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Answer
Many Christians ponder whether the emergence of ISIS (the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria), also known as ISIL (the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant) and IS (Islamic State), signifies the end times. ISIS has garnered significant attention due to its ruthless tactics in acquiring and retaining control over territory in Iraq and Syria, as well as its acts of terrorism in other regions of the world (most notably the November 2015 Paris and June 2016 Orlando attacks).
The atrocities committed by ISIS against Middle Eastern Christians have been particularly abhorrent. The manner in which ISIS has executed Christians (and other individuals) brings to mind Revelation 20:4, which foretells the method of execution that the Antichrist will employ during the tribulation: “And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony about Jesus and because of the word of God.” Additionally, the proximity of ISIS’s efforts to establish its Islamic caliphate near the borders of Israel is indeed a cause for concern.
There is no specific biblical prophecy that directly foretells the rise of ISIS. The Bible does predict an escalation in conflicts and reports of conflicts “And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come.”, (Matthew 24:6), and Jesus proclaimed that persecution would be the lot of those who choose to follow Him (John 15:18-20). Furthermore, Second Timothy 3:1–4 could be viewed as an apt depiction of ISIS in various aspects: “But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God—having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people.”
Vers of pleasure rather than lovers of God.”
But these passages do not specifically predict ISIS. Instead, they inform us what the end times will be like. Consequently, we should not be surprised by the rise of ISIS. The world is going to deteriorate before the end times, and then the world will deteriorate significantly during the end times (see Revelation 6–18).
Is ISIS a definite sign of the end times? No. Is ISIS a potential sign of the end times? Yes. Could the actions of ISIS lead to a greater conflict that fulfills one of the end-times wars prophesied in the Bible? Yes. However, presently, the world is united against ISIS. Does that unity set the stage for a global government, as foretold in Scripture? Could the world’s unity against a great evil like ISIS eventually lead to the rise of the greatest evil the world will ever see, the Antichrist?
Ultimately, we will have to wait and see what role, if any, ISIS plays in the end times. At this time, ISIS is simply evidence of what the Bible says about how evil humanity can become without Christ (Jeremiah 17:9;Romans 3:10-18).
