The Islamic Antichrist (28 page)

In America, we are infamously America-centric. As American Christians we read into the Bible our own American experience. Presently, in America and elsewhere, the greatest “enemy” today of Christianity is generally the progressive
secularists—the left wing and adherents to the various forms of New Age religions. David Limbaugh, social and political commentator, in his timely book
Persecution: How Liberals Are Waging War Against Christianity
, details the ever-growing trend of prejudice, discrimination, and hatred toward Christians in America. Many American Christians may envision a day when the hatred of progressive secularists toward Christians will boil over into a fomenting rage and some people will actually feel justified in the killing of Christians.

While I have seen some pretty strong hatred directed toward Christians, and while Limbaugh’s analysis is entirely accurate, I personally find it rather hard to believe that mere liberalism or secular humanism accounts for the kind of worldwide murderous behavior that the Bible speaks of as taking place in the last days. Perhaps the vision of American Christians has been far too myopic when they have tried to visualize or speculate about who their real persecutors will be in the end times.

When Jesus says that the day is coming “when those who murder you will think that they are offering God a service,” it necessitates not only a belief in God but also some form of religious system whereby the mentality that killing in the name of God is actually reasonable. I do not personally see mere liberalism, humanism, or even occultism as being enough to account for the specific description that Jesus gives us in this warning. Perhaps, if within the next several decades, humanism, occultism, and various forms of New Age religions somehow merge into some form of a popular cohesive world movement that experiences some form of significant revival, then maybe a case could be made for such a system being responsible for worldwide persecution. But right now, such a system does not exist. I simply do not see enough tangible evidence to accept the notion that any of the “-isms” that we just mentioned could be legitimate candidates to fulfill the
prophecies of Jesus regarding people killing Christians and thinking themselves to be serving God in doing so.

Islam, however, fits Jesus’ prophecy perfectly. And, as we discussed in previous chapters, Islam also fulfills John’s prophecy of a worldwide system that will use beheading as its primary method or mode of operation to enforce its rule. But how have we missed this? After all, Islam is the world’s second-largest and fastest-growing religion. Are we really that blind?

To be fair, until 9/11, Islam stayed pretty much off the radar of most American Christians. And in many ways, Islam as a religion has been somewhat dormant as a world power for much of the last century. But Islam’s slow and steady growth throughout the twentieth century began to churn and froth later in the century with the advent of radical Islam in Iran and Egypt that has already given rise to a worldwide network of jihad movements that has never before existed in the history of Islam or the world.

Many now declare that “the twenty-first century will be the century of Islam.”
²
As many speculate that America is involved in the Third World War, Muslims are declaring all over the earth that they are at the onset of the third great jihad.
³
So now, possibly at an hour that is quite late, Islam has finally grabbed our attention. And as we assess Islam’s nature in the light of biblical prophecies, we see that it not only fits the description of the biblical prophecies down to every last detail, but that it also has now had over fourteen hundred years to infiltrate every corner of the earth. I believe that the stage is now set.

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

HOW SHOULD WE RESPOND?

A
fter reading this book
, I’m sure that many may feel hopeless. “Well then,” you might ask, “if this Satanic/Islamic empire is going to take over the world and kill millions of people, then what can we do? It seems so predetermined, so hopeless.” This chapter addresses God’s primary provision and antidote to all seemingly hopeless situations: prayer.

Prayer is absolutely the most significant power available to mankind. Yet sadly it is significantly neglected, even within the church.

So here’s the question we must ask: If the Bible says that all of these things are going to happen, then why not simply resign ourselves to “God’s will” and simply let Islam take over our nations and get it over with? Why prolong the inevitable? These are legitimate questions. But they are based on some very false assumptions. Let me explain.

IS OUR FATE ALREADY DETERMINED?

Some Bible teachers have speculated that every nation of the earth will be taken over by the antichrist system. We have already looked at some of the Bible verses that suggest this. My take on this subject is slightly different. Let me explain why. First let’s look at the verses used to conclude that every last nation will fall to the Antichrist and join him in his attack against Jerusalem:

I am going to make Jerusalem a cup that sends all the surrounding peoples reeling. Judah will be besieged as well as Jerusalem. On that day, when
all the nations of the earth
are gathered against her, I will make Jerusalem an immovable rock for all the nations. All who try to move it will injure themselves. (Zechariah 12:2–3, emphasis mine)

I will gather
all the nations
to Jerusalem to fight against it. (Zechariah 14:2, emphasis mine)

I will gather
all nations
and bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat. There I will enter into judgment against them concerning my inheritance, my people Israel. (Joel 3:2, emphasis mine)

The beast…was given power to make war against the saints and to conquer them.
And he was given authority over every tribe, people, language, and nation
. (Revelation 13:7, emphasis mine)

Let’s look at the first three verses first. Since these verses use the word “all” and specifically the phrase “all the nations of the earth” when speaking of the attack against Jerusalem at the battle of Armageddon, then surely it has already been determined that every last nation will fall to the Antichrist’s empire and support him in this battle. I can fully understand how many would arrive at this conclusion.

There are at least two problems with this interpretation, however. First, other verses in the Bible use this very same type of language, yet clearly do not speak of every single last nation in the world. These verses, as well as the previous ones, all employ a Hebrew grammatical construct—an exaggeration of sorts or an emphatic type of statement—in order to convey their point. Grammarians call this construct hyperbole. It is a statement like, “Everyone loves ice cream!” or “You never clean the kitchen” or the ancient “Cretans are always liars, vicious brutes, lazy gluttons.” Oftentimes, for the sake of brevity, elaborating on the exceptions would entirely blunt the impact of the statement. For instance, imagine a speed limit sign that had several various exceptions painted on it: “Speed limit fifty-five, except
ambulances, fire trucks, police giving chase, etc.” It simply wouldn’t work. Thus exceptions cannot be ruled out on the basis of exclusive language. This type of language is actually found quite frequently in the Bible. For instance, Daniel the Prophet, speaking to King Belshazzar, said this:

O king, the Most High God gave your father Nebuchadnezzar sovereignty and greatness and glory and splendor. Because of the high position he gave him,
all the peoples and nations and men of every language
dreaded and feared him. (Daniel 5:18–19, emphasis mine)

So I ask you this question: Did every single nation on earth fear Nebuchadnezzar? Or did only those nations that had heard of Nebuchadnezzar dread him? Was Daniel speaking of every single last nation of the earth? Or only those nations that were in close enough proximity to Babylon to be affected by it? Were the native peoples of Papua New Guinea living in dread of Nebuchadnezzar? Personally, I think that Daniel’s use of the phrase, “
all the peoples and nations and men of every language
” was more of an emphatic expression used to convey his point. Or how about another similar example:

Men of
all nations
came to listen to Solomon’s wisdom,
sent by all the kings of the world
, who had heard of his wisdom. (I Kings 4:34, emphasis mine)

Was Solomon’s wisdom so impressive that not a single king in all the earth failed to hear of it? Or is this verse another expression used to convey the great amount of renown that Solomon had? How about this one: “And he took Agag the king of the Amalekites alive,
and utterly destroyed all the people
with the edge of the sword” (1 Samuel 15:8).

Should we find it odd that a people here recorded as being “utterly destroyed” come back to make trouble just a few chapters later in 1 Samuel? Again, there are numerous such examples like this throughout the Bible. Do you see my point?

Now, if we look at the verses in Zechariah again, we see a more specific mention of just which nations will be primarily involved in the attack: “I am going to make Jerusalem a cup that sends
all the surrounding peoples
reeling” (Zechariah 12:2, emphasis mine).

Of course the surrounding nations are the Muslim nations that encircle Israel on every side. In fact, the Prophet Joel confirms this as well. Speaking of the final attack against Jerusalem, Joel prophesied:

I will gather all nations and bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat. There I will enter into judgment against them concerning my inheritance, my people Israel.… “Now what have you against me, O Tyre and Sidon and all you regions of Philistia?… Proclaim this among the nations: Prepare for war! Rouse the warriors! Let all the fighting men draw near and attack. Beat your plowshares into swords and your pruning hooks into spears. Let the weakling say, ‘I am strong!’ Come quickly, all you nations
from every side
, and assemble there. Bring down your warriors, O LORD! Let the nations be roused; let them advance into the Valley of Jehoshaphat, for there I will sit to judge
all the nations on every side
.” (Joel 3:2, 4, 9–12, emphasis mine)

The
New American Standard Bible
words the italicized segments of the previous passages as, “all you surrounding nations.” Again, who are the surrounding nations? Does this include New Zealand? Canada? It could. But contextually, the Bible specifically refers to the Islamic nations that surround Jerusalem/Israel on every side.

The second reason that the position that every last nation will fall to the Antichrist is impossible is quite simply because the Scriptures state outright that not every nation will fall to him. In fact, some nations will resist the Antichrist after he attacks Jerusalem. Consider the following verses from Daniel:

At the time of the end the king of the south will engage him in battle, and the king of the north will storm out against him with chariots and cavalry and a great fleet of ships. He will invade many countries and sweep through them like a flood. He will also invade the Beautiful Land. Many countries will fall,
but Edom, Moab, and the leaders of Ammon will be delivered from his hand. He will extend his power over many countries
; Egypt will not escape. He will gain control of the treasures of gold and silver and all the riches of Egypt, with the Libyans and Nubians in submission. 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. He will pitch his royal tents between the seas at the beautiful holy mountain. Yet he will come to his end, and no one will help him. (Daniel 11:40–45, emphasis mine)

At a minimum it clearly says here that Edom, Moab, and the leaders of Ammon will be delivered from the Antichrist’s hand. This is speaking of modern Jordan. So at least Jordan will not submit to the Antichrist nor fall to his control. The verse specifically goes on to define the nations that will fall to him. It says “
many
countries.” Not
all
. Does the Bible contradict itself? I don’t believe so. I do believe that every tribe, people, language, and nation will be utterly affected by the Antichrist’s influence. I believe that the Antichrist will be given a measure of influence and authority over every last nation in that within every nation he will have many followers. Many nations will be completely dominated by him, but not every nation will completely fall to him. I believe that this is the only way that we can fully reconcile all of the verses relating to this issue.