Sid: But, you know if you understand the power of God and you don’t understand end time Bible prophecy, you’re not going to know what to do with the power of God. And if you understand end time Bible prophecy and you don’t have the power of God you’re not going to have much impact on your destiny and your calling. That’s why I’m interviewing Joel Richardson right now, so you can put it all together, so that you can understand where we’re at as far as end times. And I have to ask you Joel, as a man dedicated and called by God to teach end time Bible prophecy where are we at this moment in history?
Joel: Well, throughout history Sid, believers have peered into the scriptures trying to discern the times and the seasons. I believe Sid that we are closer now than we’ve ever been, the Lord is opening up the scriptures, He’s revealing with clarity the Lord’s end time plan and as we look the Middle East, as we look to the epa center the focus of all Biblical prophecy things are coming together rapidly. The church needs to be aware of what’s taking place so that they can understand that in fact the return of Jesus is near and we need to be prepared.
Sid: Now, just out of curiosity what is your understanding of the United States in end times?
Joel: Personally for me, Sid when I look at the emphasis of scripture I see again the primary focus being the Middle East. I see some very vague references to you know, once you get outside of the greater Biblical world, things become blurry. As American’s we like to believe that we are central to everything; we want to believe that the Bible is really talking about us. There are some hints, there are some places where the US may be referenced, but personally I express caution. By in large what I see is that the US is not mentioned, that opens the door for us as intercessors to say Lord, have mercy on us that we would in fact be in nation of righteousness, right up until the return of the Messiah and at the day of His judgment we stand as nations before the judgment seat of the Messiah that we would be a nation that would be found righteous. But I believe the Lord is going to humble this nation significantly before that time.
Sid: Tell me about this new Iranian documentary and why it’s so important to end times.
Joel: Sure, well within Islamic end time views they believe that an individual known as the Mahdi; called by the Iranians the Twelfth Imam will immerge.
Sid: Now what does Imam mean and what does Mahdi mean?
Joel: Mahdi is simply it means the guided one, he is the one that is guided according to Muslims by a law. He is the final messiah, the savior of the world that will unify, reunify the entire Islamic world and lead the Islamic world in a victory against the infidel nations. Now Imam simply means leader and what Iranians believe is that the Mahdi will be the twelfth leader or twelfth male descendent of Mohammed. Now the Sunnis of the Islamic world; they’re the eighty-five to ninety percent; they believe in the coming of the Mahdi, but they don’t believe that they will be the twelfth descendent of Mohammed. They believe that this is just sort of a mantle that will come on an individual in the last days and really anyone, if they immerge and they begin to do the thing that the Mahdi is prophesied to do that they have the potential to become the Mahdi. So there’s a little bit of a difference.
Sid: But, it is still close enough! Ha ha.
Joel: Yeah, yeah. Once they come what they do is the same thing, they just have a difference in belief in terms of how he will emerge on to the world scene. But the Iranians have now put out this documentary. Now Sid, within the academic community those just handful of people out there that are really analyzing and trying to understand what the Iranians believe, there’s been this discussion they’ve said, “Do the leaders of Iran believe that they can actively bring about becoming about the Mahdi?” And Sid this video it removes all doubt. It is clear that they believe that they can actively work here and now in the earth to force the hand of God to bring about the coming of this Islamic messiah figure, which by all accounts is really identical to the biblical antichrist.
Sid: So, let me ask you this question, I’ve pondered it so much, the people at our State Department, they know more than I know, but why when they see this particular documentary do they have the slightest doubt that they can negotiate a peaceful settlement between the Iranians and say the rest of the world, especially Israel and the United States? How could they possibly believe that after this documentary? I don’t get it.
Joel: There is a powerful spiritual blindness, just an ignorance that is overwhelming, even the United States State Department, it is a incredibly institutionalized you know unit that is filled with individuals that are very liberal, they don’t want to stir the pot. They would like to believe that we could negotiate with these individuals or they would like to believe that the largely secular populous of Iran will overthrow these leaders. They’ve been you know, locked in this mode of wishful thinking for years now, meanwhile the Iranian military and government has been developing nuclear weapons; we’ve been sitting back and each day that we sit back and do nothing is one day closer to where these maniacs will have the ability to have nuclear weapons. This is unbelievable.
Sid: Okay, tell me what the Iranian did in their version of “Mein Kopf?” What did they say?
Joel: They actually believe that the Mahdi, that the sign of the Mahdi will come when an army from the east and they cast themselves as that army will march to Jerusalem to literally they say, “Retake Israel for the Islamic world.” Muslim’s believe that whenever, whenever a land that was once controlled by Muslims is taken by infidels it’s very much an open sore. I mean they cannot rest until that land is taken back for Islam. But even going back to the very foundations of the Islamic religion they have these prophecies that say in the last days the Muslims would literally slaughter the Jews, a final holocaust is described in their scriptures and they believe that they will be the ones that will lead these armies. They will take Jerusalem for the Mahdi for the messiah, for the Islamic world and literally that they will exterminate the Jewish people from the land.
Sid: But why is it so necessary for them to take Jerusalem? Why is that their objective?
Joel: You know Sid; the only thing that we can conclude when we examine these things is that there is in fact I’ll say a satanic hand that was involved in the evolution and the development of these radical Islamic apoplectic traditions. Because we know that the Bible says and has said for thousands of years that the antichrist in the last days would set himself up in the temple of God in 2nd Thessalonians. And then seven hundred years later this religion called Islam comes along and they teach that their messiah would come and set himself up in the temple. They believe that that is the location that the Mahdi Twelfth Imam will rule the whole world from the temple mount.
Sid: Now, I have not personally seen this documentary, have you seen it?
Joel: Yeah, I’ve watched the whole thing.
Sid: Okay, does it actually state they would go so far as to nuke Israel?
Joel: Personally Sid, I don’t believe that Iran will nuke Israel and the reason is…
Sid: No, no what does the documentary state that?
Joel: No, no it does not it says that they would invade and conquer Israel.
Sid: Okay, go ahead.
Joel: The reason I don’t believe, and a lot of people have been asking this question, “Will Iran nuke Israel?” They could very well, nuke another country and I’m opposed to believing that; but they believe that Islam will control Jerusalem, so I can’t imagine that they would want to nuke the place that they believe that they will rule the world from. Secondly, it’s against Islamic law to kill Muslims on purpose and obviously if you nuked Israel you’d kill Palestinians. However Sid, the question the military strategists have to ask is are we willing to take the that chance, in sitting back and allowing Iran to develop nuclear weapons are we really willing to take that chance?
Sid: Now, after seeing this video what do you believe they are up too?
Joel: Well, I think that the Iran leaders are desperate, they see the complete overthrow of governments throughout the region, they know that a large percentage of their youthful population desires to cast them off, and as a result today they themselves are susceptible so they are really playing up the anti-Semitism that exists among there people. They’re playing up these apocalyptic traditions; and again their casting themselves as key players in this story, their trying to literally. And this oldest you know game in the region, the oldest play in the region is that they divert the attention of the masses from themselves and the bad job that their selves with the economy and otherwise, and they’re trying to focus on Israel. And so again their casting themselves as the leaders of this invasion of Israel and then their calling on the religious persuasions of the people and their saying set yourself up that we will have an army of millions of martyrs. This is completely and I’ll use the word demonic Sid, the documentary is completely demonic.
Sid: Now do you see a divided Jerusalem occurring shortly?
Joel: I do Sid, you know…
Sid: I hate to hear you say that, but go ahead.
Joel: I do and I believe that we will see, Jerusalem we can say divided or we could say as a shared capital and it’s not just the Islamic world, this is what’s so shocking. I have heard prominent orthodox rabbis’ and leaders say that the day is coming when Jerusalem and what they call it is the Capital City of World peace will come about where Jews, Muslims and Christians will together all pray to the one same God. This is exactly what we’ve been looking for, the emergence of this through this through ecumenical unity movement that would try to claim that the God of the Koran and the God of the Bible are one and the same.
Sid: And yet, the Prophet Joel foreseeing this day said in the Third Chapter that the nations would come under judgment for dividing up His land. So do you see the release of Judgment on nations and particularly the US for orchestrating this? Ops we’re out of time.
