Islam and the Tribulation

Here’s a random bit of thinking that got me going. Throughout the ages Christians have tried to discern the specifics of Revelation and how end times events are going to happen. As of late, with the current war of fundamentalist Islam, many Christians have speculated on the possibility that the Antichrist will be a Muslim and he will lead a great global jihad against the rest of the world leading to his eventual worship as a god.

My problem with this theory is that it’s a bit too flavor of the month. Obviously every end times projection is colored with the politics of the era in which it is written, but there are some nuances about Islam that don’t quite fit Revelation. First, Muslims worship Allah as a lone deity and their concepts of a messiah do not involve the worship of him personally. In fact, Christians are derided as polytheists because of our belief in the Triune God (the Al-Aqsa mosque has an inscription that states “There is only one god and he has no son”). Any attempt by a Muslim to focus worship on anyone other than Allah (including the messiah) would be seen as blasphemy.

Second, the Antichrist is supposed to rise from an assembly of European leaders and proclaimed leader over all (eventually moving to become ruler of the world). While Europe is gaining in Muslim population, there have been increased incidents of resistance to both Jihadist propaganda and Muslim special treatment. Europeans could proclaim someone who espouses to be a Muslim as a compromise to their Muslim populations, but Islamisation of Europe is still in its early stages and will take many years yet for Muslim led governments to form.

Third, the long stated goal of Jihadists is a religious Caliphate, much as existed back in the 9th century. While Islam was the uniting force, the Caliph was only a religious leader/king and was never the focus of worship.

Nevertheless, the proliferation of Islam into all cultures of the world requires some sort of answer. Siding right along with the Antichrist for the first three and half years of the Tribulation is the One-World Church (believed to be the culmination of the ecumenicalism movement). Most faiths have decided they can work together in some sort of live and let live fashion with the exception of Islam. Islam demands subservience. It seems rather unlikely that Muslims around the world would be prepared to all sit in a circle and say that Islam is just as good as Buddhism or Hinduism (to say nothing of Judaism). Nor would the militant Jihadists be content to bow down before a man who has declared himself god.

One of the things that is also mentioned in Revelation that gets a bit glossed over is the great war that will erupt over the world not long after the Antichrist takes power. About one-quarter of the world population will die in the war due to battle, famine and disease (1.5 billion people according to today’s numbers). What if this war is the great and final push of Muslims against the world government? Utilizing the nuclear arsenals of the world and the threat of global jihad, the Antichrist could cement his power in pushing back the fundamentalist threat. What’s more, once the Muslim menace has been dealt with, it might give the Antichrist enough leverage to declare that all fundamentalist sects are a menace (Christians, Jews, etc.) and to prevent further religious wars, all are banned except the worship of him. Anyone not bowing down to him and swearing loyalty to the state must be planning violence and be executed immediately.

It might be a stretch, but I think it makes for a very plausible scenario in today’s political climate. Of course, we’ve been waiting for the Rapture and the start of the Tribulation for nearly 2,000 years now. This scenario could be completely bollixed even five years from now. We shall just have to wait and see.