Will
the ISIS Caliphate be the Biblical Antichrist?
Eight years
ago, Mr. Al Gore was warning us that all the polar ice caps would be completely
gone by now and we would be underwater. ‘I’ on the other hand was warning of an
Islamic antichrist. The Islamic Mahdi.
Opinion
By de Andréa
September 12,
2014
Written on
the ISIS flag of Jihad is “La ‘ilaha ‘illa-llah. There
is no god but Allah.” In the circle is written “God Messenger Mohammed.”
For the past 10 years, I have among
other things, sought to awaken the Christian church to the fact that the Hebrew
prophets point to a Middle Eastern antichrist who will emerge from the region
of Turkey, Syria or Iraq.
Some have examined the evidence and
recognized the solid scriptural basis for this view. Others have questioned,
debated, or even maligned this perspective and are stuck on an antichrist
coming out of a revived Western Roman Empire. Although some have
tried to cast this view as a “lone ranger” perspective, while in
broad historical terms, the truth is that I have not been the only one
espousing this. In fact, many Christian
expositors, greater than me, have recognized the biblical evidence for this
view. Many even foresaw that a last-days Caliphate would be established in the
region of Turkey, Syria and/or Iraq. And
this, in light of the astounding re-establishment of an Islamic Caliphate for
the first time in over 90 years since the Ottoman Empire in Turkey.
Now let us consider a few of the great
Christian theologians and teachers who foresaw precisely what we are witnessing
today, not in Vatican City of Rome but in the Middle East as the Bible says. The remnants of the divided Eastern Roman and Ottoman Empire
The first was Hippolytus of Rome
(170–235) 440 years before Mohammad. Hippolytus was an important theologian of
the early third century. In speaking of the antichrist, he said this:
“That these things, then, are said of
no one else but that tyrant, and shameless one [Allah], and
adversary of God, we shall show in what follows. But Isaiah also speaks thus:
‘And it shall come to pass, that when the Lord has performed His whole work
upon Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, He will punish (visit) the stout mind, the king of Assyria, and the
greatness (height) of the glory of his eyes.”
Satan is the adversary of God and
Allah is Satan so those that follow Allah are the sons of Allah/Satan who is
the adversary of God. And there is
nothing more antichrist than Islam my friend.
The second theologian who foresaw the antichrist
as emerging from the region now controlled by ISIS was Victorinus of Pettau
(240–304) also before Mohammad and the creation of Islam. Victorinus was an
early Christian bishop and the author of the most ancient complete commentary
on the book of Revelation in our possession. In this ancient commentary,
Victorinus identified the antichrist as “the Assyrian” mentioned in Micah 5:5
who would invade the land of Israel only to be destroyed by Jesus upon His
return.
The next witness is Lucius Caecilius
Firmianus Lactantius (240 – 320). Lactantius was yet another early Church
writer from the third century who wrote much on the end times. Amazingly,
Lactantius specifically stated that the antichrist would come from the divided Eastern
Roman Province of Syria:
“A
king shall arise out of Syria, born from an evil spirit, the over
thrower and destroyer of the human race, who shall destroy that which is left
by the former evil, together with himself. … But that king will not only be
most disgraceful in himself, but he will also be a prophet of lies … and power
will be given to him to do signs and wonders, by the sight of which he may
entice men to adore him. … Then he will attempt to destroy the temple of God
and persecute the righteous people.”
Many are surprised to discover that
Clarence Larkin (1850–1924), the great dispensational teacher, also foresaw
these things. Larkin was an American Baptist pastor, Bible teacher and author
whose works continue to sell to this day. In his book “Dispensational Truth,”
Larkin wrote, “It is clear that the Antichrist is to come from Syria. … We are to
understand therefore by the ‘King of the North’ the King of Syria, which also
included Assyria. This fixes the locality from which the Antichrist shall come.
…”
G.H. Lang (1874–1958). Lang was a
magnificent British expositor whose commentary on the book of Daniel received
the highest endorsement from the legendary biblical scholar F.F. Bruce. In
Lang’s “The Histories and Prophecies of Daniel,” he said the
following:
“Therefore the Antichrist will be the
king of Assyria with Babylon as his capital, which of old was in the dominion
of Seleucus, who gained the eastern area of the empire of Alexander. Thus when
the antichrist arises, he will not come at Rome, or anywhere
else in the west. Had this been understood, many vain
and misleading speculations would have been avoided, such that of the pope, or
the Papacy, or Napoleon, or others being he. And when he comes, his military
efforts will be expended mainly upon Egypt and the south, the east, and
Palestine.” (Palestine was the Roman given name
for the territory of a defeated and destroyed Israel).
Arthur W. Pink (1886–1952), an English
evangelist and biblical scholar also well-known for his work “The
Antichrist,” likewise identified the antichrist as coming from the
Middle Eastern region of the former Assyrian Empire:
“We have seen that the scriptures which
help us to determine the direction from which he will arise, speak of him under
the title of the ‘Little Horn.’ Now the first thing this title denotes is that
he is a king, king of Assyria. … [After he] acquires the crown of Syria he will
speedily enlarge his dominions.”
Now, to be clear, the various
references to the antichrist as “the Assyrian” are not ethnic
denotations. Instead, it points to the region from which the antichrist will
likely emerge. In the same way that, for example, the prophet Joel speaks of
the destruction of Philistia in the Day of the Lord (Joel 3:4), he was not
speaking of the judgment of ethnic Philistines when Jesus returns, but of those
enemies of His people, who occupy the region of ancient Philistia now called
Gaza or Palestine. So also do the
biblical references point to Assyria as the region from which the antichrist
will emerge, but do not indicate that he will ethnically be an Assyrian. Today,
the majority of the Assyrian people are Chaldean Christians. Most of those who
had continued to live in the region of ancient Assyria have now been killed or forced
to flee the onslaught of ISIS.
All of these men of God foresaw the antichrist
and his empire as arising from the same region where we have now witnessed the
re-establishment of an Islamic Caliphate. All of these men looked to the words
of the Hebrew prophets in the Bible and came to similar conclusions. They
foresaw in quite a remarkable way what is now unfolding before our eyes. As
Muslim terrorists Jihadists continue to murder, kidnap, rape, behead, crucify
and slaughter their way across the Middle East, now is the time for the Christian
Church to ‘wake up’ and diligently study the Scriptures to discern if all of these
events indeed provide us with a genuine harbinger of the coming antichrist and
the soon coming return of Jesus Christ.
“It will be good for those servants
whose master finds them watching when he comes.” (Luke
12:37)
Are
you looking in the right place and at the right time?
Thanks
for listening – de Andréa
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