Welcome to Islam in the Bible by Dr. Francis Nigel Lee read by W. J. Mankaro and produced by permission by Stillwaters Revival Books, the home of the extensive Puritan and Reformation CD sets, Geneva Bibles, Rare Reformation, Classic Covenanter and Calvinist books, Homeschooling Helps and other Puritan and Presbyterian resources at great discounts and free by mail and the World Wide Web. please visit our website at www.swrb.com and or sign up for our email super special discount mailings by emailing your address to add that's add at swrb.com If you would like more information on the topics addressed in this tape, Stillwater's Revival Books also carries a wide selection of resources on classic Reformation eschatology, including the five tapes set in book by E.B. Eliot and other Reformers, titled Islam in Revelation, An Historic Look at Protestant Eschatological Thought on the Rise and Fall of Islam. And now to the message of tape one from Islam in the Bible. We pray that the Lord Jesus Christ will greatly bless you as you listen. From the Quran, quote, God loves those who fight for his cause in battle array as the holy warfare of Islam known as Jihad. Remember, Moses said to his people, the children of Israel, O my people, why do you vex and insult me, though ye know that I am the apostle of God sent to you? See Deuteronomy 18, 15-20. Remember, Jesus, the son of Mary, said, O children of Israel, I am the apostle of God sent to you, confirming the law before me, and giving glad tidings of an apostle to come after me, whose name shall be Achmad, alias Mohammed. See John 14.16, 15.26, 16.7. God took the covenant of the prophets, saying, I give you, the Jews, a book and wisdom. Then an apostle, Mohammed, will come to you. Genesis 16, verses 6 through 12, and 17, 18 through 26, and chapter 21, verses 14 through 21, and chapter 25, verse 12, and Deuteronomy 15, verse 18, Isaiah 42, 11. confirming what is with you believe him and render him help quote when Jesus found unbelief on their part that is of the Jews he said who will be my helpers to the work of God said the disciples we are God's helpers we believe in God and you bear witness that we are Muslims quote God will say, O Jesus, the Son of Mary, recount my favor to you and to your mother. Look, I strengthened you with the Holy Spirit, the angel Gabriel, so that you spoke to the people in childhood and in maturity. Look, I taught you the book and wisdom, the law and the gospel. And look, you made from clay, as it were the figure of a bird, by my leave, And you breathed into it and became a bird by my leave. And you healed those born blind and the lepers by my leave. And look, I did hold back the children of Israel from you. And look, I inspired the disciples to have faith in me and my apostle, the coming Muhammad. They said, we have faith. And you, Jesus, bear witness that we bow to God as Muslims. The quotations are from the Quran, Surah 61, 4-6, 3-81, 3-52, 5-113. Is Muhammad truly the last prophet, the fulfillment of Moses' prediction of a coming great prophet like unto me, Deuteronomy 18.15? Or is Mohammed perhaps the greatest of a long line of false prophets predicted in Deuteronomy 13 verses 1 through 5 so that his testimony should be rejected? What is Islam? How does church history view it? And above all, what does the Bible say? Islam is a potent mixture of a little truth and a lot of error. The truthful parts are not original, but were gleaned from a few passages in the Older Testament and from even fewer portions in the Newer Testament of the infallible Word of God. The erroneous parts are an odd conglomeration of certain sections from the Apocrypha which arose in the Intertestamental period, post-Christian sectarian writings in the Pseudepigrapha, Arabian paganism and the AD 570-632 Muhammad's own views written down by his favorite wife. Much of this was collected together and then recorded in Islam's holy book, the Quran. That was written not like the Bible over some 15 centuries, but over less than 24 years. It consists not of 66 books comprising well over 1,000 chapters, recorded by about 40 inspired human writers under the one and only triune God, Elohim, as its primary author, but of just one book of barely 100 chapters, all emanating from one human author, speaking in the name of Arabia's pre-Islamic Unitarian God, Allah. It reflects the milieu not of all three old world continents, but only that of the then backward region of Arabia. It presents not many prophecies and miracles, but only its own version of some of the eschatological predictions derived from the Bible. It proclaims not atonement for sin and an empty tomb in Jerusalem, but legalistic strictures and a grave. It preaches not love, but hatred for its enemies. And it produces not liberty throughout the land, but rather slavery in thought, word, and deed. After several centuries, just as the Bible had warned, the early Christian church had departed from Holy Scripture. Subsequently, it lapsed into idolatry. However, God would not allow his purposes to save the world to get thwarted. So as long-term correctives, God sent against the sins of his wayward Christian people two terrible scourges, Islam and the papacy. Pre-Christian rabbis or teachers, as well as those more or less contemporary with Jesus Christ and his apostles, generally saw Daniel's fourth kingdom as being pagan Rome. The medieval Judaists saw it as either papal Rome or as an Arabian Turkish Islam. both the continuation of respectively the western and the eastern parts of the Roman Empire as foreseen by the earlier and as experienced by the later pre-Christian rabbis. The early church fathers agreed with the pre-Christian rabbis about this matter. Some of them even seem to have foreseen, as the successor of pagan Rome, also the later rise of what subsequently became disclosed as Romanism and or the papacy, and even as the Islamic power which would then and thereafter occupy the Near East, etc. All this they saw foreshadowed, and as the fulfillment of the many biblical predictions made in Daniel, 2 Thessalonians, 1 John, and or the Book of Revelation. Thus the post-neuronic teaching of the Twelve Apostles, A.D. 80, approximately. The Epistle of Barnabas, A.D. 100. The Shepherd of Hermas, 160. Arrhenius, 185. Tertullian, approximately 195. Clement of Alexandria, 200. Hippolytus, 220. Victorinus, 300. Lactantius, 310. Cyril, 335 Afrahat the Persian, 345 Basil, 373 Ambrose, 378 Jerome, 386-409 John Christosom, 400 The 413-426 Augustine, as the greatest of all the western early church fathers. The circa 678 Pseudo-Methodists. and the 730 John of Damascus as the greatest early church father of the later Eastern Orthodox Church. It needs little argumentation to show that Romanism and or the papacy were seen, even in the Middle Ages, to have been foreshadowed in Biblical predictions by Wallaford Strabo, 840, Waldo and the Waldensians, 1120, Joachim of Flores, 1191, Eberhard of Salzburg, 1240, Dante, 1300, John Wycliffe, 1384, Matthias of Jena, 1394, Jan Hus, 1415, and John Purvey, 1428. This was reaffirmed by Martin Luther in 1520 and John Calvin in 1536, and by every Lutheran and Calvinist leader and confession of the Reformation and post-Reformation period whatsoever. Also remarkable were those medieval churchmen who warned against Muhammad and Islam from the prophecies of Holy Scripture. Such included the tenth century's Arethas of Caesarea, the 1124 Guybert of Nogent, the 1119 Joachim of Flores, the 1292 Arnold of Villanova, and the 1321 Archbishop Pierre Aureliac. Interestingly, so too did some of the Protestant Reformation's confessions, such as that of Oxford, Second Helvetic, and the Westminster Assembly's directory. But what, if anything, does the Holy Bible say about Islam? Does it regard Muhammad as a false prophet, or as the last and greatest of all of the true prophets? As the Apostle Paul would ask, what does the Scripture say? Scripture of the Older Testament warns us against false prophets and predicts the need to follow especially Christ as the predicted great prophet of the Newer Testament, Deuteronomy 13, 1-5 and 18, 15-18. Indeed, in a sermon on Deuteronomy 18, 15, Calvin held that Mahomet was one of the two horns of Antichrist. Many see also the two legs of the image in Nebuchadnezzar's dream as teaching the same thing at Daniel 2 verses 32 to 44. Thus, for example, the medieval Jews. Also, many Bible-affirming Christian commentators, such as Selnicker, Negrinius, Citratius, Bullinger, Fox, Napier, Piraeus, John Cotton, Thomas Parker, Increase Mather, Cotton Mather, Jonathan Edwards, and George Stanley Faber, etc. believe that both Islam and papacy were predicted and condemned as the fulfillment of the then future tyranny predicted either in Daniel or the Book of Revelation or both. It is true, many of the latter say, that while yet at the thighs the legs still represent the undivided pagan Roman Empire at the time of the incarnation of Jesus Christ, But, after its later nominal Christianization, starting with Constantine, that empire begins to divide in what subsequently became the two legs of the Western Roman Empire and the Eastern Roman Empire. Then those two legs in turn, from the 7th century onward, would degenerate respectively into the Papacy, which progressively took over the West, and Islam, which progressively took over the East. In his commentaries on Daniel, chapter 7, verses 7-18, Calvin describes the four successive empires of the ancient world that would precede the incarnation of the Messiah. He explains that, quote, in this fourth monarchy, those who are endued with moderate judgment confess this vision to be fulfilled in the Roman Empire. What is here said of the fourth beast, many transfer to the Pope, when it is added that a little horn sprang up, Daniel 7, verses 8-21. But others think the Turkish kingdom is comprehended under the Roman. The Jews, for the most part, incline this way." Thus, Rabbi Barbanel says the Turks occupy a large portion of the world. The Turks have spread far and wide and the world is filled with impious despisers of God. Calvin himself points out, quote, Christ's kingdom was erected by the overthrow of the Roman Dominion. The Jews joined the Turkish monarchy with the Roman. There are some of our Christian writers who think this image ought not to be restricted to the Roman Empire, but ought to include the Turkish, unquote. Reverend Dr. Matthew Henry's comment on the Little Horn of Daniel 720 is full of wisdom. asks he, quote, Who is this enemy whose rise, reign, and ruin are here foretold? Interpreters are not agreed. Some will have the fourth kingdom to be that of the Seleucidae, and the little horn to be Antioch's. Others will have the fourth kingdom to be that of the Romans, and the little horn to be Julius Caesar and the succeeding emperors, as Calvin says. The Antichrist, the Papal Kingdom, says Mr. Joseph Mead. Others make the little horn to be the Turkish Empire, so Luther, the Tablets, and others. I cannot prove either side to be in the wrong, and therefore, since prophecies sometimes have many fulfillings, and we ought to give Scripture its full latitude in this and as in many other controversies, I am willing to allow that they are both in the right. Matthew Henry continues, this prophecy has then immediate or primary reference to the Syrian Empire and was intended for the encouragement of the Jews who suffered under Antiochus. But yet it has a further reference and foretells the like-persecuting power in rage in Rome heathen, and no less in Rome papal, against the Christian religion that was in Antiochus against the pious Jews in their religion. And St. John, in his visions and prophecies which point primarily, at least in first instance, at Rome, has plain reference in many particulars to these visions here. Also, the 1861 remarks, approximately, of Rev. Prof. Dr. C.F. Keele here, are well worth noting. The four kingdoms, according to the interpretation commonly received in the Church, explains Keele, are the Babylonian, the Medo-Persian, the Masiodo-Grecian, and the Roman. In this interpretation and opinion, Luther observes, all the world are agreed. and history, in fact, abundantly establish it." This opinion prevailed till about the end of the last century, 1799. We may regard as correct the traditional Church view that the four world kingdoms are the Chaldean, the Medo-Persian, the Grecian, and the Roman. This opinion alone, which has been recently maintained by Habernack Hengstenberg, Hoffmann, Oberlin, Zundel, Cleforth, Visepi, Kasparian, H. O'Reichel, accords without any force or arbitrariness with the representation of these kingdoms in both vision at Daniel chapters 2 and 7. Continuing the quote from Dr. Keel, the relation of the world kingdoms to the kingdom and people of God, represented by this gradation of the metals, corresponds only to the Babylonian, Medo-Persian, Grecian, and Roman world kingdoms. For the historical interpretation, there comes yet particularly into view the circumstance that the fourth beast is represented by no animal existing in nature, and is designated by no historical name, as in the case of the first, chapter 2, verse 38, and the second and third, chapter 8, verses 20 and 21. For the two first had already come into existence in Daniel's time. Of the third, at least the people out of whom it was to arise had then already come into relations to the people of Israel. See Joel, chapter 4, verses 6 through 8. The fourth kingdom, on the contrary, is represented by a nameless beast, because in Daniel's time, Rome had not come into contact with Israel, and has yet to lay beyond the circle of vision of Old Testament prophecy. If we now approach more closely to the historical reference of the fourth world kingdom, it must be acknowledged that we cannot understand by it the Grecian, but only the Roman, world power. The Roman kingdom spread its power and dominion. over all the nations of antiquity in Europe, Africa, and Asia. The kingdoms represented by the ten horns, as far as Daniel was concerned, belong still to the future. To be able to judge regarding them with any certainty, we must first make clear to ourselves the place of the messianic kingdom with reference to the fourth world kingdom, and then compare the prophecy of the apocalypse of John regarding the formation of the world power, a prophecy which rests on the book of Daniel. The destruction of the world kingdoms can in reality proceed only gradually along with the growth of the stone. and thus also the kingdom of God can destroy the world kingdoms only by its gradual extension over the earth. The destruction of the world power in all its component parts began with the foundation of the kingdom of heaven at the appearance of Christ upon earth, or with the establishment of the church of Christ, and only reaches its completion at the second coming of our Lord at the final judgment. In the image, Daniel saw in a moment as a single act what in its actual accomplishment or in its historical development extends through the centuries of Christendom." In Daniel chapter 8 verse 23 God predicts that in the latter time the transgressors come to the full whose power shall be mighty. Here Martin Luther declares One might have thought the prophet Daniel was among other matters also talking about the Turks, alias the Muslims. In Daniel 11, verses 30 through 36, the prophet there predicts that the ships of Chittim, alias the Romans, shall come, and a king shall do according to his will. And he shall exalt himself, and magnify himself above every god, and shall speak marvellous things against the god of gods, and shall prosper till the indignation be accomplished." etc. Significantly, this is one of the chief bases of the Antichrist passage in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 verse 3. In his 1520 open letter to the Christian nobility, Luther declares, have neither spiritual nor temporal law, but only their Koran. There is no doubt that the true Roman Empire, which the writings of the prophets foretold in Numbers 24 and in Daniel 11.30, has long since been overthrown. That was brought to pass, especially when the Turkish or Mohammedan Empire arose almost a thousand years ago. Dr. Luther believed then that the, quote, two regimes, that of the Pope and that of the Turk, are no doubt the true Antichrist, unquote, in the broader sense of that word. against Dutch quote Daniel 1136 Christ Matthew 24 verses 24 through 26 Paul second Thessalonians 2 for John and 1st John 2 18 and other Apostles see James 4 1 through 5 and Jude 4 through 11 have warned unquote on Daniel verses 36-45 observes Keel, on Daniel 11, excuse me, verses 36-45 observes Keel, quote, Jerome, Theodoret, Luther, Ocolumpatius, Oseander, Colovus, Geyer, and at length, Cleforth, interpret this section as a direct prophecy of Antichrist. The rabbinical interpreters have also adopted the idea of a change of subject in verse 36. For Abba Nezra, Jacobites, and Abarbanel take Constantine the Great, while Rabbi Solomon takes the Roman Empire generally as the subject. Essentially, the reference of the section to the Antichrist is correct. In Daniel 11.37 That prophet predicts yet more about this tyrant who was so terrible that his coming was predicted already so many centuries before it fully came to pass. There, that prophet declared, quote, neither shall he regard the God of his fathers, nor the desire of women, nor regard any God, for he shall magnify himself above all, unquote. Luther comments, quote, the coarse, undiligent Muhammad takes all wives, yet has none. The chaste pope takes no wife, but yet has all wives. He who has no wife has all wives. He who has all wives has none. What happens? This is what happens. The unashamed, undiligent Muhammad makes no pretense of chastity, and, like the whoremonger, takes as many wives as he wishes. Thus he has no marriage, and cannot have a marriage, and is thus without wife, and in no state of matrimony." Comments Calvin, quote, Some refer this prophecy to the Pope and to Muhammad, and the phrase, the love of women, seems to give probability to this view. For Muhammad allowed to men the brutal liberty of chastising their wives, and thus he corrupted that conjugal love and fidelity which binds the husband to the wife. Muhammad allowed full scope to various lusts by permitting a man to have a number of wives. This seems like an explanation." Again quoting from Calvin, those who think the Pope to be intended here remind us of their enforcing celibacy by means of which the honor of marriage is trodden underfoot. We observe then some slight correspondence. As Muhammad invented a new form of religion, so did the Pope. True indeed. Also the Staten Vertaling, alias the Dutch Bible, Commissioned by the 1618 Tulip Synod of Dort has some interesting footnotes at Daniel 11 verses 36 to 40 There it observes quote some apply this to the Turk and the Saracens who first violated the Roman Empire in Daniel 11 41 we learned that these shall escape out of his hand even Edom and Moab and the chief of the children of Ammon and Luther comments that, quote, Edom, Moab, Ammon are no longer the nations they previously were, for they too have long since physically altered, having become Saracens and Turks. And in Daniel 11.42, Luther discerns, quote, Hell and Heaven, the Turks, God and Devil, unquote. In Daniel 11.45 one reads that, quote, he shall plant the tabernacles of his palace between the seas in the glorious holy mountain. Here apparently first thinking of the papacy, Luther declares in his table talk, quote, that is at Rome in Italy. But then he also adds there about Islam, quote, the Turk rules also between two seas at Constantinople. Unquote. As from the year AD 1453 onward. Thus, in April 1538, Luther applied the famous time statement about the three and a half years in Daniel 12.7 etc. also to the Turks. Their hegemony began with their conquest of Constantinople in 1453, which, he said, is now eighty-five years ago. If I now reckon a time to be according to the thirty years age of Christ, see Luke 3.23, this saying of three and a half times then constitutes a hundred and five years, so that the Turk will still rule another twenty years." Coming now to the Newer Testament, it will be remembered that while discussing Daniel 11.36, Luther had already said that the two regimes, that of the Pope and that of the Turk, are no doubt the true Antichrist, in the broader sense of that word. Against such, Christ, Paul, John, and other apostles have warned. Luther's first reference in the last sentence seems to be to the passage where Christ warns that, quote, there shall arise false Christs and false prophets. Therefore, if they shall say to you, look, he is in the desert, don't go forth, unquote, Matthew 24 verses 24 through 26. So Luther and all other Christians regard Muhammad as a false prophet. Indeed, some find it significant that at Matthew 24, verses 24-26, to note that Muhammad was also from the Arabian desert. Christ himself observes Luther, quote, speaks of false prophets. In Matthew 24, 24 he says, false Christs and false prophets shall rise up and do great signs and wonders which, if were possible, would mislead even the elect into error, unquote. This has occurred powerfully in the papacy and also in Turkey, where such Muslims clerics and exceptional holy men are many. With us, continues Luther, not without sarcasm, the Pope is the real final Antichrist. He rules masterfully and raises his filth, his Koran, and his human doctrines above God's word. So do Muhammad. The Pope exceeds even Muhammad." Yet also Muhammad felt Luther is certainly a major false Christ and indeed also the false prophet par excellence. It is very significant therefore, indeed, that Islam itself claims that Muhammad is the comforter whom Christ in John 14, 16 through 26 promised to send. Yet Calvin very correctly comments there that, quote, Muhammad and the Pope have this religious principle in common. that scripture does not contain the perfection of doctrine but that something higher has been revealed." Either, unquote, either ecclesiastical tradition or the Quran. Declares Luther, quote, St. Paul and Second Thessalonians speaks of the Antichrist who comes with all kinds of lying signs and lying wonders and with all kinds of deceit unto unrighteousness, etc. This has occurred powerfully in the papacy, and also in Turkey, where such Muslim clerics and exceptional, quote, holy men are the many, unquote. On 2 Thessalonians, chapter 2, verse 3, Calvin comments that, quote, Paul then is predicting a general defection on the part of the visible church, as if he were saying, the church must be reduced to a ghastly and horrifying state of ruin before its full restoration is achieved. Here the weak have an assurance on which to rest when they learn that the disfigurement which they see in the church has long since been foretold. Paul is not speaking of one individual, but of a kingdom that was to be seized by Satan for the purpose of setting up a seat of abomination in the midst of God's temple. This we see accomplished in popery. The defection has indeed spread more widely, for since Muhammad was an apostate, he turned his followers, the Turks, from Christ. The sect of Muhammad was like a raging overflow, which in its violence tore away about half the church. It remained for the papal antichrist to infect with his poison the part which was left." In the very important passage, 2 Peter 2 verses 1-3, that apostle insists that Peter declares, quote, there were false prophets also among the people, unquote, of Israel. Even so, quote, There shall be false teachers among you, Christians, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies." Dr. Luther here explains that St. Peter preached and said, there shall be false teachers among you. Luther also elaborates regarding the bearing of 2 Peter 3.3 on Daniel 8.23's dark sentences. Indeed Luther even observes, quote, one might have thought The prophet Daniel, verse 823, was talking about the Turks, alias the Muslims. In 1st John, chapter 2, verses 18-22 and 4, verses 1-3, that apostle writes, quote, As you have heard that the Antichrist shall come, even now there are many Antichrists. Who is a liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? He who denies the Father and the Son is antichrist. Don't believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. Every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not from God. This is that spirit of Antichrist, of which you have heard that it would come, and even now, already, it is in the world." Here Dr. Luther believed that the, quote, two regimes, that of the Pope and that of the Turk, are no doubt the true Antichrist, unquote. In the broader sense of that word, against such, quote, John, 1 John 2, 18, and other apostles have warned, unquote, from Luther. The Romish perversion of transubstantiation is a denial that Christ has come in the flesh once and for all. So, too, also the Islamic denial that Jesus Christ is God incarnate is predicted here. For, as John here foretold, quote, every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not from God. This is that spirit of Antichrist, unquote. Note that 1st John 2.22 declares, quote, Who is a liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? He who denies the Father and the Son is Antichrist, unquote. Very significantly, there is no fatherhood of God in the Muslims Allah. And Islam denies also that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. As Luther comments on this verse, quote, what the Judaistic Ebion began, Mohammed continued, thus all the throngs of heretics rise up against Christ, but to John they are all liars." In Calvin's 1551 commentary on the first epistle of John, particularly chapter 2 verses 18 through 23. On the first century AD Apostle John's words, even now many Antichrists have arisen, Calvin comments that, quote, here all the marks by which the Spirit of God has pointed out Antichrist appear clearly in the Pope. For Paul, referring to a future falling away, plainly shows that it would be a body or a kingdom. See 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 verse 3. He first foretells a falling away that would spread throughout the whole church. He makes the head of this apostasy the adversary of Christ who would sit in God's temple and claim divine honors. Unless we deliberately want to err, let us learn to know Antichrist from Paul's description. But how does that passage agree with John's words when he says that there were already many Antichrists? Calvin continues, I reply that John only meant that certain sects had already arisen which were forerunners of a then future scattering. For Cyrinthus, Bacillades, Marcian, Valentinus, Ebionites, Arius, and the rest were members of that kingdom which the devil afterwards raised up against Christ. It follows that Turks, Jews and such like have a mere idol in place of God." Here we ourselves think it significant that Arius was a Unitarian and was a forerunner of that other Unitarian, the Muslim Muhammad. Here again, we think it is further significant that Islam turned many churches into mosques as for example the great Saint Sophia Church in Constantinople so that in that sense also Islam now sits in what used to be the Church of God. In 1st John 4 verses 3 through 6 that apostle whom Jesus loved adds that quote this is the spirit of the Antichrist we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error Their Calvin comments, quote, today papists boast with professional superciliousness that all their inventions are the oracles of the spirit. Muhammad too asserts that he has drawn his dreams only from heaven. See Deuteronomy 13, 15 and 18 verses 10 through 22. False spirits claim the name of God, unquote. This then brings us to Revelation as the last book of the Bible, and the one which launches us forth into the important field of church history. Methodologically, we shall here first ourselves state what the book of Revelation actually says, in our opinion, apparently about Islam. Then we shall give a detailed exposition of what such passages seem to mean, in the opinion of many leading theologians down through the ages. interspersed with elucidations also from secular history to illustrate the accuracy of such opinions. After a description of the seven churches in Asia Minor during John's own day, Asia Minor or the region now called Turkey and predestinated later to be overrun by Islam, John gives us a look into heaven itself. Then he describes how God's angels or messengers blow their trumpets, one after another, right down during the course of church history and the events that would follow those messages. The first four angels describe the punishments which God would pour out onto the ancient world because of its rejection of the gospel. Then God's fifth angel seems to announce the coming of the heresy of Unitarianism, alias the rejection of the deity of Christ. of which the AD 320 Arius was an early, and the 1610 Muhammad was a later representative. When the fifth angel sounded his trumpet, wrote John, quote, I saw a star fall from the sky, and he opened the bottomless pit, and there arose a smoke out of the pit, and out of the smoke locusts came upon the earth. And it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree, but only those who do not have the seal of God upon their foreheads." This seems to be descriptive of the Saracens, who followed Muhammad like locusts. However, they had no power to shake the faith of those Trinitarians who had in baptism been sealed with the mark of the living God upon their foreheads. Then the sixth angel sounded his trumpet. And I heard a voice say, Loosen the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates. Then the four angels were unleashed to slay the third part of men. This seems to describe the actions of the Islamified Turks when they would later cross the river Euphrates on their way from Turkmenistan toward their new home in Turkey. They would slaughter many and indeed succeed in ousting an idolatrous church from that entire region. Later, after the angels finished sounding their trumpets, there follows God's pouring out of his seven last plagues upon a wayward civilization. Wrote John, quote, Then the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates, and its water was dried up, so that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared. And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. For these are the spirits of demons, going forth to the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty. Then the cities of the nations fell." As a result of this, the beast gets taken, and with him the false prophet. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone. But the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of the heavenly city, and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honor into it, and they shall bring the glory and honor of the nations into it." This seems to describe the Lord God's destruction also of those who stubbornly keep on following Muhammad, whom the Christian Bible regards as a false prophet. Thereafter, it also seems to describe the conversion to Christ of all nations on earth, including even those nations which, at the present moment, still embrace Islam. We would suggest, then, that the book of Revelation itself is prima facie to be understood as giving the really major events down through the centuries in church history. The vast majority of competent exegetes of the Book of Revelation have interpreted it historicalistically, and neither preteristically nor futuristically. Church history bears this out, and so too does secular history. To establish this, let us look at some of the writings of the two greatest theologians of the Protestant Reformation, Rev. Prof. Dr. Martin Luther and Rev. Prof. Dr. John Calvin. In Luther's 1545 preface to the Revelation of St. John, he says, This book of Revelation is intended as a revelation of things that are to happen in the future, and especially of tribulations and disasters for the church. We consider that the first and surest step toward finding its interpretation is to take from history the events and disasters that have come upon the Church before now and hold them up, and so compare them with the words, quote, unquote, of that last book of the Holy Bible. Luther rightly insists above that this book of Revelation concerns things that are to happen in the future for the Church. that is, happen in the future from John's point of view during the first century AD. Yet from Luther's own 16th century, that great Protestant reformer held that, quote, the surest step toward finding its interpretation is to take from history the events that have come upon the church, unquote, during those 16th centuries. Thus Luther explains that in the book of Revelation, Chapter 6, quote, the future tribulations begin, unquote. That is, those events which were future to the first century's John. In chapters 7 and 8, continues Luther, begin the revelations of the spiritual tribulations, i.e., all kinds of heresies. Thus, to Luther, John, having described conditions in his own first century, in Revelation chapters 1 to 5, from Revelation chapter 6 to chapter 8, begins to describe the major events in post-apostolic church history, approximately from the beginning of the second until the end of the sixth century. Later, below, we shall see that to Luther, Revelation chapters 9 to 20, are historicalistic predictions of the course of church history from the end of the 6th century onward until its final triumph over its two opponents, the Romish papacy and Muhammad's Islam. For the moment, however, let us first turn to the views of that even greater Protestant theologian, John Calvin, and those who follow him, the Calvinists. Needless to say, if Calvin, the historicalist, had only lived long enough to write a commentary also on the book of Revelation, it is clear, also from the insights of Calvinists after him, that he too would have shared many of their views even on that last book of the Bible. For his own views and predictions about Islam are adequately apparent from his institutes, his letters, his tracts, his treatises, and above all from his commentaries and or sermons on Deuteronomy, Job, Isaiah, Daniel, John, Romans, Galatians, 2nd Thessalonians, 2nd Timothy, and 1st John, whose writer wrote also the book of Revelation. We wish to claim, then, that Calvin's own views on the above are not modified, but rather very faithfully presented by subsequent Calvinists. Indeed, we claim that the Calvinistic understanding of the Book of Revelation is usefully summarized by the godly and famous Westminster Assembly Calvinistic theologian, Rev. Dr. Thomas Goodwin. For, as he himself wrote in his great work and exposition of the Revelation, I rest assured that the light which hath broken forth in many of our reformed churches since Calvin's time, and which still increaseth and shall until antichrist be consumed, is both in matter of doctrine, interpretation of scriptures, worship, church government, etc., much purer, and might be taken for a truer measure than what shines in the story and writings of those primitive ages." Here then is how the Calvinist Goodwin sees the historicalistic sequence of events successively presented in the book of Revelation. We present first his general survey of the whole book of Revelation from chapter 1 through chapter 22. Christ, explains Goodwin, when he ascended up to heaven, found the Roman monarchy, whose room he was to possess, stretched both over east and west, even over all those parts of the world where he was to seat his church and kingdom. Hereupon Christ, the designated king, first sets upon the conquest of Satan's dominion, and by the preaching of the gospel overturns that vast empire, and turns both it and its emperors to Christianity within the space of three hundred years. This is the sum in mind of the sixth chapter. But this empire, though wholly turned Christian in outward profession, yet having persecuted his church whilst idolatrous, and also after it was Christian, became weakened under Arian. Therefore, he further proceeds to ruin the civil imperial power of the empire itself by the trumpets in the 8th and 9th chapters, and the empire then becoming divided into two parts, the Eastern and Western Empire, as they were commonly called. First, he ruins the imperial Western state and power in Europe by the four first trumpets, the Wars of the Goths, by four several steps in the 8th chapter. Then he ruins the imperial eastern state which stood after the other, first by the Saracens, and then by the Turks, and these two are the fifth and sixth trumpets, which two possess all that eastern part unto this day. That eastern part of it is left possessed by the Turks, chapter 9. This western part of it in Europe, being by the Goths broken into ten kingdoms, they all consented to give their power to the beast, the Pope, chapter 13. This beast, the thirteenth chapter describes, and gives the vision of his rise, power, and time of his reign, which the seventeenth chapter doth expound and interpret. Under whose anti-Christian tyranny, as great as that of the Turks themselves toward Christians, Christ yet preserveth. These two, the Pope and the Turk, both enemies to Christ, thus succeeding in the Roman Empire and sharing the two parts of it between them, We see, Mohammedanism under the Turk tyrannizeth in the one, and idolatry under the Pope overspreads the other, even as heathenism had done over the whole empire at first. And so Christ hath a new business of it yet. Therefore he hath seven vials, which contain the last plagues, to dispatch the Pope and the Turk, and wholly root them out. The plagues of these vials are the contents of the fifteenth and sixteenth chapters. The first five vials do dissolve, and by degrees ruin the Pope's power in the West. Then the sixth vial breaks the power of the Turk in the East, so making way for the Jews, whom he means to bring into the fellowship of his kingdom. Both the Turkish and Popish party do together join, using their utmost forces, and together with them all opposite kings of the whole world, against the Christians, both of the East and West, who, when the Jews are come in and converted, Romans 11.25-32, do make up a mighty party in the world. The 18th chapter sings a funeral song of triumph for the Romish and Islamic whore's ruin. After this comes in Christ's kingdom. This new kingdom of His shall be made up of Eastern Christians who endured the bondage of the two woe trumpets, the Saracens and the Turks, yet continuing to profess His name. It is made up of Western Christians, who therefore, after the rejection of the whore, chapter 19, verses 1 through 9, are brought in singing in like triumphant manner. It is also to be made up of Jews dispersed both east and west, and over all the world, with whom come in, as attendants of their joy, other Gentiles too, who never had received Christ before. The glory of the Gentiles is said to be brought into it. And so both east and west, Jew and Gentile, and the fullness of both, to come in and become one fold under one shepherd for a thousand years, chapter 20, and one kingdom under this root of David, and their king, King Jesus the Conqueror. Thus that prophecy of this his kingdom in Isaiah 59.19 is fulfilled. Where, after the final destruction of all Christ's enemies foretold in verse 18, he says, quote, They shall fear his name from the east unto the west, and the Redeemer shall come unto Zion. Which words Paul interprets of the Jews' final call and this restoration of the world with them, Romans 11 26. Even though Lord Jesus come quickly, Revelation 22 20, unquote. Also among the Protestant reformers then, Islam is seen to have been predicted also in the Book of Revelation, thus Luther 1522, Melanchthon 1543, and Bullinger 1577. Soon afterward, this same view was advocated also by Fox, 1584, Napier, 1793, Downham, 1603, Brightman, 1614, Parius, 1618, Davenport, 1633, and Meade, 1637. Just before, and during, and right after the time of the Westminster Assembly, which itself tells Christians to, quote, pray for the propagation of the gospel and kingdom of Christ to all nations, unquote, and specifically for, quote, the Turk, unquote. This view is seen to have been championed also by John Coggan, 1639, Thomas Goodwin, 1639, Thomas Parker, 1646, James Durham, 1657, and Increase Mather, 1669. Indeed, also from the 18th century onward, this view has had very many advocates, for it has been maintained, among others, even by Campinius Mintriga, 1705, Matthew Henry, 1712, Jonathan Edwards, 1739, John Gill, 1758, George Stanley Faber, 1806, Edward Bickersteth, 1836, Lewis Gossin, 1837 Edward Eliot, 1845 Albert Barnes, 1851 Apostolos Makratis, 1881 Philip Morrow, 1908 Leroy Edwin Froome, 1948 and, by the present writer, Francis Nigel Lee, 2000 Now the first century A.D., John had even then, in a vision of the future, heard the first three angels or messengers blow their trumpets loud and clear. Indeed, God revealed to John that this was to announce God's judgments against a wayward humanity in the Roman Empire during the first few centuries of church history. Those first three trumpets heralded the rise of heresies. Such included especially Unitarian Arianism, which in turn prepared the ground for the later rise and spread of Unitarian Islam. Such earlier heretics prior to Muhammad, comments Dr. Francis Junius's footnotes in the 1599 edition of the famous 1560 Geneva Bible of Mrs. John Calvin's brother-in-law, Dr. William Whittingham, and Reverend John Knox, represent, quote, preachers that depart from the truth. For, sex and heresies hath been and shall be brought into the church thereby. Indeed, diverse sects of heretics were spread abroad in the world. Sadly, some excellent ministers of the church shall corrupt the scriptures." For the statement at Revelation 8.11 that very many men died from drinking polluted water is taken by these footnotes in the Geneva Bible to signify being poisoned by false and corrupt doctrine. Philip Morrow adds here in his commentary on the book of Revelation that quote the symbols of the verses now before us point to the activities of Satan working in the early days of our era, mainly through unbelieving Jews and poisoning the streams of truth by means of certain great heresies, such as the Arian, which denied the deity of our Lord." That, especially via such Judaists then in Arabia, would later mature in the views of Muhammad. At the same time, however, ever since about A.D. 250, the bishop of Rome had constantly been gaining the preeminence, even though it was only just before 600 that solely whoever was that bishop officially got called sole pope, alias universal father. Thus, Islam and the papacy both arose at the same time, at the beginning of the 7th century. Then John's fourth trumpet, sounded to announce the occurrence of those events which were then yet future. John beheld and heard an angel-like eagle messenger flying through the midst of the sky. It said with a loud cry, Woe, woe to the inhabitants of the earth by reason of the other sounds of the trumpet of the three angels which are yet to trumpeteer. These three woes, comments Dr. Francis Junius' footnotes in the Geneva Bible, represent, quote, horrible threatenings against the infidels and rebellious persons, unquote. This means threatenings also against unbelievers, such as the pre-Islamic pagan Arabs, as well as threats against disobedient, quote, Christians, unquote. This is now an appropriate place to say something about those three angels or messengers which yet had to trumpeteer after the early church had been weakened by all of its various Christological controversies such as those of Arius in 318 and Nestorius in 431 during the first few centuries of its life right down to the definitive statement of the Council of Chalcedon in 1451 AD. Arianism kept on denying that Christ was God and historianism duplicated Christ into a divine person on the one hand and a different human person on the other. It is significant that Muhammad derived his anti-Trinitarian Unitarianism from anti-Christian Arabian Judaists, also with the assistance of an Aryan called Johannes Antiochenius. His heretical Christology Muhammad got from sub-Christian sects in Arabia. This he patched all together with the help of his friend Bahiria, or Sergius, who himself became a Muslim after apostatizing from Nestorianism. In our opinion, nobody has given a better overview of the subsequent events than the great Westminster Assembly Commissioner and Calvinist theologian, Reverend Dr. Thomas Goodwin. He stated already in his great work Brief History of the Kingdom of Christ that the Roman Empire, though turned, quote, Christian, unquote, in outward profession, by the commencement of the fourth century A.D., soon thereafter persecuted his church when Arian, or after temporarily lapsing into the anti-Trinitarian Unitarianism of the heretic Arius. For even the Church as a whole did then for a short while, to a great extent, become incipiently Unitarian. Indeed, even after the Trinitarian Council of Nicaea in A.D. 325, Arianism continued to plague it down to about A.D. 600, especially in Spain. Consequently then, in order to cleanse and reform his backslidden Church, explains Goodwin, God himself next, quote, proceeds to ruin the empire itself by the trumpets in the 8th and 9th chapters of the book of Revelation. The empire then became divided into two, the Eastern and the Western Empire. He ruins the imperial Western state in power in Europe by the first four trumpets, the wars of the Goths, by four several steps in the 8th chapter. Chapter 9 he destroys the imperial Eastern state, first by the Saracens, then by the Turks. Eastern Christians endured the bondage of the two world trumpets, the Saracens and the Turks, yet continued to profess his name. That old Roman Empire was thus removed in both parts of it. The eastern part of it is left in possession of the Turks in the ninth chapter, so the western part of it in Europe, being broken into ten kingdoms by the Goths. They consent to give their power to the Beast, the Pope, who so becomes a successor to the Western Emperor and possesses his seat and power." Elsewhere, in greater detail, Goodwin also explains that the pre-Christian and pagan monarchy or empire, with the territories both in the East and West Sea which were under its jurisdiction, which empire, when John wrote, was in its height and flourish, and with which the church had most to do, and in the jurisdiction of which the church had always been chiefly, and in a manner only seated, must needs be the main subject of this book of Revelation. Now this empire and the dominions of it was extended well nigh as far for circuit as the dominions under the Turk in the east and the ten neo-Roman European kingdoms in the west. The Roman Empire and the successions of it east and west was that fourth and great monarchy that would oppress the earth. Daniel chapter 2 verses 26 through 45 and chapter 7 verses 2 through 27 foretold that this Roman should be the most terrible of all the rest. God, in this prophecy of the New Testament, doth, according to his manner in the old, lay out the fates of that fourth monarchy. This Roman monarchy, and the several successions of it in the East and West, was the chiefest rule and power that was left on earth for Christ to put down. To accomplish that, continues Godwin, The first six trumpets, Revelation 8.2-9.21, contain several steps and degrees of ruining the imperial government of the empire itself. According to the division of the empire, west and east, accordingly, was God's method in the ruining, first, of the western parts of it. The Goths and Vandals utterly shattered the government of the Occidental emperors and broke it into ten kingdoms, over which the Pope succeeded. Then secondly, after that, overturning the oriental part, won by the Saracens, of whom Muhammad was the head, he wrung one great part of the Eastern Empire, in Arabia, Egypt, and Assyria, out of the Emperor's hands and subjected these dominions unto Muhammadanism. And then, too, by the Turks, professing Mohammedanism also, they conquered and subdued not only what the Saracens before them had done, but also that other part of the Eastern Empire remaining still Christian, namely, in Natolia and in Greece, over which the Greek emperors, successors of the Roman, till then continued, but were now wholly subjected. together with Constantinople itself, the seat of their empire, unto the Turks, who alone possess the whole Eastern Empire unto this day. This ends tape one of Islam and the Bible by Dr. Francis Nigel Lee, read by W. J. Mankaro, and produced by Stillwaters Revival Books. Thank you for listening, and we hope you will go on to the next tape in this series. If you would like more information on the topics addressed in this tape, Stillwater's Revival Books also carries a wide selection of resources on classic Reformation eschatology, including the five-tape set and book by E.B. Eliot and other reformers titled Islam and Revelation, an historic look at Protestant eschatological thought on the rise and fall of Islam, as well as numerous other resources, some free, on just about every topic of interest to the contemporary Christian. Please visit our website at www.swrb.com and or sign up for our email super special discount mailings by emailing us at add, that is A-D-D, at swrb.com if you would like to learn more.