Recent reports of intensive exchanges of gunfire in Southern Iraq between the Iraqi security forces and the Mahdi Army, the Islamic militia of the Shiite radical cleric Muqtada al Sadr who is also a political leader in Iraq, has retained the world's attention as this radical Islamic cleric pursues more power both religiously and politically.
The Mahdi Army, the Messiah's Army in English, has been the most fierce of militias in Iraq and had been quiet during a recent cease fire arranged by Muqtada al Sadr, a cease fire that seems to have been broken. The main fighting has been centered in Bosra which is where a major oil pipeline is located which the Iraqi forces are seeking to defend, while at the same time, in Sadr City, a section of Baghdad, there are additional clashes between the Mahdi Army and Iraqi security forces.
Jimmy's Prophetic Prospective on the News
The fighting for control of war torn Iraq and its vast oil fields is a scenario that is key to understanding the prophetic scenario for Iraq that is found in Bible prophecy.
The radical Islamic cleric Muqtada al Sadr and his Mahdi Army have been waging an ongoing battle for the religious and political control of Iraq since the fall of Saddam Hussein. The Arabic word Mahdi means, "Messiah" and Muqtada al Sadr believes this is a battle to control Iraq in the final days of history before Allah, the Islamic god, sets up his Islamic kingdom here on Earth.
Islamic eschatology has an interesting parallel to true Biblical eschatology, eschatology of course, the study of End Time events. In Biblical eschatology, Iraq, modern-day Biblical Babylon, will be the center of world power as the coming false messiah, the Antichrist, will set up his headquarters in Babylon, located on the Euphrates River in Iraq just outside of Baghdad, Revelation 16 and 18. Jeremiah 50 and 51 says that Babylon will be destroyed just prior to the Return of Jesus Christ to the Earth.
The control of Iraq and its vast oil fields is on the agenda of events that will indeed set the stage for Bible prophecy to be fulfilled.
