Chapter 4 The Southern and Northern Kings We will now identify the two kings in Daniel 11 verses 40-45. In the last chapter we briefly reviewed the complete vision of Daniel 11 and found that prophetically the northern and southern kings were identified in the historical record by locating which earthly power controlled the area of either Egypt or Babylon. The power which controlled Egypt was recognized in the prophecy of Daniel 11 as the King of the South, while the power which ruled Babylon was understood to be the King of the North. This rule will allow us to identify those kings throughout Daniel 11. In order to apply this principle to Daniel 11 verses 40-45, we will apply two rules of prophecy which impact the identification of these kings from 1798 onward. Louis F. Weir was an Adventist author who focused many of his writings on the understanding of prophecy. Though now deceased, his books are still available. We will consider these two rules as set forth in one of his literary works. The first rule is called, Worldwide Symbolized by the Local. We read in Louis Weir's book, Bible Principles of Interpretation, page 25, these words. All the prophets employed the principle of the worldwide symbolized by the local. Some examples of its use are as follows, and Louis Weir quotes from Prophets and Kings, page 389. His, Zephaniah's prophecies of impending judgment upon Judah apply with equal force to the judgments that are to fall upon an impenitent world at the time of the second advent of Christ. Then he quotes from The Great Controversy, pages 22 and 36. Christ saw in Jerusalem a symbol of the world, hastening on to meet the retributive judgments of God. The Savior's prophecy concerning the visitation of judgments upon Jerusalem is to have another fulfillment, the doom of a world. Numerous examples could be cited of the use of the local which is employed as a symbol of worldwide occurrences at the end of time. This principle runs throughout the Bible. As stated by Dr. Angus, from the typical character of ancient dispensations arises another peculiarity of prophecy. It not only speaks their language, but it often has a double application. And that is the end of the quote from Louis Weir's book. The second important and closely related prophetic rule which we use in order to identify the kings in Daniel 11 is titled, The Things of Israel Now Belong to the Church. This rule draws the dividing line for determining whether we are to understand the names or places of prophecy as literal or symbolic. We read again in Louis Weir's book, Bible Principles of Interpretation, pages 11 and 12, these words. This principle is positively fundamental to the understanding of the prophecies of Daniel and the Revelation. It is the foundational principle of God's last day message. The Lord gave Paul the special commission of showing how the church became the Israel of God, that the promises to literal Israel were to be fulfilled in the experiences of the church. We read in Romans 9, verse 8, They which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted for the seed. And in Galatians 3, 29 we read, If ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise. And then we read in the Ministry of Healing, page 405, these words, We are numbered with Israel. All the promises of blessing through obedience are for us. And then we read in Testimonies, volume 2, page 109, these words, I was shown that those who are trying to obey God are God's chosen people, his modern Israel. And then Louis Weir continues, The principle that Israel's history is typical or prophetical of the experiences of the church is continually employed in the spirit of prophecy. We will now apply the rule previously cited to identify the kings of Daniel 11. The king of the north was the power which controlled Babylon. The king of the south was determined by the power which controlled Egypt. As 1798 was well after the cross, it is spiritual Egypt and spiritual Babylon that we must seek to identify. We must also identify the kingdoms which controlled them. We will begin with the king of the south. In the Bible, the word south comes from a Hebrew word associated with Egypt. The word means the south. And we read from Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, these words, South, number 5045, from an unused root meaning to be parched. The south from its drought, specifically the Negev or southern district of Judah, occasionally Egypt as south to Palestine, south, country side, side word, end of quote. Revelation 11 verse 8 figuratively identifies France as the great city and calls it spiritually Sodom and Egypt. We read in The Great Controversy, pages 269 to 270, these words. The great city in whose streets the witnesses are slain and where their dead bodies lie is spiritually Egypt. Of all nations presented in Bible history, Egypt most boldly denied the existence of the living God and resisted His commands. No monarch ever ventured upon more open and high-handed rebellion against the authority of heaven than did the king of Egypt. When the message was brought him by Moses in the name of the Lord, Pharaoh proudly answered, Who is Jehovah that I should hearken unto his voice to let Israel go? I know not Jehovah, and moreover, I will not let Israel go. Exodus 5 verse 2. This is atheism and the nation represented by Egypt would give voice to a similar denial of the claims of the living God and would manifest a like spirit of unbelief and defiance. The great city is also compared spiritually to Sodom. The corruption of Sodom in breaking the law of God was especially manifested in licentiousness, and this sin was also to be a preeminent characteristic of the nation that should fulfill the specifications of the scripture. According to the words of the prophet, then, a little before the year 1798, some power of satanic origin and character would rise to make war upon the Bible, and in the land where the testimony of God's two witnesses should thus be silenced, there would be manifest the atheism of the Pharaoh and the licentiousness of Sodom. This prophecy has received a most exact and striking fulfillment in the history of France. During the revolution in 1793, the world for the first time heard an assembly of men born and educated in civilization, and assuming the right to govern one of the finest of the European nations, uplift their united voice to deny the most solemn truth which man's soul receives, and renounce unanimously the belief and worship of a deity. France is the only nation in the world concerning which the authentic record survives, that as a nation she lifted her hand in open rebellion against the author of the universe." The identification of the King of the South in the prophecy of Daniel 11 is determined by which power controls Egypt. In 1798, the nation which is identified in the Bible as possessing the spiritual characteristics of Egypt is France. France was the King of the South in 1798. Daniel 1140 states that at the time of the end, the King of the South would push against the King of the North. The word translated push means to war against. We read in Strong's Exhaustive Concordance these words, push, number 5055, to butt with the horns, figuratively to war against, gore, push down, pushing. Daniel also uses the word push to describe the military conquest of Medo-Persia. We read in Daniel 8 verse 4 these words, I saw the ram pushing westward, and northward, and southward, so that no beast might stand before him, neither was there any that could deliver out of his hand, but he did according to his will, and became great. In Daniel 11 verse 40, the word push signifies a war which starts at the time of the end, 1798. This war would be directed against the King of the North and would be initiated by the King of the South, France. What power controlled the spiritual domain of Babylon in 1798? Just as South is associated with Egypt in the Bible, North is a direction associated with Babylon. We read in Jeremiah 25 verse 9 these words, Behold, I will send and take all the families of the North, saith the Lord, and Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon my servant, and will bring them against this land, and against the inhabitants thereof, and against all these nations round about, and will utterly destroy them, and make them an astonishment, and an hissing, and perpetual desolations. And then we read in Ezekiel chapter 26 in verse 7 these words, For thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I will bring upon Tyrus Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, a king of kings, from the North, with horses, and with chariots, and with horsemen, and companies, and much people. Sister White identifies which power controls the domain of spiritual Babylon. We read in The Great Controversy page 382 these words, The woman, Babylon, of Revelation 17, is described as arrayed in purple and scarlet color, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand, full of abominations and filthiness, and upon her forehead was a name written, Mystery, Babylon the Great, the mother of harlots. Says the prophet, I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. Babylon is further declared to be that great city which reigneth over the kings of the earth. Revelation 17 verses 4, 6, and 18, The power that for so many centuries maintained despotic sway over the monarchs of Christendom is Rome.

End of quote. The harlot of Rome is the power which controls modern or spiritual Babylon, therefore the papacy is the king of the north. When depicting France in Revelation 11 verse 8, John identifies France as the great city. Babylon is also set forth as that great city in Revelation 17 verse 18. A city in prophecy represents a kingdom. We read in the Great Controversy pages 426 to 427 these words. The marriage represents the reception by Christ of his kingdom. The holy city, the new Jerusalem, which is the capital and representative of the kingdom is called the bride, the lamb's wife. Said the angel to John, Come hither, I will show thee the bride, the lamb's wife. He carried me away in the spirit, says the prophet, and showed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God. Revelation 21 verses 9 through 10. He will receive the new Jerusalem, the capital of his kingdom, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. Revelation 21 verse 2. See Daniel 7 verse 14. Having received the kingdom, he will come in his glory as king of kings and lord of lords. End of quote. In 1798, France, portrayed in Daniel 11 verse 40 as the king of the south, began a war against the papacy, portrayed as the king of the north. The papacy received its deadly wound in 1798 when Napoleon, emperor of France, had the pope taken captive. The papacy ceased to be a kingdom at this point in time, for it was stripped of its civil and political powers. The papacy, however, did not cease to be a church at that time. She simply lost her power and authority as a kingdom. The wound she received in 1798 will finally be healed when she regains her former position as the dominant geopolitical kingdom. In the book entitled The Keys of This Blood, Malachi Martin sets forth his belief that there is a three-way race between the papacy, the Soviet Union, and the United States to rule the world. He believed that the papacy would return to the throne of the world by the end of the 20th century. He states that this race is a battle between these three powers to determine who will control the geopolitical structure which will rule the world. He also defines what the papacy lost in 1798. We read in Malachi Martin's book entitled The Keys of This Blood, pages 371, 374, and 375 these words. The term geopolitics is a relatively recent invention. It is composed of two Greek words, meaning earth and political system, which the ancient Greeks never combined. At the close of 2,000 years since Paul expressed the world view of a genuine geo-religion, the 263rd successor to the obscure great fisherman reigns and governs in Rome as the titular head of that geo-religion housed in a genuinely geopolitical structure. For John Paul II is not only the spiritual head of a worldwide corpus of believers, but also the chief executive of a sovereign state that is a recognized member of our late 20th century society of states. With a political goal and structure? Yes, with a geo-political goal and structure. For in the final analysis, John Paul II, as the claimant vicar of Christ, does claim to be the ultimate court of judgment on the society of states as a society. The deadly wound will be healed when the world comes into agreement with Malachi Martin's point of view. Prophecy says it will happen, and the papacy is simply biding her time. We read in The Great Controversy, page 581, these words, And let it be remembered, it is the boast of Rome that she never changes. The principles of Gregory VII and Innocent III are still the principles of the Roman Catholic Church, and, had she but the power, she would put them in practice with as much vigor now as in past centuries. Protestants little know what they are doing when they propose to accept the aid of Rome in the work of Sunday exaltation. While they are bent upon the accomplishment of their purpose, Rome is aiming to re-establish her power, to recover her lost supremacy. Let the principle once be established in the United States that the Church may employ or control the power of the State, that religious observances may be enforced by secular laws, in short, that the authority of Church and State is to dominate the conscience, and the triumph of Rome in this country is assured. Another reason to recognize the King of the North as the Papacy is the Bible rule that later prophecies amplify, expand, and confirm former prophecies. This rule is called Repeat and Enlarge. Louis F. Weir addresses this principle. We read in Louis F. Weir's book entitled, The Certainty of the Angel's Message, pages 110 and 111, these words, God selected the Hebrew nation to proclaim his truth, and they expressed themselves by repetition, the repetition being an enlargement of that which preceded it. The Reverend W. F. Wilkinson, M.A., in his Personal Names in the Bible, page 17, says, According to the genius of Hebrew poetry, when words or phrases of substantially the same import occur in two parallel or antithetical clauses, the variation of the second from the first consists of its being explanatory or expansive or argumentative of the notion which the first contains. The Bible is not only full of enlarging repetitions in individual verses, but it is full of explanatory repetitions in parables, sermons, prophecies, histories, etc. The Bible themes are written upon the crescendo plan. The earlier books lay the foundations for later developments. The details accumulate until, like an artist dipping his brush in different colors, a complete picture is produced. Because of this principle, the vision of Daniel 11 should repeat and enlarge Daniel's previous visions. In the book of Daniel there are four prophecies. Within these four prophecies we find strong evidence that the king of the north is the papacy. This evidence rests squarely on the rule of repeat and enlarge. The first prophecy of Daniel, chapter 2, describes five successive earthly kingdoms followed by the heavenly kingdom, Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, Rome in two phases, as symbolized by the two legs, and then the final kingdom, which is the stone which is cut out of the mountain without hands, which destroys all the other kingdoms and fills the whole earth. The final kingdom is the kingdom of God, which is ushered in at the end of the world. In the next prophecy of Daniel, found in chapter 7, the same successive earthly kingdoms are identified. The prophecy of chapter 7 repeats and enlarges upon the previous information and further develops Rome's two phases by introducing the horn that is placed where the three horns are plucked up. Then in Daniel 8, the third prophecy covers the same history, once again repeating and enlarging, though excluding Babylon from the list as it had passed its time of its power and authority and was only waiting to be removed. In the vision of Daniel 11, Babylon as in chapter 8 is not mentioned, for at the time of the vision it had left the scene of history. The prophecy begins with the Medes and Persians followed by Greece. Would some say that the next kingdom symbolized is not Rome in its two phases? All three of the previous prophecies of Daniel place Rome at the end of the world when she receives her punishment. Two of them refer to her judgment as a supernatural punishment, without hands, and broken without hands. Likewise, the final earthly power in Daniel 11 comes to his end and none shall help him. It would be inconsistent for us to study these four messages and not see them as complementing, building, and agreeing with one another. Babylon is the head of gold, the lion, Medo-Persia is the shoulders of silver, the bear, and the ram, Greece is the thighs of brass, the leopard, the he-goat, and the horse. Rome is the legs of iron, the ten-horned beast, and the little horn, and in harmony with the previous prophecies of Rome, it is also the king of the north of Daniel 11, 40-45. Using the principle of repeat and enlarge, we see Papal Rome as the subject of Daniel's final prophecy. There is yet another way to identify the king of the north as the papacy. Sister White directs our attention to the papacy in connection with the last features plainly revealed in this earth's history. We read in Selected Messages, Book 2, page 102, these words, The scenes connected with the working of the man of sin are the last features plainly revealed in this earth's history. The sequence of events in Daniel 11, 40-45 begins in 1798, but the sequence of events set forth in these verses does not end with verse 45. The scenes portrayed continue on until Daniel 12, verse 4, where Daniel is told to shut up the words and seal the book. Daniel 12, verse 1 is a continuation of the previous verses, for its opening phrase demands that it be included within the previous sequence. And at that time shall Michael stand up. What time? The time just described in the preceding verses. At that time points back to the previous events. That time arrives in the preceding verses and it is the close of human probation. We read in Testimonies, Volume 5, pages 212-213 these words, Daniel 12, verse 1,

comes, every case is decided, there is no longer probation, no longer mercy for the impenitent, the seal of the living God is upon his people." The King of the North shall come to his end during the close of probation for at that time Michael will stand up ceasing his mediation in the most holy place. The King of the North is the man of sin, the Pope of Rome, the head of the last earthly kingdom portrayed in all of Daniel's prophecies. The papacy is the power which controls spiritual Babylon which France represented by the King of the South pushed at in 1798. The war initiated in 1798 between these kings continued until the fall of the Soviet Union within the recent past. The rest of verse 40 addresses this war and will be the focus of our study in the next chapter. However, before we take up that part of the study, we will return to a consideration taken up in the last chapter. In the previous chapter, we focused on a passage in which Sister White taught that scenes and histories similar to the history which had transpired within the vision of Daniel 11, particularly verses 30-36 would be repeated. We noted also the history of the people of Babylon, the history of pagan and papal Rome's rise to power. Both had to overcome three kingdoms in advance of their assuming dominion over the world. The little horn of pagan Rome had to conquer the South, the East and the Pleasant Land, see Daniel 8 verse 9. Papal Rome had to uproot the three horns, the Vandals, Goths and Heruli. Before the wound preventing the papacy from exercising civil power over the world will be healed, it must also subdue three entities. These three entities are three walls. As we proceed through our study, we will see that when the Soviet Union fell in fulfillment of Daniel 11 verse 40, the symbolic wall of the Iron Curtain was removed. A milestone in its collapse was the destruction of the Berlin Wall. In Daniel 11 verse 41, the next area of conquest is identified as the Glorious Land. The Glorious Land is the United States which bows to the Roman power when its legislatures form an image to the beast through the passage of a National Sunday Law. When this happens, the symbolic wall of separation between church and state will have been removed. Revelation 13 verses 11 and 12 teaches that immediately after the United States speaks as a dragon which the Spirit of Prophecy identifies as the passage of the National Sunday Law, then the United States will force the entire world to do the same. The world will follow America in erecting an image to the beast. The definition of the image of the beast involves the enforcement of religious laws through civil power. For the world to create an image to the beast, they must have a world government which can create and enforce law. Without this ability, the definition of an image to the beast cannot be accomplished. After the King of the North enters the Glorious Land in verse 41, he then takes control of Egypt which represents the entire world. Before the entire world can be controlled by a world government which will enforce religious laws, the governments of the world will be forced to surrender their rights as individual nations. When this happens, the symbolic wall of national sovereignty will have been removed. These types of laws are already under development within the United Nations. Just as pagan Rome conquered three kingdoms as it took the world captive, papal Rome also conquered three kingdoms. Pagan Rome used its own military to accomplish its task, whereas papal Rome depended on other military power to work for her ascendancy to the throne of the earth. Both pagan and papal Rome's military campaigns to ascend to the throne of the earth consisted of literal wars fought by literal armies. The King of the North will also defeat three powers as it returns to the position of dominance which it lost in 1798. The three obstacles which the modern papacy will remove will be accomplished on the battlefield of spiritual warfare as opposed to literal warfare. The fight will rage in the realm of ideologies and doctrines. The first symbolic wall in this battle is now past history as the battle of the ideology of atheism versus Catholicism which began with the French Revolution has been finalized. The next two walls of conquest are also spiritual battles which revolve around true and false doctrines. As the papacy symbolically stretches forth its hand to the glorious land and then to Egypt, first the United States and then the world will fall prey in the final battle for the throne of the world. When these last two walls are removed, the healing of the wound will be complete as verse 43 describes the King of the North bringing the economic structure of the world under his control. This represents his full return to the position which he lost in 1798, his position as the dominant geopolitical kingdom. As we continue to study these final movements, we should remember that though all three of these symbolic walls fall, there is a symbolic wall, one where we can find safety and refuge. We read in Early Writings page 33 these words, And I saw that if God had changed the Sabbath from the seventh to the first day, he would have changed the writing of the Sabbath commandment written on the tables of stone which are now in the ark in the most holy place of the temple in heaven. And it would read thus, The first day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God. But I saw that it read the same as when written on the tables of stone by the finger of God and delivered to Moses on Sinai. But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God. Exodus 20 verse 10, I saw that the holy Sabbath is and will be the separating wall between the true Israel of God and unbelievers and that the Sabbath is the great question to unite the hearts of God's dear waiting saints.