Daily Wisdom

January 15, 2006

Ahmadinejad's Divine Mission?

LONDON, U.K. -- According to an article in the News.Telegraph by Anton La Guardia dated 14 January 2006, Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad may be motivated more by a sense of divine mission than by sheer recklessness or diplomatic naivete. La Guardia suggests that Ahmadinejad's speeches and statements indicate a religious messianism. La Guardia first gives two examples which are less than convincing. But then the story really starts to get interesting...

The most remarkable aspect of Mr Ahmadinejad's piety is his devotion to the Hidden Imam, the Messiah-like figure of Shia Islam, and the president's belief that his government must prepare the country for his return.

One of the first acts of Mr Ahmadinejad's government was to donate about £10 million to the Jamkaran mosque, a popular pilgrimage site where the pious come to drop messages to the Hidden Imam into a holy well.

All streams of Islam believe in a divine saviour, known as the Mahdi, who will appear at the End of Days. A common rumour - denied by the government but widely believed - is that Mr Ahmadinejad and his cabinet have signed a "contract" pledging themselves to work for the return of the Mahdi and sent it to Jamkaran.

Iran's dominant "Twelver" sect believes this will be Mohammed ibn Hasan, regarded as the 12th Imam, or righteous descendant of the Prophet Mohammad.

He is said to have gone into "occlusion" in the ninth century, at the age of five. His return will be preceded by cosmic chaos, war and bloodshed. After a cataclysmic confrontation with evil and darkness, the Mahdi will lead the world to an era of universal peace.

This is similar to the Christian vision of the Apocalypse. Indeed, the Hidden Imam is expected to return in the company of Jesus. (emphasis added)

Mr Ahmadinejad appears to believe that these events are close at hand and that ordinary mortals can influence the divine timetable.

Having never heard about these particular apocalyptic prophecies of Islam, I am now very interested in learning more. I intend to do further research on the subject and will perhaps report my findings at a later date.

For now however, I must say that these ideas are very troubling. The Bible of course does not speak of Christ's Second Coming as occurring along with any other human being "returned from occlusion" or otherwise. According to Christian prophecy, the return of Jesus will be a celestial event...

27 For as the lightning comes from the east and shines as far as the west, so will be the coming of the Son of man... 29 “Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken; 30 then will appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.
-- Matthew 24:27-30

The prophecies about the Hidden Imam suggest that he is a human being who will return in an earthly form and in a somewhat less than celestial event as described in the New Testament. The implication of course, is that Muslims therefore envision the return of Jesus with the Hidden Imam in an earthly human body and without the celestial fireworks.

This sounds frighteningly more like a different Biblical prophecy...

23 Then if any one says to you, ‘Lo, here is the Christ!’ or ‘There he is!’ do not believe it. 24 For false Christs and false prophets will arise and show great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect. 25 Lo, I have told you beforehand.
-- Matthew 24:23-25


5 And the beast (the False Christ or "Antichrist") was given a mouth uttering haughty and blasphemous words, and it was allowed to exercise authority for forty-two months; 6 it opened its mouth to utter blasphemies against God, blaspheming his name and his dwelling, that is, those who dwell in heaven. 7 Also it was allowed to make war on the saints (Christians) and to conquer them. And authority was given it over every tribe and people and tongue and nation, 8 and all who dwell on earth will worship it, every one whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb that was slain....

11 Then I saw another beast (the False Prophet) which rose out of the earth; it had two horns like a lamb (Christ-like) and it spoke like a dragon (devilish). 12 It exercises all the authority of the first beast in its presence, and makes the earth and its inhabitants worship the first beast... 13 It works great signs, even making fire come down from heaven to earth in the sight of men; 14 and by the signs which it is allowed to work in the presence of the beast, it deceives those who dwell on earth.
-- Revelation 13:5-8, 11-14

The last thing we need is for some Islamic false prophet to start making fire come down from heaven, and for some Islamic false christ to start making war on Christians.

10 Comments:

At 1/15/2006 3:42 PM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

I don't like to run down another's religion, but it does sound to me as if "Mohammad" read the Bible and cherry picked parts of it for the Koran. And Ahmadinejad certainly has a high opinion of himself if he thinks he can be the 'cause ' of the end time. I don't believe he can ,but he couls certainly cause a lot of deaths and suffering.
The USSR always knew we would retaliate if they used nuclear weapons,(certain death) but if this guy thinks he has some special protection,it is very scary.
I'll be interested to see what more you find out.

 
At 1/15/2006 5:47 PM , Blogger camojack said...

I'm still holding out hope that there will be a revolution over there...

 
At 1/15/2006 6:04 PM , Blogger camojack said...

"And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet."
-Jesus of Nazareth
(Matthew 24:6, King James Version)

 
At 1/15/2006 9:00 PM , Blogger Pat's Rick© said...

What camojack said.

 
At 1/15/2006 9:23 PM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

"An odd man." - George W. Bush.

That's putting it mildly!

My hubby spent a year in Iraq and befriended quite a few Iraqi Catholics as well as Muslims. What an odd religion. Our Catholic religious friends would tell him when a Muslim insurgent was caught, "Shoot him! Don't capture him, shoot him! They're evil!"

Of course, that isn't all Muslims... one Iraqi interpreter went to my husband, knowing he was a Christian and in the Chaplains Corps (he's not a chaplain, but an assistant so he isn't non-combative) and asked why all these so called Christian soldiers kept saying things like "God damn" and "Jesus Christ." Muslims consider that blasphamous (of course, they also say "Allah be praised" before blowing up our soldiers, so keep that in mind when evaluating their virtue).

My husband was surprised to find portraits and paintings of the blessed Virgin Mary in most Muslim homes. There were some other Christian saints as well, but they have a great regard for Mary and Jesus.

I have read parts of the Koran that mention Mary and their beliefs are not accurate... I can't remember.... the Koran says some weird stuff about her... I'll have to look it up and get back to you.... and they believe Jesus is a great prophet, a very significant player in the economy of salvation. They revere Mary more than most Protestants.

So it doesn't surprise me that the Iranian president thinks Mohammad will return with Jesus.

I mention all this in response to prettyold's comments about the fusing of Christian and Ismalmic doctrine. Christianity rejects Muslim teaching, but Islam is very much intertwined with it.

When you think about it, Jews, Christians and Muslims all have the same father: Abraham. Jews and Christians through Abraham and Sarah, and Muslims through Abraham and Hagar. God rebuked Abraham for impregnating Hagar and said he should be named "Ishmael", here it is in Genesis 16::

"The angel of the Lord said to her (Hagar),
'Behold, you are with child, and you shall bear a son; and you shall call his name Ishmael (God hears), because the Lord has heard your affliction.

He will be a wild ass of a man; His hand will be against everyone, and everyone's hand will be against him.

AND HE WILL LIVE TO THE EAST OF ALL HIS BROTHERS."

What's interesting here is that it was predicted/prophesied that the Palestinians would live to the East of the Jews, which they do, and that they would be against everyone everyone against them. Which is also true. Jews and Palestinians are 1/2 brothers: same father Abraham, different mothers.

So all this factors in to the weird story you posted about.

 
At 1/16/2006 9:38 AM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

You might find this interesting also http://www.thegoldenreport.com/asp/jerrysnewsmanager/anmviewer.asp?a=1006&z=1
Little Bro in Ga.

 
At 1/16/2006 1:40 PM , Blogger Hawkeye® said...

Hi everybody. Thanks for "Viewing".

Prettyold,
Yeah, I don't like to pick on other religions either, but Islam is pretty violent for a "religion of peace". And so many of its practioners seem to be arrogant, intolerant fanatics that use violence as a means of shoving their beliefs down other people's throats.

Camo, Rick,
I'm with ya on the revolution thing. As far as "wars and rumors of wars", well, at some point in time the Bible moves beyond that period into what some call the Great Tribulation.

Amy,
Many people around the world, including Muslims, hate the United States because it stands for freedom. Not that they are against democracy per se. Rather, because we have the freedom to sin.

As you know, we have many sins and many sinners here. Of course we are ALL sinners according to the Bible, but some people are down-right depraved. Sex, violence and drugs are pretty rampant. It's even worse since Muslims find some things sinful that most Christians do not... alcohol consumption, women's rights, women exposing their legs and faces (and not wearing burkhas), etc. To them, we are indeed a Great Satan.

That's why I don't think this thing will end any time soon, and may end badly.

Little Bro,
Thanks for the link!

 
At 1/16/2006 4:35 PM , Blogger Hawkeye® said...

Hi everybody,

Little Bro sent me a link which may be getting cut off on the end by the right column. You can go to the link Here.

 
At 1/16/2006 9:39 PM , Blogger Hawkeye® said...

Hey everybody (it's me again),

Mig sent me an E-mail with a link to a great web page which lays out the history of Islam. It's written from a Catholic perspective, but (except for a line or two about Calvinism that I don't agree with) it is really good stuff. It's a LONG read, but it's a great reference source. Click Here.

Thanks Mig!

 
At 1/18/2006 11:07 AM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

I posted this at SF:If Iran wants nukes then By golly,lets send them ours.

An old old joke:Did you read the Shaw's(sp?) new book?'I Ran from Iran'

 

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