November/December 2002 Featured Stories
All God’s Prophets

by Jane Broida Drake

When Al Qaeda soldiers in Afghanistan fled the advancing allied troops, they left behind an ominous message. Their parting words, discovered in a school where the soldiers had trained, proclaimed: "We will continue our jihad until the end of the world." That one sentence concisely expresses what Muslim militants truly believe to be their "God-given duty." But outsiders are left to wonder why those Muslims believe they must wage a "holy war" to end the world as we have known it—and what on earth can be said or done to dissuade them.

Some years ago, fundamentalist Muslims proclaimed that everyone must "join Islam or burn." Most people paid no attention or promptly forgot that "ridiculous threat" voiced by a few "religious fanatics." Today, militant Muslims express their belief differently. While political, economic, and psychological "experts" endlessly discuss complicated reasons for the terrorism that has plunged the world into its newest war, the terrorists plainly tell us they are engaged in a "holy war" to cleanse the world of "sinners." They identify "sinners" as everyone who is not a Muslim, but they especially condemn Israel, the "sinful" Jewish State that is "occupying" Palestinian land, and the "morally corrupt" United States, a predominantly Christian nation.

The Muslim clerics who preach that doctrine cite verses from the Koran, which they interpret as a mandate for Muslims to pursue their "holy war." I could quote some of those verses here, so you could decide whether you agree with that interpretation of Muhammad’s teachings. But no matter how many people might disagree, their opinion would never influence the growing number of Muslims who are fervently embracing the mandate. Therefore, it would be far more productive to remind you of the ancient teachings that precisely foretold the disaster we now face and, of most importance, to make you aware of the teachings that could actually end the escalating "jihad". Even if you dismiss all Holy Books as "childish, superstitious imaginings," it would be worthwhile to listen anew to some of the rejected messages, since they are now threatening to severely interrupt life as we know it.

Long ago, a handful of men brought messages from Someone they identified as the One and Only "Almighty" God of the universe. Their teachings have sustained believers through all manner of natural and manmade disasters. Today, however, even some unbelievers are recalling the Prophets’ messages that foretold a world bathed in "...blood and fire and pillars of smoke..."; of a time when "...the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light..."; when "...darkness shall cover the earth and gross darkness the peoples.…" In other words, the time of the "nuclear winter," which scientists tell us would follow a large-scale nuclear war. The war would produce clouds reaching miles high that would wholly deprive the earth of sunshine and moonlight for an undeterminable length of time. Obviously, human life could not long survive in such circumstances, even as the Scriptures tell us: "…unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved…."

The Prophet Malachi, however, provided a measure of hope. He said that if the "fathers" and the "children" turn their hearts to each other, the world would be spared "...the great and terrible day of the Lord."

Because our nuclear weapons could precisely fulfill those Biblical prophecies, the world urgently needs the Jews, as the "fathers" of monotheism, and the Christians and Muslims, as the "children" of the faith, to rethink and reform their religious beliefs, so they can truly turn their hearts to each other. But, to accomplish that incredible feat, all believers in the God of Abraham would have to do what they have never done: They would have to believe all of God’s Messengers, from Abraham through Muhammad. Together, the Prophets provide an understanding of God and His messages that differs in crucial ways from the disruptive and divisive teachings developed by the individual clergies of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

By believing all the Prophets, Jews could recognize the world’s Messiah, instead of insisting that no one can identify him until his arrival. And Christians would take Jesus at his word, instead of putting words in his mouth. And Muslims would speak as Muhammad instructed and say to their fellow believers in God: "I believe in all the scriptures that God has revealed...God is our Lord and your Lord. We have our own works and you have yours; let there be no argument between us."

Thus Jews, Christians, and Muslims would fulfill their mutual goal of bringing truth to the world--the truth they have never been able to deliver because it rests in the combined teachings of all God’s Messengers, not in the exclusive teachings of one faith, as self-righteous believers arrogantly choose to believe.

About now, you could be wondering how anyone can seriously suggest such a far-fetched "cure-all" for the world’s troubles. Surely no reasonable person could expect billions of people to alter their traditional religious beliefs, especially today, when so many are in great need of spiritual comfort. If that resembles your thinking, it could profit you to carefully consider the following thoughts.

If Jews, Christians, and Muslims fail to substantially improve their understanding of the God they worship, their ancient arguments could soon reach their ultimate climax in the widespread use of biological, chemical and nuclear weapons. In fact, some politicians and news commentators are already openly discussing the possible need for "limited" nuclear warfare, though our common sense can tell us that the first use of any weapons of mass destruction would end all self-imposed limitations. Then, the same Muslims that are being glibly dismissed as "self-deluded religious fanatics," who claim they are engaged in a "holy war" to cleanse the world, will have accomplished their mission, and the world we’ve known will end—in the exact manner foretold thousands of years ago. Though you might not believe it now, if you must sit in the darkness and cold of a nuclear winter, desperately hoping the promised Messiah will prove as real as the prophesied "…end of days," you’ll know who was truly deluded! It was everyone who refused to change his thinking until the whole world became consumed by "blood and fire and pillars of smoke."

Although the "gross darkness" was prophesied, Malachi implied it is not inevitable. Therefore, whether today you are a believer or an unbeliever, there is a way you could help the world avoid the darkness—or, at the least, arm yourself with enough understanding to sanely endure it until your "flesh" is "saved." To do so, you will need to open your eyes to the troubled world we often try to ignore, and open your ears and your heart to the most vital teachings delivered by God’s Messengers, as they’ve been preserved in the Hebrew Scriptures, the Bible, and the Koran. When their most crucial messages are linked together, they clearly tell us where we have gone astray in our religious thinking. Though you might be skeptical now, you have nothing to lose by examining old messages in a new light except a little of your time, which, after all, isn’t yours to keep anyway.

Jane Drake has spent close to 50 years comparing the teachings of organized religions with the messages recorded in the Hebrew Scriptures, the Bible and the Koran. Her lifelong study culminated in her book, "Of Promises and Previews: Urgent Old Messages for a New Millennium" (Writers Club Press ISBN: 0-595-17520-1), in which she links the crucial teachings delivered by ALL the Prophets, from Abraham through Muhammad. Contact her at: OfPromisesandPreviews@vzavenue.net