Will Islam produce anti-Christ?

15 May, 2010

Since the beginning of "the war on terror" we have become increasingly aware of Christian voices crying out to warn us that Islam bears all the hallmarks of antichrist in its origins, its practices, and perhaps most decisively in its plans for the world. This has led to much revisiting, not so much of bible prophecy itself, but of how we perceive prophecy being fulfilled. The parallels between Islam's own prophesied future accomplishments and biblical descriptions of the beast and antichrist are indeed striking; but on the other hand previous insights of Christians into other sources of beast and antichrist are also poignant and it would seem rash to discard them without reflection.

As we weigh up the various contenders it can all become quite confusing. Can we even know what part of today's socio-political scene "the beast" (the final world empire) and the antichrist (its eventual and ultimate leader) will arise from? Well yes, with some allowance for variance in the specifics, we probably do have enough clues to make a pretty strong bet. To get there though we need to start by reviewing the three main contenders, and briefly some of the key points that make them so.

Islam

Islam is a relatively pure form of antichrist in that flatly denies that God has a son, it flatly denies that the person of Jesus (who it gives the alternative name Isa) died on the cross, and the Qur'an clearly teaches that Islam will ultimately destroy all Jews and Christians. (Indeed, rather chilling is the fact that it calls for their beheading, the very form of execution spoken of in Revelation 20:4). Shia and Sunni Islam's expectation is for the return of Isa who will lead a great army to destroy the enemies of Islam and establish an Islamic world empire to be governed by the Mahdi ("guided one") until Yawm al-Qiyamah ("the day of resurrection"). It has been quite rightly pointed out that this bears strong potential parallels to the role of the false prophet and antichrist in establishing a world empire that makes war against the saints. Walid Shoebat, a former PLO terrorist turned Christian Evangelist even points out the similarity between the Greek symbol translated in the Bible as 666 and the Arabic character for Allah. (See video). Also, in terms of the flow of Daniel's prophecy concerning the line of kingdoms out of which the beast would come, like western culture, Islam arises out of regions that were once part of the Roman Empire, but the Eastern arm rather than Western arm. Even just from this quick overview you can probably start to perceive the compelling arguments for Islam being the source of antichrist.

Roman Catholicism

Just as today Islam is biblical Christianity's most obvious and immediately dangerous enemy, so Roman Catholicism held a similar position during the dark ages and the Reformation. Catholicism was the relentless and vicious persecutor of a great number of men and woman who refused to follow its dogmas. We tend to remember the Catholic practice of burning "heretics" at the stake, but a reading of the history reveals plenty of beheadings too (again aligning to the vision of the saints beheaded for the word of God in Revelation). And just as Islam contains some absolutely clear antichrist elements, so does Catholicism. Take for instance the Latin term "Vicarius Filii Dei", a title of the Pope. Vicarius, or in English "vicarious", means "substitute" or "in the place of". "Filii" is the root word of the English word "filial" (son or daughter) and in Latin means "son", and "Dei" of course is the root of "Deity" and means "God". Thus the complete term means "in the place of the son of God". To a Catholic it seems quite right and proper that the Pope is in the place of the son of God as his vicar on earth, but of course the title is actually blasphemous for no man can take the place of Christ. Furthermore it has been long pointed out that if you add up the value of the letters in Vicarius Filii Dei that have Roman Numeral numeric values you find that the sum total is 666. Unlike many other theories about 666 and its relationship to the beast spoken of in Revelation 13:18, there is nothing vague or uncertain about this reckoning; anyone who has been taught Roman numerals can clearly work it out for themselves as long as they remember that original Latin does not have the letter "U" but uses "V" instead. (Roman numerals are: I=1, V=5, L=50, C=100, D=500, M=1000). Like Islam, Catholicism also has its eyes set on world empire, but with the Pope rather than the Mahdi as the head over that empire. In terms of connection to the Roman Empire, which from Daniel's prophecy we know is somehow intrinsically connected to the final world empire, Catholicism is arguably the most closely connected entity of all. It is in effect a hybrid religion in that through the Constantinian change, and the outworking of the forces that set in motion, ultimately fused Christian terminology with the pagan religious ideas that formed the spiritual basis of the Roman Empire. Catholicism came right out of this "Christianising" of the Empire, and its very power was largely inherited from the disintegration of Rome. Many of the reformers saw Roman Catholicism as the iron mixed with clay, the "Holy Roman Empire" (as it was often called) being that second, politically weaker, form of the Roman Empire prophesied in Daniel chapters 2 & 7. While Roman Catholicism seems less significant today it's notable that ecumenical efforts, the emerging church and other forces appear to be bringing the whole Protestant Christian world slowly back to Rome and the Papacy. Rome may therefore once again become the ascendant power it has been in times past.

New Age / Illuminati

This is a truly complex one to deal with in that it spans a wide range of occultic, New Age and Satanic beliefs, as well as touching on areas of conspiracy theory and elite power within world politics and the monetary system. In essence it would appear that in the west there has existed for many centuries satanic secret societies, operating primarily amongst many of the most powerful and influential people throughout the ages. In one of this spirituality's earliest forms, the Knights Templar, the Catholic papacy actually attempted to wipe it out because even that hybrid and corrupted form of Christendom was able to recognise pure Satanism when it saw it. Absorbed into Freemasonry, which was originally just a tradesman's Guild, the Knight Templar's occultic mystery religion came down through the ages embedded within the very core of an outwardly Christian society. With its members often masquerading as Christians it nevertheless possesses its own definite ambitions for a new world order. Unlike Islam and Roman Catholicism it would seem that its absolute upper echelon are knowingly Satanists, worshipping a god whose name they conceal, but who amongst themselves they know as Lucifer. It would appear that from this occultic core the new-age movement received its birth, albeit stripped of the obvious Satanism. New Age is in many ways no longer a movement in that it has simply become the lens through which most people in secular society now see the world. It seems likely that the New Age with it's intrinsic acceptance of the occult is, out of the three great forces of antichrist, the one that can be most easily guided into direct Satan worship. Now with regard to the connection to the Roman Empire, the Western world as the direct descendants of the western arm of the Roman Empire connects every bit as clearly back to that empire as Islam and Roman Catholicism do. And in terms of ambitions for a new empire, the new-age movement clearly seeks a "New Age". This new age is to be the age of Aquarius, a perfect new world order that will it is believed replace the current age of Pisces (understood to be the age of many religions such as Islam, Christianity, Buddhism, etc) after a time of much trouble and upheaval during which the forces of the old age will destroy themselves and ultimately be completely eradicated. They also expect their (new-age) Christ to come, the Messianic figure who will reign over the earth and draw all things temporal and spiritual together. Much biblical terminology is misused to support new-age ideas, and it's notable that, just as the protestant denominations are being lead back to Roman Catholicism, so all forms of Christianity in the west are being heavily influence by new-age thinking, and to the extent that some parts of Christianity are effectively now just Christianised new-age movements. (e.g. Word of Faith movement)

...summary

So, there we have it, the big three - the three biggest contenders for bringing forth the beast and antichrist. Who will it be? Will one of these vanquish the others and rise to the fullness of its ambition for power over this world? In all likelihood no. While they may well be pitched together in battle at some point, one would have to question whether Satan has invested so heavily over many centuries in creating these three forces of antichrist only to annihilate two of them. Surely Satan's ultimate plan is to rally all of these forces together, to join them and unite them as one against the true God. The purists of Islam may fight the purists of Christianity / Catholicism, and the world and the New Ager may be caught up in that. But once all the fighting is over and all people long for is peace and tolerance, it seems almost certain that the current cries for togetherness and the increasingly expressed sentiments that "we all worship the same God" will come to the fore and all forms of fundamentalism will be seen as the enemy of this new enlightened way. After all, these three forces of antichrist that we've focused on all share spiritual connections back to Rome and paganism, they all desire world empire, they all bear the stamp of their maker and are, despite outward differences, ultimately of the same spirit. A good look at how things are shaping up in the world suggests that it is highly likely that a moderated form of Islam, an apostate Christendom and the New Age spirituality of the "secular" world will join together in hailing a new oneness of spirit that accepts within it a great diversity of expression and terminology, but shares common goals and accepts a common Christ, Mahdi, Buddha Messiah, etc to lead it to the fulfilment of its ambitions. This is akin to the polytheism of the Roman Empire, accepting of diversity but acknowledging a common unifying spirituality. So surely the answer is not to see just Islam, just the New Age or just Catholicism as beast and antichrist, but to recognise that they are all anti-Christ systems that will ultimately play a part in fulfilling prophecy. The relative strengths and degree of influence of each force is hard to predict, but this great coming together is happening right now and is no doubt laying the foundation for things to come.

What could be seen as a little worrying about the current Christian obsession with Islam being THE source of anti-Christ, rather than just a source of anti-Christ, is that it plays right into the hands of those who would like to portray religion, including Christianity, as the source of violence and hatred in the world (and thus in its fundamental forms something to be eradicated). Mistaking the spiritual war for the temporal war it's likely that many Christians will ultimately be drawn into wars against Islam, believing somehow that they are in a holy war against the forces of evil. While they may well be fighting against the forces of evil, there is significant doubt as to whether they will be fighting for the forces of good, or whether they will simply be playing into the hands of Satan as he sets up the final great cataclysms out of which his kingdom is to be formed. If there was ever a time for Christians to understand the new covenant new covenant way when it comes to the relationship between Christians and war it is now in these darkening and dangerous days.

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