The video is being flogged in the United States as proof that the Iranian regime has gone zany, but also is promoting Arab uprisings because they will help speed the second coming.
Those distributing the video say it has approval from the highest authorities of the Islamic Republic, saying Supreme Leader Ali Khamenehi is backing the video. But the establishment clergy has long been strongly opposed to efforts to predict the second coming. So it is exceedingly unlikely that the clerical establishment approves of the video.
President Ahmadi-nejad often speaks of the second coming as imminent, much to irritation of many clerics.
The video has been much discussed in Iran the past month, with many clerics strongly condemning it. The video was unveiled in the United States by Reza Kahlili, the pseudonym of an Iranian who once worked in Iran for the CIA and now lives in the United States.
It is now much discussed by the Christian right.
The 28-minute video in Farsi with English subtitles can be viewed on Kahlili’s website at http://atimetobetray.com/blog/iran-leaders-the-coming-is-upon-us-–-israel-shall-be-destroyed-watch-the-video/
The video pairs clips of current events with quotations from the Qoran and Hadith to demonstrate that the conditions laid out in religious writings for the second coming are now being fulfilled and that 12th Imam will soon return and usher in the end of time.
In Shiite belief, when the world has dissolved in chaos, the Mahdi or 12th Imam will return with the Prophet Jesus at his side to bring a world of perfect justice before the end of time. The Shiite theology of the second coming of the Mahdi and the Christian theology of the second coming of Jesus are similar.
Advocates of the imminence of the “rapture,” as it is known in theology, have grown in numbers in the last two decades in Iran. Christian rapture advocates are small in number in the United States now, but were very common in the two decades before the American Civil War.
Like the Shia clerical establishment, most Christian theologians frown on efforts to predict the advent of the seocnd coming.
The video has been shown on the Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN), the station headed by evangelist Pat Robertson.
In that broadcast Kahlili tells CBN, “Just a few weeks ago, Ahmadi-nejad’s office screened this movie with much excitement for the clerics. The target audience is Muslims in the Middle East and around the world, and the goal is to instigate further uprisings in Arab countries.”
The video has an obvious Shia cast to it, so it isn’t clear how it could be expected to have an impact among Sunnis. It is a bit like showing a Catholic film centered on Mary to a Baptist gathering.
Khalili writes on his website that his contacts in the Pasdaran provided the video, saying it was created by the Basij and “had the approval” of Khamenehi and Ahmadi-nejad. He said it is being shown at Basij and Pasdar bases now and is in translation to Arabic so it can be distributed more widely.
The video says Iran is destined to rise as a great power in the last days to help defeat America and Israel and usher in the return of the Mahdi.
“The Hadith have clearly described the events and the various transformations of countries in the Middle East and also that of Iran in the age of the coming,” says the narrator, who went on to say that America’s invasion of Iraq was foretold by Islamic scripture.
The ongoing upheavals in other Middle Eastern countries like Yemen and Egypt—including the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood—are analyzed as prophetic signs that the Mahdi is near. So is the current poor health of King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia. “Isn’t the presence of Abdullah, his illness, and his uncertain condition great news for those anxious for the coming?” asks the narrator.
Iran’s Supreme Leader and Hassan Nasrallah, leader of the Lebanese Hezbollah, are hailed as pivotal end times’ players, whose rise was predicted in Islamic scripture. The same goes for Ahmadi-nejad, whom the video says will conquer Jerusalem prior to the Mahdi’s second coming.