The Omega Letter Intelligence Digest
Vol: 53 Issue: 10 - Friday, February 10, 2006
A Tale of Two Messiahs
According to a recent poll, more Americans rate Iran a greater threat to the United States than any other country.
According to the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, only last October, Iran was far down the list, behind China, Iraq and North Korea.
Today, Iran tops the list. Two-thirds or more of those polled said they think that if Iran develops nuclear weapons, it is likely to attack Israel, Europe or the United States. Even more, 82 percent, say it's likely that a nuclear-armed Iran would provide nuclear weapons to terrorists.
Interestingly, however, only about 17% of Americans want Washington to take the lead role. A whopping three-fourths of Americans prefer that the United Nations handle Iran.
But the United Nations is, first and foremost, a diplomatic debating society, and secondly, completely dominated by international Islam. Islamic states form the single largest voting bloc at the UN, and vote AS a bloc, outnumbering any Western alliance.
UN apologists are quick to point out that the United Nations took the lead in the first Gulf War, even bringing a number of Islamic states, including Syria, into the conflict on the UN side.
What they forget is that Saddam had invaded another Islamic country, inflaming the Islamic world in the process. Iran, on the other hand, is mainly a threat to the enemies of Islam in the West, and, in particular, to Israel.
Saddam had hoped merely attacking Israel would win him Islamic support, and Islamic hatred was such that it won him the admiration of the Palestinian people living within sight of his missile strikes.
The Islamic majority at the UN are unlikely to sanction military action against Iran for threatening Israel with destruction. Counting on the UN to neutralize Iran is like planning for your retirement by buying lottery tickets.
And expecting Iran to voluntarily restrain itself in response to diplomatic pressure has about as much hope of success as does Judge Roy Moore of being confirmed to the US Supreme Court.
Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is guided politically by his religious beliefs, and those religious beliefs make no allowance for political compromise in exchange for peace.
Assessment:
Ahmadinejad is a true believer in the Shi'ite sect awaiting the return of the 12th Imam, also known as the Mahdi. The Mahdi, according to Iran's state religion, is Muhammad ibn Hasan, the "righteous descendant of the prophet Mohammed" who has been in hiding for a thousand years.
His return will be preceded by cosmic chaos, war, bloodshed and pestilence. After this cataclysmic confrontation between the forces of good and evil, the Mahdi will lead the world to an era of universal peace.
And Ahmadinejad believes, as does Iran's dominant religious sect, that lesser mortals can not merely influence his return, but, by initiating that end-times conflict between Dar al Islam (the Zone of Islam) and Dar al Haran (the Zone of War), he can actually HASTEN the Mahdi's return.
"The ultimate promise of all Divine religions," says Ahmadinejad, "will be fulfilled with the emergence of a perfect human being [the 12th Imam], who is heir to all prophets. He will lead the world to justice and absolute peace. Oh mighty Lord, I pray to you to hasten the emergence of your last repository, the promised one."
Let that sink in for a second. Imagine, for a moment, that the dominant view of Christianity was that launching an all-out war against the forces of evil would bring about Christ's return.
Imagine you really believed that God wanted you to start a war with Islam that would hasten the Return of Christ. That is a rough equivalent of what Ahmadinejad believes.
Ahmadinejad is close to the messianic Hojjatieh Society, which is governed by the conviction that the 12th Imam's return will be hastened by "the creation of chaos on Earth." His ideological mentor and spiritual guide is Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi who heads the ultraconservative acolytes who believe the 12th Imam's return is "imminent."
We Christians trust to the promise of Romans 8:31; "If God be for us, who can be against us?"
Ahmadinejad believes the same thing about Allah -- AND he thinks Allah wants him to destroy Israel and launch a global apocalypse.
We've discussed this before. It isn't just a small subset of Christians that believes that we are living in the last days of human history or that the return of the Messiah is imminent.
In Israel, there are permanent banners on display throughout the country welcoming the coming Jewish messiah.
The Temple Mount Faithful makes an annual pilgrimage to the Temple to lay a the cornerstone for the new temple. The Temple Mount Institute has already made necessary preparations for the resumption of Temple worship.
The Jewish messiah must be confirmed by the Sanhedrin (Supreme religious Court) at the Temple. So, after 1600 years of dormancy, the Sanhedrin was reconstituted last year.
Everybody is expecting their coming messiah, and they are looking for him at exactly the same point in history. Despite man's best efforts at denial, there exists, at some subatomic level, something best described as a 'God-consciousness'.
We are born believing in God, whether we name Him or not. One could almost argue that the age of accountability coincides with the age when we begin questioning the existence of God.
One need only witness the fervor with which an atheist makes his argument against God to see evidence of that God-consciousness. Who would devote a lifetime to the study and debate of the existence of fairy princesses and dragon-slayers?
While mankind can't shake his instinctive knowledge of God, we are quite capable of reshaping it to suit our comfort zone.
Paul described it this way: "even as(because)they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind . . " (Romans 1:28)
Nonetheless, Paul notes, because of that ingrained God-consciousness, Paul says "they are without excuse." (Romans 1:20)
The time is short. All mankind knows it. All the various religions are making their various preparations for the coming apocalypse that we instinctively understand is unavoidable.
All the major religions have their own messiah-figure, and that counterfeit messiah figure is also identified by Scripture. The Bible pictures two separate 'messiahs'.
There is the true Messiah, Jesus Christ. Christians await the true Messiah Who will come in power and great glory to judge the world and rule the earth for a thousand years.
The identity of the false messiah is also foretold in the pages of Scripture.
"Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders." (2nd Thessalonians 2:9)
Whether one awaits the true Messiah or the coming counterfeit, the point is that everybody is waiting. Because this is the generation to whom Jesus spoke when He said,
"And when these things BEGIN to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh." (Luke 21:28)
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