Reason #1: The 10 kings/kingdoms ruling much of, if not the entire world, must occur before the Antichrist’s arrival on the world stage (Dan:7:24). This 10 king system will likely take many years to develop, as major geopolitical changes will need to take place first. The Antichrist is opposed to the 10 king system initially, he defeats 3 of the 10 (Dan 7:8, 20, 24), after which, all 10 pledge loyalty to the Antichrist, receiving royal authority (Rev 17:12, 17), thus changing the system into a theocracy (Rev 13:12, 15), which starts at the midpoint (Dan 11:36-40, Matt 24:15-22, 2 Thess 2:3-12). Therefore, not only are we awaiting the establishment of the 10 kings/kingdoms, probably located around the Mediterranean Sea (Dan 7:3),
we are also waiting for the Antichrist to conquer that yet future system. And while all those events could take place quickly, it would seem reasonable to assume a decade or more would be needed before even the first events could take place.
Reason #2: Israel is currently not ruled by a world empire. If you believe that the first 6 heads of the dragon in Rev 13:1-4, 17:3, 7, 9-11, are a picture of Egypt, Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome (as many conservative scholars do), then the 7th and final head of the beast, the one with the 10 kings, will need to rule over Israel, because ruling over Israel is arguably the one thing a head of the beast must do, typologically speaking. Ruling Israel is the thing that connects the other 6 empires in history, Which is almost certainly why they are singled out from other Satanically inspired kingdoms (Dan 2,7, Rev 17:10-11).
Therefore, since the 10 king system is a precursor to the Antichrist (Dan:7:24), it means that Israel will need to be ruled over by the 10 king system significantly before the Antichrist first comes on the scene, and since Israel is currently a sovereign nation, many events will need to take place before these other events can occur.Reason #3 Contrary to popular belief, the birth pains have not yet begun. The “birth pains” in Matthew 24:4-8 (false christ’s, wars, famines, earthquakes), as well as the other events in Matthew 24, such as martyrdom (v.9, 21-22), celestial disturbances in the sun, moon, and stars (v.29), and resurrection (v.30-31), seem to be mirrored in the opening of the seals in Rev 6-7: The Antichrist (v.1-2), wars (v.3-4), famine (v.5-6), martyrdom (v.7-11), celestial disturbances (v.12-17), and resurrection (v.7:9-17). All of which seems to line up with the signs that announce the start of the Day of the Lord in the Old Testament (Joel 2:31).
If this is the correct interpretation, then the birth pains can not have been occurring already, as many evangelicals teach, but instead the birth pains are prophecies of specific events, which will occur over a very short time period, probably starting at the beginning of the 7 year period, with the strengthening of the covenant, and the starting of the daily sacrifices (Dan 9:27). This will be directly followed by the Antichrists wars of conquest (Dan 11:40-12:1, Rev 6:3-4, Matt 24:6-7). Therefore the main argument used by those attempting to prove that we are in the end times (that the birth pains are occurring now), is a bad, and even dangerous interpretation, because if you believe that the first stage of the 10 king system is the Antichrist’s system, when it isn’t (it may be evil, but it will not be ruled by the Antichrist until just before the midpoint), then you will be more likely to cheer the Antichrist as he appears to liberate the world, including Israel from that evil system. This deception would be especially potent if the AC claims to be the messiah, supposedly fulfilling messianic prophecies, such as Isa 11:14-16, and other such prophecies of messianic conquests, not coincidentally, of the same nations mentioned in Dan 11:40-45
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