| Topic: |
Religions > Atheism |
| User: |
"Apocalypse Now" |
| Date: |
05 Dec 2003 05:49:30 AM |
| Object: |
Armageddon: The Fundamentalist Plan For Israel |
Fundamentalism's Bloody Homeland for Jews
by Gary North
I have previously written about this highly embarrassing, and therefore
actively covered up, aspect of modern fundamentalism, namely, the
movement's substitution of Jews for Christians as the victims of a
supposedly future (but actually past) "Great Tribulation."
Fundamentalists actively support the State of Israel, despite their
belief that by doing so, they are helping to lure millions of Jews into
a horrible death: "Holocaust II." They do so for a reason: they expect
to escape death personally. This is a powerful incentive.
"The Great Tribulation" is the phrase used by fundamentalists to
describe a future time of persecution and slaughter of the Jews.
By "fundamentalists," I mean defenders of the theological system, first
proclaimed around 1830, known as premillennial dispensationalism. This
is a late variant of Christian eschatology, i.e., the theological
doctrine of the last things or last times. There are three basic views:
premillennialism, amillennialism, and postmillennialism. (On this
subject, see my article, "Millennialism and the Progressive Movement,"
published in The Journal of Libertarian Studies [Spring 1996]).
The prefixes pre-, a-, and post-refer to the timing of the time period
that Christians believe will precede God's final judgment.
Premillennialists say that Jesus will return to set up a literal 1,000-
year period of peace and justice, in which He will rule here on earth
through an international bureaucracy of Christians. This view has been
held throughout church history. The post-1830 dispensational variant is
the view of the famous Scofield Reference Bible (Oxford University
Press, 1909, 1917), most Southern Baptists, most Pentecostals, and
members of virtually all independent Bible churches. Amillennialists
think that the millennium is spiritual and allegorical, and it will
have no literal political fulfillment in history. This is the view of
Dutch Calvinists, Lutherans, and most Roman Catholics.
Postmillennialism proclaims a period of peace and justice during which
most of the world's population will be Christian. This was the view of
most Puritans in the first half of the seventeenth century, prior to
the restoration to the British throne of Charles II in 1660. It was
also a predominant view of Scottish Presbyterian in the seventeenth
century and in its American branches until after the American Civil
War. Jonathan Edwards is the most famous American postmillennialist.
Jesus did teach of a coming tribulation (Matthew 24, Luke 21). He
called this period "the days of vengeance" (Luke 21:22). He said
specifically of the timing of this period of terror and slaughter, "Now
learn a parable of the fig tree; When his branch is yet tender, and
putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh: So likewise ye, when
ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors.
Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these
things be fulfilled" (Matthew 24:32-34).
While there has been much debate as to the timing of the fulfillment of
this prophecy, the dominant view in church history has been that this
prophecy was fulfilled in 70 A.D., when the Roman army surrounded
Jerusalem, crucified thousands of Jews who tried to escape, and took
the city. Two Roman soldiers then burned the temple, according to the
post-war court historian for the victorious emperor Vespasian, the Jew
Josephus. A short introduction to this interpretation is David
Chilton's 1987 book, The Great Tribulation.
FUNDAMENTALISM'S RE-WRITE
There are amillennialists who believe that the fall of Jerusalem
fulfilled this prophecy. Others think the slaughter is yet to come, and
will be imposed on Christians rather than Jews, since they believe that
the church has replaced Israel as God's people. Most postmillennialists
place it in the past: AD 70.
Dispensationalists without exception believe that the event is still in
the future. A small, unorganized group, called post-tribulational
dispensationalists, think that Jesus will take the Christians out of
history only after the Great Tribulation. They believe that Christians
will go through it. But there are very few of these people. They have
no seminaries or publishing houses. The vast majority of
dispensationalists are pre-tribulationists. They say that Christians
will be pulled into Heaven and out of history immediately before a
seven-year period of church-free history. In the second half of this
seven-year period, the slaughter of the Jews will begin.
Among the academic critics of this view, Gary DeMar is the most
prominent. His book, Last Days Madness, challenges the position, point
by point. His recent book, End-Times Fiction, now in its eighth
printing, is a critique of the best-selling series of novels, Left
Behind, co-authored by Rev. Tim LaHaye, the husband of conservative
activist Beverly LaHaye. There are even a pair of low-budget movies
based on LaHaye's novels.
DeMar has a standing offer to debate any dispensational author. LaHaye
has prudently refused the offer for two decades. His official stand-in,
whom LaHaye's foundation supports financially, Thomas Ice, has taken by
DeMar in full public view in eight public debates over the last 15
years. To say that Mr. Ice is not up to the challenge is putting it
mildly. But at least he shows up. Only he and best-selling author Dave
Hunt, an accountant, have been willing to take DeMar's challenge. (I
even got my turn, along with DeMar, in our tag-team debate with Hunt
and Ice in 1988.)
DeMar argues, correctly, that the defense of dispensational theology
has moved steadily from theological treatises and seminaries to novels
and low-budget movies. Today, there are virtually no academically
employed or retired seminary theologians under age 80 who still teach
the pre-1970 version of dispensationalism, which was made famous by Hal
Lindsey's best-seller, The Late, Great Planet Earth (1970). The
seminaries that once taught the system are all in the process of
modifying it, but no detailed alternative has been presented, no
Systematic Theology, without which there is no public position within
Christian circles.
The trusting donors in their pews are unaware of the theological shift
that has taken place since the mid-1980's at the seminaries that are
training the next generation of dispensationalists. Over a decade ago,
Ken Sidey referred to this transformation, but the people in the pews
remain oblivious.
For years, dispensational theology, with its differentiation of God's
program for the church and for Israel, shaped conservative evangelical
views. Its literal interpretation of prophecy, promoted by the Scofield
Bible and scholars from Dallas Theological Seminary, marked the
restoration of Israel as the starting point for many other end-times
prophecies, culminating in Christ's return.
But some say the influence of traditional dispensationalism has
declined in the past decade. Others, like Darrell Bock, professor of
New Testament at Dallas, say it's entering a new phase. He sees it
going through a period of self-assessment. A new, "progressive
dispensationalism" is emerging, one that is less "land-centered"
and "future-centered" than past versions.[Ken Sidey, "For the Love of
Zion," Christianity Today (March 9, 1992), 50.]
The donors in the pews still watch "The 700 Club" and visit
www.hallindseyoracle.com. They still get excited about the latest
developments – always bad – in the Middle East. "Prophecy is being
fulfilled before our very eyes!" (Note: all of the pre-1991 prophecies
went down the fundamentalist memory hole when the USSR went belly-up.)
ZIONISM FOR FUNDAMENTALISTS
Ever since the creation of the State of Israel in 1948,
dispensationalists have been sorely tempted to announce, "Prophecy is
being fulfilled. Jesus is coming back soon." This is inconsistent with
the academic version of the dispensational system of interpretation,
because the official position says that no Old Testament prophecy has
been, or can be, fulfilled in the Church Age, that is, before Jesus
takes Christians to Heaven seven years before He returns to set up His
earthly kingdom. But such subtle theological concepts are way beyond
the comprehension of the donors in the pews, who still delight in
hearing about prophecy being fulfilled today.
They used to buy paperback books on the topic every time there was a
blow-up in the Middle East. But the 1991 Gulf War was the last hurrah
for the paperback potboilers. There were none visible in the Christian
book stores during Gulf II.
The problem is, ever since 1917, dispensationalists had bet the farm on
Russia as the invader of Israel. Russia was the so-called Beast of
Revelation. (See the book by a non-dispensational premillennialist
professor of history, Dwight Wilson, Armageddon Now!: The
Premillenarian Response to Russia and Israel Since 1917.) But the
Soviet Communist leaders ruthlessly stabbed fundamentalists in the back
in 1991 by abolishing the Soviet Union. It turned out that we could not
trust the Communists to be Communists. The leaders turned out to be a
bunch of money-grubbing capitalists, with the Party's treasury to loot
and ownership of the factories to privatize – mainly to themselves. The
Commie bastards! (Note: I use a King James Version term here [Hebrews
12:8].)
Ever since 1991, fundamentalist TV preachers have been frantically
seeking a replacement for the future invading nation "from the north"
that wil
surround Jerusalem and kill two-thirds of the Israelis. Low-
tech Arabs do not seem to be front-runners here, but the Arabs are all
the preachers have at the moment.
If Jews do not return to the State of Israel, to be concentrated inside
its borders, then the prophecy of a final Great Tribulation, where
Jerusalem is surrounded by its enemies, cannot be fulfilled. Three and
a half years before this Great Tribulation, all Christians get cosmic
R&R: their final escape from history and all of its crushing
responsibilities, which dispensationalists have prayed for and dreamed
about since 1830.
This is why they support the Zionist movement. The Zionists have made
the dispensationalists' interpretation of the Great Tribulation
prophecy appear tenable. Zionists have created a nation-state for Jews
in Palestine. This has led to the reversal of the Jews' diaspora after
135 AD, the year Bar Kochba's revolt was crushed by Rome. The world's
Jews, except for a few million in the United States, are being be lured
back into the prophetic trap. Without this trap, the fulfillment of the
church's R&R would have to be postponed, perhaps for centuries, until
Jews can finally be lured back in. Without the slaughter of the Jews,
Christians cannot get out of life alive.
Fundamentalists were not always pro-Zionist. Dr. Wilson summarizes the
pre-1940 position taken by some fundamentalists, who went into print on
the matter.
Another comment regarding the general European anti-Semitism depicted
these developments as part of the on-going plan of God for the nation;
they were "Foregleams of Israel's Tribulation." Premillennialists were
anticipating the Great Tribulation, "the time of Jacob's trouble."
Therefore, they predicted, "The next scene in Israel's history may be
summed up in three words: purification through tribulation." It was
clear that although this purification was part of the curse, God did
not intend that Christians should participate in it. Clear, also, was
the implication that He did intend for the Germans to participate in it
(in spite of the fact that it would bring them punishment) – and that
any moral outcry against Germany would have been in opposition to God's
will. In such a fatalistic system, to oppose Hitler was to oppose God.
Other premillennial writers placed "part of the blame for anti-Semitism
on the Jews: 'The Jew is the world's archtroubler. Most of the
Revolutions of Continental Europe were fostered by Jews.' The Jews –
especially the German Jews – were responsible for the great depression"
(p. 94)
But, after Hitler declared war on the United States on December 10,
1941, this interpretation changed, for obvious reasons. Then came 1948.
I AM NOT MAKING THIS UP
Whenever one of my articles on this aspect of America's Christian
Zionism is published on this site, Lew Rockwell gets e-mails telling
him that I do not know what I am talking about, that dispensationalism
teaches no such thing. These critics are ill-informed. They are also
embarrassed. It really sounds self-serving to promote the Jews' return
to Palestine in order to be slaughtered. That's because it is self-
serving.
Gary DeMar has written a detailed, footnoted paper on this
subject, "The Bloody Future of Israel in Dispensational Eschatology" .
I challenge skeptics to read his paper, follow his footnotes, and come
to any other conclusion.
DeMar quotes from a segment of "The 700 Club," where Pat Robertson
interviewed "Messianic Jew" Sid Roth. (Messianic Jews are a small
movement of Jewish converts to dispensationalism who retain bits and
pieces of the liturgies of Judaism.)
Sid Roth, host of "Messianic Vision," on the September 18, 1991,
edition of the "700 Club," stated that "two-thirds of the Jewish people
[living in Israel] will be exterminated." He, along with other
futurists, bases this view on a futurized interpretation of Zechariah
13:8-9. He sees incidents like that of Blacks against Jews in New York
as a prelude to a coming great persecution. Pat Robertson asked
Roth: "You don't foresee some kind of persecution against Jews in
America, do you?" Roth responded: "Unfortunately, I believe God
foresees this." Roth believes that the end (pre-tribulational rapture)
is near. Since he believes that Jews are destined to suffer, based on a
futurized interpretation of Zechariah 13:8-9, he postulates that
today's anti-semitism is a prelude to a greater, future tribulation.
John Walvoord, for three decades the president of Dallas Theological
Seminary, the nation's leading dispensational seminary, wrote the
following in his book, Israel in Prophecy (1988):
The purge of Israel in their time of trouble is described by Zechariah
in these words: "And it shall come to pass, that in all the land, saith
Jehovah, two parts therein shall be cut off and die; but the third
shall be left therein. And I will bring the third part into the fire,
and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is
tried" (Zechariah 13:8, 9). According to Zechariah's prophecy, two
thirds of the children of Israel in the land will perish, but the one
third that are left will be refined and be awaiting the deliverance of
God at the second coming of Christ which is described in the next
chapter of Zechariah (p. 108).
DeMar calls attention to the terrible silence of fundamentalists who
believe this view of the future. They refuse to warn Jews about what is
in store for them.
Israel's present population is around 4,500,000. If two-thirds of the
Jews living in Israel at the time of the "Great Tribulation" are to
die, this will mean the death of nearly 3,000,000! In addition, there
is continued immigration from the former Soviet Union supported by
Christian organizations like "On Wings of Eagles." Financial support is
raised by Christians to fund Jewish settlements in the occupied
territories. "'This is a biblical issue,' says Theodore T. Beckett, a
Colorado developer who founded the Christian-sponsored, adopt-a-
settlement program. 'The Bible says in the last days the Jews will be
restored to the nation of Israel.'" For every three people who enter,
two of them will be killed during the "Great Tribulation." Why aren't
today's dispensationalists warning Jews about this coming holocaust by
encouraging them to leave Israel until the conflagration is over?
Instead, we find dispensationalists supporting and encouraging the
relocation of Jews to the land of Israel. For what? A future holocaust?
Eugene Merrill, while not discussing Zechariah 13:8 in his commentary
on that biblical book, does describe how a future holocaust of the Jews
is in view in Zechariah 14:2. Merrill writes:
The restoration and dominion cannot come until all the forces of evil
that seek to subvert it are put down once and for all. Specifically,
the redemption of Israel will be accomplished on the ruins of her own
suffering and those of the malevolent powers of this world that, in the
last day, will consolidate themselves against her and seek to interdict
forever any possibility of her success. The nations of the whole earth
will come against Jerusalem, and, having defeated her, will divide up
their spoils of war in her very midst.
If this is to be the future of Jews living in Israel, then why aren't
dispensationalists warning Jews to flee the city? Israel was warned by
Jesus to "flee to the mountains" (Matthew 24:16). The New Testament is
filled with warnings about the coming A.D. 70 holocaust with no
encouragement to take up residence in Jerusalem. In fact, there was a
mass exodus from the city by those who understood the world-wide
implications of the gospel message and the approaching destruction of
what was the center of Jewish worship (John 4:21-24).
Why the silence? One answer is obvious: if such a warning were believed
and acted upon by Jews, this would empty the State of Israel of Jews,
which would in turn delay the great Christian R&R for untold
generations. Problem: there can be no cosmic escape for Christians,
called the Rapture, until 3.5 years prior to the Great Tribulation. In
short, when it comes to dealing with the miseries of this life vs. a
trip to Heaven without death, there is no question that fundamentalists
prefer the latter. This escape will at long last solve the moral
dilemma of the phrase, "everybody wants to go to Heaven, but nobody
wants to die."
CONCLUSION
The fundamentalists' unwavering support of a pro-Zionist American
foreign policy began shortly after 1948; it is unlikely to disappear.
There is little psychological possibility of persuading premillennial
dispensationalists to adopt a non-interventionist foreign policy with
respect to the State of Israel. They will not risk losing the
possibility of attaining Heaven without dying.
Fundamentalists may oppose government transfer payments (foreign aid)
to every other nation, but for the State of Israel, which has been the
number-one recipient of such foreign aid, to the tune of about $1.6
trillion since 1973, the political support by fundamentalists will be
there.
People ask me, "Does eschatology really matter?" The answer is, yes, it
does.
November 1, 2003
http://www.lewrockwell.com/north/north222.html
Gary North [send him mail] is the author of Mises on Money. Visit
http://www.freebooks.com. For a free subscription to Gary North's
newsletter on gold, click here.
--
Sent by leigh from phantom included in org
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| User: "nullus fides" |
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| Title: Re: Armageddon: The Fundamentalist Plan For Israel |
05 Dec 2003 07:40:39 AM |
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And so upon Fri, 05 Dec 2003 11:49:30 +0000 didst Apocalypse Now speak
thusly:
I have previously written about this highly embarrassing, and therefore
actively covered up, aspect of modern fundamentalism, namely, the
movement's substitution of Jews for Christians as the victims of a
supposedly future (but actually past) "Great Tribulation."
Fundamentalists actively support the State of Israel, despite their
belief that by doing so, they are helping to lure millions of Jews into
a horrible death: "Holocaust II." They do so for a reason: they expect
to escape death personally. This is a powerful incentive.
That's the thing that kills me about Israel sucking up to those people.
Don't they "get it" that the fundies are trying to bring about a near
total slaughter of the Jews?
It's mythology, yes, but still. I mean, can we talk "anti-Semitism?"
--
The infrequently updated, terribly pointless
blog nobody reads can be found at:
http://nullusfides.blogspot.com/
(may be helpful for insomnia)
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