Declarations about Bible prophecy’s most evil (likely human) character are slashing through this time of end-of-the-age stage-setting. I say “likely human” because there is a looming question mark within my own cogitations about whether Antichrist will indeed be strictly human. Those who continue to hold to the beast of Revelation chapter 13 as eventually emerging out of the revived Roman Empire are increasingly being viewed as in error. Many prophecy watchers now see that evil entity as a Muslim in waiting somewhere in the foreboding future. The deadly violence that is growing by the day, with ISIS (or ISIL) at the core of militant Islam’s rage across the region that beastly horde infects, is proof that it will be an Islamist Antichrist who will one day soon be the man of sin of 2 Thessalonians 2: 3 –the Muslim Antichrist chroniclers declare.

These eastern-leg Antichrist adherents hold that the Bible prophecy students and scholars who have for centuries interpreted Daniel 9:26-27 as indicating the prince that shall come is to be of Roman geographic origin have been and now are demonstrably wrong. The horrific events of today’s Islamist, genocidal rampage as proof, is implicit within their railing against the long-held Roman Antichrist view. These give as their scriptural proof the fact that the world’s final, evil dictator is referred to as “the Assyrian.” And, there is absolutely no denying it. God’s Word does indeed call this coming tyrant “the Assyrian.”

One such adherent to the Muslim Antichrist view gave the following Scriptures as proof the view is the correct one.

Isaiah 10:24-25 – Therefore thus says the Lord GOD of hosts: “O My people, who dwell in Zion, do not be afraid of the Assyrian. He shall strike you with a rod and lift up his staff against you, in the manner of Egypt. For yet a very little while and the indignation will cease, as will My anger in their destruction.”

Isaiah 14:25-26 – That I will break the Assyrian in My land, And on My mountains tread him underfoot. Then his yoke shall be removed from them, And his burden removed from their shoulders. This is the purpose that is purposed against the whole earth, And this is the hand that is stretched out over all the nations.

Micah 5:3-6 – Therefore He shall give them up, Until the time that she who is in labor has given birth; Then the remnant of His brethren Shall return to the children of Israel. And He shall stand and feed His flock In the strength of the LORD, In the majesty of the name of the LORD His God; And they shall abide, For now He shall be great To the ends of the earth; And this One shall be peace. When the Assyrian comes into our land, And when he treads in our palaces, Then we will raise against him Seven shepherds and eight princely men. They shall waste with the sword the land of Assyria, And the land of Nimrod at its entrances; Thus He shall deliver us from the Assyrian, When he comes into our land And when he treads within our borders.

The modern territories that encompass those geographic areas out of which the Assyrian (Muslim) Antichrist will come conquering like in ancient times–according to the adherents’ view–include the following: Israel, parts of Iraq and Iran, Armenia, sections of Egypt and Turkey, Syria, and Jordan.

“The beast” will, they proclaim, emerge from the Middle East, not Europe. Scripture and current geopolitical, religious, and military trends are in agreement, they declare. Antichrist will be Muslim –or at least will initially hold to the religion of Mohammed and Allah as long as doing so is to his advantage while he acquires power.

Yet, his ancestry, it has been determined through research, is from that region with which Antichrist is associated according to the prophets Isaiah and Micah.

That future fuehrer must have a resume compatible with Bible prophecy regarding the prince that shall come.

I concluded quite some time ago, after studying the son of perdition’s genealogy –admittedly only in a cursory way–that Antichrist will be a Roman by geographical birth/ residence. At the same time, I’ve believed he will come from the Middle East–be an Assyrian–by ethnic extraction.

It is altogether  appropriate to propose that Antichrist will be of Middle Eastern ethnic origin. It is always wrong to name anyone as definitely the coming Antichrist, no matter his geopolitical, religious or ethnic resume. I would never make such an assumption, as we as believers of the Church Age have no basis upon which to make such a claim. We are to look for our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, not the beast of Revelation 13. We will be kept out of that time when Antichrist wreaks havoc on a judgment-deserving world.

We are, however, commanded by the Lord Himself to “watch.”

We will keep doing just that while the road to Antichrist’s regime continues to be paved by current issues and events.