WHO IS THE
ANTICHRIST?
PART 2
by Steve
Ashburn
In Part 1 of this
series we saw how Babylon, the capital city of the
Antichrist, most likely would be built in the vicinity
of present-day Mosul, Iraq. This is the same city that
Zephaniah 2 refers to as “Nineveh.”
We also saw how
Iraq (including Mosul) would be completely destroyed in
the Psalm 83 war and subsequent third US-led coalition
invasion, and left without an inhabitant (a
“wilderness”). It is in this “wilderness” that the
Antichrist will build his capital city, according to
Isaiah 23:13.
But there’s more:
we find in Nahum 1 an intriguing prophecy about this
future Nineveh. The context of this chapter is end
times: it begins and ends with the judgments of the
tribulation. Our Scripture text of interest is as
follows:
But with an
overrunning flood he will make an utter end of the place
thereof, and darkness shall pursue his enemies. What do
ye imagine against the LORD? he will make an utter end:
affliction shall not rise up the second time. For while
they be folden together as thorns, and while they are
drunken as drunkards, they shall be devoured as stubble
fully dry. There is one come out of thee, that imagineth
evil against the LORD, a wicked counseller. Thus saith
the LORD: Though they be quiet, and likewise many, yet
thus shall they be cut down, when he shall pass through.
Though I have afflicted thee, I will afflict thee no
more. For now will I break his yoke from off thee, and
will burst thy bonds in sunder.
And the LORD hath
given a commandment concerning thee, that no more of thy
name be sown: out of the house of thy gods will I cut
off the graven image and the molten image: I will make
thy grave; for thou art vile. Behold upon the mountains
the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that
publisheth peace! O Judah, keep thy solemn feasts,
perform thy vows: for the wicked shall no more pass
through thee; he is utterly cut off. (Nahum 1:8-15)
Our Scripture
passage says that God will make “an utter end” of the
site of Nineveh (“the place thereof”) with an
“overrunning flood.” The original Hebrew implies an
actual massive wall of water (ube-sheteph)
passing over (abar), which scrapes the site of
Nineveh clean—which has never happened before!
The exact timeline
here is indicated by: “while they be folden together as
thorns [confident in their strength], and while they are
drunken as drunkards [under the illusion of
invincibility]…” which ties into Jeremiah 51:38-40:
“They shall roar together like lions [overconfident]: they
shall yell as lion's whelps. In their heat I will make
their feasts, and I will make them drunken [illusion of
invincibility], that they may rejoice, and sleep a
perpetual sleep, and not wake, saith the LORD.” This
refers to Iraqis celebrating the Psalm 83 invasion of
Israel which they instigated. Of course, this doesn’t
last long: the next verse says, “I will bring them down
like lambs to the slaughter, like rams with he goats”;
which corresponds with our text passage in Nahum 1:10:
“…they shall be devoured as stubble fully dry.”
This will mark the
end of Iraq—the descendants of the Babylonians and
Assyrians—and they will never bother Israel again
(“affliction shall not rise up the second time”). In
addition, the other nations that participated in this
Psalm 83 invasion also will be destroyed (“and darkness
shall pursue his enemies”). While some commentators
believe this passage refers to the invasion of Judah by
Sennacherib in 701 BC, the context here is end times,
and Israel certainly was “afflicted” after that: in the
Babylonian invasion in 597 BC and in the Diaspora.
But how would
present-day Mosul be inundated with a massive flood? The
answer lies 45 miles upstream: the Mosul Dam.
Construction of
this dam began in 1981 and the reservoir was filled in
1986. It is the fourth-largest dam in the Middle East
and impounds about three cubic miles of water. Built on
a karst foundation (soluble gypsum), the design
engineers initially recommended stabilizing the
foundation by thorough grouting. Instead, construction
was rushed for political reasons, and today, the dam
needs a constant infusion with cement and other
additives to prevent it from collapsing.
A 2006 report by
the US Army Corps of Engineers noted, “In terms of
internal erosion potential of the foundation, Mosul Dam
is the most dangerous dam in the world." The Corps of
Engineers estimated that a collapse of the dam would
send a 360-foot wall of water downstream, which would
reach Mosul in two hours, flooding the city with over 65
feet of water, and killing 500,000 Iraqis (the
population of Mosul is 660,000).
In January 2016,
US General Sean MacFarland warned that the dam might
undergo a "catastrophic" collapse. He added, "What we do
know is this—if this dam were in the United States, we
would have drained the lake behind it." And in February
2016, the US Embassy in Iraq warned of a "serious and
unprecedented" danger of the dam collapsing, and Prime
Minister Haider al-Abadi called for citizens in Mosul to
evacuate and move at least 3.5 miles away from the
river. This includes almost all of present-day Mosul.
A collapse of the
Mosul dam therefore, would obliterate modern-day Mosul
and its population and scrape the site of ancient
Nineveh clean, down to the bedrock. Thus Nahum 1:8 will
be fulfilled: “But with an overrunning flood he will
make an utter end of the place [site] thereof…” If this
occurs at the same time as the Psalm 83 war in the
Middle East, Mosul indeed would be a “wilderness” and
provide an excellent foundation for the Antichrist to
build his capital city on.
Our Scripture
passage then makes an amazing prediction: “There is one
come out of thee [Nineveh], that imagineth evil against
the LORD, a wicked counseller” (verse 11). Now who could
that possibly be?
The context of
this chapter is end times, and the next three verses
describe the forces of this man as afflicting Israel,
but then the Lord delivering them from it: “…Though I
have afflicted thee, I will afflict thee no more. For
now will I break his yoke from off thee, and will burst
thy bonds in sunder” (v. 12-13). Although these forces
are secure in their strength (“quiet”) and powerful
(“likewise many”), the Lord will kill them (“thus shall
they be cut down”) when he does battle against them
(“when he shall pass through”). This, taken in proper
context, is highly suggestive of the battle of
Armageddon.
Then, the Lord
commands this man’s power and influence to be destroyed
forever (“no more of thy name be sown”), his false
religious system destroyed (“I cut off the graven image
and the molten image”), and then this man cast into
everlasting punishment (“I will make thy grave; for thou
art vile”).
In the next verse,
the second coming of Christ is described: “Behold upon
the mountains the feet of him that bringeth good
tidings…” This is accompanied by the declaration that
“the wicked shall no more pass through thee; he is
utterly cut off”— probably referring to the man who was
just destroyed in the preceding verses.
Nahum 2:1-4
continues this end-times passage with an interesting
description of the forces of the Antichrist doing battle
with the Israeli military during the tribulation. During
this time, Israel will be able to attack the Antichrist
with impunity from their bases in Jordan (“the
wilderness”). We’ll cover more about this later on in
this series. The rest of this chapter then describes the
historical overthrow of ancient Nineveh.
Therefore, the
“wicked counseller” in Nahum 1:11 who comes out of
Nineveh (present-day Mosul) most likely is the
Antichrist. This makes sense if he wants to build his
capital there, because what better place to build an
international city—which will become the center of world
commerce and trade—than your own home town?
Modern Mosul was
once home to some 70,000 Assyrian Christians and many
churches and monasteries dating back to the sixth
century. However, when ISIS took over the city in 2014,
they drove almost all of them out, who then fled for
refuge to several European countries and to the United
States. This most likely included the Antichrist’s
family, since the end times are very near. Therefore,
he’s probably living abroad now and likely is in school.
The biblical
account suggests that he will become successful in
business, and therefore be selected to oversee
construction of an international city near present-day
Mosul, for the purpose of distribution of spoils of war
to coalition members. This implies a background in
business, finance, engineering or science.
Daniel 8 also
describes the Antichrist as a “little horn,” meaning in
context that he will be descended from one of Alexander
the Great’s four generals who divided his empire amongst
themselves after his death. Since the Antichrist also
will be an Assyrian, the general of interest would be
Seleucus, who took Syria and Babylonia after Alexander’s
death in 323 BC. Daniel 8:9 also describes the little
horn “which waxed exceeding great, toward the south, and
toward the east, and toward the pleasant land.” This
makes sense if the Antichrist is an Assyrian, because
establishing a capital in northern Iraq would allow him
to extend his influence south (toward the oilfields in
southern Iraq), east (toward Iran), and west (toward
Israel).
Daniel 11:37 adds
that he shall not “regard the God of his fathers.” This
indicates that the Antichrist will come from a Christian
family. Since the end times probably are no more than
twenty years away at the time of this writing, the
Antichrist likely already has been born into a Christian
family in Mosul. It may be possible to identify him by
obtaining birth records for all males born to Christian
families in this area in the past twenty years;
translating their names into Greek; and then adding up
the number of their names according to the numerical
value assigned to each Greek letter. Probably one of
those names will add up to 666—that’s him, the
Antichrist. On the other hand, many of Iraq’s 1.5
million Christians are underground, so it might not be
that easy. In any case, the Antichrist quickly will rise
to prominence after the beginning of the end times,
allowing him to be identified by his background and
name.
We’ll discuss more
about the Antichrist in Part 3 of this series, including
his establishment of a world financial center, his
support for industry, and his personal characteristics
as an alcoholic and restless philanderer. So watch out
for Part 3!
I provide more
details of this and many other end-times prophecies in
my recently published book, END TIME DAWNING:
Get Ready! (available from
www.endtimesrecord.com). Please read it! Also if you
would, please “like” my Facebook page at
www.facebook.com/endtimesrecord!
Yours in Christ,
Steve Ashburn