I have been thinking a lot about what is going on in the Middle East.  It certainly does feel that Bible prophecy is happening right before our eyes.  It made me think about Daniel's vision of the AC rising to power.  I have always found it interesting that the AC would somehow topple and grow out of three of the kingdoms of the 10 crowns of the beast.  Could it be that Egypt and Libya are two of those crowns?? Does that mean that with a third Middle Eastern nation toppling in revolution that we will see the rise of the beast over the Middle East coming against Israel??
 
Thought I would put out this question to the scholars of the group.
 
Also, I just finished reading a book called:  AntiChrist: Islam's Awaited Messiah by Joel Richardson (pen name).  It was amazing to me how much the beliefs of Muslim eschatology directly mirror Christianity.  They have their al-Mahdi (our AC figure), their "Jesus" (our False Prophet) and their Dajjal or AC (our Messiah).  I could not believe the correlation of these end-time figures.   I know that many readers at Five Doves believe that the Pope of the Catholic church will be False Prophet spoken of in the Bible.  But if you have not studied Islam and their end times beliefs, I would encourage at least a brief study.  It is certainly a compelling argument.  If Islam does bring rise to the AC, I could definitely understand how people who have not studied the Bible could be very confused during the Tribulation when someone calling themselves Jesus starts performing miracles and claiming to be the Messiah.  If one had not read Jesus' warning in Matthew 24:24, would they know that they were being deceived?  Satan is so tricky - it is a masterful, albeit evil, plan.
 
Thanks for your gentle thoughts and responses.
 
Yours in Faith,
 
Christina
 
 
 
Daniel 7:7-8

 7 “After that, in my vision at night I looked, and there before me was a fourth beast—terrifying and frightening and very powerful. It had large iron teeth; it crushed and devoured its victims and trampled underfoot whatever was left. It was different from all the former beasts, and it had ten horns.

 8 “While I was thinking about the horns, there before me was another horn, a little one, which came up among them; and three of the first horns were uprooted before it. This horn had eyes like the eyes of a human being and a mouth that spoke boastfully.

Daniel 7:23

23 “He gave me this explanation: ‘The fourth beast is a fourth kingdom that will appear on earth. It will be different from all the other kingdoms and will devour the whole earth, trampling it down and crushing it. 24 The ten horns are ten kings who will come from this kingdom. After them another king will arise, different from the earlier ones; he will subdue three kings. 25 He will speak against the Most High and oppress his holy people and try to change the set times and the laws. The holy people will be delivered into his hands for a time, times and half a time.