Thread by @jsmian

1) The Middle East is undergoing a major transformation.

It is entirely possible to know exactly what will happen in the future.

Maktub. It is written.

2) Within the field of eschatology, concerned with the final events of history, the three Abrahamic religions Judaism, Christianity, and Islam display certain convergences.

3) The Abrahamic covenant of Genesis 12 is among the most determinative revelations of scripture.

God calls upon Abraham to journey to Canaan, a region approximating present-day Israel, where He promises to make of him and his descendants “a great nation.”

4) Abraham’s grandson Jacob took the name Israel, and his progeny became known as Israelites.

The Book of Deuteronomy states: “God has chosen you to be his treasured people from all the nations that are on the face of the earth.”

5) More than a thousand years after Abraham, the covenant was renewed with the Prophet Moses, who leads the Israelites out of Egypt after their centuries-long enslavement.

6) God speaks to Moses: “After I have brought them to the Promised Land they will reject me and break my covenant.”

7) Moses spells out the warning: “Disaster will confront you because you will act wickedly before the Lord, inciting Him to wrath because of your works.”

8) Moses dies within sight of the Promised Land on Mount Nebo (present-day Jordan).

Under the leadership of Joshua, the Israelites enter the land of Canaan and establish the Kingdom of Israel.

9) Four centuries pass. King David makes Jerusalem the capital, and his son Solomon builds the First Temple, the seat of the Divine Presence.

However, as decreed, the Jews stray from God and are expelled from Israel.

10) The Babylonians arrive in 597 BC and set the temple on fire.

Cyrus of Persia invites the Jews back to Israel seventy years later but this did not amount to sovereignty.

Jews are expelled again by the Romans in AD 70 following the destruction of the Second Temple.

11) So begins a dark and bitter journey.

For nearly two thousand years, Jews experience marginalization, persecution and expulsions, culminating in the Holocaust, in which six million Jews are killed.

12) When Moses warned the Israelites, he also prescribed a cure for the curse.

“When all these things happen to you, remember them in all the nations where God has exiled you ...”

13) “... God will reverse your captivity and have pity on you. He will turn and gather you from all the peoples among whom he has scattered you.”

14) After World War I, Palestine came under the British mandate and the Balfour Declaration gave legal basis for the establishment of a “national home for the Jewish people.”

15) On May 14, 1948, Israel was officially declared an independent state with David Ben Gurion as the prime minister.

“A Jewish state on only part of the land is not the end but the beginning,” he wrote to his son. “We must expel Arabs and take their place.”

16) After the six-day Arab-Israeli war in 1967, Israel took control of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, taking East Jerusalem from Jordan, the Sinai Peninsula from Egypt, and the Golan Heights from Syria.

17) Confronting feeble Arab opposition, Israel continued annexing more Palestinian territory and expanding Jewish settlements.

18) Arabs react with incredulity and shock as each new stage of Israeli expansion unfolds, yet, the eschatology is unambiguous.

There is no room for a two-state solution.

It is foretold in Muslim scripture.

19) In the Qur’an, there is a passage about the return of the Children of Israel to their land from the four corners of the earth.

“They will dwell securely in the Promised Land, when the promise of the hereafter will be near,” it says in Surat Al-Isra (verse 104).

20) “Woe to the Arabs,” the Prophet Muhammad told his companions.

“The nations will flock against you [the Muslims] from every horizon, just as hungry people flock to a kettle.”

“Will we be few on that day?” the companions asked.

21) “No, you will be many as far as your number goes,” Muhammad replied, “but you will be scum since fear will be removed from the hearts of your enemies and weakness will be placed in your hearts (love of this world and fear of death).”

22) To fulfill God’s covenant, Israel requires full control of Jerusalem.

There can be no Zionism without Zion—a biblical synonym for Jerusalem.

The most urgent challenge is to expel Palestinians, who make up 38 percent of the city’s population.

23) This is being done by revoking residency rights, forcing evictions through various legal mechanisms, redrawing of municipal boundaries, and making life as uncomfortable as possible.

24) There are over three hundred thousand Palestinians living in East Jerusalem; 98 percent have either Israeli residency or citizenship.

25) It is only a matter of time before Israel seizes control of the Temple Mount in the Old City, which is the holiest site in Judaism.

Orthodox Jewish tradition maintains it is here that the Third Temple will be built prior to, or in tandem with, the arrival of the Messiah.

26) Among Muslims, the Mount is revered as the Noble Sanctuary, the site of the al-Aqsa Mosque from where Prophet Muhammad is believed to have ascended to heaven.

27) Israel will demolish the Dome of the Rock and al-Aqsa Mosque on the Mount to construct the Third Temple.

No one will stand in their way. As the Prophet stated about Muslims, “you will be scum.”

28) This is already true.

There’s no Muslim or Arab world to speak of—just artificial, socially fractured statelets.

29) It is America who is standing up to China for the injustices against more than one million Uighur Muslims.

Nations that claim to be defenders of the faith offer no protest to the concentration camps.

30) In July 2019, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the UAE and other Muslim-majority states helped to block a motion at the United Nations calling for China to allow “independent international observers” into the Xinjiang region.

31) The Gulf monarchies, whose biggest fear is a threat to their hereditary rule, realize that it is neither beneficial nor possible for them to withstand Israel.

The Abraham Accord is just a formal recognition of this.

32) The eschatological convergence among Judaism, Christianity, and Islam ends when the Abrahamic covenant is fulfilled, and the Israelis have safely settled in the Promised Land.

33) Jews believe that their Messiah will bring order and harmony to the world.

Christians and Muslims believe that same figure will actually be the Antichrist sowing chaos and discord prior to the Last Judgement.

34) Matthew 24 says there will be “great suffering, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now.”

The Antichrist will reign triumphantly.

35) He will only be defeated by Prophet Jesus, who will return from the heavens to Damascus and then lead the fight for Jerusalem.

The Battle of Armageddon will be the final war of humanity.

36) My task is not to predict the end of the world.

I just want to provide an eschatological framework in which to place contemporary events.

Maktub. It is written. stray-reflections.com/article/155/Wo…