Islamic Threats Against Rome in the Light of Bible Prophecy

Islamic Threats Against Rome, PDF format

“Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine;
and she shall be utterly burned with fire:
for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her.”
(Rev. 18:8)

ISIS Threatens Rome with Conquest and Slaughter

In February 2015 an extraordinary threat was made by the bloodthirsty Islamic terrorist outfit known as ISIS (the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, now going simply by the name of Islamic State).  In a very short space of time, this evil, murderous organisation has spread across a vast swathe of territory, massacring people along the way in extremely brutal and sadistic ways.  It is intent on establishing an Islamic state across the entire region.  And having expanded into Libya in North Africa, and having taken control of Benghazi, Libya’s second city, it is now just south of Italy, which with 2.2 million Muslims has the fourth-largest Muslim population in Europe.  The Italian island of Lampedusa is a mere 109 miles away from Libya, and Sicily is just 300 miles away.

The threat, made in an online video, was this: “Today we are south of Rome.  We will conquer Rome, by Allah’s permission”.  He said this just after the same video showed ISIS terrorists beheading 21 Egyptian Copts (Coptic “Christianity” is not true Christianity, but Islam views all who call themselves “Christians” as being Christians).  It is believed that the beheadings occurred in Libya.

Other threats were made as well.  On Twitter an ISIS supporter named Abu Abdullah Britani wrote, “We Are Coming O Rome with slaughter.”  This message was followed by another which read: “We Are Coming O Rome, we will conquer and establish the justice of shariah.  We will use your leaning tower of pizza [sic] to throw off homosexual.”[1]

Also, in October 2014 ISIS superimposed images of the ISIS flag flying over St Peter’s Square in the Vatican, in its magazine, Dabiq.

The threats were taken very seriously by Italian security forces, and by the Vatican itself.  After the video threat was made, Italian security chiefs approved putting 4800 soldiers on the streets of Rome at sensitive sites, such as tourist and archaeological sites.  About 500 soldiers were deployed to increase protection at diplomatic residences, Jewish schools and synagogues.  And in the Vatican City itself, the commander of the Vatican’s Swiss Guard said his forces were ready to defend the pope of Rome if ISIS attempted a strike.

Why Rome?

Why would ISIS target Rome?  The answer is simple: the Vatican City State, ensconced within the city of Rome, is the world headquarters of the Roman Catholic institution, which has well over a billion members.  And it is viewed, by Muslims and almost everyone else the world over, as the capital of Christendom.  Bible-believing Christians know, of course, that Roman Catholicism is a false religion, counterfeit “Christianity”, heathenism masquerading as Christianity; but this is not how the world sees it.  To the world, the Roman Catholic “Church” is Christianity.  To the world, this is the largest church, the oldest church, the greatest church.  All this is false, of course; but not to the world.  And not to global Islam, which at various times through the centuries has been at war, violent and bloody war, with Roman Catholicism.  To destroy the West, which Islam wrongly views as “Christian”, it has always believed that it must destroy Roman Catholicism.  And the destruction of the headquarters of Roman Catholicism – Vatican City State – is seen as essential to the elimination of Roman Catholicism worldwide.

Possible Methods of Attack, and Muslim/Leftist Alliance

How would such an attack be carried out?  One way is by infiltration into Italy of Muslims from North Africa.  Libya was once a colony of Italy, and large numbers of Muslim migrants are finding ways to cross from Libya into Italy all the time.  ISIS has in fact threatened to flood Europe with 500 000 Muslim refugees.[2]  In February 2015 the Italian foreign minister, Paolo Gentiloni, sounded the alarm in a speech delivered to Italy’s parliament.  “There is an evident risk of an alliance being forged between local groups and Daesh [an alternative name for ISIS] and it is a situation that has to be monitored with maximum attention,” he said.  “We find ourselves facing a country [Libya] with a vast territory and failed institutions, and that has potentially grave consequences not only for us but for the stability and sustainability of the transition processes in neighbouring African states.  The time at our disposal is not infinite and is in danger of running out soon.”[3]

Another way of attacking Rome is for an ISIS agent, or agents, already living within Italy, or moving into Italy from another European country, to carry out an attack.  “ISIS does not have to send a team from Libya to Vatican City or Rome to conduct an attack,” said Tom Sanderson, co-director of the Transnational Threats Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C.  “They can ignite individuals who are already there.”[4]

That this second possibility is indeed a very real one has been made clear in an e-book published by ISIS, Black Flags from Rome.  The author lays out the way in which the Islamic terrorists could sack Rome.[5]  He calls on Muslims throughout Europe, secret European converts to Islam, to rise up and assist ISIS from within Europe.  These “secret white converts” are “the Islamic State’s secret weapon”.  He writes: “There were small armies of the Islamic State within every country of Europe by late 2014, and the intelligence agencies didn’t even know about it!”  Furthermore: “Muslim fighters from all European countries will continue the fight, breaking borders until they can reach Northern Rome.”

He states that the Irish Republican Army (IRA), the Roman Catholic terrorist organisation that carried out its deadly campaign against Northern Ireland, should be emulated by Islamic terrorists, for (as he points out) the IRA was “ruthless” in its guerilla campaign.  Imagine: Muslim terrorists copying the tactics and ruthlessness of Roman Catholic terrorists in order to defeat Roman Catholicism.  Truly a case of Rome’s own iniquitous use of brutal force to achieve its own objectives in Northern Ireland now coming back to bite it on its own home soil: Italy!

And – in what will come as a huge surprise to many, who simply do not understand how groups that appear on the surface to be poles apart are able to come together and work together – he states that there could be an alliance between European Muslims and “a growing population of left-winged activists (people who are against: human/animal abuses, Zionism, and Austerity measures etc.)”, who “look up to the Muslims as a force who are strong enough to fight against the injustices of the world”.  There already are alliances, on all kinds of levels, between Muslim terrorists and Communists/Marxists/Socialists, as well as between Muslim terrorists and liberal/leftists.  The alliances between Muslims and Marxists are easy to understand: both are radical and ruthless, and in fact Marxists are quite happy to let Muslims do their brutal dirty work for them today, so that they [the Reds] can appear to be squeaky-clean.   But it has often puzzled people to learn of the alliance between Muslim madmen and such liberal western institutions as those which campaign for animal “rights”, environmental causes, etc.  It has puzzled people because there seems, on the surface, to be no true affinity or common ground between them.  Ah, but that is where they are so very wrong!  Contrary to the media image created around liberal/leftists, the real agenda behind the radical “animal rights” and environmentalist activists is an anti-human one: they hate humanity, and are perfectly content to see Muslim madmen killing human beings.  There are leading radical environmentalists who have called for drastic population reductions.  As far as the radical leftists are concerned, Islamists are reducing the human population, and that is a good thing.  And now the Muslim author of this e-book, Black Flags from Rome, has actually admitted that the liberal/leftists see Islamists as allies!

He predicted that leftists sympathetic to the Muslim cause “will give intelligence, share weapons and do undercover work for the Muslims to pave the way for the conquest of Rome.”

The book says that according to Islamic prophecy, western Europe will eventually “make a peace covenant with the Islamic State” because of the threat posed to Europe and to Sunni Muslims by Russia.  “Russia has always been defeated when Muslims and Western Romans [Europeans] have allied together.  Defeating Russia will allow Sunnis to defeat and take over Persia [Iran, presently under Shiite Muslims] permanently, and that is when they will turn their eyes towards Rome.”

It then adds: “There is no doubt that if Muslims want to take over Italy, the Islamic State European fighters will have to ally with other militias to fight the Mafia before the conquest of Rome.”

And the strategy for conquering Rome, according to the book?  Italy will be “conquered by armed Muslims from all sides: 1 – European Armed Muslim Gangs from the North and West, 2 – Islamic Eastern European fighters from the Balkans (like Bosnia, Albania, Kosovo etc.), and 3 – Muslim Arab missiles and ships from the South.”

According to this book, Rome will be conquered by 2020.

Revelation 18 and Rome’s Coming Destruction

Christians pay no attention to Islamic prophecy.  But Bible prophecy tells us that the seven-hilled city, the headquarters of the Roman Catholic religio-political system, the seat of the Papal Antichrist, the mystical “Babylon” of the New Testament, the Great Whore (the counterfeit “church”), will be destroyed.  This is the plain teaching of Revelation chapter 18.  “Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire: for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her” (v.8); “And a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone, and cast it into the sea, saying, Thus with violence shall that great city Babylon be thrown down, and shall be found no more at all” (v.21).  Rome will be destroyed; and according to the position occupied by the prophecy of Rev. 18 in the unfolding of Revelation’s chronology, this destruction is going to occur in the not-too-distant future.

But will Rome, in fact, be destroyed by Islamic invasions, and/or Islamic terrorism?  I do not know for certain, and nor does anyone else, for it has not happened yet.  But having said that, these recent threats to Rome, by this brutal Islamic organisation – threats taken very seriously by Italian and Vatican security officials – made my hair stand on end, because of what I have recently preached, while delivering a series of consecutive expository sermons on Revelation 18, verse by verse.

I unashamedly hold firmly to the Historicist position on Bible prophecy.  The book of Revelation is not about a brief period of time in the early years of the Gospel age (the Praeterist view), nor is it about a brief period of time at the end of the world (the Futurist view), but it covers a vast sweep of time, unfolding the entire history of the Gospel age.  This is the Historicist position.  Both Futurism and Praeterism must be rejected for the fanciful Jesuit creations that they are (and this is a subject in itself, well worth the study).[6]  I stand alongside those faithful Protestant Bible expositors who, through the centuries, proclaimed the biblical truth that the book of Revelation is “prophecy written beforehand in hieroglyphics”, an unfolding historical drama before the history occurred, a 100% accurate revelation of what would occur in history in the centuries to come, beginning shortly after the close of the first century AD and continuing on through the centuries to the last day and the return of the Lord Jesus Christ – and then beyond, into eternity and the glorious heavenly home of all the elect.  For over eight years, beginning in 2006, I have been preaching consecutively, chapter by chapter and verse by verse, through the book of Revelation.  After each chapter I preach on other things for some time, and then return to Revelation.  I am about to begin chapter 21, and, God willing, I hope (if the Lord spares me) to complete the entire book within the next year or two.

The indisputable fact is that almost all the prophecies of Revelation have now been fulfilled.  There are very few that have not come to pass as yet.

Obviously, to fully understand the significance of these things, a proper grasp of the entire book of Revelation is necessary; and this cannot be provided in the space of an article.  I am, of necessity, throwing the reader in at the deep end, as it were, by taking him to Revelation 18, but of course it is impossible to summarise all the teaching of Revelation in a single article like this.  A proper appreciation for, and study of, the Historicist position on Bible prophecy requires carefully following the prophetic chronology found from Rev. 4 to the end of Rev. 19, and carefully studying the context, and the inter-relationship of one thing in prophecy to another.  Sadly, thanks to the predominant Futurist interpretation being given to prophecy today, most professing Christians are content to simply dive into Rev. 13 – the beast, the mark of the beast, etc. – and spin fanciful yarns of bizarre interpretations, with no thought to the context, to the preceding chapters or the ones which follow it, or to anything else.  I would encourage my readers, therefore, to obtain and carefully listen to the exposition of these chapters in Revelation, which are available on CD,[7] and which, if the Lord provides the means, will in due time be published as a book.

Thus for the purposes of this present article, I will have to assume that the reader either has an understanding of the prophetic chronology in the preceding chapters of Revelation, based on an Historicist understanding of the book, or that he intends to study it.

Revelation 18 describes the coming destruction of the Roman Catholic institution.  It has not taken place yet; it is still in the future; but nevertheless a careful study of the prophetic chronology (as given in the preceding chapters of the book) reveals that this destruction must be drawing very near.  For in the unfolding chronology of the prophecies of this wonderful book, Rev. 16 ends in what we could call modern times – the period during and after the Second World War; then Rev. 17 is an important parenthesis, giving much detail about the Great Whore, mystical Babylon, which is no other than the Roman Catholic institution; and then Rev. 18 picks up where Rev. 16 ended, and describes the destruction of the Papal system.  And it shows its final destruction to be sudden; unexpected; total; and violent.

Thus, with Rev. 16 ending in modern times, and Rev. 17 being mostly a detailed parenthesis, we can look for the fulfilment of Rev. 18 – the destruction of Rome – in the comparatively near future!  Prophetically speaking, it is very close.  But just how close?  That I cannot say, and nor can anyone else, because, unlike most of the prophecies of the book of Revelation, which have been fulfilled already, this one is still in the future; and the prophecies of Revelation often span long eras of time.  But certainly we can say that it must be drawing very near now, for between the end of chapter 16 and the beginning of chapter 18 there is nothing remaining to be fulfilled.  Thus, based on the chronology of these prophecies, we have every reason to believe that it is going to occur in the comparatively near future.

Let us then consider this coming physical destruction of Rome.  Although it is still future, we can follow what is revealed in the prophecy and thereby form a very good picture of what will happen, when it happens:

We are on safe ground in saying that the actual city of Rome will be destroyed!  The headquarters of this religio-political institution, that which is called the Vatican City State, which is found in the city of Rome, will be destroyed in some way.  But in addition, the Papal system in all its facets will be destroyed as well.  Yes, its headquarters in Rome; but also, the entire religio-political structure of Romanism: the whole edifice, the entire system worldwide.

And the destruction will take a year!  Rev. 18:8 says: “Therefore shall her plagues come in one day”.  A prophetic “day” is equal to an actual year of time, as various Scriptures make clear (a big subject in itself; again, the reader is referred to my recorded sermons on Revelation).  This “Year-Day” scale has been recognised by sound expositors of Bible prophecy for centuries.  This verse, then, tells us that Rome’s final judgment will be over within a year.  That is how swiftly it will all take place.  Whenever these judgments start to be poured out on her, within a year they will all be over; and Babylon the Great, the Great Whore, the Mother of harlots and abominations of the earth, the “Church” of the Antichrist, will be completely destroyed.

Now v.10 says, “For in one hour is thy judgment come.”  We have just seen from v.8 that this destruction occurs in a prophetic “day” – meaning an actual year.  But now it says “one hour” – and a prophetic “hour” is either an actual month of time (as there are twelve hours in a day, and twelve months in a year), or half a month (if we take it as being based on 24 hours in a day).  So how do we reconcile these two given periods of time – a year, and a month (or half a month)?

It is quite simple.  All the plagues come within a prophetic “day” (an actual year).  Rome will experience a number of these judgments during the space of about a year.  But the final, swift end will come within the space of two weeks to a month!  And because of the connection in vv.9 and 10 between the “one hour” and “the smoke of her burning”, we can understand it as follows: the various “plagues” which the Lord will send on her will fall during the period of a year; but being utterly burned with fire will occur during the period of two weeks to a month.

Rev. 18:5 says, “For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.”  So great are the sins of the Papal system that they are said to have reached to heaven itself!  And as we look at what Rome is doing in the world, and her great sins and iniquities, her hypocrisy, her lies, her diabolical evils in countless ways – it becomes very evident, to the remnant of the Lord’s people today, that the time of her destruction is drawing very near now!  Of course, her sins have always been terrible; but today they are coming into the light like never before.  They are being exposed; she cannot hide them anymore; they are in fact being paraded before the world for everyone to see.  And all this points to impending judgment.  Soon now, this monstrous system will be finally and completely destroyed by God.

The Seven-Hilled “Babylon” and the Ten Horns

In Rev. 18:6 it says: “Reward her even as she rewarded you, and double unto her double according to her works: in the cup which she hath filled fill to her double.”  As she treated others, she is to be treated.  She will suffer as much as those she made to suffer.  One important way in which these words will be fulfilled, is that the Lord will make use of earthly agencies, as His instruments, to destroy mystical “Babylon”.  This is what He did when He brought about the destruction of the ancient, literal Babylon in the Old Testament: He made use of the Medo-Persians as His instruments (see Psa. 137:8; Jer. 50:14,15; 51:24,49); and this is what He will do in bringing about the destruction of the Papal system in the near future.

But who will these earthly agencies be, who finally destroy the Vatican?

Again, for an in-depth treatment of this, I must refer the reader to my recorded sermons on Revelation, particularly chapters 17, 18 and 19.  In Rev. 17:16, the ten horns of Bible prophecy, which once served the Whore, are described as coming to hate her, making her desolate and naked, eating her flesh and burning her with fire.  The ten horns are the western European nations that developed from the barbarian kingdoms which overran and destroyed the Roman Empire centuries ago.  Now, this passage in Rev. 17 has had its historical fulfilment already, beginning with the French Revolution and continuing in the years that followed, right up into modern times.  It may be describing the same destruction as is described in Rev. 18 (see, for example, Rev. 18:8: “she shall be utterly burned with fire”).  I say it may be; but it also may not be!  And I say this for the simple reason that we cannot be absolutely dogmatic about it, because the final destruction of the Great Whore (the Roman Catholic institution) has not yet occurred.  It is still in the future, so we cannot be 100% certain that this final destruction by fire (in Rev. 18:8) is caused by the ten horns, even though we can be certain that the burning in Rev. 17:16 was indeed carried out by them, in earlier centuries, and may yet be carried out by them in the future.

One thing that seems to indicate that Rev. 17:16 is not speaking of the final, complete destruction of the Great Whore that Rev. 18 is speaking about, is the fact that in Rev. 17:16 the burning with fire is definitely brought about by the ten horns – the western European Roman Catholic nations; but Rev. 18:9 says that those very rulers, the European Roman Catholic rulers who commit fornication with the Whore, will bewail her final destruction: “And the kings of the [Roman] earth, who have committed fornication and lived deliciously with her [Rome, the Great Whore], shall bewail her, and lament for her, when they shall see the smoke of her burning”.  They would not lament for her if they had been the instruments to destroy her.

It is possible, however, that some of the Romish European nations destroy her, while the others bewail her.  We just do not know for certain, because her final destruction has not occurred yet.  What we do know for certain is that Rev. 17:16 has already been fulfilled in history.  We know exactly when the ten horns started to hate the Whore, and to make her desolate and naked, eat her flesh, and burn her with fire.  The beginning of the hatred of various Roman Catholic European rulers for the Whore was at the time of the Protestant Reformation in the sixteenth century.  And this hatred continued into, or we could say was re-ignited at, the time of the French Revolution in the late eighteenth century.  This hatred originated with France, then spread to other Roman Catholic lands; and it occurred again in the nineteenth century, and again even in the twentieth century, when (for example) during the Spanish Civil War in 1936, great destruction of property belonging to the so-called “Church” of Rome occurred, its wealth was confiscated, and large numbers of its priests were killed.

Rev. 17:16, then, began to be fulfilled at the time of the Reformation; continued to be fulfilled at the time of the French Revolution; and then continued to be fulfilled right up into modern times.  So then, it is entirely possible that the destruction which began at the time of the Reformation, and sporadically continued into modern times, will again be fulfilled in Rome’s final destruction in the near future.  If so, then Rev. 17:16, which says the horns will “burn her with fire”, will have its final, complete fulfilment in the words of Rev. 18:8, which says “she shall be utterly burned with fire”, the details of which destruction are given throughout chapter 18, and which are still in the future.   And if this is so, then at least some of the ten horns (western European nations) will be used, as the instruments of the sovereign Lord, to destroy her finally and completely, while others will bewail her destruction.  This seems highly probable.  Rev. 16 and 17 show us that over the past few centuries, the hatred even of the Papist nations for the Great Whore has often been very real, and they have assaulted her.  It has not been all of them at once; but some of them, from time to time, have truly hated her and fought against her.

And it could so easily happen again!  In fact, we are definitely seeing a deep hatred against the Whore growing in our own day, and it is emanating from certain Roman Catholic quarters!  The global priestly sex scandals have caused great hatred to build up in some Roman Catholic quarters, as have various other great crimes committed by this Harlot.  Multitudes of her own once-faithful subjects have turned against her in disgust.  So it is entirely conceivable that this will continue to build up to such an extent that at some point in the near future, some of them actually attack her.

A little-known fact is that even in comparatively recent times, plans were made for an aerial bombardment of the Vatican!  This occurred in the Second World War, and is related by British historian Avro Manhattan in his excellent book, The Vatican Moscow Washington Alliance.  He stated that the Yugoslavians, under General Bora Mirkovich, had wanted to bomb Vatican City to the ground with squadrons of bombers, but only 24 hours before the attack the plans were foiled: the pro-Roman Catholic Hitler (acting on Roman Catholic intelligence he had received) had destroyed practically the entire Yugoslav Air Force prior to its taking off to carry out this mass bombardment.[8]  The point is, though, that a plan to destroy the Vatican was made, and was about to be carried out by those who knew of the Papacy’s support for the Nazis, and who lived in a country just east of Italy.  It was not the Lord’s time; otherwise it would have happened.  From within eastern Europe, and from a non-Papist government, these plans were formulated.

And this brings me back to the recent ISIS threats against Rome.

Islam, Europe, and the Coming Destruction of Rome

In preaching through Revelation 18, something occurred to me, regarding the final destruction of the Vatican, which could simply not have even been imagined possible by students and teachers of Bible prophecy a few decades ago – or even just a few years ago: the possible destruction of Rome by Islamic forces, and yet from within Europe!

I was preaching consecutively through Revelation 18 in 2013, which was many months before the recent ISIS threats against Rome.  And I put forward the possibility that the Lord may permit the forces of militant Islam, from within Roman Catholic Europe, to destroy Rome.  I gave the following reasons for holding this out as a distinct possibility:

The speed with which certain European countries, once very Roman Catholic, are rapidly heading for Muslim majorities, is astounding!  In one European country after another the growth of Islam is phenomenal.  It is occurring for two reasons: the extremely liberal, and utterly foolish immigration policies of these countries, which are permitting Muslims to flood into them; and the very high birth rate among Muslim immigrants, far higher than the indigenous European populations.

In fact, in my recent book, The Madness of Multiculturalism, I dealt in detail with this very phenomenon.[9]

Take Belgium, for example.  It is a Roman Catholic country, yet today Brussels, its capital, is one of the most Islamic cities in all Europe.  And it has been projected that if things carry on this way, by 2030 Muslims will be the majority population of Brussels.  In Antwerp, which is Belgium’s second largest city, 40% of elementary school children are now Muslim.  In 2012 two Muslim politicians won municipal elections in Brussels, and vowed to bring in Sharia law in Belgium.  One of them said his ultimate goal was to create an Islamic state in Belgium based on Islamic Sharia law.

Or take France as another example, once described as “the eldest daughter of the Vatican”.  In the city of Marseille, one third of the residents were Muslim by 2013, and they were building what was described as a mega-mosque there, even though there were already 60 mosques in the city.

With 6.5 million Muslims, France has the largest Muslim population in a European Union country.  And every single year Muslims make up the majority of the 100 000 people who annually become naturalised French citizens.

Those are just two examples.  But the entire social landscape of Europe is undergoing massive changes, and it is predicted that if things carry on like this, there are a number of European countries that could become Muslim countries in the near future.

We are witnessing the continuation of a struggle that has been going on for centuries between Roman Catholicism and Islam, the world’s two largest and most powerful religions.  The Lord has at times permitted the Muslim armies to punish Roman Catholic Europe in centuries past, and these things are prophesied of in Revelation 9.  Historically, there were times when Islam claimed large areas of Europe by conquest.  It has always desired to conquer all Europe and to eradicate Roman Catholicism, which it equates with “Christianity”.  But in more recent times it has come up with a new strategy: large-scale immigration into European countries, and a high birth rate.  It is paying off.

A very relevant prophecy at this point is Rev. 16:19: “And the great city was divided into three parts”.  Again, for the full exposition of this verse and of the context in which it occurs, I refer the reader to my recorded sermons on Revelation 16.  But briefly: the “great city” is of course Rome (see Rev. 17:18).  Yet here it does not mean the actual city of Rome would be divided into three literal parts; rather, it means the European empire of which that city is the centre: the Roman Catholic empire, ruled over from the Vatican in Rome!  The Roman “earth”, the Roman territory, over which the Vatican in Rome has ruled.  Simply put: Roman Catholic Europe.  This is what is divided into three parts.

Now there are various possible meanings to this tripartite division of Roman Catholic Europe, and I cannot go into them all at this point.  But I will refer the reader to one of them: that Europe being divided into three parts could refer to Roman Catholicism; secular humanism/Communism; and – Islam!

Indeed, if we look at Europe today, this is precisely the tripartite division we see: Europe has divided along these lines.  There are the Roman Catholic parts; there are those parts which are Communist/secular humanist; and there is a third element: Islam!  It is a massively growing force within Europe today.

Now what have I been leading up to?  Simply this: it is not impossible that at some point in the near future, if a few European countries become Islamic-dominated, possibly with Islamic governments, that they will be the ones to destroy mystical “Babylon”!

If this were to happen, it would still be that they are the “horns” of prophecy, who burn the Whore with fire; but they would be “horns” governed or at least dominated now by Muslims, instead of Romanists as in the past.

This possibility would have been utterly inconceivable just a few years ago; but it is a distinct possibility now!  And it would easily explain how it comes to be that these “horns” hate the Whore enough to destroy her.  They would still be the prophetic “horns” – but at least some of them no longer governed by Papists.

Let me be very clear: I am not saying this is definitely how it will all “pan out” at some point in the future.  Most of the prophecies in the book of Revelation have already been fulfilled, historically; we can tie  historic events to them; but the destruction of mystical “Babylon” is still in the future (albeit in the near future), and thus we simply cannot be dogmatic on which nations will be used, as the earthly instruments from Europe, to attack mystical “Babylon”; but I have given a very possible scenario, to show that what has been prophesied here can very easily come to pass in the near future.

ISIS is threatening Rome, and doing so from a position of some strength, and not that far, geographically, from the Eternal City.  Rome, and Vatican City, went on high alert when the threat was made.  The authorities there knew that this was no idle threat, and that it was imperative for them to take security measures.  Perhaps the Lord will allow this Islamic terror organisation to carry out its threat; or perhaps it will be defeated, and other Islamic organisations will come to the fore in the future, and make similar threats, with one of them actually succeeding one day.  Or perhaps some Roman Catholic country, or countries, will decide to take action against this evil religio-political system that has ruled from the seven-hilled city for so many centuries.  Certainly we are witnessing the build-up to one of these scenarios playing out in the future.

But this I do know: Bible prophecy will be fulfilled!  Revelation 18 will be fulfilled!  The Roman Papacy is the Antichrist of Scripture; the Roman Catholic institution is the Great Whore, the mystical “Babylon”; most of the prophecies of Revelation have already been fulfilled by the events of history during the centuries that have passed since John wrote his book towards the close of the first century AD; and the day is not too far off when the seven-hilled city, and the religio-political monstrosity that reigns from there, will be destroyed, and then “the kings of the earth” shall bewail her, and lament for her, and cry out, “Alas, alas, that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come.”  And they will be joined by “the merchants of the earth”, who will weep and wail over her as well, and say, “Alas, alas, that great city” (see Rev. 18:9-19).  But there will be great rejoicing in heaven; for God will have avenged His people! (v.20). And so shall be fulfilled that long-awaited prophecy: “And a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone, and cast it into the sea, saying, Thus with violence shall that great city Babylon be thrown down, and shall be found no more at all” (v.21).

And then?

And then the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ will be just around the corner!

The world is now rushing towards that day.  It is, truly, not far off.  It is very, very near!

April 2015

Shaun Willcock is a minister of the Gospel.  He runs Bible Based Ministries.  For other articles (which may be downloaded and printed), as well as details about his books, audio messages, pamphlets, etc., please visit the Bible Based Ministries website; or write to the address below.  If you would like to be on Bible Based Ministries’ email list, to receive all future articles, please send your details.

ENDNOTES:


[1]. Art. “ISIS Threatens to Take Over Rome Then Throw Homosexuals from ‘Tower of Pizza’”.  The Mirror, 18 March 2015.  www.mirror.co.uk.

 

[2]. Art. “Extra Troops Posted in Rome Following ISIS Threat.”  Catholic Herald, 23 February 2015.  www.catholicherald.co.uk.

 

[3]. Art. “ISIS Rome is Next: Now That Islamic State is in Libya, Will Italy Become a Breeding Ground for Extremists?”  International Business Times, February 18, 2015.  www.ibtimes.com.

 

[4]. Art. “ISIS Rome is Next: Now That Islamic State is in Libya, Will Italy Become a Breeding Ground for Extremists?”

 

[5]. Art. “How ISIS Plans to Sack Rome.”  PJ Media, March 18, 2015.  http://pjmedia.com.

 

[6]. For evidence of the fact that both these views originated with the Jesuits, see Trappings of Popery, by Shaun Willcock.  Published by New Voices Publishing in Cape Town, South Africa, for Bible Based Ministries, 2007.  Available from Bible Based Ministries: www.biblebasedministries.co.uk.  See also the pamphlet, Praeterism and Futurism, by Shaun Willcock, and the CD set, The Return of Christ, by Shaun Willcock (Stock No. 130).  Both available on the Bible Based Ministries website.

 

[7]. The sermons entitled The Book of Revelation, by Shaun Willcock, are available, on CD, for purchase from Bible Based Ministries.  They may be purchased in chapters.  For further information, go to our website (www.biblebasedministries.co.uk), click on “CDs”, and then click on “Bible Prophecy”.  All the CDs on Revelation, Daniel, and other prophecies can be found there.

 

[8]. The Vatican Moscow Washington Alliance, by Avro Manhattan, pgs. 211, 228.  Chick Publications, Chino, California, USA, 1986.

 

[9]. The Madness of Multiculturalism, by Shaun Willcock, pgs. 167-181. Published by New Voices Publishing in Cape Town, South Africa, for Bible Based Ministries, 2014.  Available from Bible Based Ministries: www.biblebasedministries.co.uk.

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