TURKEY In Prophecy

What does the Bible say about Turkey and Islam? Did the Bible predict the fall of Constantinople? How do we calculate the 391 years? Why did Moslem Turkey attack the Eastern Byzantine Empire?

This article is written from the historicist interpretation of prophecy.

John wrote "And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God, Saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, Loose the four angels who are bound in the great river, Euphrates" (Rev. 9:13-14).

Astronomically there are FOUR bright STARS in the Eridanus (Euphrates) River. Historically, the next scourge of Christendom, the TURKS or second woe, arose in the east 130 years after the first woe of the Arabs. Revelation 9:12 occupies this interval. Both were MOSLEM. The TURKS were to "slay" what the Arabs only "torment." "The Turkish invasion was a scourge far heavier than that of the Saracens. While the latter when bent on permanent conquest offered the tribute as alternative to the 'koran or the sword,' the Seljouks were mere savages who slew for the pleasure of slaying" (Oman, "Art of War" p.222). The TURKS were the "little horn" of Daniel 8. The home of the original TURKISH people was in the delta of the River EUPHRATES -- hence the use of the EUPHRATES symbolism. The river symbolically "OVERFLOWED its banks" as the Seljuk (1062 to 1299 A.D.) then Othman dynasties (Ottomans became independent in 1299 A.D.) expanded. (Later, in Rev. 16:12, as the Turkish Empire decays, we read that "The River Euphrates DRIED UP."). There were FOUR SULTANATES of Turks bordering on the EUPHRATES corresponding to the "FOUR ANGELS" and "FOUR HORNS" of the altar. They were Baghdad, Damascus, Aleppo and Iconium. There were also FOUR great WAVES of Turkish hordes poured into the provinces of the eastern GREEK third of the Roman Empire, spread over a period of nearly FOUR HUNDRED years. (Esau had "FOUR hundred men" -- Gen.33:1. Turks controlled Jerusalem for 400 years: 1517-1917 -- cp. Gen. 15:13). According to the Historian's History of the World, "The mystic number FOUR is taken as the base of the governmental hierarchy in honour of the FOUR angels which carry the Koran, and the FOUR Caliphs, disciples of Mohammed." They are associated with names famous in history -- Togrul Beg, Alp Arslan, Tamerlane, Bajazet, and so on, the leaders of the Ottomans or Turcomans. They are sent to punish the "FOUR heads," "FOUR wings" (Dan. 7:6) and "FOUR notable HORNS" (Daniel 8:8,22) of Alexander's GREEK Empire now in Roman form. The FOUR archangels celebrated in Islam are Munkar, Nakir, Harut and Marut who are all allegedly under the control of Iblis or Shaitan (alias the Devil). The FOUR successive waves of Turks that devastated eastern Europe were Togrul Beg's Seljuks, Genghis Khan's Tartars, Timour's Moguls and lastly the Ottomans. The FOUR successive capitals were Sogut, Bursa, Edirne, and Istanbul. The prince commissioned by the Caliph to attack the GREEK Empire was named Togrul, but dying, his son, Alp Arslan, led the Turks across the Euphrates, and when he was slain in battle, he was succeeded by Malek Shah. Gibbon says, "Malek Shah's empire was divided up into FOUR principalities under his FOUR sons" Persia, Kerman or India, Syria and Roum or Asia Minor" (vol. 5 p.532). FOUR BRASS HORNS of the altar (Rev. 9) correspond to FOUR HORNS of the shaggy goat (Dan. 8) and the belly and thighs of BRASS (Dan.2).

"And the four angels were loosed, who were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, to slay the third part of men" (Rev. 9:15).

The span of the truce granted to Richard "the Lion-Hearted" by Saladin (1187 A.D.) was for "three hours, three days, three weeks, three months, three years" all added together (Elliott 1:528-530). Notice that "HOUR," "DAY," "MONTH," and "YEAR" are FOUR words concerning time. Why FOUR? Togrul Beg was invited by the Caliph of Baghdad to quell a rebellion by his subjects. When he completed this task, Togrul was declared Lieutenant of the Caliph and invested with the title of Protector and Governor of the Moslem Empire. He went to war against the Eastern Byzantine Empire, defeating their army and slaying an estimated 100,000 Greeks. He and his successors conquered Armenia, Asia Minor, Arabia Felix, Jerusalem and the neighborhood of Constantinople. The Crusaders then intervened to recover the Holy Land; and their attempts lasted from 1097 A.D. to 1291 A.D. when they were driven from Palestine. Then the Turks crossed into Europe conquering more and more of the remaining "third" -- Bulgaria (1389), Salonica (1430), Serbia (1438) and Greece (1446). By 1453 practically the whole Eastern Roman Empire had fallen to the Turks except its capital, Constantinople, which fell 29th of May.

The beginning of the Turkish power was when Togrul Beg, their first military leader, married the daughter of the Caliph of Baghdad on April 27th 1062 A.D. (the head of the Arab-Moslem religion), and became the head of the Mohammedan faith. He died the same year and was succeeded by Alp Arslan, the "valiant lion" who, setting out from Baghdad, "passed the Euphrates at the head of the Turkish cavalry" (Decline and Fall, Gibbon ch. 57, p.12) in 1062 A.D. and waged a holy war against Greek Christendom which by this time had once again become idolatrous because the Empress Irene convened the Second Council of Nicea which declared idols lawful and by the Ninth Century idolatry reigned supreme in both east and west. Finally the Turkish mission of destruction was completed in the capture of Constantinople in May 29, 1453 A.D. and the Greek or Byzantine "THIRD" of the Roman Empire passed to the Turks under the Sixth Trumpet. This THIRD was killed politically and religiously if not physically. The city named for the first Christian emperor was now in the hands of Islam and its Cathedral of St. Sophia, the center of Eastern Orthodoxy, was turned into a Moslem mosque. The Goths already had the western THIRD under the first Four Trumpets and the Arabs the southern THIRD under the Fifth Trumpet. From 1062 A.D. to 1453 A.D. is the FIRST instance of 391 years, which agrees with the prophetic period mentioned in verse 15: An hour, day, month and year using the day-for-a-year principle represents one month, one year, thirty years and 360 years. Total is 391 years and one month.

A SECOND method of figuring the time interval is even more precise than the previous method. There are two Greek words for "year." The first is "kairos" meaning 360 days and the second is "eniatos" meaning 365 days 5 hours 49 minutes. John used the second. Nowhere else in scripture is "eniatos" used. Therefore an "hour" calculates out to 30 days since there are "twelve hours in a day" (365/12 = 30.4). The "day" is one year. The "month" is 30 years. The "year" is 365 years 91 days. The total is 396 years, 121 days. From 18th of January 1057 A.D. (given by Abulfeda as the 10th of Dzoulcaad) when Togrul Beg left Baghdad at the head of a Moslem Turkish force on a career of conquest to the 29th of May, 1453 A.D. (from Gibbon's Decline and Fall 7:199 or Langer's Encyc. of World History p.327) when Constantinople fell is 396 years, 130 days. This is 9 days over. If the prophecy had said "two hours," May 29th would be 21 days under.

A THIRD way to figure the 391-year interval is from 1453 A.D. to 1844 A.D., which is the 1260th lunar year of the Hegira or flight of Mohammed (Dan. 12:7; 622 + 1260 = 1844), when Britain and other Christian European nations forced the Sultan to sign the Decree of Toleration which abolished the death penalty for conversion from Islam to Christianity or any other religion. Also 1290 lunar years from 622 A.D. is 1873. From that date on she began to decline until by 1917 (622 + 1335 = 1917) on the 1335th lunar year, Turkey was driven from Jerusalem and Palestine by Great Britain's General Allenby. "And I will lay my vengeance upon Edom by the hand of my people Israel" (Ez. 25:14). Then in 1948, Zionist Jews challenged Britain's right to Palestine. "The house of Israel ... are they unto whom the inhabitants of Jerusalem have said, Get you far from the Eternal; unto us is this land given in possession" (Ez. 11:15).

To digress, in 1299, the Turkoman power was revived under Ortogrul, father of Othman (whence the term Ottoman), who united together the four sultanates of Turks bordering on the Euphrates -- at Baghdad founded in 1058; at Damascus and Aleppo in 1079; and at Iconium in 1080 -- aptly prefigured in the four angels bound in the Euphrates. "On the 27th of July, 1299, Othman first invaded the territory of Nicomedia" (Gibbon ch. 64). Ortogrul had previously obtained the FIRST Ottoman Turk VICTORY over Christians by capturing the city of Kutani in 1281. The Ottoman Turks obtained their LAST VICTORY by taking the Cameniec territory from the Poles in 1672, this conquest marking the limits of their territorial expansion which never extended beyond the original boundaries of the Byzantine Empire The 391 years between 1281 A.D. and 1672 A.D. is yet a FOURTH way to figure the interval. Actually there are FOUR SETS of 391-year and 396-year periods grouped under four Turkish capitols.

Twenty-seven years later the "drying up" of the Ottoman Empire (Rev. 16:12) began in earnest in 1699, by the Treaty of Carlowitz, following the wars with Austria and Russia, and it has never ceased to recede till finally extinguished on March 6th, 1924, 666 years (the number of a man representing a dynasty -- Rev. 14:18) from the birth of its founder, Othman, in 1258. The office of Sultan-Caliph was abolished by Mustafa Kemal (Ataturk) on March 1924. This is confirmed in Daniel 12:11, being 1290 solar years from 634 A.D., when Omar (the "desolator"), who set up the "abomination" here referred to, succeeded to the Caliphate.

The 391 years (Rev. 9:15) happens to be the most accurate soli-lunar cycle under 1000. Furthermore, the number 391 is the most accurate ECLIPSE cycle (embracing a whole number of years) in existence. In fact, it is the ONLY solar year, lunar year, ECLIPSE year cycle in existence. For instance, 391 solar years = 403 lunar years = 412 ECLIPSE years. The ECLIPSE year is simply the time occupied by the sun in passing from one of the nodes of the moon's orbit to the same node again. How appropriate that an "ECLIPSE cycle" should be used to describe the duration of Islam that DARKENS the SUN (Rev. 9:2-3). The new moons and ECLIPSES -- in every year there are, at least, two SOLAR ECLIPSES-- must occur on the same days of the year every 391 years. (see Soli-Lunar Cycles In Greek Research and Jewish Revelation by Walter S. Ridgway, UBC, 1946).

"And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand: and I heard the number of them. And thus I saw the horses in the vision, and them that sat on them, having breastplates of fire, and of jacinth, and brimstone: and the heads of the horses were as the heads of lions; and out of their mouths issued fire and smoke and brimstone" (Rev. 9:16-17).

Astronomically, the head of a lion is held by Orion. An army of 200 million stars. Historically Togrul's successor was Alp Arslan whose name means the "valiant lion." Other Turkish leaders had similar names. Alp Arslan's successor was named "Kilidge Arslan" which means the "Noble Lion." "The Turks compare their king to the lion and other kings to little dogs" (Gibbon 7:72). Revelation 9:16 mentions "two hundred thousand thousand" cavalry or "twice ten thousand times ten thousand" (Revised Version) or "two myriads of myriads." The number of horsemen used by the Turks, not all at once, but over the course of 1062 to 1453 A.D. may have been this high. A myriad is 10,000. Turks were in the habit of reckoning their forces by "myriads" or groups of 10,000 men which they termed "tomans." Gibbon often speaks of the "myriads" of horse (ch. 57). In the original Greek text, it says "two myriads of myriads" and not "two hundred thousand thousand." If each myriad symbolizes an army (e.g. as in Xenophen's "Descent of the 10,000"), then the phrase means "two armies of armies" and the main Turkish groups responsible for the fall of the eastern Roman Empire were Seljuks and Ottomans -- two armies. "Breastplates of fire (RED), and of jacinth (BLUE) and brimstone (YELLOW)" because these were the MILITARY COLORS of the Turkish Cavalry from their beginning to the Nineteenth century. Daubuz remarks that Ottomans wore SCARLET, BLUE and YELLOW from their first appearance. The lion-head was then, and is now, a notable ensign among the Turks. Gibbon mentions, "the MYRIADS of the Turkish horse overspreading the GREEK frontier" and "both men and horses, proudly compute by MILLIONS" (7:287, p.351).

"By these three was the third part of men killed, by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths. For their power is in their mouth, and in their tails: for their tails were like unto serpents, and had heads, and with them they do hurt" (Rev. 9:18-19).

The Turks defeated the Romans by using "Brimstone" or sulfur which is the basis of GUN POWDER (saltpetre, sulfur and charcoal) at a time when it had been recently invented. Gibbon mentions "fire of their (Turkish) MUSKETRY and CANNON" (Decline and Fall vol. 6, ch. 68, p.388). The Turks were the first to use cannons. Sultan Mohammed hired a Greek Christian engineer to cast cannons in a foundry to batter down the wall of Constantinople. Men were "killed, by the fire ... smoke and brimstone, which issued out of their mouths. For their power is in their mouth, and in their tails; for their tails were like serpents, and had heads, and with them they do hurt" (Rev. 9:18-19). Cannons of the fifteenth century were called "basilisks" -- a name given to a fabulous serpent, the breath ("fire and brimstone") -- and even the look -- of which the ancients considered fatal. CANNONS pulled by horses are long and thin and round, so look like SERPENTS. When pulled they become TAILS; when swung around and fired the artillery becomes the "HEADS of LIONS" (Rev. 9:17) or ROARING GUNS, because the horse is now behind. Also Turks discharged their FIREARMS on horseback and to an observer it would appear as if the fire issued out of the horse's mouths. For similar scriptural symbolism see Hab. 1:8; Joel 2:4-8; Isa. 5:21-30.The Sultan Mahomet possessed 67 cannons.

"And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils, and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood: which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk: Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts" (Rev. 9:20-21).

Those who "worship demons and idols" (Rev. 9:20) were Roman Catholics and Greek Orthodox. Pagans worshipped through visible images, thereby compelling the actual spirit to be present. Mary-worship and saint-worship has followed the same principle. Proponents claim they do not actually worship the image. But the second commandment plainly forbids even the bodily act or posture, whatever be the intention behind it. Using Mary and the saints as mediators between God and men contradicts 1 Timothy 2:5 mentioning the "one mediator ... Jesus Christ." "Murders" (Rev. 9:21) refer to Paulicians (679), Albigenses (1208-1218, 1229) of France, Waldenses (1237) in the Alps, Hussites and Moravians in Germany (1413) and the Lollards of England (1413) who were all regarded as "heretics" and killed. Rome has never repented of thesemurders, and would kill "heretics" today if she had the power. "Sorceries" (Rev. 9:21) refer to pretended miracles and revelations such as Transubstantiation and visions. "Fornication" (Rev. 9:21) was caused by enforced celibacy, auricular confession, monasteries and nunneries. "Thefts" (Rev. 9:21) refer to the sale of indulgences for release from an imaginary purgatory, masses for the dead and otherwise extracting money from the dying, paying for religious offices and fictitious relics instead of trusting in the fully-paid pardon of Christ's sacrifice. Just as the Egyptian plagues didn't cause Egypt to repent but instead Pharaoh's heart was hardened; so also the trumpet plagues didn't cause the Roman Empire to repent but instead the Pope's heart was hardened. There was no repentance till the Reformation. Actually, "There would have been no Protestantism had there been no Turk." (Kenneth Oster "Islam Reconsidered" p.72). "In the 16th and 17th centuries support and encouragement for Protestants and Calvinists ... were one of the fundamental principles of Ottoman policy" (Halil Inalcik, "The Heyday and Decline of the Ottoman Empire" in "History of Islam" pp. 325-329).

"Power ... in their (horse's) TAILS" (9:19) may also refer to the official badge of the Sultans and Pashas which was HORSE-TAILS attached to crescents. The Sultan had seven HORSE-TAILS borne before him, the Pashas (governors) had one, two or three HORSE-TAILS according to their rank. They were responsible for all the oppression, injustice, cruelty and harsh taxation in the Ottoman Empire. How did this ensign originate? In their early days, the Turkish tribes carried the ensign representing the horse-like tail of a yak. "A general of theirs, not knowing how to rally his troops, they having lost their ensigns, cut off a horse's tail, and fixed it on the end of a spear: the soldiers rallying at this signal, gained the victory" (Tournefort's Travels). These standards became known as Tughs

.

Why did God permit Moslems to defeat Christians? Because these "Christians" taught Transubstantiation and the sacrifice of the Mass, which deny the finished Atonement of Christ. That is why the voice that loosed the evil came from "the four horns of the golden altar" (9:13). The golden altar was the altar of incense in the Jewish Temple. On the Day of Atonement its four horns were anointed with the blood of a lamb without spot or blemish: "He shall put the blood upon the horns of the altar round about" (Ex. 30:10; Lev. 16:18). The blood signified the finished atonement of our Lord Jesus the Messiah. But this was polluted when a monk named Paschasius Radbertus in the middle of the tenth century proclaimed Transubstantiation -- that the bread and wine were changed to the body and blood of Jesus at Communion by the priest's words. The doctrine was accepted by Pope Hildebrand and by 1022 A.D. twelve Protestant martyrs of Orleans were publicly burned at the stake for refusing to believe it. Devotion to saints and the "Virgin Mary" also polluted Christ's atonement. During the tenth century the invention of the Rosary came into use, a chain of beads that count recited prayers (vain repetitions) at a ratio of ten prayers to Mary for every one offered to God.

In Revelation 16:12 the "FALSE PROPHET" is MOHAMMED. The Turks and the Papacy joined forces in World War One in the 6th Vial cup. According to many interpreters, the three frogs are the DRAGON (Satan in guise of Roman Empire), the BEAST (Roman Catholic Western Europe) and the FALSE PROPHET (Moslem Mohammedan Eastern Europe). Mohammed is called by his followers "the Great Prophet." Mohammed (Dan. 8) and the Pope (Dan. 7) are the two horns of Antichrist (Rev. 13) and the two legs of the Daniel 2 image from 610 A.D. onwards. Neither of these two horns regard the "desire of women" since Mohammed takes all wives but has none (no pretence of chastity or marriage -- men allowed to have four wives) and the Pope takes no wife but has all wives (celibacy). Both little horns deny Jesus is the Messiah (1 John 2:18-22). The Papacy by Transubstantiation and Moslems by saying that Jesus is not God incarnate. There is no Son of God in Islam. Both horns sit in the temple of God claiming to be God (2 Thess. 2:4). The Pope sits in the Vatican blaspheming while Caliphs and Sultans of Islam blaspheme in Mosques that are often merely converted churches. Saint Sophia is perhaps the best example of a church turned into a mosque. Also the Dome of the Rock sits on Temple Mount.The Turkish ruler had the title: "Emperor of Powerful Emperors; Refuge of Sovereigns; Distributor of Crowns to the Kings of the Earth; Keeper of the Two Very Holy Cities; Governor of the Holy City of Jerusalem; Master of Europe, Asia and Africa; High King of the Two Seas; The Shadow of God Upon Earth."

"And the sixth angel poured out his vial (cup) upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared" (Rev. 16:12).

Astronomically, the kings east of the Eridanus (Euphrates) are Cepheus and Coma. Historically, the Sixth Trumpet or Second Woe (Rev. 9:13-21) was the rise and growth of the Turkish empire beginning in 1062 A.D. when the Turks crossed the Euphrates symbolized by conquering horsemen from the Euphrates Valley, as if the river itself had overflowed its banks and flooded Asia Minor and S.E. Europe. This sixth vial (cup) now reverses that process by the destruction and "drying up" of the Turkish Empire and Islam. Muslim Turkish armies continued to enlarge their empire until the decisive sea battle of Lepanto in 1571. In 1683 the Turkish army was defeated at the unsuccessful siege of Vienna and the final end of Turkish aggression westward was marked by the Treaty of Passarowitz in 1718 which removed the Turks from Hungary. In 1826 the Sultan massacred the flower of his army -- the Janizaries -- because of their complaining, dictatorial attitude. The Janissaries were the children of slaughtered Christian parents, brought up to renounce their faith and to work for the advance of Islam. Bureaucrats replaced them leading to internal decay. In 1829 Greece obtained independence from Turkish rule with help from both Britain and Russia. In 1844 Great Britain compelled Turkey to grant religious rights to minorities. The Crimean War (1853-1856) resulted in Moldavia and Wallachia becoming independent. The Turkish Empire was now known as the "sick man of Europe." In the Russo-Turkish War of 1878, England took Cyprus, Russia claimed parts of Asia, Greece took Thessaly, France grasped Algiers and Tunis, and Austria annexed Bosnia and Herzegovina. Serbia, Montenegro, Romania and part of Bulgaria were made independent. Just four years later in 1882, Egypt became a British Protectorate and in 1896 the followers of the Islamic prophet, the Mahdi, were defeated by Kitchener and the Sudan came under British control. Both had been Turkish provinces. In 1911 Italy declared war on the Turks and by the peace treaty of October 1912 modern Libya and some of the Aegean Islands passed into Italian control. Then the Balkan War of 1912-1913 resulted in an independent Albania and caused Turkey to shrink almost out of Europe with the spoils divided by Greece, Serbia and Bulgaria. In 1914-1918, British Imperial troops completed the drying-up process by driving the Turks out of Egypt, Palestine, Syria and Mesopotamia which included the actual valley of the Euphrates itself. On December 11th, 1917 Jerusalem was liberated by British General Allenby. "The mighty men of Edom shall be as the heart of a woman in her pangs" (Jer. 49:22). "I will lay my vengeance upon Edom by the hand of my people Israel" (Ez. 25:14). These Turkish losses were formalized at the Treaty of Sevres (August 10, 1920). In November 1922 the Sultan of Turkey abdicated and fled his empire. In October 1923, Mustapha Kemal became president of the Turkish Republic. On March 6, 1924, the expulsion of the whole House of Ottoman occurred and the Turkish Caliphate was abolished. By constitutional amendment in 1928, Turkey ceased to have a state religion. Modern Turkey, a small republic in Asia Minor, possesses only the source of the Euphrates.

This cleared the way for certain "kings of the east" to move across and then destroy "Babylonian" civilization under the final seventh vial (cup). Ancient Babylon fell when the Medo-Persian "kings of the east," Cyrus and Darius, diverted the Euphrates River from its course "by a canal into the basin ... a marsh" (Her. 1:191). As Jeremiah 50:38 says, "They must be dried up." Then Cyrus entered underneath Babylon's walls along its dried-up river-bed and conquered the city. In the anti-type, the way has been prepared for the advance of modern "kings of the east," Soviet Russia (the Medes) into Papal Europe (Babylon) to destroy its civilization (Jer. 50--51). October 1917 Communism appeared in Russia just after Turkey receded from eastern Europe. We await their full invasion. Perhaps the United States will be defeated by cheap labor costs in China drying up our lifeblood economy of debt and usury.

Who are the Turks? Ezekiel 35 and 36 tell us that those who have trodden down Palestine and Jerusalem are "Edom" or Esau. We know that the Turks are the ones who for centuries have trodden down Jerusalem and Palestine.

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