END TIMES
Scripture
singles out two events to take place before the second coming of Jesus.
1.
First,
the completion of the time of the Gentiles with the recognition by Israel of
Jesus as the long-awaited Messiah.
2.
Second,
the proclamation of the Gospel to all nations.
These
must take place before the second coming.
1. FALL OF THE GENTILES
As
regards the first: the end of the period of the Gentiles and the
recognition by Israel of Jesus, as Messiah, St. Paul, in Romans, chapter II,
indicates that God’s plans include a time when Israel, as a whole, will be
saved. In Luke 21:24 Jesus prophesised
that the Jewish “people will fall before the sword; they will be led captive in
the midst of the Gentiles until
the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.”
Well
we know that Israel is a state again after nearly 1900 years of homeless,
wandering around the world praying at every Passover: “next year in
Jerusalem”. Well, Jerusalem is now once
more in Jewish hands. Incredibly most
Palestinians believe it was never in Jewish hands, so the huge ancient Jewish
cemetery on the Mount of Olives was an embarrassment as it was obviously a sign
of a once large Jewish community.
Attempts were made to smash every
Jewish grave and remove the evidence, but in vain.
These
facts – Israel a state again and Jerusalem once more in Jewish hands, are
probably not without spiritual significance, Ralph Martin says. (1) But obviously it does not follow necessarily
that God is pleased with Israel’s treatment of its Palestinian minority. One would think that the huge amounts paid
out by European countries in compensation to Jewish people for Jewish land
wrongly confiscated, would compel Israelis to compensate Arabs (Christian and
Muslim) for lands seized by Israel, This
would be justice worthy of the Patriarch Abraham. Though a powerful chieftain, he is prepared
to pay for land to bury Sarah at Macpelah in Canaan. (Gen. 23:12f)
MASS
APOSTASY:
“We
Europeans have achieved a level of material and cultural well-being. All we want is to be left i peace to enjoy
it, without interference, even from the Church”. (A Belgian authoress, Antwerp,
1995).
From
the New Testament we can see that there is going to be a mass apostasy from
God (2 Thess. 2:3f) with great masses
of people turning away from the faith as we can see in Western Europe today. It is then that God
will call the Jews back into His service again.
This
is borne out in the writings of many of the great Fathers of the early church
e.g. St. John Chrysostom (b.344 A.D.), who once stated: “Seeing the Gentiles abusing little by little
their grace, God will recall a second time the Jews”. (2) St. Augustine and St. Gregory “do not
hesitate to affirm that this conversion of the Jews is a truth of faith”.(3)
As
we look around in the West today, we can see the incredible and shocking
falling away from the faith. Jesus once
asked “when the Son of Man returns in glory (at the second coming) will He find
any faith on earth?” (Lk. 18:8)
Cardinal
Hoeffner, the President of the German Bishops’ Conference said in 1986 that the
Church was confronting ”the most radical challenge of her history and never in
human history has there been a religious crisis as serious as that of today”.
(4)
In
1984, the Bishop of Fatima in Portugal (Alberto do Amaral) confirmed that the
third secret of Fatima is not about atomic war, but the loss of faith in Europe
– “the loss of faith of a continent is worse than the annihilation of a nation,
and it is true that the faith is continuously diminishing in Europe”. Cardinal Ratzinger (later Pope Benedict XVI)
confirmed this conclusion in 1994 when he spoke of dangers threatening the
faith and life of Christians and, therefore, the world. (5)
2. THE GOSPEL TO ALL NATIONS
The
second event to take place before the second coming is the Proclamation of the Gospel to all
nations. “This Gospel ... will be preached to all the nations and then the end will come”’ (Mt.
24:14). But, some Eurocentric Christians
believe that “Europe is the faith and the faith is Europe”. So if Europe is apostasising, then for them
it’s the end of the world. Oswald Smith
said “we talk of the Second Coming, but half the world has never heard of the
first”. It’s been calculated that 30% of
the world’s population (more than 2 billion people) have had virtually no
exposure to the Gospel. When this
happens, then the end will come”.
PROXIMATE
SIGNS:
In addition to these two events: the conversion of the Jewish
people and the Gospel preached to all nations, Scripture gives a number of
proximate signs of the Last Days. These
can be grouped under three headings, and are known as the “Great Tribulation”-
a time of unparalleled distress:
1. General disorder among nations and in
nature,
2. Confusion and division within the Church.
3. The rise and work of the Antichrist.
1.
GENERAL DISORDER AMONG NATIONS AND IN NATURE:
Jesus said that there will be wars and
rumours of wars – famine and earthquakes.
But these are merely the early stages of “the birth pangs” (Lk. 21:10)
The following may be of interest: In 1947 the State of Israel was reborn. In 1948 a huge earthquake near Mount Ararat
in Turkey, in an area of non-seismic activity, led to the discovery of what
appeared to be Noah’s Ark. It had the
exact measurements of the ark as mentioned in Genesis 6:15, and it was
discovered in a place (Mt. Ararat) where Noah’s Ark was supposed to have come
to rest (Genesis 8:4). The Muslim
Turkish government has posted signs for tourists pointing to the site of Noah’s
Ark (Nukun Gemisi) (See www.Noah’s Ark has been found).
Why 1948? Perhaps because prophecy seemed to be coming
to fulfilment: the Jews “will be led
captive among all nations and Jerusalem will be trodden down until the times of
the Gentiles are fulfilled” (Lk. 21:24).
Also violence on a vast scale had just ended with the conclusion of
World War II. Just like before the
flood:
“The earth grew corrupt in God’s sight
and filled with violence” (Gen. 6)
Jesus had said:
“As it was in the days of Noah, so
will it be in the days of the Son of Man” (Lk. 17:26).
2.
CONFUSION AND DISORDER IN THE CHURCH
Cardinal Hoeffner mentioned above,
said that “never in human history has there been a religious crisis as serious
as that of today”. There has been a
massive falling away from the faith in Europe – the great apostasy (2 Thess.
2:3)?
St. Paul, writing to Timothy said:
“The Spirit distinctly says that i the
last times some will turn away from the faith and will heed deceitful spirits
and things taught by demons”. (1 Tim. 4:1)
It is reckoned that there are more
registered mediums, warlocks and witches than pastors and priests in Western
Europe. In 1988 the BBC World Service
reported that witchcraft was the fastest growing religion in England. Certainly heeding “deceitful spirits and
things taught by demons” is a huge industry now in the West, called
“channelling”. Messages from demons
through human mediums is a lucrative business e.g. Helen Schucman’s “Course in
Miracles”and Neale Donald Walsch’s “Conversations With God”. Payback time came
for Schucman, as before she died an “incredible darkness” descended upon her
and the “blackest psychotic depression”. (6)
In Matthew 24 v, 24, Jesus says that
“false Christs and false prophets will arise and show great signs and wonders,
so as to leas astray, if possible, even the elect”. The New Age Movement has produced already a
large crop of these, including Sai Baba, Rajneesh and Muktananda in India – all
dead now, though they claimed to be the Messiah.
3.
THE RISE OF THE ANTICHRIST
The third proximate sign is the rise
of the Antichrist. St. Paul, in 2
Thessalonians Ch. 2, talks of the “Man of Sin”, the “Lawless One”, the ”Son of
Damnation” who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object
of worship. St. Paul says that the
‘mystery of lawlessness is already at work, but the Antichrist is not as yet in
full control, since his coming is for the time being, restrained or prevented
by a power which stands in his way’. As
soon as the Antichrist does make his appearance, however, he will set himself
up in the strength of Satan, against God as a false god, spread false teaching
and find an audience among those who refuse the Christian message and embrace
error. (7)
The Fathers of the Church speculated
on the power that holds the Antichrist back.
Some said it was the Prayer of the Church, or the preaching of the
Gospel on the Holy Spirit, or even the Archangel Michael.
Robert Hugh Benson, the son of the
Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury, and a Catholic priest, wrote a book on the
Antichrist called “The Lord of the World’. It has been favourably cited by Pope
Benedict XVI as well as Pope Francis for its prophetic insight. (See Appendix
on Pope Francis and “The Lord of the World” : ”Devil is working hard on
securing end times by Russell Shaw).
So Scripture indicates that there are
two secret plans for mankind:
a. Satan has one and once the thing holding
back the Antichrist is removed, he will appear the most powerful, evil person
in history.
b. Secondly, God also has a plan and it will
culminate in the Parousia, or appearance of Jesus Christ as King of Kings and
Lord of Lords.
In 1976 Pope Paul VI said just before
his death: “I sometimes read the Gospel passage of the end times, and I attest
that, at this time, some signs of these are emerging”. (8) And shortly before becoming Pope, Cardinal
Karol Wojtyla (later Pope John Paul II) seemed to indicate the same thing when
he stated:
“We are now facing the final
confrontation between the Church and the anti Church of the Gospel versus the
anti Gospel”. (9) He did not elaborate, but perhaps he was
referring to the fact that our twentieth century has had more Christians who
were martyred for Christ than in all the centuries from Calvary to 1900
included”.
INDIVIDUAL
ESCHATOLOGY
The Catholic Church, in her wisdom, has always emphasized individual
eschatology over general eschatology.
If there is one given in life, it is that all of us are going to meet
our Maker. All of us, one way or
another, will have to give an account for our lives as we stand before the
throne of God. Whether that happens
because we are caught up at the Second Coming, or because we die a natural
death, is a matter about which the Catholic Church does not worry too
much. The Church simply reminds us that
it will happen, so that we should be in a state of grace; we should stay close
to the sacraments. That’s the Catholic
perspective. (10)
APPENDIX
DEVIL IS WORKING HARD ON SECURING END
TIMES by
Russell Shaw
Pope Francis is not shy about
preaching on the battle between good and evil.
This pope is a believer in the end times who’s convinced they aren’t
merely coming, but are, in a sense, already being played out before our eyes. This, likewise, is someone who believes the
devil is real and perceives a demonic hand at work in current events.
For example: The Vatican summary of his weekday homily
Nov. 28, quotes him as saying: “The devil pushes us to be unfaithful to the
Lord. Sometimes he pushes hard”.
Francis went on to add that this is
more than just individual temptation.
Scripture, he pointed out, “speaks to us about a universal temptation,
about a universal trial, about the time when ... the whole of the Lord’s
creation will be faced with this choice between God and evil, God and the
prince of the world.”
That time, he made clear, is now.
Devil At
work
The pope makes no bones about
accepting the reality of both the end times and the devil.
Regarding the end times – the era
preceding the Second Coming of Christ, the last judgement and the end of the
world – several themes stand out in his thinking. One is that this will be a time when the
Church and Christians are persecuted.
The Pope spoke of the present as a
period of “general apostasy.” Mighty forces anxious to keep God from being
worshipped, seek to convince Christians to take a “reasonable and peaceful
road” by obeying “worldly powers” bent on reducing religion to “a private
matter”, he said.
Describing the ensuing persecution of
the Church as “a calamity”, the pope said: “It will appear to be the triumph of
the prince of this world, the defeat of God.
It will seem as though he has taken over the world (and become) master
of the world.” As for the persecuted Christians, he added, they are “a
prophetic sign of what will happen to everyone. “
Lest there be any doubt, Pope Francis
emphasizes that the persecution of religion he envisages will involve the
shedding of blood. In his Nov. 18
homily, he cited the Old Testament Book of Maccabees, which tells of the
martyrdom of faithful Jews and cautioned today’s believers against subscribing
to an “adolescent progressivism” that encourages the abandonment of faith.
“Do you think there are no human
sacrifices today?” he asked rhetorically.
“There are many, many of them.
And there are laws that protect them.”
‘A
prophecy’
It was in this context that Francis –
in a reference that caught the attention of people who understood it – spoke of
“Lord of the World,” calling it “almost ... a prophecy.”
Published a century ago, “Lord of
the World” is a novel by Robert Hugh Benson, son of an archbishop of
Canterbury, who converted to Catholicism, became a priest and wrote works of
fiction and popular devotion.
The novel is probably Benson’s best
known book. It’s a futuristic end-times
story depicting a radically secularized society whose authoritarian regime
controls its mostly willing subjects by providing them with a feel-good
environment where religion and traditional morality are systematically
excluded.
The “Lord” of this world of the
not-so-distant future is a mysterious figure who, as the story unfolds, grows
more and more recognizable as the Antichrist whom the Bible foretells as precursor
of the end times. The tale concludes on
the plains outside Nazareth where the Antichrist and his followers are
preparing to exterminate the last believers led by the last pope.
Beginning
of the end?
Francis evidently thinks at least some
end-times events are already taking place.
But that’s not new. “With God’s
coming into history,” he said, “we are already in the last times”- and could be
for a long while to come.
However that may be, on May 4 he said
Christianity is more persecuted today than at the start. “So many Christian communities are persecuted
around the globe,” he said. “More so now
than in the early times ... Why? Because the spirit of the world hates.”
Pretty clearly, Francis thinks the
devil is back today. Considering the
state of the world – and also in some ways the state of the Church – many
people would agree. (Catholic Voice 15/6/2014)
GENERAL
ESCHATOLOGY
Traditional Christian eschatology has been hopelessly
confused by the Bible known as the Scofield Bible (or the Bible of
Fundamentalism) first published in1909 b y a smooth operator called Cyril
Scofield, a lawyer with no formal training in theology, who was heavily
influenced by a wealthy Jewish Wall Street lawyer, Samuel Untermeyer
(1858-1941). This lawyer, with
incredible chutzpah, has Scofield add notes to the Bible which supported the
Jewish Restorationist movement to Palestine.
JEWISH HOMELANDS:
A contemporary Israeli historian, Anita
Shapira, suggests that evangelical Christian Zionists of the 1840’s “passed
this notion on to Jewish circles” i.e. restoration to Palestine (11). But I rather think it was the nearly 1900
years of fervent Jewish Passover prayers and toasts: “next year in Jerusalem”! This was spurred on by incredible nineteenth
century pogroms and persecutions of Jews worldwide by ferocious goyim, Christian and Muslim, that
promoted the idea of going home urgently to Palestine. Other possible sites for a Jewish state proved
unrealizable e.g. Uganda, Madagascar, Soviet Manchuria, El Arish (Sinai),
Alaska, etc.
OLD SCOFIELD BIBLE:
Samuel Untermeyer’s chutzpah was
exposed in 1984 by Joseph Canfield in his best-selling book “The Incredible
Scofield and His Book”. Canfield was
brought up on the gloomy eschatology of the Scofield Bible that viewed the
world with pessimism – the only thing to do was to survive and wait for Jesus
to come back. Rather reminiscent of Paul
exhortations to the Thessalonians, some of whom believed the Christ could
return at any moment, so they became unmotivated idlers and stopped working for
a living (cf. 2 Thess. 3:6-13). See the
movie documentary “Waiting for Armageddon” where disconsolate mothers say “I
may never hold my grandchildren”.
Canfield decided to research Scofield to help prevent this defeatist
attitude.
NEW SCOFIELD BIBLE:
In 1984 the promoters of the Scofield
Bible produced a new edition with obvious new interpolations, e.g. “for a
nation to commit the sin of anti-Semitism brings inevitable judgement”. This began to make people suspicious. Even that doughty dispensational
pre-millenialist, Jack Chick of Chick Comics, began to smell something fishy
and declared on his website that the new Scofield Bible is not a Scofield Bible
at all “as Dr. C.I. Scofield did not edit it – and died in 1921! Barring a very selective resurrection, it is
impossible for a man who died in 1921 to edit a book in 1967”! (12) Incidentally, there is no record “of any
academic institution having granted Scofield the honorary Doctor of Divinity
degree”’ (13)
MORE CHUTZPAH COMING:
According to one American author,
there is “a new theology being published that Jewish people do not need to come
through Jesus, God has a special salvation plan outside of Christ for them”.
(14) The prolific ghostly pen of C.I.
Scofield seemingly has more work to do in future editions, and, perhaps, in the
“Jesus Seminars” where Jesus is seen as the “first stand-up Jewish comic!”
JOHN NELSON DARBY:
As mentioned above, traditional
Christian eschatology was greatly confused by ideas emanating from the pages of
the Scofield Bible. Scofield was greatly
influenced by a member of the Plymouth Brethren, John Nelson Darby (1800-1882),
who conceived dispensationalism and the “rapture”- both unknown to nearly 1900
years of Christianity. So today we have
post-millenialism, pre-millenialism, dispensationalism, the rapture as well as
pre-, mid- and post-tribulationism and modifications of nearly all the
above. This has caused the
Fundamentalism movement to split into bitterly opposing camps. Where was the Biblical discernment? For example, see 1 John 4:1-6 and 1 Thess.
5:21.
PROTESTANT DISSENTERS:
The famous American preacher, C.H.
Spurgeon, said of his dispensationalism, promoted by Scofield in his Bible: “It is a mercy that these absurdities are
revealed one at a time, in order that we may be able to endure their stupidity
without dying of amazement”. (15)
The Baptist theologian, Dale Moody,
wrote of the pre-tribulation rapture now promoted by phenomenally best-selling
authors, Hal Lindsey (Late Great Planet Earth), and anti-Catholic, Tim La
Haye’s “left behind” series:
“Belief in a pre-tribulational rapture
... contradicts all three chapters in the New Testament that mention the
tribulation and the rapture together (Mark 13:24-27; Matt. 24:26-31; 2 Thess.
2:1-12) .... The theory is so biblically bankrupt that the usual defence is
made using three passages that do not even mention a tribulation (John 14:3; 1
Thess. 4:17; 1 Cor. 15:52). These are
important passages, but they have not had one word to say about a
pre-tribulational rapture. The score is
3 to 0, three passages for a post-tribulational rapture and three to say
nothing on the subject. (16)
Dr. Peter Hammond of South Africa, has
characterised rapture fiction (e.g. “Left behind” series) as an “eschatology of
escapism, a “longing to be removed from responsibilities here on earth”’ “Paralysed by pessimism”, he says “many
passive pew warmers are praying for the rapture to rescue them out of their
responsibilities”. (17) Rapture fiction
is a new gospel (1 Cor. 11:4) – “they want to escape persecution for the cross
of Christ” (Gal. 6:13). It is a “beam me
up out of here Scotty” theology!
CARELESS RAPTURES:
In early 1988, Edgar C. Whisenant
published “Eighty Eight Reasons Why”. It
predicted that the Rapture would take
place in September 1988. It sold
millions of copies. But the Rapture was
delayed... Again!. Then he announced that the Rapture would come
September 1989... It didn”t! “In August 1990, Saddam Hussein’s forces
invaded Kuwait. Immediately there was a
flurry of another wave of books on the revival of ‘Babylon’. Prophecy book sales soared far higher than
Scud missiles. Armageddon was delayed...
again”. (18)
Then there was Harold Camping, the
U.S. radio preacher, who boldly proclaimed in 2005, that the Rapture would
occur at 6pm on 21st May 2011.
He admitted he was wrong, but he sold 4,5 million copies of his book!
(19)
The Christian world seems full of
gullible people with lots of money to spend on futile books! But its discrediting the person we love - Jesus, and the faith he preached is
being held up to ridicule by avaricious Christian writers.
“The very concrete danger here comes
when a dispensationalist like Hal Lindsey promises that the rapture will occur
before you die – which he does, in many places, and Tim La Haye does the same
thing. Now suppose that you have a
friend who believes this, and then that friend dies. What do you think? How does that make you feel about God’s
promises? Do you start to doubt the
Bible at that point? From a Catholic
perspective, there aren’t those sorts of issues.
The Catholic Church, in her wisdom,
has always emphasized individual eschatology over general eschatology. If there is one given in life, it is that all
of us are going to meet our Maker. All of us, one way or another, will have to give
an account for our lives as we stand before the throne of God. Whether that happens because we are caught up
at the Second Coming or because we die a natural death is a matter about which
the Catholic Church does not worry too much.
The Church simply reminds us that it will happen, so that we should be in a state of grace; we should stay close
to the sacraments, That’s Catholic
perspective”. (20)
TRADITIONAL INTERPRETATION:
A lot of confusion in eschatology
could be avoided if only there was recourse to the 2000 years of the Tradition
of the Church. But many Protestants are
ambivalent about tradition, even though it is Scriptural, e.g. “hold to the
traditions which you were taught by us, either by word or letter” (2 Thess.
2:15). This ambivalence can be seen when
Protestants rejected 1900 years of the traditional ban on contraception, which
included all the great reformers.
Randy Alcorn, in his best-selling book
“Does the Birth Control Pill Cause Abortions?” answers yes. The pill can abort, undetected soon after
conception. He says that for those who
recognise God is the Creator of each person and the giver and taker of human
life, this is a question with profound moral implications. But the tradition of some reformers is seen
as decisive in a book of lesser consequence on eternal life for animals. So tradition is a case of take-it-or-leave-it
and that can lead to great confusion in the realm of eschatology and fanciful,
complicated off-the-cuff explanations.
What is needed is a ruthless application of “Occam’s Razor” - the more
assumptions you have to make, the more unlikely an explanation is. E.g. there’s pre- and post-millenialism, and
pre-, mid- and post- tribulationism! The
simple traditional explanation is best.
Thanks to our Catholic faith, we have
2000 years of tradition which an early Greek Father of the Church, St. John
Chrisostom (b. 344), defended:
“The apostles did not hand down
everything in writing; many unwritten things were handed down as well, and both
written and unwritten are worthy of belief.
So, let us also regard the tradition of the Church as worthy of belief”.
(21) Thanks to our tradition, if a new
theological theory develops (like the Rapture, or dispensationalism) that does
not have a precedent in the tradition (or if any precedented does not
constitute a consensus in our tradition) it may not be a valuable insight, but
a dangerous deviation. We need to be
discerning of all the truths of Christianity “ delivered once and for all to
the saints”, 2000 years ago. (Jude 3)
BORN LOSERS?
This way we avoid gloomy
dispensationalism cherished by so many Protestants who insist that Jesus alone
offers the way of salvation, but dispensationalism is based on the belief that
Christ’s mission on earth ended in failure (22). Peter Hammond rightly maintains that “God has
not predestined defeat for His people.
The ultimate victory of the Kingdom of God is inevitable. Christians are
not doomed to defeat, but called to conquest”’ (23)
Hammond gives some inspirational texts
for Christians to ponder on as an antidote to pessimism:
Ps. 2:8-11; Ps. 22:27-28; Ps.72:11;
Is. 9:6-7; Dan. 2:44; 7:14; 7:27; Hab. 2:14; Zeph. 2:11; Zech. 14:9; Rom. 8:37;
1 Jn. 4:4; Ph. 14:13; Matt. 28:18-19; Rev. 11:15;
1 Jn. 5:4 “This is the victory that
overcomes the world : our faith” – not the wimpy, anaemic version!
PROVOKING ARMAGEDDON:
Many dispensationalists believe that
they can set the clock ticking towards the Rapture. Some believe that they can make this happen – that they can
force the clock to start a bit earlier.
For instance, Hal Lindsey believes in trying to get as many Jewish
people as possible to move to Israel, and that somehow this will be a factor in
kicking off the sequence of events he awaits, Carl Olson maintains. Carl Olson, now a Catholic, was once a
convinced Fundamentalist who now expertly critiques the positions he once
vehemently held.
I believe that Jewish people need to
be wary of the so-called ‘friends of Israel’ who see Israelis as little more
than cannon fodder, and have no real love for them. They seem to want to
precipitate a crisis in Israel to bring on Armageddon. With friends like that, who needs enemies?!
The Israeli writer, Aryeh Gallin, has
said: “One mystery of World War II is that, while every single German Ally,
almost without exception, the Finns, Bulgarians, Italians, Japanese and the
allied neutral Spanish, went to heroic efforts to save Jews, every single one
of the Anglo-Saxons allied nations, the Canadians, Americans, the British, the
Australians and the New Zealanders, did everything possible to see that nothing
would interfere with the process of mass murder” (the Holocaust). (24)
These latter nations are often known
as the WASPS (white Anglo Saxon Protestants), and dispensationalists come
mostly from their ranks,
THE LAST DAYS FOR MUSLIMS:
But it is not only Christian
fundamentalists who believe they can force the last days clock to start a bit
earlier. Muslim fundamentalists also
seem to believe this, e,g, the Shiite Muslims of Iran believe that the 12th
Imam, Iman Mahdi, will only come when there is widespread destruction and
chaos. For ex-President Ahmodinojah of
Iran, Israel must be wiped off the map and in the mayhem involved in this, the
12th Imam will eventually appear.
For Muslims, the Last Days will not
come until all Jews are “wiped off the map”.
In Islam, Jews are referred to as “apes and swine” (Sura 5). Mohammed is reported as saying in one Hadith,
that “the last hour would not come unless the Muslim will fight against
the Jews, and the Muslims would kill
them until the Jews would hide behind a stone or a tree, and a stone or a tree
would say: “Muslim or the servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me; come and
kill him”. This tradition is repeated with small variations, numerous times
in the Hadith. (See Hadith: Sahih
Muslim, book 41, no 6985). Jews are
also called: ‘Sons of pigs and monkeys’. (Sura 5:59-60). In the light of these quotes one understands
the hatred between Jews and Muslims. But
Christians do not escape either: another Hadith says, “when judgement day
arrives, Allah will give every Muslim a Jew or Christian to kill, so that the
Muslim will not into hell fire”. (Mishkat al-Messabih V.2, No.5552). In
other words, “Kill a Christian or Jew and keep out of hell!’
So, if Allah hates Jews and Christians
so much, why wait to the Day of Judgement to please Allah, when one can begin
the slaughter now? Perhaps this explains
the frequent attacks on Jewish people in France, which once had the third
largest Jewish community in the world, but now rapidly diminishing due to the
terror.
Joseph Pearce, the English author, was
an anti-Semite fascist at school. This
was shared by a Muslim classmate. After
finishing school, they lost contact.
Years later, they bumped into one another by accident. The Muslim lad now sported a full Muslim
beard and dress. He boasted to Pearce,
his once anti-Semite friend (now a Catholic), that he was off to kill
Jews! Seemingly, the greatest aspiration
for young Muslims.
Why the blood thirst? The Koran talks at great length about Hell in
graphic detail, so no Muslim in his right mind would want to go there: 92 of
the 114 Surahs or Chapters of the Koran refer to hell, fire, doom and
punishment and “the doctrine of hell and punishment receives more attention
than any other doctrine in the Koran”, besides the monotheism theme. The Koran states frequently that unless a
Muslim takes up arms against the infidels, he is not a true Muslim and goes to
hell.
THE LAST DAYS FOR CHRISTIANS:
For Christians, the Last Days will not
come, according to the Bible, until the Jewish people realise that the Messiah
is Jesus. (Rom. 11:15-25)
“Their (Jews) sins occasioned the
salvation of the Gentiles and again the incredulity of the Gentiles will
occasion the conversion of Israel. You
will find both in the Apostle (St, Paul)”.
St. Jerome (345-420 A.D.), Comm on the Song of Songs, Homily 1).
·
“Seeing
the Gentiles abusing little by little their grace, God will recall a second
time the Jews”... (St. John Chrysostom (344-407 A.D.) Homily on Epis. to Romans
2.
·
St
Paul announces that the accession of Jewry to the faith will take place after
“the full number of Gentiles enter in”. (Rom. 11:25)
“What
I say, will such an admission effectuate, if not that it bring the Gentiles
back to life? The Gentiles would be the
believers whose faith has grown cold; or even that the totality deceived by the
Antichrist, fall and are restored to their pristine fervour by the admission of
the Jews”. (St. Thomas Aquinas,
(1225-1274). Commentary on the Epistle
to Romans 11:15).
From
the Catechism of the Catholic Church 674:
“The
glorious Messiah’s coming is suspended at every moment of history until his
recognition by “all Israel” (Rom. 11:20-6).
The full “inclusion” of the Jews in the Messiah’s salvation, in the wake
of the full number of the Gentiles (Rom. 11:12) will enable the people of God
to achieve “the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ” in which “God
will be all in all” (Eph, 4:13; 1 Cor. 15:28).
PRAYING FOR THE CONVERSION OF JEWS AND
MUSLIMS:
It has been the practice of many
Christians to heed the call five times a day from the minaret of the mosque,
calling people to pray, to do just that:
To pray that all may come to know the
one true God and Jesus Christ whom He has sent. (See John 17:3).
POSTCRIPT
Feb.
16, 2015 (crisismagazine.com) - In a
speech to Egypt’s top Islamic authorities, President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi
called for a “religious revolution”.
Why? Because he believes that
Islam has problems: “That corpus of texts and ideas that we have sacralised
over the centuries ... is antagonizing the entire world.” He continued: “Is it possible that 1.6 billion people
should want to kill the rest of the world’s inhabitants...?” He then warned the
assembled imams not to “remain trapped within this mindset” but to “reflect on
it from a more enlightened perspective.”
He
states that “the entire umma (Islamic world) is a “source of anxiety, danger,
killing and destruction for the rest of the world” because of “the thinking
that we hold most sacred.”
REFERENCES
1. Ralph Martin, Is Jesus Coming
Soon, Ignatius Press, 1997
2. St. Jerome, Commentary on the Song
of Songs, Homily 1.
3. P. Huchede, History of the
Antichrist, Tan, 1968, p.33.
4. 30 Days, March 1989.
5. Messori, Vittorio, Ratzinger Report.
6. Benedict
Groeschel C.F.R., A Still Small Voice: A Practical Guide on Reported
Revelations, Ignatius Press, 1993, p.79.
7. J.
Bauer, Encyclopaedia of Biblical Theology, p.30.
8. Homilitic
& Pastoral Review, April 1994.
9. Ibid.
10. Carl
Olson, Was Jesus a Failure?, Catholic World Report, August 2003, p.52.
11. Wikipedia,
Christian Zionism.
13. Wikipedia,
C.I. Scofield.
14. John
S. Torell, Joseph M. Canfield: A Short Biographical Sketch, p.6, W.W.W.
15. Sermon,
Jesus Christ Immitable, Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, 1869, v.15, no. 848.
17. Joy
Magazine, May 2007.
18. Blurb
to D. Wilson’s Armageddon Now!
19. C.
Peppler, What Can Harold Camping Teach Us?, Joy.
20. C.
Olson, Op. Cit. P.52.
21. Homilies
on 2 Thess.4.
22. C.
Olson, Op. Cit.
23. Joy
Magazine, May 2007.
24. Cassette.
The Priest Who Saved Jews; Rufino Niccacci O.F.M.
Root
& Branch Association, Jerusalm
