Posted on 01/21/2006 7:47:19 AM PST by Dark Skies
It's bad enough when Christian fundamentalists back Israel in hopes that Armageddon will soon engulf the Holy Land and bring on the second coming.
But at least Christian revivalists aren't pursuing their dream with nuclear weapons. The millions who read Tim De La Haye's Left Behind novels aren't rushing to Jerusalem to precipitate the Rapture.
It's far more unsettling when an Iranian leader who says Israel should be wiped off the map starts talking of ''end times'' -- and is seeking nuclear weapons. The millennial obsession of Iran's new president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, gives added urgency to U.S. and European efforts to prevent Iran from building the bomb.
In a speech at the United Nations in September, Ahmadinejad urged the Lord ''to hasten the emergence of . . . the promised one,'' the Shiite Muslim equivalent of the Messiah. He is said to be obsessed with the Mahdaviat (the belief in the second coming of the 12th Shiite imam, known as the Mahdi, who has been in hiding for more than 1,000 years).
In the December article Waiting for the Rapture in Iran, the Christian Science Monitor's Scott Peterson writes that Ahmadinejad has earmarked $17 million for the Jamkaran mosque, supposedly built on the Mahdi's orders. ''Officials deny rumors,'' says Peterson, ''that Ahmadinejad . . . secretly tasked the Tehran city council . . . to prepare a suitable route for the Mahdi's return'' when he was mayor. Others say the rumors are true.
Possible U.N. sanctions
The Iranian's combination of devotion and inflammatory threats against Israel highlights the danger of a potential Iranian bomb.
Tehran claims that its nuclear program is intended for peaceful energy purposes. However, most experts believe that the program Iran conducted for years in secret is meant to create the capacity for building weapons. This month, Iran restarted uranium-enrichment facilities that had been sealed during negotiations with the European Union over ending the program.
These talks have hit a wall; the United States and the Europeans are now urging that Iran be referred to the U.N. Security Council for possible sanctions. Russia and China have affirmed that Iran must resume its freeze of uranium enrichment, but so far have refused to support sanctions that could undercut lucrative energy contracts with Iran. Iran says it will continue its ''peaceful'' program whether or not sanctions are imposed.
Yet it is essential that the Bush team continue its diplomatic efforts to convince the Russians and Chinese that an Iranian bomb would endanger them all.
Some will note that it's logical for Iran to seek nuclear weapons when America has been threatening Tehran with ''regime change.'' The ayatollahs notice that no one talks of ousting North Korean President Kim Jong Il now that he has nuclear weapons.
The Bush administration nourished illusions that the Iraq war would provoke the toppling of the theocracy in Tehran. Instead, the chaos in Iraq has convinced the mullahs that the United States is weakened in the region. The White House seems to have realized that Iran's regime is not going to fall any time soon.
Past White House errors, however, don't disprove the threat presented by an Iran with nuclear weapons. Tehran would be unlikely to hand these weapons over to terrorists. But, says Judith Yaphe, an Iran expert at National Defense University, Iran's possession of those weapons could embolden radical Islamist groups such as Hezbollah and Hamas, which are aided by Tehran.
Daunting regional risks
''The bomb would also reinforce Iranian attitudes of superiority and hegemony in the Mideast region,'' says Yaphe. A true believer like Ahmadinejad who is yearning for the ''end times'' might miscalculate in his threats or his sponsorship of surrogate attacks against Israel. No one is certain whether he would be reigned in, or encouraged, by Iran's supreme religious leader, Ayatollah Khamenei.
If Shiite Iran got the bomb, Sunni Saudi Arabia and Egypt might be provoked to do likewise. The regional risks are daunting. Any hopes of curbing the spread of nuclear weapons worldwide would die.
Russia and China need to consider the threat to Mideast oil and stability that such open strife would trigger. They need to think beyond immediate profits. Otherwise, Ahmadinejad's dreams of the End of Days might conceivably come true.
Armegeddon?
It's bad enough when articles start out with a swipe at Christians...
Yes. I suspect that the bulk of the world's research will be directed towards distant detection of nukes and innovative delivery-systems neutralizers.
Don't forget that in a fight for survival, both sides fight REAL HARD.
I think that is what Ahmadinejad is thinking and he is advised mostly by Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi (i.e. he didn't come up with this concept by himself).
Excellent point.
It's bad enough when articles start out with a swipe at Christians...
Plus he's an idiot if he really thinks that's why Christians back Israel.
Before the appearance of the one who will rise, peace be upon him, the people will be reprimanded for their acts of disobedience by a fire that will appear in the sky and a redness that will cover the sky. It will swallow up Baghdad, and will swallow up Kufa. Their blood will be shed and houses destroyed. Death will occur amid their people and a fear will come over the people of Iraq from which they shall have no rest."Sounds like a prophecy that the Iranian Mullahs may intend to fulfill
It's a place in Israel, called the Jezreel Valley now.
http://www.mustardseed.net/html/pmegidd.html
The "last battle" between good and evil happens every few thousand years or so.
" think that is what Ahmadinejad is thinking and he is advised mostly by Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi"
Oh. I believe that too. But the first line of the article implies that 'Christian fundamentalists and Jews' are HOPING for it to happen.
The author is either anti-semetic, anti-christian, or just plain stupid. Especially to think people can 'hardly wait' for the end of civilization!
It's one thing to hope for the return of Christ, and quite another to hope for a nuclear war that would quite possibly wipe out the 'waiters'.
The author is clueless.
Interesting web site.
The 'water system' that was cut through solid rock is fascinating.
Thanks.
Ain't that the truth.
TWICE even!
:)
I think you are correct. It seems to me that the Christians are awaiting His return (somewhat expectantly) and the islamics (like the Twelvers) seem to be preparing to inflict the violence that will force the return of their Christ-figure.
Allah doesn't exactly fit the profile of Creator does he? Why would a being create the earth and its inhabitants and then establish a religion which loves to destroy, rape, or humiliate the very thing he created.
...not likely to happen but it would be a chilling prospect
And there are those of us who just hope a viable breeding population of humans survives the next battle of the war between the Cross and the Crescent.
I think that militant Islam is in for a tough fight. A buddy of mine was saying, "If there's a nuclear winter, we'll fight in the snow, and eat the enemy dead."
How do you prefer your Mullah- original recipie, or extra crispy?
It has been suggested that a nuclear tsunami would be significantly larger and more powerful than one created by an earthquake.
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