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

by Walid Shoebat

  To sum it up, the “Name of the Beast” along with variations of the name of Allah, is worn as a sign of submission on the right arm or foreheads. Islam is submission and allegiance to a foreign god, the Shahadatan is blasphemous, the badge worn by Muslims on the foreheads—all of these things meet the Biblical requirements of the Mark of the Beast.

  And just in case you are still in doubt, even the part of the Bible that predicted the beast will mark the foreheads is in the Qur’an and the Hadith: Dabat Al-Ard (literally the Beast out of the Earth) is an Islamic version of the account of the “Beast of the Earth” in Revelation 13:11. But unlike the Bible, in which this beast is evil, the Qur’an gives him a holy mission to revive Islam and mark the foreheads of all true Muslim believers. According to Islamic tradition, the Beast emerges in the Last-Days: “And when the word is fulfilled concerning them, We shall bring forth a Beast of the Earth to speak unto them because mankind had not faith in Our revelations” (Qur’an. 27:82). “The prophet of Islam declared, ‘The first of the signs that will come is the rising of the sun from the place of its setting and the emergence of the Beast upon the people. Whichever of these two occurs before the other then the other is right behind it.’“5

  Why do Muslims mark their foreheads with badges of submission to Allah? It comes from their belief that the hour is near: “The task of the Beast will be to distinguish the believers from the non-believers, with Prophet Moses’s staff it [the beast] will draw a line on the forehead of every [Muslim] believer whereby his face will become bright and luminous and with the ring of Solomon it will seal the nose of every non-believer where by his whole face will become black. Thus there will be complete distinction between the Muslim and non-Muslim, so that if many parties sit at a dinner table, the Muslim and non-Muslim will be distinguished.”6

  Can you imagine my shock when I studied the Bible? I was taught that a Beast would come “out of the earth” and he would mark the foreheads of all true Muslims. Do you see how Satan has turned everything upside down for Muslims? As a Muslim, I wanted the Mark of the Beast! Not surprisingly, according to Islamic tradition, this Beast comes out of Mecca. “The Beast will come out from Al-Masjid Al-Haraam in Makkah.” “The Prophet took me to a place in the desert, near Makkah. It was a dry piece of land surrounded by sand. The prophet said, ‘The Beast will emerge from this place.’ It was a very small area.”7 Even as the Last-Days Beast religion has emerged out of Mecca so also Islam has the Beast emerging out of Mecca.

  Amazingly, in the Bible, the angel took John to the desert to see the “woman,” or the “prostitute” riding a beast that most likely comes out of the desert of Arabia. Mecca is the “holiest” and most central location in all of Islamadom. What is evil to us is holy to them. According to Islamic tradition, “[The] Beast is some form of ultra-conglomerate of many different animals.”8

  PLEDGING ALLEGIANCE TO THE BEAST

  In the early days of Mohammed’s career, he often asked those who had expressed a desire to follow him to make a pledge of allegiance or submission to him. This pledge is known as bay’ah. It is an outward oath or pledge promising allegiance—complete submission even—to the ruler.9

  After Mohammed died, this practice of making a pledge was carried on under the Caliphs. The Muslims would make a pledge of allegiance to the Caliph, and likewise the Caliph would make a pledge of allegiance to Allah to rule strictly according to Islamic law. Many modern Islamist books and articles that speak about the restoration of the Caliphate present the giving of the bay’ah (allegiance) as a very common theme.

  Like anxious children waiting and planning for Christmas morning, many very eager Islamists look forward to the day when all citizens of Dar-al-Islam (the regions and lands under the authority of the Caliphate) will be required to make the bay’ah pledge to the Caliph. According to Islamic tradition, those who do not make this pledge will die the death of an idolater: “One who withdraws his hand from obedience to the Ruler (Emir) will find no argument in his defense when he stands before Allah on the Day of Judgment, and one who dies without having bound himself by an oath of allegiance (bay’ah) to an Emir will die the death of one belonging to the days of Jahillyya (Pre-Islamic ignorance and idolatry).”10

  Similar to the Antichrist, anyone who refuses to give allegiance will be killed. The evidence of the mistreatment of Christians and Jews in the Islamic system is immense, but it will of course only increase in the days to come. This is what the Bible warned when it stated that whoever did not accept the Mark of the Beast will be killed.

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  Unlocking The Image Of The Beast

  Possibly influenced by Laserium shows and Star Trek, many prophecy analysts attempt to take the passage of Revelation 13:15 literally. Thus many are expecting the Antichrist to produce a literal animated statue that will speak, which everyone will be commanded to bow to: “He was given power to give breath to the image of the first beast, so that it could speak and cause all who refused to worship the image to be killed.” But whenever one interprets a passage that was intended to be allegorical or an allegorical passage that is intended to be interpreted literally, they have fallen prey to a common pitfall. The prophecies concerning Israel’s return to the land were always intended to be taken literally, yet for decades the Church allegorized these passages and interpreted them as referring to itself. The Seven Mountains of Revelation 17 are another prime example of symbolism that has been improperly interpreted literally. Imagine what kind of interpretation we get if we literalize, “the dragon was enraged at the woman.” The Bible would become a child’s fairy-tale. How can anyone literalize, “and I saw a beast coming out of the sea?” What about: “one of the heads of the beast seemed to have had a fatal wound, but the fatal wound had been healed?” Many interpret this passage to man that the Antichrist will die from a fatal head wound and then come back to life. But if this scenario were true, then this would mean that Satan would be a giver of life. But this is absurd.

  In seeing these absurdities, we can see the need to dig deeper into the allegoric meaning of certain passages. So how are we to understand this passage then: “He was given power to give breath to the image of the first beast, so that it could speak and cause all who refused to worship the image to be killed?” The obvious interpretation is that the prior beast kingdom that was wounded shall come back to life again. This is simply a revival of a wounded kingdom—not an individual. When we examine Scripture, first we must commit ourselves to some deeper investigation and then we must allow the Bible to interpret itself. The concept of reviving and creating an image of the Beast is something that the Scriptures give us ample information to understand properly. If we search through the Bible for various usages of the word “image,” we will gain significant insight into the nature of what this passage is actually talking about. There are several aspects to the meaning of this “image”:

  1. AN IMAGE AS IN A TEMPLE OBJECT

  The Bible describes “an image” as a religious or national symbol set up in the Temple, “For the Israelites will live many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or sacred stones, without ephod or an image” (Hosea 3:4). When Israel was destroyed as a kingdom, it lost everything. It lost it’s centralized national religious institution with the destruction of the Temple (sacrifice, ephod), and also lost its national symbols—the Ark of the Covenant, Menorah, and the rest of the Temple articles. Islam also has a Temple for Allah (the Ka’ba) along with Temple articles (the Black Stone) as we will discuss in more detail later. Jehovah’s Temple articles in Jerusalem were a shadow of greater things to come—the Messiah, while Allah’s Temple articles (the Black Stone) resemble a shadow of Satan’s coming—the Antichrist.

  2. AN IMAGE AS IN A NATIONAL EMBLEM

  An example of this would be the image of Caesar imprinted on coins that represented the Roman Empire. The Mark of the Beast might be an emblem or symbol of the Beast Empire that carries with it a blasphemous creedal element. An official image or emblem of a kingdom
gives it a sense of national identity: “He ordered them to set up an image in honor of the beast who was wounded by the sword and yet lived” (Revelation 13:14). This “image” of the Beast (empire) would constitute the replicating of the old monster—the ruthless Islamic Empire that fell. This is the primary meaning of the verse. However, it is not the only explanation of every verse containing the word “image”. To make or carry an image, a flag or an emblem of something, is akin to showing support and allegiance to whatever the image or emblem represents. That is, the followers of the Beast will declare their support and submission to the Beast Empire and all that it stands for. The followers will espouse its purpose, its ideology or doctrines and its goals. These emblems that once died with the old kingdom are revived again, as we see in Islam. An image could be a mark of Satan that identifies his followers. The Antichrist will, in this way, mark his followers with a blasphemous creed.

  3. AN IMAGE AS IN AN IDOL

  An Image also could represent an idol—a medium that represents a living being. One could erect an idol to a god. King Nebuchadnezzar erected a massive image (a dead idol) of himself and demanded all of his subjects to bow and worship it. This is an example of idolatry. This could easily apply to Satan, who is called Ba’al, Bel, and Beelzebub. One could erect an image of Ba’al (Satan) that would serve as a medium and a representation of Satan worship. This type of image is not restricted to a statue however; it can even be a stone such as the black stone meteorite in the Kaba in Mecca, “At last the mayor was able to quiet them down enough to speak. ‘Citizens of Ephesus,’ he said. ‘Everyone knows that Ephesus is the official guardian of the temple of the great Artemis, whose image fell down to us from heaven’” (Acts 19:35). The image of Diana was not represented by a statue, but a Black Stone which was worshiped in Ephesus identified as The Image of Diana. Yet, these images are all symbolic of Satan worship, “What say I then? That the idol is any thing, or that which is offered in sacrifice to idols is any thing? But I say, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God: and I would not that ye should have fellowship with devils” (I Corinthians 10:19-20). Satan sets up idols as representations of himself until he comes down to earth and establishes himself as the Antichrist in human form.

  4. IMAGE AS IN LIKENESS

  “For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren” (Roman 8:29). In this case, “image” is in matter of likeness.

  5. THE ULTIMATE IMAGE

  The ultimate image would be the Antichrist himself, which will be the manifestation of Lucifer in a human image. In the end, the living image of Satan will attempt to replace Christ—this is the Antichrist.

  DESTROYING CHRISTIAN IMAGES

  Islam wants to destroy every image that represents Jehovah. This is why Muslims want to destroy Jewish and Christian symbols. But the reason that Muslims desire to destroy Christian and Jewish “images” is because Islam desires to destroy Christianity and Judaism altogether. According to Islamic tradition, when Jesus returns, he does not merely come to convert most Christians to Islam but to literally abolish Christianity. This fact is understood when we analyze a very well-known tradition which states that when Jesus returns he will “break the cross, kill swine, and abolish Jizyah. Allah will perish all religions except Islam.” The three actions are based on the notion that Jesus will assault all of the symbols of Christianity in order to abolish it as a religion. Shafi and Usmani explain that to “break the cross” means to “abolish worship of the cross.”11 Muslims believe that Jesus will break or remove all crosses from the rooftops and steeples of churches throughout the earth. This action is understood as a clear statement regarding Jesus’ disapproval of the notion that he was ever crucified on a cross. The killing of the swine is so that the “Christian belief of its lawfulness is belied.” The reason for abolishing the Jizyah tax (the compulsory poll-tax that non-Muslims must pay in order to live in a Muslim land) is based on the idea that when Jesus returns, the Jizyah tax will no longer be accepted. The only choice that Christians will have is to accept Islam or die. As Sideeque M.A. Veliankode states in Doomsday Portents and Prophecies, “Jesus, the son of Mary will soon descend among the Muslims as a just judge. Jesus will, therefore, judge according to the law of Islam…all people will be required to embrace Islam and there will be no other alternative.”12

  Harun Yahya, in his book Jesus Will Return, affirms that, “Jesus will remove all systems of disbelief in that period.” Classic Muslim jurists also confirm these interpretations. Consider, for example, the ruling of Ahmad ibn Naqib al-Misri (d. 1368) from The Reliance of the Traveller, the classic Shafi manual of Islamic jurisprudence: “…the time and the place for the poll tax is before the final descent of Jesus (upon whom be peace). After his final coming, nothing but Islam will be accepted from them, for taking the poll tax is only effective until Jesus’ descent (upon him and our Prophet be peace).”13

  DESTROYING ISLAMIC IMAGES CRESCENT MOON—THE IMAGE OF THE BEAST

  So while Islamic tradition claims that Jesus will return and destroy all symbols of Christianity, there are also significant parallels in Psalm 83 and Judges 8:21 that say He will, in fact, destroy the symbols of Islam. Psalm 82-83 claims there will be a war between Messiah and the Antichrist. The Gideon-Messiah or War-Messiah who comes to rescue Israel will carry out an important task: “Do to them as you did to Midian, as you did to Sisera and Jabin at the river Kishon, who perished at Endor and became like refuse on the ground. Make their nobles like Oreb and Zeeb, all their princes like Zebah and Zalmunna, who said, ‘Let us take possession of the pasturelands of God’” (Psalm 83:9-12).

  After listing several Muslim nations that form an End-Time alliance to destroy Israel, the Psalmist prays: “Make their nobles like Oreb, and like Zeeb: yea, all their princes as Zebah, and as Zalmunna.” But what happened in the story of Zebah and Zalmunna? The answer is found in Judges 8:21: “Then Zebah and Zalmunna said, ‘Rise yourself, and fall upon us; for as the man is, so is his strength.’ And Gideon arose and slew Zebah and Zalmunna; and he took the crescent ornaments that were on the necks of their camels” (Psalm 83:11).

  Later in verse 26, the Bible says that the Midianite kings were wearing the same crescent ornaments around their necks. After Gideon stripped all of the crescent ornaments off of the slain kings, the people and the camels, he melted the gold. The story of Gideon is the story of Messiah. It is also the story of David and Goliath—a parallel to the showdown between Christ and the Antichrist, who blasphemes the God of Israel and proclaims, “I am against you O Most Haughty One” (Jeremiah 50:31). David, with precision bombing, lodges a stone into Goliath’s forehead. This is what happens to Babylon and the Antichrist. “Their arrows shall be like those of an expert warrior; furthermore, none shall return in vain” (Jeremiah 50:9). This is modern precision bombing. Not a single missile will miss it’ target. Bel, the moon-god, will also be destroyed and all the idols of the crescent moon taken away, “Bel is shamed. Merodach is broken in pieces; Her idols are humiliated, Her images are broken in pieces” (Jeremiah 50:2). Bel, or Ba’al, the cult of the crescent-moon is finally destroyed. Bel has always been symbolized by the crescent-moon.

  Psalm 83 gives us the summary of the confrontation with Islam, in which God will do to the enemies of Israel what Gideon did to Midian. It is crucial to understand that Gideon as a judge of Israel is a prophetic type of Jesus. He is symbolic of the fighting Messiah. Joseph is symbolic of the suffering Messiah, and David of the King Messiah. So if we want to find out more about what Christ does when He comes to judge, we need to study Gideon. Instead of the Muslim Jesus returning to destroy crosses, we see that a far more ancient Biblical prophecy reveals that when Jesus returns, He will destroy all of the pagan crescent-moon images of Islam. In the same way that Israel, at various times, had to remove the Ashera poles from the high places, so will the crescents also be removed from the high
est places (the minarets) during the rule of the Messiah.

  THE CRESCENT IS SATAN’S SYMBOL

  In Judges 8:21, the word used for crescent is saharon, which literally means crescent moon. It comes from the root of sahar, which is literally used for the name of Satan in Isaiah 14 as Hilal ben Sahar. Hilal, or heylal, is the word that the King James Bible translates as Lucifer. The full phrase actually means “morning star/crescent moon,” which is the very symbol of Islam. In other words, the symbol of Islam and the name of Satan are one and the same. This is significant and is a very clear hint into the spiritual origins of Islam and the Antichrist.

  So we see that the ancient enemies of Israel worshipped a god that was symbolized by the image of the crescent moon. To this day, this has not changed. In fact, all evidence points to the fact that Allah is simply another name for Bel or Baal, which simply means “lord” and is also a title of reverence to the Babylonian moon-god. The Romans had the same god, and so did the Greeks, who worshipped Gog (Gygez), a war deity called Men. This is also the god that Abraham left behind for Jehovah, the One True God. It comes as no surprise then that Jesus referred to Satan as Beelzebub (Baal Thubab, Arabic) (Matthew 12:24-27). The Hastings Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics confirms the fact that the Arab name Allah correlates to Bel: “Allah is a pre-Islamic name… corresponding to the Babylonian god known as Bel.”14