MidnightWatcher's Blogspot

By ICA

Revelation 6:1, “And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals, and I heard, as it were the noise of thunder, one of the four beasts saying, Come and see…”

Recommended: See How The Book Of Revelation Foresaw Islamic Teachings

Were John’s apocalyptic snapshots and descriptions of the “Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse” in the Book of Revelation pointing to events that would only take place nearly 2000 years after the visions were first revealed? All too often, many of today’s Christian teachers and Bible prophecy experts have repeated the belief that the entirety of the Book of Revelation, with the exception of the first three chapters, are to be understood in futuristic terms only. I have done this myself in the past. Whether it be the Seven Seals or the Seven Trumpets or the Seven Bowls of wrath, everything contained therein and described by John from Revelation 4:1 onward must be treated as little more than a description of apocalyptic earth-shattering events that we, as Christians, will never witness taking place upon the world in which we live, events that can only begin to come to fruition after an imminent rapture has suddenly removed all followers of Christ from the face of the earth to deliver them from the impending wrath of God and the last-days Beast of Revelation. If we take the time to engage in a careful examination of the text, however, we may begin to see that some of the events often understood as yet to come, are events that are already taking place today.

An Overview Of History: The Islamic Beast Of Revelation – The Past And The Present

After careful study, I have come to the conclusion that, judging from the description of events and their sequence provided for us in Scripture, the “Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse” described in the first four Seals of Revelation 6 are four separate stages of the last-days Beast empire upon the earth — the empire of Islam. Beginning with its birth and growth, to its effect upon those under its power and the effect it has had and will have upon God’s elect, the Seals provide us with a general overview of the last 1400 years until immediately after the tribulation, an appointed time whereby the world will then witness the complete destruction of the Islamic Beast at the Second Coming of Christ in power and glory.

To understand why, we must first begin by reading through Revelation 6-7 alongside Matthew 24, ascertaining specific parallels that solidify the placement of the Seven Seals in documented history, parallels that I am sure you will agree are quite eye opening when laid out in full. The following are those parallels between the Seals of Revelation chapters 6 and 7, and Matthew 24. Closer attention will be paid to specific details surrounding the sixth parallel itself:

Parallel 1: Conquest Through Deception and the Crowning of Mohammed

* Matthew 24:5 — Many will come in Christ’s name and deceive many.
* Revelation 6:2 — The 1st Seal – White Horse and rider with bow who is given a crown; went out conquering and to conquer.

Qur’an Sura 4:157, 171, “… they said in boast, ‘We killed Christ Jesus the son of Mary’ … but they killed him not, nor crucified him, but so it was made to appear to them … of a surety they killed him not … O People of the Book [Christians]! Commit no excesses in your religion … Christ Jesus the son of Mary was no more than a messenger of Allah … Say not ‘Trinity’ : desist … for Allah is one Allah: Glory be to Him: far exalted is He above having a son… ”

“We proclaim that we will conquer Rome, like Constantinople was conquered once, as it will be conquered again … We will rule the world, as has been said by the Prophet Muhammad.” – Former Jordanian Minister Ali Al-Faqir

In “The Best Biography of Prophet Mohammed”, Islamic scholars Grand Muhaddith Master Abdullah Ben Sadek, Anne Khadeijah Darwish and Ahmad Darwish write that, “In the Koran, Allah calls His Prophet, praise and peace be upon him, by many blessed names … In his sayings one finds many other names that were frequently used by his Companions and followers. These include names such as the: Chosen, Selected, Father of Kasim, the Beloved, Messenger of the Lord of the Worlds, Accepted, Intercessor, the Fearfully Aware, Amender, Outward, Guardian, Truthful, Confirmer, Guide, Master of the Children of Adam, Master of the Messengers, Leader of the Fearfully Aware, Leader of the Glorious Radiant Ones, Beloved of Allah, Friend of the Merciful, Possessor of the Visited Pool, Intercessor, the Praiseworthy Station, Possessor of Means, Excellence and the High Degree, Possessor of the Crown …” [1]. In the Islamic world, Mohammed is regarded as “the greatest of all the prophets and messengers of God and the crown of all creation” [2].

14th century Book of Kings depicts Mohammed enthroned and surrounded by companions

Some may say that the crown of Revelation 6:2 must be literal and must be referring to an actual king who wears a literal, physical crown. However, if the horse and rider are obviously symbolic, it only stands to reason that the crown can also be symbolic as well. According to Islamic lecturer Ahmed Deedat, “Moses and Muhammad were Prophets as well as kings. A prophet means a man who receives Divine Revelation for the Guidance of Man and this Guidance he conveys to God’s creatures as received without any addition or deletion. A king is a person who has the power of life and death over his people. It is immaterial whether the person wears a [literal] crown or not, or whether he was ever addressed as king or monarch – if the man has the prerogative of inflicting capital punishment – He is a King” [3].

Walid Shoebat, a former Muslim who converted to Christianity, once described Islam as a “Christian Cult,” a characterization of Islam to which I would agree wholeheartedly. Mohammed’s religion borrows bits and pieces from Judeo-Christian texts and teachings, but then twists and corrupts its Truth. As Christians, we know that Christ is God. He is the Prince of Peace. Mohammed, who received the kingly crown of “prophethood” before his conquests, claimed that his religion was the “Religion of Peace.” He acknowledged Mary and the virgin birth of Jesus, called Jesus the Christ, claimed to represent the true faith of the God of Abraham and claimed to believe in many Biblical prophets and figures such as Adam & Eve, Noah, Moses, David and others. But Mohammed’s teachings are blasphemous manipulations of both history and Scripture which promote a deviant and Antichristic theology (1 John 4:3) by denying Christ as God in the flesh and His sacrificial death on the cross. Much like Mormonism and Jehovah’s Witnesses today, Mohammed’s teachings also deny the Triune nature of One God. The “prophet” of Islam claimed to come in the name of the God of Abraham to the Jews and in the name of Christ to the Christians, but Mohammed’s teachings deceived many then and are still deceiving many this very day.

Parallel 2: Islam’s Ceaseless Aggression Against The Non-Muslim World

* Matthew 24:6-7a — Wars and rumors of war, nation against nation, kingdom against kingdom.
* Revelation 6:3-4 — The 2nd Seal – Red Horse rider given a great sword, takes peace from the earth.

Qur’an Sura 9:5, “… when the sacred months have passed, slay the idolaters [non-Muslims] wherever ye find them, and take them captive, and besiege them, and prepare for them each ambush. But if they repent and establish worship [of Allah] and pay the poor-due, then leave their way free …”

“I have been sent just before the Hour (Judgment Day) with the sword, so that Allah will be worshipped alone …” (Mohammed, Hadith  al-Jaami’, 2831)

Behold the Sword of Islam: Jihad. The final marching orders the newly “crowned” prophet of Allah gave to his followers just before his death was for them to continually ambush, capture or kill non-Muslims until all submit to Islam. Osama Bin Laden, in a 2003 sermon, spoke of chapter 9 verse 5 of the Qur’an as the be-all and end-all of Islam, saying that Allah had “revealed the verse of the Sword to [Mohammed] his servant and messenger, in order to establish truth and abolish falsehood.” And this verse has become the greatest source of inspiration for mass-murder in the history of humanity. As Mideast historian and author Raymond Ibrahim writes in a 2012 article titled The Historical Reality of the Muslim Conquests:

“Few events of history are so well documented and attested to as are these conquests, which commenced soon after the death of the Muslim prophet Muhammad (632) and tapered off circa 750. Large swathes of the Old World — from the India in the east, to Spain in the west — were conquered and consolidated by the sword of Islam during this time, with more after (e.g., the Ottoman conquests)… According to the Muslim historical tradition, the majority of non-Muslim peoples of the Old World, not desiring to submit to Islam or its laws (Sharia), fought back, though most were eventually defeated and subsumed… Muslim historians often justify the actions of the early Islamic invaders by juxtaposing the jihad injunctions found in Islamic scriptures. It should also be noted that, to Muslims, the Islamic conquests are seen as acts of altruism: they are referred to as futuh, which literally means “openings” — that is, the countries conquered were “opened” for the light of Islam to enter and guide its infidel inhabitants. Thus to Muslims, there is nothing to regret or apologize for concerning the conquests; they are seen as for the good of those who were conquered (i.e., the ancestors of today’s Muslims).”

Dr. Bill Warner, founder and director of the Center for the Study of Political Islam (CSPI), likewise minces no words in exposing the true history of Islamic hostility.

Jihad destroyed a Christian Middle East and a Christian North Africa. Soon it was the fate of the Persian Zoroastrian and the Hindu to be the victims of jihad. The history of political Islam is the destruction of Christianity in the Middle East, Egypt, Turkey and North Africa. Half of Christianity was lost. Before Islam, North Africa was the southern part of Europe (part of the Roman Empire). Around 60 million Christians were slaughtered during the jihadic conquest… In Africa over 120 million Christians and animists have died over the last 1400 years of jihad. Approximately 270 million nonbelievers died over the last 1400 years for the glory of political Islam. These are the Tears of Jihad which are not taught in any school.

As long as Islam has existed, it has never known peace. The persecution of Jews and Christians, the atmosphere of “holy” wars waged around the globe and nations being forced to declare war in response to Islamic aggression, continues to this very day. Even now, Jihadists vow that non-Muslims “will never know peace” until they convert to Islam and worship none but Allah alone.

Parallel 3: The Fruit Of Islam’s Ceaseless Aggression — Hunger, Destitution, Upheaval , Strife, Inequality, Earthquakes …

* Matthew 24:7b-13 — Famines, pestilences and earthquakes, lawlessness abounds.
* Revelation 6:5-6 — The 3rd Seal – Black Horse with “scales/balances” bringing famine, burdens and “troublesome laws”.

Qur’an Sura 5:33, “The punishment of those who wage war against Allah and His messenger and strive to make mischief in the land [spreading non-Islamic beliefs] is only this, that they should be murdered or crucified or their hands and their feet should be cut off on opposite sides or they should be imprisoned …”

Qur’an Sura 24:2, “Let not compassion move you from carrying out [Allah’s] law …”

John describes the rider of the Black Horse in Revelation 6:5 as having “scales” or “balances” in his hands, employing the Greek word “zygos” which is also used metaphorically to refer to any sort of “burden” or “bondage” as well as the imposition of “troublesome laws.” Not only is inequality rampant in the Islamic world where Muslim men are considered superior to women and all non-Muslims in general, Islam is also a works-based system whereby Allah weighs the “good and bad deeds” of Muslims on a scale to determine who earns entry into Heaven and who does not. In every facet of daily life a Muslim’s conduct must be based upon a strict set of Islamic laws, called the Sharia, and anyone failing to follow Allah’s burdensome edicts must suffer draconian punishments, non-Musims included. But take a look at the Islamic world today. Is it exemplified by peace and justice and social harmony because of Allah’s laws? To the contrary, the Islamic world is ravaged by war, by deprivation, by desert and famine and starvation and pestilences, conditions that are true both physically and spiritually, both literally and figuratively.

Because of “Sharia lawlessness” the “Religion of Peace” is typified by widespread destruction and disparity, and any number of recent headlines bear this out all too well. In Sudan, for example, slavery is explicitly permitted and tens of thousands of Christians are held in bondage, taken as slaves and face starvation because of Sharia laws instituted by an Islamist government. In Mali, 4.6 million people are threatened with starvation following Islamist advances in the north. Starvation threatens more than 7 million citizens in Afghanistan as over 90% of the country’s agriculture is destroyed by drought. In Somalia, Islamist militants deprive 1.3 million people of food, clean water and health care after banning humanitarian aid. In Chad, children starve to death as Islamic “doctors” with “healing gifts from Allah” throw common sense to the wind. Islamists are killing aid workers in Pakistan for trying to save lives with “un-Islamic” polio vaccines. Nigeria faces famine because most of the farmers in the north are threatened by Islamist attacks seeking to impose Sharia Law upon all. As Islamists engage in an all-out war to oust Bashar Al-Assad and implement an Islamist state in Syria, a flesh-eating parasite dubbed the “Aleppo Boil” sweeps across the country while famine grips a desperate, war-weary population. And this is all just the tip of the iceberg.

The fruit of Islam and its laws have produced and will continue to produce the type of conditions that precipitate and perpetuate all sort of pestilences, all manner of plagues, any number of conflicts and hardships both inside and outside the Islamic world. It should be noted that the Greek word for “earthquakes” is “seismos” and also means “commotion” or “tempest”, as in Matthew 8:24 when “suddenly a great tempest [seismos] arose on the sea, so that the boat was covered with the waves.” We have seen and will continue to see “seismic events” both literally (geophysical and hydrological hazards such as earthquakes, hurricanes/typhoons, tornadoes, etc.) and figuratively (Islamic wars, acts of terrorism, insurrections, revolutions). Islam is a prime example of missing the mark of God — “hamartia” or “sin” — and the whole of creation groans and labors with birth pangs because of it (Romans 8:22).

Parallel 4: The ‘Man Of Lawlessness’, Destruction, Death

* Matthew 24:15-24 — Antichrist and the Abomination of Desolation.
* Revelation 6:7-8 — The 4th Seal – Pale (Green) Horse with Death and Hell.

Revelation 6:8, “And I looked, and behold a ‘chlōros’ horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the ‘thērion’ [beasts] of the earth.”

Qur’an Sura 9:111, “… They fight in the cause of Allah, so they kill and are killed …”

Qur’an Sura 3:151, “… cast terror into the hearts of the unbelievers …”

Qur’an: Sura 4:89, “… Kill the unbelievers wherever you find them …”

In an April, 2012 op-ed for Arutz Sheva, Italian journalist Giulio Meotti surmised that “the drive for Islamic purity is going to banish all traces of pre-Islamic pasts. When the Islamists will have prevailed, the Middle East will be completely green, the colour of Islam” [4]. In Revelation 6:8, John describes the “fourth horseman” as being “chlōros”, which translates literally as “green.” It is where we get the word “chlorophyll” from, a green pigment found in cyanobacteria and the chloroplasts of algae and plants. Green is the official color of Islam, and this green “fourth horseman” is described as having power over the fourth part of the earth. It is no coincidence that today Islam now has dominion over a fourth part of the earth. The “fourth horseman” has the power to “kill with sword.” Islam is spread through Jihad, the “Sword of Islam.” The “fourth horseman” also kills with hunger/famine. Where Islam rises, deprivation and Sharia lawlessness quickly follows, so much so that they would even prefer to see children starve to death than to see them receive life-saving aid from the “Christian West.” The “fourth horseman” kills with “death”, and the love of death and martyrdom for the cause of Allah permeates Islamic culture to the point where Islamists will even openly declare that they “love death more than you love life.” Lastly, the “fourth horseman” is described as killing with “the beasts of the earth.” The Greek word for beasts is “thērion” and is very likely being used metaphorically to refer to “savage”, “brutal” and “bestial” men — a perfect description of what we are witnessing today in the radical world of Islam’s death seekers. If Antichrist is a man, we can be certain that he is now on the verge of being revealed. If Antichrist is a system, it is already here.

Parallel 5: Continual, Intensifying Persecution of God’s Elect

* Matthew 24:9-13, 16-28 — Many delivered up to be afflicted and killed. Many fall away from the faith. Great Tribulation.
* Revelation 6:9-11 — The 5th Seal – Saints in heaven are told that fellow servants are to be killed.

Many fell away from the faith due to forced conversions and near-genocidal persecution of Jews and Christians at the hands of Muslims all throughout Islamic history. Andrew G. Bostom, author of The Legacy of Jihad and The Legacy of Islamic Antisemitism, writes in a 2006 article for FrontPage Magazine that:

Forced conversions in Islamic history are not exceptional—they have been the norm, across three continents—Asia, Africa, and Europe—for over 13 centuries. Orders for conversion were decreed under all the early Islamic dynasties—Umayyads, Abbasids, Fatimids, and Mamluks. Additional extensive examples of forced conversion were recorded under both Seljuk and Ottoman Turkish rule (the latter until its collapse in the 20th century), the Shi’ite Safavid and Qajar dynasties of Persia/Iran, and during the jihad ravages on the Indian subcontinent, beginning with the early 11th century campaigns of Mahmud of Ghazni, and recurring under the Delhi Sultanate, and Moghul dynasty until the collapse of Muslim suzerainty in the 18th century following the British conquest of India.

Moreover, during jihad — even the jihad campaigns of the 20th century [i.e., the jihad genocide of the Armenians during World War I, the Moplah jihad in Southern India [1921], the jihad against the Assyrians of Iraq [early 1930s], the jihads against the Chinese of Indonesia and the Christian Ibo of southern Nigeria in the 1960s, and the jihad against the Christians and Animists of the southern Sudan from 1983 to 2001], the (dubious) concept of “no compulsion” … has always been meaningless. A consistent practice was to enslave populations taken from outside the boundaries of the “Dar al Islam”, where Islamic rule (and Law) prevailed. Inevitably fresh non-Muslim slaves, including children, were Islamized within a generation, their ethnic and linguistic origins erased.

It is my view that we are already within the 5th Seal, which encompasses the Great Tribulation of the elect spoken of by the prophet Daniel and John in Revelation, as well as Christ Himself. After a relative lull, Islamic persecution has literally exploded once again in the aftermath of 9/11 and the rise of the Arab Spring. The Prophet Daniel writes that this final Beast would be “dreadful and terrifying” and would “speak out against the Most High and wear down the saints of the Highest One” and “intend to make alterations in times and in law” (Daniel 7:7, 25). While the Muslim world seeks to rewrite history in a deceptive effort to buttress its own religious and political declarations and continually seeks to impose Sharia Law whenever and wherever it can, Iran prepares for a nuclear Armageddon and threatens to turn Jerusalem into a mass graveyard, calling for the death of all Jews worldwide and the annihilation of the state of Israel.  Hamas and Hezbollah and the Muslim Brotherhood seek to join the fray. In Egypt, Christians are experiencing the worst persecution seen from Islamists in hundreds of years, with many now unable to buy or sell. Islamist organizations distribute leaflets calling for the killing of all Coptic Christians who refuse to convert to Islam. In Syria, Islamic rebels behead Christians in front of a cheering crowd and issue an ultimatum to either convert, leave, or die for their Christian faith. In Iraq, Muslim clerics issue a fatwa (religious decree) demanding that Christians either convert to Islam or be killed. Meanwhile, men run for their lives, women plead for God’s mercy, children scream in fear as Islamist attacks continue unabated in Iraq and elsewhere in the Islamic world in an effort to “cleanse” the land of Christians. Intense Christian persecution is “coursing through Muslim-majority nations from one end of the globe to the other.” From the Ivory Coast to Nigeria, from Sudan and Ethiopia, to Tunisia, Gaza, Lebanon, Jordan, Pakistan, Iran, Malaysia, Indonesia, Tanzania, the Maldives, Bangladesh and elsewhere, Islamic persecution is showing no sign of slowing down any time soon. And it is only going to get much worse. As one reporter wrote recently in The Telegraph, Christianity is “close to extinction” in the Middle East because of Islam.

The Islamic Beast Of Revelation – The Future

1 Corinthians 3:16, “Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?”

Hebrews 13:15, “Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name.”

1 Corinthians 3:17, “If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are.”

It is difficult to imagine this massive persecution of Christians, as horrendous as it has become, getting any worse than it already is today. While Christians are being killed and expelled from war-torn areas and locations heavily influenced by Al-Qaeda affiliated terror organizations and other like-minded groups, they are still somewhat tolerated as “dhimmis” (second-class citizens) under many Muslim governments. As long as Christians are “tolerated” they are still able to offer up the sacrifice of praise to YHWH today, providing they keep a low profile. Such relative “freedom”, however, hangs by a delicate thread. If a religious leader of great significance to the Islamic world were to suddenly stand against the Temple of God and demands that all non-Muslims convert to Islam and worship none other than the god of Islam, then any so-called “freedom” a Christian is granted today would come to an immediate and abrupt end. We’ve already seen local Muslim leaders issuing fatwas (religious decrees) in places like Egypt, Iraq, Syria and Pakistan demanding that Christians either convert to Islam, or die. But a similar fatwa from someone like the Mahdi or the Caliph declaring that the time had now come for all non-Muslims to worship none other than Allah or die would send immediate shockwaves across every corner of the Muslim world. And if such an abominable fatwa were decreed “then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be” (Matthew 24:21). Echoing this foreboding sentiment, the United Muslim Nations International — an Islamist organization seeking Muslim world domination and the re-establishment of the Islamic Caliphate — minces no words in its declaration that “Christianity should be destroyed and wiped from the face of the earth … Islamic Power has returned upon the face of the earth and the Revived Global Caliphate has set eyes on the West to once and for all rid the world of Christianity and there is nothing you can do about it” [5]. But there is One who can, and who will, do something about it …

Revelation 14:15, “And another angel came out of the temple, crying out with a loud voice to Him who sat on the cloud, ‘Put in your sickle and reap, for the hour to reap has come, because the harvest of the earth is ripe.’”

The “Four Horsemen” have arisen and are now all riding together as one upon the earth. But what follows next will be a completely new pedigree of horse and class of Rider unlike any of the others before it, one that will see to it that the dominion of this Beast be “taken away, annihilated and destroyed forever” (Daniel 7:26), which now brings me to the 6th Parallel, broken down into individual parts:

Parallel 6a: Post-Tribulational Cosmic Signs Preceding the Second Coming of Christ

* Matthew 24:29, “Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken”

This corresponds with:

* Revelation 6:12-13, “And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood, And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth …”

Parallel 6b: Judgement Comes – The Wicked are Gripped with Terror at the Power and Glory of the Coming Christ

* Matthew 24:30, “And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.”

This corresponds with:

* Revelation 6:15-17, “And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains, And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?”

Parallel 6c: The Deliverance and Salvation of God’s Elect

* Matthew 24:31, “And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.”

This corresponds with:

* Revelation 7:1-4,9,14 “And after these things I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree. And I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God … Saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads. And I heard the number of them which were sealed: [and there were] sealed an hundred [and] forty [and] four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel … After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands … these are the ones who come out of the great tribulation.”

He is coming soon …

In writing “And after these things I saw” at the beginning of Revelation 7, John continues describing the post-tribulational signs he had witnessed at the 6th Seal a few verses earlier. Remember, although the text is inspired by the Spirit of God, chapter and verse divisions were added later by men. There is one single narrative flow between Revelation chapter 6 and chapter 7. Whereas the “first horseman” came upon a white horse claiming to come in Christ’s name and was given a “crown of kingship” during his efforts to deceive and oppress the saints, a “Fifth Horseman” will Himself be riding upon a white horse announcing deliverance, bringing justice, issuing judgements in favor of the saints of the Most High and giving the kingdom over to them (Daniel 7:22), for “He who sat on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and wages war. His eyes are a flame of fire, and on His head are many diadems; and He has a name written on Him which no one knows except Himself. He is clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God” (Revelation 19:11-13). It will be none other than the King of Kings Himself, our Savior and Deliverer, Yeshua (Jesus) Ha’Maschiach (the Christ).

Declaring The End From The Beginning And The Revelation Of Our Savior

Isaiah 46:10a, 13b, “Declaring the end from the beginning, And from ancient times things which have not been done, Saying, ‘My purpose will be established … And I will grant salvation in Zion, And My glory for Israel.”

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown write in their commentary of Revelation that “the seven seals, the seven trumpets, and the seven vials, are not consecutive, but parallel, and ending in the same consummation. They present the unfolding of God’s plans for bringing about the grand end under three different aspects, mutually complementing each other” [6]. This Semitic writing style is something that we also find in the Genesis account regarding creation, which is why some skeptics claim that there are two different creation accounts when in fact there is only one. In Revelation, the Seals reveal to us snapshots and descriptions of the rise of the last-days Beast, the ungodliness of Islam’s sordid history, and its effect upon the earth and upon the Israel of God as it grows and strengthens, followed by the Revelation of Christ’s return in power and great glory to deliver His people and judge the wicked. Due to the Semitic style of writing employed by John, we see a “rewind” as it were after his description of all seven Seals to then shift focus on the judgements that take place during and immediately after the tribulation (called “trumpets”), and then a refocusing of his “camera” once again upon the end-result effect of each one of the seven judgements (called “vials” or “bowls”). The Seventh Seal, Seventh Trumpet and Seventh Vial/Bowl all end together right around the same time in the eschaton — at the Second Coming of Christ.

Revelation 13:4, “And they worshiped the dragon, for he had given his authority to the beast, and they worshiped the beast, saying, ‘Who is like the beast, and who can fight against it?’”

Many in the Church today have been taught that most of Revelation is yet to happen in the future, but the fact of the matter is that much of what John saw has already taken place and is in the process of taking place right now, today. Although the Islamic world has been in a relative “cocoon-like” state for much of the 20th century since the Islamic Caliphate received its mortal “head wound” in 1924, a new phase in its metamorphosis is now being revealed as it heals. But what is emerging, however, is far from beautiful. Though there are many who recognize that the Islamist ideology espoused by Al Qaeda and its ilk has metastasized since 9/11 throughout the Muslim world, the call to reality has unfortunately fallen largely on the deaf ears of Western leadership, both secular and Christian. Nations can fight against armies, against a foe that is well defined, but a religious ideology that recognizes no borders, no limits, no definition of peace apart from its own is an ideology that no nation will ever defeat, and an ideology that will continue to become more mainstream in the Islamic world each and every day until its fiery end at the epiphany of Christ Jesus in power and great glory:

2 Thessalonians 2:8, “And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming”

Habakkuk 3:3, 6, 11-13, “His brightness was like the light; He had rays flashing from His hand, And there His power was hidden… He stood and measured the earth; He looked and startled the nations. And the everlasting mountains were scattered, The perpetual hills bowed… The sun and moon stood still in their habitation; At the light of Your arrows they went, At the shining of Your glittering spear. You marched through the land in indignation; You trampled the nations in anger. You went forth for the salvation of Your people, For salvation with Your Anointed. You struck the head from the house of the wicked, By laying bare from foundation to neck.”

Romans 11:26, “And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: ‘The Deliverer will come out of Zion, And He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob'”

Daniel 7:27, “Then the sovereignty, the dominion and the greatness of all the kingdoms under the whole heaven will be given to the people of the saints of the Highest One; His kingdom will be an everlasting kingdom, and all the dominions will serve and obey Him.”

Revised 4/4/2016