Isaac, Ishmael And Coming Of Antichrist

Returning again to Abraham and his two sons Isaac and Ishmael we will see how their offspring are having a bigger impact on current times in the Mid-East than one might have possibly even imagined fifty or one hundred years ago and how it plays into events just preceding the Second Coming of the Messiah Jesus Christ. The next passages are important and germane to one’s understanding the events in a biblical perspective as they continue to unfold.

(Genesis 15:1 - 6) After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, “Fear not, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.” But Abram said, “O Lord God, what wilt thou give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Elie′zer of Damascus?” And Abram said, “Behold, thou hast given me no offspring; and a slave born in my house will be my heir.” And behold, the word of the Lord came to him, “This man shall not be your heir; your own son shall be your heir.” And he brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your descendants be.” And he believed the Lord; and he reckoned it to him as righteousness. 

(Genesis 16: 1-12) Now Sar′ai, Abram’s wife, bore him no children. She had an Egyptian maid whose name was Hagar; and Sar′ai said to Abram, “Behold now, the Lord has prevented me from bearing children; go in to my maid; it may be that I shall obtain children by her.” And Abram hearkened to the voice of Sar′ai. So, after Abram had dwelt ten years in the land of Canaan, Sar′ai, Abram’s wife, took Hagar the Egyptian, her maid, and gave her to Abram her husband as a wife. And he went in to Hagar, and she conceived; and when she saw that she had conceived, she looked with contempt on her mistress. And Sar′ai said to Abram, “May the wrong done to me be on you! I gave my maid to your embrace, and when she saw that she had conceived, she looked on me with contempt. May the Lord judge between you and me!” But Abram said to Sar′ai, “Behold, your maid is in your power; do to her as you please.” Then Sar′ai dealt harshly with her, and she fled from her. The angel of the Lord found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, the spring on the way to Shur. And he said, “Hagar, maid of Saar′ai, where have you come from and where are you going?” She said, “I am fleeing from my mistress Sar′ai.” The angel of the Lord said to her, “Return to your mistress, and submit to her.” The angel of the Lord also said to her, “I will so greatly multiply your descendants that they cannot be numbered for multitude.” And the angel of the Lord said to her, “Behold, you are with child, and shall bear a son; you shall call his name Ish′mael; because the Lord has given heed to your affliction. He shall be a wild ass of a man, his hand against every man and every man’s hand against him; and he shall dwell over against all his kinsmen.” 

Take note of the similarities in behavior between these two people and those of Adam and Eve. Rather than heed God’s promise and wait on the Lord to provide an heir through them, they proceeded to take matters into their own hands and Abram fathered a child named Ishmael with Sarai’s Egyptian maid. Ishmael became the father of many arab nations. God made Abram a promise which to this day has been in dispute by the offspring of Ishmael.

(Genesis 17:1 - 6) When Abram was ninety-nine years old the Lord appeared to Abram, and said to him, “I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless. And I will make my covenant between me and you, and will multiply you exceedingly.” Then Abram fell on his face; and God said to him, “Behold, my covenant is with you, and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations. No longer shall your name be Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations. I will make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come forth from you.
(Genesis 17:15 - 21) And God said to Abraham, “As for Sar′ai your wife, you shall not call her name Sar′ai, but Sarah shall be her name. I will bless her, and moreover I will give you a son by her; I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of peoples shall come from her.” Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed, and said to himself, “Shall a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? Shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?” And Abraham said to God, “O that Ish′mael might live in thy sight!” God said, “No, but Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him. As for Ish′mael, I have heard you; behold, I will bless him and make him fruitful and multiply him exceedingly; he shall be the father of twelve princes, and I will make him a great nation. But I will establish my covenant with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear to you at this season next year.”   
(Genesis 21:1 - 7) The Lord visited Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did to Sarah as he had promised. And Sarah conceived, and bore Abraham a son in his old age at the time of which God had spoken to him. Abraham called the name of his son who was born to him, whom Sarah bore him, Isaac. And Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was eight days old, as God had commanded him. Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him. And Sarah said, “God has made laughter for me; every one who hears will laugh over me.” And she said, “Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would suckle children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age.”

(genesis 21: 8 -13) And the child grew, and was weaned; and Abraham made a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned. But Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, playing with her son Isaac. So she said to Abraham, “Cast out this slave woman with her son; for the son of this slave woman shall not be heir with my son Isaac.” And the thing was very displeasing to Abraham on account of his son. But God said to Abraham, “Be not displeased because of the lad and because of your slave woman; whatever Sarah says to you, do as she tells you, for through Isaac shall your descendants be named. And I will make a nation of the son of the slave woman also, because he is your offspring.” 

There has been enmity between the generations of these two brother’s down through the ages. Some claim that the current problems are about land some say it’s oil, others claim that it is the result of tampering by western nations or the fallout from the Crusades of the middle ages. However the crux of the problem emanates from the heirs of Ishmael who manifest the spirit of Cain which is forever filled with envy and rancor disputing continuously in their hearts over who would be the legitimate heirs of the promise made to Abraham. The heirs of Isaac who like Able are children of the promise and blessed with many gifts from God struggle daily to survive the murderous Cain-like assaults of their neighbors.

The sons of Ishmael adopted their own false religion worshipping the “Moon god,” one of the many gods of ancient Arabia. The Antichrist’s kingdom is the Middle East, represented by the three animals of the beast out of the sea in (Revelation 13). These correspond to the three empires of Nebuchadnezzar’s statue, and Daniel’s vision of the beasts: the leopard (Alexander’s empire, including Syria, Egypt, Turkey and Afghanistan); the lion (Babylonia/Iraq); and the bear (Persia/Iran). Many in the Church have taught that the fourth kingdom was Rome, and consequently await a Western European Antichrist, but this is incorrect! Islam has pitted itself against God’s chosen people, claiming for Muslims the promises given to the Jews through Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Its self-proclaimed mission is to destroy the Jewish state of Israel and take Jerusalem for the capital of its coming world empire under Al Mahdi who will be revealed by Iran and will fulfill this prophecy. 
John’s descriptions in the book of Revelation seem so almost mythological in the minds of many Christians. Yet in light of Islam, things that were once unintelligible make sense. For example, the icons that are given breath in (Revelation 13:15), are minarets echoing the voice of the muezzin calling the faithful to prayer. Although there is much speculation about the number 666 I deleted my comment about it.

According to the apostle John in his first letter, “the antichrist is the one who denies the Father and the Son.” In fact, Islam is so adamant in denying this Christian doctrine, that inscribed on its Dome of the Rock are the words “God is only One God. Far be it removed from His transcendent majesty that He should have a son.” Not only does Islam deny the Trinity, but also the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus, a doctrine they claim was revealed to Muhammad by the angel Gabriel. Yet Paul warns the Colossians not to take part in any religion revealed by angels, and to the Galatians he insists that “even if an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to that which we have preached to you, let him be accursed.”