Turkish president Erdoğan takes a symbolic step towards reviving the Ottoman Empire by converting the Hagia Sophia to a mosque. Does this advance his so-called war of the cross and the crescent?
The Symbolism of Converting Hagia Sophia to a Mosque
For the first time since the Ottoman Empire fell nearly a hundred years ago, two men performed the the Muslim call to prayer inside the Hagia Sophia.
Breaking Israel News reported that two imams recited the islamic call to prayer and two Koranic versus at what the pro-government newspaper Yeni Akit now calls the “Grand Hagia Sophia Mosque.” MEMRI posted the video footage here.
Why Does it Matter that the Hagia Sophia is Now a Mosque?
The Hagia Sophia was built as a church in 537 when Istanbul was Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine Empire. It was the world’s largest church in the world for nearly 1,000 years. That is until the Ottoman Empire conquered Constantinople in 1453. Like in Jerusalem, when Muslims take over a holy site, they convert the existing place of worship to a mosque.
This action symbolizes Islam’s conquering of the “infidel” religions. In this manner, the original conversion to a mosque symbolizes Islam’s victory of the Holy Roman Empire and Christianity. It is not enough to desecrate the holy site. Instead, they want to convert it to the service of Islam.
The Importance of Hagia Sophia to Erdoğan
Erdoğan is passionate about building mosques and restricting churches.
In 2018 he inaugurated Turkey’s latest European Mega-mosque, “The Cologne Central Mosque,” in Germany. This was built by the Turkish-Islamic Union for Religious Affairs (DITIB). DITIB runs more than 900 mosques across Germany. These mosques are linked to the Turkish government’s Directorate of Religious Affairs, which provides imams to mosques.
As a comparison, The Turkish government closed the Christian Orthodox theological school located on Halki for almost 50 years. Yet, plans are in place to build a center of Islamic studies spanning 200 acres less than a kilometer away.
When the shoes are on the other feet, we see his intentions. For in June 2018, Austria removed mosques and expelled foreign-funded imams. As reported by MEMRI , Erdoğan warned the Austrian Chancellor that his actions would bring the world “toward a war between the cross and the crescent.” He further threatened, “do you think that we will not do something? We too will do something!” he said. Is it possible this recent action is part of that “something?”
Update: 4/7/20
Did this Muslim call to prayer at the Hagia Sophia release something in the spirit? Look at these two headlines that just occurred.
Irish Priest Invites Muslims to Pray at his Church, Instantly Backfires. The Catholic priest invited two Muslims into his church service to pray in solidarity for healthcare workers. Instead, these two Muslims recited the Islamic call to prayer. This prayer states “allah is the greatest. I bear witness that there is no god except allah. I bear witness that Muhammad is the Messenger of allah. Come to prayer. Come to salvation.”
For First Time: Muslim Call to Prayer Sounded over Berlin Overwhelming Church Bells. For the first time in German history, the Muslim call to prayer was blasted on loudspeakers with the government’s approval. From the video, you can hear that the call to prayer overwhelmed the sound of the church bells.
Erdoğan’s Ottoman Goals
The year 2023 is another symbolicly important date to him. That date will mark 100 years since the final demise of the Ottoman Empire. So it is not too far a reach to say that Erdoğan considers this date in the rebirth of that empire. Here are some excerpts from a article in Haaretz, entitled, “Analysis Erdogan Just Became Turkey’s New Founding Father.”
Erdoğan further reveals his intentions by acting on symbolically important dates. For example his military entered Syria on the 500th anniversary to the day of the Battle of Dabiq. This was a decisive battle in 1516 for the Ottoman Empire in conquering the middle east. The symbolism of this battle is so important that ISIS believes this to be the location of a final apocalyptic war between Islam and Christianity. Was Erdoğan revealing his intentions to retake Syria when chose this date to enter Syria? Absolutely.
- “for the past decade, Erdogan has been obsessed with the year 2023”
- “reaching the year 2023 in power, thus presenting himself as the “founding father” of the ‘New Turkey'”
- “while achieving the objectives of his so-called ‘2023 Political Vision’ would, to Erdogan’s mind, mean surpassing Turkey’s founding father Atatürk”
Why is it significant that Erdoğan has a goal to revive the Ottoman Empire? Because one of the heads of the Beast of Revelation as well as the beast itself is a resurrected empire. Rev 13:3 – “I saw one of his heads as if it had been slain, and his fatal wound was healed.” Also, Rev. 17:11- “The beast which was and is not, is himself also an eighth and is one of the seven, and he goes to destruction.”
Erdoğan’s Ultimate Goal
Erdoğan once stated in a speech, “Unfortunately we the Muslims lost our aim to head towards Jerusalem. The water of our eyes froze making us blind, and our hearts that were destined to beat for Jerusalem is now instead conditioned for rivalry being in a state of war with each other.”
Here are some other quotes from Erdoğan or his mouthpieces:
- “Each day that Jerusalem is under occupation is an insult to us.“
- “Israel, which shows no respect for the Aqsa mosque and Dome of the Rock, will see itself suffer the most damage,”
- “Since Mecca is one half of our heart and Medina the other half, with al-Quds draping over them like a thin gauze, we should defend al-Quds together. Let’s defend it as if we are defending Mecca and Medina,”
- “The ones who made Jerusalem a dungeon for Muslims and members of other religions will never be able to clean the blood from their hands,”; Israel as a “terror state” and an “invader state”
- On December 12, 2017, the Turkish daily Yeni Şafak, which is close to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his ruling AKP party, published an article titled “A Call for Urgent Action,”[1] which also appeared on the paper’s website under the title “What If an Army of Islam Was Formed against Israel?”[2] The article called on the 57 member states of the OIC to form a joint “Army of Islam” to besiege and attack the state of Israel. – MEMRI
- He gave his “condolences to the martyrs” and reiterated Turkish support for their “Palestinian brothers and sisters.”; “What Israel is doing is a genocide,”
- Turkey would not allow Israel to steal Jerusalem from Palestinians, he said
- Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Sunday that he will defend Jerusalem from Israeli “invaders”
The Hagia Sophia is One More Step Closer to the Rise of the Beast
So where does all this lead?
Ultimately it leads to the rise of the final beast. It leads to a Turkish/Ottoman sultan leading a large islamic army against Israel as foretold in Ezekiel 38. “Son of man, set your face toward Gog of the land of Magog, the prince of Rosh, Meshech and Tubal,…”
There will be many small but significant steps that occur as we see the rise of the beast. These are preliminary moves now. Events are in play across the world that will work together for the rise and revealing of the beast.
For more about what the Bible may say about the rise of the reborn Ottoman Empire, see my post The Identity of the Beast of Revelation.
Update 8/24/2020
One month after converting the Hagia Sophia to a mosque, Erdoğan converted the Chora church into a mosque as well.