Jewish Voices Struggle with Armageddonism's Rough Edges

This article about Christian Zionism is a window into how a Jewish conscience struggles with the ramifications of Armageddonism, and somehow casts a blind eye to its evils and concludes that this theology is harmless.

I also found this other article on Christian Action for Israel website; again also speaking about Christian Zionism from a Jewish perspective. It would be interesting to read commentary on the topic from a Palestinian/Muslim perspective as well.

My own observation is that these Jewish voices are averting their eyes from a reality that the support they get from the Armageddonist ranks is ultimately bad for Israel not just on some philosophical grounds. But because it opposes any peace which does not march through the shadow of the valley of death - Armageddon.

David Brog, for instance, avoids talking about Armageddon by focusing on the narrow question of whether Rapture based theologians support Israel to convert them:

Evangelicals who support Israel most certainly do want to convert people. Evangelicals who don’t support Israel also want to convert people. The mission of sharing the ‘good news’ of Jesus Christ is central to being an evangelical. But it is important to note that this is not about converting just the Jews — Christians want to share their faith with Hindus, Muslims, Buddhists and their Christian friends and neighbors who have yet to be born again. The important question is this: Is evangelical support for Israel merely a tool in the effort to convert the Jews? Is this merely some scheme to soften the Jews up so that they can better sell Jesus to them? And the answer to this question is absolutely not. If anything, the opposite it true.

Of course they don't want you to convert because if you convert now, then who will remain to fight and die in the battle of Armageddon?

The anytime rapture theologians have been saying for a long time now that they expect Armageddon to happen within their life time. They are tired of waiting and are not content to sit by and let prophesy fulfill itself.

Their game is now to play up fears and engage in pre-emptive strikes which will fulfill prophesy. After all, the Russian-Persian alliance that is supposed to attack Israel is taking too long to form. Fifty years is a long time.

So the game is now to raise phantoms such as "Iran wants to wipe out Jews" - a false allegation, even though it reverberates in the media. People hear what they want to hear. Cursory research indicates this statement is taken out of context and the intended message was to promote a true - one man one vote type democracy which would do away with the current system of occupier/occupied reality of Israel.

To conclude, Rapturists' goal is to put Jews in a state of panic and encourage them to view their neighbors as new Hitlers in the hope that they would lash out and begin the "inevitable" battle of Armageddon. They may be acting out of sincerity, but it is misdirected sincerity.

No comments: