Islam in Revelation: An Historic Look at Protestant Eschatological Thought on the Rise and Fall of Islam by E.B. Elliott, Alexander M'Leod, David Steele, George Faber, Thomas Newton.

Considering the prominent place in Scripture that God apportions to revealing Islam as one of the most significant antichristian forces in history (and in the light of the rise and progress of Islam in our day), Still Waters Revival Books presents the following information to all serious-minded Christians with the hope that it will be a great encouragement to your faith.

There are two great antichristian religious systems of deceit revealed in the book of Revelation. The "great western antichrist" of Roman Catholicism (Rev. 17 and 18) and the "great eastern antichrist" of Islam (Rev. 9). This has been the majority position of historic Protestant interpretation (Historicism) for centuries (as all the most faithful Reformers and all the Reformation creeds and confessions attest).

For example, the illustrious John Calvin proclaimed that "Mahomet" and "the Pope" are "the two horns of Antichrist." The following six extracts on Islam's place in prophecy are taken from five Historicist books which Still Waters Revival Books has published over the past years (see the URLs noted below for the full printed editions of each title). These extracts not only clearly show that the rise and fall of Islam is prophesied in Scripture, but they also give us one of the most powerful testimonies to God's sovereignty (over all His creatures and all their actions) in all of the Word of God.

In fact, when the historicist position is carefully studied, the prophetic fulfillment in the case of Islam and Revelation chapter nine is seen to be so striking and well attested that "even advocates of other approaches who are adamant in their rejection of the historicist system of interpretation have admitted the convincing nature of this particular identification" (Steve Gregg, commenting on Rev. 9:1-6 in Revelation: Four Views, p. 176).

We hope that you will prayerfully consider the information in this book and that it will help to open the door to many other marvelous truths that God has for you in His Word. The following six excerpts on Islam in Revelation comprise 105 printed pages and are taken from:

• 1. Horae Apocalypticae; or, A Commentary on the Apocalypse, Critical and Historical; Including Also An Examination of the Chief Prophecies of Daniel (1862) by E.B. Elliott (vol. 1, pp. 446-469);
• 2. Lectures Upon the Principal Prophecies of the Revelation (1814) by Alexander M'Leod (pp. 147-163);
• 3. Notes on the Apocalypse (1870) by David Steele (pp. 114-116);
• 4. A Dissertation on the Prophecies, That Have Been Fulfilled, Are Now Fulfilling, or Will Hereafter Be Fulfilled Relative to the Great Period of 1260 Years; The Papal and Mohammedan Apostacies; The Tyrannical Reign of Antichrist, or the Infidel Power; and the Restoration of the Jews (2 volumes, 1811) by George Faber (vol. 1, pp. 177-212; vol. 2, pp. 269-288);
• 5. Dissertations on the Prophecies Which Have Remarkably Been Fulfilled, and at this Time are Fulfilling in the World (2 volumes, 1817) by Thomas Newton (vol. 2, pp. 222-232).

We conclude our summary of Islam in Revelation with a short note from Dr. F. Nigel Lee's Calvin and Islam, "John Calvin writes: 'In our own day, indeed [1550], very many people begin to waver -- when they consider the long continued dispersion of the Church. As if this had not been regulated by the purpose of God!... The pretext of the [preteristic] Romanists which they make in extenuation of the tyranny of their idol [the Papacy] -- is that it was not possible for Christ to forsake His bride. But here, the weak have an assurance on which to rest -- when they learn that the disfigurement which they see in the Church, has long since been foretold.

The impudence of the Romanists, on the other hand, is clearly exposed. Because Paul declares that when the World has been brought under the rule of Christ -- a defection will take place.... The minds of [Romanizing] ancients were so bewitched -- that they believed [preteristically] that Nero would be Antichrist! However, Paul is not speaking of one individual -- but of a kingdom that was to be seized by Satan, for the purpose of setting up a seat of abomination in the midst of God's Temple. This we see accomplished in Popery.

The defection has indeed spread more widely! For, since Mohammed was an apostate, he turned his followers, the Turks, from Christ.... The sect of Mohammed was like a raging overflow, which in its violence tore away about half of the Church. It remained for [the Papal] Antichrist to infect with his poison the part which was left. Yet, in the words the Lord Jesus shall slay' in Second Thessalonians 2:8 -- Calvin insists Paul 'predicted the destruction of the reign of Antichrist.... He will be annihilated by the Word of the Lord....' Paul does not think that Christ will accomplish this in a single moment.... Christ will scatter the darkness in which Antichrist will reign, by the rays which He will emit before His coming -- just as the sun, before becoming visible to us, chases away the darkness of the night with its bright light."

Furthermore, Dr. Lee writes, "It does seem that the fourth iron kingdom was in fact both the pre-Papal and the pre-Islamic undivided Pagan Roman Empire, as well as the later Western-Roman Papal and the contemporaneous Eastern-Roman Islamic Empire into which it then subdivided. Indeed, both 'Mahomet' and 'the Pope' -- as we have already seen -- Dr. Calvin called "the two horns of Antichrist." Thus they correspond to the two legs of the later Roman Empire -- Islam and the Papacy.