The
collapse of the Berlin wall and the break up of the
Russian empire at the beginning of the 1990s were amazing and
unexpected events. I was struck by the comment by Joseph McAuliffe about the
tumbling Berlin Wall and Warsaw Pact. He said,
As far as I know, no prophet, journalist, political science
teacher, astrologer or state department official predicted this
would happen. (Chalcedon Report No 296 March 1990)
If these were significant events in history, why was the collapse
of Communist Europe not
predicted? I began to search the scriptures.
The key I found is in Daniel 11:2-4.
Now then, I tell
you the truth: Three more kings will appear in Persia, and then a
fourth, who will be far richer than all the others. When he has
gained power by his wealth, he will stir up everyone against the
kingdom of Greece. Then a mighty king will
appear, who will rule with great power and do as he pleases.
After he has appeared, his empire will be broken up and parceled
out toward the four winds of heaven. It will not go to his
descendants, nor will it have the power he exercised, because his
empire will be uprooted and given to others.
Daniel
described the rise of three rulers in Persia. The fourth is a
powerful King, who is the Ram of Daniel 8 (more of this later).
He
gains power by his wealth; this refers to the power that middle
eastern rulers have gained through the control of the world's oil
supplies. In the rest of Daniel, they are referred to as the
King of the South.
The fourth of these kings provokes the King of Greece (Dan
11:2). The King of Greece is not the nation of Greece, but is the
civilisation that came out of Greece. Many historians and
philosophers consider that Western Civilisation emerged out of
ancient Greece. The King of Greece symbolises Western
Civilisation. In the rest of the chapter, the King of Greece
is called the King of North.
Daniel 11:3 begins with a description of a mighty King that
will appear, but is not the King of the South or the King of the
North (Russia is not the King of the North). This mighty King that
appears could be the ruler of Russia. Daniel says he will
"rule with great power and do as he pleases" (v3).
However, verse 4, says that as soon as he gains this power,
"his empire will be broken up and parcelled out towards the
four winds of heaven". He will lose power and his position
will go to someone who is not his natural successor.
This is probably a description of Mikhail Gorbachev. Earlier in
1991 he was elected to a new position as President of the Soviet
Union, with legal powers much greater than those of his
predecessors. However, no sooner had he gained these powers than
the Warsaw Pact countries broke free and the Berlin Wall was
smashed. The Soviet Union broke up into a federation of
independent states. Then as Daniel suggested, he lost his
position, to Boris Yeltsin, the ruler of the Russian Republic.
So God did predict the events in Eastern Europe.
These events do not mean the end of Russia. It will continue to
be a powerful actor on world stage. The seeds of future
struggles are already being sown in conflict with Islamic
independence movements on the southern borders of Russia.