Questions for Walid Shoebat

Walid Shoebat (and other authors at his web-site) have been very critical of Protestantism and Luther (and Calvin) in recent years (as James Swan's posts demonstrate).

The Shoebats (both Walid and Theodore) has also had a few run-ins with Dr. White also in the past few years.

Some of the articles and some of the emphasis is right to expose the problems with violent and Jihadist/terrorist Islam and political correctness.  Also, we should pray for the ancient churches communities (Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholic, and Oriental Orthodox) and Christians and other groups such as the Yezidis who are being persecuted and slaughered by ISIS.   The Shoebats desire for justice for those communities is a good one.

He does seem to have converted to Roman Catholicism, although that is not completely clear to me either. He speaks well of the crusades, and emphasizes military action again Muslims, etc. 

Shoebat is very Pro-Israel and was (and still is, it seems, though I don't know for sure) very into Pre-tribulational and Pre-millennial theology and prophesy and Israel coming back as a nation in 1948 as a fulfillment of prophesy.

Years ago, (sometime between 1995-2000 ?), we exchanged a few emails, as we were on an email group of people doing ministry with Muslims, he got really upset with me (on an email group of people in ministry to Muslims), because I questioned his Pre-trib and pre-Millennial stuff that was always such an overemphasis on modern 1948 Zionism and Israel, etc. -  he was very similar to  Hal Lindsay, John Hagee, and Jack Van Impe type of emphasis. He later either left the email group or was kicked out of the email group. (?)

To be clear, I support Israel's right to exist and defend herself against Islamic terrorism, Hamas, Hezbollah, and the PLO.  But that is an issue of justice and fairness, (since it was the Ottoman Turks who were the political entity over Palestine for about 500 years, and they were justly punished after 1918 because of their role in joining Germany in World War 1 (so the argument that Palestine was a formal country is wrong); and the Muslims were always attacking first, and loosing more territory since 1948; and the fact that the Muslims never accepted Israel's right to exist, even the 1948 borders were rejected wholeheartedly by the Muslim world at the time.  

Hamas has quotes from the Hadith in it's charter that speak of 
"there is a Jew behind the rock and tree; come and kill the Jews"  and "fight the Jews until the day of 
resurrection". 

See here also.

 That (support for Israel)  is not an issue of whether 1948 was a fulfillment of prophesy or whether the OT land promises to Israel are still valid.   Galatians 4:26, Revelation 21-22; Hebrews chapter 4 and Hebrews 11:10; 11:16 and 12:22-23; and 13:14 seem to indicate the OT land promises were fulfilled in Christ.  (with Galatians 3:16 )  I still struggle between 2 views of the Millennium in Eschatology: is it "Historic Pre-Millennialism" (post-tribulational rapture) or A-millenialism, although I do lean toward an A-millennial view, with a somewhat positive view of much of what partial-preterism says.  

It is still hard for me to tell definitely if Walid is just supporting the militaristic history of the past of Romanism - Crusades, etc. vs. Islam, or if he really converted to Roman Catholicism (though now that I am looking more closely at his articles, it does seem he has converted.) see his article "Them Damned Catholics" at his website.   But that was in 2013; since that time, there are many more articles supporting Roman Catholicism that I have discovered since looking more at this site.  Wow.  I have not had time to digest these, and just noticed them.  It seems more and more clear that he has converted to Roman Catholicism.  Shoebat defends icons, statues, and the whole incarnational theological justification for bowing down to and venerating icons and statues.  (Sept. 20, 2015) And he defends Russia, the Orthodox church, and Putin too.   Wow.  The more I read, the more I am seeing this, Roman Catholicism, Orthodoxy, militancy, mixed with end-times events prophesy stuff.

Walid Shoebat - did you convert to Roman Catholicism?  Are you a traditional Roman Catholic?  (one who wants the Tridentide Latin Mass restored to official and obligatory and either considers the Popes after Pius XII anti-Popes or weak or hold to the Sedevacantist position.)    The more I look and read more at your site, the more it seems to indicate that you have converted to the more Traditional strain of Roman Catholicism.

His pre-trib. pre-Millennialism and pro-1948 Israel as fulfillment of prophesy would seem to conflict with eschatological views of Roman Catholicism and the small Middle Eastern Churches that go back to earlier more ancient churches of Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy (Coptic and other Mia-physite / Monophysite churches/ rejection of the Chalcedonian Council and Creed of 451 AD) and Roman Catholicism. (back to 500s - 600s and beyond to the modern era).

Walid, are you still Pre-trib and Pre-Millennial?  and if so, how does that fit with the Roman Catholic Church, which is more A-millennial?

If you look at his web-site, in a 2012 interview with Pat Robertson (! Charismatic, CBN - 700 Club - TV personality, but certainly not pro-Roman Catholic), he gives a fairly in-depth analysis of the connections of key people with the Muslim Brotherhood and Islamic terrorism, the history and fall of the Caliphate in 1924, and desire for Muslims to re-establish the Caliphate issues and the Sunni - Shiite connections - Shoebat even predicts that Iran will attack Saudi Arabia and destroy it in the near future.   






Maybe it was sometime after 2012 that he moved more toward Roman Catholicism. That (the prediction that Iran will attack Saudi Arabia) caught my eye, because of the recent tensions between Iran and Saudi going on right now.   

See also the Wikipedia article on the history of Saudi and Iran relations and tensions.

Walid is more credible than Ergun Caner, that is for sure, as he truly does speak Arabic and was born in Palestine-Israel, and Walid is a former Muslim, who was an Evangelical for a while; and now it seems he is Roman Catholic. 

Walid's Arabic and knowledge of individual leaders in the world of Islam and Islamic terrorism seem very credible;

although his claim of being a former terrorist has some doubts and wholes in it, 

and his stuff on the bism-illa (بسم الله ) (In the name of Allah) as the sign of Anti-Christ and 666 is goofy. 

I think Shoebat is basically right in understanding the connections between the Muslim Brotherhood and other Jihadist groups (Al Qaeda, Hamas, Hezbollah, ISIS), the desire for the restoration of the Caliphate, and connections to political Muslims groups in the USA such as CAIR and the Muslim Student Associations on US University campuses.  The founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, Hassan Al Banna, inspired Sayeed Qutb, who inspired Osama Ben Laden and Ayman Al Zawahiri (the current leader of Al Qaeda) and Hamas in Palestine/Israel.  Hezbollah in Lebanon is the Shiite version of Islamic Terror against the modern state of Israel. (similar to the Sunni Hamas group.)

Addendum:
After watching the interview that Walid Shoebat did with Pat Robertson again, I noticed several things.  1.  Walid was wrong about Egypt (After the Arab Spring of 2011-2012 in Egypt, Hosni Mubarak was taken down from power, and the Muslim Brotherhood was in charge through Muhammad Morsi's government for a while(June 2012-July 2013), but the people and General Al Sisi rose up and did not want them in charge.)  and 2.  he was making lots of predictions about the Islamic world and tying in Bible passages from Isaiah and Jeremiah (most of which had to do with the era of Assyria, Egypt, and Babylon Geo-politics and wars of that time period.)  Elam is not all of Iran/Persia, although there is a small province in Iran in the south, near Iraq named Elam.   The Elamites were more of Semitic group more closely related to the Arabs in the south of Iraq, but they no longer exist today.  The Persians later conquer Elam.  (Cyrus - 536 BC and forward).   Then later, Islamic conquests (632 AD to 1600s) over the past 1400 years has caused many of the Biblical peoples and boundaries to be changed.  There are Arabs in the south of Iran, but there are also lots of Persians and there is lots of ethnic mix.  I know several Iranians who have an Arab father and Iranian mother, and vice versa, and many Iranians who are Turkish in their ethnic roots.   Isaiah 19:1 and following seems to have been about God judging Egypt through Assyria (the Lord was judging Israel by Assyrian attacks from 738 BC (Tiglath-Pileser) -725-722 (Shalmanesar and Sargon) BC and beyond - trying to take Judah and the south - 701 BC - Sennacherib).  Assyria conquered Egypt in 670 BC (in between the time that Assyria conqured Israel, the Northern Kingdom, and Babylon conquered Judah, the Southern Kingdom, from 606-586 BC - G. W. Crogan, in his commentary on Isaiah, writes, "The fierce king of verse 4 has been variously identified, but there can be little doubt that the most appropriate application is to Ear-shaddon, king of Assyria, who subdued Egypt in 670 BC." (page 126, Commentary on Isaiah, in The Expositors Bible Commentary, volume 6 (Isaiah-Ezekiel), Zondervan, 1986).  Later, Babylonian invasions  -Babylon conquered Israel and destroyed the temple.  (605-586 BC)  Isaiah 19:1 - "The LORD rides on a cloud, coming to Egypt to destroy the idols of Egypt".  The context was the paganism in Egypt at the time and that God, by allowing Assyria to conquer Egypt in 670 BC; and later, Babylon to invade and conquer Judah, the southern kingdom.  Another commentary mentions Persia conquering Egypt for a while in the 500s-300s BC.  God's judgement is described as "riding on a cloud".  That is one of the big concepts that Partial- Preterists use to show that God "came" in judgment on Israel in 70 AD by sovereignly causing the Romans to attack and destroy the temple in Jerusalem.

2 articles on the Islamic sources, texts and religion that undergird what ISIS / ISIL / IS does

1.  A very thorough article at the Atlantic magazine.
http://www.dennyburk.com/is-isis-terror-driven-by-religion-the-high-cost-of-ignoring-the-obvious/

The Full article:
http://www.theatlantic.com/features/archive/2015/02/what-isis-really-wants/384980/

2.  Dr. White's analysis:
http://www.aomin.org/aoblog/index.php/2015/02/16/breaking-the-cross-killing-the-swine-truly-thinking-about-isis-and-the-murder-of-21-copts/

Addendum:  "do not be surprised" at persecution for the sake of Christ
http://www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/justintaylor/2015/02/16/tom-schreiner-a-biblical-meditation-on-the-isis-execution-of-21-christians/

Addendum 2:
See my plea for Balance in seeking to understand the conflict within Islam today.  Christians, don't let fear keep you from reaching out to the other Muslims who are not Jihadist types.