The Deep Things Of Satan; Erdogan's Sufi Influences...Turkey's Significance pt 6

But unto you I say, and unto the rest in Thyatira, as many as have not this doctrine, and which have not known the depths of Satan, as they speak; I will put upon you none other burden.(Revelation 2:24)

And to the angel of the church in Pergamos write; These things saith he which hath the sharp sword with two edges; I know thy works, and where thou dwellest, even where Satan’s seat is: and thou holdest fast my name, and hast not denied my faith, even in those days wherein Antipas was my faithful martyr, who was slain among you, where Satan dwelleth.(Revelation 2:12-13)

We have been examining the profound changes in Turkey since 2003. Turkey had earlier reformed from being the head of the Ottoman Empire, a four hundred year menace to the West, the head of the Sunni Caliphate and controller of the entire Middle East and much of the Maghreb,(North Africa), as well as controlling and reducing much of the Orthodox Christian Eastern European world to humiliating and impoverishing Dhimmi status.

By the end of the First World War, Turkey had lost her empire. That was when she came under new management, for the brilliant reformer Attaturk, i.e. Mustafa Kemal, absolutely led a transformation of Turkey, Europeanizing her language, script and institutions and most importantly, marginalizing any influence Islam had held on Turkish public life.To the chagrin of Sunnis across the globe, Attaturk disbanded the ancient Caliphate.

That means that 80 percent of all Muslims have virtually been without a unifying head, for the Caliphate was the combination religious, military and political headship of the Sunni world.

The world has been enjoying a respite, a hiatus from the organized oppression which the Caliphate once impressed upon it. Turkey was able to take her place among the civilized world(somewhat), and was a partner in Nato and ally of the US and Israel, and even considered for admission to the European Union.

Eventually it became evident that even with all of this reform, Turkey wasn’t welcome into Europe’s borderless Utopia.

In 2002 the Justice and Development political party of the former mayor of Istanbul swept into power and Turkey has begun to shift in an ominous direction, turning to an aggressive form of Turkish Islam.Under the direction of Recep Tayip Erdogan, many of Attaturk’s reforms are being sidestepped and even the military, which has been the guardian of Turkey’s sear status, has been purged and out maneuvered by Erdogan.

It would do those of us looking at the prophecies to take a closer look at this man, for there is a deeper, darker spirituality driving him than standard Sunni Islam(which is dark enough!).

Walid Shoebat, a former Palestinian terrorist who converted to Christ, and became a Christian evangelist, has noted that Erdogan has publicly declared his affiliation with Jalal, al-Din Rumi, a famous Sufi mystic, whose teaching give Muslims theological justification for proclaiming themselves God.

Remember the famous utterance of al-Hallaj, “I am God.” People think that to say “I am God” is a claim of great pretense and spiritual arrogance. It is actually a claim of extreme humility. “I am God” means “I do not exist.” He is all, everything is He, existence is God’s alone. I am without existence, pure non-existence. I am nothing.” “I am God” is not a claim of great pretension, it is a claim of extreme humility. There is more humility in this than any supposed claim to greatness, but people do not understand the inner meaning. When a man acknowledges his servitude to God, he is aware of his being a servant. He may see himself as a devoted servant of God, but he still sees himself and his own actions as apart from the one reality of God. He is not drowned in the Ocean of Divine Unity. Drowned is he in whom there is not separate motion or mobility. Drowned is he whose movement is the movement of the water. And so it is with the enlightenment ones, those who declares, “I am God.” Anyone who says “I am the servant of God” asserts the reality of two existences, one for himself and the other for God. But he who says “I am God” — and has realized the deepest levels of unity within his being — has seen through the illusion of his existence. He knows from the experience of unity that his own separate existence is nothing but an illusion. Knowing that, he casts its former selfhood upon the winds of oblivion. (Rumi, Hearts bear witness one to another, in The Complete Discourses of Jalal al-Din Rumi, discourse 11, p. 75, ed. Louis Rogers) Erdogan Reviving Religion of The AntiChrist

Shoebat has quoted Erdogan as praising Rumi and other Sufi mystics as well as the famous Midieval anti-Crusader, Kurdish general, Saladin. From the article above;

This is the first time in history that this connect was made and now, it is no surprise to us that this Wednesday, the president of Turkey, Erdogan, praised Rumi’s work, revealing that he himself is not only Sufi but that he also believes in Fana “the art annihilation and becoming God himself”. Why else would Erdogan praise Rumi’s work The Masnavi, saying “A work can live for more than seven centuries only if it is written with love”. The Masnavi is amongst Rumi’s most popular works, and it is in this very book that the idea of man becoming divine is adulated. He praises the Sufi declaration “I am the Truth!” saying, “Mansur’s ‘I am the Truth!’ was purest light” (Masnavi, 2.307, trans. Mojaddedi)(ibid)

People often think that Sufism is a peace loving , meditation cult aspect of Islam, and rather entertaining in practice, visitors to Turkey can see the “Whirling Dervishes”, Muslim mystics who put themselves in trances by spinning in groups in circle.But obviously being a part of pagan religion, there is a darker side to it, for all of the ‘gods’ of the nations are demons.

Erdogan has a strange influence on those who come into contact with him, as evidenced by this testimony of a secular Turkish Media Mogul

On May 15, the Turkish media were rocked by the words of the media mogul Ethem Sancak, who bluntly declared his love for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in a TV interview. Sancak said, “While working on his campaign to get him elected prime minister, from my hometown Siirt, I met him. I saw his honesty and courage. I saw his opposition to oppression, his ability to protect the victim. The more I saw him, I feel in love [with him]. To be honest, during my days as a leftist, I could not understand the love between Mevlana [Jelaluddin Rumi, the poet] and [his companion and spiritual guide] Shams al-Tabrizi. As I got to know Erdogan, I realized that such a kind of divine love between two men is possible. When I [first] declared my love to him, I was already among the top 20 on the Forbes’ list. I did not need to wait for any favors by holding on to Erdogan’s coattails.”

Another thing about Erdogan that warrants attention is his adulation of Saladin. Turkey has long suppressed and oppressed the Kurds, denying them a homeland .But Saladin, the Kurdish general is famous throughout the Muslim world for his prowess against the Crusaders and for retaking Jerusalem.

When Erdogan dedicated a new international airport in Turkey’s Kurdish region, Arab News reported Erdogan’s comments-

ISTANBUL: President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday opened a new airport in a restive eastern province dogged by a Kurdish separatist insurgency, naming the facility for a celebrated Muslim medieval leader of Kurdish origin… They announced the airport would be named after Selaheddine Ayyubi to remember the 12th century founder of the Ayyubid dynasty who led Muslim resistance against Christian crusaders in the Middle East who sought to control Jerusalem. Of Kurdish origin, he is known simply as Saladin and in Arabic as Salah ad-Din. “We are naming this airport Selaheddine Ayyubi to send a message of solidarity and brotherhood and to say that Jerusalem belongs to Kurds, Turks, Arabs and Muslims forever.”

Walid Shoebat believes Erdogan wants to be the new Saladin, the modern “retaker” of Jerusalem, and the restorer of the Caliphate. Here Shoebat provides an excerpt of a translation of a speech Erdogan gave recently in which he pretty much proclaims it-

Erdogan says in this video: “Praise be to Allah the lord of the two worlds [this world and the underworld] where ownership belongs to Allah alone, victory is to Allah alone. He has no associates [denouncing the trinity]. In the pathway we came out asking Allah to strengthen our feet on the straight path …We have dressed up in our shrouds and are prepared to confront as did Sultan Alparslan We have believed as Sultan Saladin. That victory is not from the sword but comes from Allah. We have went to the path after we have burned the ships of return behind us as did the conquerer of Spain Tareq Benziad.”

Erdogan wants Italy and Spain. He wants to be Tariq Bin Ziad, the conqueror of Spain. He wants to be the tyrant Alp Arslan and Saladin. These are the Muslim leaders who fought against Christendom and he wants to be Saladin who conquered Jerusalem. He wants to be all in all. He wants to declare war on the strongest fortresses to advance his foreign God, Allah, through warfare.

This man sounds like a pretty good candidate for Anti-Christ. I am not proclaiming that He is, there is no need to, we will recognize the Anti-Christ as the one who cuts off the daily sacrifice of the restored Jewish tepee worship soon to be unveiled. I don’t know who that will be but am sure he is on the scene. But Erdogan certainly, like the president of the United States,Obama, exhibits several characteristics of the Anti-Christ. Come quickly Jesus! Maranatha!!

Deep things of Satan as explained by Dr. Marvin Vincent, in his "Word Studies in the New Testament":

The depths of Satan (τὰ βάθη τοῦ Σατανᾶ)

The reference is, most probably, to the Gnostic sect of the Ophites (ὄφις a serpent), or, in Hebrew, Naasenes (naash a serpent), serpent-worshippers, a sect the origin of which is unknown, but which existed as late as the sixth century; since, in 530, Justinian passed laws against it. “The veneration of the serpent was but the logical development of a theory, the germ of which is common to many of the Gnostic sects. Proceeding on the assumption that the creator of the world is to be regarded as an evil power, a thing in hostility to the supreme God, it follows as a natural consequence that the fall of man through disobedience to the command of his maker must be regarded, not as a transgression against the will of the supreme God, but as an emancipation from the authority of an evil being. The serpent, therefore, who tempted mankind to sin, is no longer their destroyer but their benefactor. He is the symbol of intellect, by whose means the first human pair were raised to the knowledge of the existence of higher beings than their creator. This conception, consistently carried out, would have resulted in a direct inversion of the whole teaching of scripture; in calling evil good and good evil; in converting Satan into God and God into Satan. The majority of the Ophite sects, however, seem to have shrunk from this portentous blasphemy. While acknowledging the fall of man as, in some manner, a deliverance from evil and an exaltation of human nature, they hesitated to carry out their principle by investing the evil spirit with the attributes of deity. A kind of compromise was made between scripture and philosophy. The serpent was, notwithstanding his service to mankind, represented as a being of evil nature and au enemy to man, though his work was overruled to man's good, and he himself was, beyond his intention, the instrument of a higher wisdom. Rut in one sect at least of the Ophites, the more logical and thoroughly blasphemous consequences of the first principles were exhibited openly and unblushingly” (Mansel, “Gnostic Heresies”). The characteristic boast of the Gnostics was their knowledge of the depths of divine things. In this they were probably perverting and caricaturing the words of Paul (Rom_11:33; 1Co_2:10).

As they speak

RV., as they say. The questions are, 1st. What is the phrase alluded to? Is it the familiar formula of these heretics, “the depths,” or “the depths of God,” the depths of Satan being added by the Lord himself in ironical contrast with the depths of divine knowledge, - or is it the depths of Satan? 2nd. Does as they say refer to Christians, describing the depths of the Gnostics as depths of Satan, or does it refer to the heretics themselves, calling their own mysteries depths of Satan?

The majority of commentators regard as they say as referring to the heretics, and as applying only to the word depths; of Satan being added by the Lord in indignation. Alford says that no such formula as depths of Satan, or any resembling it, is found as used by the ancient Gnostic heretics.

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(Remember, this is written by Beloved John the Theologian, a great battler against the Gnostic heresy.)

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