ISLAM  END TIMES THEOLOGY

Iranian President Ahmadinejad has said that he believes the end of the world is only a few years away. He has also said that he believes the way to hasten the arrival of the Islamic messiah is to unleash an apocalyptic holy war against Christians and Jews.  He has vowed to annihilate the U.S. and Israel and is feverishly preparing his military to accomplish just that.

Ahamadinejad’s brand of Shiite eschatology; end times theology:

According to Shia lore, the Imam is a messianic figure who, although in hiding, remains the true Sovereign of the World.

Ahamadinejad claims to be specifically chosen by the Twelfth Imam to be his representative, and his objective is to help prepare the Iman’s return to dominate the world.  His singular task is to provoking a clash of civilizations in which the Muslim world, led by Iran who takes on the infidel West represented by United States, and then  defeats it. 

From childhood, Shia boys are told to cultivate two qualities: 1) To develop the capacity to patiently wait for the Imam to return.   2) Actions needed to hasten the Iman’s  return. coinciding with an apocalyptic battle between believers in Islam and  with  the evil infidels, who are ultimately routed.

At a meeting with the Foreign Ministers of Islamic countries President Ahmadinejad claimed to be in touch with the twelfth Imam and added that there were signs of the return of the twelfth Imam, and who will definitely return soon.

A professor at the Religious Learning Center in Qomm, Iran, one of his country’s most respected Shiite scholars wrote a book called Al-Imam al-Mahd; “The Just Leader of Humanity”, and describes the sighs of the coming of the Mahdi (messiah) in great detail.  Primarily a massive earthquake and the launching of a global war to kill and either subjugate or kill Jews, Christians, and other infidels.

The prediction is that the Mahdi will rise at the time when people will be faced with severe conflict and the earth will be hit by a violent quake.  He will fill the earth with justice and equity as it is filled with injustice and tyranny.  He will fill the hearts of his followers with devotion and will spread justice everywhere.

A sobering assessment from a senior Israeli political leader according to “Bridges For Peace” newsletter at their web site: www.bridgesforpeace.com  : 

(Jerusalem, Israel) – “Our best-case scenario is for missiles to be hitting us soon. Either the West goes to war to stop Iran from going nuclear, and Iran fires conventional missiles at us in retaliation, or the West waits too long and Iran launches a nuclear first strike at us. Either way, a terrible war is coming. It cannot be avoided.”

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UPDATE By Joel Rosenberg:

www.joelrosenberg.com

First, the good news: Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Jordan's King Abdullah II will meet today in Petra and Aqaba to discuss peace. Olmert is expected to personally invite the King to visit Jerusalem to discuss the future of the region.

Now, the bad news: Olmert will return from Jordan to oversee a major IDF war games exercise as Israeli intelligence officials warn him that this summer could see a major war.

Latest warning signs: The New York Times is reporting that Iran is enriching uranium faster and on a much larger scale than previously known. According to a new report by the IAEA, "Iran could have 3,000 centrifuges operating - enough to make one bomb's worth of material every year. Tehran may...be able to build an additional 5,000 centrifuges by the end of the year, for a total of 8,000."

There are new reports this week that Iran may join Central Asian military alliance with Russia. Syria has just moved up its schedule for a major military exercise. This has intensified speculation among intelligence analysts that Syria could be preparing for a summer war. Palestinian leaders, meanwhile, are marking the "catastrophe" of Israel's rebirth by vowing to recapture Jerusalem. The European Union is boycotting "Jerusalem Day," which marks the 40th anniversary of Jerusalem coming back under Jewish control for the first time in 2,000 years. Meanwhile, an Israeli newspaper is running a big story this morning entitled, "If the Bomb drops...", giving people details of how to protect oneself in case of a nuclear attack.

In that context, if you're looking for some light summer reading, you might want to skip "The Nuclear Sphinx of Tehran: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the State of Iran" by Yossi Melman, a leading Israeli investigative journalist, and Meir Javedanfar, an Iranian-born Mideast analyst who works closely with the BBC, Voice of America and the Los Angeles Times. But if you're interesting in revealing new insights into Ahmadinejad's apocalyptic religious beliefs, look no further.

Major American news outlets like CBS's "60 Minutes," NBC News, CNN and Time have covered Ahmadinejad extensively -- even interviewed him exclusively this year -- yet keep missing the big story: the end of the world theology driving his foreign policy. But Melman and Javedanfar get it and report it in detail.

Excerpts from their new book:

* "Ahmadinejad is the first Muslim leader who has prayed for the hastening of the return of the Shiite Messiah, known as the Mahdi, at teh U.N. General Assembly, an act that reinforced his conviction that he was carrying God's words and acting on behalf of the Messiah....Never before had an Iranian leader so publicly acknowledged his messianic beliefs." (p. 42)

* "The Ayandeye Roshan (Bright Future) Institute, based in Qom, specializes in theological research about the Mahdi. It points to at least five 'distinct signs' that need to happen before the Mahdi appears:

" (p. 43-44)

1. "The first is the rise of a fighter from Yemen called the Yamani, who attacks the enemies of Islam.

2. "The second sign is the rise of an anti-Mahdi militant leader named Osman Ben Anbase, who will also be known as the Sofiani. He will be joined by another anti-Mahdi militant called Dajal, whom many Muslims clerics have compared to the Antichrist. The uprising of Sofiani will precede the appearance of the Mahdi in Mecca by exactly six months. These two forces, known as the forces of evil, will occupy Syria and Jordan and advance from there....[for] an epic battle near the city of Kufa, in the Shiite heartland of southern Iraq.

3. "The third distinct sign will be voices from the sky. The most distinct voice will be that of the Angel Gabriel, who will call the faithful to gather around the Mahdi.

4. "The fourth sign will entail the destruction of Sofiani's army.

5. "The fifth and final sign is the death of a holy man by the name of Muhammed bin Hassan, called Nafse Zakiye, or the pure soul. Fifteen days after he is killed, the Mahdi will appear in Mecca. The Mahdi will appoint Jesus Christ as his deputy. People will recognize the Mahdi because there will be an angel above his head shouting, 'This is the Mahdi. Follow him.' The Mahdi will be wearing a ring that belonged to King Solomon and will hold the wooden stick that Moses held when he parted the Red Sea. His army of 313 will grow into 10,000, fifty of whom will be women."

An additional indicator of the Mahdi's arrival, say the religious scholars to whom Ahmadinejad is listening, will be "the death of 80 percent of the world's population in a massive war."

The authors note that Ahmadinejad is telling associates time is very short, noting that he "made the timetable more specific, saying the Mahdi would reappear soon."  He thus increased government funding for the leading Islamic school that teaches about the coming of the Mahdi by 1,000% to $3.5 million.

"With Iran now able to enrich uranium, it could become nuclear," the authors conclude. "If that happens, Iran's nuclear arsenal might give the regime the confidence it needs to start a war, which could then become the 'platform' that Ahmadinejad has said he wants to create for the reappearance of the Mahdi."

WEBLOG with the latest on events in the Middle East and Russia, including links to articles mentioned in this story, and a link to the audio of my interviews with Dr. Dobson on "radical Islam."

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                                  AS A WATCHMAN  WHO SEES THE STORM COMING …..

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