Sid: This brand new species of being is about ready to come into its finest hour, because it is the Messiah in us, the hope of Glory and it says that when these two people groups become one it will make a full dwelling place of God by His Spirit. My guest has been with us previously, his name is Joel Richardson and God gave Joel a revelation of end times that makes more sense to me than what I’ve been taught my whole life as a believer. Now Joel, the reason that I have you on right now is because something has gone on in the Middle East that I would have to believe is without precedent and if we were not in the age of the computer it might not had ever happened. But it seems like every country wants to throw over their leaders. I don’t think that there has ever been a time like this in the world, what do you think?
Joel: What we’re seeing right now Sid is one of the most amazing fulfillments of biblical prophecy. You know you were around in the ‘70s in the Jesus Movement. The Jesus Movement was one of the most significant revivals in recent history as believers were coming into the church largely because of what was taking place with biblical prophecy. The establishment of the State of Israel and as the Jewish people took back Jerusalem; people looked to the Bible and said this thing is true, no man could predict these things 2,000 years ago; likewise what we’re seeing right now with the radical overturn of the complete order of the Middle East we’re seeing the fulfillment of prophecy. Believer’s need to understand what’s taking place so that they can articulate these things as they share these events with their friends and that people will once again look to the scriptures, look to the Bible and say this is true, this book is true, these things are true, the gospel itself is something that I can rely on and need to give myself to.
Sid: Now you see the main action for the end days in the Middle East, especially focusing on Israel and the Moslem countries surrounding it. And that is such a paradigm change from the European Union and all that I have heard as long as I’ve been a believer; I would imagine when someone thinks out of the box they get a lot of persecution. Wouldn’t it be easier for you to go along with what everyone else teaches?
Joel: Well, again the truth has no agenda, when we come to the scriptures we need to be individuals that take these things in a responsible way.
Sid: I have heard people on the air specifically talking about you and saying nonsense it cannot be; and I’m sure you’ve heard those same reports.
Joel: Yes, yes I most certainly have Sid and you know again, I’m doing my best to extract what the scriptures say and not read into the scriptures my own world view and I guess for doing that I have been accused of a lot of things. And it was Jesus Himself said that no servant is above His master. They called Jesus Himself, Belial or Beelzebub and likewise He said that if we desire to serve him in truth we would be accused of those very same things. But it’s unfortunate when it comes from even among those I guess within the church.
Sid: But, you know I’ve always wanted to think outside of the box, because I’ve always come up with a conclusion that the tight neat little end time scenarios we have, say the “Left Behind Series” the one that I use to say, I don’t say this right now, but what I use to say is that, “I don’t know what the end times order of things are etc. but the one thing I know for sure, there wrong.” They don’t know, it’s the blind leading the blind, but when I saw you’re revelation of end times I said, this makes more sense than anything I’ve ever heard. Especially in light of what’s going on in the Middle East right now. But I’m told that you’re view is not a new view, it’s an old view, but this whole European thing was developed more as a modern view.
Joel: It’s true, the earliest most ancient manuscripts that we have from the early church, commentaries on the book of Revelation and different discussions of the end times. The early church believed that the antichrist, his empire and his religion would come from the Middle East. So this is certainly not anything that’s new, however lets us say that in these last days the Lord is releasing a fullness of understanding and He’s delivering that to His church; He’s raising up different teachers that are communicating these things. Really with the European paradigm and what happened is the church was looking for a revived Roman Empire and then as the EU began to rise they all looked at that and they said, “This is that.” And what happened was this false equation was cemented in the minds of many believers which says that Roman equals European. Which is amazing Sid, if you say that Nicolas Orcose or Prince Charles or even President Obama, and I’ve heard this taught on you know Christian television. If you say any of these guys are the antichrist, it will be entertained, it will be considered; if you say that the antichrist will come from the Middle East and perhaps that he would be a Muslim then you will be attacked and it’s a strange spiritual stronghold that needs to be broken off the church, because now is the time that the church needs to wake up.
Sid: Well, I’m also seeing that many prominent men and women of God, once they understand, and what you’re teaching say that makes more biblical sense than what I’ve been taught my whole life.
Joel: There are folks from all across different streams within the body of Christ; just about two weeks ago I heard Dr. John McArthur teaching on most directly from some of my material. I receive emails from leaders and lay people a like across the boards, recently a president of a major Baptist that said “Fully on board with what you’re teaching, again it makes more sense than anything of heard, scripturally it’s sound and it lines up with what’s taking place in the world today.”
Sid: I have to tell you the thing that triggered me calling you, was I read a report about a movie that was produced in Iran that talks about, well the title is “The Coming is Near,” and it talks about the Moslem Messiah and it sure sounds like the Christian antichrist; but it tell what they’re up to. It almost reminds me of Adolf Hitler, he wrote his autobiography, “Mein Kopf” and it stated what he was going to do and then he tried to do it.
Joel: It is exactly what we are seeing right now in the nation of Iran Sid, to put it in perspective that we could understand imagine if suddenly a very prominent Christian leader came out and said “I’m Elijah or I’m the John the Baptist.” Every year in the city of Jerusalem there are individuals that come to that city…
Sid: It’s called the Jerusalem phenomena, sure.
Joel: The Jerusalem syndrome.
Sid: Syndrome, that’s it.
Joel: They think that they’re Jesus; they think they’re Moses and the Israeli authorities put them into the mental ward; they put them into the physiatric hospital. Sid, we have not just weirdoes coming to city believing that they are some prophetic individual; we have the leaders of a nation that are over a massive military that are developing nuclear weapons that have now created and produced this movie. And they have set themselves in the role of the forerunners of the coming Islamic messiah figure. They’ve set themselves up as the ones that would usher in the coming of the Twelfth Imam also known as Imam Alameda Almuntizar, as they say in Iran they believe that the coming of the Islamic messiah figure is imminent and they are the ones that are ushering it in.
Sid: Now, we’ve put together a four DVD series for people that do not understand Islam, do not understand their strategy and do not understand it in reference to the Word of God. I can’t image anyone not wanting to understand these things. But what is the thing that triggered this teaching the most in your heart when you put it together?
Joel: Well, I shifted some years back Sid from reaching out to Muslim’s to giving myself to trying to win Muslims to the Messiah to suddenly awakening to the fact that much of the west is completely ignorant of the reality of the challenge of Islam. Which, Sid it is the greatest challenge that the world, that the church, that the western world will ever face. Islam is the greatest challenge; I gave myself to educating the church regarding this challenge; preparing the church so that we would understand what the Lord is doing in the earth and we would respond appropriately.
Sid: And you know the thing that as I said triggered me is when I saw “Mein Kopf” or this special video from Iran that was just produced; this documentary. And to me it explains what their theology is what they’re trying to do and it’s such a mirror copy of the antichrist. I couldn’t believe this film that they’re putting out and I went into detail on that and you also go into detail about one of the amazing end-time heresies. If someone had told me that this Chrislom is that how you pronounce it? Was going to evolve and there would be “good Christians embracing it; never in my wildest imaginations would I have thought that that was possible.
Joel: Exactly Sid, what we are seeing right now is the immerging of one of the greatest heresies that I’ve ever seen. It’s a clear violation of the repeated, emphasized commandment throughout scripture that as believers that we would be separate. You know the very word ecclesia is often translated…
Sid: But is this part of the great falling away that read about in scriptures?
Joel: Absolutely, absolutely yeah I mean you have Christians that are clearly, you have believers in Biblical faith clearly rejecting the commands of scripture, clearly denying the essential basics with regard to how the Lord will revealed Himself and denying the Father, denying the Son…
Sid: Listen, we’ll get into that in the next days of this interview.
