Stories of the Prophets by Allama Ibn Kathir,  points out that Qur’an 19:56-7 states: “Mention in the Book ˹O Prophet, the story of˺ Enoch. He was surely a man of truth and a prophet. And We elevated him to an honorable status.” What is Idris (Enoch) elevated and honored for?

Enoch is a pre-flood Biblical patriarch, in the seventh generation from Adam, famous for “walking with God” and being taken directly to heaven by God, without experiencing death. He is noted for his deep faith, and being the great-grandfather of Prophet Noah.

Quran 19:56-57 (Surah Maryam) highlights Prophet Idris (Enoch), describing him as a man of truth and a prophet whom Allah elevated to an honorable, high station. These two verses emphasize his righteousness and high status among the prophets mentioned in the Quran.

The Qur’an stresses the importance of learning from written books: “Who taught by the pen — taught mankind that which they knew not.” (Qur’an 96:4–5) The Prophet Idris (Enoch) is traditionally considered the first person to write with a pen.

The Book of Enoch is not part of the standard Protestant or Catholic Biblical canon, the 1 Enoch (or Ethiopic Book of Enoch) is a significant ancient Jewish apocalyptic text which is included in the canon of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. Because he did not die, Enoch is sometimes associated with traditions regarding the Messianic end times.

There are four different men in the Bible named Enoch (Genesis 4:17; 5:18; 25:4; 46:9). Only 5:18 is Idris. Hebrews 11:5 states: “By faith Enoch was taken from this life, so that he did not experience death: ‘He could not be found, because God had taken him away.’ Before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God.” 

This being “taken away” is what Enoch is most famous for. Only three people in the Christian Bible are said to have been chosen by God to escape death: Enoch, Elijah and Jesus.

The four horsemen of the apocalypse appear in the New Testament Book of Revelation. Each of the horsemen represents a different facet of the end-times apocalypse: global warming, war, famine, and early death blaming major industries—tobacco, fossil fuels and alcohol—for 2.7 million deaths a year in Europe. 

The Pakistan’s military struck military installations deep inside Afghanistan after Pakistan said it was in “open war” with Afghanistan. Pakistan claimed more than 330 Afghan forces were killed since fighting erupted  during a broad Afghan cross-border attack into Pakistan. 

And the EU’s chief diplomat Kaja Kallas said, speaking for all 27 EU nations, “The Middle East stands to lose greatly from any drawn-out war.”

The word Armageddon does not appear in the Hebrew Bible, and appears only once in the Greek New Testament, in Revelation 16:16 which makes no mention of armies being predicted to one day gather on or near Mount Megiddo; but instead seems to predict only that “they (will gather) the kings together to … Armageddon”. 

The text does however seem to imply, based on the text from the earlier passage of Revelation 16:14, that the purpose of this gathering of kings in the “place called Armageddon” is “for the war of the great day of God Almighty” which is the old battle against national warfare. 

Christianity, Judaism and Islam teach their followers to take care of the earth. Christians, Muslims and Jews also believe that humans should act as guardians and trustees (stewardship  and khalifah) on our planet, and that they will be held accountable by God for their actions.

Like Judaism and Christianity, Islam has a powerful eschatological strand. Islam anticipates the end to the world as we know it, a final historical confrontation between the forces of good and evil; after which human life will be transformed in a positive way.

As a Reform Rabbi who believes that the world wide upheavals we see are part of the birth pains of the Messianic Age, I offer Christians and Muslims some positive insights from the Jewish Prophets and the Rabbinic Sages.

Many millions of Jews, Christians and Muslims believe the wars of Gog and Magog (Gog u-Magog in Hebrew and “Yajuj and Majuj” in Arabic) which started in the 18th to 21st centuries will come to an end in the 21st century. 

It is true that human society changed more rapidly, violently and fundamentally in the last 250 years than ever before in history. Doctors saved the lives of millions. Dictators sacrificed the lives of millions. Populations are exploding in Africa and populations are declining in Europe. Technology produces both worldwide prosperity and worldwide pollution at the same time.  

Should we look upon the future with optimistic hope or with fatalistic trepidation? Is the world and our society heading towards a wonder-filled new age, or toward a doomsday? Or are both occurring almost concurrently because breakdown is always a prelude to breakthrough?

Jews, whose Biblical prophets were the ones who first wrote about a future Messianic Age, recognize that the birth of a Messianic Age must be preceded by its birth-pangs. But the prophets of Israel also emphasize the glories of a future world living in peace and prosperity with justice for all. Ancient Jewish prophecies did proclaim that there would be an end to the world as we know it. But they did not prophesy that the world will come to an end, nor did the Prophets of Israel offer an exact date for the transition. 

The exact advent of the Messianic Age is not knowable because humans have free will and thus the exact time and manner of redemption cannot be determined in advance. Much depends on what we humans do. 

The beginning of the Messianic Age is a time of transition from one World Age into another. How we move through this transition, either with resistance or acceptance, will determine whether the transformation will happen through cataclysmic changes or by a gradual reform of human society; which will lead to a world filled with peace, prosperity and spiritual tranquility.  

The Prophets of Israel conceived redemption as a transformation of human society that would occur through the catalyst of the Jewish community. This transformation, which will take place in this world at some future time, is called the Messianic Age. 

The transition to the Messianic Age is called the birth pangs of the Messiah. The birth of a redeemed Messianic world may be the result of an easy or difficult labor.  If everyone would simply live according to the moral teachings of his or her religious tradition, we would ourselves have helped bring about the Messianic Age.  

But, if we do not do it voluntarily, it will come about through social and political upheavals, worldwide conflicts and generation gaps and most obvious of all climate change which will affect both nature and the economy-society. The Messiah (Mahdi) refers to one or more human agents of God who help bring about a non-destruction positive transformation.  

The Jewish tradition teaches that this agent of God (together with several forerunners and many disciples) will be a human being, a descendant of Prophets Abraham and David, with great qualities of national leadership similar to Prophets Moses, Jesus and Mohammed. 

The arrival of the Messianic Age is what’s really important, not the personality of the agents who bring it about, since they are simply the instruments of God, who ultimately is the real Redeemer. 

Prophet Micah states: “In the last days the mountain of the LORD’s temple will be established as the highest of the mountains; and exalted above the hills, and peoples will stream to it. Many nations will come and say, “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the temple of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways, so that we may walk in his paths.

“The Torah will go out from Zion, the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. He will judge between many peoples and will settle disputes for strong nations far and wide. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor train for war anymore. Everyone will sit under their own vine and under their own fig tree, and no one will make them afraid, for the LORD GOD has spoken. All nations may walk in the name of their gods, but we (Jews, Christians and Muslims) will walk in the name of the LORD our God for ever.” (Prophet Micah 4:1-5) 

One of the signs of the End of Days is the arrival and defeat of Gog and Magog (Ya’juj and Ma’juj or Ajuj and Majuj). Gog and Magog appear in the Hebrew Bible, the Christian Bible, and the Islamic Quran as individuals, tribes, countries and catastrophic acts of nature.

The other mention of Gog and Magog in the Quran is: “But there is a ban on a town which We have destroyed: that they (the people of the town) shall not return (to reclaim that town as their own); until Gog and Magog are let through (the barrier), and swiftly spread out in every direction.” (21:95-96) 

This verse refers to Jerusalem, destroyed by the Romans in 70 CE, and only reclaimed 18 centuries later as Israel’s capital, following the era of the defeat of the Nazis, the Communists, and the Colonialist Empires, who had been Gog and Magog for generations.

The Quran mentions Gog and Magog twice: “He said: “This (barrier) is a mercy from my Lord: but when the warning of my Lord comes to pass, He will reduce it to dust (and Gog and Magog—the Colonialist Empires, the Nazis, and the Communists would be released into the world); and the promise of my Lord is true.” (18:98)  So Gog and Magog are destructive groups like the Colonialist Empires, Nazis, and Communists, who long before the end of days will penetrate into every part of the world.

Thus, humanity has so far passed through the most devastating era of human history. However,  we have not yet reached the goal of the Messianic Age when “They (all nations) will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore. Everyone will sit under their own vine and under their own fig tree, and no one will make them afraid, for the LORD GOD has spoken.” (Prophet Micah 4:2-4)

There is open space on the Temple Mount where a 3D digital broadcast Jewish house of worship could be rebuilt as a virtual replica like those made by the Factum Foundation, a Madrid-based nonprofit that creates high-resolution digital replicas of the world’s cultural heritage; could be built about 600 feet north of the Al-Aqsa Mosque next to the Dome of the Rock, provided Muslims would cooperate. This would fulfill Prophet Isaiah’s statement that in the early part of the Messianic Age: “Torah will be broadcast from Zion, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.” (Isaiah 2:3) 

So a small Jewish broadcasting station built near the Dome of the Rock would reflect Prophet Micah prophecy: ‘At the end of days the mountain of the Lord’s House will be established as chief of the mountains, and will be raised above the hills. Nations will flow up to it. 2 Then many nations will go and say: “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the House of the God of Jacob! Then He will direct us in His ways, and we will walk in His paths.” For Torah will be broadcast from Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.” (Micah 4:1-2)

Most people think this is just a dream, yet in our own generation we have seen the dramatic fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy:  “I will bring your offspring from the (Middle) East and gather you from the (European) West.  To the North (Russia) I will say ‘give them up’ and to the South (Ethiopia) ‘do not hold them’. Bring my sons from far away, my daughters from the end of the earth.” (Isaiah 43:5-6)   

Thus, humanity has so far passed through the most devastating era of human history. However,  we have not yet reached the goal of the Messianic Age when “They (all nations) will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore. Everyone will sit under their own vine and under their own fig tree, and no one will make them afraid, for the LORD GOD has spoken.” (Prophet Micah 4:2-4) This era will come about when Israelis and Palestinians make a long lasting two state partnership of peace; thus fulfilling the 2700 year old vision of Prophet Isaiah: 

“On that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria. The Assyrians will go to Egypt, and the Egyptians to Assyria. The Egyptians and Assyrians will worship together. On that day Israel  will join a three-party  alliance with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing upon the heart. The LORD of Hosts will bless them saying, “Blessed be Egypt My people, Assyria My handiwork, and Israel My inheritance.”… (Isaiah 19:23-5)

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