I found this political cartoon on Arutz Sheva, the Israel National News website, that illustrates the situation that Netanyahu is facing right now. So many of our western politicians seem to think “if you’re nice to Iran they will be nice to you”.
This western dream will turn into a nightmare if someone doesn’t do something about Iran’s drive toward nuclear weapons. The Iranian leadership has a faith in the twelfth imam, the Imam Mahdi, and talking with them plays into their hand. This is a game they have been playing with the west for at least seven years now.
The Imam Mahdi, they believe, will take over the world and usher in the world-wide Caliphate. They actually don’t care if they, or their own people, die, just as long as Islam advances. In fact the Twelvers have a belief that if they cause chaos in the world, it will hasten the coming of the Imam Mahdi!
Our western leaders fail to see the difference between the Chinese and Russians, who had the bomb during the cold war, and the modern regime in Tehran. They point to the government in Pakistan, who are also Muslims, have the bomb and haven’t used it. I think the difference is that the Pakistani government don’t appear to be Twelvers, not yet anyway.
Netanyahu’s option is essentially; A non-nuclear war now, or a nuclear war later. Which would you chose?
Netanyahu faces a "catch 22" situation
Ahmadinejad has prayed publicly, at the UN, for the return of the Mahdi. He is not shy about his devotion to this person. While he publicly denies that he wants to start a war, it is undeniable that the predictions about the arrival of this person focus on a major international conflict.
An interesting quote from a Muslim website concerning the Mahdi:
(Mundhir al-Jawzi) said: I heard (Ja'far al-Sadiq) say: "Before the
coming of the one who will rise (al-qa'im), peace be on him, the people
will be chided for their acts of disobedience by a fire which will appear
in the sky and a redness which will cover the sky. It will swallow up
Baghdad, it will swallow up Kufa. There blood will be shed and
houses destroyed. Death (fana) will occur amid their people and a
fear will come over the people of Iraq from which they shall have no
rest."
As I stated in The Spirit of Prophecy, I expect that several Arab capitals will be destroyed during the Psalm 83 war. I would expect that it is likely that Baghdad will be destroyed at that time, and it looks to me like the Twelvers will be looking for the arrival of the Mahdi at that time. I expect that war will result in the coming of a pseudo-Antichrist, a decoy or three, to whom the world will point to and say “that’s the Antichrist!”
Some point to the fact that Christians are awaiting the return of Christ, and the Apocalypse, so how are our beliefs different than Ahmadinejad’s? Here’s the difference, Christians believe that Jesus Christ will bring in His own reign. He doesn’t depend on us to create the kingdom of God on earth. This view of Islam has more in common with the New Apostolic Reformation, and the New Age movement, than it has with true Christianity.
For more information see:
Iran’s Nukes, the Twelfth Imam, and Apocalyptic Martyrdom
“Our revolution’s main mission is to pave the way for the reappearance of the 12th Imam, the Mahdi”
For more information on biblical Eschatology (the study of End Times) see The Spirit of Prophecy, by Daniel Knezacek.
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