Inside Islam

Well, good afternoon, everyone. Good to see a nice crowd here on this beautiful, beautiful Sabbath day. What are some of the wars that you have heard about taking place right now or within the last few years? Wars that have dominated the headlines. Here's a map that we looked at earlier in this series of sermons showing the Muslim population of the world. Those in the darker color here, it's dark green. I'm not sure quite what color it's showing up on screen there. The darker colored countries are those with a Muslim population of 50% or more. And then the lighter color green or gold is a Muslim population of 10 to 50%. So keep this in mind as I go through this list of recent or occurring wars right now. Some of those that have been the news are Chechnya, an area right up here between the Black and the Caspian Seas.

Also, several former republics of the Soviet Union right up in this area. Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan, all of which were former republics of the USSR before it collapsed. All of them have very heavy Muslim populations. The Kashmir region or province up in northern India right in here. Western China.

You may have heard of some of the rebellion by the population there called the Uyghurs there who are Muslim. Also Thailand down here in Southeast Asia. Indonesia right in this area, a large island down here. The Philippines, these islands right in here.

Also, moving over to Africa, we have Sudan right here on the Horn of Africa. And also Somalia adjacent to it, and Ethiopia in these countries right here. Moving further over, we have Nigeria here, and Ivory Coast right here.

Also, Kosovo, the area up here in southeastern Europe where there's a major war there several years ago. And of course, Israel here along the Mediterranean coast. These are 15 different areas where there have been wars, unrest of various kinds here in recent years. And each of these areas, the things they have in common, are that Muslims are waging insurrections or civil war in all of these areas. In addition to that, some other areas where you may or may not have heard so much about in the news, there are several countries where hard-line Muslim fundamentalists are trying to overthrow more moderate Islamic governments.

And those include, of course, Afghanistan right here, Iraq right here, Algeria over here on the northern coast of Africa, Egypt right here, Pakistan right over here, Saudi Arabia, and Yemen, a place that's been in the news here just in the last few days, the source of these bombs that were being shipped over there that were discovered in various cargo planes and delivery systems here. So in all of those areas, Muslims are trying to overthrow the governments and establish what you might refer to as a Taliban, a local variety, a local government bottled on the Taliban of Afghanistan. So also, in addition to that, Islamic extremists have been determined to carry out terrorist attacks and various other Western countries to bring them down. In recent years, Muslim terrorists have been arrested. In such Western countries as Germany, Spain, Italy, Britain, and of course in the United States. The U.S. government has been fortunate to foil literally dozens of different terrorist plots and attacks, and unfortunately some that they were not able to foil, like Major Natal Hassan, the U.S. Army Major who gunned down 30-something U.S. soldiers down in Texas.

So what has brought us to the point where it seems like Islam is at war with the rest of the world. As we talked about in the previous two sermons, in Islamic theology the world is divided into two spheres. You have the what is called Dar al-Islam. Dar is an Arabic word. There's not a precise English translation. It can mean the place, the land, the abode of Islam. Dar al-Islam. And then you also have Dar al-Harb. The land, the abode, the house of war. You'll see it translated both those ways. So you have the land of Islam and the land of war.

In Islamic theology, a fundamental aspect of Islamic teaching is that all of the Dar al-Harb must eventually be converted into Dar al-Islam. So that the entire world will come under Islamic rule, under a worldwide caliphat, under the rule of a caliph, a universal Islamic leader who will govern the world. And therefore, all non-Muslim lands must be converted to Dar al-Islam. Peacefully, preferably, preferably by peace, but by force, if necessary. And fundamental to this goal, to this overreaching goal of Islam, is that Islam must be presented as a peaceful religion so long as Muslims are in the minority, so long as they do not have much political power or military power. But then, when they see, when they achieve a certain level of power, population growth, influence within a given region or government or so on, then they come more out and start trying to take over by force. And that is exactly what we see in the 15 different regions that I talked about earlier and in the areas where hard-line Islamic fundamentalists are trying to take over the more moderate governments, as in Egypt, Algeria, places like that. So, it's commonly referred to, well, not that commonly, but several authors and commentators have referred to what they call the bloody borders of Islam. And going around the map, pretty much everywhere, where Islam is meeting the rest of the world, you have wars, you have violence, you have terrorism.

All of that, because Dar al-Islam, the land of Islam, is pressing out against Dar al-Har, the land of the unbeliever, the land of war, to take over those areas and to expand the reach and the influence of Islam throughout the world. And this perfectly explains what we are seeing in the world today. It's one thing that all of these wars, terrorist incidents, and all of this have in common. The mainstream media does not tell us this, for the most part, what is driving it, the beliefs that drive it, that are behind that. Most Muslim countries are generally at peace among themselves, with a few exceptions, such as Saddam Hussein, before he was deposed and hanged several years ago. He was one exception. He invaded Kuwait, invaded Saudi Arabia, for a small part, before he was driven out.

And there are some civil wars, again, in countries where hardliners are trying to take over from the more moderate governments and replace them with a Taliban-style regime.

We also see that this is why the Arabic world, or the Muslim world, is united against Israel, because it is basically an abomination for land that was once a part of Dar al-Islam, the land of Islam, to revert from that and go back to the Dar al-Har. Land of the unbeliever. Land of war. And that is what happened in Israel. It was, for a number of centuries, governed by Islam. And then, actually, only after World War I, with the defeat and the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, was it able to come out from under Muslim domination when it was turned over to the British.

And then, of course, Israel gained its independence in 1948. So it is an abomination in Islamic theology for land that was once under the control of Islam to break away from that and free itself from that.

So that is why they are so determined to bring Israel back under Islamic rule.

This is also why Osama bin Laden has made many public proclamations that the Muslim world should rise up and drive the Americans and the British and the Westerners out of the Middle East in its entirety. He's repeatedly called for that. That is also why, several years ago, very quietly, without notice, without fanfare, the United States withdrew all of its military forces from Saudi Arabia.

After saving them from Saddam Hussein, the gratitude, the thanks we get, was the Saudi government demanded that we remove all of our military forces from Saudi Arabia.

That's why we've established military bases instead in places like Qatar, United Arab Emirates.

But there are no U.S. military personnel on the ground in Saudi Arabia now, except for the few at the embassy and consulates there.

So all of this is when you tie it all together and understand that Islam is the driving force behind all of this. It helps us to understand what is really taking place in the world today. And make no mistake, Islam is seeing a resurgence. As we talked about in the earlier sermons, how Islam spread out from the Saudi Arabian Peninsula and took over, well, the area you can see on this map today. Areas with 50 percent or higher Muslim populations and then 10 to 50 percent in these other areas here. There are so many Muslim countries now, I don't remember the exact count. I think it's 47, 48, something like that, where the population is overwhelmingly Muslim, that they have a great deal of clout in the United Nations.

That influences a lot of the UN's decisions, particularly very prejudicial decisions relating to Israel. They also control much of the world's oil supply. And consequently, as a result of that, have their throats around the economies of many nations of the world, and not just the economies, but also the policies of those governments. Because they have to pay so much attention to the economy and the stranglehold that the Muslim world has on the world's oil supplies. And they are not going to stop. The clear teaching of Islam is that it is the supreme and only true religion, and that it will eventually win out over all other religions, and eventually the entire world will become Dar al-Islam, the land of Islam. I'd like to quote now two verses from the Quran to demonstrate this. I mentioned these earlier in the sermons, but we do need to be reminded exactly what the Quran says. Fight against them until idolatry is no more, and Allah's religion, or Islam, reigns supreme. That's chapter 2 verse 193. And again, to remind us, idolatry, and Islamic, as it's used in the Quran, and Islamic teaching, is any religion other than Islam. Christianity is viewed as idolatry because it does not worship Allah. It worships, in their view, three gods, as they view the Trinity teaching of Christianity. Christianity worships three gods. It worships a god. It worships Jesus. It worships the Holy Spirit. Therefore, Christians are idolaters because they are not worshipping Allah. They are worshipping three other gods. Another verse, Surah 61 verse 9, it is He, Allah, who is sent for His Apostle, Muhammad, with guidance and the true faith, the true faith, of course, Islam, so that He may exalt it above all religions, much as the idolaters may dislike it. And again, the idolaters are those who worship any god other than Allah. And lest you think they are not serious about this, some of you may know what this is. It's the flag of Saudi Arabia. You may have wondered, as I did, what this Arabic writing is up here, what that means, what it's translated as. And here's what it says, there is no god but Allah, and Muhammad is his prophet. And to underscore the point, there is a sword. The religion of Islam is to be spread by the sword. The message is unmistakable there. It makes their intentions quite plain. Now, in the first sermon in this series, this is part three. In the first one, we looked at the history of Muhammad and Islam. And then in the second, we looked at the beliefs about paradise, about hell, about the afterlife, and how that drives the thinking and the actions of many Muslims in the world today. So now what we'd like to do in this third part is to look at how Islam might affect the world in the time ahead. Where might these things that we've discussed and these fundamental beliefs lead Islam and the rest of the world? What might that mean in terms of the fulfillment of biblical prophecy, for example? Do we see some of these things reflected in Bible prophecy? I believe we do, so let's take a look at some of these. Let's turn first of all over to Psalm 83. Psalm 83. And this appears to be a prophecy that we could very easily see being fulfilled in today's climate in the Middle East. And what is intriguing about this prophecy is that the identity of both people and places are mentioned here.

People and places. And this is intriguing because some of these references are to people and some are to specific geographical places. And if you're familiar at all with the Middle East, this perfectly describes the attitudes of many people in that region and why peace remains such a long way off. So let's look at this psalm. Dissect several verses here. Psalm 83, verses 1-8. It reads, So what is the purpose of this conspiracy that is described here? It is to wipe out the name of Israel from the face of the earth. And what's particularly intriguing to me here is that it uses the name not of Judah, where the Jews who inhabit the land of Israel, but it uses specifically the name Israel, the modern-day name of the nation, where roughly half the world's Jewish population lives today. The people of Israel are primarily Jews from the tribe of Judah, one of the twelve tribes of Israel. So it's all the more intriguing that God here prophetically inspires the name of Israel to be used. Here is the name that these surrounding nations want to wipe out. I think it's interesting that God knew prophetically, at least the way I read this, that God knew that the Jews would name their state Israel here in the end time, in the time of this conspiracy that we're reading about here. Continuing on in verse 5, For they, these people that will be named, have consulted together with one consent. They form a confederacy against you. It's interesting here that the confederacy, or the conspiracy here, is actually against God himself. God himself. So who is part of this alliance here that is determined to wipe out the name of Israel, that it be remembered no more? We find it here, the different names in the next few verses. The Tints of Edom and the Ishmaelites, Moab and the Hagrites, Gebel, Ammon, and Amalek, Phyllistia, with the inhabitants of Tyre. Assyria also is joined with them. They have helped the children of Lot. Now these biblical names are significant when we understand the areas and the peoples that are being referred to here, and we look at them on a map. So let's take a look here and identify these people that are talked about here. Edom, or Edom, basically includes, as near as we can tell, what are today called the Palestinians, as well as some of the inhabitants of Turkey up here. I find it quite significant that after years of being an ally, basically, of Israel, just within the last few years, and actually within the last year, the last few months with the flotilla, you may remember from earlier in the summer, that Turkey has turned very much against Israel and is becoming more oriented with the interests of Iran.

They are a very sad development turn of events, but prophetically, I think it was bound to happen at some point. So the Ishmaelites are the descendants of Ishmael that are scattered basically throughout the whole Middle East, the Arab world. If you go there, the Arabs, you talk to them, they'll gladly admit that they are Ishmaelites, descendants of Ishmael. They are very proud of that. They view Ishmael as the chosen son, the rightful heir of Abraham there rather than Isaac. So they're very proud to admit that they are Ishmaelites. So that would be the Arab peoples scattered throughout the Middle East there. The Hagrites, you may remember Ishmael was the son of Abraham and Hagar. The Hagrites are apparently descendants of other children of Hagar, the mother of Ishmael. And these two would be people who are probably scattered throughout the general population of the Arab peoples. Gabel appears to refer to modern-day Jubel in Lebanon. It was anciently known as the city of Biblos. Incidentally, it's where we get the word Bible, Biblos, because it was an area of manufacturing books, papyrus, scrolls, that sort of thing. Ammon, of course, refers to northern Jordan, the area around the capital of Jordan, which is Ammon, which derives its name from Ammon as well. Amalek appears to refer to some of, again, what are today called, the Palestinians there. Phyllistia is the area of what today is called the Gaza Strip. That was the heart of ancient Phyllistia, and the city is there. It's incidentally ruled by a terrorist group, Hamas, today. You may have heard of them. Another area that's mentioned here, the city of Tyre. It was a major city-state in southern Lebanon, up in here. Today, Lebanon, like the Gaza Strip, is basically dominated by another terror group, the terror group Hezbollah. You may have wondered what Hezbollah means. Hezbollah means party in Arabic. Allah, Hezbollah, means party of God, party of Allah, there. It's a meaning of Hezbollah. Again, you don't hear that mentioned very much. Assyria is the next one mentioned, and that's quite an interesting reference, because in this list includes both peoples, as well as specific geographical spots, like Tyre and so on. Ethnically, we believe that Assyria refers to the inhabitants of Central Europe, primarily what is today Germany, who migrated there many centuries ago. However, in this particular context, I think a very strong case can be made that it could refer to the geographical area, what used to be the Assyrian Empire, and that is today known as Iraq. Again, this is something you don't hear in the news very much, but Iraq is very rabidly anti-Israel. Saddam Hussein, you may remember, used to pay the families of suicide bombers in Israel $25,000, which is a small fortune in that part of the world there because of his hatred of Israel. The next area that's mentioned is the Children of Lot. And again, the Children of Lot, of course, were Moab and Ammon, again, referring to some of the peoples of what is today Jordan.

So what this prophecy appears to be describing is a situation very much like that that we see today in existence today, in which Israel is surrounded on the north, on the east, and on the south by these different peoples who have formed a confederacy against them, determined to wipe them off the face of the earth. In the Arab world today, we are seeing a common purpose that is bringing together the Islamic fundamentalists, and that common purpose is to destroy the nation of Israel. They were quite open about it in many of those countries. And not just Israel, but as well its chief backer, which is the United States. We'll talk about that later on in the sermon today. And they are determined to destroy those because, again, Israel is an abomination in their sight, because it is land that was once a part of the Islamic empire, and it has reverted back to non-Islamic rule and the United States, because they see that as a predominant challenge, an obstacle to Islam. So we do definitely see the stage being set for this particular prophecy here in Psalm 83 to be fulfilled. Much of it is already in place. I think it's just a matter of time until the specific lineup of peoples and regions are on board in an out-and-out effort to destroy Israel. It's an underground effort right now, but eventually it is going to become quite public. Since string 2, the rest of this Psalm, Asaph, the author, basically says to God about these different people who are involved in this conspiracy. And he basically says, wife them all out so that they will learn their lesson and realize who the true God is, that you and you alone are the true God. I find that quite interesting because all of these peoples in these regions that we've talked about here, these countries are very heavily Islamic. By heavy, I mean 90 to 99 percent Islamic. Saudi Arabia, for instance, no other religion is allowed other than Islam. So it's 100 percent Islamic. So again, they are so firm in their conviction that Allah is the true God, that it will take something pretty drastic to shake them out of that belief, to wake them up and to help them to eventually unlearn everything they've ever known about Allah and to come to know the true God of the Bible. And I think that's why Asaph here says the things that he does. Let's take a look now at what is perhaps the most significant prophecy relating to the Middle East. And that's found in Daniel 11, beginning in verse 40. Let's take a look at this. This is a very crucial prophecy because it triggers a series of events that leads directly to a worldwide bloodbath and then directly to the return of Jesus Christ as the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.

So let's go through the last part of this prophecy. Daniel 11, verse 40. At the time of the end, the King of the South, so this gives us a clear time marker. At the time of the end, the King of the South shall attack him, and the King of the North shall come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots, horsemen, and with many ships. And he shall enter the countries, overwhelm them, and pass through. So clearly we see here that at the time of the end, another round of turmoil will engulf the Middle East. And this is clearly describing a full-fledged invasion of the Middle East. So what prompts this is that at the time of the end, the King of the South attacks the King of the North.

So who is this King of the South and King of the North? Daniel 11 is a very long prophecy. It covers events basically from Daniel's day all the way up to the return of Jesus Christ over something like a 2,600-year period.

Assuming Christ's return is quite imminent here. And in this prophecy he describes the ebbs and flows of power between different kings, different empires, different nations there over these centuries here. And Daniel uses these terms, King of the South and King of the North, several times. What do they mean?

As we understand, basically these terms refer to a series of leaders who would rule the areas respectively to the North and the South of Israel there. And they would occupy positions of power over these lands and, for a fair amount of this time, over the land of Israel as well.

For much of Daniel's prophecy, the early part at least, these terms are talking about the rulers based in Syria up to the North of Israel and in Egypt to the South. Those were the original kings of the North and the South. The generals of Alexander, who after he died, Alexander the Great's empire was split up among his generals.

One became the king of the North, Seleucid and his descendants, and the other, Ptolemy, became the king of the South, a ruler over Egypt. And those were the original kings of the North and the South. And then later, their descendants and other successors would become the prophetic kings of the North and the South over the next 26 centuries.

I won't go into all of that. We have our booklet, the Middle East and Vriable Prophecy. It has a fairly lengthy explanation of this prophecy, and you can go through that and understand who these various kings of the North and the South were throughout history.

What about today? Could these terms be applied to the rulers of Syria and to Egypt, the ancient kings of the North and South today? Well, not really, because today those are allies. They are brother Muslim Islamic nations who are allies. As a matter of fact, it wasn't too many decades ago they were united in what was called the United Arab Republic again under Nasser. We'll talk about him in a little while here.

Even though these are relatively strong regional powers, they're nowhere near enough to be the kind of dominant forces to take on the end time king of the North, for instance. Who could this end time king of the South be? I think he will be an Arab leader who will emerge at the end time. Since the Arab world is basically 100% Muslim, I think it's logical to conclude that he will be Muslim as well. Various Arab leaders have emerged over recent decades here. Let's take a look at some of them. One very popular Arab figure was, I mentioned a few minutes ago, Gamal Abdel Nasser, president of Egypt, who tried to unite all of the Arab peoples back in the 1950s and 60s. Some of you may remember that. Again, he allied himself with Syria to form the United Arab Republic during that time period. He was a very popular political leader, kind of the founder of Arab nationalism. The next major popular Islamic figure who arose was Ayatollah Khomeini, who of course led the revolution in Iran that overthrew the pro-Western Shah of Iran in 1979. He started the Islamic fundamentalist movement. A lot of terrorist movements were spawned by him, Hezbollah, Hamas, and various others. Too many to name or go through here. The fundamentalist Islamic state that he established literally transformed the Middle East today. The kind of terrorism and so on that was so minor before really came out into the open under the sponsorship of Ayatollah Khomeini and his successors. He was a spiritual or religious leader, unlike Nasser, who was a political leader.

More recently, the Arabs have found a new hero to rally behind, and that is none other than Osama bin Laden. He is a populist leader. He doesn't claim to be a religious leader, he doesn't claim to be a political leader. He claims to be a populist. So a lot of the Arab street, the Arab populations, Muslim populations around the world have rallied behind Osama bin Laden.

So the end time, the reason I mention these three leaders, a political leader, a religious leader, a populist leader, is that the end time king of the south may follow any one of these patterns. He may be religious, he may be populist, he may be political. All of these men were enormously popular in their time. And bin Laden, of course, today is here.

So considering the volatility of the Arab people in that part of the world, or Islamic world as a whole, it's quite easy to see a scenario in which popular movements supporting a new leader who might emerge could topple a government, a given government, with that collapse creating a domino effect, and the different secular Arab governments, like in Egypt and Jordan and so on. Falling one after another as their populations rise up and unite and rally behind whoever this end time king of the south can be. If you've ever gone to the Middle East, you see how much hero worship, basically, they have. You go there and you see the huge paintings covering the sides of entire apartment buildings, for instance.

Huge paintings, five or six stories high of Bashar Assad, for instance, in Syria, or King Abdullah in Jordan, or Mubarak, President Mubarak in Egypt. There's very much a hero worship there. There's totally unlike anything we see in the Western world. So they really place a great deal of confidence and pride in their different leaders. You can see this kind of idea taking hold and becoming contagious and spreading throughout those regions, and toppling the governments and uniting the Arab or Islamic world under an end time king of the south here. It's also crucial to note that many Muslims expect an Islamic Messiah in the end time.

It's an individual they refer to as the Mahdi. They expect an Islamic Messiah to arise in the end time. This isn't a universal belief among all Muslims, but I would say the majority of them do believe in this. This Mahdi will be a Muslim leader who, in their belief, will purify Islam and lead it to its rightful place as the dominant religion over the entire earth.

Muslims do take this belief very seriously. In Islamic history, about a dozen different men have arisen who proclaimed themselves to be the Mahdi, or were proclaimed to be the Mahdi by their followers. Just to illustrate, here's a graphic from an Islamic website depicting this Mahdi who is to rise up and take Islam to its rightful place in governing the world. Here are photographs of two men who rose up just within the last... Well, this is in the 1880s, this individual in Sudan, and this one in India. Both of them rose up and proclaimed themselves to be the Mahdi. As a matter of fact, the individual here...

How many of you have seen the movie, Cartoon? It was done back in the 60s, I believe. You may want to check it out of the library. I see Tony's the only individual old enough here to have seen that movie. He starred Sean Connery as the Mahdi, and Charlton Heston, I believe, is General Charles Gordon of the British Army. This Mahdi arose in Sudan and raised up an army and nearly drove the British out of Sudan and Egypt during that period.

Nearly defeated the British Empire. This was brought out quite well in the movie, Cartoon. You may want to watch that sometime. So this is very, very real. And the fervor and the zeal of his followers was really something unbelievable here. The most recent Mahdi to arise was in 1979, just a few decades ago. In 1979, this man and his followers took over the Grand Mosque in Mecca, the site of the Kaaba, which we talked about earlier here, where thousands, literally millions of Muslims go on the Hajj, their pilgrimage to Mecca.

Well, he and his followers took it over, and there was actually a gun battle there that killed 300 people because he proclaimed himself to be the Mahdi, to bring Islam to its rightful place as the religion to govern the entire world. So again, this is very much a real strain of thought in the Arabic world today. Some of you may remember back not that long ago, a few years ago, when the United States invaded Iraq, one of the major forces that they had to contend with was a group called the Mahdi Army.

The Mahdi Army. Why did they call themselves that? Because of their belief in the Mahdi. This end-time Islamic Messiah here. So this is very real. It's a very real part of their thinking, that this Mahdi will arise in a time of warfare and world turmoil and plagues and the appearance of the Antichrist. They believe in an Antichrist as well. At a time when the Muslims will rise up and throw all of the foreigners out of their lands, which again is what Bin Laden is continually proclaiming, telling the Muslims to do, to rise up and drive out the Crusaders, the Americans and the British as well.

So it could well be that this end-time King of the South will be one who will claim to be the prophesied Mahdi, who will unite much of the Arab world and Muslim world behind him.

And he may find himself then leading up to several hundred million eager Muslim followers in that time. So we don't know specifically who this leader will be, whether he's political, religious, secular, populist, whatever. But these are several different precedents for leaders rising up and several realistic possibilities that could happen. Someone like this Mahdi could literally arise at any moment in the Arab world. You might think of what happened with Ayatollah Khomeini, who just virtually came out of nowhere and overthrew the Republic of Iran and the Shah and transformed the entire Middle East there because of his religious beliefs here. What about the King of the North, then? Historically, the land of the ancient kings of the North were swallowed up by the Roman Empire, and Rome thus became the kingdom or its leaders, the King of the North. Don't have time to get into all of that. Again, you can read our Middle East booklet. But we'll just say that the King of the North, in the end time, is the leader of a federation of nations formed from a resurrection of the ancient King of the North, the Roman Empire, as prophesied in the books of Daniel and Revelation. We do see the early stages of that power forming right now, I believe, in the European Union in a preliminary form. The European nations are already united economically through the euro with the passage of the European Constitution. They are united more or less politically, and they're also working on a common European military force behind the scenes. It doesn't get much publicity, but it is taking place steadily. Its leaders regularly talk about it becoming the next superpower in that they intend to challenge the United States for supremacy of the world. This, of course, has been somewhat derailed lately because of the economic difficulties there of some of the European countries, Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Spain, and Greece.

But those economic difficulties may well be the exact kind of thing that whittles the European Union down to its final ten leaders who will unite and give their power to the end-time beast, as it's called in Revelation. So I don't think that the European Union, as it's constituted today, is the power that's prophesied here and in Revelation 17, but I do think it's very much a precursor of that final end-time power. And the leader of this end-time power is, as near as we can tell, the individual that the Bible refers to as the king of the north of this resurrected end-time Roman Empire. So again, we don't know the specific identities of these individuals, but we do have a very good idea of the specific roles that they will occupy and possibly the conditions that will lead to them emerging into those roles. That will lead directly up to the return of Jesus Christ. Now, I might interject here that a number of people have asked me if it's possible that this end-time king of the north could be the leader of an Islamic power. Because after all, part of the area occupied by the Roman empires today heavily Islamic, like Turkey, for instance. And while in some ways that might seem to make sense in Bible prophecy, I just don't think it's possible. And here's why. It's because 2 Thessalonians 2 and verse 4, we won't turn there, but you could write it down. 2 Thessalonians 2, 4 says of this individual that he sits in the temple of God, sits as God in the temple of God, referring to Jerusalem, showing himself or proclaiming that he is God.

Now, this is why I do not see any way that this individual could be a Muslim. Because as we saw in earlier sermons, Muslims view Allah as infinitely beyond the human plane. One of the greatest sins in Islam is a concept that is called shirk, S-H-I-R-K, and that means to equate or to view Allah as human in any way or on the human plane. So for an individual to rise up and to proclaim himself to be God to a Muslim, that is just absolute blasphemy of the most horrible sort. And I think if any Muslim rose up and proclaimed himself to be God, the most likely outcome is that, frankly, he would be immediately killed by other Muslims around him. So I do not see any way possible that the end time King of the North could be Muslim. It just violates some of the most fundamental beliefs of the Islamic religion. So let's go back to Daniel 40 and pick up a few more verses here.

So why would the King of the South, lands that are in the heart of the Muslim world, attack the King of the North? Now remember again that in the Islamic mind, in the Islamic worldview, Islam is destined to eventually rule the world. So this should not come as a surprise. It has to happen if Islam is to attain its true destiny as the dominant and only religion in the world. So let's take a look here at a map, and I might refer back to what I said about Israel, that it is an abomination for land that was once under Islamic rule to leave that.

Now if we notice this map here, which shows the expansion of the Islamic Empire, the darker area by 70 AD in the first wave of Islamic expansion, and then later by 1500 AD in its second wave. And you'll notice that much of southeastern Europe here, the whole area of Greece, Serbia, Yugoslavia, all of this area is once under Islamic control. As was Spain and Portugal, the entirety of them, ruled by Islam for several centuries. Also parts of Italy and Sicily were under Islamic rule. So again, the Muslims are determined to take over those areas that were once under Islamic control there.

I'd like to share a few quotes about what some Islamic leaders say about this. This quote is from Muammar Gaddafi, the leader of Libya. There are signs that Allah will grant Islam victory in Europe without swords, without guns, without conquests. The 50 million Muslims of Europe will turn it into a Muslim continent within a few decades. And another Islamic leader, this is Yunus Al-Astal, who's a Muslim cleric and a member of the Palestinian parliament. He says, very soon, Allah willing, Rome will be conquered, just like Constantinople was today in Istanbul. As was prophesied by our prophet Muhammad.

Today, Rome is the capital of the Catholics, or the Crusader capital, which has declared its hostility to Islam and has planted the brothers of apes and pigs —a very derogatory term to her about the Jews—and Palestine, in order to prevent the reawakening of Islam.

Again, referring to Rome, this capital of theirs will be an advanced post for the Islamic conquest, which will spread through Europe in its entirety, and then will turn to the two Americas and even Eastern Europe. And I might mention that my wife and my mother and I spent several days in Rome after the feast in Italy this year, and we stayed at a hotel only three blocks from the main bus and rail and subway hub of Rome.

And just on the block that our hotel was on, there were, I counted, at least six Islamic businesses within one block. One was even called the Pakistan Market, I believe was the name of it. And there were several Muslim fast food stores along there.

We passed literally dozens of Muslims on the streets there. This is in the heart of Rome today, there, where Muslims obviously have a big foothold there. Another quote here from Ali Al-Fakr, the Jordanian minister for religious endowment. Islamic lands that were occupied by the enemies will once again become Islamic. Again, referring to lands that come out of the control of Islam. Furthermore, we will reach beyond these countries, which are lost at one point. We proclaim that we will conquer Rome like Constantinople was conquered once.

America will come to its end, and they have begun to realize that their end is near. So Muslims very clearly have designs on taking over Europe. And it's not something that they see as far off, as centuries off in the future. They're viewing it as imminent, something that will take place very shortly. Some of you may have seen various emails of these signs from Muslim protesters. This is in London, and these are British Muslims carrying these signs.

You might notice some of these. Islam will conquer Rome. Jesus is the slave of Allah. And again, these signs show their true intentions and their theology here. And in case you're wondering, these photos are not faked. I've seen the same photos on the photographic sources that we use to buy photos for our publications. Notice some of these. Islam will dominate the world. Sharia, Sharia law, talked about that in an earlier sermon, the true solution.

Freedom go to hell. Same sentiments that are expressed there. Some more signs. Europe is the cancer. Islam is the answer. Another one. May Allah curse the Pope. Trinity of evil. Pope go to hell. Jesus will rise the sword of Islam. Talked about that briefly in an earlier sermon. In Islamic theology, Jesus will return as a Muslim. And he will help convert the world to Islam, and he will slay all of those who do not convert to Islam.

That is what this sign is referring to here, calling him the sword of Islam. Again, may Allah curse the Pope. And some more signs. Let's see, that says, Yeah, Europe, you'll come crawling when the Mujahideen come calling. Mujahideen are those who were engaged in jihad, holy war. Kill those who insult Islam. Liberalism go to hell. Again, Europe is the cancer. Islam is the answer. Butcher those who mock Islam. Behead those who insult Islam. Yeah, Europe, you'll come crawling when Mujahideen come roaring. Here's an interesting one. Europe, you will pay Fantastic Four are on their way. You may remember the movie The Fantastic Four that came out several years ago.

British Muslims dubbed The Fantastic Four, applied that name to the suicide bombers who carried out the attacks on the Lubdon subway system and the bus system there, killing several dozen Britons and injuring hundreds more. They dubbed those suicide bombers The Fantastic Four. So that's what that sign is referring to there. So again, this is some of the mindset of Muslims toward Europe, as evidenced by their own signs, their own words, their own public proclamations there.

So whatever this attack is that happens at the time of the end does trigger a massive retaliation from the forces of the King of the North. Possibly it's a set of terrorist actions like these that took place in London or in Spain or in Germany or some of the other areas there, some of the other attacks that have been thwarted on those areas. Whatever it is, it does lead to the King of the North launching an all-out invasion of North Africa.

So continuing the story here in Daniel 11, verse 41, He, the King of the North, shall also enter the glorious land, so he enters the Holy Land of Israel. And many countries shall be overthrown, but these shall escape from his hand, Edom, Moab, and the prominent people of Ammon. So this is referring to the Jordanians. For some reason, he does not take over that land. He will stretch out his hand against the countries, and the land of Egypt shall not escape. So this is another area that he takes over.

He shall have power over the treasures of gold and silver and over all the precious things of Egypt. Also the Libyans and Ethiopians shall follow at his heels.

So let's look at this on a map. It comes down, takes over Egypt, takes over Ethiopia, which is down here, and obviously Sudan, which is in between them, but anciently was divided between Egypt and Ethiopia. Invades to Holy Land, the glorious land. Invades Libya over here to the west of Egypt. For some reason, he does not take over Jordan, or all of the area of Jordan at least. So this helps us see the areas that are being described here in this area.

Let's see, what else did I want to mention there? Oh yes, why does the King of the North invade these specific areas here? I think the obvious answer is, presumably, that is where the attack comes from.

Just as the United States first invaded Afghanistan after 9-11, because that was the center of power for al-Qaeda, which was behind the 9-11 attacks, I think it's safe to assume that whatever attacks come toward, from the King of the South toward the King of the North, come out of this area. Or perhaps this is also where the King of the South is centered, and they come in to take him out of power. I just do not know, but I think either of those is a possible logical explanation for why he invades this particular area. I do find it interesting, we have tended to assume in the past that they attack and invade because of oil. However, Libya is the only one of those areas that is mentioned that has any sizable oil at all. The oil is primarily over here in Iraq, in Iran, in Saudi Arabia, and none of those areas are mentioned, as being taken over by the King of the North. So this indicates to me that the reasons for invading are something different, that it's probably religious there, that this is at its heart a religious conflict, and that's what is driving the attack against the King of the North and the King of the North counter-attacking into these particular areas. Let's see, verse 44, continuing in the story, But news from the east and the north shall trouble him, the King of the North. Therefore he shall go out with great fury to destroy and annihilate many. And he shall plant the tents of his palace between the seas and the glorious holy mountain, referring to Jerusalem. Yet he shall come to his end, and no one will help him. That's referring to his eventual destruction by Jesus Christ. And for lack of time, I won't go through more details about this. You can read more about it again in our Middle East booklet. But basically from this point on, we have a European-centered power led by the King of the North, occupying the Holy Land and Jerusalem in a large swath of North Africa. And then news from the east and from the north troubles him, and he goes out with fury to destroy and annihilate many. Now if you look beyond this area to the east and to the north, what do you see? Well, again, you see a huge swath of Islamic countries. To the north of Israel, we have Lebanon, Syria, Turkey. Going east, you have Jordan, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iran, Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Pakistan. You have 200 million Muslims in India. So you have just these huge millions and millions of Muslims all around there. And I think probably what happens is when the King of the North invades here, that they are all, if they are not united already by the Mahdi or some other figure, that they come together to counterattack him.

At this point. And further out, beyond these areas, of course, to the north, you have Russia. And further to the east, you have China, two other hugely populous areas as well. In the Book of Revelation, we appear to see two different alliances. First, we have, described in Revelation 9, a 200 million-man army that comes against the King of the North. And again, we have millions and millions of Muslims in this area. There are 200 million Muslims just in India, which is basically a Hindu nation.

But there are 200 million Muslims there. And then later, in Revelation 16, we have another large force that is led by what are called a series of kings. And both of these forces come and cross the Euphrates River here in Iraq, heading toward the Holy Land, with the result that eventually a third of humanity is wiped out. Just before Jesus Christ gathers the massive armies that turn against Him at His return. And again, I want to go into more details. You can read about it in the Middle East Booklet. I would like to shift gears here for the remaining part of this sermon.

In the prophecies that we've just read about this end-time European-centered superpower, and the powers from the Muslim world and the armies that gather for this end-time conflict here, apparently from the former Soviet Union and Communist China, as well as the Muslim world, for that matter they're mentioned several times in the Book of Revelation. But in the prophecies of Daniel and Revelation, we do not see any power that is identifiable as the United States. And I think the only conclusion we can draw from that is that the United States is gone as a world power by this time.

By the time we see these particular events in prophecy being fulfilled. And an obvious question to ask is, what happens? What happens to the United States? Various prophecies give some pretty strong hints. Deuteronomy 28, you may want to read that. It's the Blessings and Curses chapter. It talks about, among other things, diseases, epidemics, drought that kills crops, military defeats, oppression, captivity, and other things. Leviticus 26, another chapter, says essentially the same thing, and adds also plagues of wild beasts, presumably because the land is largely depopulated. It talks about the desolation of cities and towns and highways.

It mentions specifically terror and faint-heartedness. Ezekiel 5, another sobering chapter, talks about a third of the population dying of pestilence and famine, a third dying by the sword, and a third being scattered to the wind and pursued by enemies. This is very sobering stuff, very frightening reading, and something or some combination of events brings the United States down at the end time. Right now, it would be absolute insanity for any country to attack the United States militarily. It would be suicide because our military is basically as strong as the entire rest of the world put together.

And then, of course, we have a huge arsenal of nuclear weapons as well, so no one could survive an all-out attack against the United States. They would be insane or suicidal to try that. Or would they? As we've seen from these sermons, the Muslim mindset is very different from ours.

To them, waging jihad against the infidel is a religious obligation. As we talked about last time, the only sure way for a Muslim to enter paradise is to die as a martyr and waging jihad. That's what they read in their holy books. So if they die in jihad, that is a positive thing, not a negative thing in their thinking. They openly say that they love death and are willing to die for Islam.

I'd like to read to you a quote from Iran's former president. This is Hashimi Rassanjani, who is considered a moderate leader of Iran. He said, if one day the Islamic world is also equipped with weapons like those that Israel possesses now, he's referring to nuclear weapons, then the imperialist strategy will reach a standstill because the use of even one nuclear bomb inside Israel will destroy everything. However, it will only harm the Islamic world. It is not irrational to contemplate such an eventuality. So in other words, what this moderate leader is saying is that in a nuclear exchange between Israel and the Muslim world, if it comes to the point of Muslims acquiring nuclear weapons, that just one nuclear bomb inside Israel will destroy everything because Israel is such a small country.

However, if Israel retaliated, it could only harm the Islamic world. It would not destroy the Islamic world, whereas the hated Jewish state would be annihilated.

And besides, in a nuclear exchange like that, all of the Jews would go to hell. In Islamic theology, and all of the Muslims who would die would go to paradise. So you win either way in their theology. If you die in Jihad in a nuclear war against the Israelis, you win either way. You wipe out the Jews, and if you die, you get to go to paradise.

What about his successor? Rafsanjani was succeeded by an individual by the name of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the current president of Iran, who is stringing the entire world along as he pursues developing nuclear weapons. He's made no secret of his hatred for Israel. Since he became president in August of 2005, he's made repeated threats to eliminate Israel. Let's notice a few. In 2005, Israel must be wiped off the map. 2006, the basic problem in the Islamic world is the existence of the Zionist regime, referring to Israel. And the Islamic world and the region must mobilize to remove this problem. 2007, the United States and the Zionist regime of Israel will soon come to the end of their lives. 2008, the world powers established this filthy bacteria, the Zionist regime, which is lashing out at the nations in the region like a wild beast. 2009, this regime, Israel, will not last long. This regime has no future. Its life has come to an end.

2010, Israel is the most hated regime in the world. With Allah's grace, this regime will be annihilated. There. Again, that's one quote per year since he's been in office. He's made many others. I just selected these.

Now keep in mind also that to him, Israel is what he calls the Little Satan, along with Britain. Britain is a Little Satan. Israel is a Little Satan. You may remember years ago when they were calling the United States the Great Satan. Why use that term? But to be honest, Satan is two things, and it agrees largely with a Hebrew word for Satan.

It means an adversary, as we understand the world. It also means an evil spiritual entity. And in their thinking, the United States is both. It is an adversary because the United States, being the world's lone superpower right now, is the primary obstacle to Islam achieving its destiny of becoming the dominant religion of the entire world.

It is also an evil spiritual power because of American culture, because of our acceptance of gay rights, of homosexuality, of adultery, and fornication, and the pornography, and all the filth that we see in our media that gets exported all around the world. They view the United States as a totally immoral and corrupting force for the entire world. So when they call the United States the Great Satan, those are the two things that they have in mind. And therefore, the United States must be brought down. And I don't say that lightly. Does Ahmadinejad believe this? Again, going back to his 2006 quote, is it possible for us to witness... Excuse me, this is a different quote. Is it possible for us to witness a world without America and Zionism? You had best know that this slogan and this goal are attainable and surely can be achieved. He said this at a conference that was entitled, The World Without Zionism, there, held in Iran in 2006. And again, his quote, is it possible for us to witness a world without America and Zionism? This goal, the slogan and this goal are attainable and surely can be achieved. I'd like to draw your attention to a particular graphic here that dominates the background. Here's Ahmadinejad on stage. And notice this hourglass back here. It has a globe at the top. And it's signifying that time is running out. So let's take a closer look at this globe here. And we see a ball falling and it's probably evident. You can see it's a white ball with a blue star of David on it. Obviously symbolizing that time is running out for Israel. But notice another ball down here. Let's take a closer look at that ball. It's painted in the stars and stripes, the United States. And it's broken lying there. And the Jewish state falling after. This one has already fallen. What's the message? The United States has to go down first. Then we can get rid of Israel. Symbolism is very important. And it's very clear here what he's saying here. The great Satan must come down first. And then the little Satan's, like Israel, will be no problem. Another teaching of Israel that I did not cover earlier is what is called Dawah. D-A-W-A-H. Dawah. It basically means that a Muslim leader is obligated to invite his enemies, the infidels, to convert to Islam before he can wage war on them. On September 29, 2009, Ahmadinejad addressed the United Nations General Assembly, the entirety of the representatives of the world. And he did exactly this. He openly urged the gathered world leaders to convert to Islam. But because our reporters, our news media, and our government officials are so clueless about Islam, they had no idea what was going on and why he was saying the things that he did, and that this is an obligation before Muslims declare war against their enemies. I'd like to read to you some excerpts from that speech.

Here's part of what he said. We emphasize that the only path to remain safe is to return to monotheism. And of course, in their religion, that means Islam, and justice. And this is the greatest hope and opportunity in all ages and generations.

Without belief and Allah and commitment to the cause of justice and fight against injustice and discrimination, in other words, accepting and converting to Islam, the world structure cannot be put right. Now, unless you think this is an aberration, he essentially said the same thing in his UN addresses in 2008, a year earlier, in 2007, a year before that. You can go out on the Internet and look up his UN speeches and read it for yourself. They're not very long. He also wrote private letters to George Bush when he was president and to Angela Merkel of Germany, doing the same thing, inviting them to convert to Islam. I assume he's also done the same with Barack Obama. I do not know. So in his mind, he has fulfilled the obligation of Doha, to invite your enemies to convert to Islam before you wage war on them. He has invited the entire world. So in Islamic theology, he is now free. He's invited three times, 2007, 8 and 9, invited the entire world to convert to Islam. And they've refused. So now in Islamic theology, he is free to wage war on anyone in the world that he so chooses. This should be very sobering for us to realize what he was doing. And again, our government officials and our media are clueless about these teachings of Islam. So you never saw this reported. But you can find the speeches and read it for yourself. We also need to realize that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad adheres to a somewhat unusual strain of Shiite Muslim theology that believes in what is called the Hidden Imam.

The Hidden Imam was the 12th successor of Muhammad. So his followers are called Twelvers after the Twelfth Imam. Again, this sounds absurd to us, but they take it deadly seriously. This Twelfth Imam was born in the year 868 or 869. And then he disappeared at about age 5 or 6 in the year 874. He disappeared without a trace. He was the last male direct descendant of Muhammad.

Now the Shiites believe, Shiites Muslims believe that this boy survived and has been in hiding all of these years since 874. That he's still alive and in hiding. That's why he's called the Hidden Imam. Now some believe that he will be this Mahdi, this Islamic Messiah who will arise and unite Islam and lead it to its rightful place as the only religion over the world. Now his followers believe that it's their duty to bring chaos to the world and that out of this chaos will come a clash of civilizations between Dar al-Islam and Dar al-Harb. And this will hasten the coming of the Mahdi or the Hidden Imam. Now how does this play out in the real world? Again, it sounds absurd to us, but they're deadly serious about it.

It means that Ahmadinejad is not going to enter into any meaningful agreement that will prevent him from getting nuclear weapons. You can bet your life on it. It means that any agreements he makes are going to be exactly what we've seen for years now, which is playing for time, trying to appease the West while he continues with all of these underground efforts to develop nuclear weapons until they do become a full-blown nuclear power. Does Ahmadinejad really believe this? I'd like to quote again from his 2009 speech to the UN. I'd like to quote his opening words here. And again, to illustrate their belief, this is a graphic from an Islamic website of the Hidden Imam that they're waiting for. So it began his UN speech, So here before the entire UN, he is praying for the quick arrival of the Hidden Imam and his victory, his victory being and leading Islam to its rightful place as the world religion. And again, our people, our reporters are clueless about this. But you can bet that the representatives of the Muslim world who understood, who were there, sitting here listening to these words, knew exactly what he was saying. He closed his UN speech with these words, There will come a time when justice will prevail across the globe and every single human being will enjoy respect and dignity. That will be the time when mankind's path to moral and spiritual perfection will be opened and his journey to Allah will come true. These will all come true under the rule of the perfect man, the last divine source on earth, the great Mahdi, an offspring of the prophet of Islam, who will re-engage, and Jesus Christ and other noble men will accompany him in the accomplishment of this grand universal mission. They will come to put an end to war and aggression and bring complete knowledge as well as spirituality and friendship to the whole world. Continuing, yes indeed, this bright future for mankind will come. Dear friends, in waiting for that brilliant time to come and in a collective commitment, let's make our due contributions to paving the way and preparing the conditions for building that bright future. Allah's peace and blessings be upon you all. So he is stating here before the entire world exactly what he believes, that the hidden imam will come and come soon, that he is the perfect man, that he is the descendant of Muhammad, that he will establish peace on earth through Islam, becoming the supreme religion over the earth, that Jesus Christ will return as a Muslim to help establish Islam over the earth, and that he, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, will be in the forefront of paving the way and preparing the conditions for all this to happen. He lays it all right there, all right out there for the world to see in his speech. But if you don't understand the background of Islam and what he believes, you have no clue what he's talking about. But again, read the speech yourself.

So what do you think will happen then when Iran finally does get nuclear weapons? He's told us. He's told us his goal is to wipe out Israel, and before that, to bring down the United States. He's given the whole world the invitation to convert to Islam. He's told us his intentions, which again, bring down Israel, bring down the United States, pave the way for the Mahdi to come, and to lead Islam to victory over the entire world. I don't have time to go into detail, but it is a fact that terror groups like Al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden have been obsessed with trying to get nuclear weapons to use against the United States.

There's a book you can read called The Day of Islam by Paul Williams, a very frightening book, and he believes that they already have several nuclear weapons. That they're just waiting for the time to smuggle them into the United States or detonate them. And the author also says that it's the goal of Osama bin Laden to bring down the United States in one day. You may remember the 9-11 attacks and how devastating those were.

But what most people don't realize is that the original plan was to bring down the United States in one day. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who's a guest down at Guantanamo Bay, spilled the beans on this when he was waterboarded there. And what he did was he was the mastermind behind the 9-11 attacks on bin Laden's behalf. And he revealed that the original plan was to get something like 20 planes and to crash them not only into the Twin Towers, two planes there in the Pentagon, and the fourth plane, you may remember, crashed in the field in Pennsylvania.

It was headed probably for the White House or the Capitol. They wanted to take that out as well. Also, the original plan was to take out the White House, the Capitol Building, when the Senate and House were in session. To hit Wall Street, to hit the Sears Tower in Chicago, to hit other major landmarks in Boston, Atlanta, Dallas, Los Angeles, Seattle, places all over the country. And to decapitate the U.S. government, the military, and to destroy the economy all in one day. That was the plan. They fully intended to bring down the United States.

But the reason they weren't able to pull this off is because the CIA was getting wind of this plot. And they were starting to tail and infiltrate and so on. And as a result, they had to move their plan forward. And as a result, they were only able to get N-20 hijackers into the country and hijack four planes instead of several dozen hijackers and being able to take out hijack 20 planes at once and bring down the United States.

They weren't able to do that, but even so, they have forever changed the United States with the attacks of 9-11. I might also mention that Iran has also already conducted a dry run for what could be an EMP attack. EMP stands for electromagnetic pulse. It's a byproduct of a nuclear detonation. And what happens? It sends out essentially an electronic shockwave that fries every electronic, every piece of electronic that's connected to the grid, anything controlled by computers. What would happen in an EMP attack is that all TVs, all radios, the internet, all phones, all cell phones, all computers, all vehicles, because they have computers in them, all trucks, all cars, all locomotives, all aircraft, all lights, all water, all sewage systems, all electricity, all traffic lights, all of the transportation system, all the communication system, all of the food distribution system, all heating, all air conditioning, everything, police departments, fire departments, emergency personnel, the U.S.

military, it all shuts down, and a country goes back to the 1800s in an instant that fast as a result of an EMP attack. And there's no way, the worst part is there's no way to restore it because there's no manufacturing capacity to rebuild all of that again. All the electronics are permanently fried. They're melted. Everything connected to the electrical grid in your home is fried and will never be restored again, not for the next 10, 20 years or so, because there's no way to remanufacture that, to recreate it.

That's what happens in an EMP attack. A truly frightening book I read recently is called One Second After. One Second After, and it's a scenario built. It's a book built upon this scenario here. It describes what would happen to the country in the event of an EMP attack. I won't give you away the rest of the story, but in the end of that, they find out that terrorists were able to bring down the entire United States with three nuclear devices.

Three. Launched from cargo ships off the Atlantic coast, off the Pacific coast, and off the Gulf of Mexico. And were able to destroy the entire country by that. What happens when everything goes down? Everybody runs out of food within a week or so. There's about three days worth of food in our grocery stores at any given time. And then it's about three days, and then it's every man, every person for himself. After that, within weeks, 90% of the population starves to death. That's the grim reality of it. But that is exactly what Makbodak Badinajag would like to do to the United States.

And as I mentioned, he's already carried out a dry run for this, launching missiles from a freighter and detonating them at an optimal altitude for maximum damage over the United States. Again, I'm not saying this is going to happen, but I am saying that this is exactly what Makbodak Badinajag is planning to happen and what he says he's going to do. What he's going to do. If he gets nuclear weapons here. Again, you can read Deuteronomy 28, Leviticus 26, and Ezekiel 5. It's scary stuff. And it sounds an awful lot like that scenario, though. It's very scary and it's very real. And the science is very real.

So, again, time will tell how things will play out and what does ultimately bring down the United States and the other Western powers here. But that is one scenario, and we have one person telling us that's exactly what he intends to do. So, time will tell how all of this plays out. But this does wrap up this series on Islam, its history, its beliefs, and how that may tie in with Bible prophecy and what happens in the time ahead.

I know this is sobering, and I don't like to leave you on a down note, but that is the reality of the world that we live in. That is the reality of Bible prophecy that we are going to enter. A time of global turmoil and catastrophe unlike anything that the world has ever witnessed before. And I think Islam will play a very major role in all of that. So, what I've tried to help you to understand in this series of sermons is the thinking and the historical background and the motivations of Islam and how those factors may play out and the fulfillment of Bible prophecy.

And to emphasize that we do appear to see the stage being set for these prophecies to be fulfilled.