Myths of the Middle East (Islam Holy Sites in Jerusalem are a myth)

I mostly lurk, but star traveler illustrates perfectly one side of the combatants. The Jews do have a covenant and deed to Israel, the nature of which has been preserved in written form for milennia, given to them by their living G-d, Creator of the Universe.

Now, they may not have kept their side of the covenant but this living G-d has repeatedly stated his intentions to keep His and He as preserved a remnant of Abraham to do this.

I take seriously a nation/state/culture that maintains its identity in the face of the destruction of its homeland and the global diaspora of its citizens for two milennia. I note that no other nation/state/culture has duplicated this feat and observe that many kingdoms have come and gone in that same period and yet the Jews remain. I take their claims about their living G-d very seriously, they are here and those who set their face against them are not. Islam has chosen the way of Amalek, and is headed swiftly for the dustbin of history.

"...contradictary (spelling contradiction!) statements in the article..."

That's the best you could come up with? Well, how about you go over there and explain to them what the real story is after your and thoughtful, thoroughly vacuous examination of the issues.

"MosesKnows"...please, tells us all what that means! Let me guess...Moses knows that the Jews should be driven into the Sea. Is that what you're gonna say right?

You are goofy, and have nothing to offer anyone. Shut up.

As "goofy" as the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is -- as you shall soon find out.

The Bible says --


     Hebrews 10:31 
      
     It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the 
     living God.

God says this to His people, and so how much worse will it be with those who have rejected the Son of God from the beginning and trample on His chosen people?


  Hebrews 10:29-31 
      
  29 Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose, 
     will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son 
     of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant 
     by which he was sanctified a common thing, and 
     insulted the Spirit of grace? 
      
  30 For we know Him who said, "Vengeance is Mine, I 
     will repay," says the Lord. And again, "The Lord 
     will judge His people." 
      
  31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of 
     the living God.

God is preparing to vindicate His name and His people. You and the whole world will soon see His hands in Israel, doing what He promised.

Why is Hagia Sophia, in Istanbul, no longer an Orthodox Christian Cathedral as it was built to be...but now a mosque?

Your post name is appropriate for your #15

muslims only decided that that was the spot where their prophet ascended relatively recently. Face it. The muslims have a history of building a mosque over the holy sites of other religions.

What is the difference between this and the Islamic Jihad to make an Islamic world?.

A very considerable amount of difference, in fact. The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is the One true God who says that He will vindicate His name and restore His chosen people. He will punish the nations for their evil deeds against Him and against Israel.

This is something that He will do by His hand in sending His judgements on this earth during the time of the "Wrath of God" which He has saved up from the beginning of the creation of mankind.

So, He is the one who will destroy His enemies and will restore the Jews to their land.

Then secondly, He offers a free will choice for everyone. The person's choice is up (time up) when either you die (which can come at any moment) or when He returns to put an end to the evil on this world and set up His Kingdom over all the nations. It will be by His own hand that He establishes the Kingdom.

What the Christians are to do -- while they are here, now -- is to tell everyone about their choice and offer them the "good news" of the Gospel, and the free gift of "life eternal" with Jesus Christ -- instead of the judgement at the Great White Throne (as seen in Revelation) and then into the lake of fire for eternal torment.

And so, that's a huge difference from the Islamics (under the guiding hand of Satan) trying to destroy the Jews and eliminate them from the land of the living, destroy the nation of Israel and kill anyone who opposes them -- now -- by their own hand, whoever refuses to submit to their false and Satanic religion.

The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, has been patient, not dispensing the full measure of His judgement and wrath, in order to give all who will come to Christ the full time allotted to do so. At the chosen time, He will call all to account and then comes the judgement. That is by His hand and not ours.

A huge difference here. So, choose now and have eternal life with Jesus Christ. With the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, it's your choice. With the Satanic religion of Islam, you must submit to its evil and will die anyway.

One is righteous and the other is evil.

You are accepting the Muslim history of the Temple Mount. There are competing histories, but there are a few written documents that note events on Temple Mount rather well.

The Temple Mount did not become a place of refuse until the Persian Conquest in 614. When the Byzantine Empire took Jerusalem from the Persians, they permitted Jews to begin building another Temple, but this effort ended with natural disaster.

When Caliph Omar entered Jerusalem he went to the Temple Mount and prayed where the Rock is. The Dome of the Rock was built to commemorate his conquest of Jerusalem and his praying on the site. A wooden Al-Aksa mosque was built some years later. It was ruined in an earthquake, and the Dome of the Rock was damaged.

The Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aksa were rebuilt and/or restored by the Crusaders ,and they consecrated the Dome of the Rock as "The Temple of the Lord" and the rebuilt al-Aksa building as "The Temple of Solomon". When Saladin conquered Jerusalem he converted for Islamic use the buildings the Crusaders had restored and rebuilt . All icons that could be removed were destroyed and the remaining ones were painted over and then covered with marble. Later Suleiman added the Persian tiles, and others added additional features. By the time of the British Mandate both buildings were in terrible disrepair. Their current glory is largely due to funding from the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.

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It is a well recorded incident that when the Caliph Omar conquered Jerusalem, as an act of generosity, he did not enter the Church of the Resurrection so that it would not have to become a Mosque. (Of course, others felt no compunction about trying to destroy the great church in later conflicts.)

With regard to Bethlehem and Nazareth, these towns have only had a Muslim population to speak of since 1947. Before that Muslims cared little about Bethlehem and Nazareth because the cities do not figure in the Islamic story of Mary and Jesus as they do in the Gospel of Luke. The current religious structures in Nazareth are relatively new. The Persian conquest destroyed everything but the Church of the Holy Nativity because it had a mosaic on it depicting the Magi as Persians. (By the way, attempts to erect a mosque at the base of the Basilica of the Annunciation in Nazareth has been a source of great contention lately between Palestinian Christians and Palestinian Arab Muslims.)

The history of conquest and reconquest and conquest again has meant that many of the holy sites have passed from one conqueror to another. However, none of these holy sites in Jerusalem, Nazareth, and Bethlehem are places of pilgrimage for Muslims. If one is a Shiite Muslim Qum and Isfahan are much holier than Jerusalem. And if Israel didn't exist, the Sunni and the Ismaili would not think twice about Jerusalem so long as Muslims kept it from the Jews or the Christians.

You have nicely summarized the situation regarding mosques in Israel. As an aside, I was in Nazareth in January of this year and was struck by the relative peaceful conditions between the Arab and Jewish populations in that town. When we later went to Bethlehem the tension was very evident. Obviously geography plays a difference as Nazareth is located in the Galilee and Bethlehem is in the West Bank but there are areas in Israel that demonstrate an ability for people to co-exist.

Good article, we need more of these posted.

Has anybody ever done the hand/map comparison of Muslim nations compared to Israel in the Middle East?
Here's how to do it. Count how many times you can place your palms on Arab/Muslim countries. Depending on the size of your map, it will be several times. Next, put as much of your hand on the land where Jews are welcome in the Middle East. Most likely you'll only get part of your pinky to cover Israel. This is a good visual tool for those who are anti-Israel and don't understand what kind of enemies surround the nation of Israel.

The truth is that Palestinians in general are not from Israel or the West Bank, most are from Arab countries all over that area; Yemen, Oman, Syria, Lebanon, S. Arabia, Iran, Egypt, Jordan, and Kuwait.

Set magnification to 666 to find Israel.

Grim chuckle.

The true test is that it not be a concocted political establishment of holiness and that is what the Moslem claim about Jerusleum is. It was always just another conquered city with a lot of taxable infidels until the Jews took it away from them.

Then somehow the dilapidated and little used mosque became suddenly "holy." Though nothing in that idiotic religion can ever be truely holy. It is as holy as a rock worshipped by the Rockitarians. Oh, wait a minute a rock is at the center of this cult of lunatics.

Thanks for the info about Lourdes. Not being a Catholic I am unaware of church's designation of the religious status of various locales.

Will you join in campaigning to let the Germans back in Silesia, Posen, Pommerania, Prussia, and Sudetenland, where they were driven from in 1945? How about the Greeks in Anatolia and Constantinople, from which the Turks drove them between 1923 and 1955? How about the Poles to L'viv and Vilnius? The Hungairans in Transylvania? Why is the world so damn selective in what group of people displaced by war we have to campaign for a return for?