Ben Sieira.
As we approach the time of the return of Jehoshua the Christ, we are warned in the scriptures to expect a global rise of all that is wicked because central to that is the rise of a final global government ultimately headed up by the one referred to as "that Wicked" in 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." So the rise of an idolatrous system of government and religion is prerequisite to the appearance of what many would call, "the antichrist", or more accurately, "the son of perdition", as in 2 Thessalonians 2:3, "Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition." We are also warned that there will be a great falling away from the ranks of the faithful. So how does Islam fit into God's plan for the final act of preparation for Christ's millennial kingdom?
It is instructive to note that throughout the history of God's chosen people on the earth, whenever they have fallen away into idolatry and all manner of sin, God continually pleads with them to return to Him, but eventually that pleading must come to an end. It is then that God raises up the enemies of His people against them, or to see it another way, removes some of the restraint upon the enemies of His people, to punish His disobedient people for their idolatry and wickedness, the enemies being the ones or in some base manner likened to the ones whose influence has corrupted God's people in the first place, and once having done so He then punishes the enemies of His people, for they are always excessively violent and hard hearted, merciless and relentless in their outpouring of wrath, driven by a demonic lust for wickedness and blood. The manner of discipline is always in line with the manner of disobedience, since God is always absolutely just in all that He does.
Such has the Ever Living God always used the enemies of His people as a rod of correction against the straying sheep who have become a dispersed flock lost in a dark jungle of depravity. God then corrects the rod itself, destroying the destroyer. As an example, consider what happened when Israel fell to Babylon and after a period then Babylon was itself brought low. Israel had for a long time immersed itself in the worship of Babylonian idols so that ultimately it brought Babylonian oppression. It seems that whatever one worships, the master of that object becomes also the master of the worshipper. In our modern era the love of money, for example, has brought many into bondage to central banks and thereby under the rule of those who control the banks. The Lord sent prophets to warn Israel of impending doom but people did not want to hear of evil tidings and became deaf in their sin, their pride in their self-righteousness blinding them and making them rigid and unteachable. Few stop to consider that there is no need to send a prophet to warn of good times ahead, since why would anybody need such a warning? Only evil tidings need be foretold so that those with eyes that see and ears that hear and hearts that understand will prepare for the worst ahead of time, but sadly these are usually a minority.
Ultimately, after a long enough period of oppressive Babylonian rule, the Lord rescued his people, initially by destroying Babylonian power through the rise of the Medo-Persian Empire, but unfortunately the history of Israel is replete with division and bringing the nation back into full communion with God seemed impossible. I will not delve into the particulars of that history since any person with eyes and wit has the capacity to read and grasp it. However, it is important to always remember that it is the Lord who wields the axe, not the axe that wields the one who holds it. As we find in Isaiah 10:15, "Shall the axe boast itself against him that heweth therewith? or shall the saw magnify itself against him that shaketh it? as if the rod should shake itself against them that lift it up, or as if the staff should lift up itself, as if it were no wood." We frequently, or perhaps even inevitably, find that the enemies of God's people falsely believe in their own power and righteousness failing to recognise and glorify the Ever Living God and ascribing their success to idols (whether wood or stone or metal or flesh), and for this insolent and idolatrous attitude, which leads to their merciless rampage, God then punishes them severely, usually completely destroying their culture and many people with it. God will never give His glory to another.
After Jehoshua was crucified and resurrected from the dead, He departed this world to enable the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon those who have put their faith in Him. However, many, even most, of the chosen people had not done so despite the fact that He came first to save the lost sheep of Israel, and only afterwards to save the sheep of another flock, the faithful amongst the gentiles. This was prophesied in Isaiah 56:8, "The Lord GOD which gathereth the outcasts of Israel saith, Yet will I gather others to him, beside those that are gathered unto him." We know full well from history what soon afterward happened to the inhabitants of Israel, their uprisings led ultimately to the iron fist of the ruling beast of the day, the Roman Empire, which crushed them and utterly destroyed Jerusalem. However, the process of calling the gentiles to repentance was already well underway, so the people of God were no longer confined to the Israelites, the veil of the temple had been rent and all who believed were free to enter into God's gracious mercy. What's more, most of the tribes of Israel were already long since scattered throughout the earth amongst the gentile nations and knew not who they were, and many as yet do not know to this day, since in Israel in the days of Jehoshua the Christ the people were primarily of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, which came to be known as the Jews. So in sending the gospel of salvation out amongst the gentile nations, not only were the gentiles being called to repentance and salvation but also those lost tribes of Israel would receive the truth. Then there will ultimately be one people under Christ and under God. Now God's people are no longer restricted to the genetic Israelites, but all believers are now joined with the believing Israelites in spirit, and in truth.
However, it is again today that a great many of the children of the former faithful have fallen away into all manner of idolatry, paganism in all its various guises, utter rejection of God and of His saving grace through His only begotten son, Jehoshua the Christ. So it is again today that God is raising up the enemies of those that were His and claim to represent Him, those nations that call themselves Christian but are not, and misrepresent the Almighty God to the nations of the earth, dragging His name through the mud and making a mockery of the immeasurable cost that was the sacrifice of the perfect Lamb of God. Such have the appearance of Godliness but deny its power, 2 Timothy 3:5, "Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away." Those still faithful to Christ recognise the fruits of such as these liars in the halls of power and on the streets alike, and we are warned not to associate with them since their teachings are as yeast in the mind and spread to destroy all that is truth, inflating the pride based in all manner of false doctrine, the willing victim then abandoning the love of the truth for temporal balm to sooth itching ears.
It is clear to many by now, if not long before, that the enemies of the western nations that claim to adhere to Christianity are the nations of Islam. They are the sworn enemies of Jacob and they are the sworn enemies of Christians since when those of Islam look at the nations that claim Christianity all they see is idolatry and wickedness in nearly every quarter, and it is not completely without reason that they call the USA the great Satan, despite the fact that many in the USA are yet faithful to the Almighty One and have not turned away to idolatry, but their numbers are dwindling and likewise has been happening in all western, nominally Christian nations that are, in terms of way of life, allied with the USA who is the second beast that rose up out of the earth, and which created the image of the beast, the UN.
The Islamic nations must rise in power, in influence, but not merely as nations, rather as a people unified in an idolatrous religion that denies the true Christ as Christ, yet claiming to worship the God of Abraham. To Islam is especially true the above verse from 2 Timothy 3:5. This is the way the Lord works out this problem. He raises up the enemies of His people or more specifically the enemies of those who claim His authority over them, and those enemies are, spiritually, just the same in the form of their idolatry and its resultant oppressive culture but taken to its ultimate conclusion, that is, the long term result of the specific aspects of their wickedness in common with the backsliders in the nominally Christian nations, to demonstrate just where this all leads. It is as if the Lord, by His actions, is saying something like, "This is akin to where you are going, taste it now and consider carefully whether you wish to continue."
The oppression that you see in Islam, though not yet having been fully realised, is exactly where the UN would take us in their quest for a universal religion (the "ecumaniacal" movement, many gods equates to many lovers so such a religion is a whore) and global "socialist" government, to worship the earth as if it were a god (which so many now call "Gaia"), to reject Christ since true Christianity accepts no other god but the great I AM, to place the environment and all other creations above the crowning creation of God, which is mankind, to enslave mankind to the beast state which now claims ultimate and unanswerable authority, and so submit all to an idol thus enforcing total submission (which is in essence worship) to those would-be-god-men who claim to fully represent that idol. The world will then bow down to the absence of truth, and in so doing fill up the full measure of sin and bring about its own destruction. You become likened to that which you worship and hold in high esteem, so a world worshiping a void must itself become void. We know what the word "Islam" means. That is the very thing a tyrannical and idolatrous world government, the UN, want from all of us. Total submission. To completely submit is to worship, to worship is to completely submit. Thus is prepared the throne for "the son of perdition." Can anybody, good or evil, genuinely trust a corrupt, anti-Christian, utterly pagan, unanswerable, global totalitarian state?
As with all pagan rule, it ultimately leads to complete tyranny, as was seen throughout the twentieth century under communism and other statist extremes, and it is this oppressive tyranny that already exists in the ways of Islamic nations and likewise current socialist nations which, although not many are totally socialist, the direction they have taken is towards statism under the banners of environmentalism, tolerance of every wicked perversion, multiculturalism leading to tolerance for all manner of cultures, ideas and religions, except Christianity, and this infantile nonsense called "political correctness" is merely nothing more than a sulking child who blocks his ears and loudly mumbles incomprehensible babble to drown out the voice of truth, believing that in ignorance is salvation.
So we clearly see that Islam is the ideal rod of punishment to be inflicted on the western supposed "Christian" nations whose law was once upon a time based on biblical tenets, a punishment inflicted upon those that claim Christ as saviour yet obey not that which He taught. How can a nation that continually changes its laws call them laws and claim to be law abiding? How can any so-called government claim to govern yet continually toggle its views on what is right and acceptable and what is not, always preferring that which is convenient for a time? This is not law. This is lawlessness! Laws based in truth do not change. Ever! The rise of excessive legislation is a direct result of an attempt to implement specific guidelines as to how law applies to every given situation, and this is impossible to ever fully realise since possible circumstances are infinitely variable. The problem then arises that as a growing body of legislation becomes law, it becomes easier and easier to pervert the foundational law since its meaning is gradually lost in the voluminous and burdensome documents and arguments implementing all of the legislation. However, the law serves not to protect but to convict, since its force can only be applied after the crime, if at all, so increasing legislation serves not to improve society but only to impoverish law-abiding and God-fearing people with regards to personal freedom. Lawless people, including the lowest drug dealers and the highest placed politicians care not what the law says and are thereby unrestrained in their wickedness. Then, we see how critical it is that a people, indeed each person, should ultimately be capable of self-government, requiring complete self-control, discipline to the truth, observing what is right and acting in accord with the design of God, that is essentially, having God's Spirit, for a people incapable of such are forever doomed to fall into serfdom and eventually slavery.
A person that cannot correctly self-govern from within will inevitably and invariably be governed from without. This is not the kind of person the Ever Living God wants amongst His nation of truly free souls. True freedom can only be achieved when operating from within the framework of that in which one exists, and therefore that which the Creator of reality itself has designed. To attempt to step outside of that framework, that is, to act wickedly, is to attempt to step outside of reality, which is impossible, so it is countered by natural justice upon which all creation exists, and thus brings evil, a lack of truth, the void, into the world. "Sin" literally means, "to miss the mark." Nobody can force us to sin, since sin is in the intent of an action, in the motivation of the "heart" of the living soul and devastation is the consequence. We did it all on our own. All the devil had to do was suggest it as an "alternative lifestyle." As it is written, and the scripture cannot be broken, Ezekiel 18:20, "The soul that sins will die." Ah, but herein lies the miracle of salvation, for though a soul has sinned, if that soul turns around, that is, repents, turning always away from sin and toward God and seeking forgiveness from the heart, believing that Christ has paid for that sin, then justice has been served, executed upon the perfect sacrifice, Christ, and God's mercy will save that soul. However, it is useless to those who reject it, just as the law is useless to those who do not enforce it within and for themselves.
As Islam and its allies move into a merciless and brutal reign of terror upon all that fall to their influence or control, they will turn their sights on Israel, and it is then that those nations spoken of in Psalm 83 are finally fully united in their advance against Israel, and even now we watch as their circumstances are rearranged in readiness for that day, and it is afterward that the Lord returns to destroy those enemies of Israel. Lest people forget, Israel does not receive special treatment because they are especially holy or somehow better than other peoples, since it is obvious by the high levels of idolatry and atheistic beliefs amongst many current day Israelites that they are really not very different in and amongst themselves from the rest of the world. It is in fact because God made an unconditional promise to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob whose name He changed to Israel, and in keeping that promise, as God always keeps His word, not only does He defend Israel but He also defends and sustains the very name of Israel. God does not give names flippantly; they are given with His eternal perspective in full view.
It is likely that during the time of Islam's final days, as it engulfs the world with its teachings and oppression, with its violence and attacks on all freedom, likewise will the beasts, the EU (the pagan religious and political systems of the EU, in essence the pagan culture, is the first beast), the USA (the second beast is likened unto the first in its own culture) and the UN (the image of the beast), be attempting to bring the Islamic nations under the control of the UN. It should be remembered that the Islamic nations are part of the first beast, in that they came down through history under the eastern leg of the Roman Empire, which became known as the Byzantine Empire (recall Nebuchadnezzar's dream of a statue recorded in the book of Daniel the prophet, two iron legs, the eastern and the western Roman Empire). However, since the pagan would-be-world-government, the UN, and particularly those who support it and rule it from behind closed doors, even for all of their preaching of tolerance cannot tolerate another contender for the throne of global domination, and just the same nor can Islam tolerate such a pagan contender for the global throne, then global war must be inevitable, despite the apparent advances to establish enforced "peace" between these two twisted world views that will be attempted by the one that is called, "that Wicked". The Islamic east and pagan west are merely two faces of the same demonic beast, the spirit of antichrist. This time of terrifying horror is prophesied to occur just prior to the return of Christ. This is most probably the great tribulation, worse than all wars in history since there was a nation on the earth, the time of Jacob's trouble and the severe testing of the saints, and at the centre of the conflict, both physically and politically, will sit Israel. At the end of this conflict will the bowls of God's wrath be dealt out to the unbelievers, but the end is brought about by the return of Christ, lest no flesh should survive. However, I will not go into an exposition of all of this but to the faithful just this word; do not count on a secret escape, for this is a time for testing YOU, God's ark is within you, the Holy Spirit, and only then are the wicked punished, and only after this testing can you receive a crown. Stand fast and firm to the end, never denying the Christ.
Daniel 12 : 9, 10
"And he said, Go thy way, Daniel: for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end. Many shall be purified, and made white, and tried;..."
Revelation 13 : 10
"He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity: he that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints."
Islam must now rise, but it is our fault. Not the fault of the pagan next door, neither the fault of the wiccan over the road, but the fault of every professing Christian that has failed the test of a righteous life, having misrepresented our God, the only true God, and having thus given way to demons entering the house. On bended knee and with contrite heart must we now come before the Eternal One, lest our names be blotted from the book of life forever.
May the Ever Living God of eternal glory be praised to the ends of the heavens and the earth. His kingdom WILL be established, on earth as it is in heaven.
