EndTime Issues ...

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Introduction
 
With intrigue one analyzes something a lady expositor wrote over 125 years ago regarding end-time prophecy:
 
“The Roman Church is far-reaching in her plans and modes of operation. She is employing every device to extend her influence and increase her power in preparation for a fierce and determined conflict to regain control of the world.”[1]
 
If that church is so powerful (and she is) and she is so perceptive that plans can reach into the distant future, why will she face a fierce conflict to regain world control? The Vatican is aware of what lies ahead. A competing power has stepped onto the stage.

• In August 2016 Archbishop Gyula Marfi of Hungary noted that the conquest of Europe, supported by Arab banks and the migration of Muslims into those countries, was part of their “will to conquer.”
• He said that it is urgent that Europe rediscover its Christian roots to block this cultural and moral change.[2]

The papal drive for power is mighty (Daniel 8:24). Intriguingly, the Record says that she does it through peace (Daniel 8:25). Her competitor wants the same world dominion – but it uses violence. This is a differential characteristic that assists in identifing the antichrist.

That “Religion of Peace” – Rome’s Competitor
 
August 12, 2007, one hundred thousand Muslims from thirty countries gathered in Jakarta, Indonesia, in a call for a return of the caliphate.[3] It was one of the largest political gatherings of Muslims to ever take place. They wanted a global Islamic government that was against democracy and capitalism.[4] (Intriguingly, that’s exactly what the Catholic “social teachings” advocate and Pope Francis promotes).[5]

• There have been annual follow-up strategy conferences.
• One was held in Oak Brook, Illinois, a Chicago suburb, in June of 2011. It concluded that the ousting of existing governments, especially in the west, was needed to establish the “rule of Allah.”[6]

Adding to the depth of this international drive for world dominance, the Guardian of London obtained a copy of ISIS’ plans to control the fields of education and industry globally through infiltration.[7]
 
As terrifying and loathsome as the barbarism of the Islamic world is, one must also be horrified at the mettle of America’s leaders and even those in the Protestant world. Appeasement, tolerance, peace negotiations, avoiding the words “Islamic terrorism” and bringing to the shores of the “free world” hordes of non-vetted Muslims to show “our good will” has been their modus operandi.
 
Recently, in Catholic Answers, this was published:
 
“The truth is that Islam is not a religion of peace.” There is a “deep and powerful strain of violence within Islam, and it is important that Americans understand it…. They will have to face it in the future.
 
“Because of the need to expand God’s dominion by wars of conquest, Islam’s ideology imposes on Muslims the duty to fight for ‘God’s’ community.”[8] (Internal quote marks added.

• The Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, said: “We will not let ourselves be paralyzed with fear [from the threats of radical Islam].”[9]
• According to the Catholic tradition of the “just war theory,” a series of conditions is necessary for a nation to wage war. Cardinal Parolin cited the Catholic Catechism, noting that legitimate defense “can be not only a right but a grave duty for one who is responsible for the lives of others.

He also noted that the defense of the common good “requires that an unjust aggressor be rendered unable to cause harm. For this reason, those who legitimately hold authority also have the right to use arms to repel aggressors against the civil community entrusted to their responsibility.”[10

• This King of the North’s representative legitimizes military action against the violence coming from the “King of the South!”
• Interesting, isn’t it?! Not to be outdone in rhetoric, Imam Shaban Sherifmady of Edmonton, Canada, said: “The Prophet Muhammad said that Rome would be conquered! It will be conquered.”[11]
• ISIS said in August , 2016, responding to Pope Francis’ claim that their war was not religious: “Ours is a religious war and we hate you.”[12] The reference to conquering Rome mirrors a similar call by Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. “This is my advice to you. If you hold to it you will conquer Rome and own the world, if Allah wills,” Baghdadi was attempting to garner more recruits to ISIS.[13]

Do you sense why there will be a “fierce conflict”?

Reflection
 
Daniel 11 references conflict between the “north” and the “south” in many historical contexts. The first king of the south was likely Ptolemy I Soter (reigning 306–283 B.C.). He was one of Alexander the Great’s generals who took over Egypt after his death.
 
Islam rose in ~600 A.D. and spread quickly through northern Africa and the Middle East. It threatened Christianity and all of Europe to the north. The Crusades are alluded to in Daniel 11:25, with military encounters between the “south” and the “vile person” or papacy (1100–1500 A.D.).
 
This sweep in history jumps to the time of the end with military language in 11:31, 35, associated with the “vile person.” Daniel notes this to be at an “appointed time” (11:35), which he already related to earth’s final period (8:17, 19).

• The language associated with the vile person or king of the north is intense.
• The attack by the south (11:40) is portrayed also in military language, suggesting barbaric encounters like the “goring” of an ox.

Is the Judeo–Christian world beginning to experience “pushing’ or “brutal” confrontations from Muslim factions? That question is being addressed by a growing number of governmental leaders and journalists.

• Muslims see the world engaged in a cultural and religious war. Christians in their passive repose see many areas where they previously flourished being snuffed out.[14]
• Sol W. Sanders, in World Tribune (July 16, 2016), wrote that the showdown between Jews, Christians and Islam has begun.

“What is basic to the argument is the very nature of Islam…. The continued repeating of the cliché that Islam is a religion of peace does not alter the fact that history proves otherwise…. today no matter how much non-violent Muslims refute the accusations that the Islamic terrorists – a name Obama and his associates refuse to use – have their roots in Islam, there is considerable contradictory evidence.”[15]
 
Many blame the growing hostility of Muslims against Christianity on the rapid population growth in areas they previously held. That might have made some contribution, but when the Iranian Revolution occurred in 1978–1979 with the fall of the Shah, a pro-Western, semi-absolute monarchy was replaced by an anti-Western authoritarian “theocracy.” Sympathy toward Christianity toppled.[16]

Then a radical coup occurred against the Grand Mosques in Mecca on November 20, 1979. The Saudi royal family proved incapable of dislodging the terrorists occupying the Mosque. Iran’s new leader, Ayatollah Khomeini, blamed the Great Satan – the United States – for defiling the shrine, prompting mobs to storm and torch American embassies in Pakistan and Libya. The desperate Saudis finally enlisted the help of French commandos who knocked out the insurgents. Though most captured gunmen were quickly beheaded, the weak Saudi royal family responded to this unprecedented challenge by compromising with the rebels’ supporters, helping them nurture and export a violent brand of Islam around the world.[17]

• The “devil’s bargain,” made with radical Islam, further weakened the Saudi government, which initiated this march of terrorism around the world as their “money” began funding those exploits.
• This was followed by using their massive gulf-oil money to build mosques globally!

The Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in 1979, sparking the development of the Jihad techniques of terrorism that has now spread around the world.

• This egregious movement has been fanatically opposed to Christianity – especially in Muslim areas.
• The growth of Christianity in many of those areas suggested to the militants that the old Muslim ways of peace were a failure.[18] This has heightened their aggression.

A Generation Later
 
Over the next four decades, sparked by Iran’s hatred of the west when the Shah was deposed, a new Islamic phrase, “enemies of God,” began spawning Muslim hatred against Jews and Christians. Fearful “politically correct” moves came within Christian nations, in turn, and the phrase Islamophobia was coined – meaning, derogatorily, “fear of Islam.”
 
In spite of the tens of thousands killed in a barbaric fashion and global, brutal terrorist acts, suicide bombings and overt hatred spewing from the mouths of many Imams, even in North America, the White House has defended the Islamic faith.

• 81% of U.S. mosques teach some form of jihadism and Muslim supremacy.[19]
• The Justice Department chose to not monitor the mosques, scrubbed all references to terrorism and Islam in the FBI manuals and bowed to the Council on American–Islamic Relations’ (an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood) recommendation that mosques police themselves![20]
• Intelligence data implicating terrorist plans in the United States have been “scrubbed” from computers.[21]

“Islam is intrinsically, alarmingly violent, hateful and oppressive on a scale greater than all other major religions combined…. Perhaps you too will notice the Quran’s recurring theme of hating non-believers….

“Perhaps you too will notice how Muhammad’s violent life mirrors that of members of the Islamic State….

“Perhaps you too will notice how there is no separation of Church and State in Islam and that most Islamic governments place Islamic law above Secular law.

“It would be one thing if Islamic doctrines said Muslims should love non-Muslims and love their enemy. It would be one thing if the prophet Muhammad preached non-violence. It would be one thing if Islamic laws supported equality for women, minorities, freedom of expression, and valued human rights. It would be one thing if the Quran taught the golden rule.

“It is because they do the complete opposite that I am now speaking out.”[22]
 
The Christian World’s Response
 
There are two ways the Christian world is addressing this crises:

1. What would Jesus do? is prevalent – and encompasses love, appeasement, proselytism, be nice and they’ll stop, pray, reconcile, give in.
2. The other relates to the reality that the radical Islamists are a terror–hate group and must be checked.

After terrorist attacks, especially in the United States, there is a rush within this country’s leaders and from Muslim apologists to assure everyone that Islam means “peace”; it is a “peaceful religion!” BUT:

• The usual meaning of “Islam” in Arabic means “submission.”
• Why did Muslims all over the world burst into a joyful, spontaneous celebration when the hijacked airliners slammed into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon?
• Why are the governments that covertly support terrorism centered in the Muslim world?[23]

Armed with Solomon’s words: “To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; … A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace” (Ecclesiastes 3:1, 3, 8), many are seeing a “just war” to suppress what is an Islamic world view of dominance and suppression. [That is anticipated in Daniel 11:40-45.] Christianity is being physically erased from the Middle East by destruction of churches, books, Bibles, archeological memoirs and the people. Additionally, in Egypt and Iraq, as two examples, the pre-Islamic Christian dominance of those nations is no longer in textbooks. Revisionism is everywhere in the Middle Eastern education system.[24]
 
How is the Christian world to deal with such headlines as:

• Islamic State Vandalizes Iraqi Christian Cemeteries[25]
• Aleppo Bishop: Two Thirds of Syrian Christians Have Been Killed or Driven Away[26]
• Islamic Murderer: Christian Girls Exist to “Pleasure Muslim Men”[27]
• One Christian Slaughtered Every Five Minutes[28]
• 2015 Saw ‘Most Violent’ Persecution of Christians in Modern History[29]

It was but a few months ago that Rana Elmir, an American Muslim and deputy director of the ACLU in Michigan, said that she emphatically refuses to condemn jihadist terrorists “just because I’m Muslim.”[30]
 
What is going on? Why the hatred and barbarism?
 
Within the Quran there are violent language recommendations against infidels, which include Jews and Christians. Of increasing concern is their drive for world domination![31] That is a Danelic “king of the south” issue!
 
The Muslim world is anticipating a war between Rome and Islam at Dabiq, Syria!

• A Mahdi, or Messianic figure, will arrive and lead Islam to victory.
• The Islamic State has taken that town and they now await the “Roman armies.”
• Who that will be is debated, since the Pope has no military.[32]

Intriguingly, the Bible notes that the “king of the north” – the end-time antichrist – will militarily engage the “king of the south” – the Islamic world.

• “And at the time of the end shall the king of the south push at him: and the king of the north shall come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots, and with horsemen, and with many ships; and he shall enter into the countries, and shall overflow and pass over. He shall enter also into the glorious land” (Daniel 11:40-41a).
• The countries noted in subsequent texts, including Egypt, appear to have symbolic meaning.

In prophecy Egypt symbolizes the wicked world from which God’s people are to be delivered, as they journey to the heavenly Promised Land. In this verse the word “he,” [“for he shall stretch forth”], refers to the papacy and spiritually, Babylon (led by the king of the north). The content not only reiterates what was said in verse 40 regarding his “exploits,” but the Hebrew word eres for “countries” and “lands” in this verse is the same as in verse 40. This is a word used frequently in the Old Testament with a primary imagery of the earth, and in a cosmological sense, the world. The way the King James Version (and most others) translates it leaves the meaning of the next two verses isolated from Egypt and the noted surrounding countries. That introduces a confusing picture and fragments the flowing theme in these final verses.
 
If we observe the metaphorical meaning of these words, this thought emerges as the “king of the south” is suppressed: “The antichrist shall stretch his hand of power over the earth, and the whole world will not escape his grip.” Though there is a distinct military resistance movement by the antichrist against Islam; the ultimate purpose of Rome is world dominion. Islam is in the way of that final objective and will be “removed.”
 
Where does Rome now stand?

• In a Vatican statement on July 26, 2016, Pope Francis announced his “most radical condemnation” of terrorism, after two men slit the throat of a priest during morning Mass and took several other people hostage in Normandy, France.[33]
• Alarmed Cardinal Raymond Burke, the patron of the Order of Malta, said there is “no question that Islam wants to govern the world.”
  • Too few people understand the tradition of Islamic thought on government – that, when Muslims become a majority population, “they have the religious obligation to govern that country.”
  • He further noted that for anyone “not at peace with the idea of being under an Islamic government,” it was reasonable to be “afraid” of such a prospect.
  • The cardinal was speaking ahead of the publication of a new book, Hope for the World: To Unite All Things in Christ. There, Burke says: “Islam is a religion that, according to its own interpretation, must also become the State. The Koran, and the authentic interpretations of it given by various experts in Koranic law, is destined to govern the world.”[34]

“In reality, there is no place for other religions, even though they may be tolerated, as long as Islam has not succeeded in establishing its sovereignty over the nations and over the world.”

Can it be seen why expositor White noted of the Catholic Church: “She is employing every device to extend her influence and increase her power in preparation for a fierce and determined conflict to regain control of the world.”[35]

Summary
 
Intriguingly, Jesuit Pope Francis, in a “Vatican moment” noted in a homily during a Mass while at Italy’s largest war memorial, a large, Fascist-era monument where more than 100,000 soldiers who died in World War One are buried:

• “Humanity needs to weep and this is the time to weep.” [36]
• Thousands of people, braving the rain, heard also the hauntingly funereal sound of a solitary bugle. At that point, Francis, once again, condemned the “plotters of terrorism.”

The pope had said, in the previous month, that it would be legitimate for the international community to use force to stop “unjust aggression” by Islamic State militants who have killed or displaced thousands of people in Iraq and Syria, many of them Christians.[37]

July 2016, “The word that is being repeated often [in the news] is insecurity, but the real word is war,” Francis said in brief comments to reporters while flying to southern Poland for a five-day visit: ‘Let’s recognize it. The world is in a state of war in bits and pieces.’”[38]

It must not be forgotten, however

1. “It was Ignatius Loyola who said, ‘… we are called to win to God, not only a single nation, a single country, but all nations, all the kingdoms of the world.’”[39]
2. “General Montholon, who served with Napoleon: ‘The Jesuits are a military organization, not a religious order…. the aim of this organization is POWER – Power in its most despotic exercise. Absolute power, universal power, power to control the world.’”[40]
3. “But the overturning of the Reformation was by no means the only aim of the Order. Their ultimate goal, or Plan, says Kauffman, was to secure for  ‘the Pope of Rome … absolute sovereignty and supremacy over all the governments of the earth.’ That is the PLAN!”[41]

In Pope Francis’ first encyclical, Evangelii Gaudium (Joy of the Gospel), he subtly made a bid for greater control of world affairs. In his encyclical Laudato Si (Be Praised), dealing with “mother earth,” he called for a new power to control the world. We must think of a “one world with a common plan.”
 
Evidence strengthens that there will soon be a “fierce conflict” over who governs the world. The Bible says that the winner will be in Rome!