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Matthew 24:15-30; Daniel 11:40-12:2; 2 Thessalonians 2; Numbers 24:24

    Let's put these closely related prophecies together:

Matt 24:15 “Therefore when you see the ‘abomination of desolation,’ spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in a holy place... 21 then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been... 29 Immediately after the tribulation of those days...the powers of the heavens will be shaken. 30 ...and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.”

Dan. 11:40 “At the time of the end the king of the south shall attack him [the king of the north]; and the king of the north shall come against him like a whirlwind... [41-43 enter and occupy the Holy Land; subdue Egypt, Libya, and Cush (prob. = Sudan); but not subdue or occupy Edom, Moab, and Ammon (= the whole or parts of the modern countries of Jordan and Saudi Arabia) 44 But news from the east [towards Iraq and Iran] and the north [towards Russia and/or Turkey] shall trouble him... 45 And he shall plant the tents of his pavilion between the seas at the glorious holy mountain; but he shall come to his end, and no one will help him. 12:1 “At that time Michael shall stand up, ...And there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was... 2 And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake..."

2 Thes 2:1 ...concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him... 3 that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the Son of Perdition, 4 who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called a god or that is worshiped, so that he sits as a god in the naos/holy place/sanctuary of God, showing himself that he is a god. ... 8...the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming.

    Beginning at Daniel 11:40, we see IN THE END TIMES a king/potentate to the south of the Holy Land, which south is currently all Islamic, attacking somehow a ruler of the north, that is, one out of the historical Graeco-Roman culture. The northern ruler invades from north to south, enters and occupies (seemingly peacefully) Israel, and then forcefully invades Islamic Egypt, Libya, and southwards; but neither Jordan nor Saudi Arabia -- currently allies of America and Europe -- are troubled at all. This ruler returns to Israel and sets up his headquarters on the Temple Mount; then he comes to his end around the time of the Great Tribulation and subsequent resurrection of the dead.

    Now, if people can't see the fit between this passage, and what Jesus prophesied about the same period in the End Times, and what Paul prophesied about the Son of Perdition likewise setting himself up in the Holy Place on the Temple Mount, but being brought to his end at the Coming of the Lord ... then those people are else either really ignorant of the Scriptures, or else they refuse to see something that runs contrary to their beliefs about the sequence of events of the End Times.

    Everything described in the above passages describes a post-trib, but pre-wrath, Second Coming: the Abomination of Desolation is accomplished by the Son of Perdition/King of the North; immediately followed by the Great Tribulation; immediately followed by the Resurrection of the Dead at the Second Coming, concurrent with the demise of the Son of Perdition.

    At that point of the Second Coming, nothing at all concerning the post-Revelation 7 events that take place during the time of the Wrath of God are even hinted at (with the exception of a hint of a future invasion from out of the east). At the Second Coming, the Beast of Revelation 11, 13, 17 has not yet arrived.

    A prophecy of Balaam directly speaks about this same period right before the Second Coming:

Dan. 11:40 At the time of the end the king of the South shall attack him; and the king of the North shall come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots, horsemen, and with many ships...

Num. 24:24 And ships shall come from the coast [lit. hand] of Kittim [lands northwest of the Middle East]...

Dan. 11:40 and he shall enter the countries, overwhelm them, and pass through. 41 He shall also enter the Glorious Land, and many shall stumble/become weak-legged...

Num. 24:24 ...and shall afflict Asshur/Assyria [the region covering parts of Syria, northern Iraq, and southern Turkey, all now in conflict], and shall afflict Eber [the Hebrews/Jews/Israel]...

Dan. 11:45 ...but he shall come to his end, and no one will help him.

Num. 24:24 ...and he also shall perish for ever.

    According to the Book of Jasher, which was written in the same era as this prophecy by Balaam, the Kittim were the tribe who became the Romans:

Jasher 10:16 And the children of Kittim are the Romim who dwell in the valley of Canopia [Canopus] by the river Tibreu [Tiber].

Likewise, the "ships of Kittim" mentioned in Dan. 11:30, who came against Antichus IV Epiphanes in 168 B.C. and drove him out of Egypt, were Roman ships carrying a Roman envoy.

    This is why I believe the King of the North will be one of the Western powers -- those having a Graeco-Roman heritage -- and not Turkey. Antiochus IV Epiphanes was of the royal bloodline of the Syrian Seleucids, but he came from Rome (1 Macc. 1:10) at the time that he 'came in peaceably, and seized the kingdom by flatteries/slickness.' Dan. 11:21 He had been held hostage in Rome for 14 years beginning in his youth, and had become substantially Romanized. So he was the first King of the North to have the Graeco-Roman hybridization. Through his establishment of an "abomination of desolation" on Jerusalem's Temple Mount (Dan. 11:31), he became the preeminent type of the Latter Day Son of Perdition.