the evangelical christian movement in america latched onto a 19th century concept hatched by someone called john nelson darby who said that jesus could not come back until israel had been restored as a nation and jerusalem was the capital. this is not traditional christian teaching going back into the ages even of the protestant church. when i was a kid with my parents and their ministry, we had a number of christian leaders come by. one of them had written a book called the late great planet earth in which he predicted the end times coming in the 1980s. he said it s now possible because israel has been restored. people came forward and said no, no, it s not possible because jury ro jerusalem has not been restored.
this is strvital because rebuilg the temple would initiate the end time laid out in the book of revelation. the end time is a fundamentalist christian believe that the earth will be delivered by got d as h pours out his wrath on the sinners left behind. that sound like something out of a novel. is it true that people really believe that having jerusalem unified under israel control will bring on the end times? yes, joy. you know i come from a fundamentalist evangelical background and i grew up in the 50s and 60s. when i was a child, this was the gospel end times version of reality that my parents believed in and many other evangelicals. and you know, you mentioned sheldon addleson as his wife miriam who are big donors. they actually shovelled $83 million into the republican