Turkey and the rest of the world

Submitted by Michael S. (United States), Oct 12, 2014 at 08:45

Hi, Havas

It might be helpful, to put Turkey's history in perspective. The following is a composite map, showing the various colonial empires in modern history:

http://fc05.deviantart.net/fs70/i/2013/257/5/a/colonialism_imperialism_world_map_by_saint_tepes-d6hs9h8.png

Twelve empires are shown:

1. British
2. Spanish
3. French
4. Russian
5. Portugese
6. Dutch
7. German
8. Belgian
9. Ottoman
10. Japanese
11. Italian
12. USA

Notice two important things about the map: First of all, these empires, between them, ruled virtually the whole world. The grey areas that escaped their colonization, such as China, Iran and Ethiopia, were nevertheless divided between the great powers as "spheres of influence". The second thing to notice, is that all the empires except the US and Japan were based in Europe, which culturally derived from the Roman Empire. The above is a quick-and-dirty way to say that the empires of the Industrial Age (which began in the early 1800s in most of Europe) can be seen as the "ten horns" spoken of by Daniel the prophet.

The Ottoman Empire, which shrank to approximately modern Turkey after WWI, was not a colonial power like the rest. I wanted to show it on the map, so the readers could see that after the First World War, Turkey was surrounded by what amounted to ten horns of the same colonial "beast". This has a bearing on two things you mentioned: (1) Turkey's "lone ranger" status in the world, which is epitomized by President Erdogan, and (2) the resentful attitude that you and most Turks have toward outsiders.

Concerning all those countries being "no good", as you say, here's the problem: People in general are "no good", going about their business, for the most part, forgetting God and thinking they are masters of their own destiny. There are two reasons, moreover, for their having such haughty attitudes, and I have already mentioned them: (1) the Industrial Revolution has put power in men's hands that they never had before, so they think they can accomplish anything they want to; and (2) they have produced these mighty empires, together comprising something greater than anything the world has ever seen.

The Bible prophesies that Turkey will rise up again in these days, and attack Israel (and lose). That's in Ezekiel 38-39. Soon after that war, the Bible says all the nations of the world would attack Isrel. That's in Zechariah 14. Between those two conflicts, and the plagues (like ebola, nuclear war, etc.) that accompany these events, God will judge man's pride by using man's technology to destroy his empires -- in other words, by destroying those things man trusted in, causing him to forget God.

We're all in this together, with the whole world fighting against the word of God. God will win, of course. It's good to be on the winning side; but of course, that means bucking the whole world. -- whether you're in Turkey or in the rest of the world. I wish you the best, as these things happen.

Shalom shalom.

PS -- Israel suffers too, and has suffered already.

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