This is world history in a nutshell.
GENESIS 12: 3 “I will bless those who bless you and I will curse those who curse you”.
The following blog seeks to show how those prophetic words spoken by God to Abram (Abraham) thousands of years ago have been fulfilled in different civilizations and kingdoms throughout the traceable history of humankind.
Matthew 23 v 37 “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!
Luke 21 v 6 “6 “These things which you see—the days will come in which not one stone shall be left upon another that shall not be thrown down.” In these words, Jesus predicted the destruction of the second Temple by the Romans in AD 70. This was around AD33. Forty years later, Jerusalem was surrounded by the armies of Rome. The situation was desperate. The soldiers of Rome were breaking through the walls of Jerusalem. Some Jewish people stood by the walls of the temple waiting for a Supernatural deliverance, but nothing happened. The soldiers fired their flaming arrows, and the temple was set on fire. The gold began to melt in the blazing inferno while the Roman soldiers charged into the city in a frenzy. Not one stone was left standing upon another, just like Messiah Yeshua had prophesied forty years earlier as recorded in Matthew 23. The temple was destroyed. Jerusalem was razed to the ground and the city turned into a smoldering heap of burning ruins. The land was filled with crosses of Jewish people crucified by the Romans. The survivors were taken as slaves into the nations as Messiah had foretold. It was 70AD, the fall of Zion, the end of Jerusalem as they knew it and the beginning of a truly global dispersion of the Jewish people. A significant turning point in world history.
In this blog, I aim to show a mystery from the bible that lies behind world history. Could this ancient biblical mystery determine and reveal the course of world history? The answer is yes.
It is going to open doors of revelation of the history of the world up to modern times. I want to make the blog as concise as possible without compromising the quality of the information. I hope to share a summarized version of events as stated in the bible so that the reader can compare and see a verifiable match with the accounts in credible academic and authoritative history books. The account I’m writing about is guiding history up to our present day. I will write about the kingdoms of the world that cover monarchs, democracies and dictatorships and all kinds of governments. I will focus mainly on the centre of history from ancient times to now. Following this thread will reveal important things.
The Daniel prophecy derived from Nebuchadnezzar’s dream of a metal statue forms the mystery of events that happen across the ages from the Egyptian empire, the Assyrian empire, Babylonian, Persian, Greek, Seleucid and the Roman empires. The next section is a cursory glance of history showing the rise and fall of various kingdoms mainly in Europe the Middle East Asia and Africa. The section after that (Part 2 of the blog) opens the mystery of the words spoken to Abraham by God, “I will bless those who bless you and I will curse those who curse you”.
70AD
In the 2nd century BC, on the Italian peninsula, Rome under General Pompeii rises to power in world history. After Pompeii comes Julius Caesar and after Caesar’s assassination there is a power struggle between Mark Antony and Cleopatra. Then Augustus takes over and becomes the first Emperor of Rome after defeating Mark Antony. Rome is at its cultural peak under Augustus. Then Rome starts to gradually scatter and disintegrate. Enter Constantine who divides Rome into two halves of East and West. Daniel’s prophetic statue speaks of two legs made of iron with feet comprising a mixture of clay and iron. The two legs depict a Rome made up of eastern Rome and western Rome. The Eastern part is called the Byzantine Empire. After Constantinople it’s called Byzantium. It would reach the pinnacle of its power around 500AD under Emperor Justinian on the western side, the one that is commonly known as Rome.
The birth of Europe
Half of the Roman Empire fell in the 5th century, but the other half went on until the 1400s. That was Byzantium, Constantinople. On the western side the one that we really know as Rome started to disintegrate around 476 AD when the Barbarians took over parts of it. This then led to the seeds of what we know as Europe or Western Europe. The scattered pieces would soon become nations later. The Byzantine Empire began to decline and in the latter part of the 6th century it started losing its possessions.
Mohamed and Islam
Enter an Arab who was convinced he was a prophet. He mobilized followers around himself convincing himself and others that he had been called by Allah to be the Prophet of all Prophets. His name was Mohammed. He converted a huge portion of Arabia to Islam using the sword. His religion swept across North Africa which was already Christian. Then across most of the Middle East spreading from North Africa all the way to Spain at its height. The Islamic civilization could almost be called an empire made up of many leaders and lands which stretched from India in the East to Spain in the West and the Southern part of what was once the Roman empire. And much of what was then Byzantium was now going to be decaying in the midst of it. Meanwhile around the 800/900s the Byzantine empire had a little resurgence but then it decayed until it vanished just before the time of Columbus. In the meantime, in Western Europe those who helped destroy the Roman empire, the Barbarians were now forming kingdoms. One kingdom is called the kingdom of the Franks and the Carolingians.
Charlemagne
There emerges from this kingdom a man called Charles the great or in Latin Carolus Magnus or in French Charlemagne.
Around 800 AD he established the Carolingian empire. After that came another empire called the Holy Roman Empire. This empire was largely centred in what would become Germany. It had been called the Holy Roman Empire yet it was neither Holy nor Roman nor an empire. Nevertheless, it was one of the most significant powers for years to come.
The Middle Ages and the Crusades
Now we come to the period of history called the Middle Ages. Feudalism, a social system in which the nobility held lands for military service was being introduced. What used to be Rome had splintered into little areas of land, ruled by Princes, Knights or Serfs. The Vikings swept over the fractured land and then the Mongols took their turn and at about the 11th century, Europe began to rise as we know it. It started with what was called the Crusades. In 1096 AD Pope Urban 2 called for a Crusade against the Muslim infidels holding Jerusalem. So, people came from all over to take Jerusalem back. They set up the kingdom of Jerusalem under the Crusaders. They killed Muslims and Jews and others who were not Christian. The kingdom of the Crusaders lasted until it was retaken. Then there were other Crusades, each one launched was less successful than the preceding one. In the process, Europe was continuing to rise. That was when France began to emerge as a nation. Then England emerged. There was at that time the revival of trade, commerce, towns, cities, and learning. This was interrupted by the black death which wiped out much of the population.
The Renaissance
Then of course, the Renaissance, is ushered in. This is a period of learning which sees the revival of classical culture, literature, art, and science. While this is happening, in the north the Reformation was also taking shape. In the east another powerful kingdom rises whose influence would be matched only by its massive size. To its east the kingdom of Russia was also growing.
In 1453 the empire of Byzantium, the eastern Roman half of it finally collapses after more than 1000 years. On the Spanish peninsula something asserts itself by defeating the Muslims. It was called the reconquering. The Castile and Oregon kingdoms are united under Ferdinand and Isabella. A man by the name of Christopher Columbus leads three ships out of Spain and ends up discovering the New Worlds of North, South and Latin America. These civilizations would include the America that dominates the world today. Spain would launch the age of exploration and the beginning of Empires. This is a panoramic view of world history from 70 AD to 1492.
Next up, Part 2 will dig deep into the mystery and unveil how God''s words to Abraham have shaped the path of world history; I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you.
PART TWO
THE ABRAHAMIC COVENANT
12 Now the Lord had said to Abram: “Get out of your country, from your family And from your father’s house, To a land that I will show you. 2 I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great; And you shall be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, And I will curse him who curses you; And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
This is called the Abrahamic Covenant. This principle is detailed throughout scripture. What does it mean? If the bible is true, which it is, if God is real, which He is, then we should see the fulfilment of that prophetic word throughout world history.
What a nation does to Israel or to the Jewish people, it will come back in kind. This is one key that has held true throughout the ages. And we’ve seen this principle play out behind world history from the empire of Egypt under the Pharaohs to the Assyrians. It happened to the Babylonians, the Persians, the Greeks and to the Romans. But from ancient times we now bring it into the dawn of the modern world, and we move forward from 70AD with the destruction of the temple. Yet what we’re doing is to look behind the stage beginning with Rome.
The Romans
What did Rome do to the seed of Abraham, Israel? They brought them under their empire, exploited them taxed them and abused them and ultimately destroyed the centre of worship, the temple of Jerusalem. They sought to wipe out that faith/religion and in doing so they smashed Israel to pieces and spread these pieces throughout the world. They allowed the Jewish people to continue but only in a scattered form. They were now a disintegrated nation. Scattered in synagogues across the globe, crushed but not defeated. The Romans persecuted the faith of Israel, the gospel with the idea of crashing it.
What happened to Rome? Rome reached its peak in 117 AD and then it started to decline. How did it decline? It started disintegrating. Rome persecuted the faith that came out of Israel that proclaimed the God of Israel and Messiah. The aim of the Romans was to wipe out the faith of the Jews. But notice what happened was that Rome was itself taken over by that same faith which under Constantine became the state religion. The Romans burnt and razed Jerusalem to the ground till no stone was left standing on another as prophesied by Messiah. Ironically, the faith that came out of Jerusalem soon became the national faith adopted by Rome. The Romans destroyed the temple in Jerusalem. And what happened to Rome? All its numerous temples dedicated to their countless gods were destroyed and replaced by the Church that exalts the God of the Jewish people. Rome fragmented Israel but allowed the Jewish people to continue existing. The civilization of Rome has also continued in fragmented form, and it has affected the World History to this day. Rome broke up into pieces that constitute modern day Europe. In Russia the leaders were called Czars, that is a local term which means Caesar. The Kaiser of Germany means Caesar. Across the oceans in the USA, the Senate is an example of a modern day carry over from Rome. When it comes to languages if you speak Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, French or Romanian, you are speaking fragmentations of the Latin of Rome. English is half Roman and half Barbarian or German.
Byzantium
Relations with the Jewish people were not great but not as bad as during the worst persecutions in Western Europe. Byzantium reached its peak in the 500s under Emperor Justinian. Emperor Justinian issued laws called the code of Justinian between 529 and 534 AD. Justinian stripped the Jews of many of their rights:
§ Forbade the Jews to read the bible in Hebrew
§ Forbade them to gather in public places
§ Banned Jews from celebrating Passover before Easter
§ Stripped them of their property
§ Banned them from saying the Shemar
So what follows after all these bans? From this period onwards the Byzantine empire starts to decline. Something hits Byzantium which became known as the plague of Justinian, and this was the first known pandemic on record. The very first recorded outbreak of the Bubonic plague, the black death. This plague would have a major impact in the future course of Europe. A historian noted that this turning point marked the end of the age of splendour in Byzantium. On top of that, the empire stagnated and became consumed with warfare. A century and a half later the once mighty empire would be reduced to a skeleton of what it once was. Under Justinian the Byzantine Empire stripped the Jewish people and made them like paupers. So, in the same way the empire declined and lost almost all its possessions. It was left utterly weakened and as a shadow of its former self. I will bless those who bless you and I will curse those who curse you.
The Islamic Empire
What does this have to do with this ancient key? A fiery Arabic man who for a while thought he was hearing voices but Kadija, who became his wife told him he was going to be a prophet. He believed it and spread the message of Islam using the sword. He did this throughout the Middle east and the Mediterranean. How did he deal with the Jewish people? How did the Islamic Empire deal with the Jews? The answer is mixed. Any non-Muslim was given a legal status called Dimmy meaning 2nd class citizen. They were given limited rights, limited tolerance, and protection on condition of paying a special tax. The Jews were to stay under subjection.There was discrimination, mistreatment, and abuse although admittedly, it was not as bad as Europe.They were forced to wear a golden star to separate them. Hitler would later on use that too. So, Jews were restricted continuously. Even though the Muslims looked down on the Jewish people, their treatment was not so bad compared to other places. And there was also a period when Jewish people and Muslims prospered side by side culturally. Interestingly, as Islam rises, it is conquering those that had been persecuting the Jewish people. Spain was one example where Jews were being persecuted badly. So why did God allow Islam to become so powerful? Some Scholars say its as if the Islamic conquest was part of a judgment on western Christendom that was persecuting God’s ancient people. The Church had also rejected its Jewish and Middle Eastern Semitic roots. Amazing timing as well because the Byzantine Empire up to that point had ruled the land of Israel. In 629 AD the Byzantine Emperor decides to expel all the Jews from Jerusalem. He instigates a massacre of the Jewish people in Jerusalem. Tens of thousands of Jews are driven out of the land of Israel to Egypt around 629/630 AD. As he’s doing this, Islam is rising and within eight years by 638, the Byzantine Empire was defeated by the Arabs. Then Islam took Jerusalem. As they had sought to drive the Jews from the Holy land the Byzantine Kingdom was driven from almost all of its lands. The Islamic Empire reigns from Persia, India to Spain. In Spain, it was this golden age of the Jewish people. Jews and Arabs living together. Jewish scholars, poets, scientists, and the civilization flourish. However, around the 12th century the golden age comes to an end and the Jews of Spain find themselves under Islamic persecution and oppression. They have to wear special clothing under severely restrictive rules. In addition, they now experience violence under Islam. The Islamic civilization begins to decline. So the Muslims freed the Jews from persecution in the beginning and treated them better than Europe but later on they themselves started persecuting the Jews – and what happened to the Islamic world? As the Jews were allowed to live in a subjugated second class existence under Islam so God allowed the Muslims to continue on but they would live on in world history as a sort of second class, subjugated people of world history, stagnant for centuries and centuries all the way into the 20th century. I will bless those who bless you and I will curse those who curse you.
END OF PART TWO
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