Coming Soon: Sheep Among Wolves

Hi Safwat,

I did not listen to the presentation, though I read his book, which presents this material.

First, you must understand that the purpose of White giving this presentation is solely to bolster the position that he champions, namely that the Antichrist will be a false Jewish Messiah who will mislead many Christians to follow him. As I have said elsewhere, I’m sad to see White resurrecting such an unbiblical and dangerous perspective.

Now with regard to Islamic eschatology, I agree with many of White’s observations here. Of course, none of this is new. To be clear, some of his claims are slanted, exaggerated, or presented in a selective manner. At the least, his research is quite limited, and some of his claims are simply inaccurate.

His claim for example that I’ve essentially fabricated the idea that many Muslims are expecting the Mahdi to come on a white horse. (In fairness to White, he did catch an error I made improperly citing a reference from Izzat and Arif, two Egyptian authors, and ascribing this to Ka’ab Al Ahbar a medieval author.) However White’s conclusions are indicative of his very limited research which seems largely to have been lifted from the internet. I didn’t see him cite any actual primary materials.

And though it is certainly not a major point, it is in fact a widely held notion that the Mahdi will appear on a white horse. This is especially so in Iran, where artistic portrayals of the Mahdi are frequently shown to be riding a white horse.

https://moonsunmyung.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/mahdi27shorse.jpg
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-dzt2Vj0s80Q/UKT58wobyZI/AAAAAAAAIFA/hoix3fjEGTk/s1600/mahdi3.jpg
http://www.thegospelintheendtimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/white-horse.jpg

I asked my Iranian friends if this is a common belief in Iran, and they all affirmed that it a well known expectation, with the hadith about this written on large banners hanging in the courtyard at the Jamkaran mosque. Some say the Mahdi will come on the Buraq, (which Muhammad allegedly rode on his might journey), others simply see him riding a white horse in general. In one Iranian city, for many years, the elders used to lead a white horse out of the city gate daily, awaiting the coming of the Mahdi. But these are all incidental points. The problem is that White simply has a very limited knowledge of this material.

This seems to be a common approach for White. On one of his older pod-casts, (which he has since taken down), he mentions having studied the church fathers for the first time only the day before, and then giving a full presentation on them only the next day.

Now to be clear, I do not present myself as a genuine scholar on these things. I am not. But at the very least, I do have a large library of original works, which I have actually read. I have done the work. And I have been studying this material for nearly two decades. I am very leery of someone who does some limited online research and then writes an entire book as if he any authority on the matter. Particularly if it is critical of another.

All that said, for the most part, it is true that Islam is indeed a mixture of borrowed material from Jewish, Talmudic, Christian, Apocryphal, and Zoroastrian literature—as well as outright Satanic inspiration, much of which developed significantly over the past 1300 years. But ultimately, the particular earthly sources of various Islamic traditions are largely irrelevant. The point is what do most Muslims believe today. If we believe that Satan is real, we can see that over the past 1300 years, he has manipulated the development of Islamic tradition, the end result of which is that today, hundreds of millions of Muslims hold to a belief system that now is clearly preparing them to receive the Antichrist as if he is their savior. This is true whether we are speaking of the Islamic traditions concerning the Mahdi or the Islamic traditions concerning Jesus. As I often say, it takes very little discernment to see the manipulative hand of Satan in the history and development of Islam, as well as the sovereignty of God in these things. The end of which, is we should be greatly compassionate for Muslims and pray all the more earnestly for them that the deception would be removed.

Finally, I must add that the weakness of White’s case, (and the strength of the case for an Islamic Antichrist) is not wrangling about Islamic eschatology. This is simply incidental evidence. What matters are what the Scriptures tell us. It is on this that I feel very confident that the case for an Islamic Antichrist stands and the case for a Jewish Antichrist collapses miserably. I hope this has been helpful.

Blessings!
Joel

7 Responses

Joel says:

July 30, 2015 at 3:27 pm

Hi Safwat,

I did not listen to the presentation, though I read his book, which presents this material.

First, you must understand that the purpose of White giving this presentation is solely to bolster the position that he champions, namely that the Antichrist will be a false Jewish Messiah who will mislead many Christians to follow him. As I have said elsewhere, I’m sad to see White resurrecting such an unbiblical and dangerous perspective.

Now with regard to Islamic eschatology, I agree with many of White’s observations here. Of course, none of this is new. To be clear, some of his claims are slanted, exaggerated, or presented in a selective manner. At the least, his research is quite limited, and some of his claims are simply inaccurate.

His claim for example that I’ve essentially fabricated the idea that many Muslims are expecting the Mahdi to come on a white horse. (In fairness to White, he did catch an error I made improperly citing a reference from Izzat and Arif, two Egyptian authors, and ascribing this to Ka’ab Al Ahbar a medieval author.) However White’s conclusions are indicative of his very limited research which seems largely to have been lifted from the internet. I didn’t see him cite any actual primary materials.

And though it is certainly not a major point, it is in fact a widely held notion that the Mahdi will appear on a white horse. This is especially so in Iran, where artistic portrayals of the Mahdi are frequently shown to be riding a white horse.

https://moonsunmyung.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/mahdi27shorse.jpg
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-dzt2Vj0s80Q/UKT58wobyZI/AAAAAAAAIFA/hoix3fjEGTk/s1600/mahdi3.jpg
http://www.thegospelintheendtimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/white-horse.jpg

I asked my Iranian friends if this is a common belief in Iran, and they all affirmed that it a well known expectation, with the hadith about this written on large banners hanging in the courtyard at the Jamkaran mosque. Some say the Mahdi will come on the Buraq, (which Muhammad allegedly rode on his might journey), others simply see him riding a white horse in general. In one Iranian city, for many years, the elders used to lead a white horse out of the city gate daily, awaiting the coming of the Mahdi. But these are all incidental points. The problem is that White simply has a very limited knowledge of this material.

This seems to be a common approach for White. On one of his older pod-casts, (which he has since taken down), he mentions having studied the church fathers for the first time only the day before, and then giving a full presentation on them only the next day.

Now to be clear, I do not present myself as a genuine scholar on these things. I am not. But at the very least, I do have a large library of original works, which I have actually read. I have done the work. And I have been studying this material for nearly two decades. I am very leery of someone who does some limited online research and then writes an entire book as if he any authority on the matter. Particularly if it is critical of another.

All that said, for the most part, it is true that Islam is indeed a mixture of borrowed material from Jewish, Talmudic, Christian, Apocryphal, and Zoroastrian literature—as well as outright Satanic inspiration, much of which developed significantly over the past 1300 years. But ultimately, the particular earthly sources of various Islamic traditions are largely irrelevant. The point is what do most Muslims believe today. If we believe that Satan is real, we can see that over the past 1300 years, he has manipulated the development of Islamic tradition, the end result of which is that today, hundreds of millions of Muslims hold to a belief system that now is clearly preparing them to receive the Antichrist as if he is their savior. This is true whether we are speaking of the Islamic traditions concerning the Mahdi or the Islamic traditions concerning Jesus. As I often say, it takes very little discernment to see the manipulative hand of Satan in the history and development of Islam, as well as the sovereignty of God in these things. The end of which, is we should be greatly compassionate for Muslims and pray all the more earnestly for them that the deception would be removed.

Finally, I must add that the weakness of White’s case, (and the strength of the case for an Islamic Antichrist) is not wrangling about Islamic eschatology. This is simply incidental evidence. What matters are what the Scriptures tell us. It is on this that I feel very confident that the case for an Islamic Antichrist stands and the case for a Jewish Antichrist collapses miserably. I hope this has been helpful.

Blessings!
Joel
Nathaniel Paglinawan says:

August 4, 2015 at 5:54 am

I want to join a mission in Middle east….How?
Do you have any organization or referral? I currently enrolled at I2 Ministries…Thnaks sir.
Joel says:

August 4, 2015 at 10:55 am

Hi Nathaniel,

e-mail me [email protected]
Scott says:

December 21, 2015 at 5:03 am

Joel, is this video “sheep among wolves” ready to watch? If so let me know how to watch it. Thanks
Joel says:

December 21, 2015 at 12:00 pm

Go to faimission.org to watch the film and to support FAI as well.
Scott says:

December 22, 2015 at 5:40 am

Wow thanks for the quick reply. I def will help out.i really enjoyed end times eyewitness. Please email me at [email protected] Looking forward to watching the video and helping guys out-sF
Jennifer says:

July 7, 2016 at 4:42 am

Does FAI no longer exist? The link does not work and I can’t find anything through an internet search. Thanks!

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Joel Richardson