Is the Formation of Assyria Near?

Last updated on: May 3, 2016 at 11:42 pm by Kermit Zarley

Is the Formation of Assyria Near? 2016-05-03T23:42:34-07:00 Kermit Zarley

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Iraq is barely functioning as a state. It’s parliament began and was soon canceled this week due to political upheaval. There have been large demonstrations in the streets of Bagdad, Iraq’s capital. The radical jihadist organization ISIS had militarily taken over much of northern Iraq two years ago. Iraq is still trying to rebuild its previous oil-producing infrastructure that was destroyed in Iraq wars.

U.S. Vice President Joseph Biden showed up Thursday to try to calm the political tensions in Bagdad. Interestingly, he had written an essay in 2006 calling for the partition of Iraq into three divisions. That was after the U.S. had invaded Iraq in 2003 and by 2006, the U.S. Bush administration thought Iraq was on its way to being a successful state.

But Iraq’s Prime Minister Maliki was a Shiite Muslim, and he and his administration were ill-treating Sunni Muslims. Previous Iraqi President Saddam Hussein had been a Sunni Muslim, at least in name, and had ill-treated Shiites. So, Maliki and his colleagues were returning the treatment.

Another reason Biden wrote that essay was that Iraq and its borders had been created by the Allied powers that won WWI. They created states out of the collapsed Ottoman Empire that encompassed all of the Middle East and had joined the Axis powers in the war. But the borders the Allied powers decided for Iraq at the peace conference were quite artificial since they did not account for the strong ethnic and religious differences in this region. That is the main reason Iraq is barely functioning now as a state.

I have blogged before about this political turmoil in Iraq and have brought to attention biblical prophecies that claim the ancient nation of Assyria will exist during the endtimes. The center of ancient Assyria was mostly present northern Iraq. Its capital was the great city Nineveh. That is where Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city, and one ISIS took over, was located. One of my favorite verses in the Bible about this development. Isaiah the Prophet is the one who prophesied it.

One of the code words/expressions in Bible prophecy about the eschaton (Gr. “last things”) is “on that day.” It refers to the day when God will rise up from his throne in heaven and come down to confront the dire situation humanity will have gotten itself into at the end of this present age. That day will issue forth in a great war called the “battle on the great day of God the Almighty” (Rev 16.14). It has improperly been called “Armageddon” (v. 16). When this war is finished, there will be peace on earth. Old foes, such as Assyria, Egypt, and Israel, will thereafter be good neighbors to each other.

Thus, Isaiah declares of that time, “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 [=Yahweh] of hosts has blessed, saying, ‘Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel my heritage” (Isaiah 1924-25).

So, Egypt and Israel exist today, but Assyria does not. (Present Syria is not ancient Assyria.) In order for Isaiah to be right, Assyria must also exist in the endtimes prior to “that day,” that is, the end of the age. Will this present turmoil in Iraq result in the reestablishment of ancient Assyria?

Several other biblical prophecies foretell about Assyria existing during the endtimes. Those most prominent include Isaiah 10.5, 14.25, and Micah 5.5-7. These also indicate that the king of Assyria at that time will be the Antichrist. But that is a subject for another time.

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