From Suzerainty to Sovereignty: Trump Takes Direct Control of Part of the Holy Land

       Reminder: If you're new to this blog, I recommend starting here - my initial post that covered the many links between Donald Trump and the biblical Antichrist.

       Donald Trump has just formed something called “The Board of Peace” (BoP) to oversee reconstruction in the horrifically war-torn Gaza strip. This review from The Guardian gives a good overview of the Board’s purpose and structure, and what (if any) potential it might have to create genuine peace and security in this region that has been afflicted by strife for many decades.

           When viewing this development through the lens of Bible prophecy, what is remarkable is that this Board – of which Donald Trump is the Chairman – might be fulfilling a key prophecy from Daniel 11, which states that the end-times Antichrist will come to Israel and exert direct sovereignty there. Here’s that relevant passage:

         “41 He will also invade the Beautiful Land (Israel). Many countries will fall, but Edom, Moab and the leaders of Ammon will be delivered from his hand. 42 He will extend his power over many countries; Egypt will not escape. 43 He will gain control of the treasures of gold and silver and all the riches of Egypt, with the Libyans and Cushites in submission. 44 But reports from the east and the north will alarm him, and he will set out in a great rage to destroy and annihilate many. 45 He will pitch his royal tents between the seas at (or and) the beautiful holy mountain (this is Mount Zion, or Jerusalem). Yet he will come to his end, and no one will help him.”

                The details here imply a couple of key things to keep in mind as we watch these global events unfold:

• ·         The Antichrist must exert direct, sovereign authority over at least part of the Holy Land. He will have “royal tents” – meaning his leadership will directly control at least part of this land area. “Between the seas and (Mount Zion)” effectively means the Holy Land, at least in part.

 ·             This wicked leader’s exertion of hegemony over (at least part of) Israel also comes with the corollary that he “will extend his power over many countries,” a power seemingly connected to his control of financial systems within the Middle East region (“treasures of gold and silver”).

           Now, with news that the Board of Peace has been signed in Switzerland today, with a number of countries joining up, we could tentatively conclude that the first of these key points might be in the process of fulfillment. Trump’s chairmanship of the board is without time limit, and without checks and balances. He will rule this board with king-like sovereignty, meaning he will be the linchpin of hegemony in Gaza, which is part of God’s Holy Land. This is an astonishing development, because now, for the first time since 1948, the Jews in Israel are explicitly sharing governorship of their land with a United States president. For the past 70+ years, the United States has exerted suzerainty over Israel – protecting it, funding it, and using it as what is sometimes called a ‘land-based aircraft carrier’ to flex military muscle in this key, combustible region. But suzerainty still allows for a limited degree of local autonomy. Now, however, with the erection of this Board, the United States is moving from suzerainty to direct sovereignty over a significant chunk of Israel/Palestine. And that is an ominous development for a number of reasons.

          However, it is just as clear that the second bullet point above – about the Antichrist controlling the financial flows in the Middle East – is not yet a reality. Could this occur in the near future? Trump has been making noises about introducing cryptocurrency into the world's financial system, and he has also threatened to take over direct control of the U.S. Federal Reserve. Keep your eyes on those topics in the news as 2026 takes further shape.

                We should also remember that when we’re projecting the Antichrist’s future actions, we can expect that in many respects he will follow the templates provided by the Bible’s two “proto-Antichrist” figures: Antiochus Epiphanes and Nero. For example, it’s highly relevant that Antiochus was given the nickname “Epimanes” (madman) as a pun on his chosen surname “Epiphanes” (which means “God manifest”). Nero, a narcissistic sociopath and vicious murderer, was also called a madman. The fact that both ‘proto-Antichrists’ were called ‘mad kings’ heavily implies that our end times Antichrist could also, in all likelihood, display aberrant behavioral traits such as delusions of grandeur, malignant narcissism, and even possible dementia. Psychologists and close observers have noted the presence of all three psychological traits in Trump’s manifested speech and actions over the past year (check out this article here, which is one of many similar takes that one can find through a Google search). Indeed, Trump's speech to the elites gathered in Davos, Switzerland this week was apparently so disjointed, rambling and filled with an abundance of ridiculous lies and grandiose vaunting that many are now calling for an urgent invocation of the 25th Amendment, under which a disabled president can be set aside by members of his cabinet acting in unison with Congress. 

                In that vein, it should be recalled that both Antiochus and Nero exerted sovereign control over the Holy Land – (crucially) in partnership with Jewish clients/puppets who were tasked with serving as their obsequious overseers on the ground. Antiochus worked with the Hellenizers in Israel to try to wean the Jews in Jerusalem away from what the Greeks tended to view as their ‘fanatical’ commitment to the Torah and their temple observances. This led to the counter-reaction of the Maccabees’ rebellion, a rebellion which was successful in ousting Antiochus from power and cleansing his abominations from the holy temple. The Roman empire’s actions – carried out by Nero, among others, in tandem with the Herodian dynasty and their local Jewish temple authorities – led to the Jewish rebellion in 66 CE – a rebellion which, of course, in that case worked out much less successfully for the Jewish people. It eventually led to the Romans’ horrifically violent crushing of Jewish power and control in Israel, the burning of Herod’s temple, and the bloody dispersion of the Jews into what today we call the diaspora (worldwide scattering).

                Thus, remembering the principle that the end times Antichrist’s presence and actions in Israel could follow the templates set by Antiochus and Nero in ancient times, then, let’s venture to guess what could happen in Israel/Palestine over the next few years, as this absurd, dictatorial Board of Peace takes shape:

• ·         Inevitably, there will arise conflicts between the Israeli leaders in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, and Trump’s Board of Peace. Indeed, this is apparently already starting to happen, as Netanyahu's people atop Israel's current government are reportedly unhappy with the admission of certain member nations (such as Turkey) to the BoP, admissions which seem to have occurred without participation from the Israeli side.

 

• ·         The Bible is also clear that the Antichrist will turn on and attack the Jews at some point. He will "gain the kingdom through flattery," with a "small number of people," but then will persecute and attack the Jews just as he persecutes and attacks Christians. However, Revelation also claims that earthly Jerusalem will be the spiritual equivalent of Sodom and Egypt during the Antichrist’s rule (see Revelation 11). It is possible, then, that the worldwide apostasia (departure/defection/falling away/rebellion) mentioned by Paul in 2 Thess. 2 will be accompanied by the Antichrist being an idolized ‘king of the world’ for a vanishingly brief period of time, a time in which the future destruction of the Christians and Jews is hidden from the vast majority of the world’s population, most of whom are unfamiliar with the specifics of Bible prophecy. However, Daniel 12 states that this period will end with ‘the power of the holy people’ being ‘shattered’. Who are 'the holy people'? Here, we can infer that this term refers to both Christians and Jews.

 

• ·         The fact that the U.S.’s traditional allies, such as Britain and France, are extremely wary, refusing to take part in the Board of Peace, while a number of corrupt, authoritarian regimes – including the one run by the war criminal Vladimir Putin – are eagerly joining up, portends the future chaos and ultimate dissolution of this hubristic ‘peace attempt’ (which could really be seen as an undermining of global peace, since it sets up a sort of cheap, easy ‘quasi-United Nations’ as a rival geopolitical confederation, introducing more chaos and conflict into the mix of what has traditionally been governed by carefully formulated international laws).

 

             In short, none of this bodes well for the earthly ‘peace and safety’ of the Middle East’s inhabitants (or for the world's inhabitants as a whole). The Bible reminds us that ‘when they say ‘peace and security,’ then sudden destruction will come on them like a woman’s labor pains, and they shall not escape’ (1 Thessalonians 5:3).

             But remember to view the future with our true hope, which is spiritual, not earthly. "When these things begin to take place, stand up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near" - Luke 21:28. The image in 1 Thess. 5:3 of ‘labor pains’ signifies the bringing to birth of a new heavens and a new earth – a far better scenario for us than the corrupt, rotting global framework we labor under right now. The brief, chaotic dissolution of the Antichrist's world system will be the corrupt old system's dying last gasps - and it will go out with a bang, not a whimper. But just on the other side of it, for those of us who stay loyal to our confession of Christ, is our gathering together with our Lord - a Lord who promised us much better things than Donald Trump could ever promise us.