Muslim Demographics and the Great Delusion: Will Psalm 83 and Ezekiel 38 Cause Islam to Disappear in the End Times!

Muslim Demographics and the Great Delusion: Will Psalm 83 and Ezekiel 38 Cause Islam to Disappear in the End Times!

 

 

 

As some conjecture…

Will Psalm 83 and Ezekiel 38 Cause Islam to Disappear in the End Times?

Tim Buck
FOTET.org

The purpose of this article is to address what has in recent years become a widely held prophecy theory regarding Psalm 83 and Ezekiel 38-39. The theory, popularized by Bill Salus in his book Isralestine, holds that the Bible predicts two specific invasions before the Tribulation Period begins that change the demographics of the end times.

The Christian church and the rest of the non-Muslim world is about to have a head-on clash with a very real demographic giant. Recognizing the epic proportions of this coming clash, some people (like myself) are shouting from the rooftops to prepare for the massive challenge ahead. Others, however, seem to be determined to lull the church back to sleep. “Don’t worry,” they say, “The giant will suffer a massive heart attack before he even arrives at the battle lines. Go back to sleep.”

Present demographic realities make it clear that as the church continues to slow down its growth globally, the religion of Islam is simply outpacing us. An acknowledgment of demographic trends today and understanding the Islamic connection to end-times prophecy make it clear that Islam represents the single greatest challenge the Christian church will face before the return of Jesus. But the church is largely asleep to the danger of this reality, assisted by a new theory.

One of the more successful false teachings to invade Bible prophecy over the last decade is rooted in a false interpretation of the Scriptures, and a poor understanding of global demographics. The giant in the room is Islam and to remove it, the teaching says that through two end-time wars, before the start of the Tribulation, the religion of Islam will be wiped off the face of the earth and pave the way for Antichrist to rise from Europe. Hmmm.

The two wars used to try to prove their “Islam is dead” theory is a supposed war in Psalms 83 and the battle of Gog and Magog in Ezekiel 38-39. Most scholars reject the view that Psalm 83 is even an actual prophecy but is simply a national prayer of lament. It is also abundantly clear that the Battle of Gog and Magog is simply telling the Old Testament story of the Battle of Armageddon that takes place at the end of the Tribulation and ends in Israel’s salvation.

The “Islam is dead” theory is a recent invention to discredit the Islamic end-time paradigm which correctly believes the religion of Islam will give rise to Antichrist. Driving the movement is also the need to find support for the outdated and unsupportive, “revived Roman empire” theory.

The “Rome is coming back” theory is falsely rooted in a misinterpretation of Daniel’s fourth empire that is discussed in both Daniel chapters two and seven. A more careful analyses of these two chapters reveals that the fourth empire that Daniel talks about points to the Islamic Caliphate not the ancient Roman empire. For numerous reasons outlined in chapter two of my book, The Empire of Antichrist, the ancient Roman empire simply does not meet the requirements of the text describing Daniel’s fourth empire. However, the historic Islamic empire meets all the textual requirements perfectly.

According to the theory, Salus postulates that the two wars of Psalm 83 and Ezekiel 38-39 are pre-tribulation battles that wipe out 100% of the world’s Muslim population. He theorizes that as a result of these two wars, the world’s Muslim’s will simply vanish before the Tribulation begins, perhaps even quite soon.

He refers to the Psalm 83 battle as the removal of the “inner circle” of Muslim nations around Israel today. The “Inner Circle” map overlays the ancient names of Psalm 83 (in red) with their supposed modern-day counterparts map. Then he refers to his map of Ezekiel 38 as the removal of the “Outer Ring” of Muslim nations around Israel. And WAHLAH, there you have it… the Muslim’s are gone! Now you see ‘em… now you don’t!

 

 

 

 

To rescue the revival of the Roman empire idea, unfortunately, multiple modern prophecy writers have grabbed onto this theory like a rescue line to a drowning swimmer. If you don’t believe the theory is widely taught, consider a sampling of comments made by popular prophecy teachers as they do their best to articulate the view:

“There is no need whatsoever to warn the Bride of Christ [the church] about some non-existent Islamic (sic) myth … Islam will not exist by the time the 70th Week begins.” – Sean Osborne

“The war of Psalm 83 followed by the war of Ezekiel 38 will result in the annihilation of nearly all the armies of the Muslim nations of the Middle East … The Middle East will be reduced to ashes! … There are two wars that are indicated most likely before or just at the beginning of the Tribulation… In my opinion, those wars are going to pretty well wipe out the Muslims in the Middle East.” – David Reagan

“Islam is just another system that will be wiped out before the Antichrist instills (sic) his system … The Gog-Magog Battle of Ezekiel 38-39 that will soon end the Islamic threat before the Antichrist even comes on the scene. Islam’s days are numbered well before the Antichrist’s empire.” – Nathan Jones

The problem with the comments of these good men is they fail to recognize the actual demographics of the Muslim world. Apparently they believe that most of the world’s Muslims live in the Middle East. The truth, however, is that the vast majority of Muslims live outside of the Middle East. In fact, almost half of all Muslims globally live in the four countries of Indonesia, Pakistan, India and Bangladesh. Indonesia has a Muslim population of 276 million, Pakistan has 225 million, India has 300 million and Bangladesh has 153 million. Yet neither Psalm 83 nor Ezekiel 38-39, the two passages that this view claims will soon “wipe out” Muslims and Islam globally, include these nations.

The large majority of the World’s Muslims live outside of the Middle East. For example, today there are more Muslims in either France (3.5 million) or Germany (5.5 million) than in Lebanon (2.5 million).

This is where Bible prophecy and fantasy collide with the harsh realities of demographics. If we listed every nation suggested as part of Psalm 83 and Ezekiel 38-39, this would still represent less than one-third of the world’s Muslim population.

So let’s test the demographics of this theory. If every soldier and every active-duty member of the nations suggested as being part of the supposed Psalm 83 invasion and Ezekiel 38-39 were gone, it would approximately represent 
31,213,730 soldiers, less than 2 percent of the total 1.8 billion Muslims of the world. So because a mere 2 percent of the Muslims of the world are defeated, somehow this means that the other 1.6 billion Muslims no longer exist?

Let’s take this scenario one step further. Let’s imagine that not just the active-duty soldiers but every single person in every one of these nations was removed from the picture, leaving not a single survivor, man, woman, or child, from Russian to Sudan, something no one is suggesting will occur, how would this change things? Would Islam be “wiped out” as they claim? Far from it. In fact, there would still remain well over a billion Muslims worldwide. Islam would continue to have more adherents than Protestant Christianity globally. Muslims would continue to be a vast and vibrant force worldwide.

As we can see, even if all the nations suggested within the Psalm 83 and Ezekiel 38-39 wars were wiped out, there would still remain more than two-thirds of all Muslims in the world and the four largest Muslim nations would be untouched. Any suggestion that Islam will disappear from earth before the rise of Antichrist and the 7-year Tribulation is a fantasy.

No amount of denial, prophetic manipulation, or wishful thinking will make Islam go away. It’s not going to happen. It’s time for the church to wake up to the reality that Europe is dead not Islam. It takes the European Union five years to decide on the most mundane matters. The overwhelming biblical evidence is that Muslim’s are deceived by Satan today and are already positioned to participate in the great clash of the Tribulation aimed at destroying the non-Muslim world and Israel.

Far too many Christians have chosen to ignore the looming danger and rising threat and are sitting back and daydreaming about the time when Islam will go away. Instead we need a more aggressive approach, like David took toward the giant, of reaching Muslim’s with the Gospel of Christ and warning our fellow believers of the danger closing in.

Then it happened when Goliath the Philistine rose and came and drew near to meet David, that David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet him.

You know the rest of the story.

The Beast Is Rising: Erdogan’s Quest For Shariah Alliance!

The Beast Is Rising: Erdogan’s Quest For Shariah Alliance!

 

 

 

 

Erdogan’s Quest for a New Sharia-Based Alliance

The Beast in Revelation appears in the two chapters of Revelation 13 and 17. Both chapters give us a symbolic picture of the final empire of Antichrist as a Beast. Our class in January is concerned about the Beast in chapter 17.

When we talk about the Beast we are referring to the coming Islamic Empire to be revived in the last days with the Caliphate headquartered in Turkey. For 500 years until WW1, the Ottoman Empire reined over the religion of Islam from Istanbul, Turkey. Today, Turkey’s President Erdogan is pushing the envelope to reestablish the caliphate once again, just as prophesied.

Erdogan’s Islamist ambitions are seeking an international role in post-U.S. Afghanistan in alliance with the Taliban, Qatar, Pakistan and Malaysia.

Biden has weakened himself and the country so badly that we’ve been reduced to the point of being blackmailed by NATO’s only Islamist member. Turkey’s Defense Minister Hulusi Akar has made it clear: “If the U.S. is to be in the Middle East, it must cooperate with Turkey.”

Afghanistan is not Erdogan’s only pro-sharia ambition after the U.S. withdrawal… Turkey ramped up its drone attacks on Yazidis in Iraq’s Sinjar district….. “The Turkish drone strikes increasingly threaten to undercut refugee repatriation inside Iraq and create space for the Islamic State to regroup, as the most effective Kurdish groups fighting ISIS are Sinjar’s grassroots Kurdish and Yazidi militias,” warned Michael Rubin in the Washington Examiner.

Erdogan’s Islamist, neo-Ottoman ambitions are now taking a pro-sharia turn. That is bad news for the region to Turkey’s south and east. Worse, it is a slow-fuse time bomb for the West.

 

 

 

 

Turkish President Erdoğan’s Islamist ambitions are seeking an international role in post-U.S. Afghanistan in alliance with the Taliban, Qatar, Pakistan and Malaysia. 

 

Final Judgment For the Saved and Lost! Where Will You Spend Eternity?

Final Judgment For the Saved and Lost! Where Will You Spend Eternity?

 

 

 

 

Final Judgment

Tim Buck
FOTET.org

It is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment.
Hebrews 9:27

The Bible talks about 4 judgments. The first is the Judgment Seat of Christ (2 Cor. 5:10) for Church believers (Body of Christ) that occurs in heaven after the Rapture. The second and third judgments are for the Old Testament saints (Daniel 12:2-3) and believers who have died in the Tribulation period (Rev. 20:4). Both of these judgments occur on earth after Christ’s Second Coming at the end of the Tribulation. The first three judgments are all for believers.

God’s judgment for unbelievers is a lot different than the judgment of His children. It’s called the Great White Throne Judgment. This final judgment of the unsaved occurs in the blackness of space after the Millennial Kingdom, after the destruction of the universe and before the creation of the new heavens and new earth (Rev. 20:11-15).

Here I want to focus on the Great White Throne Judgment where all mankind who has ever rejected Christ will appear. Close your eyes and picture it for a moment. The Millennium is now over, Satan and his armies have been cast into the Lake of Fire, that Jesus said was prepared for the devil and his angels (Mt. 25:41).

Now things take a sharp turn…God speaks and planet earth spontaneously combusts and vaporizes. In the aftermath… the residents of Hell for the past 6,000 years find themselves, not free, not dead, but now standing before a great white throne.

What they see is frightening as Jesus stands before them in His robe as judge with the books of man’s deeds in His hands. Instead of receiving a glorified body like the body all believers will receive, they’ve been resurrected into a body suited for tormenting day and night that will never die.

And here they stand in the blackness of the uncreated world…  on nothing. Standing and facing God. No friends to help them here. The books of judgement from Cain to Hitler to the last sinner who rejected Jesus are now opened, and the lifetime of deeds of every unsaved person is read and man is judged according to what’s written in the books! No excuses at this throne… it’s all written down and read out loud. As judgment is past, each and every one is cast into the Lake of Fire (Rev. 21:15).

From this point forward, God creates a new heaven and a new earth wherein dwells righteousness and beauty beyond our imagination (Rev. 21).

Which judgment will you find yourself in after you die? It’s a sobering thought and only you can change the outcome!  It’s up to you and you can make that eternal decision today.

Jesus Himself Is Coming To Rapture The Church!

Jesus Himself Is Coming To Rapture The Church!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jesus Is Coming Himself

Tim Buck
FOTET.org

For the Lord Himself
will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. 

1 Thess. 4:16

Aren’t you glad that the Lord is coming back for us Himself and not just sending a representative to take us back to heaven? This is in fulfillment of the explicit promise He had previously made to the disciples:

I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.
John 14:2-3

The Thessalonians were living in expectation of that promise and were eagerly waiting the personal return of Jesus. The archangel was a bonus but it was Jesus they wanted to see most of all.

They knew that the Rapture was the climactic event in the redemptive history of the church and didn’t want to miss it. To help them better understand the rapture, Paul mentions it in every chapter of First and Second Thessalonians.

Clearly, the Thessalonian believers had an imminent view of Christ’s return and Paul had left them with the impression it could happen at any time. The great hope of every believer should be the imminent return of Christ and the thrill of seeing Him face to face.

The promise that Jesus is personally coming also fulfills the pledge that the angels made after Jesus was raptured to heaven while the disciples looked on.

Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven.
Acts 1:11

Are you ready to meet the Lord in the Air? As Paul told the Corinthians, “in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye” we will be transformed and lifted into His awesome presence. Maybe today!

I Go To Prepare A Place For You  And If I Go, I Will Come Again!

I Go To Prepare A Place For You And If I Go, I Will Come Again!

 

 

 

I Go To Prepare A Place For You

Tim Buck
FOTET.org

John 14:1-3

Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.

Jesus explains to His disciples that His departure would be for their advantage since He was going away to prepare a heavenly home for them and will return to take them so that they may be with Him. Jesus is talking about the rapture of the church at the end of the age when He returns for the His believers.

The descriptive features in this familiar passage do not describe Jesus coming to earth with His saints to establish His kingdom (Rev. 19:11-15), but taking believers from earth back to live in His Father’s house.

Since no judgment on the unsaved is described here, this is not His Second Coming at the end of the Tribulation when He returns in great glory and power to destroy the wicked (Mt. 13:36-43; 47-50.

Rather this describes His coming to gather His own who are alive and raise the bodies of those who have died to take them all to heaven. This rapture event is also described in 1 Cor. 15:51-54; 1 Thess. 4:14-17.

After being raptured the church will spend seven years in heaven with Jesus staying in the dwelling places that Christ promised His disciples.

While in heaven the church will experience a series of events designed to prepare the church for eternity. Our agenda in heaven will include being rewarded (1 Cor. 3:10-15; 2 Cor. 5:9-10), then we will celebrate the Marriage of the Lamb (Rev. 19:7-9). Later we will return to earth with Christ when He comes again to set up His Millennial Kingdom (Rev. 19:11-20:6).

At the start of the kingdom we will celebrate the Marriage Supper or wedding reception in a festive atmosphere with the invited guests (Rev. 19:9) being the resurrected Old Testament saints (Daniel 12:2) along with the resurrected martyrs of the Tribulation period (Rev. 20:4)!

God has great plans in store for the church!