Daniel Chapter 11: Overview

The King James Version (KJV) is mostly used in these lessons. Click here to access the KJV online.

The Heavenly Father wants none to be taken unawares. In His infinite love and wisdom, He has provided very clear prophetic markers by which all can know where we are in the stream of history.

The Future Written In The Past

Students of prophecy have always known that the books of Daniel and Revelation are Heaven’s gift to the final generation, revealing the future from the dusty realms of the distant past. Now, however, new light has revealed that the prophecies contained in Daniel 11 are not future incidents but, rather, are events that have already occurred! The night is far past. The dawn approaches, but multitudes sleep on completely oblivious to the fact that the world is ending and probation, for some, could be closing in the next few months.

Daniel 11 has confused many Bible students. It is full of references to a mysterious “King of the North” and an equally baffling “King of the South” who seem to be in a long-running war, each pushing at the other. While most of the chapter has been understood to have occurred in the past, verses 40 to 45 in particular have typically been viewed as events still to unfold in the future. Satan has encouraged this interpretation in the hopes of catching the world off-guard.

The truth is, verses 40 to 45 have already occurred and there are not two kings mentioned in Daniel 11, but three:

1. The King of the North
2. The King of the South
3. The “willful” King

The understanding of these symbols constitutes an alarming wake up call to every person living on earth. Before proceeding to identify them, it is worthwhile to take a moment to read over the applicable verses:

³⁶ And the king shall do according to his will; and he shall exalt himself, and magnify himself above every god, and shall speak marvellous things against the God of gods, and shall prosper till the indignation be accomplished: for that that is determined shall be done.

³⁷ Neither shall he regard the God of his fathers, nor the desire of women, nor regard any god: for he shall magnify himself above all.

³⁸ But in his estate shall he honour the God of forces: and a god whom his fathers knew not shall he honour with gold, and silver, and with precious stones, and pleasant things.

³⁹ Thus shall he do in the most strong holds with a strange god, whom he shall acknowledge and increase with glory: and he shall cause them to rule over many, and shall divide the land for gain.

⁴⁰ And at the time of the end shall the King of the South push at him: and the King of the North shall come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots, and with horsemen, and with many ships; and he shall enter into the countries, and shall overflow and pass over.

⁴¹ He shall enter also into the glorious land, and many countries shall be overthrown: but these shall escape out of his hand, even Edom, and Moab, and the chief of the children of Ammon.

⁴² He shall stretch forth his hand also upon the countries: and the land of Egypt shall not escape.

43 But he shall have power over the treasures of gold and of silver, and over all the precious things of Egypt: and the Libyans and the Ethiopians shall be at his steps.

⁴⁴ But tidings out of the east and out of the north shall trouble him: therefore he shall go forth with great fury to destroy, and utterly to make away many.

⁴⁵ And he shall plant the tabernacles of his palace between the seas in the glorious holy mountain; yet he shall come to his end, and none shall help him. (Daniel 11:36-45, KJV)

WLC is convinced that the identity of these three powers is of great significance to those living on earth at this time. Knowing who they are reveals where we are in the stream of history.

• The King of the North is the Ottoman Empire.
• The King of the South is Egypt.
• The Willful King is Napoleon/France.

The end of the world, the closing up of time as we know it, is not just a point in time. It is also a process. During this process, a number of things have to occur. The King of the North, the King of the South and the Willful King were all powers, raised up by Yahuwah, to do an appointed work, at an appointed time.

The Willful King

There can be no doubt whatsoever that the Willful King who exalted and magnified himself above every god, who honored the God of forces and “a god whom his fathers knew not,” the king who regarded “not the desire of women,” is none other than Napoleon Bonaparte and the country of France. A careful, verse by verse exposition of the identifying hallmarks that link the Willful King to Napoleon and France is beyond the scope of this article. However, suffice it to say that Napoleon was raised up by Yahuwah to act an important part in closing events.

On February 10, 1798, General Louis-Alexandre Berthier, acting on Napoleon’s orders, marched into Rome. Pope Pius VI had been hostile to the ever increasingly atheistic French. When he refused to submit to French authority, General Berthier took him prisoner on February 20 and hustled him out of the city under cover of darkness. The aging pontiff was moved from place to place until he finally died in exile the following year.

Taking the pope prisoner was an incredibly audacious act, one unheard of and completely unprecedented up to that time. Kings had trembled at the displeasure of popes. It was a long fall from the days when Pope Gregory VII kept the Holy Roman Emperor, Henry IV, kneeling in the snow for three days before granting him forgiveness. Henry IV had called the pope a “false monk” and a usurper—an action, for which, the pope retaliated by telling Henry’s subjects that they did not have to obey him.⁴ Napoleon did more than sling words. He actually took the pope prisoner.

Napoleon’s daring move marked the end of 1260 years of papal domination. Daniel had prophesied of this long time when the persecuting power of the papacy would hold sway, stating: “And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time.” (Daniel 7:25, KJV)

John the Revelator had predicted the ending to this long time span, declaring:

And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy. And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast. (Revelation 13:1 & 3, KJV)

The declarations of Yahuwah are as firm as His throne. His purposes cannot be hastened nor delayed. At the right time, Heaven freed France from its papal oppressors and raised up Napoleon Bonaparte to be the needed change agent. Taking the pope prisoner inflicted the deadly wound on the papacy. It brought to an end 1260 years of papal dominance and began, as a process, the time of the end.

King of the South Pushes At France

If there were any doubt as to the identity of the Willful King being Napoleon/France, this interpretation is confirmed by the Franco-Egyptian War. This serves additionally to identify the King of the South as Egypt, for the actions of Egypt against France perfectly fulfill the prophecy of Daniel:

And at the time of the end shall the King of the South push at him [the Willful King]: and the King of the North shall come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots, and with horsemen, and with many ships; and he shall enter into the countries, and shall overflow and pass over.

He shall enter also into the glorious land, and many countries shall be overthrown: but these shall escape out of his hand, even Edom, and Moab, and the chief of the children of Ammon.

He shall stretch forth his hand also upon the countries: and the land of Egypt shall not escape.

But he shall have power over the treasures of gold and of silver, and over all the precious things of Egypt: and the Libyans and the Ethiopians shall be at his steps.

But tidings out of the east and out of the north shall trouble him: therefore he shall go forth with great fury to destroy, and utterly to make away many.

And he shall plant the tabernacles of his palace between the seas in the glorious holy mountain; yet he shall come to his end, and none shall help him. (Daniel 11:40-45, KJV)

Again, a text-by-text analysis of this passage is beyond the scope of this article. However, Egypt did indeed “push at” France and in the very year specified in the prophecy as being “at the time of the end”!

Egypt, under the rule of the Mamluks, had virtually destroyed French trade with Egypt. It was to rectify this situation, and probably with the intent to make Egypt a French colony, that Napoleon invaded Egypt in 1798 – the very year that began the “time of the end”!

Egypt’s destruction of her trade with France was not a huge offense. Egypt merely “pushed at” France. France’s response, however, set off a long chain of reactions with some very unintended consequences.

Reaping The Whirlwind

And at the time of the end shall the King of the South push at him [the Willful King]: and the King of the North shall come against him like a whirlwind… (Daniel 11:40, KJV)

Napoleon had assumed that the Ottoman Empire would be grateful at best, neutral at worst, for the French overthrow of the Mamluks who themselves had previously fought against Ottoman rule.

France had traditionally been allied with the Ottoman Empire, and at least for the moment there was no intention of disrupting this. The French plan relied heavily on the Ottomans staying at least neutral, counting on their hostility to the Mamluks … overweighing their anger at the French invasion of what was still officially an Ottoman province.⁵

Napoleon's fleet was virtually annihilated by the British at the Battle of the Nile. Only two French ships escaped, leaving Napoleon’s forces stranded in Egypt and cut off from all supplies. The battle cost the British 200 lives while the French lost 1,700, with an additional 3,000 captured.  Image by George Arnald.

This arguably naïve assumption on the part of the French was proven false when, on August 1, 1798, British admiral, Horatio Nelson, destroyed the French fleet.

Any real chance that the Ottoman Empire would accept the French conquest ended after Nelson destroyed the French fleet at the battle of the Nile (1 August). British diplomacy at Istanbul was now able to steer the Empire towards outright opposition, and on 9 September 1798 the Ottoman Empire declared war on France … Napoleon now had to face the real danger of invasion by land and by sea. Two Ottoman armies were to be involved in the invasion. The army of Damascus was to advance through Syria and Palestine and attack Egypt across the Sinai. Another army, to be formed on Rhodes, would, with protection from the Royal Navy, land near the Nile. The French would be surrounded and outnumbered.⁶

This was a complete fulfillment of Daniel 11:40-45 as the Ottoman Empire/King of the North, in its attempt to drive out the French, did indeed enter the “glorious land”. Many countries were overthrown and Egypt ended up paying a tribute to the Ottoman Empire, in accordance with the sure word of prophecy which had declared: “the land of Egypt shall not escape. But he shall have power over the treasures of gold and of silver, and over all the precious things of Egypt.” (Daniel 11:42-43, KJV)

Russia and Persia, from the north and east of the Ottoman Empire, began annexing parts of the Ottoman Empire bordering their territories. This enraged the Ottoman Empire, which reacted with great anger, eventually leading to the genocide of the Armenian Christians under suspicion that they had aided Russia. According to the International Association of Genocide Scholars, “More than a million⁷ Armenians were exterminated through direct killing, starvation, torture, and forced death marches.”⁸ According to the sure word of Yahuwah, the Ottoman Empire as the King of the North, did indeed “go forth with great fury to destroy, and utterly to make away many.” (Daniel 11:44, KJV)

None Shall Help Him

And he shall plant the tabernacles of his palace between the seas in the glorious holy mountain; yet he shall come to his end, and none shall help him. (Daniel 11:45, KJV)

Shortly before the King of the North/Ottoman Empire came to his end, he did indeed “plant the tabernacles of his palace” in Palestine by moving part of his seat of government there.

The strength of the governors depended not only on their personal skills, but also on the authority given them by the central government in Istanbul... In the late nineteenth century, during the reign of Abdülhamid II, governors were appointed from among the palace secretaries of the Sultan, including Ekrem Bey, Governor of Jerusalem from 1906 and 1908. Later at the beginning of the twentieth century, governors were appointed by the Young Turks among Turkish officials.⁹

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, Father of the Turks, 1881-1938

Only a few years later, the King of the North came to his end, and none helped him. Just as Napoleon was the sword of Yahuwah to give a deadly wound to the papacy, Mustafa Kemal was raised up by Yahuwah to give Islam a deadly wound.

Kemal was a war hero in the Turkish War of Independence, driving the British, French and Greeks from Turkey. Kemal used his popularity to establish the Republic of Turkey. “The natural choice [for first president] was Mustafa Kemal, the hero of the War of Independence, who now took on the title of ‘Atatürk’, meaning ‘Father of the Turks’.”¹⁰

Kemal was a brilliant strategist and a skilled statesman. He wanted to modernize Turkey and he saw the best way to do this was by divorcing her from the Islamic religion that had been an integral part of the Ottoman Empire.

Atatürk [Kemal] and his associates started to publicly question the value of religion and held the view religion was not compatible with modern science and secularism was imperative for modernity. Thus Ataturk regime began step by step to implement the Kemalist ideology with a radical reformation of the Turkish society withthe aim of modernizing Turkey from the remnants of its Ottoman past.¹¹

One of the first things Kemal did was to abolish the Ottoman sultanate and transform the caliphate into a mere figurehead. The caliphate had existed since the death of the Prophet Mohammed and was revered as a religious authority by Muslims in many different countries. Within a year and a half of eliminating the sultanate, Kemal and the Grand National Assembly abolished the caliphate as well.

The incredible reforms initiated by Kemal were very far-reaching and were completely unprecedented. No Muslims, in a Muslim country, had ever brought about such reforms.

• The constitution of the Republic of Turkey was changed so that Islam was no longer the state religion.
• Shariah law was replaced with European legal codes.
• The traditional garb of religious leaders was outlawed.
• Turbans and fezzes were outlawed for men, while western-style hats were encouraged.
• Women’s hijabs were ridiculed and banned from all public buildings.
• The solar Gregorian calendar replaced the lunar Islamic calendar.
• Arabic script was replaced with Latin letters. This kept the younger generations unable to read many records, and thus, ignorant of their true history. It also made it impossible to read the Qu’ran in the original language.
• Religious schools were closed.
• The government seized over 70,000 mosques and restricted the building of new ones. The confiscated mosques were converted to museums or were used for secular purposes.
• The Ministry of National Education oversaw all religious instruction.
• Sufi (a sect of Islam) monasteries, meeting houses and lodges were confiscated. Their rituals and meetings were outlawed.
• The government appointed muftis and imams and kept oversight of them.
• The Arabic word for God, “Allah,” was replaced with the Turkish equivalent: “Tanri.”
• The Muslim call to prayer was banned in Arabic. Henceforth, it must be made in Turkish.
• The weekend no longer included Friday, the traditional Islamic day for prayers. Instead, the weekend followed the European example of having Saturday and Sunday for days off work.

Rebellion to the secular agenda was quashed promptly and brutally, the Seyh Sait rebellion alone cost almost 30,000 lives.

All of these reforms worked together to effectively erase Islam from the lives of the everyday Turks. Despite the best efforts of religious-minded Turks … to preserve their heritage, language, and religion, the government’s pressure to adopt secular ideas was too much. For over 80 years, Turkish government remained vehemently secular. Attempts to bring back Islamic values into government have been met with resistance by the military, which views itself as the protector of Atatürk’s secularism.¹²

Like the papacy before it, the Ottoman Empire (and Islam in general) had received a deadly wound at the very time prophesied in Daniel. The King of the North had come to his end and none helped him.

The Time Of Trouble

There were no chapter breaks when Daniel wrote his prophecies. Daniel 12:1 immediately followed Daniel 11:45 in the original manuscripts. It is of staggering import: “And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book.” (Daniel 12:1, emphasis supplied.)

For the first time in history, a pope became king with the signing of the Lateran Treaty.

At what time?

When the King of the North came to his end. At that time, the time of trouble began!

Nineteen twenty-two was an extremely important and significant year in the stream of prophetic history. In 1922, the Ottoman Empire, with its influence over all of Islam, was ended. The King of the North had come to his end with none to help.  In that very same year, Pope Pius XI ascended the papal throne. Almost to the very day, seven years (or one sabbatical cycle) later, Benito Mussolini and Pope Pius XI signed the Lateran Treaty, which “recognized papal sovereignty over the Vatican City…and secured full independence for the pope…[The treaty] gave the city of Rome a special character as the ‘centre of the Catholic world and place of pilgrimage.’ ”¹³ For the first time in history, the pope himself became a “king.” He held independent political dominion over Vatican City and could send and receive ambassadors from the various governments of the world.

Thus at the very time the King of the North came to his end, the time of trouble began when the “deadly wound” (given the papacy by France) was healed. This is extremely important because this signified that the count of the eight kings spoken of in Revelation 17:10-11, had begun. There can be no doubt that the fall of the Ottoman Empire in 1922, dovetailing with the start of the count of the eight kings, represents the perfect fulfillment of Daniel 11:45.

The time of the end began in 1798 when the papacy received a deadly wound. The time of trouble began in 1922, when the first of the eight kings ascended the papal throne, preparatory to the deadly wound being healed.

The focus given the “seven last plagues,” spoken of in Revelation 16, has led to a generalized assumption that the period when the plagues are falling is The [Official] Time Of Trouble. And that will be a most horrible time. However, during that time, Yahuwah’s people will be preserved and none of the righteous will lose their lives.

World War I veterans, desperate for help, would turn to sculptors to create facial prostheses for missing eyes, noses, even jaws.

The time of trouble spoken of in Daniel 12:1 is much broader. While it does include the seven last plagues, it also encompasses time since 1922.

More people have lost their lives during the 20^th century than at any other time period in history. “The total number of military and civilian casualties in World War I, was around 40 million. There were 20 million deaths and 21 million wounded.”¹⁴ Twenty-one million wounded had far more devastation back then when medical science was not as advanced, than such injuries would have today.

And this was but the precursor to the time of trouble! When compared to the devastation of World War II, this is but a fraction of lives lost or shattered. “World War II killed more people, destroyed more property, disrupted more lives, and probably had more far-reaching consequences than any other war in history.”¹⁵

Estimates for the total casualties of World War II, Most suggest that some 60 million people died in the world war II, including about 20 million soldiers and 40 million civilians. Many civilians died because of disease, starvation, massacres, bombing and deliberate genocide. The Soviet Union lost around 27 million people during the war, almost half of all World War II deaths. One of every four Soviet citizens was killed or wounded in that war.¹⁶

The devastation wrought on the human race during the 20^th century is unprecedented in world history.

Never before in history have we had two such devastating wars within 100 years, yet these two wars occurred within 30 years of each other. Since World War II and even before it there has been one war after another. Between the two world wars, we had the Russian Civil war, costing up to 9 million lives, and before that the Mexican Revolution in 1911 which killed 2 million. In 1950 the Korean War killed 3 million, 500 thousand. Then we had Vietnam with 6 million, 20 thousand. The second Sudanese War from 1983 to 2005 costing 2 million. The Iran-Iraq war of 1980 to1988 with 2 million. The second Congo War of 1998 to 2003 with 5 million 400 thousand. The war on terror itself has claimed more than 4 million lives. When you add the figures together the total is 146 million, 920 thousand. This makes the last 100 years the deadliest century in history, just from the warfare and there were many more conflicts during this time that we didn’t even mention!

To put these numbers in perspective consider that the …19^th century saw about 82 million deaths from warfare, 60 million of these were from the Taiping rebellion in China in the 1860’s. Also consider that the Crusades which covered a span of 200 hundred years killed up to 9 million and the Mongol invasions lasted for 300 years and killed up to 60 million.¹⁷

But these statistics reveal only part of the story: deaths due to war. Stalin’s terror famine in the Ukraine, Holodomor, an artificially created disaster¹⁸, claimed over 17 million lives in 1932-1933 alone.

The Great Famine of China, which took place from 1958-61, is one of the greatest tragedies of recorded history, killing between 14 and 40 million people. The typical estimate is generally placed around 30 million people. To compare this number with other major human death tolls, World War II may have killed 80 million people in total. But while these people were starving, information about the famine was greatly suppressed and what did get out about the harvest figures was manipulated.¹⁹

The 1932-1933 famine in the Ukraine, known today as Holodomor (Ukrainian: Голодомо́р, "Extermination by hunger" or "Hunger-extermination"), was a planned genocide of Europe’s “bread basket.” There was no actual shortage of grain. Rather, the grain was locked away in granaries and purposefully kept from the people.

And these are but two of many famines the world has seen since 1922. Hundreds of millions have died due to disease since the time of trouble began and, despite medical advances, the diseases are getting more virulent and harder to treat. So-called “natural disasters” have claimed the lives of hundreds of million more. The suffering experienced boggles the mind. The new norm is record breaking extremes: in heat, in drought, in cold, in hurricane strength, in perciptation. And the list goes on and on and on. There were only 78 natural disasters reported in 1978 as opposed to 348 in 2004. And in the years since then, the numbers have skyrocketed, as have the deaths from these events.

Truly, the years since 1922 have been “a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to [this] same time.” The immense suffering of the 20^th and early 21^st centuries were forecast in the prophecies of Daniel. These tragedies will only increase in the near future, followed by the pouring out of the seven last plagues.

It is during this time of trouble that Michael stands up.

Michael Stands Up

And at that time shall Michael stand up … and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time… (Daniel 12:1)

The act of Michael standing is a most solemn event. It signifies that probation is about to close for a great part of earth’s population. Probation closed for the Israelite nation when, at Stephen’s trial, they finally and fully rejected the Saviour:

When they heard these things, they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed on him with their teeth. But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up stedfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of Yahuwah, and Yahushua standing on the right hand of Yah, And said, Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of Yahuwah. (Acts 7:54-56, KJV)

The Eighth Pope

The advanced age of Pope Francis, the eighth and last king, is an urgent, blaring testimony to how soon these events will take place.

Pope Francis I is the eighth and final pope foretold in Revelation 17. He is an old man. He has already lived longer than the average man. It is during his reign that Michael will stand. This means that it is during his few remaining years, the final events of the current age foretold in Scripture will take place. Yahushua’s ministration in the Most Holy Place will end, the seven last plagues will be poured out on the lost, and the Saviour will return in triumph and glory to set up Yahuwah’s everlasting kingdom on earth.

Prophecy is generally understood only at the time of its fulfillment. The fact that the world has been in the time of trouble since 1922, the fact that even now the eighth and final king sits on "Peter’s throne," declares that the time for Michael to stand is now! Within just a few months, the probation for the elect [the 144.000] will be closing and they will receive the seal of Yahuwah. It is time for every sincere believer to search his or her heart, make a full surrender to Yahushua, and lay aside “every weight and the sin that so easily doth beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us.” (Hebrews 12:1, KJV)

Now is the most solemn time in which to be living. There are very few events left to be fulfilled before Yahushua is seen in the clouds of glory. There are but a few short months to the brink of disaster and the final events that will trigger the end. The time for character perfection is almost over. None can delay or postpone a preparation but at the most dangerous risk to their soul. Every sin and defect must be overcome through faith in Him who has already conquered all.

Everything is now in place. All that is left is for the fall of the Seven Trumpets foretold in Revelation 8-9. These begin with a horrific earthquake. The trumpets follow in quick succession. Once begun, there will be no respite until the end.

The Fifth Trumpet, which is so terrible Scripture refers to it as the First Woe, will catapult Pope Francis to be the head of the New World Order, as foretold in Revelation 17:12-14. The satanic delusions of alien invasion during this time will be dreadful and only those who are grounded upon the Word of Yah will be able to stand, unshaken, for the truth. When Pope Francis has been elevated to world leader, he will wage the fiercest war ever seen against Yahuwah and His law-abiding followers. The false Sabbath will be enforced and the true Sabbath will be outlawed throughout the countries of the world.

The stage is set. All the players are in place. The only thing standing between the masses and the final test is the sounding of the trumpets.

The warning markers of prophesy declare that time is ending. All who love Yahuwah will surrender fully to Him to be cleansed of every defilement. All will make self-sacrificing efforts to win the lost to Him. The end is here! Yahushua is on His way!

Get ready! Get ready! Get ready!