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The Kings of the East

Who Are They? A Fresh Perspective

Although it has been widely taught for centures by many that the "kings of the east" (as noted specifically in Revelation 16:12) are best represented by China and the Pacific Rim countries, the following careful analysis will shed new light and revelation upon this topic. yielding a different yet more cogent, comprehensive, and complete answer in light of Biblical TRUTH.

To begin with, let's examine Revelation 16:12 and Revelation 9:13-18.

Revelation 16:12

"And the sixth poured out his bowl unto the river Euphrates and its water was dried up in order that the way of the kings from the rising of the sun might be prepared."

Revelation 9:13-18

"And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar, which is before GOD, one saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, 'release the four angels having been bound at the great River Euphrates.' And the four angels were loosed having been prepared for the hour and day and month and year, in order that they should kill the third (part) of men. And the number of the bodies of soldiers of the cavalry (armies of horsemen) were 200 million: I heard the number of them. And thus I saw the horses in the vision and the (ones) sitting on them, having breastplates fire-colored and dusky red and sulphurous; and the heads of the horses as heads of lions, and out of the mouths of them proceeds fire and smoke and sulphur. From these three plagues were killed the third (part) of men, by the fire and the smoke and the sulphur proceeding out of their mouths."

There is no instance of any angel of GOD (who has not sinned in a rebellion led by satan) ever being bound - period. These angels have stayed faithful to GOD. We are told in the Gospel accounts to "bind the strong man before we plunder his house. To "bind" implies "restriction," which is one of the authorities/keys tht GOD has also given HIS people (Matthew 16:18, Luke 13:10-18 - woman bound for 18 years by satan).

Further, the Greek tense of teh verb "binding," "dedemenous," is a perfect passive participle, accusative masculine plural. Now we can understand what has happened to these angels through a knowledge of the Greek grammar. They have been bound in the past, obviously by THE LORD, and they remain bound until a voice from the "four horns of the golden altar" in Heaven before GOD says to "release the four angels." This is quite profound, for these four angels have some horrible part to play out in the near end time events, soon to come upon the whole world.

Revelation 9:15

"And the four angels were loosed having been preapred fro the hour and day and month and year in order that they (the four angels - our reference) should kill the third of man."

The kings of the east are human. The fact that the great River Euphrates is dried up necessitates that the kings of the east will move from east to west, directly toward Israel. The kings of the east, being human, need to have the Euphrates River dried up in order to cross its border. This only makes sense since the drying up of the River would not change the status whatsoever if they wre not moving in a westward direction across the Euphrates directly towards Israel and if they were not human. Spirits do not need the river to dry up in order to cross it!

There is an evil connection between demonic spirits and the human kings of the earth. These demonic spirits draw out the kings of the whole world to battle.

Revelatoin 16:13,14

"And I saw coming out of the mouth of the dragon and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet, three unclean spirits, as frogs; for they are spirits of demons doing signs, which go forth unto the kings of the whole inhabited earth, to assemble them to the war of the Great Day of GOD ALMIGHTY."

Zechariah 14:1,2

"Behold, the Day of THE LORD is coming, and your spoil shall be divided in your midst. For I will gather all the nations to Jerusalem for war..."

Joel 3:2

"And I will also gather all the nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will enter into judgment with them there for MY people and for MY Heritage, Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and have divided MY Land."

A further interesting note is found in the following verses, which clearly illustrate tht the "kings of the east' are a subset of a far larger universal group of the "kings of the whole inhabited earth" that will come against GOD's Chosen People, the Jews, in Israel, in the last days.

Zechariah 14:1,2

"Behold, the Day of THE LORD is coming, and your spoil shall be divided in your midst. For I will gather all the nations to Jerusalem for war..."

Please note that spirits, relative to this topic, come in two classes: guardian/territorial spirits that fight for good and represent GOD, and evil spirits that attempt to interfere and usurp authority, and degrade humans into an anti-GOD element, which also have territorial aspects. An example of each in the BIBLE would be in the Book of Daniel.

Daniel 12:1

"at that time, Michael shall stand up, the reat prince, the one standing over the sons of your people..."

Please note that the appearance of a good angel who represents GOD starting in verses 5 through 6 of the same chapter.

"...a certain man clothed in linen, whose waist was girded with gold of Uphaz. His body was like beryl, his face like the appearance of lightning, his eyes like torches of fire, and feet like burnished bronze in color, and the sound of his words like the voice of a multitude."

Obviously, this is an angelic spirit, definitely not a human.

Continuing, this is the one speaking to Daniel in the following:

Daniel 10:13

"but the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me twenty-one days, and behold, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me for I had been left alone there with the kings of Persia."

This is an example of evl territorial spirits over lands that we have again seen in the Book of Daniel, chapter 10, verse 13. (Please note that Daniel sees this all in a vision - Daniel 10:7.)
Once again, how can we establish the identity of the "200 million" cavalry unit: men or angels? The salient point for their identification is thus: They must be an army of spirits, and evil spirits at that, for the following three reasons:

  1. Humans have been given free will and are not under the control or authority of any spirit, good or evil. Free will is a gift fo GOD and part of HIS Creative Design.
  2. One would be hard-pressed to quantify 200 million combat-ready horses; if this were to be taken literally, as physical horses (see below). One would be equally hard-pressed to quantify this as military-grade tanks and aircraft, using all available statistics of combat-ready military hardware woldwide. We believe that the numbers of all available weapons for the standing armies of the world altogether would fall far short of the Biblically mandated number: 200 Milion. The shear numbers given in the Bible demand by necessity finding another solution. One must look to the non-physical world, thus the spiritual realm, for the answer. It is there.
  3. The wilfull destruction of man against man, though all too universal throughout all human history, is far outweighed by satan's and his followers destructive hatred of humans.

Therefore, the 200 million cavalry unit of Revelation 9 are demonic spirits and not human. They cannot be linked to the physical human kings of the east and/or the kings of the whole inhabited earth of Revelation 16. Whereas, Revelation 9 deals with the 6th Trumpet Judgment, Revelation 16 deals with the 6th Bowl Judgment. They are different Judgments and are not linked.

The kings of the east are physical human beings, who trace their lineage back to Esau, even to Ishmael. Further, the kings of the whole earth are physical human beings. The kings of the east are a part of the kings of the whole inhabited earth. Thus we see the demonic spirits in Revelatin 16 going into the whole inhabited earth in order to entice, seduce the kigns of the earth, drawing them to the battle of the Great Day of GOD Almighty.

Once again, the seduction of man by satan and his emissaries will occur, attempting to turn man against GOD and man against man.

A careful study of the current leaders in the Middle East will yield a plethora of leaders , "kings" and "royalty," all potential candidates for the Biblically prophesied "kings of the east" who will come agains the Holy Land (Israel) and GOD's people (the Jews) in the Last Days (soon to come).

Anyone can clearly see the anger that is fomenting against Israel through the Mid-East and Africa. The picture is becoming clearer that everything is moving toward Biblical fulfillment as Biblical prophecy requires.

In Summary:

  • The "kings of the east" of Revelation 16 are human beings.
  • The four angels of Revelation 9:15 are demonic spirits.
  • The 200 million "horsemen" are 200 million demonic spirits.
  • The 200 million "horses" are not physical horses. They are not tanks or military aircraft either. They are 200 million spirits upon which the 200 million demonic spirits ride.
  • The Judgments of Revelation 9 and Revelation 16 are different, not to be linked together as one. They are two separate judgments. One (in Revelation 9) is a Trumpet Judgment, whereas the other (Of Revelation 16) is a Bowl Judgment. Do not link them as one.

We pray that this concise analysis has given you a fresh perspective and a clear view of Biblical truth.

Search on the internet for population of horses. According to:

http:/www/worldalmanacforkids.com/explore/animals/horse/html#fw..ho091800.a.c50

Statistics: The world had an estimated 61 million horses in the mid-1990s, of which nearly 10 percent were in the U.S. Although horsemeat is not generally regarded in the U.S. as fit for human consumption, foreign demand for the product, chiefly in Europe and the Far East, sustained the legal slaughter of more than 100,000 U.S. horses annually in the late 1990s. The worldwide production of horsemeat averaged abuot 500,000 metric tons per year.

Based on these statistics, it is beyond reason to consider a 200,000,000 military-ready grade of cavalry-ready horses. Therefore, since the physical realm denies the existence of 200 million horses, we must look elsewhere. In like manner, the stores of advanced weapons (for example: helicopters, tanks, aircraft, etc.) fall at least one or two orders of magnitude (10 times to 100 times) smaller than the Biblically mandated numbers.