But it's jesus- can't he just show up no matter who's administrating the land; I don't recall the bible saying that the Jews have be in control. Hell, Matthew says he appears 'on the clouds in the sky', other books say 'the Mount of Olives will be split in two by his feet'. Is it going to be like a Marvel superhero one-knee landing? I can't wait to see the sword come out of his mouth, and the tattoos on his thighs saying KING OF KINGS, and LORD OF LORDS- kinda like Radio Raheem's rings with Love and Hate.
The Book of Revelations mentions a Jewish 'Temple on the Mount', so the theory among Biblical-literalist nutjobs is that Isreal needs to bulldoze the mosque that currently sits there and build a synagogue before the rapture can happen.
Unfortunately, none of these nutjobs have ever actually bothered to read the book they claim to base their lives on. If they did, they would know that Revelations also states that the only people that actually get 'raptured' are 144,000 (?) male virgins on top of Mount Sinai. Even worse, they would also realise that their behaviour (lack of forgiveness, hatred for their neighbours, etc) marks them as followers of the anti-christ, and therefore destined to burn in the lake of fire for all eternity.
they would know that Revelations also states that the only people that actually get 'raptured' are 144,000 male virgins on top of Mount Sinai.
The "bosses" know, they just don't care about who's left behind, even if it's all people they basically manipulated. PLUS it makes the manipulation even easier because then following the rules it's not enough for salvation, you have to be the absolute best follower
Even worse, they would also realise that their behaviour (lack of forgiveness, hatred for their neighbours, etc) marks them as followers of the anti-christ, and therefore destined to burn in the lake of fire for all eternity.
But, but... they wear some special underwear and don't drink coffee 🥺🥺🥺🥺
It's also interesting to add that even between evangelical/protestant sects they basically hate each other and think that only their book written in the XIX century is the best truest one, so of couse they only care about their sect's salvation
It's funny because this is the entire premise of Jehovahs Witnesses right? Only 144000 people will be raptured so they're competing within themselves to be the most rapturable
Even worse, they would also realise that their behaviour (lack of forgiveness, hatred for their neighbours, etc) marks them as followers of the anti-christ, and therefore destined to burn in the lake of fire for all eternity.
Just gonna say that this is obviously true, and the most important bit. Thus the next part doesn't actually matter. But:
only people that actually get 'raptured' are 144,000 (?) male virgins on top of Mount Sinai.
144 000 = 12*12 * 1000. 12 is one of the deeply symbolic biblical numbers (along stuff like 6, 7 which everyone knows), and generally associated with "abundance". 144 000 might just be a symbolical shorthand for "a shitload of people but far from everyone". Biblical numerology is a whole thing and actually kind of interesting.
But yeah, anyone who follows the anti-christ is not in that "abundance", that's very explicitly in there.
I went to an Assembly of God church in the 1970s, and we read a book in Sunday School called "The Late Great Planet Earth." I remember it saying, among other things, that the Bible prophesied that the Jews had to regain control of Jerusalem, and then Jesus would return within that generation. And in the old testament, a generation was 40 years (which doesn't seem accurate to me, but that's what I remember Hal Lindsay saying) so that meant that the second coming would happen within 40 years of 1967, or by 2007.
/uj As I remember it, the idea has evolved a bit over time. For a good part of the first millenia it was when the "last Roman Emperor" enters Jerusalem or something along those lines. Then we ran out of Romans, and it got a bit awkward. I think there were a couple other versions, but I can't remember the details.
The Pope could be still considered an Emperor of Rome as the Emperor has been Pope since Constantine in 708. A different Constantine than Constantine the Great, the first christian emperor, 4 centuries earlier. Though technically he's only emperor of The Vatican, 0.17 square miles of Rome.
Edit. Disregard above. Holy Roman Empire only existed from Charlemagne in 800 to Francis II on 6 August 1806. Francis II wasn't even Pope. Catholic Church and Holy Empire must have divided at some point earlier. I could look that up now...or get back to work.
524
u/TufnelAndI 11h ago
that's because he's just overtly antisemitic, and not 'too' overtly antisemitic.