How does it all end? After ten weeks tracing Islam's history, ideology, and impact on the world, The Cross & the Crescent reaches its finale with the question every believer must eventually face. In Episode 314 of the Under God Podcast, Pastor Daniel Hayworth of Vintage Church in Central Texas places Islamic eschatology directly alongside biblical teaching on the end times and shows why these two visions of the future cannot both be true. He walks through the three central figures of Islamic eschatology — the Mahdi, the Dajjal, and Isa (Islam's "Jesus") — and demonstrates how the savior Islam celebrates mirrors the biblical Antichrist point for point, while the figure Islam casts as its villain bears the marks of the true Christ. This is biblical eschatology taught with clarity, courage, and hope for Christians who want to discern the times.

Pastor Daniel opens by grounding listeners in a right posture toward the end times — not fear, but eager expectation of Christ's return — before moving into the specifics of Islamic end-times theology drawn from the Quran and the hadiths. He traces how the Mahdi is expected to arrive as a charismatic political and military leader who unites the Islamic world under a single caliphate, makes a seven-year peace treaty with the Jews, rides in on a white horse, and enforces Sharia globally. Every one of those markers, he shows, aligns with what 2 Thessalonians and Revelation describe as the Antichrist. He then walks through the "Jesus" of Islamic tradition, who Muslims believe will return to break the cross, deny his own crucifixion and divinity, and enforce submission to Islam — an inversion of everything the biblical Jesus accomplished.

From there, the episode turns toward the great hope. Christ returns personally and bodily. His kingdom advances through the proclamation of the gospel, not conquest. He restores all of creation. And when He comes on a white horse with a robe dipped in blood and a name written on His thigh — King of kings and Lord of lords — every knee will bow. Pastor Daniel closes with a direct pastoral challenge: the King is coming soon. Where will He find you?

What You'll Discover

✅ How the Mahdi, Dajjal, and Isa invert the biblical figures of Christ and Antichrist

✅ Why the "Jesus" of Islamic tradition is not the Jesus of Scripture

✅ What Scripture promises about Christ's personal, bodily return on a white horse

✅ Why the believer's posture toward the end times is eager expectation, not fear

✅ How to discern the spirits and stand firm against antichrist ideologies today

📖 Scripture Study:

📖 2 Thessalonians 2:9-12 – Paul warns of the man of lawlessness who comes with counterfeit signs and wonders, deceiving those who refuse to love the truth. Pastor Daniel uses this passage as the backbone for identifying the antichrist spirit at work in the world today.

📖 Acts 1:11 – The angels' promise at the Ascension: Jesus will return the same way He was taken up. This is the anchor for Christ's personal, bodily second coming.

📖 Matthew 24:30 – The Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory, seen by every eye.

📖 Revelation 1:7 – Every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him, and all the peoples of the earth will mourn.

📖 Revelation 19:11-16 – The rider on the white horse called Faithful and True, whose name is the Word of God, who treads the winepress of the wrath of God as King of kings and Lord of lords.

📖 Zechariah 14:3-4 – The prophecy that the Lord's feet will stand on the Mount of Olives and split the mountain from east to west — a passage made more striking by the geological fault line modern science has confirmed runs beneath that exact ground.

📖 Daniel 2:34 – The stone cut without hands that crushes every earthly kingdom and stands forever, the sure end of every empire built against God.

📖 Philippians 2:9-11 – Every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

📖 Revelation 21:1-5 – A new heaven and a new earth, every tear wiped away, all things made new.

Questions this episode answers:

Do Muslims believe in Jesus? — Islam has a figure called Isa whom Muslims revere as a prophet, but he is not the Jesus of the Bible. Islamic tradition holds that Isa did not die on the cross, was not resurrected, is not the Son of God, and will return to break the cross, deny Christianity, and enforce Sharia — the exact opposite of what the biblical Jesus accomplished.

Who is the Mahdi in Islamic eschatology? — The Mahdi, or "guided one," is the central figure Muslims await in the last days — a charismatic political and military leader who is expected to unite the Islamic world under a single caliphate, conquer Israel, make a seven-year peace treaty with the Jews, ride a white horse, enforce Sharia globally, and reign from Jerusalem. Those markers align closely with the Bible's description of the Antichrist.

Who is the Dajjal? — The Dajjal is Islam's version of an antichrist figure — a deceiver who Islamic tradition says will claim divinity, perform miracles including raising the dead, and gather a following primarily among Jews and Christians before being killed by the Islamic "Jesus." Pastor Daniel points out that these characteristics closely mirror what Scripture ascribes to the true Christ.

How should Christians think about the end times? — With eager expectation, not fear. Scripture calls believers to know God's Word, discern the spirits, live ready for Christ's return, and proclaim the gospel — because Christ is returning personally and bodily, and every knee will bow.

How does the world end according to the Bible? — Christ returns on a white horse as King of kings and Lord of lords, judges the nations in perfect justice and mercy, defeats every kingdom built against Him, and makes all things new. Every knee bows, every tongue confesses, and His kingdom reigns forever.

📺 YouTube: [Insert episode YouTube link]

📺 Rumble: https://rumble.com/c/UnderGod

🎵 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5Eg0JfNHL9mEUSrowLrQe6

🍎 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/under-god-with-pastor-stephen-martin/id1749695148

🌐 Website: https://www.undergodpodcast.com

📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/undergodpod/