Islam in Prophecy

Luther on Islam and the Papacy

In a sermon on Matthew 24:15-28 Martin Luther expresses his views that Islam and the Papacy are but two different legs of the same Antichrist. What unites the two together in Luther's view, is the fact that both persecute Christians and promote false teachings. The difference is that Islam persecutes Christianity from outside, while the Papacy does it from inside.

Luther attempted in several ways to clarify the relationship of Islam and the Papacy to the Antichrist. In 1532 he made one of the clearest statements: "I am entirely of the opinion that the Papacy is the Antichrist. But if anyone wants to add the Turk - then the Pope is the spirit of Antichrist, and the Turk is the flesh of Antichrist. They help each other in their murderous work. The latter slaughters bodily by the sword; and the former spiritually by doctrine."

Luther saw both the Papacy and Islam predicted in such places as Daniel, Revelation, Matthew 24, 2 Thessalonians 2, 1 John, 1 Peter 3 . . . He interpreted the two legs of the statue of Daniel 2, as representing the division of the fourth kingdom. "The left leg became the Western Roman empire, under the Papacy in Rome. The right leg, the Eastern Roman Empire, with its capital Constantinople, later succumbed to Islam."

Calvin on Islam and the Papacy

John Calvin's views on the prophetic role of Islam and the Papacy are strikingly similar to those of Luther. Calvin's comments were largely inspired by his concern over the threat posed by the Moslem Turks, who had invaded Romania, Hungary, and besieged even Nice in France.

In the light of the Moslem's threat to the survival of Western Europe, Calvin acknowledges that Islam and the Papacy are two manifestations of the Antichrist power that will attempt to subvert the truth and destroy God's church. In his Sermons on Deuteronomy (18:15 and 33:2), Calvin explains: "As Mahomet says that his Al-Coran is the sovereign wisdom, so says the Pope of his own decrees. For they be the two horns of Antichrist." For Calvin the common denominator between the two powers, is their appeal to higher revelations that supercede the Scripture: "Mohammed and the Pope have this religious principle in common -- that Scripture does not contain the perfection of doctrine, but that something higher has been revealed to them."

In his Commentaries on Daniel, Calvin explains that the fourth empire represented by the iron legs of the statue of Daniel 2, is the Roman Empire which was later divided into the "Western-Roman Papal and the contemporaneous Eastern-Roman Islamic Empire." As noted earlier, Calvin calls them "the two horns of the Antichrist." "The Turks have spread far and wide, and the world is filled with impious despisers of God."

Striking similarities between Islam and Catholicism

Portions excerpted from Dr. Samuele Bacchiocchi in Endtime Issues No. 86.