Much has been written and speculated on what the Bible means when Daniel wrote about the King of the North in Daniel 11.  Theologians have thought it could refer to Russia or China.  Others have assumed that it could be Germany or Italy.  Neither guess would be right.  In fact, we don’t have to guess at all if we allow the Bible to identify exactly who this latter day “king” will be.  In fact, it was virtually impossible to know that answer until the “end of days” when these prophesies would be fulfilled.

Dan. 11:6–“And in the end of years, they shall join themselves together….”  Until the “end of years” arrived, all speculation on Daniel’s prophesies were just guesses and they were all wrong.

The actual King of the North is a former great empire that has disappeared from the face of the earth, but will reemerge again to become a powerful nation in our generation.  The ancient king of the north was King Nebuchadnezzar, ruler of the Babylonian Empire, which later became the nation of Assyria, located in the Northwest region of Iraq and the Southeast region of Turkey.  It is home to the modern day Kurds and their continued effort to become a sovereign nation, distancing themselves from Iraq, can be seen in this story here.

In the book of Daniel, there are three times that we read about various dreams or visions–each one was very different than the other.  In chapter 2, we are introduced to King Nebuchadnezzar’s dreams of 4 kingdoms.  Later, in chapter 7, Daniel himself had a dream, but his vision involved 4 creatures.  Finally, in chapter 8, a new king of Babylon had a vision that described 3 other animals.  There is a pattern to each of these sections of Daniel where the dreams/visions overlap each other.

As mentioned, King Nebuchadnezzar was the ruler of the Babylonian Empire, the geographical location of today’s Kurds.  The king had a dream that none of his astrologers, magicians or sorcerers could interpret.  In fact, King Nebuchadnezzar made it impossible for them to interpret his dream because to do so, they had to first describe exactly what he had dreamt, which the king had now forgotten.

Dan. 2:5–“The king answered and said to the Chaldeans, The thing is gone from me: if ye will not make known unto me the dream, with the interpretation thereof, ye shall be cut in pieces, and your houses shall be made a dunghill.“

Nobody dared even try to interpret a dream that they knew nothing about, lest they suffer an awful death.  In their defense, they said that there is no man on earth who could do what the king was asking.

Dan. 2:10–“The Chaldeans answered before the king, and said, There is not a man upon the earth that can shew the king’s matter: therefore there is no king, lord, nor ruler, that asked such things at any magician, or astrologer, or Chaldean.“

But they were wrong.  Enter Daniel, who DID correctly explain both the events of the dream AND the meaning of it.  He told King Nebuchadnezzar that he dreamt of four kingdoms.  One was a head of gold,  The second was “inferior” to the first (silver).  The third was brass.  And the fourth was iron.  The KEY to understanding Daniel’s description is found in verse 38, where he identifies that the first king is Nebuchadnezzar himself.

Dan. 2:38–“And wheresoever the children of men dwell, the beasts of the field and the fowls of the heaven hath he given into thine hand, and hath made thee ruler over them all. THOU ART THIS HEAD OF GOLD.  ³⁹ And after thee shall arise another kingdom inferior to thee, and another third kingdom of brass, which shall bear rule over all the earth.  ⁴⁰ And the fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron: forasmuch as iron breaketh in pieces and subdueth all things: and as iron that breaketh all these, shall it break in pieces and bruise.”

Thus far, the only geographical location that can be certain is the area that Nebuchadnezzar ruled, or ancient Babylon, also known as Assyria, or the modern day Kurdish region.  Where are the other three kings located?  That information was given to Daniel when he himself had a dream in chapter 7.  In it, the gold, silver, brass and iron were identified as a lion, a bear, a leopard and a beast that was not specifically identified.  Each of these four beasts are mirror images of the earlier descriptions from chapter 2.

Dan. 7:4-7–“The first was like a lion, and had eagle’s wings: I beheld till the wings thereof were plucked, and it was lifted up from the earth, and made stand upon the feet as a man, and a man’s heart was given to it.  ⁵ And behold another beast, a second, like to a bear, and it raised up itself on one side, and it had three ribs in the mouth of it between the teeth of it: and they said thus unto it, Arise, devour much flesh.  ⁶ After this I beheld, and lo another, like a leopard, which had upon the back of it four wings of a fowl; the beast had also four heads; and dominion was given to it.  ⁷ After this I saw in the night visions, and behold a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly; and it had great iron teeth: it devoured and brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with the feet of it: and it was diverse from all the beasts that were before it; and it had ten horns.”

The only similarity in these two dreams is the fourth description of iron as the fourth kingdom/beast.  We know that the gold and the lion are descriptions of Nebuchadnezzar’s kingdom, so we only need clarification on the other three.

In Daniel 8, a new king had become the ruler of Babylon, whose name was Belshazzar, and he had a vision that he didn’t understand.  In his vision, he saw a ram and a goat.  These two animals are compared to the 2nd and 3rd kings/beasts of the earlier visions and dreams.   How do we know?  The angel Gabriel explained this to Daniel, here:

Dan. 8:20–“The ram which thou sawest having two horns are the kings of Media and Persia.  [Modern day Iran]  ²¹ And the rough goat is the king of Grecia [Greece]: and the great horn that is between his eyes is the first king.”

Clearly, the first three of the four kingdoms can be identified as Babylon, Iran and Greece.  But what about the fourth?  It can easily be identified by understanding that there were periods of time in between each subsequent kingdom.

King Nebuchadnezzar ruled between the years 605 B.C.E and 562 B.C.E.  Then there was a gap of 12 years until the Medo-Persian Empire from 550 B.C.E to 330 B.C.E.  Later, during the time of Alexander the Great and the Greek Empire, that empire spanned the years from 330 B.C.E to 148 B.C.E.  What Daniel could not have known was the fact that the fourth beast/king would not come on the scene for over 2,300 more years!  Is there any place in the Bible that describes a kingdom that is unique from all the others but might incorporate the traits described in Daniel of a lion, bear and leopard all rolled up into one entity?  Yes, and we have to look no further than the book of Revelation.

Rev. 13:1–“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 [identifying himself as Yahshua].  ² And the beast which I saw was like unto a LEOPARD, and his feet were as the feet of a BEAR, and his mouth as the mouth of a LION: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority.”

Clearly, the 4th kingdom of Daniel, which occurs many centuries after the first three kingdoms, is a description of the Beast of Revelation and the fraudulent anti-messiah’s temporary rule on earth.  What else does this passage say about the end-time beast?  It says that he has “ten horns”.  What are these horns?  They are the same 10 horns above in Dan. 7:7–“…and it was diverse from all the beasts that were before it; and it HAD TEN HORNS.

These 10 horns identify the various 10 nations that will be confederate to Israel and in alliance with the Beast in the end times.  ONE of these 10 nations would have to comprise the “king of the north”, but which one?  Let’s identify all ten.

Psalm 83:5–“For they have consulted together with one consent: they are confederate against thee [against Israel]:  ⁶ The tabernacles of Edom, and the Ishmaelites; of Moab, and the Hagarenes;  ⁷ Gebal, and Ammon, and Amalek; the Philistines with the inhabitants of Tyre;  ⁸ Assur also is joined with them: they have holpen the children of Lot. Selah.”

These ten nations can be identified using an ancient Middle East map.  They are: SW Jordan, Saudi Arabia, W Central Jordan, Egypt, Lebanon, E Jordan, Sinai Peninsula, Palestine, Lebanon and NW Iraq [a.k.a.: “Assyria” or today’s Kurdish region].  Of these 10 nations, the northernmost is Assur, thus we can identify “Assyria”, or modern Kurdistan, as the precise location of Daniel’s prophecy and the final King of the North.

Keep in mind that when these prophesies were written over 2,500 years ago, not even Daniel himself understood the words he wrote in his prophesies.  He had no way of knowing that many centuries would pass before these words would become true.  You have to give him kudos for trying though, as he asked Gabriel what these words meant.

Dan. 12:8–“And I heard, but I understood not: then said I, O my Adoni, what shall be the end of these things?  ⁹ And he said, Go thy way, Daniel: for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end.”

That time is now and the meaning of Daniel’s prophecy can now be understood for the first time in human history.

So, watch the events in Kurdistan as they unfold and we introduce the next great nation to have a huge impact on world events.  Too many people continue to equate “great” with having a vast geographical reach, rather than just having a vast impact on human affairs.  It is from this region that the person who will be the imposter of Yahshua Anointed will come on the scene. If this imposter’s fraudulent ministry is an exact replica of Yahshua Anointed, whose ministry began at age 30, this human person is 19 years old today.  This gives you a pretty good idea of how many years we have remaining until history repeats itself in our lifetimes.