PROPHECY: Will Iran bring the Persian Empire back to life?

Could the Persian (now Iran) Empire rise again? According to Scriptural prophecies, it could be a shock to the entire geopolitical world when an empire that once ruled the world came back, as though risen from the dead!

You are looking at a map of the Persian Empire as it was in in 540 B.C.E. This was the time when the House of Judah was in exile in Babylon during the time of Daniel. Daniel was called to interpret writing that appeared on a wall while Belshazzar was having a royal party!

Belshazzar at the urging of his wife called Daniel before him and asked him to tell the meaning of the writing. Here is what Daniel told him:

“You, Belshazzar, son of Nebuchadnezzar, have not humbled yourself as your father did, and of which you are well aware. Instead, you have set yourself up against the Lord of Heaven. You had the goblets from His temple brought to you, and you and your nobles, your wives and your concubines drank wine from them. You praised the gods of silver and gold, and of bronze, iron, wood and stone, which cannot see or hear or understand. But you did not honor the God [Elohim] who hold in His hand your life and all your ways. Therefore he sent the hand that wrote the inscription. This is the inscription that was written:
“MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPARSIN [lit. 'and Parsin']
“This is what the words mean:
“MENE [or mina - a unit of money]: God [Elahim] has numbered the days of your reign and brought it to an end.
“TEKEL [or shekel]: You have been weighed on the scales and found wanting.
“PARSIN [or Peres, half a mina]: Your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians.”
“That very night Belshazzar, the king of the Babylonians, was slain, and Darius, the Mede, a general or leader in Cyrus’s army took over the kingdom.
From Daniel 5, New International Version.

During the night the armies with Darius the Mede breached the city and entered through the unsecured river gates and took over the kingdom and destroyed Babylon.

After that the Persian Empire grew until it ruled over nearly all of the middle east and part of Greece. In my first Greek class, the Greek textbook told about the battles and dominance of the Persian Empire at that time.

Is there writing on the wall now?

At that time the writing said “Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin” or “Mina, Mina, Shekel and Half a Mina” which translated could mean an amount of some basic unit. Rembrandt’s painting shows the words written vertically presenting a nonsense phrase to those without wisdom.

Interestingly, the Wikipedia on this phrase says this:

While the Book of Daniel gives the meaning of the words, their origins and original meaning are unclear. Some have contended that the words have no meaning in themselves. However, since the late nineteenth century, a number of scholars have held the theory that the words are weights of coinage: MENE, a mena, TEKEL, a spelling of shekel, PERES, half a mena. (A mena would be about 30 shekels.) Hence, in English it might read “a half dollar, a half dollar, a penny, and two bits”. The meaning that Daniel decrypts from these words is based upon etymology, each turning on a pun using the word as a passive verb.

The total of 50 + 50 + 1 + 25 equals 126 pennies! They could just as easily have written 500 + 500 + 10 + 250 or 1260 pennies, which anyone familiar with Scriptural prophecy would recognize that number as a period of days at the end of our age when the Persian (Iranian) Empire once again dominates the middle east region and threatens, this time, the whole world.

Here is the prophecy Gabriel the messenger gave to Daniel about our time:

“I am going to tell you what will happen later in the time of wrath, because the vision concerns the appointed time of the end. The two-horned ram that you saw represents the kings of Media and Persia. … In the latter part of their reign, when rebels have become completely wicked, a stern-faced king, a master of intrigue, will arise. He will become very strong, but not by his own power. He will cause astounding devastation and will succeed in whatever he does. He will destroy the mighty men and the holy people. He will cause deceit to prosper, and he will consider himself superior. When they feel secure, he will destroy many and take his stand against the Prince of princes. Yet he will be destroyed, but not by human power.” Daniel 8:19-25 NIV