GodIsGreat2me said:
Who is they?
Who the people in Daniel 2:43 are might best be understood by reading Daniel 2 in the light of Daniel 7.
In Daniel 7, the fourth beast, or fourth "king"/"kingdom" (Daniel 7:17,23), is the ancient Roman Empire. The ten horns/kings (Daniel 7:7,24) which come out of it could be the same as the ten horns/kings of the future empire of the Antichrist (Revelation 13:1, Revelation 17:3). These ten horns/kings could represent ten major endtime kingdoms/nations which came out of the former territory of the Roman Empire. The Roman Empire consisted not only of Western Europe, but also the Middle East and North Africa. So the ten major endtime nations which (at least in part) came out of the former territory of the Roman Empire could be Germany, the U.K., France, Italy, Spain, Turkey, Egypt, Iraq, Algeria, and Syria.
The ten toes of Daniel 2:42 could represent the same thing as the ten horns of Daniel 7:7, Revelation 13:1, and Revelation 17:3. Five of the toes could be of iron and the other five of clay. Germany, the U.K., France, Italy, and Spain could be the iron toes, and Turkey, Egypt, Iraq, Algeria, and Syria could be the clay toes. In Daniel 2:43, the inability of the iron to mix with the clay could represent how, for example, there are many Turkish people living in Germany, but they remain separated in Turkish ghettoes within German cities. Similarly, there are many Algerian people living in France, but they remain separated in Algerian ghettoes within French cities.
But even despite this social separation, which could endure indefinitely, the people of Western Europe on the one hand and the people of the Middle East and North Africa on the other could still one day put aside their political separation and become united into one massive confederation. The person who could succeed in bringing this about could be none other than the Antichrist.
The Antichrist (the little horn) will arise from a country which is "diverse" from the ten major nations (Daniel 7:24), and he will first gain control of three of them (Daniel 7:24). Subsequently, he will gain control over all ten of them, and could appoint kings over them (Revelation 17:12) who will be completely dedicated to him (Revelation 17:13).
The Antichrist arising as a "little" horn (Daniel 7:8, Daniel 8:9) could mean that he will arise from a little country. And the Antichrist arising "among" the ten major nations the territory of which used to be part of the Roman Empire (Daniel 7:8) could mean that the territory of his little country also used to be part of the Roman Empire. And before it was part of the Roman Empire, the territory of the Antichrist's country had also been part of one of the four Diadochian Greek kingdoms which succeeded the Greek Empire of Alexander the Great (Daniel 8:8-9,21-25). The territory of these four Greek kingdoms stretched from Greece over to Iran, and down into Egypt. So the Antichrist could come from the Middle East. He could be an Arab who will come from the little country of Lebanon, from the modern city of Tyre (Ezekiel 28:2, cf. 2 Thessalonians 2:4).
The Antichrist could start out by claiming to be a Baathist. He could first peacefully gain control of a Baathist confederation of three of the ten major nations (Daniel 7:24): Egypt ("toward the south" of Lebanon: Daniel 8:9), Iraq and Syria ("toward the east" of Lebanon: Daniel 8:9). This confederation could also include the minor nation of a United Palestine (i.e. a defeated Israel, "the pleasant land": Daniel 8:9). This Baathist confederation could be put together in the future by an Iraqi Baathist General who will manage to completely defeat and occupy Israel and Egypt in a war (in Daniel 11:15-17, the original Hebrew word translated as "daughter" is "bath"), but who will then mysteriously disappear (Daniel 11:19) shortly before the Antichrist arises on the world scene (Daniel 11:21-45).
One way this war could happen is that the U.S. could build up the Iraqi Army until it's huge enough and well-equipped enough to serve as a proxy army (for the U.S. and Israel) for an all-out ground invasion of Iran (to end Iran's nuclear weapons program and extremist regime). As part of the buildup of the Iraqi Army, the U.S. could reinstall some of the former Baathist military hierarchy to run the Iraqi Army more efficiently and ruthlessly. And if the current Shiite-dominated government of Iraq balks at any invasion of fellow-Shiite Iran, the CIA and the Mossad could then help the Baathists (who see non-Arab Iran as an enemy of Arab autonomy) to take back complete control of Iraq via a coup d'etat.
But then, right when Iraq is all ready to invade Iran, the ultra-Orthodox Jews in Israel could destroy the Muslim Dome of the Rock and the Al Aqsa Mosque (the third holiest sites in Islam) on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, to prepare the site for the building of a third Jewish temple. This could so enrage Muslims worldwide, including the (Muslim) Iraqi Army, that the Iraqi Baathist Generals could see it as a perfect excuse to abandon the plan to invade huge Iran and instead turn and send their huge army against tiny Israel, completely defeating it (Daniel 11:15-17).
But this would not be the ultimate reason for the Baathist attack, which could continue on south to also defeat Egypt (Daniel 11:15), the regime of which (even if there is some ostensible change in Egypt) the Baathists could see as still being a puppet of the U.S., just as the Baathists could see Israel as being a colony of the U.S. The ultimate aim of Baathism is to unite all Arab lands from Oman to Morocco into one massive, powerful United Arab States free of all foreign hegemony.
The all-out Iraqi attack on Israel could be joined by the Baathist Syrian Army (with all of its missiles, many tipped with nerve agents), as well as by all of Iran's long-range missiles and all of Hizballah's and Hamas' missiles and guerrillas. Tiny Israel could find itself suddenly attacked from three directions at the same time, with thousands of missiles raining down all at once on all of its cities and military bases, and hundreds of Iraqi tanks (meant to occupy huge Iran) pouring across its borders. As Israel starts to see its tiny sliver of land completely overrun, and sees its defeat as imminent, in retaliation it could drop nuclear bombs on Baghdad, Damascus (Isaiah 17:1), Tehran, and all the other major cities of Iraq, Syria, and Iran.
There could be so many nuclear explosions sending so much radioactive dust and ash so high into the atmosphere that it could be blown eastward and fall on hugely-populated South Asia, ruining so many crop fields and immune systems there with radiation that a fourth of the world could end up dying from the war and its aftermath of famines and epidemics. This could fulfill the horrible war which will begin the coming tribulation, which war will, with its aftermath of famines and epidemics, end up killing a fourth of the world (Revelation 6:4-8). The "great sword" of this war (Revelation 6:4) could be Israel's nuclear weapons.
After the Iraqi Baathist General who led the defeat and occupation of Israel and Egypt mysteriously disappears from the scene (Daniel 11:19), the Antichrist, who could be an Arab, could arise peacefully out of Lebanon (from the modern city of Tyre: Ezekiel 28:2, cf. 2 Thessalonians 2:4), and he could take up the mantle of Baathism and vow to (in his words) "complete the great work of Arab liberation and unification".
The first thing the Antichrist could do once he's given control (Daniel 11:21) of a Baathist confederation of Iraq, Syria, Egypt and a "United Palestine" (i.e. a defeated Israel), is to perform a very small and localized attack against an army of ultra-Orthodox Jews holed up in the walled Old City of Jerusalem and led by a false ultra-Orthodox Jewish "Messiah" (Daniel 9:26, Daniel 11:22). They could have managed to hold off the first Baathist attack even as it overran the rest of Israel, because the walled Old City of Jerusalem is considered holy to the Muslims, and so it's not to be bombarded or destroyed. The Antichrist could manage in some way to take the Old City without doing it much harm.
Then, instead of executing all the ultra-Orthodox Jews and their false "Messiah", the Antichrist will do an amazing thing: he will make a peace treaty with them (Daniel 11:23); he will "cut" a peace treaty with them and their false "Messiah" (Daniel 9:26), permitting them to keep a third Jewish temple (Revelation 11:1) which they will have built on the Temple Mount in the Old City of Jerusalem, and to keep control of the Old City, for at least seven more years (Daniel 9:27), so long as they give up the outer court of the temple (Revelation 11:2) to the Muslims so that the Muslims can rebuild the Al Aqsa Mosque on the southern end of the Temple Mount and resume worship there.
By this seven-year peace treaty, the Antichrist could present himself to the world as (in his words): "A reasonable man, a man of peace. I am no Hitler. I do not desire a second Holocaust. I am willing to give the religious Jews in the Old City seven years to show that they are willing to live peacefully with others, that they are different than the Zionist Jews who have just destroyed the world with their nuclear weapons".
And if the Antichrist gets flak from his fellow Baathists for letting the ultra-Orthodox Jews keep the Old City, he could explain to them privately that (in his words) "It's all a temporary ruse, meant to keep world opinion off guard while we consolidate our position". The Baathists could consolidate their position by becoming so well dug-in, and so well equipped and advised militarily by the Russians (in the name of "Arab self-determination"), that a U.S. counter-attack to "take back" Israel and Egypt could fail, and leave the Baathists in control, and in a position to extend their power over all the rest of the Arab nations.
During the first few years of the seven-year peace treaty, the Antichrist could employ Baathism as the means by which he will gradually and peacefully put together a United Arab States, or Arab Union, stretching from Oman to Morocco. Once he has accomplished this, he could then begin to downplay Baathism and start speaking of "world peace and the unity of mankind". He could convince an oil-thirsty European Union to let the oil-rich Arab Union join it, thereby forming a massive Mediterranean Union, which he could manage to peacefully gain control of and use as his base of power to eventually exert his hegemony over the entire earth (Revelation 13:7).
Then, only some 3.5 years years after making the seven-year peace treaty, the Antichrist will break the treaty, attack the third Jewish temple in Jerusalem, stop the daily Mosaic animal sacrifices offered in front of it, and sit in the temple and proclaim himself God (Daniel 11:31,36, Matthew 24:15, 2 Thessalonians 2:4). He will then rule the whole earth in all the power of Lucifer/Satan (the dragon, Revelation 12:9) for 42 months (Revelation 13:4-18, Revelation 11:2b), or 1,260 days (Revelation 12:6, Revelation 11:3), or "a time, and times, and half a time" (Revelation 12:14, Daniel 12:7, Daniel 7:25).
The second coming of Jesus Christ may not occur immediately after the 1,260 days of the Antichrist's worldwide reign are over, but could occur 75 days later, on the 1,335th day after the Antichrist and his followers set up the abomination of desolation (possibly a standing android image of the Antichrist) in the holy place of the Jewish temple (Daniel 12:11-12, Daniel 11:31, Matthew 24:15). The 75 days could be taken up by the vials of God's wrath which will be poured out on the worshippers of the Antichrist (Revelation 16). When Jesus returns he will completely defeat the Antichrist (the beast) (Revelation 19:20, 2 Thessalonians 2:8), and he will have Satan bound in the bottomless pit (Revelation 20:1-3). Then Jesus and the just-resurrected church (including those in the church who had been beheaded by the Antichrist) will reign on the earth for 1,000 years (Revelation 20:4-6, Revelation 5:10, Revelation 2:26-29).
