Saudi Arabia rallied Sunni allies to its side in a growing diplomatic row with Iran on Monday, deepening a sectarian split across the Middle East following the kingdom’s execution of a prominent Shi’ite cleric.
Source: Saudi Arabia recruits Sunni allies in row with Iran | Reuters
What we are seeing in the modern-day rift between Saudi Arabia and Iran is potentially of grave Biblical proportions. The ancient divide between these two sides, Sunni and Shia, is sectarian in nature. It actually began in 680 a.d. in the Battle of Karbala, when a large force of Muslims led by Yazid 1, the Sunni caliph, slaughtered a force of around 120, all of whom were related by blood to one another. The “Party of Ali,” modern-day Shiites, were a united force that believed the successor to Muhammad must be a blood descendant of Muhammad through his daughter, Fatima, and her husband Ali (cousin to Muhammad). The sectarian conflict that reached its high-water mark at the slaughter of Karbala has continued for 1400 years as Shiites, the minority sect of Muslims (10% of the total), have continued to be persecuted by Sunnis ever since Karbala. Most Sunnis do not recognize them as true Muslims but as “rafida,” Arabic for “rejectors” of the first three caliphs of Sunni Islam (Daniel 7:7-8). Read more.
Where does the “divide” between a “different” empire show up in Bible prophecy? Daniel 2:41 (NASB) is right on point. Islam is “different” (Daniel 7: 7, 19, 23) because it not only is a political empire through Sharia law, but also a spiritual empire through the worship of Allah as the one true God, including Allah’s blasphemy against God in the Qur’an:
Qur’an 29:46, “[Believers], argue only in the best way with the People of the Book [Jews and Christians], except with those of them who act unjustly. Say, ‘We believe in what was revealed to us and in what was revealed to you; our God and your God are one [and the same]; we are devoted to Him.”
Allah is not the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. How could he be when Islam denies the deity of Jesus Christ as Son of God (which is the foundational belief in Christianity) and prophesies that one day Jesus will return to proclaim Islam as the one true religion and kill all Christians who refuse to convert to Islam. Read more.
Read these posts for details of how Shiites fulfill Bible prophecy:
The Day of Ashura – When celebration is accompanied by mourning for Shias
Forty-three Shias gunned down on Pakistan bus by their Sunni “brothers”
Abdullah’s Death and the Fall of Yemen to Houthis – Will Iran see the will of Allah?
If you want a full account of how Saudi Arabia and Iran will rise up against one another in the end-of-days, read my book, Islam the Cloak of Antichrist. The book was published in late 2011. It is being fulfilled in the news with each passing day.
Jesus come quickly.
Blessings.
Jack
