Will ISIS Become the New Assyria?

Last updated on: September 4, 2015 at 10:56 am by Kermit Zarley

Will ISIS Become the New Assyria? 2015-09-04T10:56:15-07:00 Kermit Zarley

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In my book, Warrior from Heaven (2009), I state that the final Antichrist will be an Assyrian. Then I cite the biblical prophecies which support this. One of the foremost is Isaiah 10.12. Concerning the endtimes, it says in the NRSV, “When the Lord has finished all his work on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem,” referring to the end of his judgment of the nation of Israel, “he will punish the arrogant boasting of the king of Assyria and his haughty pride.” This king boasts saying, “I have gathered all the earth” (v. 14), meaning that he has gathered all the armies of the world against Israel to destroy it, as other prophets predict (e.g., Joel 3.11; Micah 4.11; Zechariah 12.3, 9; 14.2). Israel’s God, Yahweh, says that after this Assyrian king, the Antichrist, has gathered all the nations’ armies to destroy Israel in its land, “I will break the Assyrian in my land, and on my mountains trample him under foot;… This is the plan that is planned concerning the whole earth; and this is the hand that is stretched out over all the nations” (Isaiah 14.25-26). Isaiah then says, “The Assyrian will be terror-stricken at the voice of the LORD, when he strikes with his rod” (Isaiah 30.31).

How will God do this? Isaiah had earlier explained that it would be accomplished by Israel’s Messiah (“anointed One”), saying of him, “A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots” (Isaiah 11.1). Isaiah wrote in the 8th century BC, and “Jesse” refers to the name of King David’s father, meaning that the Messiah will come through the line of David. The New Testament says this was the case with Jesus of Nazareth (Matt. 1.1, 6; Luke 3.31-32).

Isaiah then predicts of Jesus, the son of David, saying, “he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked” (Isa 11.4), referring to the wicked one–the Assyrian Antichrist. The Prophet Micah predicts likewise. He predicts that Israel’s Messiah, “who is to rule in Israel,” will be born in the city of “Bethlehem” (Micah 5.2), which is where Jesus was born (Matt. 2.1; Luke 2.4-7). Then Micah says of him, “he shall stand” and deliver Israel “(W)when the Assyrian invades our land and marches through our fortresses,… He will deliver us from the Assyrian when he invades our land and marches into our borders” (Micah 5.5-6).

The Antichrist will be an Assyrian because Assyria, the superpower of antiquity, will become a nation again. After the Messiah Jesus delivers Israel at the end of the age, Isaiah declares one of my favorite passages in the Bible, “On that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrian will come into Egypt, and the Egyptian into Assyria, and the Egyptians will worship with the Assyrians. On that day Israel will be the third with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth, whom the LORD of hosts has blessed, saying, ‘Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel my heritage'” (Isaiah 19.23-24).

What does all of this have to do with ISIS–Islamic State of Iraq and Syria? This terrorist organization has overtaken much of northern Iraq and northeastern Syria this summer. Their aim is to establish a “caliphate,” an Islamic nation. This territory they now control approximates ancient Assyria before it expanded into an Empire. Could ISIS be establishing the precursor to a renewed Assyria?

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