Eph 5:11:"…have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.”.
Amos 3:7 “…God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets.”
Why this post?
To show how a final “Christian” wave is building.
Introduction
Daniel 11 refers to how a King of the North and a King of the South wage waves of attack across centuries.
By now the reader should be aware that we are not to take prophecy literally. Several authors have analysed Daniel 11 and often associate it to different countries but if you consider the entire book of Daniel, the prophecies has to remain consistent instead of eloping to China or Russia or Turkey or even Islam.
It is remarkable how many visions Daniel received on end time events and each chapter describes them from a different angle by adding more information.
Understanding Daniel is CRUCIAL.
Below follows a summary of the Reformer’s views of Daniel 11 up to the final conflict that spills into Chapter 12 and what we can expect.
King of the North vs King of the South
Daniel 11 starts with Persia and Greece in verse 4 then as the prophecy continues, it switches over to “King of the North” and “King of the South” terminology.
From all the other prophecies of Daniel, we know that the Papacy will be prominent at the end. Given that the King of the North is the final wave of attack and the end of the chapter until Michael rises in Chapter 12v1, we can safely associate the King of the North with the Papal power, but we cannot do that literally since the King of the North featured in verse 4 is not Rome yet.
Thus it refers to a system as opposed to a kingdom or country.
Several authors agree that the King of the North refers to an entity with two main characteristics:
It has both religious and political power and exert political influence based on religious doctrine; and
It attempts to usurp God, just like the Antichrist attempts to substitute Christ.
King of the South is a non-religious system that is secular (atheism) and opposes God.
Daniel 11 unpacked
Herewith the verses from Daniel 11 huddled into phases as events unfolded over time with implications and commentary in the second column. Forty-five verses. Five images. Two and a half thousand years of history walked verse by verse. The first four verses are literal Persia and Greece (538 BC to 323 BC). From verse 5 onward the prophecy turns symbolic — and the King of the North begins his slow rise from the ruins of Rome, climaxing in 1798 with the deadly wound, healing through 1929, and ending at Daniel 12:1 when Michael stands up. The five images below carry the verse-by-verse exegesis. What follows under each image is the walk in plain English.
Verses 1 to 4 are the most explicit prophecy in scripture you may have skipped. Three more Persian kings, then a fourth richer than them all who stirs up Greece — Cambyses, Pseudo-Smerdis, Darius, and finally Xerxes leading the invasion of Greece in 480 BC. “And a mighty king shall stand up, that shall rule with great dominion, and do according to his will.” Alexander the Great, 336-323 BC, exact fit. “And when he shall stand up, his kingdom shall be broken, and shall be divided toward the four winds of heaven.” Alexander dies young, his kingdom is divided between his four generals (the Diadochi), 323-330 BC. Four out of four, in five verses, three centuries before any of it happened.
Then verse 5 onward the prophecy shifts. The King of the South initially is the Ptolemaic dynasty in Egypt. The King of the North is the Seleucid dynasty in Syria. Their wars run for two centuries and Daniel 11:5-13 walks them in detail. But by the time the chapter passes through Roman dominion, the King of the North has stopped being a literal kingdom and has become the system of papal Rome emerging (where church and state is intertwined - a religious system) — Diocletian, Constantine, the first compromises, the barbarian invasions (Burgundians, Franks, Visigoths, Vandals, AD 370-455), Clovis’s baptism in AD 508, Justinian’s decree in AD 533, the fall of the Ostrogoths in AD 538. The same 538 anchor the post on the first beast and the post on prophetic timelines already established. Daniel 11:13 — “For the king of the north shall return, and shall set forth a multitude greater than the former” — is the medieval papacy taking its full form.
The chapter walks through late medieval church-state conflict — the Crusades, the Inquisition, the Renaissance, the Reformation. Verse 16 — “he that cometh against him shall do according to his own will, and none shall stand before him: and he shall stand in the glorious land, which by his hand shall be consumed” — is the papacy at its height of secular dominion. Verse 20 — “a raiser of taxes in the glory of the kingdom: but within few days he shall be destroyed” — is one of the dynasty’s tax-extractors, dispatched mid-reign. The chapter is non-chronological by verse 28 onward, so the precise verse-to-pope correspondence is debated; the era arc is not.
But verse 22 is the structural pivot. “And with the arms of a flood shall they be overflown from before him, and shall be broken; yea, also the prince of the covenant.” The prince of the covenant is Jesus Christ at the crucifixion. Daniel 11:22 — Christ, cut off — sits inside a chapter about empires and persecuting kings. The cross is in the middle. The chiasm below makes this structural — verse 22 is the dead centre of Daniel 10-12. Read the chapter once. Then read it again knowing verse 22 is where it pivots.
Verses 23 through 35 are the height of papal power. “He shall enter peaceably even upon the fattest places of the province” — the Catholic Counter-Reformation moves into Protestant lands by treaty as much as by sword. The Council of Trent (AD 1545-1563) hardens doctrine. The Saint Bartholomew’s Day Massacre (AD 1572) kills tens of thousands of Huguenots in a single night. The Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648) reduces parts of central Europe by a third. The Inquisition continues. “They shall pollute the sanctuary of strength, and shall take away the daily sacrifice, and they shall place the abomination that maketh desolate” (verse 31) — the papal substitution of its own mediatorial system for Christ’s heavenly intercession, the same prophecy-crime as Daniel 8:11.
The dates align with the 1260-year prophecy (538 → 1798 — see the post on prophetic timelines for the math). “They that understand among the people shall instruct many: yet they shall fall by the sword, and by flame, by captivity, and by spoil, many days” (verse 33) — the Reformers and the Reformer-readers. Tyndale strangled and burned 1536. Wycliffe’s bones exhumed and burned. The Waldensian valleys, the Lollard stakes, the Geneva exiles. “Many days” is the prophetic understatement of two centuries of persecution under verses 23-35’s described powers.
The “time of the end” begins. Verses 36-39 describe the post-deadly-wound papacy — the king who does according to his will, exalts himself, speaks marvellous things against the God of gods, neither regards the God of his fathers, nor the desire of women (a celibacy criterion — see the post on the first beast, criterion 17), and honours a strange god with gold and silver and precious stones (a self-honoring institution, with a strange-god liturgy of gold-and-silver vessels in cathedrals).
The historical anchor: 1798 — France’s General Berthier walks into the Vatican and arrests Pope Pius VI, ending the papacy’s temporal power. The King of the South (atheism / secular / revolutionary France in this verse-set) attacks the King of the North (religious). The 1260 years (538 → 1798) end. Daniel 11:36-39 covers the immediate aftermath: the papacy continues its self-exalting claims even as it has lost most of its political power, defending its self-titled authority through the next 46 years until 1844 — when the 2300 days (Daniel 8:14, see the post on prophetic timelines) end and the cleansing of the heavenly sanctuary begins. The same 1798-1844 window the post on the first beast already established, here mapped to verses 36-39 of Daniel 11.
“And at the time of the end shall the king of the south push at him: and the king of the north shall come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots, and with horsemen, and with many ships; and he shall enter into the countries, and shall overflow and pass over.” (Daniel 11:40.)
The whirlwind. The post’s title image. From 1844 onward the papacy recovers — Vatican I (AD 1869-1870), the Lateran Treaty (AD 1929) healing the deadly wound, modern global influence, the recent papal pivot toward climate-as-common-cause and Sunday-as-common-rest. The King of the South — atheism, with Darwin’s Origin of Species (1859) received as its scripture, plus Nietzsche, Wellhausen, and the late-19th-century critical-rational currents — pushes at the recovering papacy. And the papacy responds like a whirlwind — sudden, military and/or legal, conquering the glorious land of verse 41 (Protestantism, in the user’s read). The world’s apostate-Protestant churches join the wave: the Joint Declaration on Justification 1999, Evangelicals and Catholics Together 1994, the renewed cordiality between American evangelicalism and the Holy See. The synthesis is forming.
Verses 41-45 walk the final movements: Edom, Moab, and Ammon escape (the type of God’s faithful people who refuse the wave). Tidings from the east and the north trouble him — a message of light and a message of judgment, the three angels’ messages of Revelation 14 (see the post on the final prophecies). And he plants the tabernacles of his palace between the seas in the glorious holy mountain (verse 45a) — the final attack on the camp of God. “Yet he shall come to his end, and none shall help him.”
Then Daniel 12:1: “And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book.”
Christ stands up. Time of Jacob’s trouble. Deliverance. The chapter’s last word is the rescue.
Parallel with Daniel 8
Consider this remarkable parallel with Daniel 8. These clearly align and adds colour and detail. Very much chiasmic writing.
Daniel 8 and Daniel 11 are not two different prophecies. They are two views of the same prophecy. The parallel is exact:
Both name the second kingdom as Persia, moving East-West (the ram of Daniel 8, the four Persian kings of Daniel 11). Both name the third kingdom as Greece, moving West-East (the goat of Daniel 8, the mighty king of Daniel 11:3 = Alexander). Both reference the four winds of heaven splitting that kingdom (Dan 8:8 / Dan 11:4). Both imply the fourth kingdom (Rome) without naming it (Dan 8:9a / Dan 11:4b). Then both pivot to a power that moves in the same four directions: north → south → east → tsebi (the Glorious Land). Daniel 8 calls that power the little horn (8:9b-12). Daniel 11 calls it the King of the North (11:5-39). Both reach the time of the end. Both die without human help — “no hand” (8:25b) // “no help” (11:45b).
Same power. Two names. The little horn = the King of the North = the Papacy.
Chiasm of Daniel 11
Please note that the original texts did not have chapters and verses, so if the chiasm starts in Daniel 10 then the central message is Jesus - as always:
Now the architecture. Daniel 10 through 12 is one literary unit. And it is structured as a chiasm — the same inverted-mirror pattern the post on chiasms in the Bible demonstrated for the Bible’s other major narratives. Read the structure:
Outer brackets: Michael your Prince (10:21b) wraps Michael the great Prince (12:1a). Inclusio.
Then East-West conflict prologue (11:1-4) wraps West-East conflict epilogue (11:44-45).
Then the paganizing church North-with-South (11:5-8) wraps the apostate church North-with-South (11:40-43). Same shape, two phases of the same power — paganizing on the way in, apostate on the way out.
Then the rise of papal supremacy (11:9-13a) wraps the end of papal supremacy (11:28-39).
Then the persecuting power established with a “great army” (11:13b-15) wraps the fall of the persecuting power with a “very great army” (11:25-27).
Then the development of persecution “but within a few days” (11:16-21) wraps the development of persecution “but only for a time” (11:23-24).
And the dead centre — Daniel 11:22 — the Prince of the Covenant. Christ. Cut off.
Twelve verses on either side. The cross at the centre. The whole chapter is structurally about Christ — not about Antiochus IV, not about a future political Antichrist, not about Russia or Turkey or Islam. About Christ at the centre, surrounded on both sides by the persecuting power that nailed Him there and by the papal Rome that would rise from the same chair claiming to be Him.
Two nested chiasms now sit inside Daniel. The post on chiasms identified Daniel 9:26 as the chiastic centre of the prophetic half of the whole book. Daniel 11:22 is now the chiastic centre of the Daniel 10-12 sub-unit. Both pointing at the cross. That deserves a pause to ponder.
Historical phases
Herewith historical phases with dates:
The first half of the chapter, verse-by-verse to dated history:
Daniel 11:2 — Fourth Persian king: Artaxerxes I (465-424 BC), the king who stirs up Greece. Daniel 11:3 — Alexander the Great (336-323 BC), the mighty king who rules with great dominion. Daniel 11:4 — Division of Alexander’s kingdom under the Diadochi (323-330 BC); Rome implied as the eventual successor (330 BC onward).
Then the symbolic phase begins. Daniel 11:5-8 — Rise of Christianity and papacy under Roman dominion (Diocletian, Constantine, AD 284-476), with the first church-state compromises and the barbarian invasions of Burgundians, Franks, Visigoths, and Vandals (AD 370-455). Daniel 11:9-10 — Rise of papal supremacy: Ostrogoths leave Rome (AD 533), Church and State cooperate (Clovis, Charlemagne), the Crusades and Inquisitions run from AD 476 to 1400. Daniel 11:11-12 — Avignon captivity (AD 1309-1377), then Renaissance and rationalism (AD 1400-1600).
Verse anchors and historical anchors line up. The chapter is dated.
The second half, continuing the verse-anchored dated history:
Daniel 11:13-25a — Catholic Counter-Reformation: Council of Trent (AD 1545-1563), missionary expansion, wars of religion, persecution (AD 1600-1789); Saint Bartholomew’s Day Massacre (AD 1572). Daniel 11:22 specifically — Jesus’s crucifixion (the 70 weeks of Daniel 9:25) and Jesus as High Priest (the 2,300 days of Daniel 8:14) — the message of comfort and hope embedded at the chapter’s centre.
Daniel 11:25b-27 — French Revolution and Napoleon, the Concordat (AD 1789-1798/1801). Daniel 11:28-39 — non-chronological theological insight: the chapter switches to a denunciation of the papal Church for usurpation, idolatry (”abomination of desolation”), and persecution against God’s people (”the holy covenant”). The prophetic times (1260 days; 2300 days) signify both hope and judgment.
Daniel 11:40-45 — the “time of the end” picks up the chronological record from 1798/1801 onward. Four phases:
First, intensification of political attacks against the Church — Concordat 1801, Napoleon’s invasion of papal states 1809, papacy forced by the Italian state to retire 1870 — doubled with secular intellectual aggression: Darwin, Nietzsche, Wellhausen (AD 1850-1900). Second, ecclesiastic recovery — Vatican I (AD 1869-1870), Lateran Treaty (AD 1929). Universal recognition; threat of persecution against God’s people who will escape (typified by Edom, Moab, and Ammon). Third, movements of unity — Church and secular powers, ecumenism. Fourth, unified nationalistic front against the camp of God — Armageddon. End.
Daniel 12:1a — Coming of Christ. The chronological anchors run from 465 BC to the visible Second Coming, all in twelve chapter pages.
Daniel 11 vs Daniel 7 & 8 & Revelation
Clearly the final King of the North is the little horn:
Eight specific verse-anchored similarities between Daniel 8’s little horn and Daniel 11’s King of the North. Each one alone might be coincidence. Eight together is identification:
First, both originate in the north. The little horn’s directional formula in Daniel 8:9 — “toward the south, toward the east, and toward the Glorious Land” — omits the northerly direction because the horn is already there. Same omission, same logic in Daniel 11.
Second, both appear at the same chapter-position — after the four horns of Daniel 8:8 and the four winds of Daniel 11:4 (the breakup of Alexander’s empire).
Third, both move in the same four directions: north → south → east → tsebi (the Glorious Land). Daniel 8:9 // Daniel 11:41-45.
Fourth, both persecute God’s people (Dan 8:10 // Dan 11:16, 22, 24, 28, 32-35, 41).
Fifth, both are deceptive and prosper (Dan 8:25a // Dan 11:17, 20-21, 23).
Sixth, both exalt themselves against God with the same pride and presumption — and seek to usurp Him (Dan 8:11a, 25c // Dan 11:7, 36-37). The verb is the same: usurp.
Seventh, both desecrate the sanctuary and take away the daily (Dan 8:11 // Dan 11:31). The same prophecy-crime, twice named.
Eighth, both come to the same end without human involvement (Dan 8:35 // Dan 11:45). “No hand.” “No help.”
Eight features. Two chapters. The little horn = the King of the North. The post on the first beast already named the little horn = the Papacy. Therefore the King of the North = the Papacy. No additional argument required.
Now the cross-prophet confirmation. Daniel 11:40-45 and Revelation 13:3-10 narrate the same six-beat sequence in matched verse pairs:
Wound: “At the time of the end shall the king of the south push at him” (Dan 11:40a) // “I saw one of his heads as if it had been mortally wounded” (Rev 13:3a).
Recovery: “And the king of the north shall come against him like a whirlwind” (Dan 11:40b) // “and his deadly wound was healed” (Rev 13:3b).
Worship: “He shall enter into the countries, overwhelm them, and pass through” (Dan 11:40c) // “and all the world marvelled” (Rev 13:3c).
Unity: “He shall have power over Egypt; also the Libyans and Ethiopians shall follow at his heels” (Dan 11:43) // “all the world followed the beast” (Rev 13:3d).
Time of trouble: “He shall go forth with great fury to destroy and annihilate” (Dan 11:44b) // “And it was granted to him to make war with the saints and to overcome them. And authority was given him over every tribe, tongue, and nation” (Rev 13:7).
End: “Yet he shall come to his end, and none shall help” (Dan 11:45b) // “He who leads into captivity shall go into captivity, he who kills with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints” (Rev 13:10).
Two prophets. Two books. Six matched verse-pairs. Identifying the King of the North in Daniel 11 = identifying the first beast of Revelation 13 = the Papacy. Three independent prophecies converging on one identification.
The sleight of hand
This one is REALLY important.
Now the philosophical name for what is happening. The Hegelian dialectic — thesis, antithesis, synthesis — is the structural process by which a position and its apparent opposite are both used to deliver an outcome neither side openly proposed.
Apply it. Thesis: traditional Christianity, slowly compromised across the 20th century, weakened, attacked, mocked. Antithesis: secular atheism — the King of the South — Darwin, Marx, Nietzsche, the Frankfurt School, the New Atheists, the woke moral revolution. The two appear opposed. They appear locked in cultural war. The X audience watches both sides, picks one, and feels they have made a free choice.
But Daniel 11 says the two kings speak lies at one table (verse 27). They make agreements (verse 6). They join themselves together (verse 6). They are not enemies. They are colluding to deliver a synthesis — and the synthesis is the unified front against the camp of God of Daniel 11:45 and Revelation 16’s Armageddon. A “Christian” wave large enough to feel like deliverance, hosted by a renewed papacy that bows to no one, joined by the Protestant world that has long since signed the JDDJ, riding the Sunday-trading-laws-creep that will eventually become the mark of the beast.
If you are watching the cultural battle and feeling on the winning side, you are not watching the right battle. The dialectic itself is the sleight of hand. Both sides are pre-arranged. The synthesis is what was always going to be delivered. MANY will be deceived.
Both powers seem to be working together to achieve an outcome they jointly agree to. Don’t believe me?
Verse 6 mentions a political alliance through marriage between the king of the South and the king of the North, though this alliance ultimately fails.
Verse 17 describes the king of the North giving his daughter in marriage to the king of the South. While this appears to be an attempt at cooperation or alliance, it's described as a deceptive strategy rather than genuine collaboration.
Verses 22-23 could be interpreted as a brief period of alliance or at least a peace agreement, though it's described as act of deceit by the king of the North.
Verse 27 very explicitly shows the kings meeting and appearing to cooperate, though with deceitful intentions.
The political powers are setup to seem like opposition but it’s all planned:
27 And both of these kings' hearts shall be to do mischief, and they shall speak lies at one table; but it shall not prosper: for yet the end shall be at the time appointed.
This is not the only example. In Revelation 13:11 we see a second beast that rises from the earth and in verse 12 he gets everyone to turn to the first beast:
11 And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon.
12 And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.
So, the second beast will rise and will get everyone to turn to the first beast. To do that, these two will work together. I am NOT saying the second beast is the King of the South, it is NOT.
Jesus said that we should be careful. This is the tactic that will be used to deceive us into a false Christianity.
The left vs the south
Recently, even Martin Armstrong had a say around the left in the USA acting very much like the King of the South.
Martin Armstrong might not be Christian. He is a secular cycle-economist who runs armstrongeconomics.com and forecasts financial markets using a model based on capital flows and historical economic patterns. He has no theological axe to grind. And in his analysis of the political left, he writes:
“Throughout history, the LEFT is ALWAYS more violent because at the very core of their belief system is that they are always the victim who is not as successful as others, and they tend to be brainwashed into this mantra that has been around for thousands of years. Their actions violate the Ten Commandments, which are rooted in prohibitions one finds in the legal codes of Assyrians and Babylonians.”
Armstrong arrives at a King-of-the-South identification — the political left as the structurally violent, anti-property, anti-tradition force in any given era — from a non-religious analytic frame. He cites Exodus 20:17 (“thou shalt not covet”) but treats it as ancient legal philosophy, not as scripture. The conclusion overlaps anyway. I could not have said this any better, and I don’t know whether he is a believer.
The point is not that Armstrong is right because he agrees with this post. The point is that the King-of-the-South identification does not require the Christian framework to land — it shows up in any analyst who watches the left honestly and reads history honestly. The prophetic gloss on top of that observation is a deepening, not an inventing.
The final wave
Clearly, these prophecies are warnings of what is to come so that we don’t get lost in the weeds. Jesus warned us to be on the lookout. We have a responsibility to be watchmen and in a later post I might cover that in more detail.
The final wave is from the King of the North to setup a false Christianity.
In a recent post I pointed out that a wave is building. One where several celebrities and political entities are stepping out to profess their faith.
Here is a summary of the King of the South wave the last two centuries and then the King of the North the past few years:
South wave:
The secular atheistic wave started around 1798 AD when France established a secular government;
Theory of Evolution was proliferated into education;
We know the end of days start when the wound healed which was 1798AD;
Since the mid 1900s, the mainstream media moved away from promoting God;
God was taken out of schools (1962, Supreme Court ruled in Engel v. Vitale ADN 1963, the Supreme Court ruled in Abington School District v. Schempp);
The LGBTQ movement received huge support (Legalization of same-sex marriage in 2015);
Removal of Ten Commandments display;
Secularization of holidays;
Removal of religious symbols from public property;
Challenges to religious exemptions;
Abortion (Roe v. Wade in 1973 AND Planned Parenthood v. Casey in 1992);
Increased acceptance of premarital sex;
Rise of divorce rates;
Legalization of gambling;
Perceived decline in Sabbath observance;
Teaching of evolution in schools;
Sexualization of media and entertainment.
North wave (little horn):
Several celebrities turning to faith;
Putin had very specific comments around family values;
The new Italian president’s view on conservative values;
Canadian liberals fall out of favour in the 2024 election;
Several polls noting Trump is likely win this November;
Increased visibility of Christian athletes openly discussing their faith, such as Tim Tebow and Stephen Curry and Scotty Scheffler;
Growth of homeschooling and Christian education alternatives;
Some countries, like Hungary, implementing pro-family policies aligned with traditional Christian values;
Growth of conservative Christian movements in parts of Africa and South America;
Increased focus on "family values" rhetoric in some political campaigns;
Some tech companies and entrepreneurs openly embracing Christian principles in business;
Increased visibility of Christian social media influencers and content creators;
Some politicians more openly discussing their faith and its influence on their policies;
Renewed discussions about Sunday trading laws in some countries; and
Increased visibility of Christian symbols and practices in some sports teams.
In a later post I shall be more specific on what we can expect during the end of days.
It will strike like a whirlwind
Dan 11:40 refers to the King of the North’s final wave to be like a whirlwind:
Jeremiah 23:19, "Behold, a whirlwind of the LORD is gone forth in fury, even a grievous whirlwind: it shall fall grievously upon the head of the wicked."
Jeremiah 4:13, "Behold, he shall come up as clouds, and his chariots shall be as a whirlwind: his horses are swifter than eagles. Woe unto us! for we are spoiled."
Jeremiah 25:31-33, "A noise shall come even to the ends of the earth; for the LORD hath a controversy with the nations, he will plead with all flesh; he will give them that are wicked to the sword, saith the LORD. Thus saith the LORD of hosts, Behold, evil shall go forth from nation to nation, and a great whirlwind shall be raised up from the coasts of the earth.”
Isaiah 66:15, "For, behold, the LORD will come with fire, and with his chariots like a whirlwind, to render his anger with fury, and his rebuke with flames of fire."
Daniel 11:40, "And at the time of the end shall the king of the south push at him: and the king of the north shall come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots, and with horsemen, and with many ships; and he shall enter into the countries, and shall overflow and pass over."
Ezekiel 1:4, "And I looked, and, behold, a whirlwind came out of the north, a great cloud, and a fire infolding itself, and a brightness was about it, and out of the midst thereof as the colour of amber, out of the midst of the fire."
chariot = clouds, whirlwind, tool of war, man's glory, salvation
horsemen = soldiers on horseback
ship = means of travel, way of life, guidance, protection, church structure
Thus, the final whirlwind from the King of the North will be sudden, quick, destructive, furious, grievious and combined with military or/and legal power.
Bottom line
There will be a sudden and strong final wave that seems Christian to unite a large slice of the world and it will include the False Prophet and both will rise against a small remnant that refuses to partake in the mark:
Rev 19:20 - "And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone."
MANY will be deceived.
whydoneit?
Why this final wave?
Similar to how literal Israel was oppressed in captivity, will the final remnant be oppressed. Until Jesus intervenes. The final wave is to cause a shaking and attempt to deceive the very elect:
Matt 24:24 - "For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect."