The WTS last identification of the KON was the Soviet Union. The downfall of the SU in 1991 left the WTS with no current ID of the KON. The Your Will Be Done book from 1958 was the most current until the Daniel Prophecy book in 1999, 8 years after the downfall of the SU. I have found it better to show how the WTS has not been consistent in its explanations of these prophecies and is always backdating them.
How definite was the WTS about its identification of the KON after Nazi Germany?
*** w60 1/15 pp. 59-60 pars. 26-27 Part 30—“Your Will Be Done on Earth” ***
In 1945 Communist Russia shared in the Allied victory over the Nazi-Fascist foe. The dividing up of conquered Germany between the Big Four, namely, France, Britain, America and Russia, followed. According to the Yalta agreement, Russia took over eastern Germany. The Germanic king of the north as a rival of the seventh world power, the Anglo-American world power, no longer existed. A new politically strong power must step into his shoes, that the rivalry between the two kings for world domination might go on to a final decision or a draw, a standstill.
27 Who could do so? Who did? Events quickly revealed—the Soviet Union, the Communist power that, since it seized power in Russia in 1917, has held world domination as its aim to this day. It felt its strength. It did not reduce its military forces below a war footing. It began to act according to its position of strength, against its chief rival. The United States of America had stepped forth from World War II as the most powerful nation on earth. So a propaganda and economic warfare was begun against the American democracy, a cold war. In effect, Communist Russia declared it early in 1947. The Communist land blockade of western Berlin, beginning June 26, 1948, was a tense feature of the cold war, but was overcome by the American airlift. Communist Russia long blocked the reuniting of all Germany under one government. It held on to eastern Germany as a satellite, making sure that a Communist form of rule was set up there before it recognized Eastern Germany as a political state inside the Communist sphere. There is no mistaking the identity of the king of the north since World War II.
When and by whom has the WTS said the KON will end, be destroyed?
*** w68 3/15 pp. 174-175 par. 27 True Worship Under Challenge ***Jehovah has likewise assured his integrity-keeping witnesses that Satan and his armed hosts will be finally crushed. As for the nationalistic “king of the north,” it is foretold that “there will be reports that will disturb him,” reports from the direction of Jehovah and his King, and conveyed through the anointed witnesses on earth, that will goad this “king” into rage against God’s people. But then Jehovah will act! The totalitarian “king of the north” will perish, “and there will be no helper for him.” The “king of the south” will also be broken “without hand.” (Dan. 11:44, 45; 8:25) The entire earthly organization of Satan will be “hurled into the fiery lake” of eternal destruction. What comforting assurance from Jehovah!—Rev. 19:20.
And the WTS clarified in 1976 that the KON would still be in existence at the same time as the KOS.
*** w76 2/1 pp. 94-95 An Age-Old Conflict About to End ***When World War II ended, the Communist bloc of nations, the “king of the north,” dominated 18 percent of earth’s land area, which had 7 percent of the world’s population. But what is the situation today? Thirty-five percent of the world’s population, occupying over a quarter of earth’s land area, has come under the control of the Communist “king of the north.”
How will this conflict finally end? Will the “king of the north” gain more and more control, finally taking over the domain of the “king of the south”? No. The prophecy shows that both the “king of the north” and the “king of the south” will come to their finish. Jehovah God, who foreknew the persistent struggle between these two kings, also decreed its end. This will come about, not through a disastrous world war to be fought by the nations, but through God’s chosen king, Prince Michael, the Lord Jesus Christ. Daniel 12:1 tells us: “During that time Michael will stand up, the great prince who is standing in behalf of the sons of your people. And there will certainly occur a time of distress such as has not been made to occur since there came to be a nation until that time. And during that time your people will escape, every one who is found written down in the book.”
The “time of distress” here referred to will be a “great tribulation” that will bring an end to all human rule, including that of the “king of the north” and the “king of the south.
....And in 1984 the WTS again says the KON will be in existence and destroyed by Christ during the GT.
*** w93 11/1 p. 21 par. 14 The Final Victory of Michael, the Great Prince ***First, though, notice that these acts of the king of the north are not said to be against the king of the south. He does not come to his end at the hands of his great rival. Similarly, the king of the south is not destroyed by the king of the north. The southern king (represented in other prophecies as the final horn to appear on a wild beast) is destroyed “without [human] hand” by God’s Kingdom. (Daniel 7:26; 8:25) In fact, all earthly kings are finally destroyed by God’s Kingdom at the battle of Armageddon, and this evidently is what happens to the king of the north. (Daniel 2:44; 12:1; Revelation 16:14, 16) Daniel 11:44, 45 describes events leading up to that final battle. No wonder “there will be no helper” when the king of the north meets his end! (this is almost word for word in the Daniel Prophecy book of 1999)
Note though the 1988 statement in the Insight Volume 2. Was the SU destroyed or did it break down into smaller parts?
*** it-2 p. 1103 Time of the End ***The expression “time of the end” is also used in association with particular developments in connection with human government. Daniel 11:40 reads: “In the time of the end the king of the south will engage with [the king of the north] in a pushing, and against him the king of the north will storm with chariots and with horsemen and with many ships.” Thereafter the prophecy discusses the actions of the “king of the north” and indicates that he will come to his end. (Da 11:41-45) Thus “the time of the end” here is evidentlyto be understood as a period culminated by the destruction of “the king of the north.” Lending confirmation to this is the fact that “the king of the north” is earlier portrayed as persecuting God’s servants, those “having insight,” until “the time of the end,” that is, until his time of the end.—Da 11:33-35.
...And here the WTS once again speaks out of both sides of its mouth. But it does say that there must be a KON in existence when Jesus destroys all the nations during the GT. That the KON will be existence and act with the other nations against Babylon the Great.
*** dp chap. 16 pp. 280-281 pars. 21-22 The Contending Kings Near Their End ***
With the disbanding of the Soviet Union in December 1991, the king of the north suffered a serious setback. Who will be this king when Daniel 11:44, 45 is fulfilled? Will he be identified with one of the countries that were part of the former Soviet Union? Or will he change identity completely, as he has done a number of times before? Will the development of nuclear weapons by additional nations result in a new arms race and have a bearing on the identity of that king? Only time will provide answers to these questions. We are wise not to speculate. When the king of the north embarks on his final campaign, the fulfillment of prophecy will be clearly discerned by all who have Bible-based insight.—See “Kings in Daniel Chapter 11,” on page 284.
22 However, we do know what action the king of the north will soon take. Moved by the reports “out of the sunrising and out of the north,” he will conduct a campaign ‘in order to annihilate many.’ Against whom is this campaign directed? And what “reports” trigger such an attack?
...Why will the rulers destroy Babylon the Great? Because ‘God puts it into their hearts to carry out his thought.’ (Revelation 17:17) Included among these rulers is the king of the north. What he hears “out of the sunrising” may well refer to this act of Jehovah, when he puts it into the hearts of human leaders to annihilate the great religious harlot.
