Re: [A-List] Re: COUP d' ETAT IN WASHINGTON

["Anyutka" <annewilliamson@xxxxxxx>]

Sabri:

Real Christians honor the teachings of Christ, who had a lot of things
to say about the rich, and the poor - and anticipate no material
benefits for their faithfulness.  I can not say what is a true Muslim,
but I suspect honoring the teachings of the Prophet would be key.
And, Jews, are instructed to honor the covenant with the Lord
Almighty.  It appears a shared thread for "the people of the Book"
is adherence to the Lord's instructions.

Below is a piece by Gary North that I think will be helpful to the
A-List in understanding "rapture" Christianity.  As far as the economic
lessons of the Bible are concerned, Dr. North has written a number
of books on the economics of the Bible, and they can be read at
www.freebooks.com.

Anne




The Unannounced Reason Behind American Fundamentalism's Support for the
State of Israel
by Gary North

With the President meeting this week with Prime Minister Barak of Israel and
Yassir Arafat, it may be time to review a topic that is baffling for Jews,
annoying to Arabs, and unavoidable for American Congressmen: the unswerving
political support for the State of Israel by American fundamentalists.

Vocal support of a pro-Israel American foreign policy is basic for the
leaders of American Protestant fundamentalism. This has been true ever since
1948. Pat Robertson and Rev. Jerry Falwell have been pro-Israel throughout
their careers, beginning two decades before the arrival of the New Christian
Right in the late 1970's. These men are not aberrations. The Trinity
Broadcasting Network is equally supportive. So are the best-selling authors
who speak for, and influence heavily, Protestant fundamentalism, most
notably Hal Lindsey, author of The Late Great Planet Earth (1970), and Tim
LaHaye, the husband of Beverly LaHaye of Concerned Women for America, which
says on its Web site that it is "the nation's largest public policy women's
organization." Rev. LaHaye and his co-author have each earned some $10
million in royalties for their multi-volume futuristic novel, Left Behind.
They have a very large audience.

People may ask themselves, "Why this support?" Fundamentalists earlier in
this century were sometimes associated with anti-Semitism. James M. Gray of
the Moody Bible Institute in 1927 wrote an editorial favorable to Henry Ford
's Dearborn Independent series on Jews. Gray's editorial appeared in the
Moody Bible Institute Monthly. Arno C. Gabelein, a prominent fundamentalist
leader, believed that the Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion was a
legitimate document. Gabelein's 1933 book, The Conflict of the Ages, would
today be regarded as anti-Semitic.

Other fundamentalist leaders of the pre-War era, while not anti-Semitic,
attempted to maintain neutrality on the issue of Hitler's persecution of
Jews. In his 1977 book, Armageddon Now!, Christian historian Dwight Wilson
cites numerous examples of fundamentalist theologians in the late 1930's who
regarded Hitler's discriminatory policies against Jews as part of God's
judgment on the Jews. He writes: "Pleas from Europe for assistance for
Jewish refugees fell on deaf ears, and 'Hands Off' meant no helping hand. So
in spite of being theologically more pro-Jewish than any other Christian
group, the premillennarians also were apathetic. . . ." [pp. 96-97].

What was it that persuaded almost the entire fundamentalist movement to move
from either hostility or neutrality to vocal support of Israel? No single
answer will fit every case, but there is a common motivation, one not taken
seriously by most people in history: getting out of life alive.

The Not-Quite Last Things

The Christian doctrine of eschatology deals with the last things. Sometimes
eschatology deals with the personal: the death of the individual. Usually,
however, it has to do with God's final judgment of mankind.

There have been three main views of eschatology in the history of the
church, which theologians classify as premillennialism, postmillennialism,
and amillennialism. The pre- and post- designations refer to the expected
timing of the bodily return of Jesus in the company of angels: before (pre-)
the establishment of an earthly kingdom of God, or after (post-) this
kingdom has extended its rule across the earth.

The amillennial view is that the kingdom of God is mainly spiritual. This
became the dominant view of Christianity for over a millennium after
Augustine's City of God, with its distinction between the city of God, the
church (spiritual and permanent) and the political cities of man (rising and
falling). Luther held this eschatological view. Most of the Continental
Protestant Reformers of the sixteenth century held it. But
seventeenth-century Scottish Presbyterians were more likely to hold the
postmillennial view, and they carried it with them when they emigrated to
America. Their postmillennialism rested in part on their belief that God
will convert the Jews to Christianity as a prelude to the kingdom's period
of greatest expansion, an idea derived from Paul's Epistle to the church at
Rome, chapter 11. Presbyterians are officially commanded to pray for the
conversion of the Jews. [Westminster Larger Catechism (1647), Answer 191.]
The first generation of Puritan Congregationalists in New England also held
similar postmillennial opinions.

The premillennial view was commonly held in the pre-Augustinian church,
although the other views did have defenders. After 1660, premillennialism
became increasingly common within American Puritanism. Cotton Mather was a
premillennialist. But Jonathan Edwards was postmillennial. In
nineteenth-century America, both views were common prior to the Civil War.
After the War, premillennialism steadily replaced postmillennialism among
fundamentalists. A secularized postmillennialism was adopted by the Social
Gospel movement. Non-fundamentalist Protestants from Continental Europe,
like the Catholics, remained amillennial. Postmillennialism faded after
World War I until the late 1970's, when it experienced a limited revival.

Basic to the view of both premillennialism and amillennialism is pessimism
regarding the efforts of Christians to build a culture-wide kingdom of God
on earth. Both positions hold that only by Jesus' bodily presence among the
saints can Christians create an cultural alternative to the competing
kingdoms of man. The premillennialist believes that this international
kingdom construction task will begin in earnest a thousand years before the
final judgment, with Jesus ruling from a literal throne, probably located in
Jerusalem. The amillennialist views this universal extension of the kingdom
of God into culture as possible only after the resurrection of all humanity
at the final judgment, i.e., in a sin-free, death-free, Christians-only
world.

Tribulation and Rapture

Just prior to Jesus' return to set up an earthly kingdom, argue most
amillennialists and all premillennialists, there will be a time of
persecution, called the Great Tribulation. It is here that the great debate
over the Jews begins. Amillennialists believe that Christians will be
persecuted by their enemies. A handful of premillennialists, referred to as
"historic premillennialists," also identify Christians as the targets. This
version of premillennialism has been insignificant institutionally since the
1870's. The dominant premillennial view says that Jews will suffer the Great
Tribulation. Born-again Christians will have flown the coop - literally.
This is the doctrine of the pre-tribulation Rapture.

According to pre-tribulation premillennialists, who are known as
dispensationalists, Jesus will come secretly in the clouds and raise
deceased Christians - and only Christians - from the dead. Immediately
thereafter, every true Christian will be transported bodily into the sky,
and from there to heaven: the Rapture event. The passage cited to defend
this view is found in Paul's first letter to the church at Thessolonica:
"For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice
of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall
rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up [harpazo]
together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall
we ever be with the Lord" (I Thes. 4:16-17). Throughout most of church
history, this passage was associated with the final judgment, but beginning
sometime around 1830 in England, it was linked to the premillennial,
pretribulational Rapture - a word that is not found in the Greek text or in
any English translation of the New Testament. Its Latin root word is in
Jerome's Vulgate, a translation of the Greek "harpazo" - seize, catch, or
pluck.

This outlook on the earthly future became increasingly popular among
fundamentalists, beginning in the 1870's. It was formalized in the footnotes
of the Scofield Reference Bible (1909; revised, 1917). In 1930, it became
the first Oxford University Press book to reach sales of one million. It has
now sold over five million copies. C. I. Scofield's system has defined
fundamentalism for nine decades.


The Rapture-based escape from history is now universally believed by
fundamentalists to be imminent. Generations of fundamentalists have believed
that they will escape bodily death. They will be transported into the sky,
like Elijah, though without benefit of chariots.

But when? That has been the great question. The answer: "Soon." But why
soon? Why not a millennium from now? The psychological answer: Because men
do not live that long in this millennium. The main selling point for
fundamentalism's Bible prophecies is to get insight into what is coming
soon. In this case, the issue of mortality is central. As the slogan says,
"Everybody wants to go to heaven, but nobody wants to die." The doctrine of
the imminent Rapture allows Christians to believe seriously that they can go
to heaven without dying. Millions of Americans believe this today.

But how can they be so sure? Because of the events of 1948. In that year,
the crucial missing piece of the prophetic puzzle - the restoration of the
nation of Israel - seemed to come true. Critics of the dispensational system
could no longer say, "But where is Israel in all this?" The answer, at long
last: "In Palestine, just in time for the Great Tribulation."

The Grim Fate of Israel

The source of the idea of the Great Tribulation is found in Jesus' last
words regarding Israel, which are recorded in Matthew 24 and Luke 21.

And when ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the
desolation thereof is nigh. Then let them which are in Judaea flee to the
mountains; and let them which are in the midst of it depart out; and let not
them that are in the countries enter thereinto. For these be the days of
vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled. But woe unto
them that are with child, and to them that give suck, in those days! for
there shall be great distress in the land, and wrath upon this people. And
they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into
all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the
times of the Gentiles be fulfilled (Luke 21:20-24).

Throughout most of church history, this prophecy was interpreted as having
been fulfilled by the Roman siege of Jerusalem and the destruction of the
temple in 70 A.D. With the rise of dispensationalism, however, the
fulfillment of this passage was moved into the future.

Dispensationalism's critics had long asked: "Where is the nation of Israel?
Where are the Jews?" Not in Palestine, surely. So, dispensationalists tended
to apply this prophecy of near-destruction to Jews in general - only
symbolically residing in Israel - until 1948. This was one reason for their
silence on Hitler's persecution. Hitler was just another rung in the ladder
of persecution leading to the inevitable Great Tribulation.

The prophesied agency of the great persecution has shifted over the years.
As Wilson shows in Armageddon Now!, from 1917 until 1977, Russia was a prime
candidate. But, after 1991, this has become difficult to defend, for obvious
reasons. The collapse of the Soviet Union has created a major problem for
dispensationalism's theologians and its popular authors. But there have been
no comparable doubts about the intensity of the coming persecution. Here is
the opinion of John F. Walvoord, one of dispensationalism's leading
theologians, who served for three decades as the president of Dallas
Theological Seminary (founded, 1924), the movement's main seminary.

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. [John F.
Walvoord, Israel in Prophecy (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, [1962] 1988), p.
108.

Nothing can or will be done by Christians to save Israel's Jews from this
disaster, for all of the Christians will have been removed from this world
three and a half years prior to the beginning of this 42-month period of
tribulation. (The total period of seven years is interpreted as the
fulfillment of the seventieth week of Daniel [Dan. 9:27].)

In order for most of today's Christians to escape physical death, two-thirds
of the Jews in Israel must perish, soon. This is the grim prophetic
trade-off that fundamentalists rarely discuss publicly, but which is the
central motivation in the movement's support for Israel. It should be clear
why they believe that Israel must be defended at all costs by the West. If
Israel were militarily removed from history prior to the Rapture, then the
strongest case for Christians' imminent escape from death would have to be
abandoned. This would mean the indefinite delay of the Rapture. The
fundamentalist movement thrives on the doctrine of the imminent Rapture, not
the indefinitely postponed Rapture.

Every time you hear the phrase, "Jesus is coming back soon," you should
mentally add, "and two-thirds of the Jews of Israel will be dead in 'soon
plus 84 months.'" Fundamentalists really do believe that they probably will
not die physically, but to secure this faith prophetically, they must defend
the doctrine of an inevitable holocaust.

This specific motivation for the support of Israel is never preached from
any fundamentalist pulpit. The faithful hear sermons - many, many sermons -
on the pretribulation Rapture. On other occasions, they hear sermons on the
Great Tribulation. But they do not hear the two themes put together: "We can
avoid death, but only because two-thirds of the Jews of Israel will
inevitably die in a future holocaust. America must therefore support the
nation of Israel in order to keep the Israelis alive until after the
Rapture." Fundamentalist ministers expect their congregations to put two and
two together on their own. It would be politically incorrect to add up these
figures in public.

The fundamentalists I have known generally say they appreciate Jews. They
think Israel is far superior to Arab nations. They believe in a pro-Israel
foreign policy as supportive of democracy and America's interests. They do
not dwell upon the prophetic fate of Israel's Jews except insofar as they
want to transfer the threat of the Great Tribulation away from themselves
and their families. Nevertheless, this is the bottom line: the prophetic
scapegoating of Israel. This scapegoat, not Christians, must be sent into
the post-Rapture wilderness.

Evangelism in Israel

Their eschatology has produced a kind of Catch-22 for fundamentalists. What
if, as a result of evangelism, the Jews of Israel were converted en masse to
Christianity? They would then be Raptured, along with their Gentile
brethren, leaving only Arabs behind. This scenario would make the immediate
fulfillment of prophecy impossible: no post-Rapture Israelis to persecute.
So, fundamentalists have concluded that the vast majority of the Jews of
Israel cannot, will not, and must not be converted to Christianity.

This raises an obvious question: Why spend money on evangelizing Israelis?
It would be a waste of resources. This is why there are so few active
fundamentalist ministries in Israel that target Jews. They target Arabs
instead. Eschatologically speaking, the body of an Israeli must be
preserved, for he may live long enough to go through the Great Tribulation.
But his soul is expendable. This is why fundamentalists vocally support the
nation of Israel, but then do very little to preach to Israelis the
traditional Protestant doctrine of salvation by faith in Jesus Christ.
Fundamentalists have a prophetic agenda for Israelis that does not involve
at least two-thirds of the Israelis' souls. Israelis are members of the only
group on earth that has an unofficial yet operational King's X against
evangelism by fundamentalists, specifically so that God may preserve
Israelis for the sake of the destruction of modern Israel in the Great
Tribulation. The presence of Israel validates the hope of fundamentalists
that Christians, and Christians alone, will get out of life alive.

July 19, 2000

Gary North is the author of Conspiracy: A Biblical View, which discusses the
20th century's Anglo-American alliance. Download a free copy at
www.freebooks.com.