Tonight was Part 5 (I believe the last) in a series on Islam by Dr. Richard Wells at South Canyon Baptist Church in Rapid City. Tonight's topic: Islam in Prophecy. Below are my notes from this evening.
Dr. Wells said understanding Islam is important, in addition to our relations with the millions of Muslims around the world and the many Islamic countries, because of the differenced between the faith of the Bible and the religion of Islam.
Wells said Isaiah 44 is a foundational passage for the doctrine of predictive biblical prophecy. One of the reasons for predictive prophesy is to prove and authenticate that what God says is reliable. Wells said that divination is a pagan method for attempting to predict future events, but God “makes fools of diviners.”
The Bible is filled with prophecies and makes many claims that God predicts many things that have not yet happened in order to prove that he is God. But is there prophecy in Islam? No, there is no prophecy in Islam.
In Surah 30, the Qur’an references what sounds like a prophecy regarding the defeat of “the Romans” and some later rejoicing of “the believers,” but it is not. This is the closest thing to a prophecy in the Qur’an.
Wells said this passage referenced the Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantium) and the conflict between it and the Persian Empire. In 611, the Persians were growing in strength and took over many of the lands once held by the Byzantine Empire. Mohammed was relating this, supposedly from one of his visions, but he would have known of these events without the help of a vision. The wording of this passage, however, is unclear whether the Romans (Christians, i.e. “believers?”) or the Muslims would rejoice. About 10 years later, the Romans did retake some of this area, but this back-and-forth of territory had been going on for some time, and the language of the passage left it unclear who would be victorious.
Wells said that unlike the Bible, there is also no hint of prophecy anywhere in the Qur’an that has anything to do with great events in the world. The Bible foretells the coming of the Middle Eastern empires, the Greeks, the Romans, and specific detail about the coming of Christ.
Some Muslims claim there are prophecies in the Bible that affirm Islam. Wells said that he doesn’t mean to make light, but that pointing to the Bible to affirm the Qur’an, which has no prophecy in it, just isn’t plausible.
In Deut. 18, there is a prophecy of a coming great prophet and says he will be “like Moses.” Some Muslims says this refers to Mohammed, but the passage actually says this prophet will come from among the Jews.
Another supposed prophecy that affirms Islam is also in Deuteronomy, and has to do with Mohammed coming from Haran. But this idea is preposterous in that the only connection is that Moses came out of Sinai.
The third prophecy is a reference from Jesus himself in John 14:16 where Jesus says the Father will send another helper who will remain with us forever. Jesus was referring to the Holy Spirit, but Muslims say this referred to Mohammed. They say this because the word used for the Holy Spirit is similar to another word which is similar to “Mohammed.” However, there are 5,300 Greek manuscripts containing this passage and none contain the word Muslims say is used here.
Wells said that Islam is definitely referred to in the Bible. There are at least four types of prophecies in the Bible relating to Islam.
The first is the “macro prophecy.” In Genesis 12 we have the call of Abram (or Abraham) to be the father of the people of Israel. In verse three it says that God will bless those who bless his people and curse those who curse his people, and that all people of the earth will be blessed through Abraham’s lineage. Muslims say that this lineage is through Abraham’s son Ishmael (from whom the Arabs are descended), but the Bible is incredibly clear that this promise is through Abraham’s son Isaac. Meanwhile, the Islamic word is bitterly opposed to the very existence of the nation of Israel. We have all recently heard the president of Iran vowing to exterminate Israel, and he is working on gaining nuclear weapons.
The second kind of prophecy is in Genesis 16 where we have the account of Hagar leaving Abraham’s camp after Ishmael is conceived. The angel of God finds Hagar and says to her that her son will be “a wild donkey of a man, and his hand will be against everyone, and everyone’s hand will be against him, and he will live in hostility toward all his brothers.” Recall that Islam is a religion of the sword, which has expanded by the power of the sword, through conquest. And even within the world of Islam, there is great infighting. We see this in Iraq, between the Sunni’s and Shiits who are trying to kill each other. And there was the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s.
In Ezekiel 38 and 39 are prophecies that deal with the end times. Scholars debate on exactly when this will take place, but it seems to involve Islam. Some translations refer to the prince of “Rosh” which can mean chief or head, but there were once a people known as the Roshians. They weren’t Russians, but they were from the far north. This passage says Persia (Iran), Cush (Ethiopia), and Put (Libya) would form an alliance. It also mentions Gomer, which is probably Turkey, and the central Asian region. These areas all encompass the areas of the traditional Islamic empire. Gog and Magog are leading in this military effort. Many scholars believe this represents Russia. And we know from the events of recent years, the Russians are involved in helping Iran, Iraq and possibly other Muslim countries.
This passage also seems to refer to Israel, as people are gathered to Israel from across the earth just as Israel was re-established as a nation in 1948 after it was a “continual waste” from the time the Romans wiped out the Jewish nation in 70 AD. It also refers to a land of “unwalled cities” which was unthinkable in ancient times.
The last kind of prophecy referring to Islam in the Bible involves Daniel chapter 2. Here is the prophecy of the great image that Nebuchadnezzar saw in his dream, a figure with a head of gold (Babylon), silver (Medo-Persians), bronze (Alexander the Great), and iron (Romans). In Daniel 2:44 it says that in the days of the Roman Empire, God will set up a kingdom which will never be destroyed (i.e. that it will ultimately triumph). The coming Kingdom that Christ preached about is this kingdom, and it began with Christ’s coming.
Islam by its nature has to dominate everything it comes in contact with. America remains a religious nation, despite its growing secularism, and represents Christianity. The total value of all Islamic exports from all Islamic country (excluding oil), is equal to Finland. It produces nothing except war.
For Israel to be re-established after all these years and to thrive the way it has, is unbearable to Muslims.
Wells closed with a story about his translator during his recent trip to teach in Russia. The translator was an Azerbaijani man. There was a lot of unrest in Azerbaijan several years ago involving Muslims (it’s a predominately Muslim country) who went on a campaign with the specific purpose of eradicating all Armenians, who are historically Christians. This mans’ parents decided they had to leave because they were in the path of this slaughter, and his parents had to explain to this boy that the Muslims are determined to eradicate Christians. However, since the Armenians had drifted from a vital faith in Christ, the boy had to ask his parents what a Christian was.
The man later sought answers about Christianity from a Christian preacher, and ended up coming to faith in Christ through this quest.
*NOTE: I'll post the video from tonight here in the next couple of days, when it's finished processing.
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Sunday, November 25, 2007
Islam in Prophecy
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