Turkey's Two Modern Transformations...(Pastor Bill Randles)

[Lolly]

Turkey’s Two Modern Tranformations…Euphrates pt 3

Posted on September 27, 2017by billrandles

Saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates. And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men. (Revelation 9:14-15)

 

The Source of the Euphrates River is in the nation now known as Turkey, and from the mountains of what was once known as Armenia. Armenia was the first Gentile nation to officially accept Christianity, in the second century, and maintained a Christian presence even through the dark years of the Seljuk Turkish invasions and under the imposition of Shariah throughout Turkey and the Ottoman Empire.

Almost a hundred years ago the nation of Turkey, in the waning days of the Ottoman Empire, conducted an ethnic cleansing of those Christians  within the borders of Turkey, killing more than a million Greeks and Armenians, and driving the rest , between two and three million out of the land in merciless death marches.

The finale of this genocidal frenzy was the elimination of Christians in the city of Smyrna, one of the sites of the seven churches of Revelation,

September 1922 signaled the end of the Greek and Armenian presence in the city of Smyrna. On 9 September 1922, the Turks entered Smyrna; and after systematically murdering the Armenians in their own homes, the forces of Ataturk turned on the Greeks whose numbers had swelled, with the addition of refugees who had fled their villages in Turkey’s interior, to upwards of 400,000 men, women and children.

The conquering Turks went from house to house, looting, pillaging, raping and murdering the population. Finally, when the wind had turned so that it was blowing toward the sea so that the small Turkish quarter at the rear of the city was not in danger, Turkish forces, led by their officers, poured kerosene on the buildings and homes of the Greek and Armenian sectors and set them afire. Thus, any remaining live inhabitants of the city were flushed out to be caught between a wall of fire and the sea. The pier of Smyrna became a scene of final desperation as the approaching flames forced many thousands to jump to their death or to be consumed by fire.

The Allied warships and shore patrol of the French, British and American military were eyewitnesses to the events. George Horton, the American Consul in Smyrna, likened the finale at Smyrna to the Roman destruction of Carthage. He is quoted in Smyrna (1922, written by Marjorie Dobkin) as saying: Yet there was not fleet of Christian battleships at Carthage looking on a situation for which their governments were responsible.” This horrible act unleashed the last phase of the genocide against the Christians of Turkish Asia Minor.(Memory of Orthodox Martyrs)

A few years later, when one of Adolph Hitler’s advisors warned him that the verdict of humanity would be harsh on him in view of the Holocaust he was planning, He retorted,”No one cared about the Armenians, right?”

It seemed as though the “Spirits” bound at the Euphrates were already stirring.

Turkey did undergo a major transformation shortly afterwards, which could be considered almost a ‘secular miracle’ if there were such a thing.

One of the young Turkish reformers who came to power after the Turkish defeat and loss of Empire suffered in World War One, Kemal Mustafa, also known as ‘Attaturk’, (Father of Turks) undertook a thorough modernization program for the nation, virtually sidelining the regressive forces of Islam from the nation, secularizing it, outlawing  veils, Fez’s, shutting down Madrasssas, removing Imams from all public influence, and even changing the national language, (taking out Arabic and Islamic elements, and restoring some of the older Turkish words).

Perhaps the most dramatic change wrought was when Attaturk banned the Caliphate, the centuries old central ruling authority for the entire Sunni world. (85 percent of all of the world’s Muslims are Sunni).

Attaturk transformed Turkey, once called the “sick old man” of Europe, into a modern, dynamic, western nation, by secularizing it and marginalizing Islam to the extent that its only hold on the nation was out in the rural, powerless and impoverished areas outside of the cities. Turkey grew rich, powerful and in acceptance to the point that it was allowed into NATO, was a friend of Israel and the United States,  and was even considered for entrance into the European Union.

Attaturk and his reformers enshrined Secularism into the constitution of Turkey, and made the Army to be the guardians of Turkey’s secular status. There had been five attempted Islamic inspired attempts at taking Turkey back into radicalized Islam over the years, but the Army swiftly put everyone of them down.

But  with the election of Erdogan, a second Transformation in the modern term has begun. I Quote from an earlier Article of mine,

In 2002 the Justice and Development political party of the former mayor of Istanbul swept into power and Turkey has begun to shift in an ominous direction, turning to an aggressive form of Turkish Islam.Under the direction of Recep Tayip Erdogan, many of Attaturk’s reforms are being sidestepped and even the military, which has been the guardian of Turkey’s secular status, has been purged and out maneuvered by Erdogan.

It would do those of us looking at the prophecies to take a closer look at this man, for there is a deeper, darker spirituality driving him than standard Sunni Islam(which is dark enough!).

Walid Shoebat, a former Palestinian terrorist who converted to Christ, and became a Christian evangelist, has noted that Erdogan has publicly declared his affiliation with Jalal, al-Din Rumi, a famous Sufi mystic, whose teaching give Muslims theological justification for proclaiming themselves God.

For example Shoebat quotes Rumi,

“Remember the famous utterance of al-Hallaj, “I am God.” People think that to say “I am God” is a claim of great pretense and spiritual arrogance. It is actually a claim of extreme humility. “I am God” means “I do not exist.” He is all, everything is He, existence is God’s alone. I am without existence, pure non-existence. I am nothing.” “I am God” is not a claim of great pretension, it is a claim of extreme humility. There is more humility in this than any supposed claim to greatness, but people do not understand the inner meaning. When a man acknowledges his servitude to God, he is aware of his being a servant. He may see himself as a devoted servant of God, but he still sees himself and his own actions as apart from the one reality of God. He is not drowned in the Ocean of Divine Unity. Drowned is he in whom there is not separate motion or mobility. Drowned is he whose movement is the movement of the water. And so it is with the enlightenment ones, those who declares, “I am God.” Anyone who says “I am the servant of God” asserts the reality of two existences, one for himself and the other for God. But he who says “I am God” — and has realized the deepest levels of unity within his being — has seen through the illusion of his existence. He knows from the experience of unity that his own separate existence is nothing but an illusion. Knowing that, he casts its former selfhood upon the winds of oblivion. (Rumi, Hearts bear witness one to another, in The Complete Discourses of Jalal al-Din Rumi, discourse 11, p. 75, ed. Louis Rogers) Erdogan Reviving Religion of The AntiChrist”

Shoebat has quoted Erdogan as praising Rumi and other Sufi mystics as well as the famous Midieval anti-Crusader, Kurdish general, Saladin. From the article above;

“This is the first time in history that this connect was made and now, it is no surprise to us that this Wednesday, the president of Turkey, Erdogan, praised Rumi’s work, revealing that he himself is not only Sufi but that he also believes in Fana “the art annihilation and becoming God himself”. Why else would Erdogan praise Rumi’s work The Masnavi, saying “A work can live for more than seven centuries only if it is written with love”. The Masnavi is amongst Rumi’s most popular works, and it is in this very book that the idea of man becoming divine is adulated. He praises the Sufi declaration “I am the Truth!” saying, “Mansur’s ‘I am the Truth!’ was purest light” (Masnavi, 2.307, trans. Mojaddedi)(ibid)”

People often think that Sufism is a peace loving , meditation cult aspect of Islam, and rather entertaining in practice, visitors to Turkey can see the “Whirling Dervishes”, Muslim mystics who put themselves in trances by spinning in groups in circle.But obviously being a part of pagan religion, there is a darker side to it, for all of the ‘gods’ of the nations are demons.

Erdogan has a strange influence on those who come into contact with him, as evidenced by this testimony of a secular Turkish Media Mogul,

On May 15, the Turkish media were rocked by the words of the media mogul Ethem Sancak, who bluntly declared his love for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in a TV interview. Sancak said, “While working on his campaign to get him elected prime minister, from my hometown Siirt, I met him. I saw his honesty and courage. I saw his opposition to oppression, his ability to protect the victim. The more I saw him, I feel in love [with him]. To be honest, during my days as a leftist, I could not understand the love between Mevlana [Jelaluddin Rumi, the poet] and [his companion and spiritual guide] Shams al-Tabrizi. As I got to know Erdogan, I realized that such a kind of divine love between two men is possible. When I [first] declared my love to him, I was already among the top 20 on the Forbes’ list. I did not need to wait for any favors by holding on to Erdogan’s coattails.”

Another thing about Erdogan that warrants attention is his adulation of the midieval Kurdish general, Saladin. Turkey has long suppressed and oppressed the Kurds, denying them a homeland .But Saladin, the Kurdish general is famous throughout the Muslim world for his prowess against the Crusaders and for retaking Jerusalem.

When Erdogan dedicated a new international airport in Turkey’s Kurdish region, Arab News reported Erdogan’s comments-

ISTANBUL: President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday opened a new airport in a restive eastern province dogged by a Kurdish separatist insurgency, naming the facility for a celebrated Muslim medieval leader of Kurdish origin…
They announced the airport would be named after Selaheddine Ayyubi to remember the 12th century founder of the Ayyubid dynasty who led Muslim resistance against Christian crusaders in the Middle East who sought to control Jerusalem.
Of Kurdish origin, he is known simply as Saladin and in Arabic as Salah ad-Din.
“We are naming this airport Selaheddine Ayyubi to send a message of solidarity and brotherhood and to say that Jerusalem belongs to Kurds, Turks, Arabs and Muslims forever.”

Walid Shoebat believes Erdogan wants to be the new Saladin, the modern “retaker” of Jerusalem, and the restorer of the Caliphate. Here Shoebat provides an excerpt of a translation of a speech Erdogan gave recently in which he pretty much proclaims it-

Erdogan says in this video: “Praise be to Allah the lord of the two worlds [this world and the underworld] where ownership belongs to Allah alone, victory is to Allah alone. He has no associates [denouncing the trinity]. In the pathway we came out asking Allah to strengthen our feet on the straight path …We have dressed up in our shrouds and are prepared to confront as did Sultan Alparslan We have believed as Sultan Saladin. That victory is not from the sword but comes from Allah. We have went to the path after we have burned the ships of return behind us as did the conquerer of Spain Tareq Benziad.”

Erdogan wants Italy and Spain. He wants to be Tariq Bin Ziad, the conqueror of Spain. He wants to be the tyrant Alp Arslan and Saladin. These are the Muslim leaders who fought against Christendom and he wants to be Saladin who conquered Jerusalem. He wants to be all in all. He wants to declare war on the strongest fortresses to advance his foreign God, Allah, through warfare.

Erdogan has recently reversed the century old canard, describing the aging Ottoman Empire as the “Sick old man” of Europe,in this Sputnik Newa article, Erdogan Blasts Europe As Sick Man

Erdogan has already stirred up a hornets’ nest over the referendum, which — if the outcome is positive — will give him huge new powers, by calling a series of demonstrations among Turkish citizens in Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium.
“You have seen what happened in Europe. Why did they go crazy? Why did they go berserk? They saw what this system will bring to Turkey. Turkey is leaping, growing. This makes them go crazy.

“Europe will pay for what they have done. God willing, the question of the European Union will again be on the table after April 16. They said a century ago that we were the ‘sick man.’ Now they are the ‘sick man.’ Europe is collapsing,” he told a rally April 9, referring to the fact that 19th century politicians described the Ottoman Empire as the “sick man.”

I think I hear powerful Spirits, wrestling against their chains and yearning to be loosed….

[Unfailing Presence]

Another once powerful nation that is predicted to be a world force again is Japan .

You can see how this can happen with what is going on with north Korea .