WASHINGTON – Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to the U.S. Congress on Tuesday comes as an apocalyptic Muslim regime attempts to build nuclear weapons to destroy Israel, an act designed to usher in a messiah-like character known as the Mahdi.

It’s a scenario predicted in a New York Times bestselling book, “The Islamic Antichrist,” by Joel Richardson published in 2009 on the basis of his reading of biblical prophecy.

As the book is fittingly released Tuesday in paperback, Richardson warns: “We are living in an atmosphere a thousand times more foreboding than anything we saw before World War II and the Holocaust.”

According to Richardson, Islamic radicals clearly believe they are ushering in the end times and are gearing up for a final assault on the Jewish state. What’s worse, says Richardson, President Barack Obama almost seems to be on their side.

“Obama is doing everything he can to show that he is not supporting Prime Minister Netanyahu and the Israeli government, even though Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East, the closest ally we have in the region and the nation that is being directly threatened by threats of genocide and nuclear attack,” he tells WND. “In times past, you could chalk up Obama’s actions as incompetence but it has literally gotten to the point that giving him the benefit of the doubt means that he’s just insane. The only alternative is that he’s evil.”

Richardson reports that his friends in Iran say the government is preparing vast murals with images of the Islamic “Mahdi” and an Islamic version of Jesus. Along with the Iranian ayatollahs, the divine figures are portrayed as leading a vast Islamic military force.

What is happening, Richardson states, is that the Iranian government is preparing to act on its long held eschatological beliefs involving a Muslim military host with heavenly guidance destroying its opponents.

Richardson points that even as the Shiite Iranian Islamic Republic is acting on its own vision of the final battle, the Sunni-run terrorist group ISIS also seems to be driven by eschatology. A recent article in The Atlantic entitled “What ISIS Really Wants” charged that ISIS “considers itself a harbinger of – and headline player in – the imminent end of the world.”

“The Islamic world is being driven by beliefs about the end times. Politicians, military officers, strategists and geopolitical analysts suddenly need to understand Islamic eschatology. It’s even more critical that Christians understand what is happening.”

See all of Joel Richardson’s projects, including “When a Jew Rules the World,” “End Times Eyewitness,” “The Return is Near,” the “Mideast Beast” and the hardcover of “Islamic Antichrist.”

Richardson’s “The Islamic Antichrist,” now available in paperback, has been hailed by experts as an invaluable guide to navigating the relationship between Christian end times prophecy and Islamic expectations of world domination.

• Jeremy Ray, senior pastor of Old Washington United Methodist Church, declared, “The Islamic Antichrist presents a captivating paradigm that will profoundly change your perspective on the end times.”
• Pastor Reza Safa, a former radical Muslim and the author of “Inside Islam,” proclaimed that “This book is central to recognizing the fulfillment of biblical end-times prophecy in our day.”
• Internationally renowned Islamic expert Robert Spencer of Jihadwatch enthused that Richardson’s “Islamic Antichrist” is a “fascinating and provocative work. Bravo!”

The breakthrough book that interpreted the end times for Christians was Hal Lindsey’s 1970 “Late Great Planet Earth.” But WND founder Joseph Farah believes that changing geopolitics are leading to acceptance of a different eschatology that pays increased attention to Islam.

“In 1970, Islam was just a sleeping giant. It was not considered a major player in the ‘end times,’ according to most prophecy teachers despite the fact that every nation specifically … judged by the Messiah in the Bible is a Muslim nation,” he said. “Who could foresee Islam’s violent uprising and rebirth that would not begin in earnest until the 1979 Iranian Revolution? The Bible predicts that in the last days a charismatic leader will establish a global following in the name of peace. Islamic prophecy also predicts that a man will rise up to lead the nations, pledging to usher in an era of peace. Islam’s ‘messiah’ is called the Mahdi. Richardson makes the increasingly plausible case that Islam’s ‘savior’ is actually the Antichrist of the Bible.”

As events continue to play out in line with his own interpretations of Scripture, Richardson believes that the world is nearing a time of decision, especially when it comes to Israel.

“There is a global rise of antisemitism, including on American college campuses and even in some churches,” says Richardson. “We have antisemitism in Europe. There is global hostility to Jews whether they are Zionist or otherwise. This is a moment in time that requires men and women to take a very clear stand. Not to do so is immoral because contemporary antisemitism is so overt, so hostile, and spreading so fast.”

Richardson thinks such a stand is particularly important because of the scriptural significance of Netanyahu’s visit and the current crisis in American-Israeli relations.

“There is clearly prophetic significance in that Netanyahu is coming to the United States at Purim, a holiday that celebrates the Jews’ deliverance from the Persians, and our president is functioning as a supporter of the Haman of our age if not being a Haman himself,” he says. “I’m not a pessimist, I believe in the power of prayer, I’ll pray that America will repent and that Obama will be removed from office either through elections or sooner. It’s gotten to the point where his position in office is borderline existentially threatening to our closest ally in the region and to the people that is the most biblically relevant of any people or group in the world. Israel faces a regime that has made an open declaration of genocide against Jews and that is pursuing nuclear weapons. And the Iranian government believes it is fulfilling its own version of the end times. Christians need to start pay attention and make a choice to stand with Israel – before it’s too late.”

See all of Joel Richardson’s projects, including “When a Jew Rules the World,” “End Times Eyewitness,” “The Return is Near,” the “Mideast Beast” and the hardcover of “Islamic Antichrist.”