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Muqtada al-Sadr has really been big news lately. Perhaps he is positioning himself so as to replace his father, the Ayatolla Mohammed Sedeq al-Sadr, who was assassinated 5 years ago by the former Iraqi government. It already seems that he might be edging out Osama Bin Laden as the definitive leader of "Islam against the world." Osama Bin Laden has openly expressed his belief that peace can be attained only when the whole world has become Islamic, and with the army of al-Qaida, he has greatly furthered that Islamic goal. And it looks as if Muqtada al-Sadr fully agrees with him.
The people of Europe and America simply will not allow themselves to accept the validity of such a concept. But why not? For decades now, "The House of Islam" has been waging war against the whole world, which they call the "House of War," including such countries as Indonesia, The Philippines, France, Spain, India, Israel, Italy, Turkey, The Sudan, and yes, the United States of America, to name some. The scare tactics of the House of Islam (Dar al-Islam) have certainly been very effective to this date. Consider the acquiescence to their threats and murders in the last few weeks by Spain and the Philippines.
The armies of Islam seem to fear no one, perhaps it is because everyone fears them. In 1979, the Irani Shiites were not afraid to declare war on America by attacking the American embassy in Tehran, Iran, even though they were fully aware that to attack our embassy was a declaration of war. The taking of the American embassy was, at least symbolically, the beginning of a stepped-up Islamic offensive in their plan to subdue the world. Their reported intention is to accomplish that goal by the year 2025.
In 1988, two other Islamic attacks on American embassies in Africa occurred, together with other attacks on American targets. 1988 seemed to mark the beginning of the next step in their plan: a more intense era of Islamic aggression against the west in general, and America in particular. This is particularly meaningful when we consider that, in 1988, the 17-year locusts, Brood IV, and the 13-year locusts, Brood XIX, emerged together in Missouri and Iowa, a phenomenon which occurs only once every 221 years.
It becomes steadily more apparent that we are seeing at least a partial fulfillment of Rev. 9:1-11. "He opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit. And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth: and unto them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power. And it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree; but only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads. And to them it was given that they should not kill them, but that they should be tormented five months: and their torment was as the torment of a scorpion when he striketh a man. And the shapes of the locusts were like unto horses prepared unto battle. - And their power was to hurt men five months."
He did not say "they were like locusts," but that "there came out of the smoke locusts." It seems as if he is making a direct reference to Exodus 10:4-19. He said that when the plague of the locusts was finished, "there remained not any green thing in the trees or in the herbs of the field." Yet in Rev. 9:1-11, he said, "It was commanded them (the locusts) that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree; but only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads." God knows that the nature of militant Islam is to destroy everything, so, by His words He has set a limit to the scope of their destruction, but the locusts are here. The day of the Lord's indignation against Christianity has not yet come, but it is near at hand. He is using green things here to represent Christians, and, in the Day of the Lord, all but a few of us shall be swallowed up in their attack.
God shows us in Rev. 9:11 that the series of attacks of which He speaks is to occur at a time when the Hebrew tongue is spoken in the world, and the unique miracle of the revival of the Hebrew language has been a reality for nearly fifty years now. He said, "And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon (destruction), but in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon (destroyer)." This is strange, especially because it is written in Proverbs 30:27, "The locusts have no king, yet go they forth all of them by bands." So who is this "king?" he is the angel of the bottomless pit. He and all Islam are at war with the whole world, and they are making great progress, because the rest of the world refuses to believe it, or simply can not grasp the reality of the situation.
Although the "realm of Islam" has no literal king, they have had a symbolic one for some time now in the person of Osama Bin Laden. That is why so many sundry attacks seem to be "tied to al-Qaida."
I have heard recently, from different sources, that "this is the year of the locusts." And it is, for Brood X of the 12 broods of the 17-year locusts. There are different kinds of locusts: the 13-year variety for example. Of course, locusts are with us all of the time. They are merely in a different stage, eating below ground for the greater part of their 17-year cycle.
Our present problem is with the "locusts of Revelation chapter 9," militant Islam, which made a grand appearance in Iran almost 25 years ago when they declared war on America by attacking the U.S. embassy in Tehran, Iran, after deposing the secular government. Then they went underground, as Saudi Arabia, and perhaps others, began to finance the building of military posts (commonly called mosques) in America. There was only one or two mosques in America in 1979, whereas today there are more than three hundred. And just recently it was publicly reported that 85 percent of the Clerics who are running the new mosques in America are "preaching" radical Islam. In fact, just this month, two men from a mosque in Albany, N. Y. were arrested and charged with money laundering, and conspiracy to conceal material support for terrorism.
In the last 25 years, as the scorpion-like sting of Islam has been experienced by many countries, the thrust of the "Islamic world takeover effort" seems to have been mostly the work of Sunnite Moslems. That thrust seems to now be shifting to the Shiites.
The Shiites have always contended that the legitimate function of the Imam belongs to their lineage of descent from Ali. The Shi'a, the followers of Ali, make up less than 10 percent of all of the worlds Moslems, so their power has naturally been more or less commensurate with numbers. However, today we are seeing the fulfillment of Rev. 16:12, "And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings the east might be prepared."
As with Darius the Median (Iran of old), who conquered the land of Babylon (Modern Iraq), President Bush(1), by the war on terror in Iraq, has "dried up" the defenses of the land of the Euphrates, and made a way for the Shiite Imams and Ayatollas to rise to power again. Saddam Hussein had harshly subdued them, but he is gone, and the superior numbers of Shiites over Sunnis in Iraq has tipped the balance of power in favor of the kings of the east: the Shiites and their anticipated Messiah.
The majority of Shiites are called twelvers (Ithna Ashariyya), because they recognize 12 imams, beginning with Ali. The 12th one disappeared in 873 A.D., but will return as the Mahdi (Messiah). Is it merely a coincidence that Muqtada al-Sadr calls his followers the al-Mahdi army. Does he believe he is the Mahdi, the Islamic messiah, the return of the 12th Imam? We will soon see, for the way has been made for the kings of the East. AMEN!
1. You can find more information about
President Bush as Darius in the Dec. 2002 issue of The Bible Guys at
www.tpot.org.