jamie- You may make a good case for it being Islam, but you are interpreting Scripture to say Islam based on what you know of Islam just as others are interpreting it to say Rome because what they see in the Catholic church. Neither are outright named in Revelation. Can you show me a verse that clearly says it is Islam?
Personally, I really don't know who or what it is. I just know that Scripture says a mark will be used to buy and sell, that it is required of all, and it is enforced by the beast that rises out of the earth. Rev 13:16-17. If we are to know more, then I think God will give us the wisdom to know. I'm guessing it will be obvious when the time comes.
You have to look at all the evidence. Isaiah 10, 14, 30, and Micah 5 say the anti-Christ is an Assyrian. Today that area is dominated by Muslims. Finis Dake, Arthur Pink, E.W Bullinger, and Benjamin Newton, and many others all believed that the end-time anti-Christ would be an Assyrian and come from Babylon just like Nebuchadnezzar and Antiochus Epiphanes did. That was the theory most people accepted even before the reformation. For centuries people believed the anti-Christ would be an Assyrian.
"How the hammer of the whole earth Has been cut off and broken! How Babylon has become An object of horror among the nations!"
Who does Habakkuk say God would raise up in the last days? The Babylonians, they are today's Arab's and Muslim's.
Where does Daniel say the little horn emerges from? Grecia, NOT the EU or Rome.
Where does the "wicked counsellor"- another name for the man of sin, originate from? Nineveh, again the Arab and Muslim world!
Babylon the Great is a LARGE FALSE RELIGION. Catholicism is NOT a false religion! Those who commit the abominations of the earth are the offspring of the harlot. She promises them up to 72 virgins in paradise. Coincidence? Babylon gave birth to harlot religion's, not Rome.
John is taken into
the desert to see the judgment of the great harlot. Mecca and Medina reside in the desert, Rome does not.
Damascus is prophesied for destruction. It's dominated by ISLAM!
Every nation mentioned in bible prophecy whether Ez. 38-39 or Psalm 83 or any other scripture are ALL Islamic today.
The word MIXED that describes the toes mingled with iron and clay in Daniel 2 is the word ARAB!
The God of his fathers of Daniel 11 implies a man who doesn't care about women, typical of Islam. He worships a God "his fathers (Abraham, Isacc, Jacob) knew not...Allah! A god of forces - Satan! Catholic's worships the same God as Protestants.
Islam is the Daughter of Babylon...
"Come down, and sit in the dust, O virgin daughter of Babylon, sit on the ground: there is no throne, O daughter of the Chaldeans: for thou shalt no more be called tender and delicate. Take the millstones, and grind meal: uncover thy locks, make bare the leg, uncover the thigh, pass over the rivers. Thy nakedness shall be uncovered, yea, thy shame shall be seen: I will take vengeance, and I will not meet thee as a man."
The East Wind is said to bring the Locust and is associated with falsity and evil. Locust are indigenous to Arabia and represent the Arabs in the Old Testament. Revelation 9 is all about LOCUST and Muslim jihadist. That's where suicide bombers are found.
"And thus I saw the horses in the vision, and them that sat on them, having breastplates of fire, and of jacinth, and brimstone: and the heads of the horses were as the heads of lions; and out of their mouths issued fire and smoke and brimstone."
"Captive silly women," have ISLAM written all over it. They are the women oppressed and enslaved in Islam.
The Koran has 6,666 verses in it. A Muslim's method of worship and goal of world domination through jihad and demographics is perfectly describe in ONE VERSE in Habakkuk.
"They shall come all for violence: their faces shall sup up as the east wind, and they shall gather the captivity as the sand."
They shall come all for violence: (Islamic terrorism)
…their faces shall sup up as the east wind, (Muslim method of worship)
"The east wind is always associated with an evil destructive wind." E. Swedenborg (1688-1772) said, "That wind, and especially the east wind, signifies nothing else than the dispersion of falsities and evils.
…and they shall gather the captivity as the sand. (Innumerable followers and World domination)
There's an anti-Christ monument that 'sits upon' God's Holy Place called the Dome of the Rock. Around the octagonal structure of the Dome of the Rock is a long classical Arabic inscription that says that God has no begotten son, thus denying that Jesus is the Son of God. THAT IS ANTI-CHRIST!
Inscriptions on the octagonal structure of the Dome are anti-Christ. They say…
– There is no God but Allah.
– God has no son; He begetteth not.
– God taketh not unto Himself a son.
– God has no associate.
– Muhammad is the messenger of God.
– Allah will preside on Judgment Day.
We believe that Jesus Christ takes away our sins and is the Rock of Ages and the chief cornerstone of the Churches foundation. Did you know that Muslim's bow toward a black rock in Mecca 5 times a day and believe it takes away their sins. This black rock is the 'cornerstone' of the Kaaba.
Notice the two horns symbolic of the Sunni and Shia sects of Islam. We put crosses on top of Churches. Islam has a star and crescent moon that looks like two horns. Allah is also known as a moon god in Arabic mythology.
Revelation 13:11 And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, (Shia and Sunni sects of Islam) and he spake as a dragon. (Morning star crescent moon)
We believe Jesus is the "prophet like unto Moses." Muslims believe that would be the false prophet Muhammad.
The name Lucifer in Hebrew is Heylel. It comes from the word 'halal' and it means, "The Morning Star." 1966 heylel hay-lale' from 1984 (in the sense of brightness); the morning-star:–Lucifer. Hilal in Arabic means…. Web definition Hilāl (هلال) is an Arabic word that means "crescent" or "new moon." It's an Islamic symbol!
Heylal, Halal ,and Hilal means… Lucifer… aka Satan… aka the devil… and in Christian literature actually means… The Morning Star and Crescent Moon.
I can post several other COINCIDENCES if you like.