For all of us living in the modern world I believe it is safe to say that we are indeed living in an era of wars and rumors of wars (Matthew 24:6). The twentieth century alone brought us World Wars One and Two, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and numerous other bloody battles scattered throughout the planet. And no sooner did we enter the twenty-first century when the events of September 11, 2001 prompted the United States to invade Afghanistan soon afterwards. Then we saw the United States government continue to expand their war on terror by invading Iraq in 2003. Since the early 2000’s we have been overwhelmed by wars and rumors of wars in the worldwide geopolitical landscape. It would seem as if all of these minor and sometimes major conflicts have been building up to a war that would dwarf any known confrontation the world has ever witnessed. And this mother of all wars would be none other than World War Three. The purpose of this work is an attempt to shed light on an Orthodox Christian prophecy concerning the third world war and the events leading up to, and following this global catastrophe.
Over the centuries there has come down to the Greek Orthodox Christians a series of prophecies concerning the Turkish people and the future liberation of Greeks from the yoke of Turkish oppression. For the people who make up the ethnic majority in the country that we know today as the Republic of Turkey are not the original inhabitants of this land. For beginning in the 11th century AD, the Seljuk Turks of Central Asia made there way through the Steppes and started conquering the territories of the Middle East and eventually made there way into the borders of the Christian Byzantine Empire. With the Turkish conquest of Constantinople in 1453 AD, the territories of the Byzantine Empire would be absorbed into what would be known as the Ottoman Empire. In the years that followed many Orthodox Saints prophesied that God would one day deliver the Christian Greeks from the Turkish Muslims. One such sign to herald the Lord’s deliverance would be the resurrection of a former emperor of Byzantium known as “The Sleeping King” who would not only liberate the Greeks, but would rule the entire world and usher in a period of world peace and ignite a global renaissance giving all nations a chance to hear the Orthodox Gospel prior to the coming of the Anti-Christ.
In addition to the Greek Orthodox prophecies concerning the Sleeping King, the prophecies also reveal that the third world war will be initiated by a Turkish invasion into Greek territory. However, though the Turkish aim will be focused on an assault against the whole of Greece, only a few of the Greek islands will be annexed, leaving the rest of the mainland unmolested. Greece will be protected from the fighting, but God will allow the Greeks to suffer with hunger and starvation. Also, after Turkey invades Greece, Russia will come to the aid of the Greek nation and will fight the Turks heavily by bombarding Turkey with the majority of Russia’s arsenals and her military power. In the aftermath of this great conflict the prophecy states that one third of the Turks will perish in the war, one third of the Turks will retreat into the depths of Asia, and that one third of the Turks will become Orthodox Christians.
Although these prophecies are found written within the corpus of Orthodox Christian theology, some Greek Fathers (as well as laity) are not fully convinced as to the validity of such claims. Weather we should hold to these prophecies as the Word of God is debatable, considering how many of the events described may not line up with scripture. Amazingly there is also a Muslim prophecy which foretells the conquest of Constantinople, but by a Muslim army and of an event much like world war three, or as it is called in Arabic, the “Malhama.” Going further it has been recently suggested, by at least one Muslim scholar, that even though the name Constantinople is not found written in the Qur’an, the Islamic holy book does indeed describe a town that in many ways resembles the city of Constantine.
In verse 163 in the seventh chapter of the Qur’an a certain town is mentioned and is described as being a city by the sea, but the name of this city is unidentified. However, what the Qur’an does say is that the people of this town violated the Sabbath, which eventually kindled the wrath of God. For during the Sabbath day an abundance of fish would be clearly visible to the town’s inhabitants, but on other days the fish were not seen. In this way God tested the people in order to prove their faithfulness to Him and to His commandments. Though the whereabouts of this town and it’s people are not clearly presented in the Qur’an, there is at least some Islamic scholarship out there that attempts to clarify this ambiguity. For according to the research done by Skeikh Imran Husein, a Muslim scholar and an expert in Islamic eschatology, this unnamed town described in the Qur’an as a city by the sea is none other than the ancient Byzantine Christian city of Constantinople.
In Islamic eschatology a major sign of the end of the world would be the conquest of Constantinople by a Muslim army. According to Skeikh Imran Husein, the Turks believed that the prophecy was fulfilled in 1453 AD when the Ottomans conquered the great city. That is why the Turks changed the name to Istanbul – nullifying any Muslim prophecy concerning a city named Constantinople. For in the scriptures of Islam which are separate from the Qur’an and are known as the Hadiths, Mohammad is attributed with making the prophecy concerning Constantinople. However, in Islam it is forbidden to change or deny a Sunnah by Mohammad. So, for the Muslim Turks to deny the use of a name spoken by Mohammad, or to replace it with another name would be in direct violation to the teachings of Mohammad.
In the folklore of Greek Orthodox Christianity it has been said that when the Ottoman army was approaching Constantinople the Turkish Sultan looked up and saw hovering over the city what appeared to be a man’s hand with all five fingers clearly visible. Though barbaric, the Turks did have respect for the supernatural which prompted the Turkish leader to ask a Christian priest what this sign in the heavens meant. The priest responded by saying that if there were but five true Orthodox Christians dwelling in Constantinople God would preserve the city and prevent the Turks from taking it. As we know the Muslim Turks did take the Christian city, meaning that just like Sodom and Gomorrah there were none righteous abiding in Constantinople prior to it’s Turkish assault.
Even though the Church is the body of Christ and the apple of His eye, the Lord still sends forth judgments unto His people when they begin to drift away from His statutes and digress into apostasy. Just as the God of Israel permitted the destruction of the Temple in the Old Testament due to the sins of the people, so also does the risen Jesus correct His followers in the era of the New Testament when they transgress His law. For as the Lord hath spoken in Revelation 3:19, “As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten.” Just because the Christians of Constantinople where members of the one true faith, which was first preached by the Apostles and then handed down unto the Fathers, their baptism into the Orthodox Church was not enough to exempt them from God’s vengeance, especially since they in turn did not preserve their baptism by living an active spiritual life in obedience to Christ’s commandments.
In conclusion, whether or not the Greek or Islamic prophecies concerning the future of Constantinople and the events of world war three are genuine prophecies, I do believe that the most infallible writings concerning the end times are found written in the Bible. The book of Revelation unfolds the passages of history, both past and future events, but in a cryptic fashion. Also, Revelation warns us about adding to or taking away from the words of the prophecy, for by doing so we bring upon ourselves utter destruction (Revelation 22:19). So when studying eschatology we must be very careful about not falling into delusion and from coming up with our own interpretations of prophecy, which in fact may be uninspired.
References:
Hosein, I.N. Constantinople in the Qur’an. (San Fernando, Trinidad and Tobago: INH Publications, 2018).
Kinross, L. The Ottoman Centuries. (New York, NY: Harper Collins Publishers Inc., 1977).
Maulana Muhammad Ali. The Holy Qur’an with English Translation and Commentary.(Dublin, Ohio: Ahmadiyya Anjuman Isha’at Islam Lahore Inc., 2002).
Norwich, J.J. A Short History of Byzantium. (New York, NY: Vintage Books, 1999).
Valavanis, G.D. The Marble Emperor: Saint Ioannis Vatatzis. (Larissa, Greece: Koutoulas K. Nikolaos, 2008).
Zondervan. The Holy Bible, King James Version. (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan, 2009).