| The Christian right,
generally speaking, embraces religious Zionism---not simply
support for the modern Jewish state, but a certain view
of the past, present and future based on a Bible-centered
understanding of history and a prophetic vision of the
future. That entails, in bare outline, the following narrative.
Prophecy and the Basic Bible Story
God, who created everything, chose a man named Abraham
about 4000 years ago to bless the world through his descendents.
Those descendents include the progeny of his eldest son
Ishmael (regarded by many Jews, Christians and Muslims
as the Arabs), and those of his second son Isaac, the
Jews. The latter hold a special status in the universe.
God has spoken with many of them, through angels, in dreams
or directly, and provided them with the Ten Commandments,
directly in writing. He has sent them prophets to inform
humankind about the future. The Jewish scriptures comprising
the Old Testament of the Bible are God's Holy Writ, originally
in Hebrew.
God's covenant with Abraham involved a promise of a homeland.
His descendents were to possess all the land between the
Nile and the Euphrates. (One can interpret this to mean
it all goes to the Jews, or that it is shared by the descendents
of both Ishmael and Isaac.) Isaac's grandson Joseph, sold
by his brothers into slavery in Egypt, became a great
man in Egypt and ultimately forgiving his brothers arranged
for them and his father Jacob to settle in that country.
There, over generations, they became numerous. But becoming
enslaved they yearned for deliverance, and were miraculously
led out of Egypt by Moses.
After 40 years wandering in the Sinai Desert, in the
course of which they received the Ten Commandments, they
were (minus Moses) able to enter the Promised Land (Canaan),
slaughter its inhabitants in fulfillment of God's command,
and settle it. After many years of leadership by "judges"
they set up a kingdom (Judea) under King Saul, who was
followed by King David. After the death of David's son
Solomon, the nation split into Judah and Israel. In the
seventh and sixth centuries BCE, as punishment for the
sins of the Jewish kings and their subjects, foretold
by their prophets such as Isaiah and Jeremiah, God had
the Babylonians defeat both kingdoms, destroy the Temple
in Jerusalem, and carry many of their inhabitants off
to Babylon. (This is called the "Babylonian Captivity.")
But in fulfillment of prophecies, the Jews were able to
return to the Promised Land in the fifth century, rebuild
the Temple, and flourish although subject to Persian,
then Hellenistic and Roman domination. Under foreign rule,
they longed for the messiah or "anointed one"
foretold by the prophets and for the rebirth of an independent
Jewish kingdom.
Here's where the narrative of religious Jewish Zionists
and the Christian Zionists diverges. The latter of course
believe that God became incarnate among the Jews, born
of a Jewish virgin descended from King David. God's son
Jesus was the messiah, or (in Greek) the christ. Suffering
for the sins of the entire world (not only those of the
Jews but those of Gentiles too), the messiah was crucified
but rose from the dead, offering all those who believe
that he is the messiah, and God, eternal life. This is
what the Apostle Paul, who specialized in proselytizing
among the Gentiles, called the "new covenant"
involving God and Christians (2 Corinthians 3:6 and elsewhere).
Some Christians believe that since the majority of Jews
didn't accept Jesus as the messiah and son of God (or
in extreme cases, because "They killed Jesus!")
God punished them by allowing the Romans to destroy the
Temple in Jerusalem in 70 CE, and to disperse them once
again. Thousands were sold into slavery. After the rebellion
in the 130s Jews were banned from Jerusalem, and Emperor
Hadrian took measures to eliminate Judaism by banning
the Jewish calendar, circumcision, and the teaching of
Judaism. Many Jews believe all this was divine punishment
as well, God's chastisement of his people through history
being a recurring Biblical theme.
Both Christians and Jews can explain the subsequent trials
of the Jewish people by reference to Biblical prophecy,
such as the prophecy in Deuteronomy which states that
as punishment for their disobedience God will "scatter
[them] among all peoples, from one end of the earth to
the other." "Among those nations there will
be no repose for you, no rest for the sole of your foot;
Yahweh will give you a quaking heart, weary eyes, halting
breath. Your life from the outset will be a burden to
you: night and day you will go in fear, uncertain of your
life" (28:64-67). However, Jeremiah 16:14-16 tells
us that God "will restore [the Jews] to the land
[he] gave their forefathers." One might say from
the context that the prophet is only referring to the
return from Babylonian exile, but religious Zionists,
Jewish or Christian, apply this to the "miraculous"
reestablishment of Israel after the terrors of exile in
the twentieth century.
New Testament prophecy, supplemented by Old Testament
prophecy, allows for a various future scenarios, by the
Christian right is inclined to believe that the reestablishment
of Israel was foretold in the Book of Revelation and as
a prelude to apocalyptic events, including a horrific
war centering around Jerusalem, global rule by the Antichrist,
Jesus' return as a merciless judge, a "rapture"
rewarding the upright (i.e., themselves) and the end of
the world.
Critique of the "History"
Now, I don't know that belief in this exciting narrative
is confined to the politically active, dangerous religious
right bent on obtaining "dominion" over the
United States. There might be some---especially young
people--- inclined to accept it, or much of it, but still
open-minded enough to consider some questions about it.
In fact I'm sure there are, since I myself once believed
but gradually became unable to, being a restlessly inquiring
youth. I won't burden the reader with how I came to reject
the fundamental theistic premise, but only question the
Biblical history and role of prophecy in it.
Abraham, whose story is so crucial to the three Abrahamic
faiths (Judaism, Christianity and Islam) is supposed to
have lived about 2000 BCE. (I use BCE, or "before
the Common Era" as opposed to BC, so as not to privilege
the Christian faith. Sorry it if this, and my lower-case
h's---him not Him---annoy some readers.) The Biblical
chronology is difficult, but however one reads it he's
located between 2100 and 1900. However, the earliest Hebrew
writing dates back only to the 11th or 10th century BCE.
The Hebrew alphabet was derived from Phoenician, which
evolved out of the proto-Canaan alphabet (18th or 17th
century BCE).
The Pentateuch (first five books of the Bible, including
much of the above storyline) was written and edited from
the 9th century at the earliest and probably not completed
until the fifth. Deuteronomy is probably a seventh-century
work. In other words, at least a millennium goes by before
the stories of Abraham and his sons gets set down on papyrus.
These tales are replete with references to lengthy age
spans (Abraham's supposed to have lived 175 years), miraculous
pregnancies (Abraham's wife Sarah bears Isaac at age 90),
encounters with God and with angels, etc.
Of course none of this proves that it didn't all happen,
just as the Good Book says. The creator of the universe---provided
there is one---could have planted in some Jews' minds
an oral tradition (including interminable lists of who
begat whom and how long they lived, along with a massive
compendium of law and sometimes contradictory accounts
of events), up until the time that, having acquired writing
from other people, they could set it all down as scripture.
Or, alternatively, we might say that the material is
so inherently implausible, requiring us to imagine an
earth so different from ours today, and the events so
far-removed from the time the texts were composed that
we should consider it a mix of legend, myth and history.
As we do, for example, the Epic of Gilgamesh. The standard
version of this text was written in Akkadian between 1300
and 1000 BCE, but the original Sumerian was set down around
2000, or about 400 years after the reign of King Gilgamesh.
Included in the Sumerian King List (what I consider to
be the oldest historical document in any language), Gilgamesh
was probably a real person. The epic includes reference
to real places and describes real habits and customs.
But it is, after all, mostly fiction.
In this work predating Genesis by centuries, there is
a tale about a great flood. Floods being common in Mesopotamia,
they figure prominently in mythology. This particular
flood, at least in one version, results from the gods'
irritation at all the noise humans were making. They decide
to wipe out humankind, but a god warns the upright man
Utnapishtim, who collects all life forms in a huge boat
thereby saving them. The waters recede after either seven
(in some versions, forty) days and nights. Sound familiar?
Some want to believe the Sumerians got the story from
the Jews but became confused about the "real"
details. More likely, the Jews borrowed a Mesopotamian
tale and rewrote it to reflect their own moralistic and
monotheistic outlook. It's an issue to think about, anyway,
although there are people who fear that very thought process.
Abraham is a more plausible figure than say, Noah (who
died at age 955, while Abraham was still alive, having
lived through the near-total destruction of all life on
earth) or Utnapishtim. Perhaps Abraham was a great patriarch
with large herds who had migrated from the city of Ur
in Mesopotamia (Genesis 11:31) to the Levant some time
in the second millennium BCE. Perhaps his descendents,
influenced by neighboring peoples (the practice of circumcision
from Egypt, the seven-day week from Mesopotamia), developed
a belief system that featured monotheism, and belief in
a special nexus between God (Yahweh) and Abraham and themselves
as a special people. The Biblical narrative suggests that
the Jews from "the beginning" always possessed
knowledge of the One God, even though they sometimes opted
for paganism and idolatry bringing down his wrath. An
alternative possibility would be that they originally
worshipped a tribal deity, but acknowledged the existence
of other gods, and gradually (by the time of the Babylonian
Exile, exposure to Zoroastrian monotheism, and the practice
of worshipping Yahweh in a foreign land) came to see their
deity as a more universal one. The only one.
Between Abraham and the Babylonian Captivity the most
dramatic Biblical Event is the Exodus. But there is precious
little historical evidence to support the presence of
Jewish slaves (or Jews at all) in Egypt before 1000 BCE.
Nor is their evidence of a dramatic departure, or sudden
invasion of Canaan. As Rabbi David Wolpe of the Sinai
Temple in Los Angeles declared a few years ago: "virtually
every modern archaeologist" agrees "that the
way the Bible describes the Exodus is not the way that
it happened, if it happened at all." Archaeologists
digging in the Sinai have "found no trace of the
tribes of Israel - not one shard of pottery." And
why would those who had crossed the Red Sea after God
paved the way by parting the waters wander around in such
a tiny peninsula for 40 whole years?
The Exodus is supposed to have occurred, if it occurred,
sometime between the sixteenth and thirteenth centuries.
So between it and the first written record of it pass
at least three and more likely five centuries. The Egyptian
sources are silent on an event that supposedly the pharaoh
(which one is completely unclear) fought tooth and nail
to prevent and which involved all kinds of horrible divine
punishments on Egypt. There may be one or two references
to Jews in Egyptian texts before the thirteenth century,
but there's no scholarly consensus even on that. It's
quite likely that some event such as the expulsion of
the Hyksos, a Semitic people from Arabia driven out of
Egypt in the sixteenth century, or an influx of Bedouin
into Canaan became integrated into an evolving account
of Jewish origins as the Pentateuch was compiled centuries
later.
In a society just acquiring literacy, a welter of legends
can quickly take the form of a more or less coherent narrative.
The oldest surviving Japanese text (712 CE), for example,
probably integrates sacred oral histories from rival groups
cobbled together not long before the acquisition of written
language. It includes highly implausible information about
the relationship between Japan and Korea, and may, for
example, confuse a proto-historic Japanese invasion of
Korea for the opposite. In representing the Japanese as
descended from the gods, hence different from all other
humans, it may obscure much about the ethnic origins of
the Japanese, whom modern science suggests have strong
affinities with Koreans and other northeast Asian and
Siberian peoples, and connection to Malays and the Ainu
as well. The Shinto religious tradition stressing only
divine origins ignores all that.
We read in the Old Testament of intermarriages between
Jews and Moabites, Amorites, Hittites, Egyptians, Canaanites
and others (Nehemiah 9:1). Is it not possible that the
gene pool of those composing their collective history
coalesced long after the supposed flight from Egypt? That
God never gave Canaan to invading Jews, or miraculously
brought down the walls of Jericho, but that different
tribes in Canaan merely unified over time and produced
a fanciful tale about their primeval roots? There are
Israeli scholars who believe that.
When we come to the Babylonian Captivity, we are on more
solid ground. Ancient empires did uproot whole peoples;
the Persians for example had uprooted Ionian Greeks from
the Aegean coast and sent them way off to Afghanistan.
Jews, or least many of them, were relocated to Babylon.
They did return, according to the Bible because God had
worked through Persia's (Zoroastrian) king Cyrus to free
them from their exile. They rebuilt the Temple, believing
that God had given them and them alone the land of Israel.
But during Hellenistic and Roman times, the land acquired
a more mixed population and culture. In the large city
of Sepphoris, literally within sight of Nazareth in Jesus'
day (but mentioned nowhere in the Bible), there were a
Roman theater and bath.
Greek was widely spoken throughout the Roman east. Meanwhile
by the first century Jews lived in cities throughout the
Roman world, and were indeed even "scattered"
as far away as India. About one quarter of the population
of Alexandria, Egypt was Jewish. That is, even before
the Diaspora Jews were dispersed and the population of
Roman Palestine highly mixed. Surely the Roman Diaspora
was horrible, but its impact on the already dispersed
Jews, who often prospered outside their ancestral homeland
is questionable. The tide for global Jewry turned in the
fourth century, when the triumph of Christianity in Rome
and its alliance with a state demanding a uniform orthodoxy
placed all non-believers and heretics in jeopardy.
Surely there were many Jews who remained in the vicinity
of Roman Palestine after the 130s. At the time of Muhammed,
the tribes of Arabia were exposed to Christianity and
Judaism due to their commercial activities up and down
the Hejaz. Presumably many Jews and Christians converted
to Islam after the seventh-century conquests, voluntarily
responding to incentives or as a result of duress. In
any case by the modern period, Palestine was Muslim and
Arab Christian, for explicable historical reasons, while
Jews comprised large communities in Europe and resided
in tens of thousands in such Arab cities as Baghdad, Casablanca
and Cairo.
Such Jews in exile, think our religious Zionists, were
fated to reestablish a Jewish state in Israel, in order
to fulfill the prophecy and to end the horrors that had
dogged them through centuries of exile, culminating in
the Shoah. Having done so, their state deserves absolute
support, as a religious duty and expression of faith in
prophecy.
Critique of the Prophecies
So here we must proceed from a critique of the record
of the past to a critique of such prophecy in general.
I won't just say that it's utterly irrational to imagine
that we can know the future for certain, as some think
one can do through astrology or parapsychology or joss
sticks. I know that if one believes there is a God in
charge of all time and space, that premise alone leads
to the assumption that there is a Plan and that some people
chosen by God can be made privy to it. There are many
serious people who read the Bible and believe that, and
come away convinced that its books have been amazingly
accurate in their prophecies. I'm not persuaded.
Let's look at prophecies supposed by believers to relate
to the life of Jesus. Below is a listing of 10 Old Testament
prophecies about Jesus listed on the fundamentalist website
"Jesus Plus Nothing: Christ Centered Bible Study"
along with their "New Testament fulfillments."
The list ends with the impressive statement:
"Statisticians have calculated that for all of the
above prophecies to be fulfilled in one person it is a
combined probability of One chance in 10,000,000,000,000,000,000!
And this is limiting ourselves to just these 10 prophecies!
Jesus claimed to be the fulfillment of the Old Testament
Messianic prophecies, and now we have seen that His life
and death did accurately fulfill these prophecies made
hundreds of years before."
How calculated to impress the impressionable mind! I'd
really like the names and credentials of those statisticians,
and their academic and religious affiliations. Anyway,
here are the Big 10 with my humbly questioning comments
following each. I just want to suggest an approach to
this sort of material. As an historian I ask (leaving
aside for the moment the validity of prophecy generally):
When were texts written? What influenced them? What does
the Old Testament text actually say? Does the writer cited
really intend to "prophesize"? What does the
New Testament writer want to do with the "prophecy"?
1. [Jesus to] Be Born in Bethlehem
OT Prophecy: Micah 5:2 'But you, Bethlehem, though you
are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come
for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins
are from old.'
NT Fulfillment: Matt 2:1 'After Jesus was born in Bethlehem
in Judea...'
The Old Testament passage was probably written about 730,
predicting that a future ruler from the line of King David
will be born in Bethlehem, which according to I Samuel
was David's home town. The Book of Ruth reports that Ruth,
a Moabite who settled with her Jewish mother-in-law in
Bethlehem and married the Jew Boaz, was an ancestor of
King David. This explains Matthew's inclusion of Ruth
among Jesus' ancestors (1:5), a detail found nowhere else
in the New Testament.
But:
(a) Only Matthew and Luke suggest that Jesus was born
in Bethlehem, with Luke explaining it was necessary to
go there from Nazareth in order to register for the empire-wide
census.
(b) The two accounts differ, the one mentioning the
Magi and the flight into Egypt, the other mentioning the
shepherds' visit.
(c) Matthew's account of the flight of the Holy Family
to Egypt is highly improbable; in it, the Magi (Persian
Zoroastrian astrologers following the Star of Bethlehem)
tell evil King Herod that "the king of the Jews"
will be born in Bethlehem. So Herod has all boys under
two years old systematically slaughtered in that district,
an atrocity unnoted in any record outside of scripture,
in a Roman Empire inclined to note such things. Joseph
is warned in a dream to escape with mother and child to
Egypt, in fulfillment of the scripture. Which scripture?
Hosea 11:1, which is obviously not intended as a messianic
prophecy at all but is a reference to the Exodus and is
here misquoted at that. Matthew 2:18 cites more prophecy
(Jeremiah 31:15) about women weeping for their children
to allude to the mothers grieved by Herod's action.
(d) Some commentators explain plausibly that the Bethlehem
story is included specifically to incorporate a "fulfilled
prophecy,"
(e) the Book of Ruth set generations before King David
(10th century) is almost surely imaginative fiction written
after the return from the Babylonian Captivity, and thought
by many to have been intended to validate Jewish-Gentile
intermarriage at a time when it was under attack.
2. Preceded by a messenger
OT Prophecy: Isaiah 40:3 'The voice of him that cries
in the wilderness, Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight
in the wilderness a highway for our God.'
NT Fulfillment Matt 3:1-2 'In those days came John the
Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judea, and saying
Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.'
This passage supposedly composed during Hezekiah's reign
speaks poetically and vaguely of future consolation when
Yahweh will forgive the sins of Jerusalem. The voice is
not attributed to a future prophet preparing the way for
a messiah. Again Matthew is attempting to weave in Old
Testament allusions as though they were specifically foretelling
events in the life of Jesus.
3. Enter Jerusalem on a colt
OT Prophecy: Zech 9:9 'Rejoice greatly O daughter of
Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem; behold, thy King
comes to you... humble riding on a donkey, even on a colt,
the foal of a donkey'
NT Fulfillment Luke 19:35 'They bought it to Jesus, and
they threw their coats on the colt and they put Jesus
on it.'
This does refer to a prophecy about the messiah. But
it goes on immediately to say that the messiah will banish
chariots from Ephraim and horses from Jerusalem; the war
bow will be banned; he will proclaim peace for the nations,
extend his empire from sea to sea. The author of Luke
left this material, which would seem wholly inapplicable
to Jesus' career, out.
4. Be Betrayed by a friend
OT Prophecy: Psalm 41:9 'Yes, my own friend in whom I
trusted, which did eat of my bread, hath lifted up his
heel against me.'
NT Fulfillment Matt 26:47-50 'And while he spoke, Judas,
one of the twelve, came, and with him a great multitude
with swords... Now he that betrayed him gave them a sign,
saying, Whosoever I shall kiss, that same is he; hold
him fast... and Jesus said unto him, Friend, why have
you come?'
This "prophecy" is from a psalm, attributed
(questionably) to David, expressing the point of view
of a sick, lonely man. Read in context, it would seem
to have nothing to do with a future messiah. Nor do the
psalms in general seem designed to predict specific future
events.
5. Have his hands and feet pierced
OT Prophecy: Psalm 22:16 'The assembly of the wicked
have enclosed me. They have pierced my hands and my feet.'
NT Fulfillment Luke 23:33 'And when they came to the
place, which is called Calvary, there they crucified him
and the criminals, one on the right and the other on the
left.'
Same as above. This really requires a stretch. Many of
the psalms convey existential anguish and extreme situations,
then conclude with statements of faith in God's mercy.
This one includes the passage quoted above, rendered by
the Jerusalem Bible as "a gang of villains closes
me in; they tie me hand and foot, and leave me lying in
the dust of death." There is no "piercing,"
and it doesn't sound like a crucifixion scene. The psalm
does begin with the familiar, "My God, my God, why
have you deserted me!" which Matthew imputes to Jesus
on the cross, and perhaps that inspired Luke to invoke
the psalm as prophecy.
6. Be wounded and whipped by his enemies
OT Prophecy: Isaiah 53:5 'But he was wounded for our
transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities. The
chastisement of our peace was upon him and by his stripes
we are healed.'
NT Fulfillment Matt 27:26 'Then they released Barabbas
unto them and when he had scourged Jesus, he delivered
him to be crucified.'
This is from one of the 'suffering servant" songs
in Isaiah, interspersed with passages rejoicing at the
return of the exiles from Babylon and praising Cyrus.
He is endowed with God's spirit, but does not cry out
or should aloud. He makes no resistance (to some unspecified
attack). He speaks in the past tense, saying he had "offered
my back to those who struck me, my cheeks to those who
tore at my beard; I did not cover my face against insult
and spittle." (50:5-6). He was called by God from
the womb, "to bring Jacob back to him, to gather
Israel to him."
Here he is described as healing "our wounds"
through "his stripes" which dovetails nicely
enough with the doctrine of Jesus as redeemer. Taken by
force of law, torn away from the land of the living, given
a grave with the wicked, he nevertheless "shall see
his heirs, he shall have a long life" (53:8-10) This
is the most seemingly relevant "prophesies"
to the gospel account of Jesus' life and meaning. But
it also sounds a lot like the Tammuz literature that praises
that Babylonian god, who supposedly died a terrible death,
is associated with the cross, and rose from the dead on
the third day, resurrecting dead souls with him The Jews
knew of this story (see Ezekiel 8:14).
7. Be sold for thirty pieces of silver
OT Prophecy: Zech 11:12 'And I said to him, If you think
it is good in your sight, give me my wages... So they
weighed out thirty pieces of silver for my price.'
NT Fulfillment Matt 26:15 'What will you give me if I
deliver him unto you? And they agreed with him for thirty
pieces of silver.'
Mark and Luke say Judas was given money; only Matthew
mentions 30 pieces of silver. The passage in Zechariah
is a complicated parable in which the prophet is likened
to a shepherd offered an insultingly small wage (the price
of a slave, 30 shekels, specified in the Laws of Moses)
by his employer. The point is that the Jewish rulers are
insulting Zechariah and therefore Yahweh. How this points
towards Judas receiving that sum for betraying Jesus is
not, to put it mildly, crystal clear.
8. Be spit upon and beaten
OT Prophecy: Isaiah 50:6 'I gave my back to the smiters,
and my cheeks to them that plucked out my hair: I did
not hide my face from the shame and spitting.'
NT Fulfillment Matt 26:67 'Then did they spit in his
face, and hit him; and others smote him with the palms
of their hands.'
Another citation of the "suffering servant"
passages in Isaiah, alluding to forms of abuse that may
occur in many contexts.
9. The betrayal money thrown in the temple and used for
a potters field
OT Prophecy: Zech 11:13 'And the Lord said unto me, Cast
it unto the potter that magnificent price at which I was
valued by them. So I took the thirty pieces of silver
and threw them to the potter in the house of the Lord.'
NT Fulfillment Matt 27:5-7 'And he threw the pieces of
silver into the temple... And they conferred together
and with the money bought the Potter's field as a burial
place for strangers.' This is a remarkable prophecy [comments
the website editor] for it is God who says 'Cast it to
the potter that magnificent (sarcasm!) price at which
they valued me...' How could man put a price on God? It
doesn't make sense until God Himself, Jesus Christ, came
to earth and was valued and betrayed for exactly 30 pieces
of silver!"
The elided passage here actually misquotes Zechariah,
adding a passage about the purchase of a field from the
book of Jeremiah (32:6-15). It's another of those appearing
only in Matthew, who seems to want to show how the Old
Testament has anticipated all his details.
10. Cast lots for Jesus' clothing
OT Prophecy: Psalm 22:18 'They divide my garments among
them, and for my clothing they cast lots.'
NT Fulfillment Matt 27:35 'And when they had crucified
Him, they divided up His garments among themselves by
casting lots.'
This division of the clothes appears in all the gospels.
So the psalm (not some passage from a prophet) miraculously
describes Roman legionnaires' dice game while God dies.
Remarkable indeed.
Interestingly this website doesn't mention a significant
detail mentioned in Matthew and Luke (although not the
other two): the virgin birth (Matthew 1:18-25, Luke 1:33-36).
Only Matthew shows how this fulfills prophecy, citing
Isaiah 7:14. But he misquotes it, saying that "The
virgin will conceive and give birth to a son" whereas
Isaiah really says, "the maiden is with child and
will soon give birth to a son" in a context more
related to the future of King Ahaz's house than to messianic
prophecy. This "fulfilled prophecy" so central
to Christian doctrine turns out to be due to a misunderstanding
of the Hebrew word almah.
The End Times
What's true of prophecies pertaining to Jesus is true
of prophecies pertaining to the present and future. Just
as the gospel writers fit squares into round holes to
"prove" that Jesus was the long expected messiah,
so the religious fundamentalists today insist that it's
clear as day that Israel's modern resurrection fulfills
Old Testament prophecy. But those prophecies pertain mainly
to the return after the Babylonian Captivity. Daniel predicts
a revival of Israel after Hellenistic rule. But this is
an historical novelette, written after the events it purports
to predict. I find no Old Testament prophecy about Roman
occupation, the Roman Diaspora, 2000 years of trials and
tribulations, particularly in Europe, followed by a Zionist
state displacing hundreds of thousands of Arabs. I suspect
those who do find it because they want to so badly.
But there are Orthodox rabbis, who have a right to their
opinions, who opine that the Jewish covenant with God
involving a Jewish homeland in the original venue no longer
pertains. As someone who doesn't believe in prophecy,
period, I'd just like to call them to the Christian Zionists'
attention. I'd also suggest one wonder why all this prophecy
so excludes important events throughout the world. If
one grants that normal fallible Jewish people wrote all
of this stuff, it would make sense that the focus, past
present and future, is on this relatively minor piece
of real estate. (Not that the Jews weren't among the more
cosmopolitan of ancient peoples, as their trade relationships
from Spain to India attest, and as the presence of plausibly
Jewish-descended peoples from Ethiopia to Burma also affirms.)
But the focus is always on the land flowing with milk
and honey, far from China or the Americas or places of
otherwise greater interest. Why did the God who chose
the Jews as his people not supply greater advance intelligence
about events outside the world known to the chosen, and
those who as Christians came to revere the Jewish scriptures?
Is it not possible that "End Times" cheerleaders,
fixated on Bush moves in the "Greater Middle East"
will find themselves thrown for a loop when events in
East Asia or elsewhere wholly unanticipated by Isaiah
or Jeremiah produce a scenario inexplicable by Biblical
references?
Puzzled, such people may consult the main text of specifically
Christian Zionist millenarianism, the Book of Revelation.
This is filled with enough vague symbology that those
who seek will find at least some answers there. You can
find all kinds of answers by learned idiots with websites
claiming the Beast of that book (identified with the Antichrist)
is some specific contemporary character, or that a place
name therein refers to a particular contemporary nation.
It is a strange book, unlike anything else in the New
Testament, depicting Jesus as an avenger, ignoring the
doctrine of the Trinity, so puzzling that Martin Luther
seriously considered leaving it out of the German Bible.
But basically what that book says, relevant to our topic,
is that the tribes of Israel will be amassed in Jerusalem
and that the select number who embrace Jesus Christ as
their savior will be saved.
This is key. For the Christian fundamentalist's hope of
hopes to be realized---to live through the Rapture---requires
a Jewish state, which (thank you, Jesus!) we've had since
1948. And it requires a whole lot of horrific bloodshed
before the peace that transcends all understanding descends
on the earth.
Those seduced by this "End Times" scenario
might at least, if inclined towards some critical reflection
on the issue, ask the following:
1. Is it true that there was a lot of "apocalypse"
literature written between 300 BCE and 200 CE by Jews
and Christians, most of which nobody reads anymore?
2. Is it true that the author of the Book of Revelation
is almost certainly not John the disciple of Jesus in
the gospels?
3. Is it true that it's really mostly an expression
of great hatred for the Roman Empire, persecuting Christians
under Nero?
4. Is it true it was written at a time when Christians
thought the Second Coming was right around the corner?
5. Is it true that it was written at a time when Christianity
was in flux, without a center, a cluster of cults rather
than a well-organized church with a clear unified theology?
6. Is it true that it almost didn't make it into the
Bible, the composition of which wasn't settled until the
fourth century by the Catholic Church and remained questionable
in parts of the "Christian world" for centuries
thereafter?
7. Is it true that the New Testament's "Antichrist"
has been identified with dozens of people over the centuries,
and that New and Old Testament prophecy has often been
used politically, to rally people behind causes, and get
them to hate and fear specific targets?
8. If the answer to most of the above is "yes"
does it weaken your inclination to take the text literally,
or support the political uses that the "End Times"
religious publishing industry and propaganda machine want
to promote? Specifically, an expanded war involving Syria
and Iran with End Times believers in unquestioning support?
True enthusiasts find in scriptural prophecy what they
want to see happen, and redouble their efforts to make
it happen, to be on God's side. Or they justify contemporary
realities as God's stated will. They often do so in defiance
of common sense, to say nothing of historical perspective
or critical reasoning. Inhabiting a closed mental world
resistant to and frightened of science, they boast of
their special arcane insight into unfolding events. Why
bother with real issues (terror links, weapons of mass
destruction, and lies about such things) when regime change
in the Middle East under any pretext, pursued by a godly
Christian man, will facilitate the great war in Israel
that will usher in the Rapture?
Belief in Biblical prophecy surely provides hope and
comfort for the believer, and I take no pleasure in attempting
to subvert humble faith. But the belief in prophecy that
justifies imperialist aggression, especially when joined
to bull-headed support for an ignorant president who pompously
fancies himself a "religious scholar" is frightening.
More frightening than the beliefs that led Japanese religious
fanatics to try to usher in the End Times by releasing
sarin gas in the Tokyo subway ten years ago. One can't
just shrug these off as the eccentric beliefs of a few
gullible fools. They are powerful delusions wielded---as
weapons of mass, apocalyptic destruction---by growing
movements of highly motivated people. They have to be
challenged, among other ways, by patient logic. |
