Unleashing the Beast

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moments. They produce a mushroom cloud filled with radiation. Revelation says men will stand afar off for fear of the smoke (see 18:10-15). The 10 kings of Bible prophecy will burn the city with fire (17:16). Prior to the visible return of Christ, mankind will be so filled with hatred that unless God shortens the days, no one will remain alive on the planet. Unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved . . . for the elect's sake those days will be shortened (Matthew 24:22) In the Western mind we think, How could mankind be that cruel, to kill one another to the point of extinction? The answer is Islamic jihad. Ask a Muslim what jihad means and you will receive several different answers. It took terror for Americans to familiarize themselves with the word. It refers to an Islamic holy war. To a terrorist, Islamic Jihad is a war against the West, against the Jews and against the Christians. A fanatical terrorist believes that if he dies a martyr in a jihad, his death grants him the honor of going to paradise where he will sit with the greatest Islamic scholars of all times, including the prophet himself. He will be attended, he believes, by 72 virgins. As America pursues this new war, I believe many Americans will demand a change in how we look at Israel, based on the false notion that we can stop the terrorism in our nation if we change our political opinions about Israel. This was Arafat's deal—give up the land and get peace.