Some Christian Armageddonists want the US to nuke Iran to bring on the second coming of Jesus. Similar groups of Muslims also want to bring about global battle of Islam and Christianity, which they call Al-Malhama al-Kubra (‘battle, greatest’), also involving the reappearance of Jesus. Don’t let them keep stirring up Israel and Palestine. They must stop!
They believe that we are now in the sixth dispensation, “from the Cross to the Rapture”. God’s seventh dispensation will start with the second coming of Jesus. This must take place in Jerusalem. Mike Pence is a dispensationalist and was instrumental in moving the US embassy moved there, in pursuit of prophecy. Then begins the last 1,000 years (the Millennium) before God’s final judgment. “The Jews must then convert or die”, according to four prophecies in Matthew’s gospel.
Dispensationalists actively recruit in the military. 70,000 baptisms as Christian nationalists took place at Fort Jackson. Crusader iconography figures on US air force badges after Bush called for a “new crusade”. The US infantry rifle scope has gospel verses on the stock. They give platforms to Donald Trump because of his potential access to nuclear weapons.
A discussion of Christian Zionism by Colin Chapman, “Whose Promised Land?” was published in 2002, but not widely reported. The film “Praying for Armageddon” by Schei, is currently being streamed by al Jazeera.
Al-Malhama al-Kubra (‘battle, greatest’) is the Islamic equivalent of Armageddon and is nearly the same. It occurs in many hadiths and also involves the antichrist (dajjal) and the second coming of Jesus. The Mahdi (‘rightly guided one’) will defeat the antichrist. The Shia version treats the return of Jesus and the Mahdi (identified as the twelfth Imam) as two of the 12 signs of the apocalypse. Another is the hypocrite (munafiq), name-only Muslims who will make war with the Mahdi. Others are the red death (violence) and the white death (plague), killing two thirds of the world’s population. Several figures will appear: the Al-Harth, Al-Mansur, Shuaib bin Saleh and the Sufyani. There will be a great conflict in the land of Syria, until it is destroyed. Death and fear will afflict the people of Baghdad and Iraq. Dabiq in Syria is the main place, according to ISIS. Shias say Isa will command the right of the Mahdi’s army. Sunni hadith say God substituted someone else for the crucifixion, and took Jesus straight to Heaven.
Why are the Armageddon and Malhama theories so similar? The knife attack on an Assyrian bishop is the clue
Assyrians are what is left of the Christians of Syria and Arabia before the Muslim expansion of 632 CE. Abu Bakr gave conquered people a three-way choice: convert, pay taxes, or die. Those who chose to pay taxes became the Assyrian minority in successive Islamic empires. They still speak Aramaic, the language of Jesus. Those who converted spoke a one sentence oath and kept most of their beliefs: Jesus, Mary, John the Baptist, Gabriel, Heaven, Hell, Armageddon. The only difference was in the requirement for getting into the afterlife. Christians believed that they must show their faith in Jesus by an act of witness. The word is shahid in Aramaic and Arabic, and martyros in Greek. The new requirement was that a shahid must witness by dying in battle against infidels.
The Israeli war cabinet is six men, one of whom is a rabbi. The others are culturally American and not very religious. Netenyahu and Ron Dermer are both US born and non-believers. Dermer is more sympathetic to US evangelical Christians than US Jews, because of the tithes they send.
Jeffress, Hagee, Gary Burd’s bikers, General Gerry Boycott and tens of millions of Americans are itching to nuke Iran. Don’t let them!