End Times and the Secret of the Mahdi: Unlocking the Mystery of Revelation and the Antichrist
272
End Times and the Secret of the Mahdi: Unlocking the Mystery of Revelation and the Antichrist
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Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781617957741 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Worthy |
| Publication date: | 02/23/2016 |
| Sold by: | Hachette Digital, Inc. |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 272 |
| File size: | 3 MB |
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End Times and the Secret of the Mahdi
Unlocking the Mystery of Revelation and the Antichrist
By Michael Youssef
Worthy Publishing Group
Copyright © 2016 Michael YoussefAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-61795-774-1
CHAPTER 1
THE RELEVANT REVELATION
* * *
THE FRONT PAGE of the New York Times recently carried the headline: "ISIS Transforming into Functioning State That Uses Terror as Tool." ISIS is the terror group known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (in Arabic, ad-Dawlah al-Islamiyah fi 'l-'Iraq wa-sh-Sham). When ISIS was formed in 2006, the world took no notice.
But by 2015, the Salafi jihadist group controlled large regions of Iraq and Syria, plus parts of Nigeria, Libya, and Southeast Asia, and ten million people lived under ISIS rule. The group proclaimed itself a global caliphate. Its motto, Baqiyah wa-Tatamaddad, means "Remaining and Expanding," and it is living up to those words. The New York Times explains:
The Islamic State uses terror to force obedience and frighten enemies. It has seized territory, destroyed antiquities, slaughtered minorities, forced women into sexual slavery and turned children into killers. ... [It] initially functioned solely as a terrorist organization, if one more coldblooded even than Al Qaeda. Then it went on to seize land.
But increasingly, as it holds that territory and builds a capacity to govern, the group is transforming into a functioning state that uses extreme violence — terror — as a tool.
ISIS has become a functioning totalitarian government. It issues identification cards, makes and enforces laws, and even provides services like garbage collection. The Islamic State regime is brutal but provides stability. Many who live under ISIS control welcome the stability of oppression. One Syrian living under ISIS said, "They are implementing [Allah's] regulations. The killer is killed. The adulterer is stoned. The thief's hands are cut [off]."
Reporter Tim Arango notes that many people think ISIS will collapse under the weight of its own brutality, assuming "that its evil ensures its eventual destruction." But all signs suggest that ISIS is remaining and expanding — and attracting new recruits. Arango quotes John E. McLaughlin, a former deputy director of the CIA: "These guys could win. ... Evil isn't always defeated." A few short years ago, hardly anyone in the West had heard of ISIS. Today, the ISIS reign of terror crosses national borders, enforcing its rule with beheadings and mass slaughter, posted on the Internet for the world to see.
Now consider this: It's easy to imagine the coming world leader known as the Antichrist enforcing his rule in much the same way.
I'm not saying that ISIS is the precursor to the Antichrist. But as we look at the scenes of horror and atrocity coming out of the Middle East and the mass slaughter of the November 2015 ISIS attacks in Paris, it is impossible not to compare those scenes with the Antichrist's reign of terror, as described in Daniel, Revelation, and other prophetic passages of Scripture.
Daniel tells us the Antichrist "will exalt and magnify himself above every god and will say unheard-of things against the God of gods. He will be successful until the time of wrath is completed, for what has been determined must take place. ... There will be a time of distress such as has not happened from the beginning of nations until then" (Daniel 11:36; 12:1).
The book of Revelation tells us the Antichrist will be "given power to wage war against God's holy people and to conquer them" (Revelation 13:7). Is ISIS a foretaste of the Antichrist's future reign of terror? I can't answer that. I can only say that it's not hard to imagine the spreading horrors of our own time leading to the long-prophesied regime of the Antichrist.
Think, for a moment, of all the seemingly unsolvable problems of our time — war, terrorism, the spread of nuclear weapons, economic uncertainty, the gap between rich and poor, food shortages and famine, pollution, climate change, severe weather events, plagues, racial and ethnic conflicts, religious conflicts, and on and on. Years ago, the world looked to freedom and democracy for solutions. Today, the world consensus is moving away from freedom as the solution and toward authoritarian control, one-world government, and the concentration of power in a single authority — even a single human leader.
The Bible calls that leader the Antichrist.
UTOPIA — OR HELL ON EARTH?
The movement toward a one-world government began with a few individuals in the twentieth century. Sir John Boyd Orr, a Scottish doctor and politician, received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1949 for his research into improving global food production. He donated all the prize money to organizations working for a united world government. In his Nobel acceptance speech he said, "We are now physically, politically, and economically one world. ... The absolute national sovereignty of nations is no longer possible. However difficult it may be to bring it about, some form of world government, with agreed international law and means of enforcing the law, is inevitable."
In 1950, James Paul Warburg, chairman of the Council of Foreign Relations, told a subcommittee of the United States Senate, "We shall have world government, whether or not we like it. The question is only whether world government will be achieved by consent or by conquest."
More recently, Lord Christopher Monckton, who was science adviser to British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, reported on the goals for the 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen:
A world government is going to be created. The word "government" actually appears as the first of three purposes of the new entity. The second purpose is the transfer of wealth from the countries of the West to third world countries. ... And the third purpose of this new entity, this government, is enforcement. ... [Delegates discussed] setting up a global government so that they could shut down the West, shut down democracy, and bring freedom to an end worldwide.
Microsoft's billionaire founder Bill Gates said he was disappointed that the Copenhagen conference failed in its goal to set up a world government. In an interview with Süddeutsche Zeitung, Germany's Munich-based national daily newspaper, Gates said:
We have global problems and urgent needs. But the way we manage the world isn't super-efficient. Advantages and disadvantages are distributed unfairly. ... We always have army divisions ready to fight a war. But what about fighting disease? How many doctors do we have? How many planes, tents, scientists? If there were such a thing as a world government, we would be better prepared [to fight disease outbreaks].
Even the Catholic Church is involved in the effort to impose a global government on the world. In 2011, the Vatican cardinals issued a document calling for a "world Authority" (with a capital A) to impose controls on the global economy. The Vatican said:
It is the task of today's generation to recognize and consciously to accept these new world dynamics for the achievement of a universal common good. Of course, this transformation will be made at the cost of a gradual, balanced transfer of a part of each nation's powers to a world Authority. ... This development ... will not come about without anguish and suffering. ... Only a spirit of concord that rises above divisions and conflicts will allow humanity to be authentically one family and to conceive of a new world with the creation of a world public Authority at the service of the common good.
What none of these proponents of a one-world government seems to consider, much less have an answer for, is the question: How do we make sure this "world Authority" rules wisely and benevolently? These utopians make an unthinking assumption that their world government will be run by people of goodwill. But history shows that big governments tend to produce either clumsy and inefficient bureaucracies or ruthlessly oppressive dictatorships. A one-world government would be the biggest government the world has ever seen. What guarantees do these one-worlders offer that their utopian vision won't actually produce hell on earth?
In fact, if the utopians get their way, hell on earth is exactly what they will achieve. The result is foretold in Revelation 13: "The beast [the Antichrist] was given a mouth to utter proud words and blasphemies and to exercise its authority for forty-two months. ... And it was given authority over every tribe, people, language and nation" (Revelation 13:5, 7). The oppressive reign of the Antichrist is the goal toward which the one-worlders are working — whether they know it or not.
Though current events seem to be leading us straight toward the events described in Revelation, we should avoid treating Revelation as an oracle of future events. Revelation is not a puzzle to be solved but a message to be applied to our daily lives. Though most of Revelation deals with future events, this book is not primarily about the future. It's about the present — your present, your life right now.
So let me make a bold statement at the outset: If your life has not been changed in a major way by the time we have finished our study of Revelation, you probably need to examine your life. If you can study Revelation without being impacted in your relationship with God, then (as the apostle Paul said) it's time to examine yourself to see if you are truly in the faith (2 Corinthians 13:5).
PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE
Between the bookends of Genesis and Revelation, the Bible spans the history of the human race. Genesis tells the story of humanity's creation and fall. Revelation describes the redemption and eternal destiny of all believers.
In Revelation 1:19, the Lord Jesus describes to John the vast scope of the vision He is about to reveal: "Write, therefore, what you have seen [the past], what is now [the present] and what will take place later [the future]." These three aspects of time — past, present, and future — are important concepts in the Bible.
The Scriptures teach that our salvation is a past, present, and future salvation. We have been saved, we are being saved, and we shall be saved. We were changed into new creations when we were saved, we are being changed through a process of sanctification, and we shall be changed at the resurrection.
The kingdom of God is past, present, and future. Two thousand years in the past, Jesus announced, "The kingdom of God has come near" (Mark 1:15). Yet the kingdom is among us right now, as God reigns in our hearts today. And the kingdom of God is coming in all its majesty in the future, when King Jesus reigns.
We learn and grow from past mistakes. We walk with God in the present. And we look forward to the fulfillment of God's promises for the future. Past, present, and future — God weaves all three dimensions of our lives into a beautiful tapestry for His glory.
In the same way, the events in Revelation have happened in the past, they are happening now, and they will happen with increasing intensity in the future. Take, for example, the Great Tribulation — a time of extreme persecution and global calamity in the future.
But the Tribulation is also a past and present event. Christians in the first century were thrown to hungry lions or crucified or dipped in tar and burned alive for the Roman emperor Nero's amusement. The believers in Thessalonica suffered such intense persecution that they feared they had missed the Lord's return — they believed they were in the Great Tribulation. Paul wrote the second chapter of 2 Thessalonians to reassure them that they had not missed the Second Coming.
And what about today? Every year, more than one hundred thousand Christians around the world are martyred for their faith. More Christians have been martyred for Christ in the past hundred years than in the previous nineteen hundred years of Christian history combined. And persecution is on the increase.
I have received numerous reports from people who are ministering in Iraq. One Christian worker, who cannot be named for the worker's own safety, told me about twelve-year-old Christian boys who were ordered by ISIS to recite the Shahada, the Islamic declaration of faith, or be crucified. The boys refused, saying, "No, we love Jesus!" So ISIS crucified the boys in front of their parents' eyes. For those Christian children and their parents, the Great Tribulation is going on right now.
In February 2015, ISIS kidnapped twenty-one Coptic Christian Egyptians and beheaded them by the seashore in Libya, then posted videos of the executions. The Christian martyrs shouted, "Ya Rabbi Yasou! (O my Lord Jesus!)" as the blades came down. Two months later, ISIS beheaded thirty Ethiopian Christians in Libya. As Revelation 20:4 tells us, "I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony about Jesus and because of the word of God." For those believers, the Great Tribulation is now.
All around the world, Christians are being slaughtered on a daily basis — and most of these atrocities are not reported on American news channels. For these Christians, the Great Tribulation is not some future prophetic event. They wake up every morning and wonder if this is the day their children will be murdered or they will be tortured for Christ.
Yet the horrors committed against Christians in the past and the present are just a foretaste of the Tribulation we read about in the book of Revelation. Jesus told John, "Write, therefore, what you have seen, what is now and what will take place later" (Revelation 1:19). The book of Revelation is relevant to the past, to the present, and to the future.
THE APOSTLE WHO RECEIVED THE VISION
The Greek word for revelation is apokálypsis, which is why the book of Revelation is also known as "The Apocalypse of St. John." The words revelation and apocalypse have the same meaning — the unveiling of something that has been hidden. In a popular sense, the word apocalypse has come to be synonymous with the end of the world. But the word originally referred to the disclosure of a mystery. The book of Revelation is the unveiling of God's plan for the future.
Some people refer to this book as "Revelations," plural, but that is incorrect. The last book of the Bible is one Revelation, singular. It is God's revelation of the final stages of His program for human history. This book is both timely and timeless — it relates to the times in which we live and deals with universal truths that never become obsolete.
Though the prophetic events in Revelation have not yet been fulfilled, we know that everything written in this book will come to pass. God will keep His Word. How can we be sure? Because God has always kept His Word in the past. Many of the prophecies of the Old Testament have already been fulfilled. For example, the Old Testament predicted that the Messiah would:
• be born of a virgin in Bethlehem (Isaiah 7:14; Micah 5:2)
• preach the good news to the poor (Isaiah 61:1)
• restore sight to the blind (Isaiah 35:5)
• be wounded for our transgressions (Isaiah 53:5)
• be crucified on a cross (Psalm 22:16)
• be forsaken by the Father (Psalm 22:1)
• be buried (Isaiah 53:8–9)
• rise again (Psalm 16:10)
Every one of these prophecies has come to pass. Yet many Old and New Testament prophecies have not been fulfilled, because they are prophecies of the Lord's Second Coming. They will come to pass. There's no maybe about it. The fulfillment of the prophecies of Jesus' First Coming prove that the biblical prophecies about His Second Coming will also one day be fulfilled.
So who is this man John, to whom God revealed this mystery? Evangelical scholars generally agree that this is none other than John the Apostle, the author of the Gospel of John and the three magnificent epistles that bear his name. This is the disciple who leaned his head on Jesus' shoulder in the Upper Room (John 13:23). In Revelation, the apostle John was privileged to be caught up into heaven, where he came face-to-face with the glorified and exalted Lord Jesus.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from End Times and the Secret of the Mahdi by Michael Youssef. Copyright © 2016 Michael Youssef. Excerpted by permission of Worthy Publishing Group.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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Table of Contents
Contents
Introduction: The Capstone of the Bible,Part 1: The Revelation of Jesus Christ,
1. The Relevant Revelation,
2. Lord of the Beginning and the End,
Part 2: Know Your Enemy,
3. The Arrival of the Antichrist,
4. The Reign and Fall of the Antichrist,
Part 3: The War to End All Wars,
5. Slouching Toward Armageddon,
6. Coming Soon,
Part 4: The New Heaven and the New Earth,
7. A Vision of Heaven,
8. All Things New,
Part 5: Apocalypse Now,
9. If Jesus Wrote You a Letter,
10. Come, Lord Jesus!,
Notes,
