Erbil as the original Babel

I'm perhaps the first person to propose this theory, but I think it's interesting.

Archeologists have considered Erbil to be a candidate for the title of oldest continually inhabited city on Earth.  Biblically that City should be Babel.

The name of that city today is commonly given as Erbil or Irbil and was in Greco-Roman times known as Arbella.  It's been known by forms of that name since before 2000 BC when the Sumerians called it Urbilum, Urbelum, Urbillum or Arbilum.  The Hebrew word for City used in Genesis 11 is Ir and the Hebrew word for Confusion used is Balal.  So could this name come from "City of Confusion" in a Semitic language?

Specifically this results in my theorizing that the Citadel of Erbil could be the site of the Abandoned base of The Tower.

I don't know fully how to reconcile this with Genesis 10.  Maybe that Babel is still Nippur as I argued for last year, I certainly still favor the YLT translations of the Nimrod verses.  However there are a number of ancient inhabited archeological sites near Erbil who's ancient names we don't know because some were abandoned before 2000 BC it seems, like Tell Shemshara, Tepe Gawra, Tell Arpachiyah, Telul Eth-Thalathat, and maybe Arrapha.  Could a lot of the names we usually associate with southern Mesopotamia really be re-foundings of settlements that were originally further north?

This theory could be compatible with a number of different theories of Bible Prophecy.

For example in the first century it was the capital of Adiabene who's rulers had converted to Judaism and King Monobaz II brought an army from beyond the Euphrates to support the rebels during the 66-73 Ad revolt.  So maybe 70 AD Preterists should rethink their assumption that they have to remove Babylon from Mesopotamia?

But for Protestant Historicists and Futurists still obsessed with wanting Mystery Babylon to be the Catholic Church, Erbil is currently the seat of one of the Eastern Rite Catholic Churches, the Chaldean Catholic Church, they have a huge Church in the city called the Cathedral of Saint Joseph that was built in an ancient Mesopotamian Style, it basically looks like a Ziggurat with a Cross on top.  Zechariah 5 seems to describe Mystery Babylon dwelling somewhere else for awhile but returning to her home in Shinar before the end.  So maybe the seed is already in place for the Papacy to move there for some reason?

And the Patriarch of this branch of the Catholic Church is officially titled the Patriarch of Babylon.  Speaking of which maybe this city which had a major Jewish population in the first century is the city Peter was dwelling in and calling Babylon when he wrote his first Epistle?

Erbil is also the current Headquarters of the Assyrian Church of The East, one of the Churches often misleadingly called "Nestorian".  Isaiah 14 seems to call the End Times King of Babylon "The Assyrian" and Micah 5 also uses that title when referring to the "Land of Nimrod".  Of course most followers of the Chaldean Church also consider themselves ethnically Assyrian.

Erbil is also the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan.  Now in Prophecies like Jeremiah 50-51 and Isaiah 13 it's currently popular to see the Kurds as the Medes.  But maybe the Medes of Jeremiah 51:28 are in fact modern Iran, while the prior verse is pretty arguably referring to locations in modern Turkey (Ashkenaz could be Lake Ascanius near Istanbul).  Those are the two major nations most threatened by and opposed to Kurdish sovereignty.  Youtuber Nelson Waters is building a view of Bible Prophecy that involves an alliance between Turkey and Iran, that involves a lot of things I don't currently agree with but it's interesting.

The Temple in Revelation 11 is The Heavenly Temple

Verses 1 and 2 of chapter 11 are the only uses of the word "Temple" in The Book of Revelation ever believed to be about an earthly Jewish Temple in Jerusalem during the Eschatological Week even by the most extreme Third Temple expecting Futurists.

Every other reference to a Temple or Tabernacle in the book is obviously and incontrovertibly about The Temple in Heaven or the concept of The Church as The Temple of God.  And those two Temples are themselves linked in my view, we are what connects the Heavenly Temple to the terrestrial world.

But it is absurd to me to suggest that this Temple is different from The Temple of verse 19 of the same chapter when both are called "The Temple of God" with a definite article signifying more then one place can't have this title.  Also the Angel speaking to John in these opening verses is the same one that is the focus of much of chapter 10, but people lose sight of that because of the modern chapter divisions.  And Heaven not Earth is where John is right now, so the Heavenly Temple must be what he is measuring.

The thing people don't understand about this view is that the worshipers being counted are still believers on Earth, we are in Spirit worshiping in that Heavenly Temple, we are the pillars of that Temple as the message to Philadelphia makes clear.  The worshipers are all faithful believers, while the Gentiles/Nations are all of the world's non believers who for the moment are being left out.

The "trodden under foot" language is what especially preterists want to use as some smoking gun that this is about the same thing as Luke 21:24.  And they can still be linked in my view, Luke is describing a time period that doesn't begin till after Jerusalem is destroyed, in the terrestrial world it's the entire city not just the outer court being trodden under foot.  The three and a half years Revelation 11 is focused on are the last three and a half years of the Times of The Gentiles.

Others arguing for these verses being about the Heavenly Temple want the outer court to be Gentile believers here.  But I believe Revelation is using Gentiles only in it's spiritual sense not genealogical sense.

The only time in Revelation the word Temple is used of a physical Temple building is using it for the purpose of saying New Jerusalem won't have one of those in Revelation 21:22.  "But doesn't that language imply old Jerusalem did have a temple building?", maybe, but I would argue current Jerusalem has multiple Temple buildings, just not the one most modern Futurists are looking for, instead they are buildings we avoid using that word to describe even though it does fit.  And they are even all in theory Temples to the God of Abraham, many through Isaac but some through Ishmael.

The Languages of The Table of Nations

Genesis 10 says the Nations were divided according to their Languages, not bloodlines or DNA Haplogroups or geopolitical alliances, and then Genesis 11 explains how and why that happened.. If you study what the word "Ethnos" meant to the Ancient Greeks the same implication exists, language more then anything else decided what an "Ethnos" was, hence Barbarian originally meaning "non Greek speakers".  There is also Biblical Support for what god you worship being equally a factor, but that's where Liturgical Languages come in.

On the subject of Japheth, almost every Liturgical Language of the Eastern Orthodox Church is Indo-European, the only exception is the Georgian Language interestingly, Georgia's ancient demographic relationships to the lands around it are uniquely complicated.   

The big issue for trying to define Languages Biblically however is that the language of the ancient Canaanites is in the same Language Family as Hebrew, and very closely related in fact.  Thus modern Linguistic Scholars classify it as a Semitic Language.

When Abraham and his nephew Lot left Mesopotamia for Canaan and then lived there a few generations before the captivity in Egypt, I think it's highly probable they dropped the language of their homeland and adopted the language of the Canaanites, or became Bilingual.  And Isaiah 19 does in fact call the Language the Israelites and other YHWH worshipers were speaking the "Language of Canaan", so the Hebrew Bible itself defined this Language as belonging to Canaan not Heber.  It's not till the New Testament during Greco-Roman times we start seeing that language called Hebrew.

Basically I think Abraham's family did the same thing Diaspora Jews of the Christian Era have repeatedly done, developed a modified form of the language of the people they sojourned among.

The same thing happened with the Philistines, they did not originate as descendants of Canaan but wound up speaking a Canaanite language after settling in the Gaza strip. 

So the Language Family called Semitic today I think is Biblically Canaanite.  But scholars also use Canaanite for a specific subgroup of that family (the one that includes Hebrew), that sub group I shall call Sidonian since that Tribe had the most influence over that immediate area.

Looking at that break down of the Semitic Language Family I got from Wikipedia, it's clear that the Abrahamic Tribes came to dominate some entire Branches.  Nabatean and Aramaic both descend from Ishmael, Nabatean from Naboth, Kedar, Tema and Dumah, and than Aramaic from Hadad who was the name of the Patron deity of the earliest Aramaic speaking pagans.  And then Arabic originated among the sons of Abraham by Keturah, perhaps chiefly Dedan son of Jokshan..

How can Genesis 10 Aram not be the father of the Aramaic Language?  Well we know from Deuteronomy 26:5 that Abraham was sometimes called Aramean even though his direct Patralineal descent was from Arphaxad, I think some Ishmaelite Tribes may have had a similar idea.  

One detail of that Map is out of date and that's implying Aramaic first emerged in Mesopotamia, linguistic scholars now agree it first emerged in the general area of Damascus.  The city of Damascus proper wasn't truly founded till after 2000 BC and thus well after when I place even the latest events of Genesis.  So I think it was Ishmaelites who founded that city and named it after the Damascus of Genesis 14-15 possibly because it was in the same area.  Damascus is included in what I interpret to be the inheritance given to Ishmael, which is all of the Trans-Jordan part of what was Promised to Abraham.  Zobah is probably where these Ishmaelites of Hadad lived first however, and then 1 Kings 11 explains how an offshoot of their civilization became a King of Damascus.

We know from 1 Chronicles 5 that the Jetur and Naphish tribes of Ishmael also resided in South West Syria, the region known as Iturea in New Testament times.

Ugarit I suspect was the original city of the Girgashites, and then the Amorites are who you'd assume they are, The Torah does hint a few times that the Amorite Language is distinct from the Sidonian Canaanites.  Eteocyptriot if it's Semitic (there is dispute about it) may just come from Ugarites who colonized Cyrpus.  [Update: my perspective on the Girgashites has changed, and my view on Ugarit now is them being an Amorite colony.]

Ebla and the Hamathite are the same in my current theory.  Ironically the name Akkad itself is not Semitic, that city was originally Sumerian.  It was Sargon's Empire that imposed this Semitic Language on all of Mesopotamia, and that makes me suspect Azupiranu was the actual Akkadian name of Akkad.  Actually I think I should just identify the Hamathites as the ancestor of the entire Eastern branch.

The South Semites descended from various groups who traveled South and their history may be the subject of their own post in the future.  But it is worth noting that Josephus said Abraham's children by Keturah were given Arabia Felix. I think the entire South Semite region of that map is what the Egyptians called the Land of Punt.  Still I do think there may have been Canaanites who traveled there first.  Actually I have decided to identity the Sinite with the South Semitic branch because of the Sinim in Isaiah 49:12.

Qahtan is traditionally identified with Joktan, James A. Montgomery however has pointed out that the etymology of that doesn't work.  My theory that it refers to descent form Keturah isn't perfect either, but it at least begins with the right letter.  So the Sheba of Yeman I do now unlike in the past identify with the Keturite Sheba.  I also believe the Mineans of ancient Yemen were the descendants of Teman son of Eliphaz son of Esau.

Spiritual/Religious descent from the Canaanites is dead, any modern Neo-Pagan groups using Canaanite names for their gods have no actual continuity with them.  So the Churches who's Liturgical Rites are East Syraic/Aramaic I view as the Eschatological Assyria of Isaiah 11 and 19 alongside the Coptic Churches as Mizraim.

If the Semitic Language Family is Canaan then that fits it's larger Afroasiatic Family being Ham, with Mizraim as Egyptian, Cush the Cushitic Languages and the Berber Languages as Phut. 

"What about the Afroasiatic Families that don't fit into one of those four categories?" You may ask?  Maybe Ham did have more offspring then the four the Table of Nations specified, after all he does have the least mentioned.  Or maybe they can be explained by named Grandsons of Ham via Mizraim and Cush?   I also agree with those linguistic scholars who argue for adding the Nilo-Saharan languages to the Afro-Asiatic family.  Some linguists do think Chadic languages are closely related to Berber, which can make them also Phut.  And some think Omotic can be classified as Cushitic.

The Abyssinians (modern Ethiopia and Eritrea in Africa) are people speaking South Semitic Languages closely related to those of Ancient Yemen, but they were in antiquity surrounded by Cushetic speaking peoples on all sides.  I think they were the "Arabians that were near the Cushites" of 1 Chronicles 21:16 and that those captive wives and children of Jehoram (who I don't believe included any by Athaliah) may have became the actual ancestors of the Solomonic dynasty of Axum.

Another Biblical reference to this region may be the land "Beyond the rivers of Cush" in Isaiah 18, the rivers of Cush here I think are the rivers that flow into The Nile, what we call the White Nile, Blue Nile and the Atbarah also known as the Black Nile.

Some Canaanites may have came here first, certain Tribes in the region are traditionally believed to be Canaanite with three specific sons of Canaan cited.  However these are mostly tribes who spoke non Semitic Languages making me suspect the Abrahamites of the region often just called the local Heathens Canaanites, but it's still possible clans from those three sons were the first Semitic speakers in the region and their relationship to later groups was complicated.

The first Abrahamites of the region may have been Keturite Arabs, some scholars have speculated reasons to associate Epheh and Epher of Midian with Africa.  But I think some Edomite tribes may have came here too, cousins of Teman/Mineans.

What languages do I think descend from the non Abrahamic sons of Shem?  Well first of all Sumerian the language of Ur would probably be the language of the family of Arphaxad and perhaps others of Shem who lived in Mesopotamia (Abraham is also called an Aramean), and thus Sumer might have been named after Shem.  

And maybe the special language the Chaldean Magicians were using was actually Sumerian?  It could be the only reason the language we call Aramaic is called that is because of the assumption that the language being referred to in Daniel 2:4 is the same Language that the book is written in from that point till the end of chapter 7.

Elamite is the Language of Elam, yes that's right Elamite is not a Semitic Language but rather one seemingly unrelated to any other known languages.  Last year I made a post where I used that fact to justify making that Elam not Biblical Elam but I've now changed my mind on that.  Elamite may also be related to Dravidian according to some theories, and thus to Y Chromosome Haplogroup H, and thus maybe the modern Elamite Diaspora foretold by Jeremiah 49 are the Romani and related groups?

The Gutians have been theorized to descend from Aram's son Gether before. And I think the Lullubi could be of Aram's son Hul.  I also have a hunch the Hattic Language is Aram's son Mash. The Hurro-Uratian Language family including the Kassites could be the original language of the Assyrians and/or some Arameans before they adopted the Akkadian language.  Or maybe Lullubi is better positioned to be Asshur.

The Kartvelian language family including Georgian I think is Lud, since Y Haplogroup G ties the Georgians to Lydia implying they may descend from the original pre-Indo-Europeans of Lydia.  Or Lud could be another candidate for the Hattic Language.  Or Lud could be the other West Caucasian Language family.

Actually the above statement on Sumerian assumes the popular belief that Ur Kassidim was the Sumerian Ur.  I've increasingly come to favor a North of Harran location for Ur Kassidim.  Sumerian maybe simply was the Pre-Babel Language and the few people who kept the original language after the confusion were the ones who stayed in the general area.

The common theory on the Etymology of Eve/Havvah being the same as the Hurrian Goddess Hepat I find interesting.  It could be all or most other early Genesis figures had their names translated to an equivalent Semitic meaning but hers lacked an easy direct analogue so it was transliterated.  A Hurrian origin for Abraham would fit Urkesh being Ur Kassidim (but it could fit Ur being Urfa/Urshu later called Edessa as well).  That would make the Hurro-Uratian language family the one that comes from Peleg.  The Book of Jubilees says Arphaxad was allotted the region of Ararat itself, which is often identified with Urartu, the name of Aram/Arame is also associated with Urartu but I think that's the Aram of Genesis 22:21 not Genesis 10.  I also support the theory that the Kassadim/Chaldeans are the same people as the Kassites who's original language is theorized by some to have been of the Hurro-Urartian family, and I think they can be connected to the Chesed of Genesis 22:22.

Joktan's thirteen sons are a subject I need to completely rethink now.  I had made a post criticizing those who would place Joktan in the East rather then Yemen, but now I'm more open to that, maybe the Mormons are right about two Joktanite sons contributing to early Native American populations and giving his name to the Yucatan.  However the Mormon route would still be wrong, they would have to also contribute to Eat Asia.  Or maybe some did pass through Yemen then crossed the Bab-el-Mandeb and became ancestral to the non Afroasiatic Languages of Arica.

As a Young-Earth Creationist who still favors a Global Flood I would of course like to make Shem ancestral to all of the Languages that are neither Indo-European or Afroasiatic.  And even in the context of considering something similar to InspiringPhilosophy's view of the Flood but still more Literalist then him on other issues, we're really only allowed one Non-Noahtic Language, the Pre-Babel Language.

Some Hebrew Roots types may be hostile to the thesis of this post.  They are invested in Extra-Biblical traditions about Hebrew being the Pre-Flood language and becoming named after Heber when he didn't go along with Babel and/or Nimrod.  

And they could see the agenda behind arguing Abraham abandoned an earlier language for Hebrew as justifying Mainstream Gentile Christian Churches abandoning Semitic Languages for Indo-European ones.  And yes one of the lessons I think we should learn from this conclusion is that the true worship of YHWH is not tied to any single language.  But that's not what motived me to come to it.  I simply feel this is the most logical explanation of the evidence.

Japheth and the Eastern Orthodox Church

While speculation on the movements of people groups who tribally descend from the names given as sons and grandsons of Japheth in Genesis 10 will play a role in how I justify this thesis.  The theory itself is predicated on suggesting that your religion (or the religion of your culture if you yourself are non religious) should be more of a factor then your biological ancestry in deciding which Genesis Patriarch you are a Son of Biblically.

And with that in mind Genesis 9 pays special attention to Prophesying that the house of Japheth will one day dwell in the Tents of Shem, via the Tabernacle tents can Biblically be an idiom of religious observance.

By Eastern Orthodox I mean Christian Churches or Congregations that uphold all Seven Ecumenical Councils as authoritative but also descend from the Eastern rather than Western side of the 1054 Great Schism.

The people most universally agreed to descend from Japheth are the Hellens/Greeks via Javan.  Today that is Modern Greece and Cyprus, (and maybe also some nations north of Greece) and includes Hellenic minorities in Turkey, Alexandria, Antioch, Lebanon, Israel/Palestine & Jordan and other regions.  That happens to correspond to the generally most well known sub Church of the Eastern Orthodox, The Greek Orthodox Church.

The second most significant congregation of the Eastern Orthodox Communion is the Russian Orthodox Church.  I have a post strongly arguing that Magog is Russia.  In which I also placed Meshech and Tubal in Georgia and argued for associating Gomer with Ukraine and the House of Togarmah with people groups who lived in parts of Russia, Ukraine and Georgia.  Both of whom are also majority Eastern Orthodox nations.  But I’m now also thinking of perhaps placing Togarmah in Belarus which takes us even further North.  Note that "Mtskheta-Tbilisi" is in the official title of the Archbishop of Georgia.

Tiras the youngest son of Japheth is often identified with Thrace, the core Thracian nation of classical Antiquity was basically modern Bulgaria but at its greatest extent perhaps included pieces of every country bordering Bulgaria, all of which are Eastern Orthodox.  Actually I'm finding the Thracians might have extended more into Romania and Moldova more then I originally thought.

I think an argument could be made for identifying the Southern Carpathian Mountains with the Riphean Mountains of Ancient Hellenic Geography, which thus works for identifying Riphath with Romania and perhaps also Moldova.

Ashkenaz I kind of want to place near Ukraine in all of that context.  But I’m also thinking they could just be more Eastern Orthodox minorities within Turkey.  The City of Nicaea is on the shore of a Lake called Ascanius.  Nicaea was the seat of the 1st and 7th Ecumenical Councils, played a role in the First Crusade and was the capital of the Greek Eastern Empire while Constantinople was occupied by the Latins after the Fourth Crusade.  That could be a good argument for making the Patriarch of Constantinople himself the Patriarch of Ashkenaz.

Germanic Jews are called Ashkenazim because of a Rabbinic tradition of associating Ashkenaz with western Germany and Northern France.  But this tradition didn’t start till the 11th century and why it developed isn’t clear.  Before that Rabbinic traditions usually placed Ahskenaz first in Scythia (same region Josephus placed Magog, in modern Russia and Ukraine) and then later identified them with the Slavs.  The Slavic peoples are mostly Eastern Orthodox.  But I’m now tempted in this context to identify Ashkenaz as specifically Serbia and/or Bulgaria, placing them next to Riphath.

After giving it more thought I'm starting to lean towards Russia being Magog and the other Slavic Churches being Gomer and his Sons while the Romanian Orthodox Church is Tiras.  Or maybe Ecclesiastically the Slavs are just Gomer and Togarmah (or Gomer via Togarmah) as those names are paired together in Ezekiel 38 allowing Riphath to still be Romania.  And Tiras can be Albania since the Orthodox Church of Albania's bishop is called the Archbishop of Tirana, Durres and Albania.  Many Linguists do believe Albanian is the modern descendent of the language of the Ancient Thracians.

Madai is perhaps the most difficult son of Japheth to fit into this model.  We could say he represents Eastern Orthodox minorities who exist in former regions of the Medo-Persian Empire, like the Antiochian Orthodox Church and Eastern Orthodox Communities in Egypt, Sinai and Jerusalem.  But maybe also Madai being the most separated from the other sons of Japheth resulted in him being the only one left out and so Madai is still Zoroastrianism.  Either way the various Muslims of Iran I think are the spiritual descendants of Semites.

Apparently some Kurdish Christians have been Eastern Orthodox, though most have preferred the “Nestorian” Church.  And I have in the past on this blog speculated on the theory that the Kurds partly descend from the Medes, while also partly descending from Israelites.

What gives this thesis interesting implications for Prophecy is that I’ve kind of argued for the Eastern Orthodox Church possibly being the religion through which The Antichrist will rise to power in posts like the one on the Vicar of Christ Doctrine and where I argue for Justinian being a key to understanding Daniel 7.  Meanwhile I also have a post arguing for Iapetos a Greek form of Japheth being the name 666 points to.

I don’t want this theory being used to demonize the Eastern Orthodox however, as often happens with those looking to Catholicism or Islam for The Antichrist.  The Eastern Orthodox are fellow true Believers who I feel have at times been better stewards of The Gospel then any of us Western Christians.  If this is what happens it’ll be The Antichrist taking advantage of what they’ve gotten wrong as well as what they’ve gotten right.

David Bentley Hart is a Greek Orthodox whose main criticism of his own denomination is their tendency to wind up serving the state, which he sees manifesting today in how Putin is using the Russian Orthodox Church.  He doesn’t seem like someone who’s eschatology is Futurist and so wouldn’t endorse my theory for that reason but it’s something to note.

You might say that the Eastern Orthodox has been no less Statist than the Western Churches.  However the messy relationship between Church and State in Catholic and Protectant nations has mostly been Churches bending the state to their will, for better or for worse.  It is the Eastern Orthodox who have been most inclined to simply do what the Emperor says, even when that Emperor is ofically an Atheist like Stalin.

Below the Jump Break is some supplementary speculation that isn't actually important.

No one in America thought Hitler was The Antichrist (a follow up post)

 This is a follow up to this post.

https://midseventiethweekrapture.blogspot.com/2019/08/did-anyone-actually-think-hitler-was.html

I've done some more research on this topic largely thanks to a book called Naming The Antichrist: The History of an American Obsession which focuses on the history of popular Antichrist views among Futurist Americans.

In that prior post I talked about the Mussolini theory existing at the time, and well it wasn't just a couple people, the popular mainstream view among most Futurist Evangelicals especially the Dispensationaliists was that he would be either Mussolini or rise to power via the League of Nations, and of course some combined those views.

The reason none of these Christians who were anti-Communist looked to Stalin or the USSR is because they viewed Magog as Russia.  And while occasionally some have tried to make Gog and the Antichrist the same person they've generally been viewed as separate, and it turns out at this time it was popular to view Gog and the Antichrist as being adversaries.  So yeah the anti-Bolshevism of the Fascists in that context further helped make them an Antichrist candidate agaisnt Stalin as Gog.

But what about the fringe minorities who broke from standard Dispensationalist orthodoxy?  Well only one alternative approach to Bible Prophecy of this era was considered worth noting by this book anyway, and that was the views of William Dudley Pelley and other members of his Silver Legion of America commonly called The Silver Shirts.  They were the progenitors of what we today know as the Christian Identity Movement, an Antisemtic offshoot of British Israelism (which was Philosemitic originally).

The internet talks a lot about Post-War American Neo-Fascism, but the Silver Legion of America was one of the actual American Fascist Parties of the Fascist era.  However they were distinct from their European Counterparts in the way they incorporated aspects of traditional American Fundamentalist Apocalypticism.  Pelley said different seemingly contradictory things about the Identity of The Antichrist.  He accused The Jews, Communists, FDR and Bernard Baruch.  What's interesting is that what he said about Hitler makes him the opposite of The Antichrist.  

There is no real basis in Revelation for some good mortal political leader who'll be opposed to or precede the Antichrist, but Extra-Biblical traditions have constantly tried to create one, from the Last Roman Emperor to the Great Catholic Monarch to the Islamic Mahdi tradition to Mormonism's Rider on the White Horse prophecy. Back when people thought Napoleon was the Antichrist this role was given to Tsar Alexander and maybe also Wellington. Among those turn of the Millennium Evangelical End Times movies there were two that gave some role like this to a Last President of the United States Megiddo: The Omega Code 2 and Left Behind: World At War.  The Silver Shirts opposed the then current President however, Pelley was such a fan of Hitler that he seemed to be all for giving this unofficial Prophetic role to Hitler.

This was a very minority fringe belief however, Pelley ran in the 1936 Presidential Election but couldn't even get close to 0.03% of the vote.  Most Americans who had Futurist views of Bible Prophecy couldn't see Hitler as positioned to be relevant at all.

You may think, "if Hitler's geographical position as leading a country seemingly not mentioned in The Bible is a reason he wasn't eligible then how has accusing US Presidents been so popular?".  I think part of it is a logic similar to the Uncanny Valley, Germany was close enough to the Biblical World that the Prophets could have had a frame of reference to identify it, but the American Continents are so far removed that of course they couldn't have explained them to people living in Judea 2000 years ago.

But also American Exceptionalism has caused American Christians to ignore all logic when it comes to their wanting America to be in Bible Prophecy.  

Historicists of the era focused on the Vatican as they always do, and that never fit the Nazis who were quite Anti-Catholic.  But while Mussolini was also anti-Clerical originally he did wind up making a deal with the Vatican that has made him stay relevant to Historicism to this day.

The only people who might have seen Hitler as the Antichrist were Catholics in Germany and the countries Hitler invaded.  Maybe also the descendants of the Husites in Bohemia.  But I don't even know how to begin investigating that topic in English.

It's also possible some Jews of the time may have identified him with Armilus.  But I also know no Muslims called him the Dajjal because the Nazis actually made a cozy alliance with the radical Muslims in their war agaisnt The Jews.

Why do I want to talk about this subject so much?  Because the commonly unsourced claim that people thought Hitler was the Antichrist encourages a bad stereotype of Futurists, that we can see the Antichrist anywhere.  But the fact is at least during this era they knew certain requirements were necessary besides just being Popular or Evil enough.

Daniel 9:27 is about The Cross

I've already talked about how I now believe the 70th Week of Daniel is Nisan of 30 AD to Adar of 37 AD.

But I've been putting a lot of thought into specifically Daniel 9:27 and am starting to think it's about The Passion in even more ways.

First of all what is the Abomination?  

This ties in with how I have come to view John 5:43 as fulfilled by John 19:15 when the Chief Priest says "We have no King but Caesar".  I've already talked about how Israel demanding a Human King was them rejecting YHWH as their King, and Caesar was being worshiped as a living God in the Eastern Provinces.  The High Priest committed this idolatrous Abomination the same day he later had to offer the Passover Sacrifice in The Temple.

And as I've pointed out before the "he" associated with the Abomination isn't in the Hebrew, it's not identifying any person as setting it up.

The Hebrew word for "Desolation" or "Desolate" is a word that can also be translated "Abandoned" Jeremiah's Desolation of Jerusalem is about Jerusalem being depopulated after it was conquered by Nebuchadnezzar, but it can also be connected to YHWH's Divine presence leaving The Temple at that same time.  Whatever Divine presence the Second Temple had (in John 4) left it at or before Pentecost to indwell in The Church which is why it's gone in Acts 7.

This word is used twice in Daniel 9:27 however.  In the KJV the verse ends with "upon the desolate" in some translations the last word is "desolator" but in the Young's Literal Translation it's "Desolate one".  On the Cross I think the "abandoned one" is Jesus "my God, my God, why has thou Forsaken me".  

The Consummation and that which was determined or "the decreed end" was poured out onto Jesus on The Cross and then He said "it is finished".

I'm considering a very unique hunch on The Temple's Location

[This theory I'm abandoning for now Update October 2020]