Something strange is happening across the Western world. Two movements that should be mortal enemies are increasingly finding themselves on the same side of the cultural and political battlefield. The radical Left—the Red—is secular, Marxist, socialist, Communist revolutionary, and is hostile to religion. Political Islam—the Green—is the religio-politico, theocratic, Sharia-compliant, and committed to an Islamic worldview fundamentally incompatible with Marxist atheism.
So why do they continually find common cause? Because you don’t have to agree about the world you want to build tomorrow if you agree about the civilization you want to tear down today. That is the key to understanding the Red-Green Axis.
And Christians need to understand something even bigger. I don’t believe communism ultimately wins. I don’t believe Islam ultimately wins. According to biblical prophecy, something larger eventually swallows them both. The Bible describes a final global system characterized by centralized, global political authority, religious coercion, economic control, persecution of dissidents, and opposition to the God of the Bible. What we are watching today should therefore concern us not merely because the West is under attack. We are watching ideological characteristics emerge that look remarkably similar to the kind of world Scripture says will ultimately exist under Antichrist.
TWO REVOLUTIONS, ONE COMMON ENEMY
Communism and Islam are obviously not identical. Their doctrines of God, man, history, economics, morality, and salvation are radically different. But political movements don’t have to share the same destination to share the same immediate enemy. And the immediate enemy of both revolutionary Marxism and political Islam is the civilization produced by the Judeo-Christian worldview: the West.
That civilization recognizes concepts such as objective truth, the dignity of the individual, private property, equality under law, limited governmental authority, religious liberty, and moral accountability before a transcendent God of the Bible. Neither Marxist totalitarianism nor Islamic theocracy can comfortably coexist with those principles when taken to their logical political conclusions.
That explains the strange alliance. Red and Green can cooperate to tear down the existing house, even though they have completely different plans for what should replace it. But Scripture tells us that neither ultimately gets the house. Another ruler is coming.
Milli Sands of The American Thinker has written an excellent multi-part series on the Red-Green Axis called The Mohammunist Manifesto. The Mohammunist Manifesto – American Thinker In the series, she identifies striking points of compatibility between Marxist-Leninist communism and Islamic political ideology. Sands demonstrates that they can arrive at remarkably similar methods of political and social control.
I want to briefly highlight some of the areas of compatibility she identifies, then take the discussion one step further by situating them within a biblical and prophetic framework. I believe this Red-Green Axis will play a significant role in destroying the West and preparing the way for global government. Also, when we compare the characteristics of communism and Islam with what Scripture tells us about the coming global system, we begin to see striking parallels. Communism and Islamism are not the final prophetic system, but many of the mechanisms they employ give us a preview of what centralized global government under the Antichrist will eventually look like.
Sands points out the following ten similar political structures and methods of control:
- THE RED-GREEN AXIS BELIEVES DESTRUCTION COMES BEFORE THE NEW ORDER
Both communism and Twelver Shia Islam operate from a similar idea: things have to get worse before they can get better. Marxism teaches that the misery and suffering produced by the existing capitalist system will eventually become so severe that it produces revolution and the old order collapses. Out of that destruction supposedly comes the new socialist order.
Twelver Shia eschatology has a different theological foundation but follows a similar pattern. It anticipates increasing oppression, bloodshed, chaos, and fitna preceding the appearance of the Mahdi, who will establish what Islam defines as justice.
So although one system is Marxist and the other Islamic, the pattern is remarkably similar: the existing order must deteriorate before the promised new order can emerge.
Crisis → chaos → destruction of the existing order → promised new order.
Biblically, this should immediately get our attention because Scripture warns that the last days will also be characterized by escalating global crisis and upheaval, creating the conditions in which the world will embrace a ruler promising peace, security, and order.
- THE RED-GREEN AXIS SUBORDINATES THE INDIVIDUAL TO THE COLLECTIVE
The first similarity is foundational. Biblically, government does not create human value. God does. Genesis 1:27 tells us that human beings were created in the image of God. That means human dignity precedes government. The state didn’t give you your humanity, so the state doesn’t possess unlimited authority over it. Romans 13 establishes the legitimacy of civil authority, but nowhere does Scripture make government absolute.
Marxism moves in the opposite direction. The individual becomes subordinate to the class and ultimately to the revolutionary state claiming to represent that class. Classical Islamic political systems likewise historically distinguished legal status according to religious identity. In both systems, the collective order takes precedence over the individual.
That is profoundly important prophetically because Revelation describes a final government in which the individual becomes subordinate to the system. Revelation 13:7 says authority is eventually exercised over “every tribe, tongue, and nation.” The Bible begins with individuals bearing God’s image. The Beast system ends with individuals being absorbed into a global political order.
- THE RED-GREEN AXIS REPLACES EQUALITY WITH CATEGORIES
Biblical justice is impartial. Leviticus 19:15 commands, “You shall do no injustice in judgment. You shall not be partial to the poor, nor honor the person of the mighty.” Biblical justice doesn’t favor one class over another. It asks one question: What is right?
Communism and Islamic political law operate differently. Communism divides society by class and ideology—bourgeoisie versus proletariat, oppressor versus oppressed, revolutionary versus counterrevolutionary. The favored class receives political legitimacy while the designated enemy can lose property, rights, freedom, and even life.
Classical Islamic political jurisprudence creates a hierarchy based upon religious identity. Muslims and non-Muslims historically did not possess equal legal standing. Jews and Christians could live as dhimmis under Islamic protection, but with subordinate legal status and distinctive restrictions. The jizya was part of this system, rooted in Qur’an 9:29.
So the contrast is simple: Communism asks what class you belong to. Islamic political law asks what religious category you belong to. Biblical justice asks what is right.
Revelation shows where this principle ultimately leads when it becomes global. The Beast system divides humanity according to allegiance: worship the Beast or refuse; receive the mark or reject it. Those who submit can participate economically. Those who refuse are excluded and persecuted.
The progression is clear: classify people, create insiders and outsiders, privilege the insiders, punish the outsiders, and make allegiance to the system the condition for participating in society.
Communist and Islamic political systems provide historical pictures of status before the law. Revelation shows us what happens when that principle becomes global.
- THE RED-GREEN AXIS MAKES PROPERTY SUBORDINATE TO IDEOLOGY
The Bible recognizes private property. The Eighth Commandment says, “You shall not steal,” and Acts 5:4 confirms the principle when Peter tells Ananias concerning his property, “While it remained, was it not your own?” Biblical generosity is voluntary. Second Corinthians 9:7 says each person should give “as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity.”
Communism moves in the opposite direction by giving the state enormous power to confiscate and redistribute property according to class and ideology. The bourgeoisie becomes the disfavored economic class whose property can be taken in the name of the collective.
Classical Islamic political systems used a different mechanism. Non-Muslims living under Islamic rule could be subjected to the jizya, a tax Muslims did not pay. Qur’an 9:29 connects that payment with the subordinate status of the non-Muslim population. So while communism divides economically by class, classical Islamic governance could divide economically by religious status. In both cases, the ruling ideology determines who pays, who benefits, and what rights accompany your property.
Biblically, property belongs to the individual under God. Under these systems, property becomes increasingly subordinate to the ruling ideology.
And Revelation 13 takes economic control to its ultimate conclusion. The Beast system determines whether a person can participate in the economy at all: “No one may buy or sell except one who has the mark.”
Think about the progression: control property, control economic participation, and eventually control buying and selling itself.
That’s economic power on a global scale that Stalin and Mao could only have dreamed about.
- THE RED-GREEN AXIS REJECTS A PERMANENT PRIVATE SPHERE
Biblical government has legitimate authority, but government is not God. God established different spheres of authority—family, civil government, and spiritual authority—and none possesses unlimited jurisdiction over everything.
Communism destroys those boundaries by making virtually every area of life subject to the revolutionary state—education, property, business, family, speech, religion, and even ideas can become political matters subject to Party control.
Islamic political systems approach this differently but can produce a similar result. Classical Islamic jurisprudence categorizes human behavior as obligatory, recommended, permissible, disliked, or forbidden. Sharia historically extends beyond criminal and civil law into marriage, divorce, inheritance, finance, dress, diet, sexuality, worship, and other areas of personal conduct. The result is that there is no Western-style separation between religious authority and large areas of private life.
So again, the mechanisms are different. Communism politicizes life; Islamic political law religiously regulates life. But both can subordinate the private sphere to a comprehensive ideology.
And Revelation shows the ultimate expression of that principle. The Beast doesn’t merely control government or economics—he demands worship. The final system reaches beyond public behavior and demands allegiance from the soul.
The progression is clear: control public life, penetrate private life, regulate conscience, and finally demand worship.
- THE RED-GREEN AXIS CONCENTRATES TRUTH IN AN ELITE
Biblically, rulers stand underneath truth. They don’t manufacture it. Isaiah 10:1 warns, “Woe to those who decree unrighteous decrees.” God can condemn a government’s laws because there is a higher authority above government—God and His Word.
Communism reverses this by making the Party the authoritative interpreter of ideology. The revolutionary elite determines what is politically correct, what constitutes deviation, and ultimately what the people are permitted to believe and say.
Islamic political systems use a different structure but can similarly concentrate authority. Under classical Islamic jurisprudence, the ulema—qualified Islamic scholars—interpret Sharia, while established ijma, or scholarly consensus, carries binding authority within the traditional legal framework. In Shiite Iran, this becomes even more centralized through the religious-political hierarchy, where clerical authorities determine whether laws and policies conform to Islam.
So the parallel is clear: Communism has the Party; Islamic political systems have religious-juristic authorities. In both cases, an ideological elite can become the gatekeeper, determining what constitutes acceptable truth and conduct.
Biblically, truth judges the ruler. In totalizing systems, the ruling ideological structure increasingly determines what will be recognized and enforced as truth.
Revelation takes this principle to its ultimate conclusion. The Beast doesn’t submit to God’s truth—he exalts himself against it. Daniel 7:25 says he will “speak pompous words against the Most High.”
The progression is: control the interpretation, control what can be believed and taught, silence competing authority, and eventually demand allegiance to the system itself.
Man doesn’t merely reject God’s authority. He attempts to replace it.
- THE RED-GREEN AXIS USES CRISIS TO JUSTIFY CONTROL
Crisis creates opportunities for control because frightened people will surrender freedoms they would never surrender under normal circumstances.
Communism repeatedly demonstrated this. The supposedly temporary “dictatorship of the proletariat” produced the Red Terror, Stalin’s purges, and continuing campaigns against new enemies of the revolution. The enemy changed, but the machinery of repression remained.
Islamic political systems have used a similar mechanism. Threats to Islamic religious or political order could be classified as apostasy or rebellion and met with coercion—from the Ridda Wars to Khomeini’s 1988 execution of thousands of political prisoners. Once authorities can declare the Islamic order to be threatened, the justification for extraordinary power can be invoked again.
Both systems therefore demonstrate the danger of the permanent emergency: identify an enemy, declare a crisis, promise security, and expand government power.
Prophetically, this becomes extremely important. Jesus describes the Tribulation as an unprecedented global crisis of war, famine, death, cosmic disturbances, catastrophic disasters, demonic invaders, and political upheaval. A terrified world will be desperate for someone who promises order.
Crisis produces fear. Fear creates demand for security. And the promise of security opens the door to control.
Revelation tells us that the world will eventually grant unprecedented authority to a ruler, the Antichrist, who promises to end global chaos.
- THE RED-GREEN AXIS USES INSTITUTIONS BEFORE IT CONTROLS THEM
Revolutions don’t always begin with tanks in the streets. Sometimes they begin by working through existing institutions—education, media, government, political parties, universities, religious organizations, and cultural institutions—until enough influence has been accumulated to transform them.
Communism has historically used this strategy through revolutionary cells, labor organizations, political alliances, education, and institutional infiltration. Lenin built a disciplined revolutionary movement long before the Bolsheviks controlled Russia, even working through legal organizations when doing so advanced the revolutionary cause. After gaining power, competing political institutions and former allies were eventually eliminated.
Islamism has employed its own version of institutional development. The Muslim Brotherhood, for example, historically built influence through mosques, schools, charities, clinics, youth organizations, and small ideological cells. The strategy is to build communities, shape the next generation, establish political influence, and expand institutional power while operating within the existing society.
So the parallel is important: Communists can use democratic institutions to advance revolutionary objectives, while Islamists can use Western religious liberty and political freedoms to advance Islamist objectives. Operating legally does not necessarily mean a movement is committed to preserving the system that gives it those freedoms.
And that brings us to prophecy. The final world system doesn’t appear from nowhere. The institutions, bureaucracies, financial networks, technologies, and cultural attitudes necessary for centralized control will already exist.
Antichrist doesn’t need to invent the machinery of globalism. He inherits it—and eventually takes control of it.
- THE RED-GREEN AXIS WEAKENS NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY
Acts 17:26 says God “has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings.” Nations are not an accident of history. After Babel, God divided humanity into nations, establishing boundaries that restrain the concentration of human power.
Both revolutionary Marxism and political Islam, however, contain powerful transnational loyalties. Marxism ultimately views the struggle as international—the workers of the world are united by class, not national identity. Communist movements historically organized across borders through organizations such as the Comintern, placing the international revolutionary cause above national interests.
Political Islam approaches this differently. The concept of the ummah identifies Muslims worldwide as part of a religious community that transcends national boundaries. Historically, movements seeking a restored caliphate have taken this further, envisioning political unity under Islamic authority rather than permanent allegiance to modern nation-states.
Different ideology. Different motivation. But potentially the same effect: national sovereignty and national loyalty become subordinate to something larger. For the communist, it is the international revolution. For the Islamist, it is the transnational Islamic order.
That is significant because biblical prophecy describes the ultimate transfer of national sovereignty upward. Revelation 17:13 says of the final kings, “These are of one mind, and they will give their power and authority to the beast.” Nations still exist, but their rulers surrender their authority to something greater—a centralized global ruler.
That is the prophetic trajectory we need to watch: weaken national identity, elevate transnational allegiance, transfer sovereignty upward, and eventually centralize political authority.
Communism and Islamism don’t become the final world government. But both demonstrate how allegiance can shift from the nation to a transnational system.
Revelation shows where that principle ultimately ends: the rulers of the world give their power and authority to the Beast.
- THE RED-GREEN AXIS USES “TEMPORARY” VIOLENCE THAT NEVER REALLY ENDS
Both communism and Islamic political systems demonstrate how violence can be justified as temporarily necessary to protect or establish the new order, only to become a permanent tool against future enemies.
Marxism envisioned a temporary “dictatorship of the proletariat” that would secure the revolution until the state was supposedly no longer necessary. But that’s not what happened. The revolution produced the Red Terror, Stalin’s purges, and repeated campaigns against anyone the regime identified as an enemy. The targeted group might change, but the government’s power to persecute it remained.
Islamic political history shows a similar pattern through categories such as apostasy and rebellion. Once religious authorities possess the power to identify someone as a threat to the Islamic order, that same authority can be used again against a different enemy in a different generation.
That’s the real danger: the enemy changes, but the machinery used against the enemy remains. What begins as extraordinary power supposedly needed during a crisis becomes a permanent weapon available to the ruling system whenever another threat is declared.
Prophetically, this is important because the coming Beast system will operate on the same basic principle: those who refuse allegiance to the system will eventually be identified as the enemy and persecuted for refusing to conform.
- THE RED-GREEN AXIS REJECTS LIMITED GOVERNMENT
Both communism and Islamic political systems can claim to give people rights while simultaneously giving the ruling ideology the power to take those rights away. In other words, you have freedom only as long as your freedom doesn’t conflict with the ideology controlling the government.
The 1936 Soviet Constitution supposedly guaranteed freedoms such as speech, press, and assembly. But those freedoms had to conform to the interests of socialism, and the Communist Party ultimately determined what that meant. So the government could promise freedom on paper while the Party retained the authority to decide when that freedom no longer applied.
Iran’s 1979 Constitution operates on a similar principle but substitutes Islam for communism. It recognizes certain freedoms, but those freedoms remain subject to Islamic criteria. Religious authorities ultimately determine whether laws and individual freedoms conform to Islam.
So in both systems, the supposed right is never really above the government. Communism gives you rights until the Party says those rights conflict with socialism. Islamic government gives you rights until religious authorities determine those rights conflict with Islam.
That’s not limited government. Under genuinely limited government, your rights place boundaries around what government can do to you. But if the same ideological system that grants your rights can suspend them whenever those rights interfere with its objectives, then those rights aren’t actually restraining government power.
The pattern is simple: the government promises a right → the ideology places conditions on that right → the ruling authority decides when the right no longer applies.
Prophetically, this points toward the kind of government described in Revelation. Under the Beast system, individual liberty ultimately becomes subordinate to allegiance to the system. You can participate only as long as you conform. The system doesn’t exist to protect your freedom; your freedom exists only as long as the system permits it.
Conclusion
I think Sands has absolutely nailed it! Just brilliant. But now let’s go one step further into prophecy.
THE RED-GREEN AXIS IS A BRIDGE, NOT THE DESTINATION
This is the prophetic point Christians need to understand. The Red-Green Axis doesn’t become the final one-world government. Its importance lies in the fact that it is being used to destroy Western civilization.
Its goals are to: Destroy the West. Destroy Christianity. Destroy Israel and the Jewish people. Destroy biblical authority. Destroy national confidence. Destroy borders. Destroy objective morality. Destroy equality before the law. Destroy private property. Destroy religious liberty. Destroy the distinction between government and God. Destroy national sovereignty.
And what remains? A population accustomed to centralized authority and desperate for somebody to restore order from all the chaos.
That’s why the chaos matters. That’s why this ideological convergence matters. That’s why the attack upon Western civilization matters. Because when people lose confidence in their civilization, their institutions, their economy, their government, and eventually one another, they become willing to accept solutions they previously would have considered unthinkable.
THE FINAL SYSTEM COMBINES POLITICS, RELIGION AND ECONOMICS
This is where everything converges. Communism demonstrates how economic life can be centralized. Islamic political systems demonstrate how religion and government can become inseparable. Modern technology demonstrates how populations can be monitored. Digital finance demonstrates how economic participation can be controlled. Artificial intelligence demonstrates how enormous populations can be analyzed. Global institutions demonstrate how sovereignty can migrate upward.
And Revelation tells us where the road eventually ends: political authority in Revelation 13:7, religious authority in Revelation 13:8, and economic authority in Revelation 13:16–17. Politics. Religion. Economics. All converging under one system.
That is why I don’t believe the ultimate prophetic story is that communism conquers the world. And I don’t believe Islam conquers the world. Both are previews. Both demonstrate characteristics of totalizing systems that subordinate the individual, categorize humanity, concentrate authority, suppress competing truth claims, reach into private life, transcend national boundaries, and justify coercion in the name of a supposedly greater good.
The final Beast system takes these impulses and globalizes them.
BABYLON IS COMING BACK
The Bible began humanity’s global political rebellion at Babel. Genesis 11 describes humanity gathered together, resisting God’s command to spread throughout the earth and constructing a unified civilization centered upon human achievement. God scattered them.
But Revelation shows humanity coming back together again. Revelation 17 and 18 present Babylon as the culmination of humanity’s political, economic, commercial, and spiritual rebellion against God.
That’s the prophetic trajectory: Babel → nations → reemergence of globalism → global rebellion → Babylon restored.
And eventually, the world receives the ruler it has been preparing to accept: the Antichrist, the Beast, a man who promises order amid chaos, peace amid conflict, economic stability amid crisis, and unity in a fractured world.
But the price will be allegiance.
Revelation 13 tells us exactly where this ends: a global political authority, a global religious system, a controlled economy, persecution of those who refuse allegiance, and ultimately worship of the Beast.
THE BIBLICAL ANSWER
Christians should not respond to these developments with panic. We should respond with discernment, responsibility, and action. We know where history is going, but knowing biblical prophecy doesn’t excuse us from our responsibilities in the present. We should shine light into the darkness, alert people to what is happening, share the Gospel, disciple believers, and actively be salt and light in our culture. We should vote, participate politically, defend biblical truth, and work to preserve society and delay the destruction of the West for as long as God allows. We will all be accountable for how faithfully we fulfilled the responsibilities God gave us.
There are two extremes we must avoid. The first is spiritual passivity—the “let go and let God” mentality that abandons personal responsibility and waits for circumstances to unfold. Laodicean Christians have turned God’s providential control into an excuse for doing nothing. That isn’t faithfulness; it’s passivity.
Christ warned the Laodicean church about the consequences of this kind of lukewarmness, which speaks of uselessness: “Because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth” (Revelation 3:16).
The imagery would have been especially meaningful to the Laodiceans. Nearby Hierapolis was famous for its hot mineral springs, whose waters were valued for their therapeutic qualities, while Colossae was associated with cold, refreshing water supplied from the mountains. Hot water was useful. Cold water was useful. But by the time water reached Laodicea through its aqueduct system, it was lukewarm and unpleasant. In other words, useless!
The opposite extreme is over-control—trying to force outcomes, micromanage everything, and take matters entirely into our own hands as though everything depends upon us. That mentality practically treats God like a deistic God who has stepped away and left everything up to us.
The biblical position is neither passivity nor panic-driven control. God is in control, and we are responsible. We trust Him with the outcome while faithfully doing what He has commanded us to do. We preach the Gospel. We disciple. We expose darkness. We vote. We engage the culture. We preserve what can be preserved. We stand for truth.
Let’s be responsible for what God has made us responsible for—and trust Him with what only He can control.
Daniel 2:21 says God “removes kings and raises kings.” Psalm 2 reminds us that when the kings of the earth organize themselves against the Lord and His Anointed, God isn’t threatened. He laughs because man’s global kingdom has an expiration date.
Daniel sees the kingdoms of man replaced by the kingdom of Messiah. Revelation 19 shows Jesus Christ returning as KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS, and Revelation 20 shows Christ establishing His kingdom.
So the final story isn’t globalism. It isn’t communism. It isn’t Islam. It isn’t Antichrist.
It’s Jesus Christ.
The Red-Green Axis will tear down the remnants of the Western order. Globalism will rise. National sovereignty will weaken. Technology will make unprecedented control possible. And eventually the Beast will rule.
But only temporarily.
Because every kingdom constructed by rebellious man, inspired by Satan, eventually encounters the same reality: Jesus Christ is coming back to rule and reign.
And when He comes, the counterfeit kingdom of man will be replaced by the righteous Kingdom of God.
Brandon Holthaus Ministries
