Zionism began in late nineteenth century Europe as a reaction to long centuries of anti- Semitism. The Russian anti-Jewish pogroms that began in 1881 and continued in waves through 1920 stimulated both emigration to safer locations and a strengthening sense among European Jews that they needed their own homeland.
The Jews knew. Theodor Herzl (1860-1904) turned his energies toward establishing a Jewish homeland in Palestine.
BUT Christians took a “spiritual” meaning to those prophecies…
then what of the numerous prophecies of the Old Testament, many of which predicted the eventual restoration and glorification of the Jewish nation? In order to account for these prophecies while at the same time condemning the Jews, Christian leaders proposed that because of the Jews’ culpability in the crucifixion, they were supplanted in God’s economy by the Christian Church. All the prophecies in both the Old and New Testament that spoke of Israel’s future redemption were in fact referring metaphorically to the “New Israel”—i.e., the Church.
UNTIL,
- the very persecution of Jews in Europe led some Christians of conscience to react against it. When
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British Foreign Secretary Lord Arthur Balfour led the effort to support a Jewish homeland in Palestine, he declared, “The treatment of the [Jewish] race has been a disgrace to Christendom.”21 Finally, the emergence of dispensational premillennialism (see above) led to some believers seeing Jews (and later, the nation of Israel) as still in God’s program and thus worthy of support.
This phenomenon, along with similar trends toward restoration of the Jews throughout history, led to the idea of Christian Zionism—i.e., a belief that Christians should support the Jews having a homeland in Palestine.*
dispensational premillennialism. The argument of this school of interpretation is that restoration of the Jews to Palestine is a prerequisite for the end times program to occur.
AND
…some insisting that Greater Israel is a prerequisite to his return, and others believing that the Israel of the Tribulation will have far less territory than how the Bible describes the kingdom of Solomon.
From this ancient theological argument came the policy trends that eventuated in modern Zionism and the creation of the State of Israel. Dispensational premillennialists— whose predecessors in generations past continually foresaw the return of Christ in their own day—remain excited about the existence of the Jewish state, because it seems to them to be a clear sign of the impending apocalypse
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Oh and Muslims:
following a cataclysmic battle (equated with Armageddon) between the faithful Muslims and the forces of the Antichrist (ad-Dajjal). Jesus, the Son of Mary (Isa Al- Maseeh) also figures prominently in Islamic eschatology, because he descends to earth in advance of the Mahdi in order to encourage the faithful, demonstrate to Christians and Jews that they have erred, and kill ad-Dajjal. Finally there is reference to a figure known as Sufyani, which some believe will be an Islamic hero in the end times, while others see him as a villainous anti-hero. Together these major events are called the Greater Signs.
Influenced heavily by regional resentment at the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem, recent Islamic apocalyptic writing is characterized by an extreme anti- Semitism. The bitter verbiage that results emanates not only from what many perceive as ill- treatment of Palestinian Muslims, but also the greater crime of taking land that was once Muslim and making it non-Muslim…
*…that the end times are now. Writers point to the series of wars involving Byzantines (i.e., the West) and Muslims.
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These include the two world wars, the Gulf War, the war in Bosnia, and, of course, current operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Together, these conflicts prove both the global conspiracy against Islam and the impending nature of the apocalypse.
“All of these wars were incited by the secret Jewish world government under the leadership of the Antichrist, with the aim of uprooting Islamic societies or even Islamic blocs of peoples in Europe so that they would not have an independent state, so that their governments could return to the shari’a someday. Since the Kuwaiti war between the Byzantines and the Muslims was the first apocalyptic war, it was one of the signs.”*
AND Hamas The writings of radical Muslim apocalyptists have clearly informed and motivated the founders of Hamas. Indeed, the language of the founding Charter is very similar to the didactic sermonizing found in recent works about the end times HOWEVER Both fundamentalist and moderate trends are detectable within Hamas today, and apocalyptic anticipation must now contend with the duller realities of day-to-day administration
The point???
The three Abrahamic faiths include eschatologies that impact our world. All three religions birthed prophecies that predicted an end to human history. It is not the prophets themselves—from Isaiah to John to Muhammad—who command our attention but rather the schools of interpretation that followed
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Now myself, it’s a fucking stretch to call those guys “prophets” - especially when you have a bunch of folks running around, working diligently, to make what they believe happen in reality.
In The True and Real world, you are either on the left of an issue or on the right of it or in the middle that is, you join and mix both left and right issues or you do not commit yourself to any side (in exercise of your rights).
Hahah! You Enter my World here and I Authoritatively state that They Are The Very Law of laws, Jurisprudence and Philosophy and read as One.
