One of the most difficult aspects of researching for Daniel Revisited was finding any accurate information regarding the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
Sifting through all the sources, with many being so-called experts, it boiled down to two researchers and their work: Steven O’Hern, and Ali Alfoneh. Their books were only available in 2012 and 2013.
Very few Americans (or anyone outside of the Middle East), had heard of the IRGC, knew what they were and what they did. I can only hope Daniel Revisited will help in waking the church up to the IRGC.
The IRGC will have an integral role in the Second Signpost. It is one of the two horns of the Persian ram of Daniel 8, the horn that grew up longer and later. It is the bear that will gorge in Daniel 7.
In the last year or two the IRGC has been mentioned more and more in the news. When the Second Signpost begins, everyone will hear of the IRGC at that time. Indeed, there will be a great ramping up in the IRGC’s fame (or infamy).
So as part of the ramping up of the IRGC’s fame, and its part in the future invasion of the Middle East, it was good to see a Fox News report telling of the IRGC and its finer points related to Bible prophecy.
The second horn (IRGC) of the ram started small, alongside the longer established horn of the supreme leader.
The news story states that the “Revolutionary Guard was created . . . in the 1979 Islamic Revolution.” The group is “enshrined in the constitution.” It was called on to “defend . . . its clerical leadership.”
Of the second horn’s growth to a long length, the IRGC was “called upon to defend Iran” and then after the war ended in 1988, it grew in power. The report states the 1980’s war caused the strengthening of “the guard’s ideological, economic and security footprint at home.” An example of this is the IRGC “runs a massive construction company.”
The report goes on: “the IRGC oversees the country’s ballistic missile program.”
In addition, the IRGC is engaged in the following:
– Overseeing “the Basij, a volunteer force of several million that draws its members from among the poor.”
– It “backs a number of Shiite militias.”
– It “recruits and trains thousands of fighters abroad through its Quds Force.”
The IRGC’s power has grown so that it is now longer than the first horn, i.e., the power horn of the supreme leader.
And as the moment of the Second Signpost gets closer, various aspects about the Iranian regime such as the IRGC should become mainstream.
I hope the church at large will contribute to that spreading of knowledge, but it likely will not. The popular prophecy picture in the church now is based on eighteen centuries of tradition; changing that picture will require effort. Loved traditions die a slow death.
I believe the spreading of the Signpost interpretation will mainly occur via word of mouth due to the efforts of individual believers, like you.
Categories: In The News, Signpost #2: Iran
THE FOUR SIGNPOSTS 
I agree, Mark. Undoing many years of misinterpretation of Scripture found in pop-church books and other media won’t happen in a flash. I always appreciate reading your thoughts which are so well-researched without being dogmatic. And I think your concern to alert others of what’s on the horizon is slowly growing in the hearts and minds of others. “In due season we will reap, if we faint not.”
Hi Mark, did you see that there’s been a change around in the IRGC leadership. Times of Israel 21/04/19, and Hossein Salami is now in control.
For your information only, no need to publish
The first edition of “Daniel Revisited,” titled “Hidden In Plain Sight,” was published 2012-03-19. If it mistakenly suggested that Ahmadinejad was the second horn of Daniel 8:3, that was because reliable information about the IRGC was not yet available. “Iran’s Revolutionary Guard: The Threat That Grows While America Sleeps” by Steven O’hern was not published until 2012-10-01. “Iran Unveiled: How the Revolutionary Guard Is Transforming Iran from Theocracy into Military Dictatorship” by Ali Alfoneh was not published until 2013-04-18. The information in these two books allowed the 2013 edition “Daniel Revisited” to correctly name the IRGC as the second horn.
“Jesus saith unto them, Have ye understood all these things? They say unto him, Yea, Lord. Then said he unto them, Therefore every scribe which is instructed unto the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is an householder, which bringeth forth out of his treasure things new and old” (Matthew 13:51-52 KJV).
https://www.jpost.com/Breaking-News/Irans-Ayatollah-Khamenei-replaces-commander-of-IRGC-587507
Judy,
One king replaces another king, of the kings of Media and Persia.
Hi, I am reading your book now, Daniel Revisited. I will probably need to go back and re-read parts of it as I am only able to read in spurts. I’m reading right now, literally, about the second signpost, have some questions, so I googled you and found your website.
What I’m wondering about is how do the Shias and Sunnis factor into this second signpost, if at all, and also what are your thoughts on all the insanity going on right now in the Middle East? I’m trying to recall what I’ve read recently in the media about Iran having troops in Syria, but can’t exactly remember what it was. There are so many different players over there right now, that I can’t help but wonder if this is part of, or the beginning of, the Second Signpost.
Funny thing is, over the last few days, I have been reading and re-reading the book of Daniel, and the one thing that kept leaping out at me is that in Daniel 7 and 8 the angel told Daniel that the visions he saw are of the time of the end. It stuck in the back of my mind until I was scrolling through my kindle for something to read and saw that I had downloaded your book at some time or other. Curiosity got the better of me so I started reading it and here I am.
It’s very interesting and makes so much more sense than anything else I’ve heard. Everything is falling into place and so much is being revealed now. God is so amazing.
Judy:
According to https://iranwire.com/en/features/5980, Hossein Salami, the new Commander-in-Chief of the IRGC, “has issued several threats to foreign powers in recent years. In September 2018, Salami said to the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu: ‘Practice swimming in the Mediterranean because very soon you will have no other way but to escape to the sea.'”
This photo of Salami was taken before his elevation to Commander-in-Chief of the IRGC. So his shoulder boards don’t show his new rank of Major General.
For more in depth information about the IRGC, see also
https://iranwire.com/en/features/5735
and see the links in this article
Mark, thought your readers might like the link of this recent video by Nelson Walter : )
I left a comment on here last night, and then once I went back to reading your book, I realized that the chapter on the Second Signpost answered most of the questions I had asked. I apologize for getting ahead of myself with my questions. I’m hoping to finish Daniel Revisited this week. It’s very eye-opening so far.
Nina,
Welcome to the Four Signposts!
You ask several logical questions. Answers, including the roles of Sunni and Shia, are in Daniel Revisited and on this website.
Yes, there is a lot going on over there, but the answers are many as well. DR chapters 10 and 11 get into the details of the Shias and Sunnis. The Second and Third Signposts are a great Sunni-Shia War.
The Iranian IRGC is prepping those areas already Shia, to be support areas for the Second Signpost, so when the IRGC runs out across all the Sunni areas, the Persian ram is netter able to do all it wants to do just as Daniel 8 says.
And yes, it is amazing what opens up when one stops ignoring Daniel 7 and 8 being in the end times, just as the text of those chapters say.
Blessings
Rene,
Yes, there is some good info there. If anyone wants an in-depth study of the IRGC, I do recommend those two books. They even get into the cult ideology of the IRGC.
Nina,
It’s ok. I read the comments in order, too. I thought you’d come to the realization that the answers are in the book.
On 2019-04-21, Iran’s Supreme Leader Khamenei posed for a photo with Hossein Salami, whom Khamenei had just appointed to be Commander-in-Chief of the IRGC.
According to https://iranwire.com/en/features/5983, Salami “can recite the entire Koran by heart.” That would include 47:4, which commands the beheading of enemies. Two days after Salami became the IRGC Commander-in-Chief, Saudi Arabia beheaded 37 of its citzens for terror-related offenses. Most of those beheaded were Shiites, like Salami.
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-04-23/saudi-arabia-conducts-mass-beheadings-37-mostly-shiites-crucifies-one
Should Saudi Arabia be invaded by Iranian forces, there could be retaliation in the same way. Isaiah 21 might indicate something like that. If “the desert of the sea” is the Arabian Peninsula, and “Elam” and “Media” are Iranian forces, something is to happen in the Arabian Peninsula so gruesome that Isaiah had to write: “I was bowed down at the hearing of it; I was dismayed at the seeing of it” (Isaiah 21:3 KJV). Elsewhere Isaiah commends anyone “that stoppeth his ears from hearing of blood, and shutteth his eyes from seeing evil” (Isaiah 33:15 KJV).