Playing a supporting role in all of this are fundamentalist and evangelical Christians who are committed to premillennial dispensationalism, a theological position created by the 19th-century British preacher John Darby. According to this vision, one of the many events which will occur during the End of Days will be the desecration of the Temple in Jerusalem by the Antichrist — which means, of course, that the Temple will have to be rebuilt before the Last Days and the Second Coming can occur.
Christians, however, cannot actually do that themselves — they are the supporting actors here, after all. Instead, they do whatever they can to ensure that plans for a Third Temple proceed — for example, some have raised herds of red heifers and others have participated in planning where a Third Temple should be placed.
Their organizations have placed a great deal of political pressure on the United States government to back hard-line Israeli policies to the detriment of Palestinian and Muslim interests. This may sound hard-hearted, but Muslim interests have nothing to do with the Christian End of Days script, they would argue, so who cares what happens to them?
Unfortunately for the Jews who are benefiting from this support, their interests aren’t all that important either. According to the Christian script, all the Jews who don’t convert to Christianity will be wiped out, meaning an end to Judaism one way or another. When members of the British-Israel movement found that their purposes for Israel were not being met by Jews, they turned from pro-Zionist to fanatically anti-Zionist. This in turn helped spawn Christian Identity, the most rabidly anti-Semitic movement today. What will happen if Jews continue to fail to play the role intended for them by their Christian premillennialist benefactors?
And the Muslim role in all of this? They may have the strangest part of all to play because they have no internal eschatology which depends upon the events and architecture in this tiny plaza. All they really need to do is sit tight and work to protect the status quo, but fears that Jews (aided by Christians) will destroy the al-Aqsa mosque and the Dome of the Rock have led to the development of new millennial beliefs among Muslims — beliefs which are obviously derivative of Christian and Jewish ideas. Stories have begun to spread that the creation of Israel was, in fact, the first step in an apocalyptic process which will culminate in the total triumph of Islam over all the world. Even the Christian year 2000, meaningless from a Muslim perspective, took on religious significance.
There is a very real danger that True Believers will grow tired at God taking too long to inaugurate His plans and decide that He needs a little help to get the ball rolling. The potential for violence was made clear in September, 1996, when the Israeli government opened a tunnel exit in Jerusalem 200 yards away from al-Aqsa mosque.
Palestinian leaders used this incident to fan the flames of people’s fears over the creation of the Third Temple and provoke riots, leading to nearly 80 deaths and an unnecessary increase in hard feelings. Circumstances were similar when Ariel Sharon visited the Temple Mount on September 28, 2000; he may have done so to attract political attention, but the Palestinian Authority accommodated his wishes, exacerbating things further by inciting riots 24 hours later.
There are people who feel that this drama is remote from their lives, but so long as violence — including nuclear violence — remains a real possibility, this is an issue which everyone needs to care about. Although addressing many of the social, political, and economic problems in the area may help, nothing will be accomplished until the religious problems are dealt with. Unfortunately, Gorenberg isn’t able to offer hope that a religious solution may be possible. Religious fundamentalism riding a wave of eschatological passion sees neither a need nor a value in compromising what are believed to be basic religious beliefs.
When someone is convinced that they are following a script which comes from God, how do you get them to starting re-writing their lines?
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