❞ كتاب Islam Christianity and The State of Israel as fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy ❝ ⏤ Dr. Ahmad Shafaat

 كتاب ، بصيغة pdf، تأليف ، وهو من أبرز الدراسات الجادة والرصينة التي تتناول الإسلام والمسيحية ونظرة كل منهما إلى دولة إسرائيل، وهنا يسلط الضوء كذلك على النبوءة القديمة والتي يتخذونها مرجعًا إلى وجود إسرائيل في هذا المكان تحديدًا.

فيفصل لنا المؤلف موقف كلا من الديانتين، ويحدثنا عن نظرة كل ديانة، وفي نفس الوقت يتناول بالحديث دولة إسرائيل وعلى ماذا تستند في وجودها، وما دور المسلمين، وكيف يمكن الرد على استنادهم على بعض نصوص الكتب المقدسة.

Perhaps no pre-Christian tradition has had such prolonged and exten-
sive influence in history as the MESSIANIC tradition that finds expres-
sion in both the Old Thstament and subsequent Jewish writings.

Christianit y, with its tremendous influence in the past twenty centu-
ries, and now comprising one-fifth of mankind, was originally inspired

by that tradition; what is generally not known is that Islam, an even
more influential religious movement, also relates with that tradition,
though it cannot in any sense be said to be inspired by it.
The influence of the messianic tradition is a continuing one. In our
times, the creation of the State of Israel, which is clearly an event of
far-reaching political significance for the entire world, was directly
inspired by Old Thstament messianic promises that one day all Jews would
return to the land of Palestine and re-establish a kingdom ruled by the
descendants of David. In the Christian world new sects continue to

emerge on the basis of claims that the Old Thstament messianic prophe-
cies, as understood by Christians, will soon find their final and complete

fulfillment in the second coming of Jesus. The Jehovah's Witnesses, Mor-
mons, and Moonies are examples of such sects.

As widely circulated predictions about the future made in the ancient
past, Jewish messianic writings acquire influential authority to suggest

and support a social or political course of action in the present, espe-
cially in times when men have extreme difficulty finding fulfillment by

conceiving unaided and actualizing a vision of a better future. The course
of action suggested and supported by messianic expectations can be very
positive. Jesus used these expectations to revive his people's spirit and
lead them to true religious commitment.
[i]

Sometimes, however, messianic expectations can inspire futile and even
dangerous developments. Many Christian sects have originated in the
expectant hope that the end of the world is imminent and that Jesus
will soon return. Such expectations have so far always proved false and
have resulted only in the creation of small sects desperate for converts
and serving little purpose in the Christian church or the world at large.
More harmful manifestations of Christian messianism are possible in the
future. Imagine for a moment that, instead of inspiring obscure small
sects, the expectation of the last days and the return of Jesus were to
grip a significant portion of the Christian population of the world (even
12 per cent of the total Christian population would amount to more than
100 million people) and that a man lusting for glory were to succeed in

convincing them that he was the returned Jesus. Since the New Thsta-
ment teaches (Luke 19:27, II Thess. 1:7-8 and Apoc. 19:11-6) that Jesus

will return as the powerful and glorious ruler of the whole world who
will judge and punish all who reject God and the good news, this person
claiming to be the returned Jesus might distort this Revelation and do
everything possible, with the help of his millions of followers and all the
organizational and technological skills available in his time, to wage a
war of genocide against all non-Christians. Needless to say, the results
would be disastrous.
If this possibility seems remote, the disastrous results of another
attempt to fulfill messianic predictions are available for all to see. A
planned Jewish effort to fulfill a section of Old Thstament messianic
prophecies, based on the secular distortion of a spiritual message, has
led to the creation of the State of Israel and has seriously compromised

the principles of justice common to all three of the Abrahamic or re-
vealed religions and created a great deal of economic and political insta-
bility in the world. It has the potential even to become the main cause

of a destructive global war.