Posted on 12/29/2010 10:28:37 AM PST by abu afak
One of the staples of television news over the Christmas holiday is coverage of celebrations in the Holy Land, providing a familiar and comforting nod to the ancient roots of Western civilization.
Even in our increasingly secular society, images of Christians worshipping in Nazareth and Bethlehem provide welcome confirmation that we have a long and substantial history - even if we're fuzzy on the details. It all looks so traditional and Christmassy.
Unfortunately this comforting image depends to a large extent on a dwindling number of embattled Christian communities. We are, in fact, witnessing the twilight of Christianity across much of the Middle East.
Not so long ago Bethlehem was a majority Christian town - about 80 per cent - and now is down to less than a third. Nazareth, too, has seen its Christian population almost halved in recent decades, and in Jerusalem itself the Christian community has fallen from a slight majority 80 years ago to below two per cent today.
Christians are leaving the West Bank, in particular, to escape the instability and a long-standing Muslim boycott of Christian businesses that has ravaged the community's economic foundations.
Thankfully this modern-day exodus is mostly peaceful, which puts it in marked contrast to much of the history of Christian depopulation in the Middle East.
This is history the West has largely forgotten and ignored. Your average European or North American will certainly be more familiar with the story of the Palestinians and the much-publicized grievances of the Arab world in general.
Yet we're not talking ancient history here. [........] http://www.calgaryherald.com/life/Dwindling+persecuted+Christians+Holy+Land+most+Unreported+story/4030136/story.html
A taste of Joel Rosenberg....
As a communications advisor, Joel has worked with a number of U.S. and Israeli leaders, including Steve Forbes, Rush Limbaugh, Natan Sharansky, and Benjamin Netanyahu.
As an author, he has been interviewed on hundreds of radio and TV programs, including ABC’s Nightline, CNN Headline News, FOX News Channel, The History Channel, MSNBC, The Rush Limbaugh Show, The Sean Hannity Show, and Glenn Beck.
He has been profiled by the New York Times, the Washington Times, the Jerusalem Post, and World magazine.
He has addressed audiences all over the world, including those in Israel, Iraq, Jordan, Egypt, Turkey, Russia, and the Philippines.
He has also spoken at the White House, the Pentagon, and to members of Congress.
Trying to pigeonhole every Christian who differs from your slanted opinion hardly justifies the rants and grumbling I see here. I don't agree with them all.. and I certainly wouldn't expect anyone else to place all their eggs in one basket when it comes to prophet writings and times.< Reading and listening to prophetic authors and speakers certainly enlarges the possibilities and wise to consider...note I did not say one has to believe them.
Are you looking to man for the answers? Won't happen...you need to search the scriptures and see what God has to say...and then be open for Him to reveal His truth.
Can we assume that 1/3 of that population had been converted by the time all of the Apostles had died?
(((gasp)))
Are you actually trying to tell us you believe those numbers???
FYI, the Roman Empire at the time of Augustus numbered three million people (which did not include China, India, Africa, the Middle East or the Western Hemisphere.
Maybe we've uncovered the root of your dismal outlook -- faulty statistics.
Cheer up. The world really is getting better. Just as you have been saved by Christ alone, and just as the influence of the Holy Spirit has graced your life, so it is for many other people.
And so on and so on and so on...
AMEN!
What does it say that Christians deny this fact?
Very sad.
What a cop out. We're not talking about Jews or Semites. We're talking about the secular nation of Israel. We're talking about the political leaders using whomever they can get their hands on to advance their political agenda.
People who don't have a reasoned response often resort to calling their opponents anti-Semites. Surely the claim of “Nazi” cannot be far behind.
It is easy to libel your opponent a racist, and then not deal in any substantive way with their arguments or position held. We should all be appalled at these types of tactics. Journalistic ethics at one time required before going public with an accusation against someone or group, the individual or representatives of the group in question would first be allowed to answer or explain themselves. Then, and only then, should charges be made in a public forum. (Dispensationalism's Eschatological Dilemma)See also The Unannounced Reason Behind American Fundamentalism's Support for the State of 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. (The Unannounced Reason Behind American Fundamentalism's Support for the State of Israel)
Actually the Dominionists and Preterists believe that Satan's did not lose all his power when he was chained, he can still wage spiritual warfare. What he can't do is deceive the nations or is limited in deceiving the nations. I would assume that means he can not stop the spread of the gospel to the nations anymore or he is limited to his power in stopping the spread of gospel. One of you more versed Dominionist or Preterists might want to respond to this and clarify.
>>Actually the Dominionists and Preterists believe that Satan’s did not lose all his power when he was chained, he can still wage spiritual warfare.<<
I don’t think they know what to think about that. Either way they can’t justify it Scripturally unless they slip into the allegorical mist again.
Now let's take a look at the dispensational view. Dispesnationalists [sic] believe that the events of Zechariah 13:7-9. Matthew 24, and Revelation were not fulfilled in the events leading up to and including the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70. They believe that these prophecies await a future fulfillment during a period of great tribulation that follows a pre-tribulational rapture. There will be another holocaust out of which a "remnant" of Jews will be saved. Here's what Tim LaHaye's Prophecy Study Bible says on this issue: "Prior to Israel's conversion, Zechariah predicts that two-thirds ('two parts') of the Jewish people in the land will perish during the tribulation period. Only one third of the Jewish population will survive until Christ comes to establish His kingdom on earth."This means that two of every three Jews who decide to make Israel their home will be killed during dispensationalism's version of the great tribulation. Only the "survivors of the Tribulation period will go up to Jerusalem annually to worship." To make this point, dispensational author Charles Ryrie writes in The Living End that the Bible predicts a future holocaust for Israel. "Jacob's trouble is that coming period of distress described by Jesus as He spoke to His disciples on the Mount of Olives. Jeremiah labeled it 'Jacob's trouble' and said it would be unique in all history (Jeremiah 30:7). Jesus called it a period of unprecedented tribulation (Matthew 24:21) this will be the time of Israel's greatest bloodbath." Preterists aren't looking for a future Jewish holocaust, but dispensationalists are! John F. Walvoord follows a similar line of interpretation:
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.According to LaHaye, Jews living in Israel "now number over six million." If two-thirds of the Jews living in Israel at the time of a future great tribulation are to die, this will mean the death of four million Jews! In his 1994 book Planet Earth 2000 AD, Hal Lindsey offers this forecast for Israel: "only a tiny fraction of the world's population will be left. Only a remnant will have survived. Many of the Jews would have been killed." In The Final Battle, first published in 1995, Lindsey claims that the Bible teaches that "Israel is in for a very rough time. The Jewish State will be brought to the brink of destruction."
It's obvious from statements like this that you are clueless as to what they believe. So who are you to critique something you clearly don't understand?
E.g., define “allegorical” and show an example of allegorical interpretation from any orthodox preterist writings.
This conversation stops now.... I will not give you a platform to spill your garbage. I did not ask for a look at the dispensational view....let alone from Hal Lindsey. And you are assumming much to think I would be interested.
It was once stated by a famous individual that an Anti-Zionist is Anti-Semitic.
Silly ideas like that are the reason why there are folks around to object and point out the absurdity. Defective theology comes from defective thinking.
The author of that statement was “Martin Luther King”...hardly a ‘silly’ or ‘defective’ thinker as you implied.
So what? His thinking was certainly defective here. It's too bad you would uncritically accept it.
Bait and switch....old tactic.
Hardly. You were the one that brought up the subject by making what amounts to baseless accusations. Do these same accusation hold for Jews? Just trying to figure out how unscrupulous you can be.
This is false. Jerusalem has had a Jewish majority since at least 1864. A census taken in 1931 (roughly 80 years ago) found 51,222 Jews (56.6% of the total population), 19,894 Moslems, and 19,334 Christians.
Um. . . N0!
During Jesus' life, the world's population was between 200-300 million people. The Roman Empire alone had 45 million people, of whom about 4.9 million were citizens. The city of Rome, by itself, had nearly 1 million people.
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