The Location of the Antichrist’s Empire – Part 4

And then there was 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 that are 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 Revelation 17:9-11 which pinpoints the final empire to be a revival of Ottoman Empire which was headquartered in modern day Turkey, but it’s important to see if the rest of the evidence points to that conclusion.

A loaded passage

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 al list of the nations that make up the empire of the Antichrist and his chief headquarters. The list is found in Ezekiel 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. – Ezekiel 38:1-6

This is a loaded passage. 

First off 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. There’re many reasons. One is that in the oldest manuscripts Numbers 24 tells 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 prophesies of Armageddon.

This invasion and battle are Armageddon. Gog is the Antichrist. He is a ruler from Magog—modern-day Turkey. Gog is the chief prince of Meshek and Tubal—modern-day Turkey. He is joined in the battle against Israel by troops from Gomer and Beth Togarmah—which also are 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. One of the five from our “graphing,” as well as the location given in Revelation 17.

If Revelation 17 is speaking of the Antichrist’s empire being the former Ottoman Empire, then we should look at the nations of that former empire. This empire was ruled from Turkey and made up of 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, Ezekiel 38:13 lists three other nations or regions,

Sheba and Dedan and the merchants of Tarshish and all her villages[e] 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…” – Ezekiel 38:13

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 from the western European nations. Within this passage, these nations are in a sense looking on.

The Location of the Antichrist’s Empire

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 doesn’t only point to the location of the Antichrist but may detail the empire’s rise.

This article first appeared in Jake’s syndicated column Stand Firm & Live Epic as published in The Baptist Trumpet and other publications. After three months the articles are adapted and published here. To read the articles at release subscribe here.

Jake McCandless

Executive Director of Stand Firm and lead pastor of Epic Church NWA in Springdale, AR and multiple award-winning author, Jake has a B.A. in Bible and Pastoral Studies from Central Baptist College, and an Advanced Masters of Divinity from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. Former regular contributor to the Baptist Press and WND News with popular conservative voices such as Pat Buchanan, Ann Coulter, Ben Carson, Chuck Norris, Greg Laurie, Ben Schapiro, Joel Richardson, and others. He now is a weekly contributor for Israel, Islam, and the End Times and Armageddon News. He has authored books such as the, award-winning Spiritual Prepper from WND Books. Award-winning devotional books, Invincibleand For Uncertain Times, he authored the ground-breaking children’s book, Jesus and His White Horse from CrossLink Publishing. He is also a regular guest on national and international radio and streaming web shows, along with hosting his weekly live streaming program Talking Stand Firm and weekly podcast Stand Firm Parents.