China in and out of Bible Prophecy

The Bible is not silent about Far East Asia, both past and future. Of course, all people of the world are contemplated in the general address of much of the prophetic literature of the Bible. However, there are several prophecies that clearly involve this region in a specific way.

First, revealing the most eastern nation noted in the Bible, China itself is mentioned in a prophetic context in Isaiah 49:12: “Behold, these shall come from far: and, lo, these from the north and from the west; and these from the land of Sinim.” Just what and where is Sinim? Most sources agree that “Sinim” refers to the far eastern region of China.1 Things related to China today are still referred to as “sino”; for example, the word “sinology” means the study of China.

In the Arabic language, China is still referred to as “Sin.” The word “Sin” likely comes from the word Ch’in (or Tsin), as in the Ch’in Dynasty which ruled China between 221 and 206 BC, or some other word derivation from before that time. The word “Sinim” in Hebrew would therefore simply be the plural form of “Sin.”

What we can deduce from Isaiah’s word, written some 2,700 years ago, is that Sinim (China) will most certainly exist in the last days and into the following Millennial period. Moreover, we can also reasonably deduce that China must be a substantial entity at that time, since its name is used in this prophecy to describe the general geographical direction of “east.”

Wonderfully, Isaiah indicates that the people of Sinim will also be in that number that will eventually go to worship in the new Israel of the 1,000-year Millennial Period. The US, on the other hand, is not directly mentioned in Bible prophecy (though possibly included among the group of countries that the Bible refers to as the “islands”).

 

Further Biblical Mention of Asia in the Last Days

Revelation 16:12 mentions yet another event involving Asia. This takes place in the vicinity of the Euphrates River: “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.”

This verse occurs at the time that the sixth angel pours out a sixth bowl of wrath; sometime in the second half of the Tribulation period. As we learn from these verses, this important border for Israel—the Euphrates River—will be breached when the Kings of the East go over to the west side of this river. Nothing more appears to be directly attributed to the “Kings of the East” anywhere in the Bible, this being the only verse in which these kings are mentioned.

Undoubtedly, we think, the Kings of the East will be the leaders of a number of countries in Far East Asia—namely, nations on the east side of the Euphrates River.

But, why will the Kings of the East cross the Euphrates? The reason is unclear. However, we must let all of Scripture speak. This verse reveals that the great Euphrates will be dried up. What does this mean? This writer concludes that it likely symbolized economic difficulties … perhaps a deep economic depression. In the Old Testament, a dry riverbed is always equated with economic disaster. This would certainly be the case for agrarian countries. As such, we do not see the drying of the river as preparing a route for the Kings of the East to cross into the west side of the Euphrates—an area promised to the Israelites by God. In our day and age, there are plenty of ways to cross a river.

 

One More Key Prophetic Deduction: A Non-Mention

We now address a question that we posed earlier: Will China also play a significant geopolitical role in the last days, perhaps being a key member of a final world order? The answer, we believe, is again both yes and no. Yes, in our opinion China (and some other select Asian nations) will play a role in last-day geopolitical developments. But the Bible clearly rules out any role for China in the post-globalism, minilateralism period of a “10-king” ruling order just before the Antichrist comes on the scene.

How do we know this? There is one additional verse in the Bible which applies to some key Asian countries today that we have not examined. It is a perspective that is often overlooked, found in Revelation 17:12, which supports an important deduction. It reads: “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.” Just how does this verse connect to Asian countries today?

We must, of course, first assume that we are indeed living in the very last of the last days. As such, the world today would then be very near the time that the 10 kings will emerge on the world scene. The verse we have quoted from Revelation specifically refers to these 10 kings and reveals a crucial clue.

John the Revelator tells us here that these 10 kings “have not yet received a kingdom.” This means that neither the kings nor their kingdoms referred to in this verse had yet existed either at or by the time that Apostle John wrote the Book of Revelation (approx. 90—95 AD).

As such, we can validly draw some conclusions from Revelation 17:12: Any nation today that existed at or prior to the time of John’s prophecy can therefore not qualify as one of the 10 final kings … in other words, one of the final 10 nations. If we apply this principle, it reveals that such nations as China, India, Persia and perhaps others will not be part of the final 10-king world power coalition. (In the past, we have named this group the Global Power Coalition.)

China already existed in New Testament times. According to historians, the Han Dynasty, a predecessor to modern-day China, was in power at the time of John’s prophecies. The same may be concluded for the nation of Japan.

The nation referred to as “Hodu” (India … earlier named Hindustan) in the Bible had already existed much earlier. The book of Esther confirms the existence of Hodu at the time of Xerxes. The record of Hodu before then, however, is not clear. Crucially, therefore, we discover here that most of these large and influential Asian nations that we observe today, will not be part of the last-day rulership represented on the 7^th head of the beasts shown in Revelation 12, 13 and 17 … the 10 kings. According to our understanding of Scripture, most of the 10 kings will be from Europe.

 

Thoughts to Ponder

What light could the information that we reviewed possibly shed on our times today? For one, without a doubt, there indeed will be “Kings of the East” that fulfill their action as described in Revelation 16:12, confirming their existence at that time. However, we expect that these nations will be dominated by the 10 kings, as the 7^th head that they represent is the final power that then rules over the entire world with the Antichrist (see Daniel 7).

Beyond the certainty that these nations will not be part of the world ruling order at the time that Antichrist assumes global control, we can only attempt a few additional speculative scenarios.

One that appears plausible is that the formation of the final 10 kings may very well be a counter strategy to the perceived threats and aggressive actions of other global players, these very possibly including the Kings of the East.

There is no doubt that China is strategically placed geographically, allowing it to become a naval power that can control much of Asia. A number of geographers and geo-strategists have long thought this to be the case. As it happens, China today has sharply increased its spending on its naval capabilities.

Scripture seems to indicate that the Kings of the East are an opposition force … an aggressor. They rise up, crossing the Euphrates River against an unknown enemy. The catalysts may be economic or geopolitical. We simply do not know.

The 10 kings, on the other hand, come together to collect power to then give it to the Antichrist. The Bible tells us that, “These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast” (Revelation 17:13). It is possible that the specter we see developing in Asia today could very well be the world power dynamic that hastens the formation of the 10 kings. If so, the time may already be very short.

While it surely is factual and significant that economic and geopolitical power has begun to be more widely distributed around the world away from the Roman-type nations (this potentially an important alignment with endtime prophecy), consensus predictions that the Asian nations will dominate the world are not likely to be correct.

At the same time, the emergence of certain Asian countries to greater world prominence plays an integral and necessary part in the events and trends that lead to the conditions of the upcoming Tribulation period.

Using our diagnostical list, examining the rise of Asia, six tell-tale characteristics of a “last-day season phenomena” can be observed: 1. Recency … a trend observed after 1948; 2. Seeming improbability and inexplicability of its occurrence … at least at first; 3. Evidence of acceleration; 4. Global impact; 5. Humanist Agenda; 6. Suddenness and rapidity; and, above all, Bible prophecy.

Though very few specific events may be pinpointed from Bible prophecy, Asia’s influence and likely endtime roles can also be discerned through deduction. As in astronomy, “black holes” are not directly visible, but they can be discerned through their impact on other celestial bodies. In the same way, we can observe trends in the Middle East and the Roman-heritage world, informed by both facilitating and parallel developments in other parts of the world.

In any case, the speed of change and the nature of the developments underway in Asia today are simply astounding. Following the lead of other Asian countries, we see that a sleeping giant—China—has been awakened in the past half-century.

The rise of Asia qualifies as a “significant event,” and as we have shown, broadly aligns with Bible prophecy.

Wilfred J. Hahn is a global economist/strategist. Formerly a top-ranked global analyst, research director for a major Wall Street investment bank, and head of Canada’s largest global investment operation, his writings focus on the endtime roles of money, economics and globalization. He has been quoted around the world and his writings reproduced in numerous other publications and languages. His 2002 book The Endtime Money Snare: How to live free accurately anticipated and prepared its readers for the Global Financial Crisis. A following book, Global Financial Apocalypse Prophesied: Preserving true riches in an age of deception and trouble, looks further into the prophetic future.

You can contact Wilfred at: staff@eternalvalue.com

 

1 James H. Strong, Exhaustive Concordance, p. 5515. “Sinim is a distant Oriental region.”

 

(Ripening Times Asia Part 2)

The Modern Asian Phenomenon

We continue our series of “Ripening Times—Discerning Trends of Significance.” We proceed with our explanation of why the sudden rise of Asia qualifies as one such trend.

A significant impulse that has rocked the world in recent decades is the rapid emergence of a group of Asian economic dynamos. Large countries with huge populations, such as India and China, seem to have awoken rather suddenly. After years of slumbering, this cocooned region began its butterfly transformation only some 60 to 70 years ago. Today, as some of these nations have muscled onto the world stage as economic titans, they are projecting a wide wake—one that has washed up on the shores of all the high-income countries around the world, particularly North America and Europe. In the process, these Asian nations have become more influential geopolitically.

It would be instructive to get a sense of the epic nature of the Asian phenomenon of the past half-century. It is yet a rapid trend that has direct linkages to economic, financial and geopolitical developments. Even more significant, the rise of Asia finds Scriptural alignments. We must ask: How does Satan benefit from these sudden developments?

Small Beginnings with Big Consequences

It wasn’t that long ago—not much more than 50 years past—that the Western world still looked upon the Far East with a certain aloofness. It was and remains a diverse part of the world, comprising roughly 40% of the world’s landmass and approximately 60% of the earth’s population. To illustrate, the countries of China and India evoked belittling visions of rice paddies and countryside peasants; or, respectively, teeming Hindus living in the stifling suburbs of Calcutta, between their wandering, sacred cows. Westerners would donate their nickels and dimes to alleviate the hungry and homeless in this region … perhaps, the lepers in India.

The Mao uniforms that were worn in the Middle Kingdom (China)—unisex brown khakis for everyone—were also a familiar picture. These Asian peoples, different as they were, seemed a world away—certainly far out of harm’s way and of no fathomable threat to America or any other high-income country.

We considered them less fortunate, backward and undeveloped—beneath the enlightened ways of the West’s so-called Hellenistic and progressive cultures. Their customs and religions were strange. This is what Westerners thought.

It then began with a whimper. In mid-century, the world witnessed the first beginnings of Asia’s economic miracles in a select number of smaller countries.

Japan was the first Asian nation in the post-war period to enter take-off into rapid economic development.

While it had been a force to be reckoned with during World War II, Japan economically was seen as diminutive and non-threatening in the post-war period. Its economy in 1960 represented only 3% of world economic output. Its population accounted for a similar proportion.

Then, suddenly, beginning in the late 1950s, Japan’s economy was sparked to grow more than two to three times as fast as those of America and Europe during this early growth phase. Japan began a hyperactive period of economic growth and development, rapidly rising from its relatively poor status to eventually become the world’s second largest economic powerhouse.

South Korea was next. It seemed even less significant, its economy in 1960 amounting to less than 1/3 of 1% of world output and possessing less than 1% of the world’s population.

Beginning in the early 1960s, this Asian competitor to Japan began its journey to eventually become one of the high-income nations of the world. Only 25 years later, in 1996,1 it would become one of the 30 members of the Organization of Economic Development (OECD)—the rich country club of the world.

The Awakening Spreads to China?

As a world-traveling investment executive, this writer had only come to fully grasp the significance of China’s economic awakening somewhat late. I remember the very day that my awareness was alerted. On a research trip to Asia in 1992, I visited with the Chief Investment Officer of a major family fortune (with Mainland connections) in Hong Kong. This man, who was Chinese and educated in Australia, was more than forthcoming about what was happening in China.

His message was this: Western corporate executives were so greedy they were willing to supply all their technology free to China—and significant investment capital to boot—if they could have an opportunity to access China’s domestic consumer market. He was chuckling as he said it.

He was amused with the transparent gullibility and greed of the wai lo—literally meaning “foreign devils.” It was the Chinese version of a capitalist “monkey trap.” That conversation took place already a full decade after the “economic opening” to the rest of the world, which was begun by Premier Deng Xiaoping in the late 1970s.

Communist China had woken up and realized that a large and growing economy was the equivalent of power and might. And indeed, many Western multinational corporations were very eager to build factories in China. At one point, as much as 50% of China’s goods exports were the output of American- and European-owned companies in China. Western companies made huge profits by “off-shoring” their products to China and its Asian manufacturing hub.

China and Asia Continue to Advance

While the advances of Japan and South Korea were monumentally fast, it is the economic awakening of China that attracts the most emphasis in this review. Firstly, it is crucial to realize that the Chinese have an inordinately large influence on the entire Asian region. Not only is China the largest trade partner with many other Asian countries, but also a large percentage of major businesses in southeast Asia are owned or controlled by Chinese families.

Though a minority ethnic group in Asia (outside of China), they are its main business people. The Chinese diasporas, triggered by political unrest and wars of the late 19^th century and the middle 20^th (the time of the Great Revolution and victory of Mao Zedong), spread a Chinese business network across the entire region from Malaysia to Indonesia. These large business empires have directed much investment to China in recent decades, and have made a large contribution to the economic rise of China.

Secondly, China, either individually or in concert with other Asian countries, believes they will eventually challenge America and other Western countries. China itself may have less inhibitions in destabilizing the current world order, as it is much more than “a big country, inhabited by many Chinese,” as the French President Charles de Gaulle once opined.

Its agendas find deep motivations. China’s deportment is heavily influenced by the fact that it has existed as a country, millennia before the US and other high-income countries of today. After all, China was the world’s largest economy for 18 of the last 20 centuries.

Finally, China is not militarily reliant upon the West as was Japan when it entered its fast-growth phase. This affords a measure of autonomy. It can choose to align itself against the West. In conclusion, China is no one’s lap dog. It is an independent and proud player on the world scene. Foreign pressure (gaiatsu) is not likely to be effective. Can anyone stop China from pursuing its own interest?

Our opinion: Yes and no, as we will explain.

Is a Dominant Asia Inevitable?

Though it may today appear that the economic advance of China and other Asian nations is unstoppable, this is not necessarily a valid conclusion. In fact, it is not at all likely that Far-East Asian nations will come to dominate the world anytime soon, if ever. To the contrary.

While competitive pressures and conflicts with the Western world (Roman world) are surely to heighten, Bible prophecy as well as other developments observable today suggest otherwise.

It is a strange twist of fate that Asia as a region possesses so little resources and energy reserves in comparison to other parts of the world. The vast abundance of the world’s resources—certainly so when measured on a per capita basis—is found elsewhere. This is a structural reality of the world.

It means that an awakening Asia, as it seeks to attain the prosperity levels of the US, Canada and Europe, is sure to test the limitations of commodity supplies. This has already been the case over the last several decades.

Another hurdle stems from the fact that birth rates have fallen dramatically over the past several decades in China (and also Asia generally). At some point this will cause economic difficulties, as there will be insufficient young people entering the workforce. Therefore, it is reasonable to conclude that China’s ascendancy cannot continue indefinitely.

However, there is one further indication that Asian countries will not take over or lead the world. The reason is revealed in Bible prophecy.

In the final part of this series about the rise of Asia, we examine what the Bible has to say about the futures of both Asia and China.

Wilfred J. Hahn is a global economist/strategist. Formerly a top-ranked global analyst, research director for a major Wall Street investment bank, and head of Canada’s largest global investment operation, his writings focus on the endtime roles of money, economics and globalization. He has been quoted around the world and his writings reproduced in numerous other publications and languages. His 2002 book The Endtime Money Snare: How to live free accurately anticipated and prepared its readers for the Global Financial Crisis. A following book, Global Financial Apocalypse Prophesied: Preserving true riches in an age of deception and trouble, looks further into the prophetic future.

You can contact Wilfred at: staff@eternalvalue.com

 

1 OECD Website. “Korea signed the Convention founding the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development on 12 December 1996, thereby pledged its full dedication to achieving the Organization’s fundamental aims.”