MidnightWatcher – Prophecy in Motion

Revelation 18:4-5, “And I heard another voice from heaven saying, ‘Come out of her, my people, lest you share in her sins, and lest you receive of her plagues. For her sins have reached to heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities.'”

Non-Muslims are forbidden from Islam’s “holy” city of Mecca

Someone asked me not too long ago that if the “Whore of Babylon” in Revelation 17 and 18 represented Mecca, the birthplace and spiritual homestead of Islam, then how could God call upon His people to “come out of her” given the fact that non-Muslims have never been allowed to even step foot in Islam’s “holiest” city?  The answer to this question is actually quite simple when we realize the language and intent of the text is not suggesting that some of God’s people are physically in Mecca, but another way all together. Notice the relationship between the “kings of the earth” and the adulterous Babylonian “harlot”:

Revelation 17:1-2, “Come, I will show you the judgment of the great harlot who sits on many waters, with whom the kings of the earth committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth were made drunk with the wine of her fornication.”

PM of Canada (center right) prays at mosque

The Book of Revelation is redolent with Old Testament language. If we look at the Hebrew word for “fornication” we realize that it was often used figuratively in the context of idolatry and being unfaithful to God. We see the same thing in Revelation 2:14 and 2:20 where “fornication” being committed by God’s people is in direct reference to a false religion. In Revelation 17:2, the relationship between the “kings of the earth” and the “harlot” is likewise depicted in sexually graphic terms where the “kings of the earth” are committing spiritual intercourse or “fornication” with a false Babylonian religion. Today, we see Western nations — from leaders of traditionally Christian countries who claim to be Christian yet who are all too willing to visit mosques and even offer prayers to Allah in the vein of inclusivity — bending over backwards for the “Religion of Peace” at every turn and even punishing those daring to criticize it. Sadly, one unfortunate side-effect of such “political correctness” is the fact that we are now also seeing a number of Christian churches openly embracing certain aspects of Islam and its blasphemous teachings far too often, with some of them even going so far as to hold readings of the Qur’an or distributing Qur’ans for public consumption in an effort to somehow show that as a Christian church they love all people and don’t “discriminate” in any way, shape or form. Loving all people is one thing, but embracing the religion of all people is another, especially one whose primary goal is the destruction of the elect of God:

* Over 50 American Churches To Hold Qur’an Readings
* Utah Church Gives Away Free Copies Of Qur’an, Calls It ‘Truth’
* Christian Church In Germany Holds Muslim Call To Prayer
* Christian Church Collecting Donations To Build A Mosque
* Christian College Establishes Interfaith Prayer Room For Muslims
* Iowa Church ‘Dialogue On Islam’ Ignores Muslim Persecution Of Christians

Muslim prayer during service at Washington National Cathedral

This is happening far too often. Whether it’s on an individual Christian level or Christians sitting in churches and calling it Ecuminism or Chrislam or Interfaith or anything else, we all need to be standing up and calling it WRONG. If we’re to be a “holy nation” as 1 Peter 2:9 calls believers in Christ, we must set ourselves apart from such religious filth and “have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them” (Ephesians 5:11). In these last days, it is therefore no surprise that as soon as we are given a depiction of explicit spiritual “fornication” in Revelation 18:3 we then read the following warning in the very next verse:

Revelation 18:4, “Come out of her, my people, lest you share in her sins, and lest you receive of her plagues.”

Jesus gave a similar warning to the church in Thyatira for tolerating “that woman” who was “teaching and seducing My servants to practice sexual immorality … Behold, I will throw her onto a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her I will throw into great tribulation” (Revelation 2:18-22).

The Word of God tells us that “in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons” (1 Timothy 4:1), but those of us who overcome are being clothed in white garments (Revelation 3:5). No matter what comes our way, may we all make sure to keep them on (Revelation 16:15) …

By Robert Spencer, Jihad Watch – “This photo was apparently taken at a recent demonstration in Washington, DC:

And there is so much in it for a Christian to love:

Jesus is not the Son of God: ‘O People of the Scripture! Do not exaggerate in your religion nor utter aught concerning Allah save the truth. The Messiah, Jesus son of Mary, was only a messenger of Allah, and His word which He conveyed unto Mary, and a spirit from Him. So believe in Allah and His messengers, and say not ‘Three’ – Cease! (it is) better for you! – Allah is only One Allah. Far is it removed from His Transcendent Majesty that He should have a son. His is all that is in the heavens and all that is in the earth. And Allah is sufficient as Defender.’ — Qur’an 4:171

And: ‘It is not befitting to (the majesty of) Allah that He should beget a son. Glory be to Him! when He determines a matter, He only says to it, ‘Be,’ and it is.’ — Qur’an 19:35

Jesus was not crucified: ‘And because of their saying: We slew the Messiah, Jesus son of Mary, Allah’s messenger – they slew him not nor crucified him, but it appeared so unto them; and lo! those who disagree concerning it are in doubt thereof; they have no knowledge thereof save pursuit of a conjecture; they slew him not for certain.’ — Qur’an 4:157

Those who believe in the divinity of Christ are unbelievers: ‘They have certainly disbelieved who say that Allah is Christ, the son of Mary.’ — Qur’an 5:17

Belief in the Trinity is ‘excess’: ‘O People of the Scripture, do not commit excess in your religion or say about Allah except the truth. The Messiah, Jesus, the son of Mary, was but a messenger of Allah and His word which He directed to Mary and a soul from Him. So believe in Allah and His messengers. And do not say, ‘Three’; desist – it is better for you. Indeed, Allah is but one God. Exalted is He above having a son. To Him belongs whatever is in the heavens and whatever is on the earth. And sufficient is Allah as Disposer of affairs.’ — Qur’an 4:171

Christians have forgotten part of the divine revelations they received: ‘From those, too, who call themselves Christians, We did take a covenant, but they forgot a good part of the message that was sent them: so we estranged them, with enmity and hatred between the one and the other, to the day of judgment. And soon will Allah show them what it is they have done.’ — Qur’an 5:14

Those who believe that Jesus is God’s Son are accursed: ‘The Jews call ‘Uzair a son of Allah, and the Christians call Christ the son of Allah. That is a saying from their mouth; (in this) they but imitate what the unbelievers of old used to say. Allah’s curse be on them: how they are deluded away from the Truth!’ — Qur’an 9:30

Christians who do not accepted Muhammad and the Qur’an are the most vile of created beings: ‘Nor did those who were given the Scripture become divided until after there had come to them clear evidence. And they were not commanded except to worship Allah, sincere to Him in religion, inclining to truth, and to establish prayer and to give zakah. And that is the correct religion. Indeed, they who disbelieved among the People of the Scripture and the polytheists will be in the fire of Hell, abiding eternally therein. Those are the most vile of created beings.’ — Qur’an 98:6

Muslims must fight against and subjugate Christians: ‘Fight those who believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, nor hold that forbidden which hath been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger, nor acknowledge the religion of Truth, (even if they are) of the People of the Book, until they pay the Jizya with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued.’ — Qur’an 9:29

‘I’m a Christian and I LOVE Muslims’? Absolutely. Love for Muslims is one thing, however, and love for the Qur’an is another. It is strange for someone who professes to be a Christian, who presumably believes that Jesus is the Son of God, the Second Person of the Trinity, who was crucified and rose from the dead for the salvation of the human race, to profess love for a book that denies all that and says that those who believe it are accursed, vile beings who should be waged war against until they submit to the hegemony of a group that believes differently.

What’s more, although very few Christians would dare say so publicly nowadays, to be a Christian at all assumes a denial that Muhammad is a prophet and the Qur’an a holy book, for they both affirm as matters of faith beliefs that Christians do not hold, and, as we have seen, deny many that Christians do hold.

It may be that the carrier of this sign considers herself a Christian in the spirit of this passage: ‘Indeed, those who believed and those who were Jews or Christians or Sabeans — those who believed in Allah and the Last Day and did righteousness — will have their reward with their Lord, and no fear will there be concerning them, nor will they grieve.’ — Qur’an 2:62

This appears at first glance to be a marvelously forward-thinking example of ecumenism: Qur’an commentator Muhammad Asad exults: ‘With a breadth of vision unparalleled in any other religious faith, the idea of ‘salvation’ is here made conditional upon three elements only: belief in God, belief in the Day of Judgment, and righteous action in life.’ But he contradicts himself by adding ‘in this divine writ’ after the words ‘those who have attained to faith’ in his translation of verse 62 — that is, to be saved, one must believe in the Qur’an as well as the earlier revelations.

And indeed, Muslim commentators are not actually inclined to see this as an indication of divine pluralism, but only an affirmation that those Christians who become Muslims will be saved. The translators Abdullah Yusuf Ali and Mohammed Marmaduke Pickthall, as well as Asad, all feel it necessary to add parenthetical glosses that make the passage mean that Jews and Christians (as well as Sabians, whose identity is disputed) will enter Paradise only if they become Muslims. Qur’an.com adds ‘before Prophet Muhammad’ in brackets after ‘Jews or Christians or Sabeans,’ making it clear that those three could only be saved as such before the advent of Islam, but now they must convert to Islam to get to Paradise.

And according to Ibn Abbas, this verse was abrogated by Qur’an 3:85: ‘And whoever desires other than Islam as religion – never will it be accepted from him, and he, in the Hereafter, will be among the losers.’ Sayyid Qutb opines that 2:62 applied only before Muhammad brought Islam to the world, a view supported by a saying of Muhammad recorded by Tabari, in which the Prophet of Islam says that Christians who died before his coming will be saved, but those who have heard of him and yet rejected his prophetic claim will not be.

It is unlikely, of course, that the person hold this sign has thought any of this through. She is just trying to be nice. And she is unlikely ever to stop and ponder the implications of the fact that no Muslim has been carrying around a sign saying, “’I’m Muslim and I LOVE the Bible.'” Source – Jihad Watch.