Doomsday 101: Present Day Analysis

As eyes focus on Iran as they prepare for large-scale military exercises, their apolyptic vision for world domination and UN Security Council pressure over their nuclear ambitions, the following article by guest columnist John Livingston has never been more important to read. --Doug Hagmann

By John Livingston
johnlivingston@homelandsecurityus.com

19 August 2006: Everyone of us likes to think we are knowledgeable about something. It could be a sports team, hobby, fashion, money and markets, whatever. What about religion, specifically, the end of the world? Is this a topic just for whacko-s? Boring? Irrelevant? Religious beliefs have caused more death and destruction in the world than any other single factor in the history of mankind. End of the world beliefs have certainly resulted in the most irrational actions. People have sold everything they owned, spent money that they did not have, and quit their well-paying jobs, gone to live in caves, drank cyanide laced Kool-aide, and waited for some eartly invasion …all because of what they believed about the end of the world. Of course they have all been wrong so far. One day someone will probably be right. Or someone might simply make it happen.

You consider yourself a mentally stable person, not prone to decisions like those described above, believing such foolishness to be reserved for cult members or the insane. God exists, but you are a “sane religious person”. Or perhaps you might not be religious at all, and think that it is not important to know what anybody else believes. Think again. It is more vital now, than at any time in history, to be armed with this knowledge. Never before have there been so many, who have held such strong beliefs, that felt that they had an active part in the end times, who also possessed nuclear weapons. In that light, the won-lost record of your favorite sports team, or what the stock market is doing, seems trivial.

What do people believe? Christians have the books of Daniel, the Revelation, and scattered prophecies throughout the Old and New Testament that speak about the end of the world. Jews stick to the Old Testament. Islam likewise contains an end-time scenario and a reason for the world to end. It is much like Christianity’s, except it contains a few twists. Following is a short version of the Islamic apocalypse and why it matters that you understand it.

All Islamic beliefs are derived from two sources, the Qu’ran and the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad. Christianity and Islam both teach that the end will conclude with a Judgment Day that is preceded by many signs to strengthen the faithful and give the rebellious one last chance to repent. Muslims believe they are in the last days, because one of the signs is that they would be numerous on the earth, but that the world would be enjoying their wealth “like a man at a banquet”. Regardless of the current rise of Islam, centuries of wars have engrained in them that theirs is a repressed religion.

During the Last Days, mainstream Islam teaches that a great Muslim leader will arise called the Mahdi. (pronounced MAH-dee) A direct descendant of the Prophet Muhammad, this man is the Islamic messiah. His mission is to:

1) Unite all the Islamic faithful,
2) Wage a victorious war against the enemies of Islam, which will result in,
3) the “liberation of the Middle East” bringing peace and prosperity.
4) This will allow all Muslims to retire to the Holy Land.

Both Shia and Sunni Muslims believe he is on the earth today, but differ in the details. The President of Iran believes that he is on a divine mission to hasten the Mahdi’s appearing by perhaps beginning that war. One can look at the news today and consider the implications of what could happen if someone in his or any other position of power holds these beliefs. A non-Muslim would be unsafe anywhere in the Middle East, or the world for that matter, even a Christian Arab. In reality, a peace treaty with Israel or any non-Muslim state would be meaningless. Nothing short of fulfillment of the Mahdi’s mission is acceptable. In this case, religion is going to supersede politics. Christians believe that Israel will be invaded by an alliance of nations in the last days as prophesied by Ezekiel in chapters 38 and 39. Muslims are waiting for the great war waged by the Mahdi to liberate the Middle East. The same event in the eyes of a Christian could look quite different to a Muslim. An American Christian could see an unjust invasion, while a Muslim sees a fulfillment of end-time prophecy.

Many believe that Islam does not believe in Jesus, but this is not so. Muslims believe He was a prophet of God who was arrested, but did not die, and that the onlookers at the cross “were made to believe” it was Jesus who died. Muslims believe He was instead, taken to Heaven and is awaiting His role in last day events. More on Jesus in a moment.

After the Mahdi is victorious, he establishes Islamic rule in the Holy Land. This is when Islam believes the Anti-Christ will appear. He is called the Dajjal. Claiming to be God and appearing to have miraculous powers, he will wage war against all expressions of religion, and most of the people of the earth will follow him. The Dajjal will use his significant military might to begin to conquer the middle east which was previously united under the Mahdi. His reign lasts only 40 days, but is abruptly put to an end by the coming of…Jesus! That’s it? No.

Jesus will then speak to the world and convert everyone, especially Jews and Christians, to Islam, announcing it as the one true religion. He will then become the spiritual leader of a multi-national government, and live forty more years, have children, and die a natural death. That is the end, right? Not yet.

There is still the biblical invasion described in Ezekiel of Gog and Magog, except in Islam it is an invasion of the entire Middle East and happens after all these events. Jesus is still alive at this point, and prays for the deliverance of the land of Palestine. His prayer is heard, deliverance comes, and many of the world’s “unconverted”, will convert to Islam. Before this is fully completed however, Jesus dies.

Then comes the final Day of Judgment, when a great, mysterious creature appears out of the earth to warn the people that this is the end. A lot of terrible things happen at this point, the good are swept away and protected from the cataclysms, and everyone stands before God in Judgment to receive their eternal rewards.

A casual student of eschatology (religious study of the end of the world) will recognize many similarities between Christian and Islamic end-time scenarios. There is a critical difference however. Christian’s believe God loves everyone in the world, and desires to be reconciled to them through His Son. If you reject Him, He still reaches out to you. Muslims believe that one can only be “right with God” through Islam, (a way of living, not a person), and to challenge it, makes you worthy of being killed. Christianity is focused on a Person, and an individual’s relation to Him. The “Christian” Crusades, which are part of the Muslim-European problem still today, taught us that you can’t kill in the name of God and force someone to serve Him. Yet that is the threat we all are seeing unfold before our eyes. It would benefit all of us to educate ourselves, and to seriously consider the mindset of those with the enriched uranium.