Do you think ISIS is connected to Biblical prophecy?
Question
Hi Gramps,
I really appreciate the time you invest in answering all of our many questions. There has been much going on in relation to the Islamic State or ISIS. They have been doing terrible things to many innocent people and there are some who believe that this group is connected with bible prophecy. What do you think?
Shawn
Answer
Dear Shawn,
This is a valid question that I’m sure many are asking themselves during these calamitous times. The best answer I can give you is we don’t know. I know that will seem like a dodge, and I apologize for that. However, let’s take a moment to look at prophecy from the past.
Looking back to the Savior’s life, we can see that the Jews had been given many prophecies to help them recognize His coming. Some recognized those signs immediately, some took more time, and others never recognized the signs and never accepted Christ as the Messiah they had been waiting for.
Surely we would do better right? Or at least we would like to think so. Let’s look at our “prophecy score card”. The prophet Joel foretold that before the second coming of Christ the moon would turn to blood. That’s an easy one, right? Everyone, well at least all Christians, will be aware of that prophecy and recognize it when it is fulfilled, right? And yet we didn’t.
In 2001, Pres. Hinckley mentioned that the prophecy of Joel had been fulfilled. He said:
The era in which we live is the fulness of times spoken of in the scriptures, when God has brought together all of the elements of previous dispensations. From the day that He and His Beloved Son manifested themselves to the boy Joseph, there has been a tremendous cascade of enlightenment poured out upon the world. The hearts of men have turned to their fathers in fulfillment of the words of Malachi. The vision of Joel has been fulfilled wherein he declared:
“And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions:
“And also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out my spirit.
“And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke.
“The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the Lord come.
“And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be delivered: for in mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the Lord hath said, and in the remnant whom the Lord shall call” (Joel 2:28–32).
Living in the Fulness of Times
And yet, even now almost 15 yrs later, I find members who are surprised when I tell them that prophecy has been fulfilled.
The lesson I take from this is that prophecy will not always come to pass in ways that are obvious to us, even when we are trying to be watchful. And second, for me, this reiterates the blessing of having a modern-day prophet and the need to listen to ALL his words–even those that come on Saturday morning of General Conference when perhaps we’d rather be sleeping or playing.
Regarding the current events with ISIS, I think we should be prayerful for the victims, even for the members of ISIS (the Savior did tell us to pray for our enemies), for the soldiers and political leaders as they try to resolve these horrors. We should watch and listen carefully to guidance from our modern day prophet, President Thomas S. Monson.
Gramps
I bet people thought the holocaust was signifying the end of times, but here we are 70 years later.
I am starting the think that the beast with two horns already represents the world condition of today, and one of the horns may be ISIS together with the other radical Muslims. The horns must represent nations, or peoples. If so, one of the horns is responsible for requiring the mark of the beast to buy and sell, which symbolizes financial control. The western world specializes in financial control. We have socialism, the Federal Reserve Bank, and thousands of other financial controls. The other horn would be the nations that force people to worship the beast or be killed. That has been a Muslim policy from the time of Mohammed. In Rev. 20 John sees the saints that are beheaded for not worshiping the beast. Beheading is the preferred method of execution for the Muslim radicals, and especially for ISIS. The beast with two horns may already be rising, with ISIS and other radial Muslimk groups playing a large part. In Rev. 16 John says the first angel of the seventh seal puts grievous sores on those that take the mark of the beast and worships the beast. If so, the beast with two horns must rise before the seventh seal opens. Now is the time. If the beast with two horns doesn’t symbolize the conflict between the western world and the Muslims that we are contending with right now, it must symbolize other nations that rise up and become engaged in exactly the same conflict. I doubt that other nations will rise that fit the description of the beast with two horns better that the ones we have right now.
Count me as one of those that is surprised that the prophecy has been fulfilled.
It’s too bad he didn’t explain how or when the moon turned into blood.
There have been 3 times in the last 2 years including this morning April 4, 2015 that the moon has turned red – called blood moons and one more happening between September and October
Go to youtube and check out ‘Mormon evidence’. There is a series of videos by a guy named Jake Hilton, called signs of the times. He’s very well researched and talks about many things, proving that we are living in the last days. Including celestial evidence, cultural and political evidence, wars and rumors of wars, etc. I highly recommend it.