In your book, you highlight about and I actually have them written down. 21 correlations
between the Christian Antichrist and Muslim Messiah. I mean as I was going through, as
I was reading it and also going through the list you know the one that caught my attention is the
beheading one like that just kind of like put a nail in the coffin for me but you brought so many
connections in the history and in the tradition of Islam that will be fulfilled in their long-awaited
messiah that is just a clear description of the Christian antichrist. Could you highlight some of
the correlations between these two figures? Sure. So Islam's primary messiah figure is called the
Mahdi. In English, we could just say the Mahdi. There's differences between what the Shia Muslims
believe in Iran versus the Sunnis but they all generally do have a belief in the coming of this
figure and I tried to draw from a wide range of scholars on both sides both Sunni and Shia
to show that this is a universal belief. It's not just a sectarian view and so basically he's this
individual that will emerge in the last days, he will cause Revival in Islam globally, he'll cause
Islam to essentially be supreme throughout the earth. He'll exalt Islam throughout the nations
and he will sort of revive the Islamic caliphate, the Islamic government, this empire that existed
for really 1400 years, it was only dissolved in 1923 when Mustafa Kemal Atatürk abolished
the caliphate the idea is the Mahdi would revive the caliphate or he would be a khalif
that would as I said cause Islam to be supreme throughout the world and then specifically he
would rule his throne, his seat of authority would be on the temple mount in Jerusalem. So this is
really very very similar to what the antichrist is expected to do biblically to gather a coalition of
nations that surround Israel that cause his religion to be supreme, to be celebrated, to
have people jumping on the bandwagon so to speak and reviving an empire of nations that surround
Israel and then the Bible says the antichrist will set up the abomination that causes desolation on
the Temple Mount. Well, Islamic prophecy says that's the location that their Messiah figure
would rule the world from and specifically they actually teach that he would rule for a period of
seven years which is again what the Bible teaches with regard to the antichrist, his primary career
is this final seven year period. So you have these what I call anti-parallels. It's where the Islamic
prophecies take prophecies about the antichrist and they sort of flip them on their head
and instead of applying it to the biggest bad guy in the story, they apply it to the hero and
so Muslims expect, you have this prophecy often referred to as the prophecy of the Gharkad tree
which says that the day of judgment would not come until the Muslims will fight against the
Jews and kill them until there are only a few Jews left hiding behind a tree or a rock and
then the tree or the rock will cry out and say, O faithful Muslim, there is a Jew behind me come and
kill him. Now, obviously not all Muslims are going to heed this or pay attention to this.
Here is this prophecy that many Muslims are aware of that says that they will be engaged
in quite frankly a genocide against the Jewish people in the last days and by the grace of God,
most Muslims will reject this. Their conscience will say, this is not something to be trusted,
this is not a prophecy from God but many will be led into this they will believe it's their
divine destiny to actually invade and attack and kill Jews and that's exactly what the Bible says,
Many of the surrounding nations will do in the last days so you can kind of go down the list,
it's these very strong parallels. I call them anti-parallels as you said Islam
has this vibrant tradition of beheading. The Bible says that the saints would specifically
be martyred in the last days by beheading. I saw the souls of those who were beheaded unto
the altar. So it's these type of things that you know it's enough to get your attention,
to pay attention to again I want to be clear not all Muslims believe these things
but the traditions exist, they're very real and they they are very dangerous. Another thing that
I found very captivating in your research and in your book is concerning Muslims view of Jesus's
Second Coming and how that correlates with a Biblical false prophet and then you brought a
lot of verses that I didn't see them in this light where Jesus says in the last days to be careful
not to be deceived because many Christs will come, many Jesus' people who will claim to be Jesus in
the last days and you know and the way that they presented, the way you presented how the Muslims
believe that their second coming Jesus pretty much will help their messiah that Jesus will come
back help their messiah to convert Christians into Islam by helping us to kind of understand
that He was never the Son of God, Paul just made that up. Could you speak a little bit into that?
Yeah so as you talk to Muslims, they'll say oh you know you believe in the return of Jesus,
we believe in the return of Jesus you know they'll point out the commonalities and these are true you
know and we should recognize our commonalities but it's the specifics of what they teach as you said,
they expect Jesus to come back. They call them Isa al masih, Jesus the Messiah or Isa,
the Messiah but they don't teach that He comes back as the Bible describes it. Rather they say
He comes back as a Muslim and He will tell all the Christians of the world, no you guys have had
it wrong all along. Your book is corrupted. Your Bible is corrupted. I never claimed to be the Son
of God. I never claimed to be God. I never died on the cross. All of these basic doctrines that
you believed are wrong that rather He'll say I was simply a prophet who taught monotheism. I
taught Islam that you need to become a Muslim and you need to submit to and follow the Mahdi so the
Islamic Messiah figure. So in Islamic eschatology, Jesus is a secondary messiah figure. He comes back
as an assistant and a supporter of the Mahdi. So you can see the parallel there to the biblical
false prophet. The Bible says beware of, Jesus said, Beware of wolves in sheep's clothing. In
the Book of Revelation, in talking about the false prophet, it describes him as a dragon
with the mouth of a dragon but he's dressed like a lamb. So he is a dragon in lamb's clothing. If you
will a dragon in sheep's clothing. He appears to be because Jesus is the Lamb of God in the
Book of Revelation. Well, the false prophet is also described as a lamb but he speaks with the
mouth of the serpent, of the dragon and so it's very possible that there will be this some type
of false event where people believe that Jesus has returned but not the Jesus that we expected,
not the Jesus of the Bible, rather He'll tell all the Christians of the world you need to
become Muslims and so that's what Muslims are expecting and then further they teach that once
that happens that Jesus will abolish the jizya tax. This is the tax that according to Islamic law
should be implemented once Islam has become dominant and subjugated any particular
nation or people. So Christians and Jews were called Ahl al-kitāb, the people of the book
and if the people of the book are allowed to live as the people of the book if we pay the
jizya tax. So we can still be Christians and Muslims under Islamic control if we pay the
jizya but the idea is once Jesus returns, He will abolish the jizya tax because being
a Christian or Muslim will no longer be an option and what their scholars teach is that
once Jesus returns that we as Christians will have the option of either converting to Islam
or being martyred that it'll be convert or die that the option to be Christians to be people
of the book that won't be an option anymore. So you know again there's just multiple parts
of their story that aligned with the biblical narrative in a way that's really hard to deny.