Islamic eschatology and the war in Iran
By Robin Hadaway - Posted at The Pathway:
Published March 18, 2026
"Ninety percent of Shi’ites believe 12 imams have lived from Ali’s death in 661 until Muhammed Al-Mahdi birth about 874. Twelver Shi’ism believes this Mahdi went into hiding (occultation) in the late ninth century and remains alive today. Twelver Shi’a Islam, practiced in Iran, fervently believes this Twelfth Imam will return to defeat Islam’s enemies during a time of world-wide conflict and turmoil. Until this occurs, a series of Imams and Ayatollahs rule in his place in Iran."“I’m lost,” the Iranian pilot cried into the microphone. I was a few months into my jet training course at Laredo Air Force Base, Texas, in 1971. At that time, the Shah of Iran, a close ally of the United States, sent his pilots for training in the United States. They were a friendly, capable lot, but this one became disoriented over the Southwest Texas terrain, ran out of gas, ejected from the aircraft and parachuted to safety. His cry of desperation still rings in my ears.
Twenty years later, my wife and I were serving with the IMB in an Islamic fundamentalist country in North Africa. We enjoyed dinner with an American Embassy couple at a restaurant in the capital city. Iranian President Ali Akbar Rafsanjani was on a state visit to the country. Inside the hotel, two Iranian soldiers, somewhat comically, shadowed us step by step, even descending the stairs to a small bowling alley, watching the four Americans try their luck on the lanes.
What happened in Iran during the intervening years? What is different about Iranian Islam than other expressions of the faith? How can Christians respond?
