The Power of Myth

A recent article circulating around the Internet claims that Christian missionaries rescued a wounded Jihadist whom they took for dead. He miraculously awoke several hours later and claimed God had sent him to hell where all his sins including the beheadings he carried out were shown to him. He repented and was sent back to earth where he converted to Christianity a few days later.

The story ticks all the boxes: selfless Christian missionaries, an epiphany at the gates of hell, and salvation through conversion to Christianity. Unfortunately, I've found it difficult to verify any details associated with the story. The wounded Jihadist was allegedly picked up by missionaries from the Saint Dominican Catholic Presbytery of Ayyash. A search for the Saint Dominican Catholic Presbytery of Ayyash only produces multiple copies of this story. In other words, no Internet site independently lists this organization. I even searched the vatican site and found no mention of this supposedly Catholic mission.

To get down in the weeds on this, the term presbytery describes an architectural portion of a church (the area around the altar) or the house where a parish priest lives. A search for Ayyash does not reveal a place as the title would indicate, but rather is a popular Arabic name meaning bread seller. Further the grammar is wrong. The Dominican order takes its name from Saint Dominic, therefore the name should be Saint Dominic Catholic, etc., not Saint Dominican. Don't believe me, just ask Pope Franciscan.

If a story is too good to be true, it probably is. The story is almost verbatim one I heard in the 70s where an ex-US special forces was struck by lightning and forced to relive all the killings he committed in Vietnam. He repented and changed his life. Same story, different details.

One of the themes the Revelation trilogy is how susceptible we can be to deeply engrained myths. When events seem to reinforce those myths, it provides a sort of comfort. Of course, that means that those who manipulate events to conform to those myths may have for less than pure motives.

Eyes Wide Open Heading for the Abyss

When I began work on Revelation 11 two years ago, I thought it was a pretty straight forward story centered around a group of people who either genuinely believed or claimed to believe for their own reasons that we were in the endtimes. I explored this from a purely Christian point of view. Near the end of writing the book, I decided to throw a curve into the mix and have the second witness be a Muslim.

As I began to look for a historical or scriptural basis for this assumption, I found that Islam has a parallel eschatology to the Christian narrative. Most Islamic endtime prophecies are contained in the Hadith. A one-eyed leader called, Masih ad-Dajjal, is the Islamic version of the Anti-Christ. Both religions point to a climactic battle in the Middle East. For Christians this is Armageddon and for Muslims it is Dabiq. As I explained in my previous post, Dabiq is generally considered to be the hamlet of Murj-al-Dabiq that sits just across the border from Iraq in Syria

The Hadith claims that Jesus (Isa) returns to earth to "break the cross" -- meaning He explains that Islam is the one true religion. This may simply be the Islamic version of "from whence He shall come to judge the living and the dead."

The parallels seem to have taken on a life of their own in the last two years. Islamic State leaders and fighters apparently believe they are and should be fulfilling the endtimes prophecies--in effect dragging the world toward a climactic battle between Islam and what the Hadith calls the "army of Rome." Under Islamic prophecy, the battle cannot take place until the Caliphate is re-established. Islamic State leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, claims to be the new Caliph.

According to a recent Atlantic article, a legitimate Caliph requires three things to fulfill the prophecy, "being a Muslim adult man of Quraysh descent; exhibiting moral probity and physical and mental integrity; and having ’amr, or authority." Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is of Quraysh decent, the tribe to which Mohammed belonged. He claims the second requirement, but the article notes there is more to the third requirement than meets the eye. To have "authority" in the sense the prophecy indicates, the Caliph must rule territory and hold the authority over the people living there by enacting and enforcing Sharia law. Islamic State fighters currently control or operate freely in an area larger than the United Kingdom.

Thousands of young Islamic men and women have traveled to the "Caliphate" from Europe and around the world to join the jihad. What is it about this ideology they find so appealing? The article quotes George Orwell when he was asked a similar question about Nazi fanaticism. Orwell describe Fascism as "psychologically far sounder than any hedonistic conception of life … Whereas Socialism, and even capitalism in a more grudging way, have said to people “I offer you a good time,” Hitler has said to them, “I offer you struggle, danger, and death,” and as a result a whole nation flings itself at his feet … We ought not to underrate its emotional appeal."

You say Armageddon, I say Dabek

Think Christians have a monopoly on the apocalypse? Not really. In the sequel to Revelation 11, tentatively titled, “Continuing Revelation”, I touch upon some Islamic prophecies that dovetail with Christian eschatology. However, events may be overtaking my story.

Some Quranic teachings say that Islamic warriors will square off against Christians at the city of Dabek (also known as Dabiq) in an apocalyptic battle. Dabek is generally considered to be the modern day Syrian hamlet of Murj Dabek.

Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS or ISIL) head, Abu Al-Baghdadi, set his sights on the town of about 4,000 because he apparently subscribes to the Islamic doomsday prophecy. Currently, forces loyal to Syrian President Assad hold the hamlet.

Al-Baghdadi places such importance on Dabek or Dabiq that he has named the official ISIS publication Dabiq. In its initial issue, Dabiq contains 50 plus vivid color photographs showing the organization’s military successes in an attempt to build an aura of inevitability to its mission. Like its other slick media presentations, Dabiq, is equal parts propaganda and recruiting tool.

The Dabek prophecy predicts that the Islamic forces will destroy both the forces of “Constantinople” and “Rome”, referring to the two early branches of Christianity, the Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic. In Islamic prophecy, Jesus (Issa ibn Maryam) descends from heaven near Damascus to lead the Islamic forces and “break the cross” a term meaning Christ will reveal Islam to be the one true religion.

Both Christian and Islamic prophecies foretell the two witnesses mentioned in Revelation 11 and both claim their appearance foreshadows the return of Christ. The question ISIS raises is the same one I pose in all three of the novels. Are these events fulfillment of prophecy or are individuals choosing actions that mimic prophecy to develop a following while pursuing their own agenda? Of course, some of them could just be crazy. We won’t know until either the Second Coming, or the end of the books.