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In ProphecyReader comment on item: The Mystical Menace of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Submitted by gerhard (Argentina), Jan 27, 2006 at 10:01 What is the purpose of prophecy? Prophecy exists for the purpose of proving to us that there are Higher Powers in the Cosmos than humanity. There is never a direct prophecy which can save lives: e.g. "on April 13th 2006 a great earthquake will occur at midday at San Roque del Salvador in Peru, do not be within ten miles of the town centre", for that is not the purpose of general prophecy: Prophecy is a tool to reinforce or create Faith.If we accept prophecy, the coming War of the Mahdi is inevitable and appears to have as its ultimate purpose the destruction of both Christianity and Islam. In the 4th century "Tiburtine Sibylline" there occurred for the first time the prophecy of the Last Emperor who, before the advent of Antichrist, shall obtain dominion over the whole world and, at the end of his reign, "shall march to Jerusalem and lay down his crown on Golgotha." This Last Emperor is not the Antichrist, but the last ruler of the world. The early Christian philosopher Leo VI also celebrated the Last Emperor of the future, and in the early "Book of Pseudo-Methodius" the same Emperor of the future overcomes Islam and obtains dominion over the world. These Dark Age prophecies foresee a war between Christianity and Islam in which the former is triumphant, but it appears to be a Pyhrric victory, for the Last Emperor is succeeded by the Antichrist. More recent prophecies help us visualize the course of events and the time frame within which they may occur. The Hadeeths state that the sign of the imminent appearance of the Imam Mahdi and beyond him the Antichrist, will be a solar and lunar eclipse in the same Islamic holy month of Ramadan. In 2005, Ramadan fell between 3 October and 3 November inclusive, there was a full solar eclipse on 3 October and a lunar eclipse of 17 October, and therefore we may reasonably suspect that 2006 may be the crucial year. The prophecies of Nostradamus, in particular his letter to Henry II of France, indicate the possibility that 2006 is a significant year for him. He speaks of "the Great Empire of the Antichrist" and "the Mahdi" in the same breath, although the quatrains predict the ultimate defeat of the Mahdi. The "Mahdi" of Nostradamus is given the pseudonym "Xerxes", who was, by coincidence, Persian, or as one would say today, Iranian. Nostradamus predicts "The New Babylon" as beginning 73 years and 7 months after "the first Holocaust". When a Jewish scribe, even one writing 400 years before the event, alludes to "Holocaust", it is fair to assume that he has only one particular Holocaust in mind, the Nazi persecution of the Jews, and so if we take the date of 30 January 1933, Hitler's seizure of power, and add to it 73 years and 7 months, the result is 30 August 2006 for the end of the period of the "first Holocaust". The period of the second Holocaust, within which the War of the Mahdi occurs, begins therefore on or after 31 August 2006. In prophecy the War of the Mahdi lasts 27 years. This appears ridiculous, and so we must expect to find some unimagined factor intervening to bring about such a state of affairs. Nostradamus states that the War of the Mahdi is preceded by a full solar eclipse, and there are two full solar eclipses in 2006, in March and September. Hot on the heels of the outbreak of the War of the Mahdi comes the biblical Apocalypse (the date in the year, but not the year itself, is known from the Mariological apparitions) in which "the great majority of the world's population" will die "by fire". This word "fire" would include concepts such as "heat" as applied to the Earth. Great heat from an external source would change the axis and bring on a disaster of unimaginable proportions. Certain great and immensely powerful nations might cease to exist: all the terrible weapons of war useless in the catastrophe of a flood "greater than the Deluge". The War of the Mahdi as described in the Nostradamus texts is fought on the remaining soil of mainland Europe above water. This is said to be overrrun almost entirely by the Moslems except for parts of France west of the Rhone. Then some kind of advanced weapon becomes available to the French by means of which they secure victory and conquer what is left of the world. After the victory of this latter-day Napoleon, the Last Emperor, comes the Antichrist. This term is used pejoratively nowadays but may mean simply "He who comes to destroy Christianity", i.e. the founder of a new world religion and order. The foregoing is all merely my interpretation of prophecy. It may be, and one would hope it is, idle fantasy and error, and the date may not be 2006 but something far into the future. But it is as well to bear the possibility in mind as events unfold and keep a close eye on Xerxes in Teheran. No precipitate action must be taken, for the spark which sets it all off does not occur the in the predictions. Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments". << Previous Comment Next Comment >> Reader comments (215) on this item
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