God's War on Terror: Islam, Prophecy and the Bible

by Walid Shoebat

  Whoever denies the reality of the Trinity and the fact that Jesus is the Son of God embodies the spirit of the Antichrist, period!

  Knowing this, Antichrist will never say I am the Son of God, instead He will mock such a notion. This is crucial. The religion of Islam has as one of its most core and foundational beliefs, a blatant denial of Jesus as God’s Son. This denial is found several times throughout the Qur’an. According to the Qur’an, whoever believes that Jesus is the Son of God commits a terrible blasphemy and is cursed by Allah. But beyond the fact that the Qur’an clearly teaches Antichrist doctrines, Islam has also created a perverted Jesus that is an affront to the historical Jesus of the Christian faith.

  Growing up, I was always taught that when Jesus returns, he will declare himself to be a Muslim, He will deny all the claims of being God, or the Son of God, and lead many Christians to convert to Islam. Regarding those who do not convert to Islam, the Qur’an states that Jesus will be a witness against them on the Day of Judgment: “There is not one of the People of the Scripture (Christians and Jews) but will believe in him before his death, and on the Day of Resurrection he will be a witness against them.” (Qur’an 4:159)

  Muslim scholars explain that the phrase “will believe in him before his death” means that Christians and Jews will “confirm that he is alive and has not died and he is not God or the Son of God but [merely] His [Allah’s] slave and Messenger, and Isa (Jesus) will testify against those who had called him Son of God.”10

  The so-called moderate Sheikh Kabbani agrees: “Like all prophets, Prophet Jesus came with the divine message of surrender to God Almighty, which is Islam. This verse shows that when Jesus returns he will personally correct the misrepresentations and misinterpretations about himself. He will affirm the true message that he brought in his time as a prophet, and that he never claimed to be the Son of God. Furthermore, he will reaffirm in his second coming what he prophesied in his first coming bearing witness to the seal of the Messengers, Prophet Mohammed. In his second coming many non-Muslims will accept Jesus as a servant of Allah Almighty, as a Muslim and a member of the Community of Mohammed.”11

  Ayatullah Baqir al-Sadr and Ayatullah Murtada Mutahhari, authors of The Awaited Savior, concur “Jesus will descend from heaven and espouse the cause of the Mahdi. The Christians and the Jews will see him and recognize his true status. The Christians will abandon their faith in his godhead” (sic).12

  Once again, the canonized doctrines of Islam perfectly fulfill what the apostle John defined as the Antichrist spirit. The Bible warned Christians long ago to “test the spirits to see whether or not they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God. And every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world.” (I John 4:3)

  The litmus test to know whether or not a spirit is from God or from the devil is specifically whether or not it acknowledges that Jesus Christ the Son of God has become a man. Any spirit that does not acknowledge this is from Satan and is the “spirit of the Antichrist.” This by itself proves that Islam is possessed with an Antichrist spirit.

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  Both Are Blasphemous

  The Apostle John also adds “This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 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.” (I John 4:2-3) “Many deceivers, who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh, have gone out into the world. Any such person is the deceiver and the Antichrist.” (II John 1:7)

  From these verses, we learn that the antichrist is a spirit that is identified as a “liar” and a “deceiver” which specifically denies:

  1. That Jesus is the Savior of Israel and the World.

  2. The Trinity, or that Jesus is The Son of God.

  3. That Jesus is God who came in the flesh.

  Both Mohammed and his Mahdi perfectly embody this Antichrist spirit. Mohammed denied both “the Father and the Son.” The Mahdi will come in Mohammed’s spirit and will do the same. What is most holy to Christians is considered blasphemous in Islam, and what is holy in Islam is blasphemous to Christians. An understanding of Islam’s reversalist or contrarian ideology is crucial for everyone who wants to understand Satan’s attempt to contradict and undermine the basic teachings of the Bible.

  Islam makes it one of its highest priorities to deny all of the above points regarding Jesus and His relationship with the Father. Just ask any Muslim, “what are your main objections to Christians” and their immediate response will be “Jesus is not the Son of God. Neither is He God. Neither is God our Father. Neither did He die on the cross.” Try it.

  My Catholic mother-in-law asked me prior to marrying her daughter “Do you believe in Jesus?” Being a Muslim I responded “of course.” “Then you can marry my daughter,” she said. However, had she asked me, “Do you believe He is the Son of God?” I would have said “Absolutely not.”

  The trick that Muslims use however, is that Islam teaches that Jesus is indeed the Messiah, after all the Qur’an calls him “Al-Maseeh.” While it is true that Islam does retain the title of Messiah for Jesus, when one asks a Muslim to define what the title actually means in Islam, the definitions given are always hollow and fall entirely short of containing any truly Messianic substance.

  In Islam, Jesus is merely another prophet in a very long line of prophets. Biblically speaking however, the role of the Messiah among other things also entails being a Divine Priestly Savior, a Deliverer, and the King of the Jews.

  As we shall see throughout this book, rather than being a Messiah who saves or delivers Israel and all of his faithful followers in any way, in the Islamic traditions, Jesus instead returns to lead Israel’s enemies against her in battle and to kill or convert all Jews and Christians to Islam. This would be the equivalent of calling Adolph Hitler—rather than Jesus—Israel’s deliverer.

  For now, we see that the apostle John informs us that just before the final hour, a very specific “spirit” will dominate the earth. This spirit will deny many of the essential Biblical doctrines regarding who Jesus is and what He came to do. Islam could not epitomize this spirit any more perfectly. This spirit was “already in the world” (I John 4:3) even in John’s time.

  Several cults existed in John’s day and continued with such a spirit. Islam stemmed from these Christian heretical groups such as the Gnostics and the Nestorians. While John’s warning in the first century was speaking primarily to the heretical Gnostic Christians, when Islam came along, it literally adopted nearly every early Christian heresy and absorbed them all into one new heretical potpourri that we call Islam. As such, John’s warning against the spirit of the Antichrist was virtually consummated in the religion of Mohammed, the greatest heresiarch that the world has ever known.

  TAWHID AND SHIRK

  In Islam the most essential belief is called Tawhid which refers to the strictest form of Unitarian monotheism imaginable—the absolute oneness of God. In Islam, God is utterly alone. And because adherence to Tawhid is the highest and most important commandment in Islam, then the greatest sin is called Shirk which is opposite of Tawhid. Shirk is idolatry, or “associating partners with God.” As one Muslim group in Toronto has stated in their publication Invitation to Islam:

  “Murder, rape, child molesting, genocide…These are all some of the appalling crimes which occur in our world today. Many would think that these are the worst possible offences which could be committed. But there is something which outweighs all of these crimes put together: It is the crime of shirk. As the Qur’an said: ‘Surely, they have disbelieved who say: ‘Allah is the Messiah (Jesus), son of Mary’ but the
Messiah (Jesus) said: ‘O Children of Israel! Worship Allah exclusively…’ (Qur’an 5: 72) This verse is evidence that those who associate with Allah are Kuffar and commit shirk akbar (greater shirk). If a person dies (committing shirk akbar) and never repents of it, he will be a permanent resident in hell-fire.’”14

  While the unpardonable sin in the Bible is to deny, or blaspheme, the Holy Spirit as God, in Islam believing that God is the Holy Spirit is an unpardonable sin (Matthew 12:31). The Holy Spirit according to Islam is the angel who spoke to Mohammed. Yet the being that spoke to Mohammed bears far more resemblance to Lucifer than to any heavenly angel. Imagine that believing in the divinity of Christ is considered by many Muslims to be a far worse sin than committing murder!

  Meanwhile, in the backwards world of Islam, the Muslims of Sudan are even now carrying out a literal genocide against the Black Sudanese while the rest of the Muslim world turns its collective head and looks the other way. But believe that Jesus is the Son of God and you stir up a hornet’s nest. Neither the demons nor the Muslims can tolerate the truth that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and the Lord of All!

  ISLAM DENIES THE SON

  This denial is found several times throughout the Qur’an: “In blasphemy indeed are those that say that God is Christ the son of Mary.” (Qur’an 5:17) “They said, ‘The Most Gracious has begotten a son!’ You have uttered a gross blasphemy. The heavens are about to shatter, the earth is about to tear asunder, and the mountains are about to crumble. Because they claim that the Most Gracious has begotten a son. It is not befitting the Most Gracious that He should beget a son.” (Qur’an 19:88-92) “…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)

  The Qur’an literally pronounces a curse on those who believe that Jesus is God’s Son—people who say such things utter “gross blasphemies” and are likened to unbelievers or Kuffar infidels. In his Institutes of Religion, Protestant Reformer John Calvin rightly stated that “[The Muslims], although they proclaim at the top of their lungs that the Creator of Heaven and earth is God, still, while repudiating Christ, they substitute an idol in the place of the true God.”15

  While Islam attempts to create an acceptable form of monotheistic worship, it not only leaves out the most essential aspects of a saving relationship with God, but it also confronts these things head on and calls them the highest forms of blasphemy. “Far be it from God that he should have a son!” These words encircle the inside of the Dome of the Rock Mosque in Jerusalem. This is the very location where for centuries God’s people; the Jews, worshipped in their Temple awaiting their Messiah. This is also where Jesus, the Son of God, the Jewish Messiah, will someday rule over the earth. Islam has literally built a monument of unreserved defiance to this future reality.

  But what is the “grievous penalty” that shall befall those who believe such things? According to Islamic narrative, Jesus will return to kill these, “polytheist Trinitarian Christians.” But it does not end here. The Qur’an does not stop at denying that Jesus is the Son of God or that God exists as a Trinity.

  ISLAM DENIES THE CROSS

  With tears in his eyes, the apostle Paul warned the Thessalonians that, “many live as enemies of the cross of Christ.” (Philippians 3:18). The Church Father Polycarp of Smyrna, a disciple of the Apostle John, also linked a denial of the cross to the Antichrist spirit in no uncertain terms when he said that “Everyone who does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is an antichrist and whoever does not confess the testimony of the cross is of the devil…such a one is the firstborn of Satan”16 It should not come as a surprise then that Islam also denies the most central event of all of redemptive history—the crucifixion of Jesus: “That they said (in boast), ‘We killed Christ Jesus the son of Mary, the Messenger of Allah;’ but they killed him not, nor crucified him, but so it was made to appear to them, and those who differ therein are full of doubts, with no (certain) knowledge, but only conjecture to follow, for of a surety they killed him not: Nay, Allah raised him up unto Himself; and Allah is Exalted in Power, Wise.” (Qur’an 4:157-8)

  Ironically, among Islamic scholars, there are actually numerous conflicting theories regarding exactly what happened to Jesus. As such, it is actually the Muslims who have “only conjecture to follow.” But despite their inability to arrive at any form of consensus regarding what happened to Jesus, Muslims are very much in agreement on at least one issue: He never died on the cross!

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  Both Are Called Deceiver

  When anyone picks up the Bible, they are almost immediately confronted with the fact that Satan is the greatest deceiver in history. It was shortly after having eaten the forbidden fruit that Eve said, “The serpent (Satan) deceived me, and I ate.” (Gen. 3:13). In the New Testament, John the Apostle reminded us all that anyone who denies that Jesus has come in the flesh “is the deceiver and the antichrist.” (II John 1:7). Paul the Apostle elaborates on the deceptive role of the Antichrist when he also warned that “The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with the work of Satan displayed in all kinds of counterfeit miracles, signs and wonders, and in every sort of evil that deceives those who are perishing.” (II Thessalonians 2:9-10) And as the Bible concludes, it encourages us all with the fact that in the end, “the devil, who deceived them, [will be] thrown into the lake of burning sulfur…” (Revelation 20:10)

  Amazingly, all such unsavory descriptions of Satan are easily found scattered throughout the Qur’an (more detail later), but I will start with the most damning reference—Allah’s bragging by calling himself Khayrul-Makireen, which literally means The Greatest of all Deceivers. (Qur’an 3:54) He refers to Himself with such title in Qur’an: 8, 30; 27, 50; 13, 42; 10, 21; (14, 46); (43, 79); 86, 15 f; 7, 100.

  Above, the first verse says “And they conspired, Allah also conspired, for He is the greatest of all deceivers” (Qur’an 3:54)

  But what are the circumstances in Qur’an 3:54 that are causing Allah to be deceptive? Interestingly, the deception is regarding the story of Jesus, as verse 55 states, “When Allah said to Jesus, I shall cause you to die, then will raise you up to myself…” Allah deceived the people by not allowing Jesus to die on the cross and resurrecting Him instead.

  As Christ was going about to do His father’s work, Satan was concocting schemes for his firstborn Mohammed.

  All of the most revered interpreters of the Qur’an; Ibn Katheer, Al-Tabari, Al-Jalalyn, and Al-Qurtubi, interpret Qur’an 3:54 as referring to Allah deceiving people to believe that Jesus was crucified when He was not. Qurtubi observes that some scholars have considered the words “the best of schemers” to be one of God’s beautiful names. Thus one would pray, “O Best of Schemers, scheme for me!” Qurtubi also reports that the Prophet used to pray, “O God, scheme for me, and do not scheme against me!”17

  How is it that in the Bible it is the Devil and his vessel the Antichrist that are repeatedly referred to as the schemers, liars and the deceivers; but in the Qur’an, it is Allah who is the greatest of all deceivers? Satan knows full well who he is, and as he was inspiring the Qur’an, he couldn’t help but brag a little.

  The Arabic word ‘makara’ means to deceive, scheme, hatch up, cook up, or connive. The Arabic Bible in Genesis 3:1 uses the same word for Satan.

  In Ahl-Alquran (International Qur’anic Center) Sharif Sadeq explains the meaning of makara as attributed in the Qur’an “conniving is a weapon, like any other weapon, could be used for good or evil like a knife or a gun.” According to Sharif, there are two types of conniving; one which is forbidden, the other noble.

  BOTH ATTEMPT TO DECEIVE CHRISTIANS AND JEWS

  Not only do Satan and Allah share the characteristic of being deceivers par excellence, they also both love to specifically target one group above any others—Ahlul-Kitab or “The people of the Book [the Bible]”
as the Qur’an calls them. The Bible warns that Jews and Christians are Satan’s favorite target, yet in the Qur’an, and all throughout this “sacred text,” they are targeted by Allah. Does not Jesus warn “For false Christ’s and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and miracles to deceive even the elect—if that were possible”? (Matthew 24:24) See, I have told you ahead of time. “So if anyone tells you, ‘There he is, out in the desert,’ do not go out; or, ‘Here he is, in the inner rooms,’ do not believe it.”

  As a Muslim I understood that according to Islamic tradition, the Mahdi will find some supposedly “lost” portions of the Old and New Testaments and even the Ark of the Covenant, and through these finds, he will argue with Jews and Christians, and win some to Islam. Ka’b al-Ahbar, an early Muslim commentator says, “He will be called ‘Mahdi’ because he will guide (yahdi) to something hidden and will bring out the Torah and Gospel from a town called Antioch.”18

  Alsuyuti, another classic Muslim scholar said that, “the messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, ‘He is called the Mahdi because he will guide the people to a mountain in Syria from which he will bring out the volumes of the Torah to refute the Jews. At the hands of the Mahdi, the Ark of the Covenant will be brought forth from the Lake of Tiberius and taken and placed in Jerusalem.’”19

  Ad-Dani said that “he is called the Mahdi because he will be guided to a mountain in Syria from which he will bring forth the volumes of the Torah with which to argue against the Jews and at his hands a group of them will become Muslim.”20