    The Second Coming

    (a positive view of fundamentalism)

    By Israel Shamir

    They walk in big and jolly crowds on Jerusalem streets, waving
    blue-and-white flags and smiling at passers-by; the Christian friends of
    Israel often arrive in the autumn, during the Tabernacles Feast. This
    year, too, they came by thousands; cheered up the despondent shopkeepers
    of Ben Yehuda Street, promised to stand by us, in weather fair or foul;
    met with the representatives of the settlers and with Sharon’s
    ministers. Their leader, Pat Robinson, proclaimed: “I see the rise of
    Islam to destroy Israel and take the land from the Jews and give East
    Jerusalem to Yasser Arafat. I see that as Satan's plan to prevent the
    return of Jesus Christ the Lord,”- and the crowds applauded him, even
    ram horns blew.

    The Israeli Jews are less than happy with them. Religious Jews hate
    their crosses and visibly restrain themselves from spitting in their
    direction as is their wont. Ministers of the Jewish Nationalist Right
    hoodwink their supporters, promising them to use and manipulate the silly
    visitors. In the educated and liberal circles of Jerusalem (as well as
    in Boston, Washington and Paris) it is usual to pour scorn on the
    fundamentalist Evangelical Christians, to despise these ‘country hicks’,
    ‘homophobes’ and ‘warmongers’. But I like these simple and sincere men
    and women; though their love of Christ is misused by their cynical
    leaders as the first love of a young country girl is misused by a
    cynical urbanite.

    What is, indeed, the proper Christian attitude to the Jewish state?
    Nowadays it varies from “warm support” to “indifferent”, i.e. from
    support of Israel on the grounds of an apocalyptic belief to the view
    that the Jews and the state of Israel have no more meaning for
    Christians than Inuit. Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams offered a
    compromise affirming the need for a Jewish state and the state’s duty to
    be good to its neighbours. A Palestinian Christian, Jonathan Kuttab of
    Sabeel wrote him an open letter bitterly complaining that he “ignored
    the Palestinian people on whose land the Jewish state was created” but
    “was satisfied that the Archbishop did not support eschatological or
    prophecy-driven interpretations”. However this discourse is missing the
    fourth leg: the rejection of the Jewish state on the ground of an
    apocalyptic tradition; and so we shall supply this leg.

    Indeed, the “eschatological or prophecy-driven interpretations” are
    unavoidable; millions of Americans express them openly and millions of
    Europeans feel them acutely. No amount of empathy with the Palestinians
    has been able to change the widespread feeling that was well expressed
    by Lord Balfour: “The fate of the world, the millennia-old plan of
    Redemption and the Second Coming, is more important than the immediate
    concerns of local inhabitants”. Balfour, probably the Archbishop of
    Canterbury, other shepherds of the Catholic and Protestant Churches, and
    many, many ordinary folks feel about the fate of Palestine as [Egyptian
    President Gamal Abdel] Nasser felt about the fate of Nubian villages
    when he built the Aswan Dam: 'tis pity but they’ll have to suffer for
    the greater good of the land and its people.

    Let us follow this simile a bit farther. If the Aswan Dam were to flood
    the Nubian villages, Pharaonic temples and Coptic monasteries, but will
    provide Egypt with water and food -- fine and good; we shall just
    compensate the poor Nubians and relocate the monks. If the Dam were to
    create zillions of mosquitoes and bilharzia man-eating worm, arrest the
    inflow of fertilising Nile ooze and disrupt harvests, we shall regret
    the folly of building the Dam but stick with it, hoping for the better.
    But were we to recognise the Dam as a new Damocles sword hanging over
    Egypt, allowing its neighbours to blackmail the country by the threat of
    nuclear targeting the Dam and turning the Lake of Nasser into the Sea of
    Doom for this ancient country – we would change our view about the setup
    rather radically and begin gradually dismantling the project.

    In other words, we (as opposed to many friends and enemies of Palestine)
    may agree that prophecies are coming true, but which prophecies? There
    are two competing, mutually exclusive versions of Apocalypse - a Judaic
    and a Christian. According to the Jews, after Jewish sufferings, God’s
    rage will be awaken and he will avenge the shed Jewish blood and restore
    their good fortunes: the outcasts will become the leaders. Theirs will
    be the only spiritual centre of the world in Jerusalem, they will outlaw
    or kill believers in Christ and other idolaters, demolish churches,
    de-spiritualise and disarm the nations, will get seven gentile slaves to
    a person, collect all material and spiritual riches, and will live
    happily ever after shepherding the happy gentile flock.

    In the Christian narrative of forthcoming events, before the new
    spiritual awakening of Christendom (described as the Second Coming), the
    Christian world is to sink slowly into the abyss of de-spiritualisation
    and Mammon worship; its nadir is described as “the Antichrist rule”, the
    end of Kali Yuga, as they say in India. The prophets connected this
    dramatic development with the return of the Jews and with
    re-establishment of Judaic cult in Jerusalem. This was supposed to be
    the lowest point of spiritual descent, the darkest hour before the
    sunrise, for Judaism is based on rejection of Christ. This mass apostasy
    will cause a horrible war; in its aftermath, the survivors will return
    to Christ.

    The prophets and fathers of the Church did not determine whether the
    Antichrist was to be a Jew (or even a person), but the intricate
    connection between the Jews, restoration of their cult and the Doom of
    Christendom was a universally accepted dogma, East or West. In the West,
    as long ago as the seventh century, Isidor, the bishop of Seville, knew
    of the “Antichrist who will take Jerusalem and re-establish the Jewish
    temple and the Jewish kingdom” before taking over the Church and the
    world. In the East, St John the Damascene prophesied that the Antichrist
    will come to Jews and for Jews, against Christ and Christians. The
    Church Fathers considered the Rise of the Antichrist as the rise and
    temporary triumph of Judaism. In the Tenth Century, St Andrew prophesied
    that the kingdom of Israel will be restored, and that it will be the
    launching-pad of the Antichrist.

    The secret of this confluence of two narratives is hidden in the idea of
    de-spiritualisation: the Church fathers were aware that the Jews seek to
    remain the only sacral unity within profane mankind, while {the Church fathers} wished
    the world to overflow with sacrality like a jar with good wine.

    When a Christian observes the US Army and its auxiliaries being sent to
    subdue the Middle East and establish a Judaic ruler on the throne of
    Solomon; when the Jewish state declares its supreme sovereignty upon
    earth by assuming right to judge and doom anyone, anywhere; when prime
    ministers and presidents gather to deliberate whether they are doing
    everything they can for the Jews; when the superpower rates its allies
    by their attitude to the Jews; when princes of the church are begging
    forgiveness of the Jews, and when practical steps are being taken to
    renew the sacrifices in Jerusalem – one can’t but recognise that
    prophecies are being fulfilled. One also can’t but recognise that
    whoever supports this prophesied “rise of Jews” sides with the
    Antichrist. One may also find comfort in knowing that the dark night of
    the Antichrist will eventually bring the great spiritual awakening, or
    ‘the Second Coming’, but may one then hasten the darkness of the night
    while wishing for sunrise?

    In the Bolshevik tradition, this is called “the worse, the better”; i.e.
    the worse is the situation, the better are chances to bring forward the
    desired revolution. It is a legitimate view; many good people feel that
    Bush the Worse is also Bush the Better, as he is so obviously evil that
    he antagonises even groups liable to support an equally bad but cunning
    politician. In Israel, a Jewish Ultra-Orthodox authoress wittily
    explained her antizionist community’s support for Benjamin Netanyahu the
    Zionist: The Ultra-Orthodox realize that Netanyahu will surely destroy
    the Zionist state.

    This attitude ceases to be legitimate when it is transformed into a
    positive action of supporting evil. One may passively find comfort in
    knowing that a nasty situation will be soon over, but one may not
    actively provoke the nasty situation “to have it done with”, by, say,
    campaigning for Bush or Netanyahu. Such a Machiavellian action is
    perilous for the soul.

    The rise of the Antichrist as the last stage before the Second Coming
    may be compared with the betrayal and the Crucifixion before the
    Resurrection. Thus actively aiding and abetting the Antichrist, in order
    to speed up the Second Coming, is tantamount to playing the role of
    Judas betraying Christ - if he betrayed Christ in order to quicken the
    Redemption. A mad theologian Nils Runeberg, a character in a Jorge Luis
    Borges story, admired Judas for his deed, as without him, the divine
    plan would not be fulfilled. Such an approach is called “antinomian”,
    and Christ foresaw it when he said: “the Son of Man will go as it has
    been decreed, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed”
    (Mat 26:24). Indeed, for Christians, Judas is the symbol of the worst in
    human nature; Dante planted him in the Ninth Circle of his Inferno,
    while a Jewish author made him a national hero in the Toledoth Yeshu.

    Lurian Cabbala is decidedly antinomian; Sabbatai Tsevi, a post-Lurian
    Cabbalist messiah of 17th century, believed that sins lead to
    redemption. His adversaries claimed he would sodomise a boy while
    wearing phylacteries and singing hymns. The spiritual leader of the
    Israeli Cabbalist school, Rabbi Kook, also believed that mass murder,
    rivers of blood and a sinful life are the harbingers of salvation,
    though he never called for direct antinomian action – this was a later
    addition by his disciples.

    So-called Christian Zionists are antinomians as they side with the
    Antichrist in order to quicken the Second Coming, but woe to that man
    who helps Antichrist to destroy the world. Whether they believe in the
    Second Coming of Christ or not, people who knowingly implement
    antichristian plans are better called “the Antichrist Zionists”. Rise of
    the Antichrist Zionists is a part of the prophesied Apostasy of the
    Church. But our feeling towards them are like that towards misled
    brothers. They were ensnared by their spiritual longing for Christ. We
    do not mind that they are fundamentalists – we regret that they are not
    sufficiently fundamentalist.

    II

    Fundamentally, the church always believed that the Jews will be
    eventually saved by coming to Christ. This important event will
    accompany the defeat of the Antichrist, as part of the Great Reawakening
    (metaphorically called the Second Coming). Then the sheep will be
    separated from goats, and those who accept Christ will continue into
    future life. As the Rise of Antichrist occurs in our days, we witness
    the first fruits of this sifting.

    Our brother Mordechai Vanunu is one of the first swallows. This holy
    man, a scion of a learned Sephardi Jewish family, was horrified by the
    Jewish persecution of the native Palestinians and came to Christ. As a
    Christian, he denounced the Armageddon weapons of Antichrist,
    manufactured in Dimona, in the South of the Holy Land, within sight of
    Sodom. He was severely punished by the Antichrist and suffered 18 years
    in jail; but by God’s will he survived it like Daniel survived the
    Lions’ Pit.

    There are many others: Neil and Gilad, Daniel and Menachem, Jews by
    birth who denounced the Judaic cult of Death and accepted the Living
    Christ. In every case, relationship to the Palestinian suffering was the
    sieve: whoever disregarded it followed Antichrist; whoever denounced it,
    began his way to Christ.

    Though modesty precludes me from referring to myself, I have a duty to
    witness. A vain and suffering man, I was granted the grace of Christ and
    was reborn in his glory. Though the ways of God are mysterious, I
    believe that it was my compassion and love for the native people of the
    Holy Land that made me worthy of His Theophany. A poem by the Greek
    Alexandrian poet Cavafy helped me to recognise my way:

    	For some people the day comes

    	When they must say the great Yes

    	Or the great No. He who has the Yes

    	Ready within him, says it

    	And goes by the path of honour, strong in his conviction.

    	He who refuses does not repent. Asked again,

    	He’d still say no. Yet that No – the right No –

    	Drags him down all his life.

    I do not regret my Yes, and the attacks of enemies do not break my
    spirit. I am daily grateful to Christ who saved me from the Judaic
    paranoia of hating and being hated, and brought me into the world of
    loving and being loved. And every Jew who has come to Christ by the way
    of rejecting the Judaic ideas, by upholding love for the nations, is a
    portent of Salvation.

    Now I have received good news, great news from a great man, Alfred
    Lilienthal, an American Jewish author of many books including famous
    What Price Israel? published in 1953 and republished last year. Alfred
    Lilienthal was one of the first Jews who renounced Zionist separation
    and mistreatment of Palestinians.

    Suzanne Nicole, his webmaster, secretary and assistant wrote to me:

      At age 90, Alfred is quite frail and too blind to read, his short-term
      memory is severely impaired, so he has to be asked short questions (in a
      loud voice since he is also growing deaf), or he forgets what he is
      being asked. His long-term memory is still quite good, so he is also
      able to discuss concepts such as the difference between Judaism and
      Zionism. He understands current events when he first hears about them
      but quickly forgets the details. I did paraphrase one of your statements
      from The Pardes to him:

    	Thus, this discourse should help an individual to decide whether he
    	wants to be a Jew, or not, in the same way one may choose whether one
    	wants to be a communist or a Quaker, for it is my deep conviction that
    	to be or not to be a Jew is an act of free will.

      He replied, "And that is what I have finally done." He was baptised
      sometime shortly before last Thanksgiving. Even in What Price Israel? in
      1953, he had referred to Jesus as a prophet of Israel. One day a couple
      of ministers had come by to see him at the urging of a Christian friend,
      and he made the decision in what seemed to some perhaps as a senile
      moment. But Friday afternoon, he said, "What is today? Is Ned coming to
      take me to church today?" So, it has stuck. He may not remember what day
      it is, but he does remember each day that he has chosen to become a
      follower of Christ like you.

    This conversion of Alfred Lilienthal is an important event, for it tells
    us that Christ’s grace is available to Jews and not only in the physical
    Holy Land: It is enough to renounce the separation of a Jew and a
    Gentile, to give up hate and to accept the love that is Christ.

    Christian faith is not compatible with Jewish exclusivity. The mission
    among Jews can be successful only if the whole complex of Jewish
    separatism is removed, when their hearts are circumcised and they are
    brought into full communion with the people they live amongst. I have
    met in Israel with some ‘messianic Jews’, who were full of hate to the
    native people of the Holy Land. Not surprisingly, they thought Jesus
    Christ came just for Jews, and the Holy Land was theirs, too; they
    worshipped the Israeli Army and the flag of Israel. For them, the
    pivotal moment of history was not the Resurrection, but the Destruction
    of the Jewish Temple. In other words, they only pretended to be
    Christians, or not even that, as they preferred to be called ‘messianic
    Jews’.

    Indeed, the plans of Almighty include the Jews; like the plans of the
    Ring included the hobbits; but some will play the role of Frodo, while
    others will take the part of Gollum, some will support Antichrist, and
    some will stay with Christ.

    The ‘Antichrist Christians’ may revert to true fundamentalism, reject
    Antichrist and his drive to destroy the last enclaves of spirit still
    hidden in the high mountains of Asia. Then they will be called ‘Christ’s
    Christians’. They may campaign for strengthening and uniting the
    American churches and eventually bringing them into full communion with
    the Apostolic Churches of the East and the West. They may campaign and
    undo the extreme separation of church and state in their country; for
    sacred and profane must be reunited. They may reintroduce worship of Our
    Lady, as the way to connect to nature. She performed a miracle in the
    neighbouring Mexico, and healed the wounds of the native people; she can
    repeat it in the US. Then you will be blessed by all those who damn you
    today; and the Americans will be met as friends by friends wherever they
    go. The plans of the Antichrist will be ruined, as happened before; and
    mankind will resume its noble path of striving to discover its divine
    qualities. For the main message of the Orthodox Christianity is that God
    became Man so Man can become God; this is the true meaning of the Second
    Coming.