“New evidence has emerged that the Iranian government sees the current unrest in the Middle East as a signal that the Mahdi–or Islamic messiah–is about to appear.”

So begins an ominous report by CBN’s Erick Stakelbeck detailing a propaganda video reportedly “approved at the highest levels of the Iranian government.” That video explains “all the signs are moving into place — and that Iran will soon help usher in the end times.”

Regular Beck viewers may know the Mahdi by another name, the twelfth imam — a term not lost to Stakelbeck, who writes thattThe new video “describes current events in the Middle East as a prelude to the arrival of the mythical twelfth Imam or Mahdi — the messiah figure who Islamic scriptures say will lead the armies of Islam to victory over all non-Muslims in the last days.”

Stakelbeck reports, and includes excerpts from the video called “The Coming is Near:”

Joel C. Rosenberg, interviewed in the CBN piece, has been a guest writer on The Blaze. As part of our series “Understanding Egypt,” he wrote:

The leaders in Tehran could not be more excited by the revolution now underway in Egypt and are praying the Mubarak regime collapses and the Muslim Brotherhood come to power. For them, such events would be dramatic new evidence that the End of Days has come, infidel Arab regimes are on the road to collapse, Western influence in the Mideast is declining, Israel is one step closer to being annihilated, and the Twelfth Imam is one step closer to arriving and establishing the worldwide Islamic kingdom known as the “caliphate.”

Back in February, Beck devoted part of his TV program to the idea of the twelfth imam:

Beck’s documentary, “Rumors of War,” also details the scary beliefs of the “twelvers:”

You can watch that here.