Chapter 1

INTRODUCTION

ANTICHRIST AND THE GOG-MAGOG WAR

Prophecy as usual—this is not!

Swirling amidst confusion in Middle East and amidst those in media, think tanks, and Left-Behind-oriented prophecy buffs is a plethora of disjointed and ever-changing analyses and strategic conclusions/confusions which becloud real issues playing out in unfolding apocalyptic drama they interpret. Events twist and turn, but history’s inexorable march to finality confounds skeptic, thwarts agnostic, and befuddles wise in his own conceits.

Yes, this is an eschatological compass which takes its cue from Book, but it’s not what you’d expect, not at all. Of Samuel Huntington’s major civilizations which encompass globe, there are but three that militate against each other: Western, Chinese, and Islamic. All three, according Bible (and this is not a wild eyed conjecture, but a calculated hermeneutic of Scripture) were forecast to clash “in latter days” by Hebrew prophets Isaiah, Zechariah, Daniel and Ezekiel, and were substantiated by New Testament counterparts; namely, Jesus, Paul, and John.

No, “events have not overtaken us” . . . nor do we rely upon their fickle interpretations to fit Biblical account. To contrary, Word of God stands unalterable, unchanging, persistent in its discernment; yet, dynamic in manifestation “by prophetic Scriptures made known to all nations” at close of this age (Romans 16:26a).

The current realignment of nations in Middle East, and for that matter, throughout earth, astounds and comforts, persuades and consoles masses on planet . . . while alerting Gentile World Powers (“to all nations”), their days are numbered, for “with evil intent” have they conspired against His purposes (Zechariah 1:15).

"Defying accepted view of Jesus as creator of Christianity, Hyam Maccoby, a leading Talmudic scholar, offers a brilliantly argued, boldly provocative challenge to traditional theories about origin of Christian religion and leads us to a startling unorthodox conclusion. Maccoby claims that Paul rather than Jesus was theoretician and architect of that amazing hybrid of Hellenism and Judaism we know today as Christianity, and that it was Paul alone who created a new religion through his vision of Jesus as a divine Savior who died to save humanity. This concept went far beyond messianic claims of Jesus and, in fact, was an amalgamation of ideas derived from Hellenic religion, especially from Gnosticism and mystery cults… Bold and scholastically scrupulous. (pg. xi) In my earlier book on Jesus, Revolution in Judaea, I showed how, in Synoptic Gospels, Jesus speaks and acts a Pharisee, though Gospel editors have attempted to conceal this by representing him as opposing Pharisaism... In present book I have used rabbinical evidence to establish an opposite contention: that Paul, whom New Testament wishes to portray as having been a trained Pharisee, never was one (pgs.4&5).

This explains puzzling and ambiguous role given in Gospels to companions of Jesus, twelve disciples. They are shadowy figures, who are allowed little personality, except of a schematic kind. They are portrayed as stupid; they never quite understand what Jesus is up to. Their importance in origins of Christianity is played down in a remarkable way. For example, we find immediately after Jesus' death that leader of Jerusalem Church is Jesus' brother James. Yet in Gospels, this James does not appear at all as having anything to do with Jesus' mission and story. Instead, he is given a brief mention as one of brothers of Jesus who allegedly 'opposed' Jesus during his lifetime and regarded him as mad. How it came about that a brother who had been hostile to Jesus in his lifetime suddenly became revered leader of Church immediately after Jesus' death is not explained, though one would have thought that some explanation was called for. Later Church legends, of course, filled gap with stories of miraculous conversion of James after death of Jesus and his development into a saint. But most likely explanation is, as will be argued later, that erasure of Jesus' brother James (and his other brothers) from any significant role in Gospel story is part of denigration of early leaders who had been in close contact with Jesus and regarded with great suspicion and dismay Christological theories of upstart Paul, flaunting his new visions in interpretation of Jesus whom he had never met in flesh.” (1)

So Paul and his Temple inbred idiots who inherited or sold out in order to get their positions are creators of a history that is entirely opposite to what Jesus wanted for humanity. The Pharisaic and Mishnah saying that covers this perspective is a little less delicate: