ATHEIST PHILOSOPHERS and materialist scientists tell us that human life is utterly meaningless. Physicist Stephen Hawking put it this way: “The human race is just a chemical scum on a moderate sized planet, orbiting around a very average star in the outer suburb of one among a hundred billion galaxies.”1
The book of Revelation assures us that the atheists are wrong. God cares very much about our individual lives—and about the future of planet Earth. Though the world seems to be spinning out of control, Revelation tells us that God is moving human events toward a dramatic and triumphant conclusion.
End Times and the Secret of the Mahdi presents an exciting new approach to the book of Revelation. Most books about Revelation focus almost entirely on the future. In this book, I show how the message of Revelation impacts our lives today—and what our response should be.
As you read these pages, you will find a clear and relevant presentation of the major themes of Revelation, packed with contemporary stories and filled with many surprising insights. This is not just a guidebook to the future but an action plan for living confidently for Christ in these turbulent and uncertain times.
Instead of beginning in Revelation 1 and proceeding chapter by chapter, I have organized this book by the major themes of Revelation: the revelation of Jesus, the reign and fall of the Antichrist, the events of the Great Tribulation, the Battle of Armageddon, what the Bible really says about heaven, and what Jesus is saying to you and me through Revelation. This unique approach will help you to understand and appreciate the book of Revelation in a fresh way.
After reading End Times and the Secret of the Mahdi, you will come away with a deeper sense of awe regarding God’s Word. You’ll understand how the prophecies of Revelation merge seamlessly with the other prophecies of the Old and New Testaments. You’ll recognize that many prophecies of Scripture have already been fulfilled with mathematical precision, and you’ll know that the prophecies yet to be fulfilled are every bit as reliable.
Our Bible is a collection of sixty-six books written by more than forty authors in three different languages on three separate continents over a span of sixteen hundred years. The Bible consists of history, drama, poetry, law, and prophecy. Yet the Bible is one Book. God’s Word is amazingly consistent, because our God is a consistent God.
The book of Revelation is the capstone of the entire Bible. It reveals the ultimate fulfillment of prophecies going back to the beginning of Genesis. Through the pages of Revelation, God has opened a big picture window on the future, and in this book you will discover how to apply these insights to your life today.
Now, you may be surprised at some of the amazing (and even disturbing) parallels between the end-times prophecies of the Bible and the end-times prophecies of Islam. You may be alarmed at the seeming connection between the Antichrist of Revelation and the shadowy figure of Islamic prophecy known as the Imam Mahdi.
But I don’t want you to be alarmed. God gave us the book of Revelation not to frighten us but to motivate and encourage us. And that is my prayer for you as you read this book: May God fill you with hope, faith, and an eager expectation of the Lord’s return. Again and again in Revelation, Jesus assures us, “I am coming soon.”
Maranatha! Come, Lord!
—Michael Youssef, PhD