I must admit that this article was largely inspired by listening to an interview with Whitney Webb that I found immensely interesting and that highlighted a knowledge gap regarding Zionism. Although I knew that Christians had a hand in the Zionist movement, I had not realized how influential they were in laying the ground for Theodore Herzl and his Zionist movement. The idea can be traced back to the Puritans of the 16th century and as the return of the Jews to nationhood became a prerequisite to Christian eschatology it became, as it were a “self-fulfilling” prophecy. That is not to say that God cannot use the machinations of man to control events but as I have noted previously Jesus remarked that the violent attempt to take the kingdom of heaven by force (Matt 11:12) they attempted to forcefully crown Jesus King (John 6:15) which influenced even Peter (Matt 16:23). This was in fact a repeat of the temptation in the wilderness (Matt 4:8-10), to take temporal power (establish a Zionist kingdom) in opposition to the divine will. The kingdom of God cannot be brought into being by manipulation or force. There were many zealots in Jesus’ day who equated the Kingdom with liberation from Roman occupation and the speculation is that Judas Iscariot was one such who attempted to provoke a divine response and uprising by betraying Jesus. Who knows?
I would encourage everyone to read the article by Whitney, the Untold Story of Christian Zionism’s rise to power in the United States. I cannot help but draw parallels with the eighteenth-century restoration movement and the ideology of Zionism. A brief history of the sudden birth of all the new religious movements follows: The First Great Awakening (1730s and 40s cf. George Whitefield, John Wesley, and Jonathan Edwards and the Evangelical Revival). The Second Great Awakening was a Protestant religious revival during the early 19th century in the United States. The Restoration movement developed during the Second Great Awakening. Dispensationalist Christians had been promoting a Jewish ethnostate in Palestine at a time when the idea was unpopular among many prominent Jews in Europe and the United States and more narrowly, the term “Restorationism” describes Restorationist groups emerging after the Second Great Awakening, such as the Christadelphians (Greek: ‘Brothers of Christ’), Swedenborgians (i.e., The New Church), Latter Day Saints (i.e., Mormonism), Jehovah’s Witnesses (from the tetragrammaton for God), La Luz del Mundo (Spanish: ‘the Light of the World’), and Iglesia ni Cristo (Tagalog: ‘Church of Christ’). In this sense, Restorationism has been regarded as one of the six taxonomic groupings of Christianity: the Church of the East, Oriental Orthodoxy, Eastern Orthodoxy, Roman Catholicism, Protestantism, and Restorationism. These Restorationist groups share a belief that historic Christianity lost the true faith during the Great Apostasy and that the Church needed to be restored. The term has been used to refer to the Stone–Campbell Movement in the United States. The Third Great Awakening refers to a historical period was marked by religious activism in American history and spans the late 1850s to the early 20th century. It influenced pietistic Protestant denominations and had a strong element of social activism. We are now in The Fourth Great Awakening and like any social, political, or religious movement it can be hijacked and used as a tool to manipulate outcomes.
It is interesting that many of the Christian restoration movements were pushing for an ethnostate in Palestine before Theodore Herzl proposed the idea. For many years, the Mormon Church has claimed that Native Americans were the descendants of one of the lost tribes of Israel that migrated to the Americas around 600 B.C. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) has several unique teachings about Judaism and the House of Israel.
The Rabbi Menasseh ben Israel (1604-1657) a Dutch Jew with connections to the Anglo-Dutch coalition was instrumental in applying for Jewish readmission to England, that was regarded favourably by Oliver Cromwell. In 1652 his book The Hope of Israel (not to be confused with the Greek titled Elpis Israel by John Thomas) was translated from Latin into English by John Dury or one of his associates, and it was published in London by Moses Wall, prefixed with a dedication to the Parliament and the Council of State; his account of descendants of the Lost Tribes being found in the New World deeply impressed public opinion and stirred up many polemics in English literature. So, we know where the Mormons (LDS) got the idea of “lost tribes” from. Regarding the scattering of the lost tribes of Israel, Menasseh notes:
"We have shewed that the ten Tribes are in divers places, as in the West-Indies, in Sina; in the confines of Tartary, beyond the river Sabbathion, and Euphrates, in Media, in the Kingdome of the Habyssins; of all which the Prophet Isaiah is to be understood, in Isa. 11. II. It shall come to passe in that day, that the Lord shall set his hand the second time to recover the remnant of his people, which shall be left from Assyria, from Egypt, from Pathros, from Ethiopia, from Elam, from Sinear, from Hamath, and from the Islands of the Sea."
The original petition for readmission to England was submitted by Johanna and Ebenezer Cartwright, two English baptists living in Amsterdam, to Thomas Fairfax’s Council of War in January 1649. As well as asking that Jews be allowed to live in England, their petition also expressed the wish that the Jews “shall come to know the Emanuell” and that they be transported to the “Land promised to their fore-fathers”. It can be seen as a distillation of the Judeo-centric trends of Puritan thought that had developed over the previous century since John Bale (1495–1563). However, the petition was sent the day before the high court was established to try Charles I, so in the ensuing turmoil the Cartwrights never received an answer. The following year Amsterdam-based Rabbi and diplomat Menasseh Ben Israel wrote in his book Hope of Israel of the necessity of the Jews being “spread out to the ends of the earth” (Daniel 12:7) before they could be redeemed. The book was originally published in Dutch and Latin in 1650, and then in English (dedicated to Parliament and the Council of State) in 1652. In 1651 Ben Israel met Oliver St John and his envoys on their mission to secure an Anglo-Dutch coalition. The English were impressed by learning and manner, and advised him to formally apply for Jewish readmission to England.
The British East India company was established in 1600 with its monopoly to colonize and rob the world with its private armies. In 1648 the mystic rabbi Sabbatai Zevi from Ottoman Smyrna in modern Turkey claimed he would lead the Jews back to Palestine (Zevi eventually converted to Islam on threat of death). Rabbi Menasseh published the Hope of Israel in 1652. The Jewish merchants found a lucrative home in the British East India Company an unholy alliance where they became the owners and financiers of the slave trade and the drug runners (Opium) to China. The Great Fire of London occurred in 1666 the same year that Zevi announced his messiah-ship.
Rabbi Manasseh (living in the same era) thought it necessary to demonstrate that the Jews were scattered everywhere (even the new world) as this would act as precursor to their ingathering back to Israel. However, we know that genetically speaking native Indians of the New World are not lost Jews (neither are aborigines lolz). The largest denomination in the Latter-Day Saint movement, the LDS Church, teaches the belief that the Jewish people are God’s chosen people, and it also teaches the belief that its members share a common and literal Israelite ancestry with the Jewish people. Joseph Smith published the Book of Mormon in 1830. He was a Freemason and Freemasons are obsessed with the temple and the temple builder Solomon.
Judah must return, Jerusalem must be rebuilt, and the temple, and water come out from under the temple, and the waters of the Dead Sea be healed. It will take some time to rebuild the walls of the city and the temple, &c.; and all this must be done before the Son of Man will make His appearance.
What was the object of gathering the Jews, or the people of God in any age of the world?… The main object was to build unto the Lord a house whereby He could reveal unto His people the ordinances of His house and the glories of His kingdom, and teach the people the way of salvation; for there are certain ordinances and principles that, when they are taught and practiced, must be done in a place or house built for that purpose.
John Nelson Darby (18 November 1800 – 29 April 1882) was an Anglo-Irish Bible teacher, one of the influential figures among the original Plymouth Brethren and the founder of the Exclusive Brethren. He is the father of modern Dispensationalism and Futurism. Pre-tribulation rapture theology was popularized extensively in the 1830s by John Nelson Darby and the Plymouth Brethren, and further popularized in the United States in the early 20th century by the wide circulation of the Scofield Reference Bible. Darby’s end-times doctrine also influenced the American preacher Charles Taze Russell, whose church later gave rise to several different churches, including the Jehovah’s Witnesses.
Cyrus Scofield was a charlatan and he was allowed membership of the Lotos club with the rich and powerful. He was obviously a cut-out for the power elites who wanted to manipulate historical events to create a global empire and one world government. To them religion and the return of the Jews to Israel is just a stepping stone to technocratic hegemony. The involvement of Lord Shaftesbury and the Blackstone Memorial (highlighted by Whitney), which was presented to the president of the United States in Favor of the restoration of Palestine to the Jews, are testament this. So, powerful manipulative forces were at work to create an ethno-state and force Jews back to the land. Some of those forces were Jewish but many were Christian. The question remains how many of those Christian movements were subverted?
Jehovah’s Witnesses is a nontrinitarian millenarian restorationist Christian denomination. The group emerged from the Bible Student movement founded in the late 1870s by Charles Taze Russell, who also co-founded Zion’s Watch Tower Tract Society in 1881 to organize and print the movement’s publications. Initially their eschatology had a role for ethnic Israel and the temple, and they even published a book Comfort for the Jews. They combined the rise of natural Israel with the rapture: The Herald of the Morning. October 1, 1878. p. 52. “Hence, the ‘real rising again of Israel’ cannot begin until the autumn of 1881, at which date, the presumption is, that the gospel church will be taken away to meet the Lord.” However, after many failed predictions and a confused eschatology which includes the invisible return of Christ, the judgement of the nations and pyramidology theories they now preach a replacement theology whereby the JWs replace the nation of Israel. They see Zionism as a political nationalist ethnocentric movement though they do not specify “political Zionism”. So, their position is confused and has shifted over time.
The Christadelphians also emerged out of the American Restorationism movement including the Millerites who later split and became the Jehovah’s Witnesses. William Miller (1782 – 1849) was an American Baptist minister who is credited with beginning the mid-19th-century North American religious movement known as Millerism. After his proclamation of the Second Coming did not occur as expected in the 1840s, new heirs of his message emerged, including the Advent Christians (1860), the Seventh-day Adventists (1863) and other Adventist movements. In 1848 Dr Thomas, the founder of the Christadelphians, published his book Elpis Israel (the Hope of Israel) the same year that Marx published the communist manifesto. One hundred years later (3 x33.3333) in 1948, the nation of Israel was founded. The eschatology of Elpis Israel predicted a return of the Jews to the land and a building of a messianic age temple (Ezekiel’s temple) and an invasion by Gog (Russia) with the protagonist styled as the “tsar” and the “autocrat” of Russia. It is no doubt that the build up to the Crimean war (1853-1856) and the writings of Granville Penn in “The Prophecy of Ezekiel Concerning Gog” helped formulate these ideas as did the predominance of the British Empire and transfer of transatlantic power (ships of Tarsus) to the USA. It is not difficult to predict the return of Israel to the Palestine when there was a push by the Anglo-Zionist power elites to make it happen. However, many other detailed predictions about then current-day events did not happen (as was noted in the foreword to subsequent editions of Elpis Israel after his death).
It is interesting to note that in 1861 rabbi Sneersohn gave a lecture tour in Australia that was reported in the Christadelphian magazine and then reissued in 1943-44. From 1933 to fall 1941 Nazi Germany pursued an aggressive policy of forced emigration for the Reich’s Jews and from 1944 to 1948 a successful paramilitary campaign was carried out by Zionist underground groups against British rule in Mandatory Palestine, so the anticipation of an ethno-state was in the air. Rabbi Sneersohn (1834–1882) was a Jewish-Belarusian Zionist of the Old Yishuv, a doctor, and a Chabad Chasid. Schneerson is a distant relative of Menachem Mendel Schneerson of the Lyubavitchi Schneerson family, considered to be one of the most influential Rabbis in Hasidic Judaism.
The Rebbe and Bibi Netanyahu: Don’t Be Intimidated
“‘The great tribulation’ is yet future. It pre-supposes the Jewish nation restored to Palestine in unbelief, to serve Gentile political ends, and brought there by the active intervention of a great maritime power (Isa. 18).”2
1800
Elhanan Winchester
“A notable preacher, both in Great Britain and America, at the beginning of the nineteenth century was Dr. Elhanan Winchester; in 1800 he published a most interesting volume entitled, “A Course of Lectures in the Prophecies that Remain to be fulfilled.” The third lecture was devoted to the thesis that “The return of the Jews to their own land is certain.” In this lecture, Dr. Winchester said: “As the Turkish power has always been a great enemy to the Jews and having their land in possession at this time, nothing can well be more evident then that the Turkish power must be greatly weakened before the Jews can return to their country and possess it . . . This even may be easily accomplished if the nations that shall weaken the Turks make this one of their demands, namely, that they which yield up the holly land to its rightful owners, the Jews, to repossess which God sware to give to the patriarchs and their posterity.” He even foresaw a great conflict to take place here. “The nations round them will make a general combination against them when they least expect it and will gather a numerous and very formidable host to effect their destruction. In this they shall not finally succeed.””3
1816-1900
John Charles Ryle
“I believe that the Jews shall ultimately be gathered again as a separate nation, restored to their own land, and converted to the faith of Christ, after going through great tribulation (Jer. 30:10-11; Jer. 31:10; Rom. 11:25-26; Dan. 12:1; Zech 13:8-9).”4 “I might show you by scriptural evidence that the Jews will probably first be gathered in an unconverted state, though humbled, and will afterwards be taught to look to Him whom they have pierced, through much tribulation. . . . I can see no ground for refusing to believe that God may yet do wonderful things for the Jewish people. It would not be more marvelous to see them gathered once more into Palestine, than it was to see them brought from Egypt into the promised land. What God has done once, He may surely do again. [J. C. Ryle, “Coming Events and Present Duties, and Prophecy” (1867) cited by Richard L. Mayhue, Editorial]”5.
1835-1913
Bullinger
“The Zionist Movement commenced with the first National Congress of 1896, and has made great strides since then. Other changes in the Balkan States, and in the Constitution of Turkey, which took place so unexpectedly in 1908, show us how suddenly a change may take place which will lead up to the re-settlement of the Jews in their own land, perhaps, at first, under the suzerainty of the Sultan; and prepare the way for the rise of the Beast . . .”6
1841-1918
Robert Anderson
“But first it must be clearly recognised that in the twenty-fourth of Matthew, as in the book of Daniel, Jerusalem is the centre of the scene to which the prophecy relates; and this of necessity implies that the Jews shall have been restored to Palestine before the time of its fulfilment. Objections based on the supposed improbability of such an event are sufficiently answered by marking the connection between prophecy and miracle. The history of the Abrahamic race, to which prophecy is so closely related, is little else than a record of miraculous interpositions. . . . the question is one of peculiar interest on general grounds, whether passing events are not tending towards this very consummation, the restoration of the Jews to Palestine.”7 “If the dismemberment of the Turkish Empire be still delayed, it is due entirely to the jealousies of European nations, whose rival interests seem to render an amicable distribution of its territories impossible. But the crisis cannot be deferred indefinitely; and when it arrives, the question of greatest moment, next to the fate of Constantinople, will be, What is to become of Palestine? Its annexation by any one European state is in the highest degree improbable. The interests of several of the first-rate Powers forbid it. The way will thus be kept open to the Jews, whenever their inclinations or their destinies lead them back to the land of their fathers. . . . the probabilities of the case . . . are in favour of the colonization of Palestine by that people to whom historically it belongs. . . . But long ere then the Cross must supplant the Crescent in Judea, else it is incredible that the Mosque of Omar should give place to the Jewish Temple on the Hill of Zion.”8 “Of the great political changes which must precede his advent [the rise of Antichrist], the most conspicuous are the restoration of the Jews to Palestine, and the predicted division of the Roman earth.”9
1849
John Thomas
“In 1849, the author John Thomas wrote in his book (entitled Elpis Israel — The Hope of Israel) the following words: “The truth is, there are two stages in the restoration of the Jews, the first is before the battle of Armageddon; and the second, after it; but both pre-millennial. God has said, “I will save the tents of Judah first.” This is the first stage of restoration…There is, then, a partial and primary restoration of Jews before the manifestation, which is to serve as the nucleus, or basis, of future operations in the restoration of the rest of the tribes after he has appeared in the kingdom. The pre-adventual colonisation of Palestine will be on purely political principles; and the Jewish colonists will return in unbelief of the messiahship of Jesus, and of the truth as it is in him.””10
1850-1924
Clarence Larkin
“From these scriptures we see that the Jews have not been supplanted by either the Gentiles or the Church, and when the time comes they will again become a nation. We indulge in no idle and profitless speculations when we attempt to forecast the future of the Jewish People. All we have to do is to gather together and place in their logical order what the Holy Spirit through the Prophets, has foretold. The method is as simple as the result is sure.”11
1855
Charles Spurgeon
“Preaching on Ezek 24:26 in 1855, just prior to the rise of modern Zionism, he [Spurgeon] declared, Not long shall it be ere they [the Jews] shall come — shall come from distant lands, where’er they rest or roam; and she who has been the off-scouring of all things, whose name has been a proverb and a bye-word, shall become the glory of all lands. Dejected Zion shall raise her head, shaking herself from dust, and darkness, and the dead. Then shall the Lord feed his people, and make them and the places round about his hill a blessing. I think we do not attach sufficient importance to the restoration of the Jews. We do not think enough of it. But certainly, if there is anything promised in the bible it is this. I imagine that you cannot read the bible without seeing clearly that there is to be an actual restoration of the children of Israel. [C. H. Spurgeon, The C. H. Spurgeon Collection, Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, I, no. 28, 1855 (Albany, Oregon: Ages Software, 1998), 382]”12 “Speaking on Ezek 37:1-10 in 1864 at the Metropolitan Tabernacle in aid of funds for the British Society for the Propagation of the Gospel amongst the Jews, Spurgeon declared, “This vision has been used, from the time of Jerome onwards, as a description of the resurrection, and certainly it may be so accommodated with much effect. . . . But while this interpretation of the vision may be very proper as an accommodation, it must be quite evident to any thinking person that this is not the meaning of the passage. There is no allusion made by Ezekiel to the resurrection, and such topic would have been quite apart from the design of the prophet’s speech I believe he was no more thinking of the resurrection of the dead than of the building of St. Peter’s at Rome, or the emigration of the Pilgrim Fathers. . . . The meaning of our text, as opened up by the context, is most evidently, if words mean anything, first, that there shall be a political restoration of the Jews to their own land and to their own nationality; an then, secondly, there is in the text, and in the context, a most plain declaration, that there shall be a spiritual restoration, a conversion in fact, of the tribes of Israel. . . . If there be meaning in words this must be the meaning of this chapter. I wish never to learn the art of tearing God’s meaning out of his own words. If there be anything clear and plain, the literal sense and meaning of this passage — a meaning not to be spirited or spiritualized away — must be evident that both the two and the ten tribes of Israel are to be restored to their own land, and that a king is to rule over them.” [C. H. Spurgeon, The C. H. Spurgeon Collection, Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, X, no 582:533 1864 (Albany, Oregon: Ages Software, 1998), 536-37]”13 “In 1887 [Spurgeon] declared, “We cannot help looking for the restoration of the scattered Israelites to the land which God has given to them by a covenant of salt: we also look for the time when they shall believe in the Messiah whom they have rejected, and shall rejoice in Jesus of Nazareth, whom today they despise. There is great encouragement in prophecy to those who work among the seed of Israel; and it is greatly needed, for of all mission fields it has been commonly represented to be the most barren, and upon the work the utmost ridicule has been poured.” [C. H. Spurgeon, The C. H. Spurgeon Collection, Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, XXXIV, no. 2036, 1887 (Albany, Oregon: Ages Software, 1998), 545]”14
1918
David Baron
“There will be at first, as compared with the whole nation, only a representative minority in Palestine, and a Jewish state will be probably formed, either under the suzerainty of one of the Great Powers, or under international protection . . . A large number more from all parts of the world will in all probability soon be gathered; but we shall only be able to speak of a restoration of the Jews as an accomplished fact when Palestine becomes by international consent (to quote from the Zionist programme) the ‘openly recognized and legally assured home’ of the Jews, i.e., when the Jews are once more acknowledged as a nation with a land of their own to which they might go.”15
For the sake of completeness, here are some additional early quotes recognizing the Scriptural prediction of a restoration of Israel to her land, although not necessarily prior to the return of Jesus:
1558-1625
Henry Finch
“Sir Henry Finch (1558-1625) . . . wrote a seminal book on the topic. . . . Finch not only taught a restoration of Israel to their land, he took many of the details of a Jewish millennium literally. A regathered Israel “shall inhabite all the parts of the land” and “shall continue in it for euer.” Finch also taught that all twelve tribes will be united and “all nations shall honour them.” [Cited in Culver, “Contribution of Sir Henry Finch,” p. 57] cited by Thomas Ice, Sir Henry Finch: Early Christian Zionist”16
1635-1711
Wilhelmus a Brakel
“A further example of a more pro-Judaic European eschatology that appeared in the seventeenth century was that expressed by Wilhelmus a Brakel (1635-1711), an esteemed Dutch Reformed theologian who ministered in Rotterdam, Holland, having eschatological views that contrasted with the more standard Augustinian variety, Willem VanGemeren explains that, in objecting to Calvin, Brakel held that, “the Church could not be identified with the New Israel. When Paul wrote about "all Israel" (Rom. 11:25) he was referring to the nation, and not the totality of the church and national Israel.” This rejection of Calvin was also found in Brakel's contemporaries. Brakel expected all twelve tribes to repent and express faith in Jesus as the Messiah. He also held that the Jews would be privileged to return to their land. The promise of the land is not just a type of the eternal rest or of heaven, rather it is part and parcel with the covenant of grace which God made to and affirmed with Israel. . . . Brakel . . . wrote, “Will the Jewish nation be gathered together again from all the regions of the world and from all the nations of the earth among which they have been dispersed? Will they come to and dwell in Canaan and all the lands promised to Abraham, and will Jerusalem be rebuilt? We believe that these events will transpire.””17
1669
Increase Mather
“The first of [Increase Mather’s] many works on prophecy was published in London in 1669, entitled “The Mystery of Israel’s Salvation Explained and Applied — a discourse concerning the general conversion of the Israelitish nation.” . . . Concerning the matter of their return to the land, Mather is clear: “Some have believed and asserted a general conversion of the Jews, yet have doubted whether they should ever again possess the land of their fathers. But the Scripture is very clear and full in this, that you see not how it can justly be denied or questioned.” . . . Even the great period of Israel’s tribulation was not hidden from Mather’s mind. Later in the book he amplifies this truth: “A little before the conversion of the Jews, there will be the most terrible doings in the world that ever were heard of in respect of wars and commotions, the waves of the sea roaring, confused noise, and garments rolled in blood, blood and fire, and vapor of smoke; but after the kindome [sic.] shall be restored unto Israel, then shall be glorious days of peace and tranquility.””18
1673
John Owen
“In 1673 an interesting book was published, with a preface by Dr. John Own, “A Collection of Prophecies which Concern the Calling of the Jews and the Glory that Shall Be in the Latter Days.” The scores of references were classified under eight headings which may be of interest to my readers: “I. The Jews shall be gathered from all parts of the earth where they now are scattered, and brought home into their own land. II. They shall be carried by the Gentiles to their place; who shall join themselves with the Jews, and become the Lord’s people. III. Great miracles shall be wrought when Israel is restored, as formerly when they were brought out of Egypt — viz.: 1. Drying up the river Euphrates. 2. Causing rivers to flow in desert places. 3. Giving them prophets. 4. The Lord Christ himself shall appear at the head of them. IV. The Jews, being restored, and converted to the faith of Christ, shall be formed into a State, and have Judges and Counsellors over them as formerly: the Lord Christ himself being their King, who shall them also be acknowledged King over all the earth. V. They shall have the victory over all their enemies, and all kings and nations of the earth shall submit unto them. VI. The Jews, restored, shall live peaceably, without being divided into two nations, or contending with one another any more. VII. The land of Judea shall be made eminently fruitful, like a Paradise, or the Garden of God. VIII. Jerusalem shall be rebuilt, and after the full restoration of the Jews shall never be destroyed, nor infested with enemies any more.” All of this material was quoted by the famous Dr. Philip Doddridge in a work now seldom seen [Philip Doddridge: “Works,” Leeds, 1802, Vol. V.]”19
1707-1788
Charles Wesley
Although not explicitly predicting a nation, Charles Wesley’s hymn Calling the Hebrews Home clearly recognizes the restoration of the Jews in a gathered nation: “O that the chosen band might now their brethren bring And gathered out of every land present to Sion’s King. Of all the ancient race not one be left behind But each impelled by secret grace his way to Canaan find! We know it must be done for God hath spoke the word All Israel shall their Saviour own to their first state restored. Rebuilt by His command Jerusalem shall rise Her temple on Moriah stand again, and touch the skies. Send then Thy servants forth to call the Hebrews home From west and east, and south, and north let all the wanderers come. Where’er in lands unknown Thy fugitives remain Bid every creature help them on Thy holy mount to gain.”
1740s
Jonathan Edwards
““[Jonathan Edwards held that] when ‘the fulness of the Gentiles’ is brought in, then ethnic Israel will also be largely saved and, while restored to their own land, they will be united with all the church of Christ and ‘look upon all the world to be their brethren, as much as the Christians in Boston and the Christians in other parts of New England look on each other as brethren’.”20
1848
John Nelson Darby
“In 1848 he wrote, “As far as the world is concerned, Jerusalem is nothing; it is a city trodden down, with neither commerce nor riches nor aught else. Superstition is established there on the sepulchre of the Lord. It is true, indeed that the kings of the earth are beginning to look that way, because providence is leading in that direction, but as for God, He ever things of it; it is always His house, His city. His eyes and His heart are there continually. Now faith understands this.” [Paul R. Wilkinson, John Nelson Darby and His Views on Israel]”21
There was a push to restore the Jews to their land long before Theodore Herzl appeared on the scene in 1897. The push was exercised by Christian and Jewish power elites, and we can only suppose that different groups had different motivations for desiring such an outcome. They have ensured (so they think) that the prophecy is self-fulfilling. These elites understand Israel as the geographical pivot of history and we can see the multi polar world forming with BRICS. Whoever controls this area controls the world and whoever controls the religious sentiments controls the minds of billions of people. Several presidents including Dwight Eisenhower, Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon were influenced by dispensationalist preacher and Third Temple advocate Billy Graham. However, it is not just the “religious” who understand the pivotal importance of this region as the technocrats and transhumanists also want to centralize power which is why Israel is turning into a technological and biological superpower. This is the Hegelian Dialectic writ large with a new paradigm set to emerge from the opposing factions.
The theology of an ethno-state and a temple comes from a misreading (deliberate or otherwise) of scripture and chapters like Romans 11. This subject is worthy of a separate article, and I have touched upon aspects of it elsewhere. The fact is that God never wanted a temple (house) in the first place, moreover, the eschatological “New Jerusalem” descends out of heaven (Rev 21:2) and we are specifically told that, “And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it “(Rev 21:22). Surprisingly, this is in agreement with Rabbi Yisroel Dovid Weiss of Neturei Karta (an ultra-Orthodox Jewish group based in New York that opposes Zionism) who says that, “… the Third Temple was, prior to Zionism, understood as indicating not a change in physical structures on the Temple Mount, but a metaphysical, spiritual change that would unite all of mankind to worship and serve God in unison”. So, the discussion then comes down to what Paul understands as “all Israel” (Rom 9:6) because “the Israel of God” (Gal 6:16) is more than an ethno-state or a Zionist entity. It refers to the faithful of all ages regardless of ethnicity or of space and time because nothing can separate them from the love of God (Rom 8:35). The New Israel is constituted in Christ and has always been created with him in mind from time immemorial (Col 1:16-18). They are the Living stones of the new temple (1 Pet 2:4-7, Eph 2:19-22) for God is worshiped in Spirit and Truth (John 4:24).
Despite the machinations of man God will achieve his purpose. The divine will cannot be thwarted, and God has a multiplicity of ways of fulfilling his prophecies even to the point of allowing humanity enough rope to hoist themselves on their own petard. You want to force your way? Go on then and see what happens (lolz). A The situation overflows with irony. As to recommencing blood sacrifice that would be an abomination and God will have the last word with a third overturning of the temple (Ezek 21:27). We are at the end of a natural cycle and this period of revelation and manifestation is almost over. Hold fast.
I remain both amazed and disappointed by the numerous “Bible teachers” of our day who are busy writing blogs and e-books to educate us concerning things they themselves know little of (Rom. 2:21; 1Ti. 1:7; Jas. 3:1).
The leftists don’t know what to do….support Israel or support Palestine? (lolz). Rather pathetic talking out of both sides of his mouth at the same time. The comment about racism probably had to do with me tweeting this meme to him multiple times telling him that we don’t want biowarfare and Jew Jabs, or Jew neocon war (in Ukraine) or Jew debt, or Jew media climate fear porn. We don’t want their Tikkun Olam or Communism. I think he got the message and I am probably on a watch-list (lolz). Pathetic. They all worship Jewish power and they all go to Jerusalem to kiss the wall.
Anthony Albanese responds to the Pro-Palestine Protest in Sydney (2 min)
Maybe using the Apocalypse to game the outcome and running a controlled opposition tactic against God is not such a good idea.
Did Israel miscalculate? This was an interesting post (@FromKulak) :
Artillery is 90% of all effective firepower. Airborne munitions can't cycle through endless tons of explosive the way arty can, and they cost vastly more.
If this is true and Israel has only 20% its arty stockpile, then Hamas isn't suiciding Gaza on pyre of defiance like people think. They timed this perfectly to lure Israel into writing cheques they can't cash in the hopes Israel will invade Gaza with infantry at which point they can grind them down endlessly with basically unending Arab volunteers in brutal urban warfare... where most of their technological advantage is gone and they won't have the most important 1/3rd of combined arms warfare.
This also would explain the brutality and the focus on taking as many civilian hostages as they can, since Israel can't just leave hundreds of Israeli civilians in Gaza and declare they aren't going to get them back... They're pretty much trapped fighting a ground war with what little artillery they have.
If the 300,000 rounds the US took from Israeli stockpiles to give to Ukraine corresponds to that 80% that Israel's supposedly down then they basically can't sustain combined armed warfare, since the 2014 Gaza war took 34,000 rounds of artillery alone.
Even if they have hundreds of thousands left, they can only use a fraction of them on Gaza since they need enough that they could fight a high intensity war with Egypt, Syria, and Lebanon if they intervene... let alone if Iran and Iraq start sending forces (US invasion handed Iraq to the Shia majority who align with Iran)
So even if they have another 300k artillery shells lying around, at most that'd be tens of thousand of available to actually use on Gaza without risk of being drowned by its rivalled arab neighbors in a multi-nation war.
That means the fighting to "open the gates of hell" or "wipe Gaza off the map" as some commentators are calling for will have to be done by air assets which can't realistically deliver the tonnage, and ground troops who would be dying at horrific ratios as urban settings negate most of the advantage of military tech.
Israel's active duty force only has 20ish thousand infantry in active force, even activating the 400k reserves you can only use a portion since there's the constant threat of a multinational war breaking out, Hezbollah in the north, and the entire west bank that could pop off...
So they have to punish Gaza, extract the hostages or their bodies, and achieve enough objectives to declare victory... against a population of 4 million! +Every radical fighter in the middle-east from Afghanistan to Aberdeen chomping at the bit to get in there... and they'll have to do it with... maybe 10k full time infantry? Maybe 20-30k counting the reservists?
In urban warfare? With limited artillery?
Hamas might actually have them...
They might have actually played their cards right to create the conditions for a Vietnam in the holy lands.
Remember Israel's active force of 169,000 is both genders and conscripts... You start losing a lot of people or start having to reassign 19 year old girls who never wanted to hold a rifle to infantry. that will grind down morale damned fast and tear open Israel's social divisions.. Not least between liberal secular jews who actually serve and the conservative orthodox who dodge the draft through "religious study"
I think it’s quite likely that Hamas’ end-game in this operation is goading the Israelis into an all-out invasion of the Gaza Strip – something they’ve shied away from (for good reason!) for twenty years now.
Hamas refused a cease-fire in exchange for wounded and captured
Israeli officers, Hazem Qassem said and said: "There is no question of a
cease-fire and that this time we are going to the final victory."
The negotiations were led by Egyptian negotiators, and Anthony Blinken
mediated in calming the tensions, to which "Hamas" replied that they
had the initiative and that it would be buying time because they had
received information that Israel had sent 80 percent of the artillery
ammunition to Ukraine and they they have this knowledge that now
Israel wants to "buy time", according to the "Wall Street Journal"
US Navy Deploys Ford Carrier Strike Group to Israel | Impact on Global Shipping? (15 min)
Israel At War | You’ll Be Shocked By Who Started Hamas (15 min)
All You Need to Know About What’s Happening in Palestine (17 min)
Netanyahu skeptical of looming war; Iran reasserts ‘Israel’s days are numbered’ TV7Israel News 14.04 (12 min)
Now, I don’t agree with everything in this article but it is interesting Never the less, especially as Netanyahu was being egged on by the Chabad Rabbi and he is now courting the extreme religious right:
“Looking back in history, it must be admitted that these lands are the ancient ancestral lands of the Jewish Khazaria, that is Israel, captured by Kiev’s Rus’ (the ancient state of Russia with the capital in Kiev) in the tenth century,” pontificated 25 years ago Rabbi Menahem Mandel Schneerson, a deluded wannabe Messiah. “The Slavs are temporary guests on these lands and are subject to eviction. We will return to this territory and build the Great Khazaria – the Jewish state –on these fertile lands the same way as, 50 years ago, we created Israel, squeezing the Palestinians out. Israelis will partially relocate here, and we will drive Slavic cattle out far to the north, beyond Moscow. There will be a small Northern Territory, a reservation with a compact population — a reservation, like Indian reservations in America.”
But would the Ashkenazi Jews be okay with just Ukraine – minus Crimea, Donbass, and the South (all Russian territories prior to 1922, inhabited by ethnic Russians and recently annexed into Russia proper by popular vote) – as their new base wherefrom they would project Jewish power to destroy their perpetual Russian nemesis, along with all other imagined enemies, and preserve their grip on the world’s financial system using their Federal Reserve issuance of fiat US Dollar as the undisputed World Reserve Currency?