even to him were children born.

"The children of Shem; Elam, and As-shur, and Arphaxad, and Lud, and Aram"(Gen. 10:21,22).

Hitler was mistaken in his assumptionthat he was the one who would rise todominance on the basis of Aryan power.His occultic teachers were also wrong. Butthe spiritual mentors behind Hitler wereright about one thing.

In the timing of the Lord, the peopleof ancient Persia will rise up to lead theworld into a chain-reaction conflagrationthat will initiate the Great Tribulation.Driven both genealogically and politically,they are marching toward their historicaldestiny. It appears that Persia will be thetrigger of the coming Middle-East catas-trophe. ̂

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Documents

Persia In Prophecy - July 2009.PDF