by mike Evans
President Ronald Reagan once told me, after I spoke briefly at the end of an event he hosted, that the greatest political body in America is not the Republican Party but the church. With a smile, he also said, “I am not as worried about the left wing or the right wing—I want God to heal the bird.” Reagan was sworn in twice on 2 Chronicles 7:14—as he did the first time, the hostages were being released in Iran. During his second term, Communism fell.
I believe this is a battle between two books, two kingdoms, and two spirits—and that the key to victory lies more in the hands of the church in America crying out to God than it does in the politicians of Washington DC. For that reason this book is designed as a twenty-one-day study tool, patterned after Daniel’s twenty-one days of prayer told of in Daniel 10 that brought deliverance to his nation and his people. That is also why I have made available three weeks of messages for pastors and Bible teachers that are outlined in PowerPoint presentations you can find on our Web site at www.beyondiraq.com. In the back of this book is also a three-week Scripture-reading guide on Bible prophecy.
This book is designed as a companion reader for those twenty-one days of prayer and Bible study. God does answer prayer—indeed, America needs to become a purpose-driven nation again.
We have had a rude awakening—now we need a great awakening.
—MIKE EVANS
Etched into the main lobby wall of the original CIA headquarters were these words used to characterize the intelligence mission of a free society:
“And ye shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free.”
PART ONE
THIS PRESENT STRUGGLE
Chapter One
A PROPHETIC STORM GATHERS
And then that day when we attack Israel, even the trees and the stones will have mouths. They will cry out. They will say, “There is a Jew hiding behind me. Come, O Muslim. Come, O slave of Allah. Come and kill him till not one male Jew is left.”1
—WALID SHOEBAT,
former Palestinian terrorist
recounting the teaching he received as a child
and “terrorist-in-training” about Islamist eschatology
“Tell us, when will these things happen? And what will be the sign that they are all about to be fulfilled?”
Jesus said to them: “Watch out that no one deceives you…. When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes in various places, and famines. These are the beginning of birth pains….
“Brother will betray brother to death…. All men will hate you because of me, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved.”
—MARK 13:4-5, 7-8, 12-13
The vast majority of students of prophecy have always believed that the end of the age would begin with a worldwide battle between Isaac, the Jew, and Ishmael, the Arab—a battle that would center on the Middle East, mainly Israel, and increase like a pandemic until it engulfed the entire globe. Only a deaf and blind man would not realize that this battle is, in fact, growing ever closer.
The apostle John received a vision on the Isle of Patmos in a.d. 95 that became the Book of Revelation. In that vision, John saw four riders on horseback galloping across the earth, bringing deceit, destruction, and devastation. Those four riders are commonly known as “The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.” If you listen closely, you can hear the hoofbeats of those four horses across all the news channels and throughout today’s newspapers and magazines.
The Book of Revelation begins with the unveiling of a scroll written on both sides and sealed with seven seals. Seals, in that day, were impressions made with wax, clay, or some other soft material that, when broken, revealed that an unauthorized person had tampered with the contents. The seals in John’s vision had to be broken, one by one, to divulge the contents of what was inside. As John broke each seal, another portion of God’s revelation about the final days of the earth was disclosed, each time divulging a worse horror than the revelation before.
Daniel, the prophet who lived in ancient Babylon (modern-day Iraq), wrote this of the mystery of the End Times in the twelfth chapter of Daniel. It begins:
“At that time Michael, the great prince who protects your people, will arise. There will be a time of distress such as has not happened from the beginning of nations until then. But at that time your people—everyone whose name is found written in the book—will be delivered. Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt. Those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars for ever and ever. But you, Daniel, close up and seal the words of the scroll until the time of the end. Many will go here and there to increase knowledge.”…
I heard, but I did not understand. So I asked, “My lord, what will the outcome of all this be?”
He replied, “Go your way, Daniel, because the words are closed up and sealed until the time of the end. Many will be purified, made spotless and refined, but the wicked will continue to be wicked. None of the wicked will understand, but those who are wise will understand.”
—DANIEL 12:1–4, 8–10
On the Mount of Olives, Jesus’s disciples asked Him what the sign of His coming and the end of the age would be. Jesus replied:
You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom….
If those days had not been cut short, no one would survive.
—MATTHEW 24:6–7, 22
As I write this, just such an apocalyptic time is threatening to arise from three modern-day Bible nations: Iraq, which was ancient Babylonia; Iran, which was Persia until 1935; and Israel, which was reborn in 1948 in the very land God promised to Abraham and his descendants in the Book of Genesis. Understanding the biblical backgrounds and cultures of these nations and peoples can be very enlightening for the days ahead.
FROM THE CRADLE OF CIVILIZATION
The kingdoms of Persia and Babylonia inhabited the region that played host to the world’s earliest civilizations. They are thought by most archaeological scholars to contain the site named in the Old Testament book of Genesis as the Garden of Eden. Ur of the Chaldeans, the home of Abraham, was also a part of the region that was once Babylonia—later controlled by the Persians.
At its zenith, the Persian Empire encompassed the landmass from India to Greece, from the Caspian Sea to the Red Sea, and included the Arabian Sea. Its modern-day equivalent would be the countries of Pakistan, a portion of India, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Turkey, Jordan, Israel, and Egypt—all combined into one vast empire.
For three millennia, Iran has maintained its existence as an autonomous territory and, as we have already noted, only changed its name from Persia in 1935. Unlike its neighbors, Iran is not Arab—it is Persian, or, more correctly, Indo-European. While the Iranians use Arabic script to write, the official language of the nation is not Arabic but Farsi. Unlike its neighbors, Iran’s history is not rooted in Islam, but rather in the time when kings were gods and massive structures were erected in their honor. Even today, Iran celebrates No Ruz (meaning “new day” or “New Year”). This is not a tradition of Islam but rather of the days before Islam conquered Persia.
Cyrus the Great, the first Achaemenid emperor—and, incidentally, the first king to add “Great” to his title—established the Persian Empire by uniting two of the earliest tribes in Iran, the Medes and the Persians. He ruled the extensive empire from 550–529 b.c., when he was succeeded by his unstable son, Cambyses II.
Within four years of his ascension to the throne, Cyrus subjugated Croesus, the king of Lydia (of “rich as Croesus” fame), and controlled the Aegean coast of Asia Minor, Armenia, and the Greek colonies along the Levant (a large area in the Middle East bor
dered by the Mediterranean, the Arabian Desert, and Upper Mesopotamia). Looking eastward, Cyrus seized Parthia, Chorasmia, and Bactria. (For maps comparing ancient Persia with modern-day Iran, please see Appendix K.)
Cyrus ruled over one of the largest empires in early-recorded history. Though he conquered people after people, he was known for his unparalleled forbearance and charitable posture toward those whom he subjugated.
In 539 b.c., Babylon fell before the advance of Cyrus’s army. He was greeted by roars of welcome from the Jews who had been carried captive to Babylon. Following his conquest of that great city, Cyrus permitted some forty thousand Jews to return to their homeland in Canaan. With such an unprecedented move, Cyrus displayed great deference toward the religious tenets and social mores of other peoples.
Let me stop here a moment and point out that under the leadership of Cyrus, the Persians exhibited great compassion in allowing the Jews taken captive by Nebuchadnezzar to return to Judah and to Jerusalem. What prompted the conqueror to allow the conquered to make their way home? None other than Jehovah God! God can move the heart of a king just as surely as he can move the heart of a pauper. As Proverbs 21:1 says:
The king’s heart is in the hand of the LORD;
he directs it like a watercourse wherever he pleases.
Cyrus was lauded as “upright, a great leader of men, generous and benevolent. The Hellenes, whom he conquered, regarded him as ‘Lawgiver’ and the Jews as ‘the anointed of the Lord.’”2
In biblical history, Cyrus is first mentioned in 2 Chronicles 36:22–23 and in Ezra 1:1–3. Both passages record that God “moved the heart of Cyrus king of Persia” in order to fulfill “the word of the Lord spoken by Jeremiah”:
In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, in order to fulfill the word of the Lord spoken by Jeremiah, the Lord moved the heart of Cyrus king of Persia to make a proclamation throughout his realm and to put it in writing:
“This is what Cyrus king of Persia says:
“‘The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth and he has appointed me to build a temple for him at Jerusalem in Judah. Anyone of his people among you—may his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem in Judah and build the temple of the Lord, the God of Israel, the God who is in Jerusalem.’”
—EZRA 1:1–3
When King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon captured Jerusalem in 604 b.c., every precious vessel was looted from the temple and carried away to Babylonia. When nations were conquered by the Babylonians, the idols worshiped by that people were placed in a position of subservience to Marduk, the idol worshiped by the Babylonians. The Israelites were an exception. They did not worship graven images; therefore, the vessels taken from Solomon’s temple were likely placed in close proximity to, but not in subservience to, Marduk.
Daily food offerings were presented to the idol, and the food, blessed by being in the presence of their god, was then presented to the king. It was on such an occasion that Belshazzar, in a fit of drunken frenzy, demanded that the vessels from Solomon’s temple be brought to the banquet hall.
Daniel 5:3–4 gives us this picture:
So they brought in the gold goblets that had been taken from the temple of God in Jerusalem, and the king and his nobles, his wives and his concubines drank from them. As they drank the wine, they praised the gods of gold and silver, of bronze, iron, wood and stone.
The holy God of heaven was not amused by Belshazzar’s antics. The banquet hall was silenced, and the king became a quivering mass as the fingers of a man’s hand appeared and wrote a divine message on the wall:
This is the inscription that was written:
MENE, MENE, TEKEL, PARSIN
This is what these words mean:
Mene: God has numbered the days of your reign and brought it to an end.
Tekel: You have been weighed on the scales and found wanting.
Peres: Your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians.
—DANIEL 5:25–28
Belshazzar didn’t have long to wait for God to fulfill this indictment against him:
That very night Belshazzar, king of the Babylonians, was slain, and Darius the Mede took over the kingdom.
—DANIEL 5:30–31
Darius the Mede was later conquered by Cyrus the Great. (The Kurdish people in Kurdistan, from where I have written portions of this book, are descendants of the ancient Medes.)
It may startle you to know that God doesn’t predict the future; He creates it. God foretells events to His prophets, who in turn prophesy to the people those things that God has revealed. God revealed His future plans to the prophets of old—Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, Ezekiel, and others. Then in His perfect timing, He caused the prophesied events to become reality. He used ancient kings and kingdoms to chastise His errant children, the nation of Israel, and He used those same kings and kingdoms to return them to their rightful place.
As ruler of Persia, Cyrus was heir to all the vessels looted by the Babylonians from Solomon’s temple in Jerusalem. Unlike other conquerors, Cyrus did something that was completely uncommon. Seventy years after the Jewish people were taken captive by Nebuchadnezzar, Cyrus allowed them to return home to Israel. (This is what Daniel had prayed for in Daniel 9:17–19.) Not only were they allowed to return, but also Cyrus provided everything they needed to rebuild the temple and the walls of the city. With their return to Jerusalem, he relinquished into their care the items that were taken from the temple.
Cyrus was unique, not only because he allowed the Jews to return to Israel, but also because his birth and his name were foretold by the prophet Isaiah almost one hundred fifty years before he was born. God also revealed Cyrus’s mission to the prophet. Isaiah recorded that Cyrus would accomplish specific tasks under God’s direction during his lifetime. King Cyrus was destined to carry out God’s plan as it related to His chosen people. It was through Cyrus that the Babylonian Empire and seventy years of Jewish captivity came to an end.
Who says of Cyrus, “He is my shepherd
and will accomplish all that I please;
he will say of Jerusalem, ‘Let it be rebuilt,’
and of the temple, ‘Let its foundations be laid.’”
—ISAIAH 44:28
Although Cyrus was a practicing pagan, a worshiper of the god Marduk, he would achieve noble feats as an instrument in the hands of Jehovah God. He would contribute, albeit indirectly, to the coming of the Messiah, God’s anointed One.
Moreover, King Cyrus brought out the articles belonging to the temple of the Lord, which Nebuchadnezzar had carried away from Jerusalem and had placed in the temple of his god. Cyrus king of Persia had them brought by Mithredath the treasurer, who counted them out to Sheshbazzar the prince of Judah.
—EZRA 1:7–8
“However, in the first year of Cyrus king of Babylon, King Cyrus issued a decree to rebuild this house of God. He even removed from the temple of Babylon the gold and silver articles of the house of God, which Nebuchadnezzar had taken from the temple in Jerusalem and brought to the temple in Babylon.
“Then King Cyrus gave them to a man named Sheshbazzar, whom he had appointed governor, and he told him, ‘Take these articles and go and deposit them in the temple in Jerusalem. And rebuild the house of God on its site.’ So this Sheshbazzar came and laid the foundations of the house of God in Jerusalem. From that day to the present it has been under construction but is not yet finished.”
Now if it pleases the king, let a search be made in the royal archives of Babylon to see if King Cyrus did in fact issue a decree to rebuild this house of God in Jerusalem. Then let the king send us his decision in this matter.
—EZRA 5:13–17
In the first year of King Cyrus, the king issued a decree concerning the temple of God in Jerusalem:
Let the temple be rebuilt as a place to present sacrifices, and let its foundations be laid. It is to be ninety feet high and ninety feet wide, with three courses of large stones and one of timber
s. The costs are to be paid by the royal treasury. Also, the gold and silver articles of the house of God, which Nebuchadnezzar took from the temple in Jerusalem and brought to Babylon, are to be returned to their places in the temple in Jerusalem; they are to be deposited in the house of God.
—EZRA 6:3–5
History documents the birth, death, and achievements of Cyrus the Great. His name is recorded in the Bible over twenty times. Encyclopedia Britannica recognizes that “in 538 [b.c.] Cyrus granted to the Jews, whom Nebuchadnezzar had transported to Babylonia, the return to Palestine and the rebuilding of Jerusalem and its temple.”3