I remember the moment it dawned on me. It was probably 20 years ago or more. I was sitting in church on a Sunday evening. The missionary to Germany was showing slides, German culture, German people, ministry in Germany. And then he said it.
“Islam is the fastest growing religion in Germany.”
It was really more like hitting a wall than experiencing a dawning. It struck through my being.
Catholicism is not the Whore of Babylon. Islam is. If Islam were growing in Germany, it would also be growing all over Europe, which includes Italy, which includes Rome.
I come from a Christian tradition where, especially 20 or so years ago, this revelation would have met with disdain. I suppose that most people who have grown up steeped in the idea that someday Rome in the form of Catholicism would be the great false church of Revelation would find my idea ridiculous at the least and unbiblical at its worst.
But this week, Dale Hurd of CBN News is reporting that ISIS has formulated a plan to take over Rome and establish the apocalyptic Islamic state. The goal is to bring about Armageddon–to fulfill, not Christian prophecy, but Islamic prophecy.
“Muslim scholars say Muhammed prophesied that the two great Roman cities would be conquered: Constantinople and Rome. Constantinople is now Istanbul, a Muslim city.
Rome remains to be conquered.
‘Once Rome is conquered, in this view, within the next five years, then Israel will follow shortly after. They also believe that during this time period they’re also going to conquer Saudi Arabia and Iran,’ [author Robert] Spencer said.”
New York Times columnist Ross Douthat explains that ISIS may not be able to survive. Then Douthat draws an analogy between ISIS the Bolshevik uprisings in Russia. ISIS looks like the “pariah” state that Soviet Russia once was. But a “generation later, that pariah was a global superpower.”
The great nations of the world were war weary and overlooked the Russian bear until the bear was much more than a cub.
My decades’ old Sunday evening musings might still seem silly if not for the thousands of refugees flooding Europe now and the ones who have been pouring in over the last couple of decades. At least one news source asserts that what has been happening in Italy, the nation that surrounds the world’s tiniest nation, the Vatican, is an invasion. This invasion is largely unrelated to human rights abuses in Iran and war in Syria. And Italy is doing very little to sort the terror threats out of the teeming crowds of authentic refugees.
I am not asserting or denying that Armageddon is coming as fast as ISIS hopes it will. Further, I am not asserting that Islamic prophecy is equal to biblical prophecy–just that a large group of highly motivated terrorists want to make it come true. And they have had more success and increased their influence more than anyone could have dreamed 20 years ago.
No, I am not an expert in biblical prophecy, but I am a student of Christianity. What’s happening here is easy to see. Resisting unity with Catholics because of this now debunked myth helps pave the way for a new kind of bear.
Catholicism is not the Whore of Babylon. Radical Islam is.
Disclosure of Material Connection: I have not received any compensation for writing this post. I have no material connection to the entities I have mentioned. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”