According to Brown University’s Costs of War research, 4.5 million people have been killed since 2001, most of them in Muslim countries. Over the past quarter-century, 320,405 people have been murdered in Islamic terrorist attacks. Jihadist branches are spreading death in wars that have raged for years in Sudan, Somalia, and Libya. Shiite jihad is wreaking havoc in Iran, Yemen, Lebanon and among the Palestinians. Most of these centers of violence have nothing to do with the U.S. or Israel.
Millions of Evangelical Protestants think Mid East wars are the beginning of Armageddon, a New Testament term used to describe the final battle between the forces of good and evil, which occurs prior to God’s Judgment Day-QIYAMAH and the joy and peace of the Messianic Age.
Armageddon comes from the name in the Hebrew Bible for the hill of Megiddo, which is about 80 miles north of Jerusalem, and is today only an archaeological site. The word Armageddon does not appear in the Hebrew Bible and appears only once in the Greek New Testament, in Revelation 16:16. Armageddon is a Greek transliteration of the Hebrew har məgiddô (הר מגידו). Har in Hebrew means “a mountain or hill”.
Armageddon is usually seen as the final battle or battles between good and evil which lasts for only a short time; compared to the Messianic Peace that follows Armageddon that lasts until large carnivores eat only Plant based meat. The term “apocalypse” comes from the Greek word “apokalypsis,” meaning “revelation.” Although often associated today with the end of the world, apocalypses in ancient Jewish thought were a source of encouragement in times of hardship or persecution.
As Prophet Isaiah 11:6-9 states: “The wolf shall dwell with the lamb and the leopard shall lie with the kid, and a calf with a lion’s cub all together, and a small child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall graze, their young ones shall lie down together, and the lion shall eat straw like cattle. An infant shall play over the hole of an asp, and the weaned child shall put out his hand over the eyeball of an adder. They will not harm or destroy on all My holy mountain, for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of God as (long as) the waters cover the sea.”
Many of the Prophets of Israel envisioned a world full of Prosperity and Peace including even for animals: Isaiah 2:4 and Michah 4:3: “…they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning-hooks. Nation shall not lift a sword against nation, nor shall they learn war any more.” Michah 4:4 continues: “Each person shall sit under his vine and under fig-tree, and none shall make them afraid…”
Hosea 2:20: “…I shall break from the earth the bow, the sword and warfare, and I shall make them lie down securely.” and Zechariah 9:10: “…the bow of war shall be cut off, and (all) shall speak peace to the nations…”
The Land of Israel has often been the Holy Land of miracles; and the best destiny for the Palestinians is to share the land with Israel; unless they want to end up like the civil war in Syria which killed half a million people, and left half of Syria’s prewar population of 23 million displaced by the conflict, including 5 million+ who are now refugees.
In Genesis 12, we are told that God commanded Prophet Abraham Genesis 12:1 “…Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you…Abram took his wife Sarai and his brother’s son Lot, and all the possessions that they had gathered, and the persons (converts to monotheism) whom they (Abraham and Sarah) had acquired in Haran; and they set forth to go to the land of Canaan; and they came to the land of Canaan.
Thus begins the 3500 year long interaction of Abram and his descendants, the future People of Israel, with the Land of Canaan, the future Land of Israel. Sometime after his arrival in the land of Canaan Prophet Abraham has a vision of God, telling him (of Abraham’s future) descendants’ slavery and escape (from Egypt), ending with Genesis 15:18. “On that day God made a covenant with (Prophet) Abraham, saying: To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt (a wadi near the border of the Sinai desert) to the great river, the river Euphrates.” (Genesis 15:19)
There has never been a time when the Euphrates River was a part of the Land of Israel so this must be a reference to the descendants of Prophet Ishmael.
There is open land on the Temple Mount, and a small Jewish house of worship “hologram”, which is a 3D projection created with lasers, could be built adjacent to the Dome of the Rock and 600 feet north of the Al-Aksa Mosque, provided that Muslims would agree to cooperate. Anyone who could arrange such Jewish-Muslim cooperation would really be the Messianic Ruler of Peace (Isaiah 9:5).
Christian support for such a cooperative venture would also be important, and anyone who can bring Jews, Christians and Muslims together in mutual respect and cooperation would surely fulfill the greatest of all Messianic predictions, “They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning knives; nation shall not take up sword against nation, they shall never again teach war.” (Isaiah 2:4)
Indeed, Jewish/Christian/Muslim agreements establishing world wide peace would not be possible without great spiritual leadership in all three communities. Thus, each Jewish/Christian/Muslim community could consider its leadership to be essentially Messianic, Indeed, such Jewish/Christian/Muslim cooperation would not be possible without great spiritual leadership in all three communities.
Thus, each community could consider its own leadership to be essential Messianic aids as is foretold: (“Saviors [plural] will come up on mount Zion” Obadiah 1:21) and this would fulfill the culminating verses of Isaiah’s Messianic prophecy as enlarged upon by Micah (4:3-5): “They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning knives. Nation shall not take up against nation, they shall never again teach war, but every man shall sit under his grapevine or fig tree with no one to disturb him, for it is the Lord of Hosts who spoke. Though all peoples walk, each in the name of its God, we will walk in the name of the Lord our God for ever and ever.”
The Qur’an refers to Prophet Abraham as a community or a nation: “Abraham was a nation/community [Ummah]; dutiful to God, a monotheist [hanif], not one of the polytheists.” (16:120) If Prophet Abraham is an Ummah; then fighting between the descendants of Prophets Ishmael and Isaac is a civil war and should always be avoided. And prior to the 20th century Arabs and Jews never did make war with each other.
Even the surprise attack by Egypt and Syria of the Yom Kippur War was followed six years later by a Peace Treaty between Egypt and Israel. Could the same process follow the defeat of Hamas in the Hamas-Israel War?
Now for the first time the entire Arab League has condemned Hamas’ Oct. 7 invasion of Israel, and urges Hamas to disarm, at a 2-state confab. Arab and Muslim countries, including Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Egypt, Jordan and Turkey, signed a declaration condemning for the first time Hamas’s onslaught of October 7, 2023, and calling on the Palestinian terror group to release all the hostages, disarm and end its rule of Gaza, in a bid to end the devastating war in the Strip.
The “New York Declaration” sets out a phased plan to end the nearly eight-decade conflict and the ongoing war in Gaza. The plan would culminate with an independent, demilitarized Palestine living side by side peacefully with Israel, and their eventual integration into the wider Middle East region. The “New York Declaration” text condemned the deadly Hamas-led October 7 assault on Israel, when some 1,200 people were killed and 251 were kidnaped as hostages. It marks the first condemnation by virtually all Arab nations of the attack.
If all Arabs and Jews can live up to the ideal that ‘the descendants of Abraham’s sons should never make war against each other’ is the will of God; we will help fulfill the 2700 year old vision of Prophet Isaiah: “In that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria. The Assyrians will go to Egypt, and the Egyptians to Assyria. The Egyptians and Assyrians will worship together. In that day Israel will join a three-party alliance with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing upon the heart. The LORD of Hosts will bless them saying, “Blessed be Egypt My people, Assyria My handiwork, and Israel My inheritance.”…(Isaiah 19:23-5)
Thus, the Bible and the Qur’an’s final judgement is the self-destruction of violent, hate filled terrorism and narrow ‘my way or death’ philosophy and the victory of kindness, love, justice and religious pluralism. As a Hadith warns: “Beware! Whoever is cruel and hard on a non-Muslim minority, curtails their rights, burdens them with more than they can bear, or takes anything from them against their free will; I (Prophet Muhammad) will complain against him or her on the Day of Judgment.” (Abu Dawud 10)
In the gospels, Prophet Jesus, rebukes the doubters in his audience, and identifies the Queen of Sheba as a pre-Messianic judge: “The Queen of the South will come in the judgement of this generation and will condemn it; (she) who came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon…(Matthew 12:42) According to the Qur’an; the Queen of Sheba realizes she has been mistaken in who she worships, and she commits herself to the worship of God alongside King Prophet Solomon. She says: “My Lord! Surely I have wronged myself, and I submit with Solomon to God, Lord of the worlds.” (Qur’an 27:44)
This reference to a future very powerful female ruler who will turn from being a non-believer critic into being a believer pre-Messianic judge, has rarely been included in Messianic visions. The increasing number of powerful female rulers is an indication of her coming arrival.
“And We settled the Children of Israel in an agreeable settlement [Land of Israel] and provided them with good things. And they did not differ until [after] knowledge had come to them. Indeed, your Lord will judge between them on the Day of Resurrection concerning that over which they [Jews and Christians] used to differ. So if you [O Muhammad] are in doubt, about that which We have revealed to you, then ask those [Jews and Christians}who have been reading the Scripture before you. The truth has certainly come to you from your Lord, so never be among the doubters. (Qur’an 10:93-4)
“And remember Our servants, [Prophets] Abraham, Isaac and Jacob – those of strength and [religious] vision. Indeed, We chose them for an exclusive quality: remembrance of the home [the “safe haven” Land of Israel]. And indeed they are to Us among the chosen and outstanding.” (Qur’an 38:45-7)
Although it might seem impossible now, I do believe that within a decade or two Muslims will visit Jerusalem and pray together with Jews as Prophet Isaiah states: “And the foreigners who join themselves to the (monotheistic one) Lord, to minister to him, to love the name of the Lord, and to be his servants, everyone who keeps the Sabbath and does not profane it, and holds fast to my covenant, these I will bring to my holy mountain (Zion), and make them joyful in my house of prayer; their burnt offerings and sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.” (Isaiah 56:6-7) Thus peace throughout the Near East and the whole world precedes the rebuilding of the Temple. And then “Nation shall not lift sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore. (Isaiah 2:4)
There will be no peace until both Palestinians and Israelis declare the chant ‘From the river to the sea’ becomes an aspirational call for freedom, human rights, and peaceful coexistence, and not death, destruction, or hate. We can make it truly aspirational by making it focus on both peoples first, and the land second. “From river to sea Palestinians and Israelis should be freed of hatred and suffering by ‘two peaceful states for two peaceful peoples sharing the land peacefully.’”
