Replies to post #76441 on Zeev's Turnips Talk Politics (ZTTP)

[Zeev Hed]

I think that there are different ideologies within the christian community, here is one view cited by mlsoft earlier today: "The crucial question is who are those referred to as "(the least of these,) My brethren?" They cannot be Gentiles, since the judgement itself includes all living Gentiles - it has to be another group, and the only other group is the Jews, and it is these who the Lord refers to as "My brethren". My personal belief from other sections of scripture is that more specifically, "my brethren" are the 144,000 Jewish evangelists called and sealed by God at the beginning of the Tribulation. They most certainly are not some amorphous group of poor and needy persons as so many well meaning folks want to portray them. " (#msg-4366171), this should be read in context with another citation from the same post: "The overall context begins in Chapter 24:1 when Jesus gives an overview of the end times, including the Tribulation, His Second coming, and the judgement of the Gentiles that survive the Tribulation (elsewhere in several places, Scripture tells us that all Jews who survive the Tribulation are saved believers)..

You see, I don't cherish the idea that out of some 16 MM Jews that are left in the world, only 144,000 will survive, and only if they convert. That is not my idea of freedom of religion, nor my idea of humanitarian ends. But some extreme factions of christianity (and I believe Bush listens to them) truly believe that they are doing god's work in bringing the "Tribulation" which will be followed by one thousand years of christ kingdom (and what after that? no more humanity?), and some even bring Nostradamus into the picture and his prophecy of a great Muslim/Christian confrontation.

Personally, I believe that Clinton saw the same things and he wanted to find ways to avoid it. The urgency to come to the aid of the Muslims in Bosnia, was not so much because of the heart ache seeing their suffering, but because Iran had already sent in few minor legions of Muslim volunteers to fight on the Muslims side, and was preparing to increase that support ten to a hundred fold. It is my opinion that Clinton feared the Nostradamus prophecies were taking shape and decided that the only way to avoid a major "Christian/Muslim" unnecessary struggle was to quench himself the absurd behavior of the Serbians.