Tag: Jihad

Islamic Jihad: Fulfillment of Prophecy?

There has been a good deal of speculation as to whether or not America is mentioned or even indirectly referenced in the Bible, specifically Revelation 12:14 where it is written that the wings of a great eagle are given to a woman to save her from the face of the serpent.

I believe it is somewhat of a stretch to infer America, i.e., the United States, as being the eagle referred to in the verse mentioned above. The Book of Revelation presents its own unique set of challenges for the reader because both figurative and literal language are interspersed throughout the book.

Unlike the sometimes confusing imagery presented in Revelation, there are other verses that appear in other books that really leave very little doubt as to their meaning and one I’m thinking of is John 16:1-2.

These things I have spoken to you so that you may be kept from stumbling. They will make you outcasts from the synagogue, but an hour is coming for everyone who kills you to think that he is offering service to God.

John 16:1-2 NASB

I’m sure some would argue that since Jesus was speaking to His apostles, He was making a prediction concerning them and I would agree with that argument. But if you read through the Gospels you will find that Jesus frequently spoke in prophetic terms. I believe that most honest scholars, pastors, educators and theologians would agree that the Bible wasn’t written specifically for a certain people during a certain time in history but for all people in all ages. Otherwise, why preach it today?

Besides, at the time Jesus spoke those words, the Church had not yet come into existence. The apostles were all Jewish but they would become the core of the newly formed Christian Church being hand-picked by Jesus Himself.

Nevertheless, the words in John 16:2, “…an hour is coming for everyone who kills you to think that he is offering service to God” strikes a chord especially when you consider the worldwide persecution of Christians in many Muslim majority countries.

Let me rephrase what I just said, Christian are being systematically “cleansed” from many Muslim majority countries. As the saying goes, “This isn’t war it’s genocide.”

Some would argue that the Islamic Jihadis are just terrorists with a political or social agenda. If that’s true, then why does ISIS call it’s captured territory a Caliphate which by definition is an area ruled by an Islamic steward? Islam is still a religion, isn’t it? It should be no surprise then that many, if not all, Jihadis adopted “Allahu Akbar” as their battle cry. I’m aware that the term “Jihad” also carries the meaning of “struggle against self” for Muslims but that is not the meaning of the term I’m discussing here.

Islam, Judaism, and Christianity are all monotheistic religions; however, Muslims and Jews both believe that Christianity is a polytheistic religion. (The belief that Christianity is a polytheistic religion is a topic I’ll investigate in a future series.) This view of Christianity as a polytheistic religion is the root of all the animosity both religions have towards Christianity. Of course with the Jews it’s passive aggressive but for the Jihadis it’s an intense hatred that expresses itself in the extremely violent acts carried out all too frequently throughout the world.

While Muslims can accept Jesus as being a prophet, they reject Him as being God. Jews, on the other hand, reject Him as being both a prophet and God. Therefore, He has become a hindrance or an obstacle to both. The problem was and always will be with Jesus as prophesied:

Then He shall become a sanctuary; But to both the houses of Israel, a stone to strike and a rock to stumble over, And a snare and a trap for the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

Isa. 8:14

The bottom line is that there is only one God. Christians and Jews know Him as Jehovah; Muslims know Him as Allah. The problem isn’t with God, it’s with our understanding of who He is and what He has said. So, which religion has it right? I would suggest that one very reliable way to decide is by asking yourself the question, “Whose prophesies have been fulfilled or are now being fulfilled?” I’ve just presented two very obvious ones to consider.

In the Crosshairs: Election Retrospective

In agile software development, it’s expected that Scrum project teams conduct a sprint retrospective. The sprint retrospective is a meeting attended by all project team members to determine what was done right during the sprint and what was not done so well. The team attempts to ascertain what actions that could be taken on future sprints to increase the team’s effectiveness or velocity.

In the old days, we used to call this retrospective type of meeting a post-mortem or “an examination of the corpse to determine correct cause of death.” In our case here, the corpse is the 2016 U.S. election. Or more accurately, the corpse in this case is what was said in the “Crosshairs” series published on this blog during the primaries and presidential campaign season. In other words, this post is a self-retrospective.

In the Crosshairs: Trump & the GOP

Published: August 06, 2015

Many Republican career politicians deserted Trump like rats from a sinking ship. Enter former presidential candidate John McCain. I admit I voted the McCain / Palin ticket in 2008 only because of Sarah Palin, I never really liked John McCain, there was always something about him…

Career politicians are only looking out for themselves, especially when they’re up for reelection.

Anyway, McCain dropped his support of Trump after the release of the infamous hot-mic tapes like a rat deserting a sinking ship, only the ship wasn’t sinking.

The so-called “fired up crazies” spoke and Trump won the presidency.

In the Crosshairs: Paris Attacks

Published: November 14, 2015

Our current president still refuses to acknowledge that the ISIL inspired Jihadis are Islamic, even though every name they use or ones that are given to them has the word “Islamic” in it.

So what’s the issue here? Will it give them more credibility if we in the West agree with them that they are Islamic? The “JV Team” seems to have no problem with credibility since they now have a presence in 18 countries around the world.

So, no matter what name you choose to give them, ISIL, radical Islamic terrorist, or Jihadis, you have to ask yourself, “What difference – at this point, what difference does it make?”

In the Crosshairs: Guns & Immigration

Published: December 01, 2015

I’ve heard Bill O’Reilly say, on more than one occasion in his Talking Points Memo on Fox News Channel, that America would never elect a socialist as president. Well, I think Bill O’Reilly is wrong since Bernie Sanders almost clinched the Democratic nomination were it not for the Clinton machine opposing him.

Maybe you don’t think there is a Marxist revolution going on in America, if not, then you haven’t been paying attention to the “Not My President” movement which surely advocates a globalist agenda with Marxist overtones.

So, if our Western democracy had worn a condom while fornicating with Marxian socialism we probably wouldn’t be in this situation today.

In the Crosshairs: “Yesterday Once More”

Published: December 05, 2015

This “Crosshairs” post was my tribute to Karen Carpenter and the good old ‘60s.

Check it out. I think I hit the nail right on the head with this one.

In the Crosshairs: Generals and Politicians

Published: December 25, 2015

So, in the fight against ISIS or the global Jihad, “What would Patton do?” Well, he’d win and that’s all he would have to say.

Yes, Donald Trump admires Generals Patton and MacArthur and so do I. History has proven Patton and MacArthur right and proven the politicians and some presidents wrong. As Trump might say, The generals “knew what the hell was going on.”

Coincidentally, Trump made many references to Patton and MacArthur during his campaign. Could he have been reading this blog?

In the Crosshairs: National Review’s Manifesto against Donald Trump

Published: January 30, 2016

The so-called conservatives at the National Review made idiots of themselves when they maligned Donald Trump in such a way that even the radical Left and Saul Alinsky would be proud.

The 2016 U.S. elections are over and Donald Trump is now the president elect. Remember during the primaries when Ted Cruz declared on many occasions that Donald Trump would not be the Republican Party’s nominee. Well, not only did Trump get the nomination, he won the election! What does that say about Cruz’s prophetic abilities or his credentials as an evangelical?

In the Crosshairs: Providence and the U.S. Election

Published: March 06, 2016

Although no one is really saying it, God spoke and Trump won the election. Obviously, God spoke through the voters. Notice that He didn’t speak through the elites, media pundits, experts, commentators, news reporters, pollsters, globalist, or progressives.

Most of the time when God speaks, no one really listens, but this time the whole world got the message.

In the Crosshairs: Looking Back to See Ahead

Published: August 28, 2016

The good news is that Trump won the election, the bad news is that all the loud mouth celebrities who said they would leave the U.S. if Trump won are still here.

So was I wrong to say that “America has been destroyed,” and “Donald Trump is running for president of a country that doesn’t exist anymore and that pretty much assures that Hillary Clinton will win the election?” I would have to say yes and no.

Yes, I was wrong in that Hillary Clinton didn’t win the election, but no, I wasn’t wrong to say America has been destroyed. Take a look around, see all the “Not my President” rioters and protestors. Obama met with Trump and was cordial but the President made no attempt to try to quell the violence his supporters are inflicting on our cities and institutions. I believe America as we knew it is gone—God just gave us a short reprieve. Maybe “for the sake of the elect?”

In the Crosshairs: The Last Election

Published: November 05, 2016

By the time I published this post, I was convinced that nothing could stop Hillary Clinton from becoming President of the United States. I was wrong…thankfully wrong. God intervened and pronounced His judgement.

And just when you thought it was safe to turn on the news and not hear a barrage of negative rants against Donald Trump that the corrupt mainstream media are working overtime to marginalize and ridicule his cabinet picks, wife and other family members during his transition to the White House. No doubt, the 2020 presidential campaign has already begun.

Yes, the Left was hoping this would be the last election. They had a candidate who they believed couldn’t lose. Who will they find to run against Trump for the 2020 election? Time alone will tell.

P.S. This concludes my series on the 2016 U.S. presidential election. I trust my insights and analyses were entertaining and hopefully even original at times. I tried to make analogies that were outside of the mainstream, maybe even outside traditional conservative circles. Nevertheless, I tried to make points that I felt others missed or neglected to some degree, particularly with reference to divine providence. All this with a healthy dose of sarcasm thrown in. As always, I welcome your comments.