The Islamic Antichrist

The Internet has been abuzz with varying views and reviews of Joel Richardson’s book promoted by World Net Daily titled, The Islamic Antichrist. The book offers interesting comment and some insightful observations but seeks to challenge and reverse the popular teaching of Babylon the Great being related to either Roman Catholicism or a revived Roman Empire, but instead belonging to the Islamic world.

In Joel Richardson’s thesis, Gog and Magog are neither nations nor individuals arriving from Russia but represent the Antichrist (Gog) and the Islamic world following him. The author identifies him with the Mahdi, the Islamic messiah cum Antichrist (not to be confused with the Islamic doctrine of the Dajjal, the one-eyed Antichrist whom they associate with the ancient Egyptian sun god and with Jesus), and not as Islam understands Him (which is that Jesus was a mere prophet inferior to Mohammed and not God).

Joel Richardson’s arguments are that Rome never conquered Babylon, that Russia is not specifically identified as the “uttermost parts of the North”, that the Gog and Magog conflict and the battle of Armageddon are one and the same, and that Israel will turn to their God and the Lord’s Name will no longer be profaned with the destruction of Gog. Hence, since the Antichrist will cause the Name of God to be profaned and Gog’s destruction ends this, Gog must be the Antichrist cum Mahdi.

Let us be clear that biblically Islam is certainly an Antichrist religion and Mohammed was a type of Antichrist/ false prophet. By the scriptural definition of 1 John, Islam denies the Father and Son relationship and is categorically Antichrist. Moreover, Islamic decapitation and Shari’a law plainly meet the descriptions of the ordeal many will experience when the Antichrist will brutalize those refusing to take his mark and so forth.

Islam has demonstrated a capacity to deceive on two fronts – a political and economic front and a religious front. And it has been able to mobilize global forces and governments against Israel and the Jews. And both have been aimed, no less, at deceiving saved Christians. This deception however has spread from the political realm and into the church with pseudo-Evangelical figures such as Rick Warren, Tony Campolo, Robert Schuller, and above all Emergent church guru Brian McLaren (who celebrates Ramadan). There is no doubt these trends are of prophetic significance and are helping pave the way for the Antichrist and false prophet. Even in an age of apostasy and spiritual degeneration within the church, it is still a fairly distant stretch however to believe that a purely Islamic figure can mislead Christians into accepting him as a returned Christ.

The problem with Joel Richardson’s approach is that he is playing baseball instead of billiards. His eye is one ball and he is ignoring all of the other balls which are no less important.

Joel Richardson’s first problem is that he all but ignores a fundamental principle of biblical exegesis: the Old Testament is interpreted in light of the New Testament of Christ. The New Testament focus (and indeed the only mention) of Gog and Magog is the post-millennia unleashing of Satan followed by Gog and Magog where they are identified with the nations of the earth. It makes no mention of the Antichrist or individuals. Joel Richardson ignores this, violating a foundational tenet of hermeneutics.

This issue presents another consideration which Joel Richardson likewise ignores. Given the fact that by common consensus there are two battles of Gog and Magog, and Ezekiel 38-39 points to two future events, there is every possibility of a predictive double reference so that there is a partial fulfillment in one instance and a total fulfillment in the second. The precedents for this in biblical prophecy, especially eschatology, are multiple. Isaiah 9:6 predicts both the birth of Christ (First Coming) and the government being on His shoulders (Second Coming) in one breath. In the Olivet Discourse Jesus speaks of the 70 A.D. events first predicted in Daniel 9 and then in the same discourse jumps ahead to end time events. The Ezekiel 38-39 prediction that defilement and infidelity will cease will have an obvious and definite fulfillment in the New Testament Gog and Magog. Joel Richardson’s thesis, at least as he presents it, fails because his exegesis fails.

Another problem for Mr. Richardson is that in examining these prophecies in light of the New Testament, is that the New Testament in a spiritual sense identifies Rome with Babylon (1 Peter 5: 13, Revelation 17: 9, 18). The early Christians certainly identified Rome with its Pantheon as the custodian of the false religion s having their ontogeny in ancient Babylon. While we would never use Patristic tradition as a basis of any doctrine or doctrinal interpretation (and we hold a rank disapproval of the post-Nicean fathers theologically), the church fathers do constitute an important historical source to understand the mindset of the early church. Jerome’s De Viris Illustribus, and Augustine’s City of God reveal how earlier sources viewed Rome as another Babylon. Moreover that the fourth beast of Daniel’s vision, which conquered the Grecian conquerors of the Persians who conquered Babylon, is incontestable along with the fact that the typological descriptions of Daniel and Revelation are the same.

Mr. Richardson’s contentions further fail to add up due to considerations of geography. As an example, with the possible and debatable exception of Libya (Put), no Arab countries are even listed in the nations among those involved in the Gog and Magog war in Ezekiel 38-39. His assertion that Russia is not specifically named in Scripture must be co-equally applied to the absence of Arab Moslem nations regarding Gog and Magog. The Armageddon conflict, however, speaks specifically of the nations surrounding Israel and Jerusalem in Zechariah 12. His case, at least as he proposes it, just does not fit and fails to add up. This is to say nothing of the omission of a comprehensive theological argument to reconcile or explain how to resolve the 7 month clean up of the battlefield unless one takes the license to extend the task into the Millennium when in fact the bulk of Scripture, especially in Ezekiel, rather indicate that the biosphere itself will undergo a divinely reconstructed restoration to a pre-Adamic state without participation of human agency.

An additional consideration is that major areas of Arab Moslem Jordan will escape the domain of Antichrist (Daniel 11:41). Moreover, one would be hard pressed to picture Saudi Arabia, the seat of Islam located directly to Israel’s South and an Islamic world mainly to Israel’s South, East, and West (apart from Turkey and half-Moslem Lebanon) as being “the uttermost parts of the North”. It just doesn’t work.

A final problem with Joel Richardson’s scenario is that it avoids addressing central theological facts Scripture asserts regarding Arab Islamic nations. To begin with there are the curses found in the book of Genesis of Ishmael’s seed being divided and Esau’s sword drawn against his brother.

Arab tribes fought each other in pre-Islamic Arabia for centuries. Mohammed believed that by means of monotheism he could bring about a pan-Islamic and pan-Arab unity called “ummah”. It failed and continues to fail to this day. Since the 8th Century Battle of Carballah, Sunni and Shia Moslems have hated each other all the way to the Sunni-Shia and Arab-Kurdish war in Iraq to this day. There is no “ummah”. Indeed, this is a reason why Islam must murder Christians and Jews; without a common enemy they will always kill each other. If Mohammed , Abu Bakir, and Ali could not unite Islam neither will the Mahdi; the union will fail and break down as usual just as the Fatah-based Palestinian Authority and Hamas massacred each other in Gaza, as Iran and Iraq killed 1.5 million of each other, as Sadam Hussein raped Kuwait, and as King Hussein of Jordan exterminated 18,000 of Yassir Arafat’s followers in Black September of 1970.

The curse of Genesis prevents Islamic unity from developing a united empire over-running the West. Islam needed Christianized Britain and America to liberate Kuwait and protect Saudi Arabia from Sadam Hussein just as they still need the West to protect them from their Persian Moslem brothers in contemporary Iran. Indeed, the greatest Islamic Empire was strategically dominated by Ottoman Turks who subjugated the Arab Moslems as serfs and slaves just as Black African Moslems are enslaved by Arab militias today. This is the true face of Islam – a colossal ideological and religious failure, just as it has always been and always shall be.

It is additionally true that the Book of Daniel indicates that the Antichrist is coming in the character of Antiochus Epiphanes, recapitulating the exploits that brought him to power. When the Kings of the North (Western powers) fought the Kings of the South (nations which are today Islamic), the Kings of the South lost and will lose again.

Joel Richardson simply avoids dealing with these issues. Ignoring an issue will not make it go away. He also does not explain how Jesus’ prediction that the Antichrist will come in his own name and whom unsaved Jews will believe (John 5: 43). How will Jews be deceived by an Islamic messiah? The issue of John 5:43 must be examined carefully.

All in all Joel Richardson, while raising some valid points that warrant consideration, constructs a weak case deficient hermeneutically, geographically, and historically. His exegesis is not solid and there are simply far too many questions he does not even address let alone answer.

We do not maintain, however, that there is no merit to the alarm that Joel Richardson, and similarly Brother Walid Shoebat, are attempting to sound. Islam is most certainly an Antichrist religion, but so is any religion that places another in the place of Christ. Mormonism, Roman Catholicism, Sun Yung Moon’s Unification Church and a host of cults are Antichrist and the World Council of Churches dominated by theological liberalism is controlled by an Antichrist spirit. As Moslem’s await Mahdi and Jews a Messiah, so too Buddhists await the 5th Buddha and New Agers await Matriyeh. Could it not be that the Antichrist will be diabolically empowered to cover all bases, of being satanically animated to represent all things to all people?

There is, however, one saving grace in the proposal of Joel Richardson which appears to echo the emphasis of Walid Shoebat. The book of Acts and the Epistles mainly trace the growth of Christianity and the expansion of the Gospel message to the Greco-Roman world in the direction of Europe climaxing in Rome. From it the source of Western civilization springs politically just as it springs from Macedonia and Athens culturally. This is the biblical record of the New Testament.

However, the Gospel, although having its spiritual origins in eternity, was in historical and theological terms born not in the West but in the East out of Old Testament Pre-Talmudic Judaism during The Second Temple Period. The strength of Joel Richardson and of my dear friend Walid Shoebat is that they seek to redress an imbalance which fails to view eschatology (and biblical dogma generally) from an Eastern as well as Western perspective.

It is a further truth that the dangerous threatening and Antichrist nature of Islam must not be understated as it too often has been. Here too we are also indebted to Joel Richardson. He is drawing attention to an evil paving the way for the Antichrist more than any other religious trend with the exception of the ecumenical/ Inter-Faith deception. While much of Joel Richardson’s arguments are implausible and predicted on theologically abject suppositions drawn from faulty exegesis, we must at the same time acknowledge that there is a beneficial dimension to attributing the demonic disease of radical Islam and the need not to limit our perception of Scripture, by reading it through a Hellenistic cultural prism.

Nonetheless, Joel Richardson’s proposition is, in my estimation, fundamentally flawed. If his position is credible, his book categorically fails to package and present this position and to furnish a comprehensive apologetic for it. The source deficiency in Joel Richardson’s book is bad exegesis, which bequeaths the rest of his case a shallow and wobbly, if not hollow, foundation.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Will the Antichrist be a Muslim? - Lamplighter Mag. - Lamb & Lion Ministries (Dr. David R. Reagan) Does Daniel Debunk the Assyrian Antichrist? - Prophecy Depot (Bill Salus) Joel Richardson’s “Gog” Challenge Met and Overcome - Eschatology Today (Sean Osborne) Israel, the Church and the Jews - James Jacob Prasch (Book)

I, for one, agree with Richardson that the Madhi, or head of the Caliphate, will be the 'antichrist' and we have been looking in the wrong hemisphere as to where he will emerge. Islamic eschatology is the exact opposite of what the Bible describes and is a perfect fit, in reverse. Even to the point that he comes out of the abyss... Islam says the Madhi will come out of a well. The muslim faithful write notes to him in Iran and drop them into something that looks like a big green cover over a well.

When you compare the Biblical account and the Islamic eschatology, it is quite something. It fits perfectly... only in reverse. The muslims also talk about the 'dajal'... (their version of the antichrist) and it is no other than the return of the real Jesus Christ. The deception by allah/satan knows no bounds. And the false prophet, no other than Muhammed, has leds billions into deception, false religion, slavery and doom.

I have a few issues with the whole Mahdi/Antichrist deal.

First, at the beginning of the second half of the tribulation, or the beginning of The Great Tribulation, the AC declares HIMSELF to be god, not just a prophet.

Next, the author states"Mr. Richardson’s contentions further fail to add up due to considerations of geography. As an example, with the possible and debatable exception of Libya (Put), no Arab countries are even listed in the nations among those involved in the Gog and Magog war in Ezekiel 38-39."

And yet Ezekiel 38 states "I am against you, O Gog, chief prince of [b] Meshech and Tubal. 4 I will turn you around, put hooks in your jaws and bring you out with your whole army—your horses, your horsemen fully armed, and a great horde with large and small shields, all of them brandishing their swords. 5 Persia, Cush [c] and Put will be with them, all with shields and helmets, 6 also Gomer with all its troops, and Beth Togarmah from the far north with all its troops—the many nations with you.

I've read Meshech as being present day Georgia. Put is Lybia, Cush is Ethiopia, Persia is Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Turkey and including the southern parts of the Black and Caspian seas. All muslim nations.

Should there be a great war of Gog/Magog BEFORE Armageddon, it would wipe out the vast majority of Muslims.

Ezekiel 38: I will summon a sword against Gog on all my mountains, declares the Sovereign LORD. Every man's sword will be against his brother. 22 I will execute judgment upon him with plague and bloodshed; I will pour down torrents of rain, hailstones and burning sulfur on him and on his troops and on the many nations with him. 23 And so I will show my greatness and my holiness, and I will make myself known in the sight of many nations. Then they will know that I am the LORD.'

Ezekiel 39 says:"9 " 'Then those who live in the towns of Israel will go out and use the weapons for fuel and burn them up—the small and large shields, the bows and arrows, the war clubs and spears. For seven years they will use them for fuel. 10 They will not need to gather wood from the fields or cut it from the forests, because they will use the weapons for fuel. And they will plunder those who plundered them and loot those who looted them, declares the Sovereign LORD"

I find it interesting that Israel burns the weapons for fuel for 7 years. Why SEVEN years?

Is there anything else SEVEN years? Like maybe the Tribulation?

Daniel 9:27He will confirm a covenant with many for one 'seven.' In the middle of the 'seven' he will put an end to sacrifice and offering. And on a wing of the temple he will set up an abomination that causes desolation, until the end that is decreed is poured out on him.

BTW, the Catholic church does not fit the description of the spirit of antichrist.... which is...1 John 4:3 "but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world."

The last time I looked, the Catholic church believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God.

And what is the bismallah or decree of Islam?..."There is no god but allah and Muhammad is his messenger." They vehemently deny that Jesus is the son of God. Bingo...that fits the description.

James Jacob Prasch is Director of Moriel Ministries

Jacob was born near New York City in the USA where he became a Christian while studying science in university in February of 1972, after trying to disprove the Bible with science, history, and archaeology. He found so much evidence in support of the claims of Jesus and the Bible that it required more faith to reject it than to believe it.

Already frustrated by the failures of the hippie generation to build a better world, disillusioned by the Marxism to which he subscribed, and with the drug culture that claimed the lives of some of his friends and nearly his own, he put his faith in Jesus.

Jacob’s family is a combination of Roman Catholic and Jewish. (In his youth he was forced to attend a Catholic school, but also attended the Jewish Community Center.) Jacob’s wife Pavia, also from a science background, is a Romanian-born Israeli Jewish believer who is the daughter of holocaust survivors. Pavia was an atheist and Jacob was an agnostic. After coming to faith both switched from study in scientific fields to theological fields in Israel and in Britain. They have two children both born in Galilee.

More about him here: Jacob Prasch

Though I have heard of the similarities between AC and Mahdi, and am quite intrigued by them, as a possibility. Remember Islam is a counterfeit religion, offering a counterfeit god. It will sound close or similar.But use caution. Just because the Mahdi of the QURAN sounds like the AC of the BIBLE, DO NOT give equality or credence to the quran. BIBLE prophecy is the ONLY prophecy from God. Satan knows all about the AC, and create his own "prophecy" that sounds similar.

The point I'm trying to make is there are alot of things that can be construed to pointing to AC or end times (Mahdi, Mayan calendar, Nostradamus, Hopi indian legends) but DO NOT read accept these as authoritative. Only the BIBLE is authoritative. If we start giving too much credence to the others, we are looking to other things to tell us, that which we should be looking solely to God.

Never heard of him before. Sounds interesting.

Though I am very interested in peering as far into prophecy as I can, I realize there are some things I don't "need" to know at the moment. Though I want to.

I keep looking to see if the AC will show himself at all. But I realize its unimportant right now.

The Bible tells us that he would even fool the elect if possible. Since I'm just a construction worker, I feel that if my little brain figures somebody is/might be the AC, he probably isn't.

I do know ONE thing. If I should be around to see someone agree to a SEVEN YEAR peace plan with Israel, the battle lines have been drawn, and I know who the enemy is.

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