Does the History of Turkey and Egypt Since 1798 Fulfil the Prophecy of Dan. 11:40-44?
By Arthur G. Daniells
Speaking of the four kingdoms into which Grecia was divided in the year 301 B. C., the prophecy says: “And the king of the south shall be strong.” Dan. 11:5. That kingdom was Egypt, over which Ptolemy reigned. At the time of the division, that kingdom was the strongest of the four. But the prophecy immediately adds: “And one of his [Alexander’s] princes; and he shall be strong above him, and have dominion; his dominion shall be a great dominion.” Verse 5. This prediction evidently points to Seleucus, who, before his death, had united the eastern, western, and northern divisions into one. These changes came about in this way: Cassander became king of Macedon B. C. 301. He soon added Greece to his kingdom, which he held until his death. “On the death of Cassander, in 297, the Macedonian crown fell on his eighteen-year-old sickly son, Philip IV, who left it four months later to his brother Antipater. . . . In Macedonia the sons of Cassander, Antipater and Alexander, quarreled furiously. Alexander fled to Demetrius, who put him to death on the charge of conspiring against his life, won over the Macedonian army, drove out Antipater, and found himself, in 293, king of Macedonia without a rival. He now thought to repeat the career of Alexander the Great, and prepared immense armaments. This aroused the other kings against him. The Macedonians were disgusted by his debauchery; and when war broke out in 288, his army went over in a body to Pyrrhus (king of Epirus), who seized the kingdom of Macedonia. . . . Lysimachus, in 287, drove Pyrrhus back into Epirus, seizing Macedonia for himself.”—“History of All Nations,” Vol. III, pages 388-395. Lysimachus had, before adding Cassander’s kingdom to his own, extended his territory in Europe northward to the river Danube, and in Asia Minor he had pushed his conquests eastward to the Taurus Mountains, which run in a north-easterly direction from the eastern shore of the Mediterranean. After his conquest of Macedon, the dominion of Lysimachus extended from the Pindus mountain range, which runs north and south along the western boundary of Macedon, to the Taurus in the eastern part of Asia Minor. Thus, as Helmolt says, “Lysimachus had united under his rule a great part of Alexander’s empire.” Durny says, “Lysimachus ruled from the Pindus to the Taurus,” and another adds, “over an empire as beautiful as he could have wished.” Thus at this point, 287 B. C., the western kingdom drops out, leaving but three kingdoms—Egypt, Syria, and Thrace. But this tripartite division did not continue long. “The great power of Lysimachus and that of Seleucus could not fail to come into collision, with the more certainty because their territories were adjacent. The intrigue which cost the life of Agathocles, the son of Lysimachus, brought about open hostilities between them. The widow of the young prince fled to Seleucus, and besought him to avenge her husband. The kings of Thrace and Syria were the only generals of Alexander who now remained on the throne—the former seventy-four years of age, the latter seventy-seven. These two old men fought with each other in the plain of Cyras in Phrygia, and Lysimachus was conquered and slain (281 B. C.). With him his empire fell, and the number of kings remaining was for the moment reduced to two, by the union of Thrace, Macedon, and Asia in the hands of Seleucus. The former satrap of Babylon [Seleucus] ruled, therefore, over the whole of Alexander’s empire except Greece and Egypt.”—“History of Greece,” by Durny, Vol. IV, pages 294-304. Describing this same event Helmolt says: “This was the cause of the war which broke out in 281 B. C. between Lysimachus and Seleucus. They met at Corupedium: Lysimachus lost the battle, and was killed, and Seleucus entered on his inheritance in Asia Minor and Europe.”—“The World’s History,” Vol. IV, page 146. This situation in the year 281 B. C. exactly meets the specifications of the prophecy. There are now but two divisions of the Grecian Empire. One is in the south, a strong kingdom, the other in the north, a greater and stronger dominion stretching from Persia in the east to Macedon in the west. These are the two kingdoms designated in verses 5-15 as “the king of the south” and “the king of the north.” These two kingdoms, founded by Ptolemy and Seleucus, for more than one hundred years fulfilled every detail foretold in the ten verses that follow their introduction into the prophecy. Can there be any difficulty in determining which is the kingdom of the south, and which the kingdom of the north?—Surely not. The location of100their territory makes this unmistakably plain. One is in the south, the other in the north. It matters not whether their boundaries remain precisely the same at all times. Sometimes the kingdom of the south extended farther north into Palestine and the Grecian archipelago than at other times. Seleucus and his successors did not always retain all their territory at the extreme limits east and west. Syria and all of Asia Minor in the north remained intact and continued to be ‘the king of the north’ without a break, to the time when a new power is introduced by the prophecy in verse 16. These plain facts of prophecy and history show us, we firmly believe, where to look for the king of the south and the king of the north, brought to view in verse 40. We are to look to the southern division of the Grecian Empire for the king of the south, and to the northern division for the king of the north. It is not the particular king nor dynasty, but the particular locality that constitutes one the king of the south or the king of the north. The king of the south, whatever nation it may be, is such because it is in the south; and so of the north. The kings may die and the dynasties may change, but the locations remain, and whatever nation may be ruling in either of these divisions at any time is the king of the division, whether south or north. Having given the plainest information regarding the place, the order of development, and the history of these kingdoms for nearly two centuries, the prophecy introduces other powers with no word to indicate whether they will be brought forward again or not. But after passing over a period of two thousand years of time, suddenly the prophecy says: ‘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.’ Verse 40. Any one having read the preceding part of the prophecy would most naturally, promptly, and consistently look to Egypt and Asia Minor as the kingdoms here brought to view. At the time of the end, 1798, Egypt, the king of the south, was ruled by the Mamelukes. Syria, Asia Minor, Thrace, and Macedon had been for centuries the Turkish Empire. These were the kingdoms of the south and north at that time. These were the two powers that were to be at war with another power called ‘him’ in 1798.