MECCA:
a major sign of the END
TIMES
With the
coming of the Beast 666 in 1990 (UN Res 666) and the
New Jerusalem (Mecca) in 1994, the second
coming is only a matter of time.
The
possibility of it happening in our lifetime is very real indeed
Revelation 21:12 “It had a great high wall with 12 gates…”
Revelation 21:13 “There were 3 gates on the East, 3 on the North, 3 on the
South, and 3 on the West…”
Revelation 21:16 “The city was laid out like a square as long as it was
wide…”
Revelation 21:17 “He measured its walls and it was 144 cubits [200 feet]…”
Revelation 21:24 “The nations will walk by its light and the kings of the
Earth will bring their splendor into it…”
Revelation 21:25 “On no day will its gates ever be shut for there will be nights
there…”
Revelation 21:26 “The glory and honor of nations will be brought to it…”
Revelation 21:27 “Nothing impure will ever enter it nor anyone who does what
is shameful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.”
Revelation 21:16 “He measured the city with a rod and found it to be 12,000
stadia [2,000 km]…”
A Muslim familiar with Masjid Al Haram in the city of Mecca will immediately
recognize what the biblical Revelation 21:12-27 is alluding to. What will
strike him as odd or maybe absurd is the fact that it is plucked out of the
Bible.
Only a fraction of the more than one
billion Muslims around the world are familiar with Mecca and its environs. A single trip to Mecca, such as a Hajj pilgrimage, will not adequately familiarize the
faithful with the Masjid Al Haram. It is the most sophisticated and frequented place of worship on the planet; it is always full of worshippers, 24/7, all year round.
I have read the four gospels of the
Bible long before I ever set hands on the English translation of the Holy
Qur’an. I have lived with Christian friends all my life. My wife used to be a
Seventh Day Adventist, the closest Christian sect to Jewish practices and to
some extent to Islam. I went to church with my Christian friends, believing that
religion is very much an affair of the heart. When I took the medical licensure
board examination, my study group and I paid for a special prayer at one of the landmark churches in the Philippines, located in Antipolo, Rizal. When I stood as a
sponsor at one of the nurses' weddings in the hospital, I took the
Holy Communion. My wife in the crowd was horrified, but to her surprise, I
kneeled down before the priest and took the holy bread. Later, I told my wife
that Niyah (intention) is the hallmark of faith. A non-Muslim, for instance, may recite the ‘Sajida’, a declaration of faith in Islam, a thousand times, and it
will be meaningless unless he means in his heart what he is saying or doing. I
believe that such an act didn’t make me less of a Muslim than I already was.
The more I read the Bible and the more I associate with my Christian friends,
the more I realize how accurate and correct Islam is in comparison. I tried to read
the book of Revelation at an earlier time, but I didn’t follow through with it. It
made no sense then. Like any other dream, it is an exaggeration until I re-discovered
it during the Gulf War of 1991.
I had no doubt whatsoever (when I
first read in the Bible the graphic description of the New Jerusalem) that it
is referring to the ‘Haram Mosque’ in Mecca. I searched everywhere for an
aerial photo of Masjid Al Haram (the Haram Mosque), but when I found one, I was deeply disappointed. There were only 9 (3x3) gates, not 12 (3x4), as prescribed in
the Bible.
To be
continued...
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