War prophesied in the Middle East
We see with concern how the current main front of this possible global conflict is the Middle East, that is, Israel, Iran, Syria and their neighboring countries. It is very curious that in these moments of uncertainty, confusion and deception, certain messianic leaders take into consideration an ancient prophecy valid for the Orthodox, Protestants, Jews, Muslims and Christians. This prophecy anticipates how Armageddon could occur in the vicinity of the Holy Land.
It has been pointed out on occasion that, from the prophetic point of view, Israel is the “spiritual clock of the world.” Precisely for this reason, and in light of the terrible events we are witnessing in the Middle East, we can sense that the world is about to change abruptly, as a result of circumstances that will involve Jews, Christians and Muslims, first of all, but will also affect the rest of the nations of the world.
In this sense, the prophet Ezekiel left us for posterity his texts on the war of Gog and Magog, which seem to lucidly anticipate the current geopolitical situation in the Middle East. In this battle, which would be unleashed on the plain of Megiddo, Russia would be dragged into a global conflict – which in principle it does not want – together with an alliance of various nations after an alleged attack by Israel against Iran and its allies.
Indeed, Ezekiel left the following inspired message for the interpretation of future generations: “Behold, I am against you, Gog, sovereign prince of Meshech and Tubal (present-day Russia) (…) I will bring you out with all your army (…) With them are Persia (Iran), Cush (Ethiopia) and Put (Libya), all of them armed with shield and helmet. Gomer, with all his troops, and the house of Togarmah (Turkey), from the far north with all their troops and many peoples with you (…) After many years you will invade a country saved from the sword, gathered from many peoples to the mountains of Israel (…) In the last days you will attack my people Israel like a cloud to cover the earth.”
It must be admitted that this hermetic text is somewhat disturbing, precisely in these days when we are aware of the intensification of war movements on land, sea and air in the Middle East and in various regions of the planet.
It is also curious that this serious deterioration of world peace was already announced in the apparitions of Fatima. Indeed, for Catholic believers and for all men and women of good will, Fatima represents a warning to humanity, as well as an invitation to individual conversion of the heart and a new collective spiritual awakening towards God in the face of the final battle between good and evil.
In keeping with the Marian apparitions of recent centuries, Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Garabandal also announces a Warning, a Miracle and, conditionally, a Punishment, making an invitation to penitence to make amends for the individual and collective sins of humanity, and to trust in divine mercy. The central message of our Mother in Garabandal says:
“Since my message of October 18, 1961 has not been fulfilled and has not been widely known, I will tell you that this is the last one. Before, the cup was filling up, now, it is overflowing. Many cardinals, bishops and priests are on the road to perdition, and they are taking many more souls with them. The Eucharist is given less and less importance. You must avoid the wrath of the good God upon you with your efforts. If you ask Him for forgiveness with a sincere soul, He will forgive you. I, your Mother, through the intercession of the Angel Saint Michael, want to tell you to amend yourselves. You are already in the last warnings! I love you very much and I do not want your damnation. Ask us sincerely and we will give it to you. You must sacrifice more. Think of the Passion of Jesus.”
In the same vein, in Medjugorje, the Queen of Peace reinforces the message of hope and mercy given to humanity by Jesus more than two thousand years ago, and from that small sanctuary among the mountains in Bosnia-Herzegovina, five simple “stones” are suggested (prayer, Eucharist, reading the Bible, fasting and confession) as weapons to bring down the Goliath before us so that we can achieve inner peace, a full and meaningful life and a just and true world peace.
For the citizens of hypermodernity and the biotechnological society, these ancient messages of tradition may seem a bit apocalyptic. It may even be argued that the prophetic prospective approach should not be taken seriously in the current circumstances. However, we believe it is important to openly present this alternative vision to the analyses of the most prestigious think tanks in the world, since we observe with concern and sincere worry how the global war scenario is taking shape day by day without any signs that lead us to a genuine cessation of hostilities.
As citizens of the world, we believe it is legitimate to ask ourselves whether in the 21st century the whole of humanity cannot do anything to peacefully and democratically prevent a new world war.
Shiite Islamic Prophecy: Imam Mahdi is at the Doors
In the early hours of Friday, January 3, 2020, three days before the Christian celebration of the Epiphany of the Lord, that is, the holiday that commemorates the Adoration of Jesus by the three Kings or Wise Men of the East, the powerful General Quasem Soleimani, commander of the elite Al Quds force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, was killed in a missile attack launched from an MQ-9 Reaper drone at the airport in Baghdad, the capital of Iraq, perpetrated by the US Army following orders from President Donald Trump, as confirmed by the Pentagon itself.
Soleimani’s successor as commander of the Quds Force, Esmail Ghaani, later revealed that he would work to “eliminate all American presence in the region” and “to achieve the dominance of the Hidden Imam (the so-called Mahdi).” In making these comments, the new commander indicated that he belonged to the so-called “Twelvers” of the IRGC.
The “Twelvers” are Shiites who believe in a prophetic vision of the “end of times” and who await the return of the Mahdi, the Imam who will rule the world after the last war against Al-Masih ad-Dajjal. The Dajjal, in Shiite eschatology, is an evil figure, a false messiah, a being characterized by lies and deceit, who is trying to derail the arrival of the Mahdi. The Islamic Dajjal is comparable to the Christian Antichrist or the figure of the “Armilus HaRasha” in Judaism.
Coincidentally, Iraq plays a central role in the doctrine of the “Twelvers” since, according to this group, Baghdad will be the city where the Mahdi will finally reside, and therefore, will become the capital of the future world caliphate of the “Twelvers.”
In 2011, the Iranian government produced a video explaining why the current turmoil in Egypt, North Africa and the Middle East is in line with the Shiite Islamic prophecy that speaks of the return of the Imam Mahdi. According to this official Iranian government view, chaos and carnage in the epicenter of that area are essential for the coming of the Mahdi.
Iran believes in this prophecy and is preparing the way for the Mahdi, the Twelfth Imam of Allah, since according to this Shiite worldview, the Islamic messiah is about to appear. In this government documentary, the Iranian regime provided data indicating that all the prophetic signs are already being verified and that Iran will soon help usher in the end times where the armies of Islam will be led by this messianic figure to victory over all non-Muslims.
On multiple occasions during his term in office, former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has stated that Iran will conquer Jerusalem before the coming of the Mahdi.
We see, then, how the Shiite branch of Islam believes that the Mahdi will return at the end of history, in an era characterized by chaos, massacre and confusion, to establish justice and peace in the world. When the Hidden Imam comes, say the Shiites, the Mahdi will take Jesus with him. Jesus would thus be like a substitute character, since he would not come to the world in all his Glory and Majesty as King of kings and sole Savior and Redeemer of humanity, as the Christian Bible teaches. Thus, Jesus, seen by Muslims only as a prophet, would force all infidels to choose between following the Imam Mahdi or death. For the Christian worldview, this figure, which creates a clear contrast with the figure of Jesus Christ as the authentic Messiah, would turn out to be, in reality, the Antichrist himself.
According to Shiite scholars, the Mahdi will first appear in Mecca and then go on to conquer the Middle East. He will then establish the seat of his world Islamic government, or caliphate, in Iraq. Mesopotamia was one of the oldest known human settlements in the Near East, between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. There, under Persian domination, the satrapies of Babylon and Assyria were formed. The region known as the Iraqi Marshes is also believed to have once been the location of the world’s first and foremost utopia: the Biblical Garden of Eden.
On the other hand, for the Grand Ayatollah of Iran, Naser Makarem Shirazi, the Hidden Imam or Mahdi will come to use high technology, as befits the modern age. In this regard, he states that “today we use satellites, and through them, we cover vast areas, so that anyone with a receiver can use them /…/ By the time of the Mahdi’s arrival, there will be a powerful device, which today may be difficult to imagine, that will transmit images so that the whole world is visible like the palm of a hand.”
Grand Ayatollah Shirazi assures that “without the control of the world by intelligence devices, there can be no unified global regime (as was predicted there will be when the Mahdi arrives) and without peace, security and decency /…/ Therefore, Allah will grant the Mahdi this tool /…/ Once again I emphasize that this is a routine matter and it is inconceivable that it will come miraculously, but rather it will come through common tools based on scientific and technological advances.”
It is interesting to note the difference between the Christian Parousia, which awaits the Second Coming of Jesus Christ in an indeterminate future, and the Shiite expectation of the Mahdi, since for this Islamic worldview the chosen one already lives among us, hidden somewhere in the world. Therefore, for Shiite believers, the Imam Mahdi, currently alive, continues to guide the community in a hidden place, from where he will emerge to appear again and put an end to this corrupt world and thus reestablish justice under a just global government, which will establish peace and humanitarianism, thus producing the full stop to the history of humanity, since the final judgment will follow.
The figure of the Islamic, Christian and Jewish anti-messiah
In another order of things, it is interesting to take into account the letter that the Grand Sovereign of the ancient rite of Freemasonry, Albert Pike, wrote to Giuseppe Mazzini on August 15, 1871 and which is preserved in the library of the British Museum in London. Pike tells Mazzini that in order to establish the New World Order that they wanted to build already at that time, three major world conflicts had to be provoked.
The first conflict had as its objective, after the First World War, to overthrow the Christian tsars of Russia and establish a communist and atheist country.
The second conflict had as its objective to exacerbate the differences between political Zionism and German nationalism. With the Second World War, Nazism was destroyed and the State of Israel was established in Palestine. International communism was also strengthened to counter Christianity, still necessary for the third and final phase.
It is interesting to dwell on the third conflict “predicted” in the aforementioned letter from Albert Pike and which would be provoked to confront political Zionism (the State of Israel) with Islam. This conflict is expected to produce mutual destruction, causing social chaos and a general collapse on a global level.
In this document the following is stated: “Let the nations be shown the effect of absolute atheism in all terror. Meanwhile, the other nations, increasingly divided, will be forced to fight to the point of physical, moral, spiritual and economic exhaustion. And so we will be able to create the last conflict that we will pacify by establishing the New World Order.”
Pike openly admitted in this letter to Mazzini that “the West would use Islam as a central component to achieve its objectives and lead it to war.” In his agenda or “forecasts” this conflict would be the Third World War.
Pike also mentioned in this letter that once Islam fulfilled its purpose, all the religions of the world would be replaced by a unified, Luciferian global religion, useful for the new world system.
This is where the prophetic signs of the three Abrahamic religions would seem to come into play, which take into account the world domination for a certain time of the anti-messiah, called the Antichrist by Christianity, the Dajjal by Islam and Armilus by Judaism.
According to the three Abrahamic messianic worldviews, the New World Order that some intend to build in favor of an anti-messiah who would initially be seductive and deceptive, but who would later show his Satanic and brutal profile, will be a period that will last very little.
However, this period of tribulation will be a true test of fire that will purify all of humanity and personally those who seek the authentic Light in peace, freedom, justice, truth, goodness and beauty that is granted, as a gift, by the God-Love who is the Holy Trinity.
Awake!: false peace and security
For all that we have stated above, it is pertinent and interesting to carry out an analysis of the current political and geostrategic events from the reading of prophetic knowledge.
Among the many biblical prophecies related to the end of time is the one recorded in chapter 1 of Thessalonians 5. On this occasion, Paul, Silvanus and Timothy address the Thessalonian church with the following words:
“But concerning the times and the seasons, brothers, you have no need for me to write to you. For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night; that when they say, ‘Peace and safety,’ then sudden destruction comes upon them, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape. But you, brothers, are not in darkness, so that that day should overtake you as a thief. For you are all sons of light and sons of the day; we are not of the night nor of the darkness.
Therefore let us not sleep, as do others, unless we watch and be sober. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, get drunk at night. But let us who are of the day be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet the hope of salvation. For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep, we should live together with Him. Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as in fact you are doing.”
What is this prophecy referring to when it says: “Peace and security”? And, on the other hand, what is the destruction that comes immediately after? For some authors, this text is referring to the “sudden destruction” of the world empire of false religion, which is called “Babylon the Great” in the biblical prophecies (Revelation 17:5).
But why such a severe judgment against the globalizing system of this world? The Word of God answers: “For her sins have piled up to heaven” (Revelation 18:5).
In chapter 1 of Thessalonians, the destruction described happens very suddenly and unexpectedly, because the “day of the Lord” is to come “just like a thief in the night.” This expression refers to the fact that most of humanity will not have remained alert to the progressive revelation of God’s will. Humanity is asleep in a spiritual sense. The men and women of our time have allowed their senses to become dulled, so that they support this system of things doomed to destruction.
Therefore, the destruction of “Babylon the Great” comes unexpectedly for them. Certainly, the “day of the Lord” for the destruction of all the elements that make up the system built by Satan will come “just like a thief in the night.” Destruction will come upon the enemies of God suddenly and painfully, “as pangs of anguish upon a woman with child; and they shall by no means escape.”
Therefore, the expression “Peace and security” will be only a facade or facade proposed to Israel by the New World Order. It will prove to be a “false peace.” It will not affect the true condition of humanity desiring the authentic peace of Christ manifested in our hearts.
Thus, although the world will be deceived by vain hopes during the coming declaration of “Peace and security,” according to some interpreters of prophetic knowledge, the servants of the Lord will not be deceived. Rather, they say, they will take the coming fulfillment of this prophecy for what it truly is: a final sign that the “Great Tribulation” is about to begin. Moreover, according to these interpreters of Bible prophecy, after the “day of the Lord’s wrath” is over, His faithful servants will enter a new, more just system of things, where they will begin an endless life on an Earth that will be transformed into a paradise. These will be the times of the recapitulation of all things in Christ.
“Since all these things will be dissolved in this way, consider what kind of people you ought to be! Performing holy acts of conduct and acts of devotion to God as you wait and look forward to the coming day of the Lord, when the heavens will be destroyed by flames and the elements will melt with fervent heat. But according to his promise, new heavens and a new earth are waiting for us, in which righteousness will reign” (2 Peter 3:13; Revelation 7:9-17).
On the other hand, some interpreters of these biblical prophecies have drawn a parallel between the conditions that exist in today’s society headed toward a New World Order without God and what happened on Earth just before God destroyed an ancient world by means of a universal flood.
Regarding those days, the Bible says: “God saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth… and the earth became ruined from the sight of the true God and the earth was filled with violence” (Genesis 6:5, 11). Jesus Christ predicted that “just as the days of Noah were, so will our times be” (Matthew 24:37). Once again the whole Earth has become “filled with violence” because “the wickedness of man” is abundant. Conditions like those before the Flood were proof that the end of that old system of things was near.
Messianic Judaism in Salvation History
For many Messianic Jews, current world conditions represent the fulfillment of the biblical prophecy: “When they say, ‘Peace and safety,’ then sudden destruction will come upon them.” This religious group clearly identifies the fact that the current system of things is in its “time of the end,” in its “last days,” according to the timeline of God’s Times.
Unlike other branches of Judaism, Messianic Judaism affirms that Yeshua—Jesus of Nazareth for Christians—is truly the Messiah—the messenger or anointed one of God—emerged from the people of Israel.
Messianic Jews consider themselves “Jews in religion” and practice their faith in such a way that they define themselves as “authentic observers” of the Torah (the Law of Moses), although no Jewish current from the reformists to the Orthodox recognizes them as Jews because they accept the New Testament as the Word of God and Jesus as the true Messiah.
Messianic Judaism originated as a Hebrew-Christian movement in 19th century England. The first of these congregations was “Ben Abraham” in the city of London, founded with forty-one members. In that same century in Eastern Europe, one of the main precursors of Messianic Judaism emerged, Ignatz Lichtenstein of Hungary, who in the mid-1890s decisively influenced this movement with what certain scholars call classic Messianic literature, in the German language.
Today there are large Messianic Jewish organizations that represent the majority of synagogues and Messianic congregations worldwide, such as the Union of Messianic Jewish Congregations (UMJC), the International Messianic Jewish Alliance (IMJA) and the International Federation of Messianic Jews (IFMJ).
In this large group of Messianic Jews we find Trinitarian and Unitarian Messianics, Christian Messianics and Catholics. All of them are, according to their spirituality, classified in the common currents of Judaism: either conservative (which despite the Gospel preserves the Talmudic teachings), orthodox (which is based on the literal fulfillment of the Holy Scriptures) and reformist (Christocentric).
That is to say, there are some Messianic Jews who deny that Jesus Christ is both God and man (they deny the dogmas of the Trinity and the Incarnation) while others accept these truths. The “Catholic Messianic Jews,” on the other hand, accept the Pope as the Vicar of Christ and the Catholic Church as the true Church.
St. Paul says that “he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision the outward circumcision of the flesh; but he is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is that of the heart, according to the Spirit, and not according to the letter” (Rom. 2:29-29).
Father Luis Montes VE, in an article for Catholic.net on Messianic Jews, states the following: “What is St. Paul referring to if not the New Israel? The circumcised Jew who rejects the Messiah does not belong to this spiritual Judaism, which is not according to the flesh; according to St. Paul, he is not a true Jew: it is not that God’s promises to Israel have lost their validity; rather, it is that not all the descendants of Israel are true people of Israel. There are many Jews today who are not Christians because of a psychological impossibility; they have not been presented with the true opportunity: if these are good Jews, they belong in a mysterious way to the New Israel which is the Church, but they do not belong because of circumcision but because of their good will and because their ignorance of the Messiah, Son of God, is not culpable. Just as a pagan who without fault ignores Christ and complies with the natural law is saved through the Church, in a mysterious but real way.”
The End Times as a Period of Purification, Grace and Hope
According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church: “The coming of the glorious Messiah at a certain moment in history is linked to the recognition of the Messiah by all Israel, part of which is hardened in unbelief regarding Jesus. St. Peter says to the Jews of Jerusalem after Pentecost: “Repent, then, and be converted, that your sins may be wiped out, so that times of consolation may come from the Lord and that he may send the Christ who was appointed for you, Jesus, whom heaven must retain until the time of the universal restoration, which God has spoken of through the mouth of his prophets.” And St. Paul echoes him: “If their rejection is the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance be but a resurrection from the dead?” The entrance of the fullness of the Jews into messianic salvation, followed by the fullness of the Gentiles, will bring the People of God to the fullness of Christ, in which God will be all in us” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, #674).
In the next section, the Catechism states that: “Before the coming of Christ, the Church will have to pass through a final trial that will shake the faith of many believers. The persecution that accompanies her pilgrimage on earth will reveal the “Mystery of Iniquity” in the form of a religious deception that will provide men with an apparent solution to their problems at the price of apostasy from the truth. The supreme religious deception is that of the antichrist, that is, a pseudo-messianism in which man glorifies himself by placing himself in the place of God and of his Messiah come in the flesh” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, #675).
And the Catechism adds: “The Church will enter into the glory of the Kingdom only through this last Passover, in which she will follow her Lord in his death and resurrection. The Kingdom will not be realized, therefore, through a historical triumph of the Church in the form of a growing process, but through a victory of God over the final outbreak of evil that will bring down his Bride from Heaven. God’s triumph over the rebellion of evil will take the form of the Last Judgment after the last cosmic upheaval of this passing world” (Catechism of the Catholic Church #677).
In this sense, we can affirm that the last of God’s silences regarding the Jews, the present one, is the one that goes from the extraordinary divine manifestation on the day of Pentecost to the sounding of the first trumpet of the Apocalypse. It is the longest divine silence in history in relation to the people of Israel.
Indeed, the prophet Ezekiel had already predicted that, after the dispersion, the Israelites would be reunited in the promised land: “Behold, I will take the children of Israel from among the nations where they have gone, and I will gather them, and I will bring them to their own land” (Ez 37:21).
For the theologian and expert in Christian eschatology, Alberto Villasana, this prophecy was fulfilled on May 14, 1948, the date of the proclamation of the State of Israel. According to this author, from then on the so-called “End Times” formally began.
In the Old Testament, God’s attention was focused on the Jews and their presence in the promised land under the law that God gave to Moses. In the New Testament, God is silent regarding his people and his attention is focused on the Church, offering salvation to all Gentiles.
According to Alberto Villasana, when God’s call to form part of the Church has been completed, the time of grace will end. God will remove the faithful Church and refocus on his plan of salvation for the Jews.
Indeed, the early Fathers of the Church conceived of the “End Times” as the period of purification that precedes the glorious return of Christ, who will return to defeat evil and reign in the world for a long period of time.
And there is a time of kronos, that is, of dates and hours, and a time of kairos, of Grace, that is, of divine action in history and in the Cosmos.
Therefore, in the “spiritual clock of the world,” that is, in the “clock of God,” the “End Times” are the period of the harvest where the wheat and the weeds are separated after having grown together throughout history. According to the Christian worldview, they are times of global purification before the Return of Christ.
The “End Times” are, therefore, the end of history as we know it until now, before the cosmos, the world, and human nature are completely renewed, thus fulfilling the original plan of a merciful and eternal God.
From the Christian worldview, the Holy Trinity is the one who guides the history of Salvation from the beginning, in Creation, until the End of Time when the universal Recapitulation of all things in Christ will take place, for their delivery to God the Father, and through the loving action of the Holy Spirit.
Thus, we enter a period of purification, conversion, justice, grace and mercy, as well as great HOPE. The Immaculate Heart of Mary will triumph, a long period of peace will be established and finally, all things will be recapitulated in the Sacred Heart of Christ.
