Several well known authors have penned books lately insisting that the coming dread person known as The Antichrist, will be of Muslim origin. They reach this conclusion because this man is referred to in Scripture as The Assyrian, so naturally he must hail from Assyria, they say.
But in the book of Daniel, if my deductions are correct, the Antichrist is referred to as the “king of Greece.” So already we have two different countries associated with the “stern faced king” one being a Muslim territory, the other not.
Another author has taken the prophetic writings of Islam, the Koran and other books, and insists that the 12th Imam or Imam al-Mahdi, is the Antichrist who is to come and is therefore, a Muslim. These prophecies tell of the Mahdi as a young boy of about 12, who went and hid himself down a well in the ground several hundred years ago.
But soon he will emerge from his hiding place to lead Muslims in a series of victorious battles over her enemies and establish Islam as the predominant religion of the world.
It may be a surprise to Christians that the so called holy books of Islam have prophetic writings at all, since we hold that only the Word of God is truth and as such, contains prophecy about the future. But when we learn how Mohammed received his revelation, all will be explained. I will come back to this later.
So how can we know the truth about whether the Antichrist is Muslim or not? Well, let’s see what the Bible has to say.
The word “anti” in Greek does not have to mean ‘against.” It can also be rendered “in the stead of.” So “anti” can mean “instead of” or “in place of” Christ. That is, when this man shows up on the world stage, to lead the one-world government of the New World Order, he will do so as a man who comes “in the stead of” Christ. How do you figure that, I hear you say?
In Matthew 24, Jesus provides us with the first sign we must watch out for in these, the Last Days:
“Watch out that no-one deceives you. For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am Christ,’ and will deceive many.”
Note here that Jesus informs us that many will come “in MY name…” They are not coming in someone one else’s name. They are coming in HIS name. And Jesus had nothing to do with Islam or the Mahdi.
So he told us to watch for folks claiming to be Christ himself. And we have had and presently have several people claiming exactly that today. But Jesus alluded to a particular individual who is to come who will indeed say, “I AM CHRIST” as uttered in Matt 24:4. Let us test this thesis against what the Word tells us regarding whom John the Revelator terms, the Beast from the Abyss; the Antichrist. For in John 5:43 Jesus states;
“I am come in my Father’s name, and ye receive me not: if another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive.” This, I believe, is an obvious reference to the one we call, the Antichrist. Now let us make some comparisons between the true Messiah and the counterfeit which is to come “in the stead of Christ” or “in the place of” Christ.
The Antichrist goes out on a white horse having a bow with no arrow. This is an obvious doppelganger for the true Messiah who is to return to earth on a white horse with His called and chosen and faithful riding behind him (Rev. 19:11).
The Antichrist will deceive almost the whole world with counterfeit miracles, signs and wonders. When Jesus walked the earth, signs miracles and wonders followed Him.
The Antichrist will receive a fatal head wound and be raised from death by the power of the Dragon, who is Satan, and the whole world will marvel at this. Here we have an obvious copy of Jesus who died for our sins and was resurrected from death by the power of God.
At Pentecost, tongues of fire came down from heaven and sat on the apostles and they spoke in tongues. The Beast and the False Prophet have power to call down fire from heaven in the sight of men. Is this an imitation of Pentecost?
Chapter 1 of Revelation describes Jesus as having seven stars in his right hand. Verse 20 tells us these seven stars are seven angels. The Antichrist is described by John as the Beast that ascends out of the Abyss having seven heads and ten horns. In Revelation 17:10, the angel explains that, “the seven heads are seven kings; five have fallen, one is, and one is to come.”
If one takes these “kings” in the same context as the “king” mentioned in Rev. 9:11, where it speaks of the Antichrist, it says:
“And they had a KING (ruler) over them, the ANGEL of the Abyss.” then these other kings, who arise with the Beast are seven other angels who will appear with him in the future. Thus these seven angels stand in opposition to Jesus and the seven angels he holds in his right hand as described in Rev.1:20.
Another comparison between the Antichrist and Jesus is this: Jesus is called the Prince of Peace. The Antichrist goes out on the white horse with a bow but no arrow. This signifies that he preaches peace but wages war.
Jesus is King of kings. The Antichrist is the King of the angels of the Abyss. Jesus works on behalf of God with the help of the Holy Spirit. In Revelation we have three characters; the Beast, the False Prophet and the Dragon who is Satan. These three are an infernal Trinity and counterfeit of the truth.
We are to worship the one true and Most High God. The Antichrist will enter the Temple proclaiming that he is God and demand worship as such.
I think it is patently clear from the above comparisons that when the Antichrist manifests on planet Earth in plain sight, he will come “in the stead of” and proclaim himself to be the true (sic) Christ. That is, he will deceive and convince almost the whole world that he is indeed, Jesus Christ.
I would not be surprised if he has holes in his hands and turns water into wine. For the world will be astonished when they see the Beast who once was, now is not, and will ascend out of the Abyss and go to his destruction (of the earth).
So how do the holy writings of Islam contain prophecies pertaining to the end times? Well the great prophet Mohammed informed us that a “bright shining angel” appeared to him and dictated the Koran. When we hear this, light bulbs go off in our heads. For Paul, In 2 Corinthians 11 warned us that, “Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light.”
It is no wonder that his ministers masquerade as ministers of righteousness” (verse 14). The main ministers in the coming Apocalypse will be the Antichrist and the False Prophet. Satan knows the Bible upside down and backwards. That’s why he was able to pluck a verse from the midst of the Psalms and quote it verbatim to Jesus when he tried to get him to throw himself off the Temple.
And the devil must especially hate the book of Revelation for it prophecies of his demise and final doom. So it is no wonder that the holy writings of Islam speak of things to come that have parallels to the prognostications of Revelation. Thus it speaks of a prophet who will arise and lead Islam in the last days.
And the Great Prophet, the 12th Imam or Imam al-Mahdi will have a lieutenant who will be alongside him in this coming Apocalypse. And who does it say this person will be who will assist the Mahdi? Well, he is none other than, wait for it…Jesus Christ. Yes. This is what their prophetic writings tell them.
So, just as the true Word of God prophesies that in the Apocalypse two great personages will arise and lead the world, the Antichrist and the False Prophet, so too, the Koran foretells that two great leaders will emerge in the last days. The great prophet known as the Madhi or 12th Iman, and he will have as his lieutenant, their version of Jesus Christ.
Students of the Bible know that Satan always imitates and copies what the true God does. Those who propose that the Antichrist is a Muslim, I believe, are mistaken. The False Prophet may well be the Mahdi, for we are told that the Beast with two horns arises from the earth. But he who comes in the stead of the true Messiah, and proclaims, “I am Christ,” the Beast from the Abyss, he does not hail from that particular neck of the woods.
I cover this topic in more detail in my paperback, Return of the Antichrist and the New World Order.