All I was ever told for years was that there was going to be a revised Roman Empire in Western Europe.

Also that the antichrist was to rise out of the West, including America.

And that I bordered on heresy for even considering that the scriptures described something different.

Then about 25 years ago I wondered if the dragon could be Allah, and if the antichrist could be Islamic.

Well, to many, I had committed the unpardonable sin, by thus denying the clear doctrines of the great prophecy teachers of our time.

Well, over the years, other have come to think this way too, even prophecy teachers, like Joel Richardson.

Now I don’t feel so apostatized anymore, since prophecy teachers & scholars have begun teaching this.

That being said, I know that many here will disagree with me, and some can clearly prove their point from the scriptures.

I was sent an interesting article regarding this, which I have copied below.

Please let me know your take on the following:

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WND Exclusive

Popular Muslim personality: 'Jesus Christ is among us'

New documentary sheds light on Islamic views about end times

Published: 1 day ago

Leo Hohmann

Leo Hohmann is a news editor for WND. He has been a reporter and editor at several suburban newspapers in the Atlanta and Charlotte, North Carolina, areas and also served as managing editor of Triangle Business Journal in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Could it be that a great leader will emerge in Turkey who, with the help of mysterious Islamic spirit beings, will convince the world’s Christians to become Muslim?

That’s exactly what a popular Turkish intellectual is teaching his millions of television viewers, according to a new documentary produced by WND Films and directed by Joel Richardson, author of “The Islamic Antichrist” and “Mideast Beast.”

In the documentary, “End Times Eyewitness,” Richardson interviews Adnan Oktar, a media personality and prolific author, about what Islam expects to happen as the world grinds down to the last days.

The articulate Turk speaks frankly and calmly on camera during an interview filmed in his studio in Istanbul. He comes across as sincere and affable, calling the Christian Richardson his “brother.”

Just like many Christians, Oktar says the Muslim world is eagerly anticipating its messiah, also called the Mahdi. But Islam also expects the return of Jesus, who they call “Isa.”

The Muslim Jesus will tell the world that he is not the son of God, nor was he crucified and resurrected from the dead. He returns to tell everyone that he does exist and he is, indeed, a Muslim.

He will be very persuasive, this Jesus.

 

Adnan Oktar of Turkey hosts a popular TV show and has written more than 300 books, mostly about Islam and creation.

The Mahdi and Jesus, according to the Muslim view expressed by Oktar, will get help in their work to convert the world to Islam from an even more demonstrative group of supernatural beings called the djinn, from which we get the English word for “genie.”

There are bad djinn and good djinn, with the good djinn being Muslim.

“Yes the Mahdi will communicate with the djinns,” Oktar says in the film. “Mahdi is the leader of both djinns and men. Muslim djinns, djinns that believe in God, will assist the Muslims in making Muslims prevail throughout the world.”

Oktar goes on to explain that the Mahdi will rule for seven years, which eerily resembles the reign of another character that the Bible warns Christians to beware of in the last days.

Richardson believes the Mahdi and the Muslim Jesus line up perfectly with the biblical description of the antichrist and false prophet, who will arise in the last days, the Bible says, to “deceive many.”

 

Oktar expresses strong belief that the Mahdi and Jesus are likely already walking the earth.

“Yes. We believe that Hazrat Mahdi has come and is busy carrying on his activities,” he said. “We believe that he appeared in Istanbul, as that is how it is related in the Judaic accounts. This is how it is related in the Islamic accounts as well.”

Oktar, a Sunni Muslim, said even prominent Shiite leaders in Iran have said they expect the Mahdi to appear in Istanbul.

“There is no other time for this,” he tells Richardson. “He should appear in a date between the years 1400 to 1500 according to Hijri calendar.”

The current Islamic year is 1435.

Oktar quotes frequently from the Christian gospels, saying that all the requirements spoken of by the “prophet” Jesus have been fulfilled leading up to his return.

“After World War II, a lifetime has passed as well and consequently we are exactly in the time the prophet Jesus mentioned in the Gospel,” Oktar said. “A lifetime has now passed (since the war), or is about to pass. This is one of the biggest proofs of the fact that Jesus Christ is now among us.”

Richardson told WND that he’d read an article a few years ago in which Oktar mentioned the role of the djinn in the last days and therefore asked him about it in the interview.

 

Joel Richardson is a Bible teacher, author and documentary filmmaker.

“I asked him about it again, and he didn’t deny it,” Richardson said.

Interestingly, Richardson says Oktar believes that he, Oktar, also has the ability to communicate with the djinn.

“To Oktar the djinn are essentially spirit beings who live amongst us, yet cannot be seen my most people. Oktar however, claims to speak with the djinn, that they respect him and give him information,” Richardson said. “Islam teaches they are made of fire and some of them are Muslims. Although we cannot see them, Oktar teaches that during the time that their messiah is ruling on earth, these djinn are going to begin freely interacting with humans, and they’re going to help convince people to become Muslims.”

While all of this may sound quaint to the average American Christian, Richardson says it’s important to remember that Oktar is a man with a huge audience, literally millions of viewers not only within Turkey but throughout Central Asia, the Arab world and into parts of Russia and Eastern Europe. He has published some 300 books, has a popular TV show and claims to have a close relationship with Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

Watch Adnan Oktar interview an adoring newspaper editor from Yemen on his webcast below.

“Any discerning Christian watching the film is going to sit back and say ‘wait a minute I know what’s going on here’ with the djinn,” Richardson said. “Nowadays the discernment level is not on the highest level but I still would expect that most Christians can read between the lines.”

Richardson said he isn’t sure how widely held the belief is in the djinns’ role in assisting the Islamic messiah’s efforts to convert the world to Islam, but the fact that a man as prominent as Oktar is talking about the djinn should get the attention of Christians and Jews around the world.

“It’s the first time I’d ever personally heard it, but he claims to be in close relationship with the president of Turkey,” Richardson said. “They claim the president listens to him and follows his advice.”

If it’s true that Oktar serves as a Rasputin type of character channeling so-called divine guidance to Erdoğan, one of Turkey’s most powerful rulers in decades, then perhaps Western leaders should be watching Oktar’s TV show and taking notes.

Turkey, which is a NATO ally, has already proved to be a growing thorn in the side of U.S. policy in the Middle East, refusing the use of its airbases for bombing raids against ISIS terrorists and providing safe haven for the militants. It has also been purchasing oil from ISIS-controlled oil wells, flooding the terrorist army with fresh cash.

Richardson explores in the film how Turkey is emerging as the dominant power in the Middle East and is positioning for a showdown with other powers, most notably Iran and Egypt. Eventually, a coalition of Middle Eastern nations will invade Israel, Richardson says in the film, which moves seamlessly from biblical prophecies to current affairs.

“The whole goal of the Turkish neo-Ottoman government is to rule the Middle East and the Islamic caliphate,” Richardson said.

Richardson believes Washington is still working with a foreign policy that is “based on a 10-year-old model” in which Turkey is seen as the moderate Muslim state that U.S. leaders would like to see replicated across the Middle East.

“You still hear Joe Biden talk about how Erdoğan is his buddy and how they go way back together and he’s such a great friend,” Richardson said.

He says the Obama administration is “probably just putting on a little bit of a show,” with its limited bombing of ISIS targets in Iraq.

“But the thing that has really emerged is that ISIS really is Turkey’s proxy in the Middle East. They’re supported financially and supplied by the Turkish Islamic government and it’s a wider war against the Kurds, against Bashar Assad in Syria and against Iran,” Richardson said. “They refused the U.S. to use their soil for bombing raids against ISIS in Kobani, they allowed a lot of the refugees to flee into Turkey, but they would not allow them to go back and fight ISIS.”

Richardson believes Iran will eventually be drawn into Iraq to stop ISIS, especially if ISIS threatens the shrines or mosques in Iraq that are considered holy to Iran’s Shiite Muslim population.

“If ISIS takes sacred cities in Iraq whether it’s Baghdad or Samara or Najaf, the Iranians are not going to let that happen and destroy those shrines and mosques,” Richardson said. “Timing is always a difficult thing but it’s one of those things that could break any day. ISIS doesn’t seem to be very patient, they move very quickly, so I would expect even a year from now we could be in a very different situation. Iran already controls southern Iraq but within a year I would say their presence in Iraq could be far more overt.”

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