The nations of the world are turning against Israel. But that’s in accordance with ancient biblical prophecy, according to documentary filmmaker and New York Times bestselling author Joel Richardson.
“Satan is using men like puppets to effect his purposes, to thwart the plans of God,” Richardson said. “And so it’s not just in the radical Islamic community; it’s throughout Europe. The nations are turning against Israel. They said it would never happen again. The Bible said it would happen again before the return of Jesus.”
Richardson went on the radio show “Point of View” this week to discuss his blockbuster new documentary, “End Times Eyewitness,” produced by WND Films. His work shows how ancient biblical prophecies signaling the return of the Messiah are being fulfilled.
The movie also was just named as an official selection for the 2015 Christian Worldview Film Festival.
Richardson is the bestselling author of “The Islamic Antichrist” and the author of the soon-to-be-published “When a Jew Rules the World.”
One such prophecy Richardson discussed says that the nations will turn against Israel. Richardson told “Point of View” host Kerby Anderson it is clearly happening today, and the devil himself is behind it.
The Bible also speaks of an Antichrist who will rise up in the last days. Richardson said he believes the Antichrist will be a Muslim. In fact, the biblical description of the Antichrist closely resembles the Islamic Mahdi, who Muslims believe will come to rule the world before the Day of Judgment.
“When you look at the Islamic traditions concerning the Mahdi, he has many striking similarities to the biblical Antichrist,” Richardson said. “They actually teach that he will rule the world specifically from the Temple Mount, exactly as the Bible says the Antichrist will set up his seat, in the seat of God on the Temple Mount, proclaiming himself as God.”
Richardson interviewed global Christian leaders, pastors, theologians and missionaries for “End Times Eyewitness.” He also featured testimonies from some of the most prominent Islamic scholars in the world and leading Jewish thinkers, including:
Rabbi Yehuda Glick, the Temple activist shot in an assassination attempt;
Adnan Oktar, the bestselling author in the Muslim world and host of a big TV show in Turkey, who is promoting the rebuilding of the Temple in Jerusalem. He states the Muslim messianic “Mahdi” figure is alive and well on planet Earth and that he is in communication with angels about his imminent appearance to the world; and
Sheik Ekrima Said Sabri, the son of the late and notorious grand mufti of Jerusalem, who explains the Islamic eschatological belief that Jesus will return to lead a caliphate and require Christians to convert to Islam.
Richardson said there are strong signs that the Antichrist will arise out of Turkey. He sees the current nationalistic frenzy in Turkey as evidence that the country may be living under the Antichrist already.
DV504“I can’t even convey to Americans the level of nationalism and nationalistic fervor that is emerging out of Turkey,” Richardson said. “This desire to revive the glory days of the Ottoman Empire, and it’s mingled with Islamism.”
Muslims not only await the Mahdi but also believe Jesus Christ will return at the end of time. However, they believe he will come back as a Muslim who will tell Christians they’ve been following the wrong faith all along.
“And so in many ways, the Jesus of Islamic eschatology has many similarities to the biblical false prophet that’s referenced in Revelation 13,” Richardson said.
Richardson said Muslims take their prophecies very seriously.
“If we are simply tracking what’s going on in the world, especially the Islamic world, which is supremely relevant to the nation of Israel, then we need to recognize how much the Islamic world is being guided by these prophecies and really how apocalyptic the Muslim world has become,” he said.
According to Richardson, ISIS is fighting so passionately because it believes it is fulfilling Islamic end-times prophecy.
“ISIS is a thoroughly apocalyptically driven movement, and they believe these prophecies are guiding them,” Richardson said. “They believe they’re in the last days, and that’s often why they have such a make-it-or-break-it fervor. This is the final game to them.”
Richardson wants people to know that biblical prophecy is not all about misery. The Bible speaks of revivals in Egypt and Assyria, and Richardson said those may already be taking place.
Assyria is roughly the region that ISIS now controls. Richardson said the displaced peoples of that region are turning toward Christianity.
“From what I hear, there’s revivals breaking out in the refugee camps, because they’ve seen the true face of Islam,” he said. “And so despite all that ISIS is doing – and despite all that Satan is doing – the Lord raises up a standard as well.”
Richardson said he also saw the Lord beginning to move the people of Egypt.
“When I was there with the Egyptian church, they were just ecstatic despite the difficulties, despite the persecution, at the things that the Lord was doing,” he said. “Everybody, universally – I mean, they were happening that day that I was there. They said, ‘We have never seen Muslims coming to faith like we have the past month.’ And this was a year ago.”
Richardson made clear that prophecy is not just about the end times and the earth’s destruction. It can also help Christians share the gospel, the “good news.”
“We need to recognize that biblical prophecy is not all doom and gloom,” he said. “There’s strategic information that we can gain from it as we are trying to fulfill our primary mandate, which is proclamation of the gospel of the kingdom.”
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