Daniel 2:41-43 (NASB) “In that you saw the feet and toes, partly of potter’s clay and partly of iron, it will be a divided kingdom; but it will have in it the toughness of iron, inasmuch as you saw the iron mixed with common clay. 42 “As the toes of the feet were partly of iron and partly of pottery, so some of the kingdom will be strong and part of it will be brittle. 43 “And in that you saw the iron mixed with common clay, they will combine with one another in the seed of men; but they will not adhere to one another, even as iron does not combine with pottery.
The divided kingdom continues to fill the headlines, this time from Pakistan:
Motorcycle gunmen kill 43 in bus attack in Pakistan’s Karachi: police
KARACHI, PAKISTAN | BY SYED RAZA HASSANWed May 13, 2015 5:23am EDT
Gunmen on motorcycles opened fire on a bus in Pakistan’s southern city of Karachi on Wednesday, killing at least 43 people, police said, …
“There were six attackers. They boarded the bus and carried out the shooting,” Police Superintendent Najib Khan told Reuters. He said all the passengers were from the Ismaili community, a minority Shi’ite Muslim sect in majority-Sunni Pakistan. A splinter group of the Pakistani Taliban called Jundullah claimed responsibility. … “These killed people were Ismaili and we consider them kafir (non-Muslim). We had four attackers. In the coming days we will attack Ismailis, Shi’ites and Christians,” spokesman Ahmed Marwat told Reuters. …
In March, suicide bombings outside two churches in Lahore killed 14 people and wounded nearly 80. Days later, a bomb after Friday prayers wounded 12 people outside a minority Bohra mosque in Karachi. In February, 20 people were killed in an attack on a Shi’ite mosque in the northeastern city of Peshawar, and 60 were killed in a January attack on a Shi’ite mosque in the southern province of Sindh.
Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi
“Caliph Ibrahim”
In Islam, there are common threads that appear regularly in news alerts. One sect attacks another, yet both sects consider themselves Muslims, i.e., they both affirm the Islamic creed, the Shahada, that there is no God but Allah and that Muhammad is His Messenger; and the Qur’an was revealed through him. Ismailis, the victims in the latest attack, are Shias. Shias are the minority sect (10-15%), the weaker sect in Islam. They have been persecuted by Sunnis, the majority sect, for hundreds of years. Shias combine through the blood-line of Ali, the cousin and son-in-law of Muhammad. Within Shiism there are many branches, each of which are like tribes; however, each tribe is formed, not based on family relations, but upon a particular Imam considered to be the legitimate spiritual leader following the death of Muhammad in 632 AD. Legitimacy is determined based on “Nass” or Designation (appointment) by the sole prerogative of the prior Imam who appoints his successor from among his male descendants before death. Ismailis are also referred to as “Seveners” because of the particular Imam they consider legitimate (as opposed to “Fivers,” or “Twelvers,” each of which follow a different Imam considered by their sect to be the legitimate spiritual leader).
Sunnis consider Ismailis to be unbelievers, i.e., “kafirs.” Hence, they should be eliminated. Jundallah, the Sunni militant sect in the latest atrocity, are a branch of the Taliban operating in Pakistan.
The deaths of the 43 in Karachi are another in the long line of fulfillments of Daniel 2:41-43 NASB. Islam is a divided kingdom, Sunnis and Shias (Daniel 2:41 NASB). It has a stronger and weaker sect (or brittle, broken), Sunni (85%), the stronger, and Shias (15%), the brittle (Daniel 2:42 NASB). It also has a sect that combines in the “seed of men,” i.e., Shias, who combine in the bloodlines of descent through Ali, cousin and son-in-law to Muhammad (Daniel 2:43 NASB). Lastly, even from within each sect, they will not adhere to one another, like feet “partly of iron and partly of clay” (Daniel 2:43 NASB). In Shiism, there are Fivers, Seveners, and Twelvers, each branch separate from the other. In Sunnism, branches are not as numerous, but they are there. Al Qaeda, ISIS, the Muslim Brotherhood, and the Wahhabbis of Saudi Arabia, most of whom consider themselves to be the only pure form of Sunni Islam (of course, to all, Shias are kafirs.)
Jesus come quickly.
Blessings.
Jack
Jack,
If you remember, I read your book and commented on it before you had even published it. I expressed my views back then based on my understanding at that time. However, since 2008 when I sent you my comments while Prophecy Talk was still functioning, my views have shifted and I have had to modify what I believed then, to confirm more with what the End time prophecies actually indicate.
The Daniel 2 Statue prophecy is only concerned with the nations that have dominion over the Land of the Chaldeans as Daniel clearly indicated to King Neb. Yet you are claiming that this prophecy has a wider implication for the whole world. It also seems to me that you are still looking at the “beasts” as being human entities rather than as manifestations of the respective beasts that rise up out of the sea of humanity such that the manifestations of the respective beasts ebb and flow over time such that different people groups, kingdoms, nations and empires flow in and out of the influence/dominions of the respective beasts that they have chosen to inhabit.
Both Daniel and Isaiah, in their prophetic books, speak of the beasts as entities that will be judged in heaven before God as fallen heavenly hosts in our near future and Isaiah tells us that this will occur at the same time that the rebellious people on the earth will be judged.
If you, in this posted blog, had suggested that the Islamic religion is a manifestation of the fourth terrible beast of Daniel 7:1-12, then I would have said BRAVO. But instead you are attempting to show that what is presently happening within the Middle East outside of the Land of the Chaldeans is linked to the statue prophecy in Daniel 2. I would humbly suggest to you that what is presently happening in the Middle east with respect to the Land of the Chaldeans is more closely linked and explained in the prophecies contained within Jeremiah 50-51.
Now, on the other hand, if you had stated that the Fourth beast is presently speak out great things against God by it actions and that this will increase until the four beasts are brought before god and Judged and imprisoned in the Bottomless pit for a period of time until such time that they will be released again to act and do such things as spoken about in the Book of Revelation, then I would have been in agreement with you.
What I perceive we are presently seeing happening is, with respect to the fourth beast of Daniel 7:1-12, a./ the prophesied appearance of the Little Horn and its desire to begin to pompously speak out Great Things against the Lord God Almighty, b./ the start of the ripping out of three of the ten horns from the fourth beast by their roots and c./ that soon, in our near future, the fourth beast will be wounded such that it will appear to have been slain and it along with the other three beasts, the fallen heavenly hosts being judged by God, will be dispatched into the Bottomless Pitt/the Abyss to await the time for their final judgement.
For me, this is what we are witnessing with respect to the actions of the Muslims people who have chosen to inhabit the dominion of the fourth terrible beast/fallen heavenly angel. Your report above of what is happening, is, in my humble opinion just a reflection of what is prophesied in Daniel 7:1-12.
Shalom
Jay Ross