Is Iran Chasing an Apocalyptic Prophecy?

This is a rush transcript from "Glenn Beck," February 9, 2009. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

GLENN BECK, HOST: This story just made me want to go to the mountains, you know, just move away, you know, with a little snuggle bear or something. Last week, Iran launched their first domestically-built telecommunications satellite in space, and it was like, "Oh, wow! Look, they can have phone service now. You can hear me now?"

The rocket that carried the satellite into space was named something — Safir. I don't know what that means. And the satellite was named Omid. I don't know what that means. Well, today somebody had to harsh my mellow and tell me exactly what it means and it ain’t good.

Former senior aide to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Joel Rosenberg, joins me now. He's also the author of a great book, "Epicenter 2.0."

• Video: Watch part 1 of Glenn's interview | Part 2

OK, Mr. Gloom and Doom. You believe — I mean, this is where — America, this is where we go crazy. You believe that we may be living in the end of days.

JOEL ROSENBERG, FORMER SENIOR AIDE TO ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER BENJAMIN NETANYAHU: Well, as an Evangelical Christian — yes, there is a lot of evidence of that.

BECK: OK —

ROSENBERG: I don't want to bring it about, however. That's a different thing (UNINTELLIGIBLE) for Ahmadinejad.

BECK: Yes, OK. Tell me about the two thresholds, quickly. What are the two thresholds that they have just crossed over in Iran?

ROSENBERG: Absolutely. Well, there are two red lines the United States and Israel have been deeply worried about Iran would cross. First, that they would be able to be able to build an intercontinental ballistic missile ...

BECK: Yes.

ROSENBERG: ... therefore, able to reach Europe and the United States ...

BECK: Got it.

ROSENBERG: And that complete the nuclear fuel cycle and actually build a workable nuclear bomb.

BECK: OK. Now, here's the problem. You know, you and I have talked about this for a couple of years. And this actually started with me going and listening to the speeches of Ahmadinejad at the U.N. And nobody ever reported on this, and this stuff just jumped out at me where he said — at the end of his speeches each time, "Oh, Allah, give me the strength to hasten the return of the Promised One."

And I remember hearing that and said to one of the guys next to me, "Who is the Promised One, and what does he have to do to hasten it?" I started looking into —

ROSENBERG: It's not Obama.

BECK: It's not Obama. It is — the Promised One is the 12th Imam. America, you need to hear this because whether you believe in this nut job or not, he believes it, or he's just a politician using religion. Either way, this is why Iran — and this is what everybody misses, this is why Iran is dangerous. Quickly, in 60 seconds, tell me who the 12th Imam is?

ROSENBERG: Well, as I wrote about in the book, "Epicenter," the 12th Imam is the messiah. It's the Islamic messiah, whom Shia Muslims — not Sunni Muslims — but the Shia Muslims of Iran and Lebanon, believe will come back in the end of days.

But in order to bring about this Islamic messiah, the Mahdi, the 12th Imam, Islamic leaders need to hasten his coming by destroying little Satan, Israel, and the great Satan, the United States. And this is what is dangerous. It's because these leaders of Iran, currently, not all the people of Iran. But the leaders actually believe they need to create bloody carnage, the death of millions of people in order to create the conditions for the Mahdi to bring peace.

BECK: I mean, this is an M & M... "So anyway, we're just going to bring chaos to the Middle East and watch the world in blood. And then the Mahdi comes back and rules from ancient Babylon." M & M? Yes. We'll back with more in a second because wait until you hear what the name of the missile was or the rocket and the satellite. It all ties together in a spooky sort of way. Next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BECK: So here we are. We're just, you know, talking about Jesus coming back at any time and having a good time talking about it. Because I think it has to be really ugly for him to come back and that's the idea in Iran with some of the crazy people that run that country.

At least, if they don't believe it, they're pretending to believe it to whip their people up into a frenzy.

ROSENBERG: All right. A distinction here. We're not talking about Jesus.

BECK: No, no, no.

ROSENBERG: Evangelicals want Jesus to come back.

(CROSS TALK)

BECK: If I'm not mistaken —

ROSENBERG: It is the Mahdi in Iran.

BECK: Right.

ROSENBERG: That's they're looking for, this Islamic messiah. Different.

BECK: If I may —

ROSENBERG: Yes.

BECK: If you look at the extremist Muslim version of the Mahdi and then you read the book of revelation, he suspiciously looks like the anti- Christ.

ROSENBERG: That would be closer.

BECK: Yes.

ROSENBERG: That would be closer.

BECK: Seeing that he's the one running a one-world government and executing everybody that disagrees with him from Babylon. I don't know where I read that one before. But he is the good guy to Iran.

ROSENBERG: To Iran, right.

BECK: So they launch this missile.

ROSENBERG: A rocket.

BECK: Yes, and it has a communications satellite on it.

ROSENBERG: Yes.

BECK: Why is this important and explain the two names.

ROSENBERG: Well, the rocket is a two-stage rocket called the Safir, which means "message." So it's sending a message.

BECK: Yes.

ROSENBERG: Then, the satellite itself is called Omid, which means "hope." The message of hope. Maybe they're hoping for change.

BECK: Just saying.

ROSENBERG: They're hoping for this Mahdi to come, and what Ahmadinejad, the president of Iran, wants to send the world a message that Iran is rapidly closing in on the technology to create the conditions of genocide that would allow the messiah to reappear.

BECK: Well, they have to - these guys, "twelvers" is what they are called, which Ahmadinejad is. They are so dangerous, that even the Ayatollah Khomeini banned them.

ROSENBERG: Outlawed them —

BECK: Outlawed them —

ROSENBERG: Outlawed them completely because they're too nuts.

BECK: I mean, that's saying something.

ROSENBERG: You know Ayatollah Khomeini.

BECK: Yes. I mean, you know, he's — they drop him out of his coffin, and he's saying, these guys are too crazy over here. These are really dangerous people. This is the thing that I hope Barack Obama understands. This is why people say you can't negotiate with the people in Iran.

The people, you can. The leadership in Iran are full-fledged nuts. Tomorrow, will you come back and talk about it? Because they are setting up, and I'm not saying that, you know, this is the end times or anything like that. What I'm saying is that they are telling their people that these are the end of days, setting them up for something, and there is something about the Persian Gulf turning blood red. And that is now happening, and at least that's what they're saying in the papers.

So don't miss tomorrow's episode. It's another fun — Be afraid. Be very afraid.

Content and Programming Copyright 2009 FOX News Network, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Transcription Copyright 2009 CQ Transcriptions, LLC, which takes sole responsibility for the accuracy of the transcription. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No license is granted to the user of this material except for the user's personal or internal use and, in such case, only one copy may be printed, nor shall user use any material for commercial purposes or in any fashion that may infringe upon FOX News Network, LLC'S and CQ Transcriptions, LLC's copyrights or other proprietary rights or interests in the material. This is not a legal transcript for purposes of litigation.