Sid: Hello. Sid Roth here. Welcome to my world where it’s naturally supernatural. I just breathing in the rarified air of Heaven. But there’s a problem I want to point out to you. Many people are beginning to understand the power of God, but so few people understand prophesy. That’s why I’m so excited about my guest, Joel Richardson. You see, he’s been a guest before on It’s Supernatural, but I just saw a video, a top quality movie produced by the nation of Iran and it got me so upset I had to have Joel Richardson as a guest to comment on that. Joel, have you seen that video? What is it called?
Joel: It’s called “The Coming is Near” and as you said, it was produced by the top religious Islamic scholars in the nation of Iran. It’s been endorsed by the top governmental leaders and it’s been shown throughout the country. They’re surprised that we got a hold of it and we’ve translated it, and that we understand what they are looking for.
Sid: What is, why would they do a Hollywood style movie to spread throughout everyone in Iran? What is the intent? What’s the purpose of this?
Joel: The purpose is to stir up the masses. One of the primary calls that you see…
Sid: It’s so emotional, that film.
Joel: It is a clarion call to embrace Islamic End Time doctrine for the masses of Muslims throughout, not just Iran, but throughout the Islamic world to turn back to their End Time prophesies. And one of the primary calls in the documentary is that millions of martyrs that would set themselves up to invade the land of Israel as martyrs for Allah, they’re trying to stir up the masses to fulfill the Islamic End Time prophesies of a final invasion of the land of Israel.
Sid: You know what it reminded me of? Adolf Hitler. Adolf Hitler wrote a book called “Mein Kampf” and in this book he described exactly what he was going to do and he tried to do it, and he did unfortunately accomplish a great deal of this goal. Well that’s what this video is. It explains exactly what Iran wants to do in the last days. And the question that I have is do you understand from the Word of God what’s going on? They talk in this video about a Mahdi, which is a description of their Messiah that’s coming. I believe he’s the twelfth?
Joel: According to the Shia, they believe that the Mahdi, this is the Islamic Messiah figure, is the twelfth male descendent of Mohammed. Now let me just point this out, Sid. It is more than just the Shia that believe in the coming of the Mahdi. This is a universal doctrine that Sunis, the majority sect, 85% of the Muslim world, also believe in the coming of the Mahdi. And so it is both the radicals in Iran as well as the Muslim Brotherhood, the radicals throughout the greater Arab world that are expecting the coming of this Messiah figure.
Sid: Now the interesting thing is that their Messiah figure is a perfect description of the biblical description of the Antichrist. Would you agree?
Joel: Yeah. In a nutshell, the Antichrist, according to the Bible, he revives an empire. From the Islamic side they believe the Mahdi revives an Islamic empire, that he will unify the Islamic world. The Antichrist leads this coalition in an invasion of Israel. The Mahdi also leads the Islamic world in an invasion of Israel. The Antichrist rules for seven years. Mahdi rules for seven years. Antichrist engages in a peace treaty with Israel. Mahdi also engages in a so-called peace treaty with Israel. These are what I call anti-parallels. When we look at the biblical description of the Antichrist, he is very similar to the Islamic Messiah.
Sid: Now what must happen before their Messiah or our Antichrist comes on the scene, according to the Koran?
Joel: Well similarly to the Bible, they believe that the world must be in a state of chaos, of, you know, all sorts of moral declines and so forth, and they look at the world today and they see all of these signs. But they also believe it will be much greater than even what we’re seeing now. There’ll be wars and out of all of these, this time of conflict and chaos, their Messiah will emerge and bring the Islamic version of peace and justice to the world.
Sid: But don’t they need to have Jerusalem in their possession for him to come?
Joel: This is what’s so amazing. They believe, and again, the Antichrist, according to II Thessalonians, “Will set himself up in the Temple of God as if he is God.” This is what the Bible says of the Antichrist. They believe that the Mahdi will lead the Islamic nations in an invasion of Israel and take what they call Baitul Maqdis, the Holy House, this is Jerusalem, and they will plant the flags of Islam on the Temple Mount where the Mahdi will rule the world from the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.
Sid: But I have to tell you what upset me the most was it did remind me of Adolf Hitler. He had such a charisma. And when their leader was talking to the masses, Joel, it reminded me of a meeting that Adolf Hitler would have had.
Joel: Imagine if in the United States our President was also your pastor. And imagine if all the senators, they were our religious leaders and they produced a movie telling the Christians of the nation that the End Times are here and that they themselves are the leaders and the primary players in this final End Time battle, and calling on Christians of the earth to prepare to give up their lives in a physical battle. That’s exactly what’s taking place in the nation of Iran today.
Sid: How many martyrs do you believe they’re trying to prepare?
Joel: Well the video specifically calls for millions, millions of martyrs. There are obviously 70 million in Iran right now, 70 million citizens. A large percentage of them are very non-religious, but they are appealing to that percentage of the population that is religious, calling on them to give up their lives in the process of killing. This is important. To give up their lives to kill others.
Sid: Can you image a million people wanting to give up their lives to kill others? When we come back, I want you to see that the popular theology of perhaps the Left Behind series and that type of mentality is not even relevant to the End Times. It’s a totally different paradigm. Don’t go away. Be right back.
