In Chapter 12 of Zechariah, God gives a warning, a picture of a Last Days event that will astound the world. All the nations shall come against His People in those days. In the human realm, it will seem like there is no way that Israel could survive. But God will come to the rescue. “The burden of the word of the Lord against Israel. Thus says the Lord, who stretches out the heavens, lays the foundation of the earth, and forms the spirit of man within him: ‘Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of drunkenness to all the surrounding peoples, when they lay siege against Judah and Jerusalem. And it shall happen in that day that I will make Jerusalem a very heavy stone for all peoples; all who would heave it away will surely be cut in pieces, though all nations of the earth are gathered against it.’” (Zechariah 12:1-3) That is an End Times passage, likely fulfilled at the end of the Tribulation. But today’s events are serving as a set-up for that prophetic fulfillment.
I think last time I might not have been as forceful as I needed to be. So, I will state it unequivocally. THERE CAN BE NO COMPROMISE WITH EVIL! THERE SHOULD BE NO CEASE-FIRE WITH ENTITIES THAT WANT TO ANNIHILATE YOU! I mourn for the innocent lives lost in Gaza. But Israel cannot allow Hamas to survive. There is no remorse for their evil deeds. There is only determination to repeat them. And unfortunately, the slaughter of Jews is celebrated by many of the civilians in Gaza. Recall the Hamas spokesman who vowed to “teach Israel a lesson,” by repeating the attacks of October 7, “again and again.” [i] He is not alone. Every terrorist organization in the region is committed to the total destruction and elimination of Israel. The culture which supports this theology is a culture of death. And not just to Israel and the Jews – and of-course, America, the Great Satan. It can also be a culture of martyrdom. Hamas leader Isamil Haniyeh is calling for the sacrificial death of Palestinian civilians to water the revolutionary fervor of his people. “I have said this before, and I say it time again: The blood of the women, children, and elderly… We are the ones who need this blood, so it awakens within us the revolutionary spirit, so it awakens within us resolve, so it awakens within us the spirit of challenge, and [pushes us] to move forward.”[ii]
These attitudes are not random or outliers. There is a religious commitment to the death of Jews, Israelis and the West. Recall the suicide bomber campaign of the early 2000s. Human life holds little value in this culture – even their own. So, despite this commitment to the destruction of Israel – and somewhat because of it – the legitimacy of Israel’s right of self-defense and even their existence is being successfully challenged in the narrative-building institutions of the West. As the UK’s Telegraph notes, “Before and after the October 7 massacres, Iran, Hamas and others masterfully deployed their information-warfare campaigns, asymmetrically attacking Israel’s very legitimacy….In America and Britain, pro-Palestinian demonstrators jam the streets, denouncing alleged Israeli war crimes, and explaining away, or even justifying, Hamas’s invasion. The aim is to exploit Western weakness and lack of resolution. It seems to be working.”[iii] Israel may have little time to complete the work of destroying Hamas before the West abandons them.
Driving so much of this is a religious ethic that has taken hold of the Arab Street and to a great degree, the entire Muslim world. In Psalm 83, we find the prophecy of the nations and peoples surrounding Israel saying, “Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation.” We find this in the Palestinian National Charter, which calls for the destruction of the State of Israel. In the Arab / Muslim mind, it is religiously justified by a theology that envisions a complete destruction of the Jews before the return of the Islamic Messiah. According to the Islamic holy book, the Hadith, “The Last Hour would not come unless the Muslims will fight against the Jews.”[iv]
That “Last Hour” of Islamic theology goes a long way toward explaining the notion of the “unending Jihad” and the religious justification of the terror. Dr. David Cook of Rice University, explains that to the devout Muslim, the conflict with the West and especially Israel, is in reality, a conflict between good and evil. It is the very outworking of the historical plan of God. Remember, in its forming, Islam borrowed heavily from and then distorted the beliefs of the Biblically based religions of Judaism and Christianity, so there is a patina of similarities in their views of the last days. Islam too, is looking for the “Last Days” to be preceded by moral decay, and natural and cosmic disasters. Then will come a “Tempter” or Dajjal, who will lead all but the true Muslims astray. This is to be followed by the return of Jesus – called Issa, who will kill Dajjal, ending his evil reign. This will be followed by a Messianic reign under the Mahdi, who will triumph in a struggle with evil in the form of Yajuj and Majuj. This is the Islamic version of the Gog / Magog struggles described in Ezekiel 38 & 39. Many Muslims believe that we are now living in the time leading up to the end of the age. Their traditions tell them that this will be a period of struggle with West and with Israel. Violent Jihad is the natural outworking of this philosophy.[v]
Now, Iran, of the Shia branch of Islam, believes that the Mahdi, the very Islamic Messiah, – will soon reveal himself to the world. And they have been chosen by Allah to help bring that about. The Mahdi will unite the warring factions of Islam, (Shiite and Sunni), conquer Jerusalem and set up a global Islamic Empire. The actions of the ruling Mullahs of Iran are influenced by that belief.[vi]
According to Amir Taheri, former editor of Iran’s largest daily newspaper, Iran’s former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad actually believed that he had spent several hours ‘communing’ with Islam’s 12th Imam, the “last of the imams (teacher) of Shiism who went into ‘grand occultation’ in 941.” That “12th Imam” is the one-day returning Islamic Messiah, the Mahdi, the “true Sovereign of the World.” And Ahmadinejad was convinced that he was one of his chosen disciples. In September 2005 President Ahmadinejad addressed the UN General Assembly. On that occasion, he was bathed in a divine light, visible only to the Iranian President and other true followers of the Mahdi.[vii] Perhaps to those in the West all this is very strange, but awaiting the Mahdi is actually not so odd at all.
That belief system on the return of the Mahdi is actually quite mainstream within Islam. It is based on writings taken from the Koran, the Hadith, (Islam’s second holiest book), as well as Islamic tradition. Shiites and Sunnis alike are anticipating his appearance. The Mahdi, or ‘Guided One’ is to appear suddenly during a time of great struggle between the forces of good and evil. At the end of history, he will lead the Islamic forces to victory over the unbelieving Christians and Jews. At that time, the whole world will become Muslim. During this Islamic revival, the ‘Prophet Jesus’ will come back to earth, and the two will proceed to Jerusalem, where Jesus will publicly deny that he is the Son of God. Then together they will forcibly destroy both Christians and Jews.[viii]
Notice the inverse similarity between the Islamic Mahdi and the Christian Antichrist. It is remarkable. So is that between the Muslim’s ‘Prophet Jesus’ and the False Prophet of Revelation. Passages from the Islamic commentaries, the Hadith point to even more similarities between the two sets of prophecy. The Hadith says, “Imam Mahdi will…do battle with the forces of evil in one final apocalyptic battle….After the Imam Mahdi has reigned for several years, Jesus Christ (Issa) will return.” In a companion passage we are told of the Mahdi: “He will rule for seven years.”[ix] This directly corresponds with the length of the Tribulation as prophesied in Daniel and Revelation. As it stands, this belief is influencing the actions of the most dynamic Islamic power and sponsor of terror in the world: Iran.
So, at root, the hatred of all Jews and the Land of Israel is religious in nature. Palestinian children and general public are indoctrinated into it from an early age. The killing of Jews is a positive good. It has spawned a culture of suicide bombers and a population that revels and celebrates the deaths of Jews and Americans – the Little Satan and the Great Satan, respectively. There can be no compromise with someone who wants you dead. Hamas must be eliminated and its supporters neutralized or the cancer will grow again. And the terror will return.
Now, here is the irony of it all. This theology of hatred of anything that is Jewish, anything that is non-Muslim is being aided and abetted by the very targets of that hate. [LGBT & Trans groups have joined the pro-Hamas protests, completely unaware that in those lands, homosexuals are thrown off buildings.] This is the same philosophy that animated the Nazis in their drive to cleanse the Reich of any vestige of its’ Jewishness. Elie Wiesel, the son of Holocaust survivor of the same name weighed in on FOX News. “Hamas is counting on a United Nations that is corrupt to its’ core, that put Iran as the chair of a recent human rights council. It is counting on American campuses that have been poisoned over the course of a generation.”[x] This is what enabled Hamas to act. This is what provides the cover for a global movement against the Jews. After they come for Israel, they will come for America and the West. And yet we cooperate in our own destruction.
[i] Hamas member says they will repeat attacks until Israel is destroyed, Ukrainska Pravda, November 2, 2023
[ii] Hamas Leader: ‘Women, Children, Elderly’ Must Die In Gaza, Daily Wire, October 28, 2023
[iii] John Bolton, Israel is running out of time before Biden damns it to defeat, Telegraph, November 7, 2023
[iv] Book 41, Number 6985, Sahih Muslim, [Hadith]
[v] Jihad, Apocalypse, and Anti-Semitism, An Interview with Richard Landes, Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, September 1, 2004
[vi] Perry Stone, Prophecy Update, March 2006
[vii] Amir Taheri, The frightening truth of why Iran wants a bomb, London Telegraph,
April 16, 2006
[viii] Summary of Islamic beliefs taken from; Jerry Robinson, Calling Al Mahdi,
Understanding The Antichrist – Part II, WIR
[ix] Quotes from the Hadith taken from; Jerry Robinson, Calling Al Mahdi,
Understanding The Antichrist – Part II, WIR
[x] The parallel between the Israel-Hamas war and Nazi Germany is ‘stark and clear’: Elisha Wiesel, FOX Business, November 8, 2023
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