Excerpt from Chapter 3
“The Common Thread”
The Role of the Horsemen
After the fourth seal is broken and the fourth horse is called to move out, there is a statement made by the fourth living creature. It sums up the role of the horsemen and gives us a clue as to the time in history this will all take place:
And they were given authority over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword and with famine and with pestilence and by wild beasts of the earth.
Revelation 6:8b
I have read this verse many times over the years, and I had continually interpreted it as meaning the four horsemen would kill one fourth of the earth. But one day I realized that is not what this verse says. The verse clearly says that “they”, the four horsemen, were given authority over a fourth of the earth to kill with sword, famine, pestilence and wild beasts! They would not necessarily kill one fourth of the earth!
Why is this distinction important? The descriptions of the four horsemen constitute the results of an army of men who rise up to make war at a time in history when they are in control, or have authority over, one fourth of the earth. Stated another way, at some point in history when one fourth of the earth is under their control this army described by the four horsemen will rise up in an effort to take control of the entire world!
Almost There
Here are some really interesting statistics. According to Pew Research Center, a Washington D.C. think tank, the current world population of Muslims is estimated to be 1.619 billion, or 23.4% of the estimated world population as of 2010. Pew Research studies have calculated the growth of Islam will bring the population to 1.913 billion by 2020, or 24.9% of the world’s population. By extrapolation of their estimates the Muslim population in 2015 is about 24%.
According to a Muslim website this number is underestimated. Being the fastest growing religion in the world due to high birth rates and conversions, they report the current Muslim world population is estimated at 2.08 billion, or almost 29% of current world population!
The current estimated world population according to the US Census is 7.217 billion as of January, 2015.
Another way to estimate this growth and world influence is through examination of the membership of the Organization for Islamic Cooperation (OIC), a membership of 57 Islamic countries dedicated to the accomplishment of common goals.
Considering world Islamic influence as a percentage of countries, the 57 member nations of the OIC constitute 29.5% of the 193 member countries of the United Nations, not including regions and territories. If you calculate the percentage of influence from a land area basis, then the total area of these 57 countries constitutes 23.8% of the world’s total land mass, not counting the five observer states. Any way you want to look at it, each of the numbers fall within statistical probabilities that Islam has, or almost has, achieved authority over one fourth of the earth!
World Caliphate
The stated goal and objective of Islam is to establish a world caliphate under the headship of a single ruler, or caliph, with Sharia as its only law. There is a moment coming in the future, maybe the very near future, when they will begin a world-wide jihad, a holy war, for the purpose of achieving this long-held objective. By most standards Islam is currently within the range of statistical error to be deemed in control over one fourth of the earth.
Radical Islam also has as their goal the destruction of the Little Satan (Israel) and the Great Satan (the United States). Soon they will be in a position to believe they can meet this objective. First to fall, I believe, will be the U.S. Why? Simply for the reason that if the U.S. is taken down as a world power radical Islam is free to go after Israel without fear of U.S. intervention or reprisal. With the U.S. out of the way no one else would dare stop them. In fact, it may be that few countries would even try to stop them. With the United States and Israel out of the way many will believe the world’s problems would largely be resolved. For radical Islam, their goal of a world caliphate would be within reach.
The world will tremble with fear at the fall of the United States. The U.S. is not only in the crosshairs of radical Islam, but also of a God who has been known to use unrighteous nations as agents of his judgment.
Small Numbers
Some have claimed that only 10% of Muslims have been radicalized. This offers little comfort when one considers that 10% of Islam represents 160 to 208 million people, depending on your source. And the unfortunate truth is that many more Muslims could easily get swept up in the movement out of pride and sense of purpose, or ignorance of radical Islam’s real agenda, or simply the desire to preserve their lives. Some sources put the numbers of radicalized Muslims at over 50%.
In WWII, the Nazis led Europe and much of the world into a devastating war. But were all Germans Nazis? No. The great majority were not. Only a small percentage of the German people were diehard adherents to this political philosophy.
For example, when the National Socialist German Worker’s Party (Nazis) came to power in 1933, their membership consisted of less than 3% of the German population. When Hitler began to invade Europe in 1939, resulting in the calamity of World War II, the Nazi Party had grown to 7.6% of the German people, or about 5.3 million members.
World War II witnessed the loss of over 60 million lives before it was over. Even Germany lost almost 11% of its own population. It doesn’t take many radicalized people to lead the world astray if they are in positions of power. Therefore it is easy to understand that if radical Islamists possess authority over one fourth of the earth it will be a tremendous launch platform for disaster!
When the Word of God becomes generally disregarded, we unwittingly throw away our only source of absolute truth and our only filter for discerning lies, leaving ourselves vulnerable to deception.
These holy wars, or Jihad, will fulfill the signs of Jesus’ return. When the time is right, Jesus himself will initiate the process by personally breaking the seals of the scroll.
What’s Ahead
In coming chapters I will show how each of the six seals of Revelation are connected to each other, and how a world jihad led by radicalized Muslims will complete the description of every one of the six seals. In turn, each of these seals serve as the fulfillment of the signs Jesus gave his disciples to mark the season of his second coming.
The seals tell a story – the story of the beginning of the end and the return of our Messiah, Jesus. Will we be prepared? Jesus gave us the warnings and the signs because there is a day eventually coming for which we must prepare.
But you are not in darkness, brothers, for that day to surprise you like a thief. For you are all children of the light, children of the day. We are not of the night or of the darkness. So then let us not sleep, as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober.
1 Thessalonians 5:4-6