California Conservative

The world has watched as Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has made one outrageous statement after another, all the while scratching its collective head at the statements. This UK Telegraph articleshould provide insight into his statements.

Last Monday, just before he announced that Iran had gatecrashed “the nuclear club”, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad disappeared for several hours. He was having a khalvat (tête-à-tête) with the Hidden Imam, the 12th and last of the imams of Shiism who went into “grand occultation” in 941.
According to Shia lore, the Imam is a messianic figure who, although in hiding, remains the true Sovereign of the World. In every generation, the Imam chooses 36 men, (and, for obvious reasons, no women) naming them the owtad or “nails”, whose presence, hammered into mankind’s existence, prevents the universe from “falling off”. Although the “nails” are not known to common mortals, it is, at times, possible to identify one thanks to his deeds. It is on that basis that some of Ahmadinejad’s more passionate admirers insist that he is a “nail”, a claim he has not discouraged. For example, he has claimed that last September, as he addressed the United Nations’ General Assembly in New York, the “Hidden Imam drenched the place in a sweet light”.
Last year, it was after another khalvat that Ahmadinejad announced his intention to stand for president. Now, he boasts that the Imam gave him the presidency for a single task: provoking a “clash of civilisations” in which the Muslim world, led by Iran, takes on the “infidel” West, led by the United States, and defeats it in a slow but prolonged contest that, in military jargon, sounds like a low intensity, asymmetrical war.

If I read this right, and I’m pretty certain I am, then Ahmadinejad’s intent is to literally hasten Armageddon into happening. It’s amazing to think that that’s his intent but it seems clear that that’s exactly what he wants.

Think of it this way: His statements that Israel should be wiped off the face of the Earth is intended to provoke a final religious war between Ishmael and Isaac. Ishmael is considered the father of Islam by Biblical scholars, just as Isaac is Abraham’s, and therefore the Jewish, seed “in whom all nations shall be blessed.”

It wouldn’t be a stretch to think that Ahmadinejad sees himself as the Muslems’ version of John the Baptist and that the Twelfth Imam is the Muslem version of the Saviour. That he thinks of himself as the one “provoking a ‘clash of civilisations’” is proof that he thinks of himself that way. Mix in the fact that he thinks that he’s been in contact with the “true Sovereign of the World” and you have to think that that’s how he sees himself.

As a Christian, I’ve studied End Times prophecy alot. While Christians who’ve accepted Christ as their Saviour look forward to seeing Christ face to face, we don’t think that we can hasten Christ’s promised return. Most Christians believe that God Himself has set that time and we can’t speed its arrival or impede its getting here. Ahmadinejad thinks that he can hasten it even to the point that he sees himself as a person of Biblical proportions.

I’m not suggesting that Ahmadinjad is a person of Biblical proportions. There’s an outside chance that he is but that’s far from certain. What I’m suggesting is that that’s how he sees himself.

That alone is a scary thought.

Technorati Tags: Ahmadinejad, Islam, Twelfth Imam, Armageddon

Cross-post at LetFreedomRingBlog

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 18th, 2006 at 12:02 am and is filed under Author: Gary Gross, Iran, Religion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.