Ahmadinejad and the Mahdi
According to the Oracle of Tolemac, a specific series of events will occur in the Middle East that will lead up to the appearance of the Anti-Christ and the ultimate return of the Redeemer. These events will involve the people of Israel and the armies of its enemies. It is to the Middle East that we need to look for the true signs of the times.
When asked who the Redeemer of the world would be, the Oracle replied:
“The Son of man is the Great Redeemer spoken of in the holy books. He is the one who will come to save the faithful at the appointed end of the age. When the Son of man returns to the earth with power and great glory, he will be recognized by all peoples as “the one who is to come”.
“Every religion has its own tradition of a savior who will return to earth at the end times. To those of the Christian faith, the Son of man will be Jesus, the living Christ. To the Jews, he will be the long awaited Messiah. To the Hindus he will be Kalki, the tenth incarnation of Vishnu. To the Buddhists he will be the Maitreya, the Buddha that is to come. To the Moslems he will be the Mahdi, the expected one.”
Materially minded men and women may scoff at the idea of a religious savior returning to the earth in a few years to castigate the wicked and spare the faithful, but this idea happens to be the motivating force behind one of the most powerful personalities in the Middle-East today.
For this idea of the return of a Moslem Redeemer known as the “Mahdi” is the central belief of the man who is now President of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
While all streams of Islam believe in a divine savior known as the “Mahdi”, many Shi’a Moslems believe that this “Expected One” will be a direct descendant of the Prophet Muhammad, known as the 12th Imam.
This belief is particularly prominent in Iran, where adherents are known as “Twelvers”. According to their teachings, the 12th Imam will return to the earth after a time of cosmic chaos, bloodshed and war, and will lead the world into a new era of universal peace.
From the moment he was elected President, Ahmadinijad has been obsessed with the need to prepare Iran for the coming of the 12th Imam. At a cabinet meeting convened in July 2005, he told the assembled ministers: “We have to turn Iran into a modern and divine country to be the model for all nations, and which will serve as the basis for the return of the 12th Imam.”
Since that time, Ahmadinejad has made frequent references to this Islamic Redeemer, including his recent Christmas address to the people of Great Britain that was broadcast on Channel 4 TV.
However, this call to prepare Iran for the return of the redeemer carries a sinister undertone. In fulfilling his destiny as President, Ahmadinejad believes he has been given a divine mandate to rid the world of unbelievers and so prepare the world for the savior who is coming.
And no one has been the focus of this crusade more than the people of Israel. Shortly after being elected President, Ahmadinejad spoke at a conference in Tehran entitled “The World Without Zionism”. At this conference he outraged the West when he announced that Israel was a “disgraceful blot that should be wiped off the face of the earth.”
In defending his words, the President claimed that he was merely echoing the words of the founder of the Iranian revolution, Ayatollah Khomeini. “As the Imam said, Israel must be wiped off the map.”
These widely quoted words might be dismissed as the rantings of a misguided man were it not for one salient fact. That man just happens to be President of a nation committed to the pursuit of nulear power.
And it is not lost on the West, and least of all in Israel, that these words of President Ahmadinejad are a warning that – when the time is right – action will follow words.
