(March 20, 2011) Jehovah, the God of the people of the Book, declares through His prophet Isaiah: “1 The oracle concerning Egypt: Behold, the LORD is riding on a swift cloud and is about to come to Egypt; The idols of Egypt will tremble at His presence, and the heart of the Egyptians will melt within them. 2 So I will incite Egyptians against Egyptians; And they will each fight against his brother and each against his neighbor, City against city and kingdom against kingdom. 3 Then the spirit of the Egyptians will be demoralized within them; And I will confound their strategy, So that they will resort to idols and ghosts of the dead and to mediums and spiritists. 4 Moreover, I will deliver the Egyptians into the hand of a cruel master, and a mighty king will rule over them,” declares the Lord GOD of hosts…18 In that day five cities in the land of Egypt will be speaking the language of Canaan and swearing allegiance to the LORD of hosts; one will be called the City of Destruction. 19 In that day there will be an altar to the LORD in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar to the LORD near its border. 20 It will become a sign and a witness to the LORD of hosts in the land of Egypt; for they will cry to the LORD because of oppressors, and He will send them a Savior and a Champion, and He will deliver them. 21 Thus the LORD will make Himself known to Egypt, and the Egyptians will know the LORD in that day. They will even worship with sacrifice and offering, and will make a vow to the LORD and perform it. 22 The LORD will strike Egypt, striking but healing; so they will return to the LORD, and He will respond to them and will heal them. 23 In that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrians will come into Egypt and the Egyptians into Assyria, and the Egyptians will worship with the Assyrians. 24 In that day Israel will be the third party with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth, 25 whom the LORD of hosts has blessed, saying, “Blessed is Egypt My people, and Assyria the work of My hands, and Israel My inheritance.” (Isaiah 19:1-4,18-25)
This prophecy is speaking of the End-Times when the Antichrist (“a cruel master, and a mighty king will rule over them”) comes to power and subjugates Egypt under his oppressive reign. However, God will send them a Savior and He will deliver Egypt from the Antichrist. The Book makes it clear that this Savior is Jesus the Messiah who is called Isa in the Qur’an and whom Christian Arabs call Yasu:
“11 And I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, and He who sat on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and wages war. 12 His eyes are a flame of fire, and on His head are many diadems; and He has a name written on Him which no one knows except Himself. 13 He is clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God. 14 And the armies which are in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, were following Him on white horses. 15 From His mouth comes a sharp sword, so that with it He may strike down the nations, and He will rule them with a rod of iron; and He treads the wine press of the fierce wrath of God, the Almighty. 16 And on His robe and on His thigh He has a name written, “KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.” 17 Then I saw an angel standing in the sun, and he cried out with a loud voice, saying to all the birds which fly in midheaven, “Come, assemble for the great supper of God, 18 so that you may eat the flesh of kings and the flesh of commanders and the flesh of mighty men and the flesh of horses and of those who sit on them and the flesh of all men, both free men and slaves, and small and great.” 19 And I saw the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies assembled to make war against Him who sat on the horse and against His army. 20 And the beast was seized, and with him the false prophet who performed the signs in his presence, by which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped his image; these two were thrown alive into the lake of fire which burns with brimstone. 21 And the rest were killed with the sword which came from the mouth of Him who sat on the horse, and all the birds were filled with their flesh.” (Revelation 19:11-21)
When Jesus returns to earth at His second coming, the Egyptians, Syrians, Jews, and the rest of the world will know that He is the Messiah. The Muslim and Arab world along with the Jews will accept Him as the true and only Savior. There will be unity among Jews and Arabs in Jesus the Messiah which God calls a “highway from Egypt to Assyria”. This will indeed be a highway of salvation.
Jesus and the Qur’an
The Qur’an declares, like the Bible, that Jesus’ birth was miraculous and that Mary was a virgin when she gave birth to Him:
“19. He said: “Nay, I am only a messenger from thy Lord, (to announce) to thee the gift of a holy son.
20. She said: “How shall I have a son, seeing that no man has touched me, and I am not unchaste?”
21. He said: “So (it will be): Thy Lord saith, ‘that is easy for Me: and (We wish) to appoint him as a Sign unto men and a Mercy from Us’:It is a matter (so) decreed.”
22. So she conceived him, and she retired with him to a remote place.” (Maryam sura 019:019-022)
Only Jesus’ birth was without human intervention (apart from Mary giving birth to Him). God miraculously placed Jesus inside of Mary as an unborn baby! Muhammad, Isaiah, Mary and every other human being who has ever lived was conceived with human seed.
The Qur’an also states that Jesus was full of the holy spirit:
“110. Then will Allah say: “O Jesus the son of Mary! Recount My favour to thee and to thy mother. Behold! I strengthened thee with the holy spirit, so that thou didst speak to the people in childhood and in maturity. Behold! I taught thee the Book and Wisdom, the Law and the Gospel and behold! thou makest out of clay, as it were, the figure of a bird, by My leave, and thou breathest into it and it becometh a bird by My leave, and thou healest those born blind, and the lepers, by My leave. And behold! thou bringest forth the dead by My leave. And behold! I did restrain the Children of Israel from (violence to) thee when thou didst show them the clear Signs, and the unbelievers among them said: ‘This is nothing but evident magic.’” (Al-Ma’idah sura 005:110)
Of course the Qur’anic perspective on the nature of these events is different from the biblical perspective. The biblical accounts are given to prove that Jesus is the Son of God and therefore the only one able to save humankind from its sins. He is more than a prophet: He is the Messiah! It is extremely important that you understand that the biblical accounts of Jesus were written primarily by those who knew Him personally. They wrote them down within a few decades of His ascension to Heaven. This means they were written five hundred years before the birth of Muhammad.
Balance Scales of Judgment: Good deeds vs. Bad deeds
The Qur’an teaches that people will be judged by how many good deeds they have done in their life versus how many bad deeds they have done:
“101. Then when the Trumpet is blown, there will be no more relationships between them that Day, nor will one ask after another!
102. Then those whose balance (of good deeds) is heavy, they will attain salvation:
103. But those whose balance is light, will be those who have lost their souls, in Hell will they abide.” (Al-Muminun sura 023:101-103)
Here again the biblical perspective differs on this issue of good deeds and the condition of the human heart:
God states through His prophet Jeremiah:
“9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” (Jeremiah 17:9)
History has shown us just how evil and sinful humanity is through wars, hatred, racism, bigotry, adultery, lust, pride and all the other sins we each commit daily in our own lives.
The Book of Romans declares:
“9 What then? Are we better than they? Not at all; for we have already charged that both Jews and Gentiles are all under sin; 10 as it is written,”There is none righteous, not even one; 11 there is none who understands, there is none who seeks for God…23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:9-11,23)
Again, the history of the human race has proven this to be true. Islam, like all the other religions of the world, believes that if we do enough good deeds we will earn a place in heaven. However, God disagrees:
“6 But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags [literally: garments of menstruation]; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.” (Isaiah 64:6)
Our good deeds or works are as useless as menstrual rags when done apart from the love of God. Thus, no matter how many good deeds we have done they will not take away our sins nor will they override our sinful nature. Our sins actually keep us separated from God:
“1 Behold, the LORD’S hand is not so short that it cannot save; Nor is His ear so dull that it cannot hear. 2 But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden His face from you so that He does not hear.” (Isaiah 59:1-2)
The Good News
The good news is that we don’t have to be separated from God because:
“16 For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)
God is not some distant deity sitting on His throne detached from His human creations waiting to sit in judgment on them. He loved the world and sent His Son to save it. The word “world” here means that Jesus died for all the sins of everyone who ever lived whether they were Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, Jews, Christians, atheists, agnostics, or any other religion that has ever existed. Some of His followers saw Him die on the cross. They knew that it was Jesus and no one else who died on that cross. They also knew He was resurrected from the dead. They knew it so well that many of them died horrible deaths because of their belief in Jesus’ death and resurrection!
The Highway of Salvation
As I said at the beginning of this article, when Jesus returns to set up His kingdom on earth, Muslims and Jews will come together in their knowledge that Jesus is their Savior. Many Muslims today are not waiting for that to happen. They are already receiving Jesus as their Savior as the non-Christian Shiekh Ahmad Al-Katani said in an interview on Al-Jazeera television:
Ahmad Al Katani:
The reality is that these words say a lot less than they should. As we said in the beginning, everyone has the right to invite others to his religion; this is what is known as evangelism (or proselytizing). As for Christianization, no one has the right to take Muslims out of their religion, and you asked for references and the references are too numerous.
Islam used to represent, as you previously mentioned, Africa’s main religion and there were 30 African languages that used to be written in Arabic script. The number of Muslims in Africa has diminished to 316 million, half of whom are Arabs in North Africa. So in the section of Africa that we are talking about, the non Arab section, the number of Muslims does not exceed 150 million people. When we realize that the entire population of Africa is one billion people, we see that the number of Muslims has diminished greatly from what it was in the beginning of the last century. On the other hand, the number of Catholics has increased from one million in 1902 to 329 million 882 thousand (329,882,000). Let us round off that number to 330 million in the year 2000.
As to how that happened, well there are now 1.5 million churches whose congregations account for 46 million people. In every hour, 667 Muslims convert to Christianity. Everyday, 16,000 Muslims convert to Christianity. Ever year, 6 million Muslims convert to Christianity. These numbers are very large indeed …
Maher Abdallah (interrupting):
Hold on! Let me clarify. Do we have 6 million converting from Islam to Christianity or converting from Islam and other religions?
Ahmad Al Katani:
Great (question)! The other religions are not placed on the list of Christianization; rather they are placed on the list of evangelization. The other religion in Africa is paganism; so it’s Islam, Christianity or paganism. There isn’t something similar to Asia for example where you have Buddhism or Zoroastrianism. In Africa it is just these three, so if you talk about Christianization then it targets the only other heavenly religion which is Islam. As for paganism, those people worship animals and planets and the like.
Maher Abdallah:
So 6 million Muslims a year convert?
Ahmad Al Katani:
Every year… In the African nations this century a tragedy happened. Take for example what happened in Ethiopia. Ethiopia is an Arab nation and I am not saying a muslim nation. If any student looks up the word Habasha (Ethiopia) in the book Ocean Dictionary written by Al-Fairuz Abady, he will find that the word Habashat means “people of different tribes” and this is what happened. Ethiopia was a place where Arabs from different tribes would go to live for a while. We all know that Islam entered Ethiopia before Islam entered the city of Medina. We all know that AL-Najashy (the ruler of Ethiopia) was a Muslim. It is mentioned by Al-Darkatny in his biography of the prophet “Allah’s prayer and peace be upon him ” that during the month of Rajab in the 9th year of the Hijra (Muslim calendar) that the prophet said to his companions: “Rise up and pray on your brother Al-Najashy.” From that year on the practice of praying on the absent was established. Therefore from the time of the prophet “Allah’s prayer and peace be upon him ” Islam entered Ethiopia. So what has happened to Ethiopia?
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God’s righteous judgment is coming upon the whole world in the last days. He is going to allow a “cruel master, and a mighty king” to rise to power who will attempt to rule the world as Adolph Hitler tried to rule Europe. The people of the world look to earthly rulers for their salvation while at the same time rejecting and spurning and mocking Jesus who is their true and only salvation. This leader is going to be exponentially worse than Hitler and he will lead the world to destruction. Jesus and the prophet Daniel said this will be a time unlike any other the earth has experienced or will experience again. Billions will be destroyed because of their wicked ways until Jesus comes again and sets up His earthly kingdom. He said there would be signs when this occurs. Whether it happens in our lifetime or is still yet in the future is unknown. What is known is that each of us will experience our own End-Times sooner or later. Therefore, every person should turn to God and repent of their sinful ways and receive Jesus Christ as their Savior. It is the only hope we have because the world doesn’t care about you or me.
