The News first then the prophetic implication.
In April of 2011 I had posted several articles noting the growing and obvious rift between the Supreme Leader of Iran, Ayatollah Khamenei, and his handpicked and supposedly elected President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. There was a spate of articles and a heightened speculation, then...nothing. War tensions took over and news chat of Ahmadinejad's position took back burner. Now this incredible news today. First, look at the three peices of news from last April/May-
Apr 28, 2011: There's a rift between Iran's President Ahmadinejad ...
"A rift is emerging between Iran's president and its supreme leader, prompting several members of the parliament to call for the impeachment of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has not been seen in public for days."
Apr 29, 2011: Ahmadinejad may resign
"In an interesting story yesterday, it seems that Iran's President Ahmadinejad has displeased the clerics (who really rule the nation) and especially has displeased Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei..."
May 6, 2011: "Are Ahmadinejad's days numbered?"
"An Examiner article states that Arab TV has reported that the Iran's Supreme Leader Khamenei has asked President hmadinejad of Iran to step down. If true, it indicates a tightening of the strife that has burst onto the surface."
Iran's Parliamentary elections are coming up. This parliamentary election will be held in Iran on 2 March 2012 to elect new members of Islamic Consultative Assembly, Majlis. The Presidential election is not until next year. "The [parliamentary] election is expected to be a contest between "supporters and opponents of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad within the conservative camp," says the AP. So there was already a rift, but the election is the mechanism that will expose it to the light. And any tensions that have been successfully hidden from the world since last April, will be all the harder to suppress as the elections near.
Then this today.
"Supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei has hinted the office of the presidency may be dismantled".
In this Al Jazeera opinion piece analyzing the current internal factionism in advance of the elections, it is stated,
"Soon after the presidential election of June 2009 - when Khamenei had to side with Ahmadinejad - the widely contested president was under the illusion that he enjoyed grassroots support. As a result of that deadly miscalculation, he and his faction now face two problems: not having his allies qualified for the next parliamentary election, and being impeached by the newly formed parliament for a barrage of corruption charges against him, his aides, and his cabinet. Ahmadinejad was always dispensable for Khamenei - but he seems to have had misread the Supreme Leader's intentions, who has even recently suggested that the office of presidency might very well be altogether dismantled to guarantee his absolutist Sultanism without even a hint of democratic menace."
Sultanism is "another name for Despotism, is a form of authoritarian government characterized by the extreme personal presence of the ruler in all elements of governance. ... The term Sultanism is derived from the word Sultan, which is a title used in Muslim societies for a sovereign or absolute monarch." (source)
This isn't the first time the Ayatollah has said that he may get rid of the office of President. He said it 4 months ago in this article in the Washington Post- "An unusual proposal by Iran’s supreme leader to eliminate the position of president has highlighted an increasingly bitter struggle within the country’s political elite, as the leader and his allies continue to try to undercut the powers of Iran’s ambitious president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said “changing Iran into a parliamentary system” in which voters no longer elected a president would not be a problem." Read more here.
Now the prophetic implication. The Tribulation is a time for Kings. It is all about kings. There will not be freedom, there will not be liberty, there will not be democracy. Geo-political changes occur so rapidly that individual national sovereignty is quickly done away with. the world forms into ten kingships. Daniel 7:24- "The ten horns are ten kings who will come from this kingdom. After them another king will arise, different from the earlier ones; he will subdue three kings."
Revelation 17:12 - "Revelation 17:12 "The ten horns you saw are ten kings who have not yet received a kingdom, but who for one hour will receive authority as kings along with the beast."
Daniel 11:40 "At the time of the end the king of the South will engage him in battle, and the king of the North will storm out against him with chariots and cavalry and a great fleet of ships. He will invade many countries and sweep through them like a flood."
Revelation 16:12, "The sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates, and its water was dried up to prepare the way for the kings from the East."
The final days of the Church Age will see, and we are seeing now, a shifting of power. Not just in one president here or there but grand, sweeping changes, and changes not just of who governs, but how they govern, too. And not for the better. Changes where kings and presidents and ayatollahs and prime ministers and dictators are swept from power at a heartbeat. How many top leaders have been killed or have resigned int he last year? Power coalesces, and even nominal democracy is done away with. Think of all the dictators and leaders swept away in the Arab Spring, to be replaced with an Army or a Muslim Brotherhood, or a Terrorist faction. None of the new leaders have been better than the last, that is for sure.
It has to be so, because by Revelation 13 the Antichrist has gained enough power to force all people, great and small, to receive a mark on their hand or their forehead in order to worship the beast, or they may not buy nor sell. That is the word in Revelation 13:16- "forced" "everyone." Only dictators can do that. As we near the Tribulation the world gets ready to form into ten kingships, then seven, then one.
That's why it is prophetically significant that the Ayatollah has hinted he may get rid of the office of the President. By the time of the end, there will only be dictators. aAd then the final dictator, antichrist. It is all narrowing down.
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