This past fall, a reader e-mailed me inquiring about Dr. Timothy Lahaye’s endorsement of my book, Islamic Antichrist that was featured in the June 2012 issue of Charisma Magazine. I was a bit surprised to learn of this, as I had not been previously aware of his comments. I reposted his endorsement here, which caused a bit of a stir in the blogosphere, but thought little more of it. I spoke with Dr. Lahaye today and he affirmed his belief in an Antichrist from Romania, in accordance with the Left Behind series. While Dr. Lahaye’s original comments remain online as they appeared in Charisma Magazine, I thought it was important to remove his endorsement from my site, so as not to allow any confusion concerning his views. I also felt it was best to do so publicly, rather than to do so without comment. I continue to have a deep appreciation for Dr. Lahaye, who has always been a tremendous gentleman and good brother, despite our various disagreements on certain matters of eschatology.
25 Responses
Thanks for the follow up Joel 🙂
This is what I’m talking about.
Everything upfront, transparent and open!
More upfront material http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=tB9UdXAP82o
Just goes to show that Islam is a better candidate for the supplier of the AntiChrist, than the perceptions of those who see him coming from Brussels.
he really thinks romania? i thought that was just for the story
I think Tim Lahaye is a good man. But I would say his beliefs concerning the identity of the Antichrist are the least of his problems… His “Left Behind” Theology in my opinion is extremely harmful to the Body of Christ!
I’ve never read the “Left Behind” series and have no desire to do so. But I would like to know the basis for Dr. Lahaye’s belief in an Antichrist from Romania. Can anyone answer that?
Regarding a Romanian Antichrist, many believe, including Lahaye, that the Antichrist will come from the Roman peoples, based on their understanding of Daniel 9:26. I address the grammatical error and the historical misunderstanding of this view in my book Mideast Beast. But my analysis of this passage can be read here:
http://tinyurl.com/alk74ev
So beyond believing the Antichrist will be “Roman”, Lahaye also believes that the Romanian peoples are the direct descendants of the Roman peoples and as such, we have Nicolai Carpathia, a Romanian Antichrist in the Left Behind series.
Blessings
David,
I was talking to a reporter last week who said that I was being absurd for suggesting that anyone apart from a tiny sliver of Muslims think it is acceptable to kill non-Muslims due to various components of Islamic theology. Yet here we have Yousef al-Qaradawi, arguably the single most widely respected Sunni scholar in the world today, arguing that it is basic orthodox Islam and always has been, to kill apostates from Islam, i.e.., someone who becomes a Christian or otherwise. But calling attention to this of course, is only to reveal one’s radical and hateful disposition toward Muslims. Exposing hatred is only polite in modern society if is expressed by Christians or Republicans.
Blessings!
Even though I am not a pre-tribber, I really liked reading the Left Behind series. I always thought how funny it was that so many pre-tribbers love reading about, and identifying with Buck, a believer who lives through the tribulation. The success of the whole series relies on pre-tribbers living vicariously through a “tribulation saint”. LOL
I will always credit LaHaye and his Left Behind book series with sparking within me an interest in studying and understanding eschatology and indeed Biblical prophecy in general, although a work of fiction the book series has introduced Christ and the study of His second coming to thousands.
At the time I used Chuck Missler’s Bible study material and was convinced of a pretrib rapture and a European Antichrist – but there really was to many gaps, to much focus on a few select portions of scripture in support of the argument. Upon discovering Joel’s book’s and through more study of God’s Word it is truly amazing/shocking to see God’s Word being fulfilled and all those gaps are disappearing. Truly knowledge is increasing in these last days, and God’s Word is being revealed to us true Bereans of scripture who desire to know God and study His Word with the guidance of Holy Spirit.
God Bless you Joel and your family. You have helped open my eyes these past few years. Thank you.
Very gracious of you, Joel. Your respect and love for all of your brethren, including those whom it would be easy to see as “enemies” just affirms the veracity of your message for me. I am preparing to share your teachings and the teachings of some other men (such as Tim Warner and Dalton Thomas) with my church, and my prayer is that, if (or maybe when) I encounter opposition, I approach it with the same measure of grace and humility that I have seen you handle your opposition (and I have gotten to see you do that quite often, even in the past 6 months). You are 1 Corinthians 11:1 in action for me!!
Thank you so much for your Christlike treatment of Dr. LaHaye, Joel. We so easily forget that loving Jesus AND one another is what He taught us should take first place. Our love for one another should be our witness to the world, but like most long-time believers I have experienced the most abusive treatment in my life at the hands of those who call themselves Christian. I pray for the maturity of His body.
I appreciate everyone’s encouragement regarding treating Dr. Lahaye with respect, but in all fairness, he himself has been very respectful and kind in every way, literally every time I have had any exchange with him. If only more of the Body of Christ could be honoring of one another despite our various finer differences.
Considering that they are remaking the left behind series but through Hollywood this time, I would suspect that Tim would have to say Romania. To say otherwise could hurt the film’s production.
http://www.christianpost.com/news/nicolas-cage-likely-to-star-in-left-behind-rapture-series-remake-83644/
You know… on second thought, perhaps in LaHaye’s eyes, the AC could be both muslim and from Romania. At least from his world view… maybe.
Ron,
I think he is pretty well sure that the Antichrist will not be a Muslim.
Blessings
I am a missionary in the country of Romania and have been there for ten years. If Dr. Tim Lahaye says the Anti-Christ will come from Romania then I feel pretty safe! I think that Turkey is a better possibility. I am reading your books Mid East Beast and Islamic Anti-Christ with great interest. I was so mislead by the pre-trib teachers that I have never really been able to recover. I am now a Pre Wrath teacher but I am tracking with your (Joel’s)teaching and understanding it with very little wiggle room for disagreement. I am so thankful you took the time to study, research and expose the error of the day. I know this did not come at a small price. I just don’t think Romania will be the country to put the man of sin on the world center. They did treat the Jews extremely bad and they did align with Germany but there is nothing like the spirit of Anti-Christ one would find in the Islamic world. Ez 38 and 39 still points to Turkey.
I know so many people, as in most of the people I know, that have never read “The Revelation of Jesus Christ which God gave Him to show His servants what must soon take place.” But they have read fictional books that add and take away…
Paul told Timothy to guard the faith and have nothing to do with myths (muthos: an invention, denotes fiction, not true, a fable or story or tale or legend). And, the Giver of the last Book of the Bible gave a strict and concise warning at the end: “I warn everyone who hears the Words of the Prophecy of this Book: If anyone adds anything to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this Book. And if anyone takes Words away from this Book of Prophecy, God will take away from him his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this Book. He who testifies to these things says, ‘Yes, IAM coming soon.’
Amen. Come, Lord Jesus. The grace of the Lord Jesus be with God’s people. Amen.” -Revelations 22
May God forgive us.
Wisely choosing, biblically speaking, reason-ably thinking… he simply cannot be trusted.
A blind man disobeying the mandated Revelation-guard and taking myriads with him over the edge of a treacherous cliff.
God will not treat lightly anyone who wrongly handles His Word of Truth.
And for what gain? Financial success? Popularity? Notoriety? None of which are worth preaching or teaching or authoring a different gospel.
We need to read the Revelation aloud. We need to hear it. We need to take it to heart. The time is near.
Joel, if the final “beast” empire encompasses the territories of the previous beasts, is it not a possibility that the Antichrist empire encompass the lands of the Roman Empire (ie, including Europe) too? i guess the argument against that is they’re not mentioned in the ten nation confederacy.
Brian,
Briefly, the final beast is a composite of the Lion (Babylon), Bear (Medo-Persia), Leopard (Greece) (see Rev. 13). This wouldn’t include Western or central Europe. That isn’t to say that the former regions of the Roman Empire would be included, but it doesn’t seem to be what the Scriptures point to.
Blessings
Right, thanks Joel. But, it does seem that a number of Islamic hadith and popular “prophecies” call for Muslims to conquer Rome. I wouldn’t be surprised to see them try to conquer it as a “fulfillment” of mohammed’s “prophecy.” Certainly I don’t believe in Lahaye’s/Lindsay’s eschatology of Europe, but I think it’s possible an Islamic Antichrist could conquer, or at least attack Italy/Rome.
Imam Ahmad narrated that Abdullah bin ‘Amr bin Al-Aas said, “While we were around the Messenger of Allah) writing (the Hadith) the Messenger of Allah sallallaahu `alayhi wa sallam was asked/ ‘Which of these two cities will be conquered first, Constantinople or Romiyah (Rome)?’ He said, ‘The city of Heraclius will first be conquered.’ He meant Constantinople.” [Al-Hakim, Al-Mustadrak, vol. 4, p. 508.]
Hey everyone… I am one of those “pre-tribbers” I guess because I still do believe in a catching away of believers prior to the “great tribulation”. I have been studying eschatology for many years, much before the Left Behind series, and really was turned on to biblical prophetic study listening to an old preacher with cigar in hand meticulously dividing the Scripture and history. Dr. Gene Scott early on said the anti-Christ would not come out of Rome but out of possibly Syria or Turkey or some other Arab descent land. He was a historian in his own right… so if you study history and the Scripture his contention was that the anti-Christ had to be able to bridge the gap between Isaac and Ishmael… some sort of common relationship in order to bring about peace between people pitted against each other for generations before Islam was even a thought. So before some of you write off pretribulation eschatology remember we are all studying the same Book and to pigeon hole a group of Christians based on their eschatology is foolish if not counter productive to the Body of Christ Jesus.
Joseph,
Thanks for commenting. I wholeheartedly agree. While I do not believe in a pre-trib rapture, I give immense credence to pre-tribbers, who are my brothers and sisters in every way.
“Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.” Ephesians 4:3
I didn’t know this about Gene Scott.
Funny story. When I first came to faith, I was watching Gene Scott. Someone asked him if he felt convicted concerning smoking cigars. His answer was that cigars are fine, so long as it is not done in excess. The interviewer asked him what he would consider excess. He paused for a moment and then said, “Well, I don’t know. Two cigars at the same time, I suppose.”