CHRISTIAN ZIONISM DEFINED PART 7

When the Romans conquered Palaestine and the Jews where exiled, the connection to the land was preserved in the Torah and in daily prayers that called for returning to and rebuilding Jerusalem. This formed the backbone of Jewish culture. Most in the Western world eventually came to recognise the connection between the Jews and their land.

The Age of Enlightenment in the 18th century was a result of a group of European thinkers who joined forces to stimulate philosophical reasoning in order to transform society and expand knowledge and innovation in the 19th century, Jews where emancipated to a degree; their equality and rights as citizens were expanded. it was then that they split into several groups, with ultra- Orthodox Jews remain faithful to the culture of the ghetto, which barred the possibility of intermingling in modern society or gaining a modern education.

A second group attempted to assimulate completely into European society, adapting to Christianity, thereby losing their Jewish identity. Carl Marx, for example, was the descendant of a lengthy line of Jewish Rabbis, both paternally and maternally. He was, however, baptised and reared as a Christian. Thomas Sowell wrote that Marx “never considered himself a Jew and always spoke of the Jews in third person.” German philosopher Bruno Bauer, perhaps influenced by Reform Judaism rabbis, called upon the Jews in his 1843 essay Die Judenfrage (the Jewish question), to forsake their bonds to Zion and settle into their lives in Europe. A third group believed that they could integrate as modern citizens with equal rights and still maintain their Jewish faith, renouncing any cultural or group allegiance to Judaism. They found various euphemisms for their identity, such as “Hebrews” or “Germans of the Mosiac faith.”

Bauer contends that in Spain, cultural absorption was driven by the Spanish Inquisition, which began in the 1400s and produced numerous converses or Jews who were pressured, upon threat of torture or death, to at least publicly embrace Catholicism. Have you ever wondered why Columbus sailed in search of a new land in 1492? Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand had issued an edict of ejection regarding the Jews. It stated that every person of Jewish descent had to leave Spain of be executed. As a result, Jewish business men went to Christopher Columbus, an Italian Jew, and pledged to finance his efforts to discover a new land. They purchased the ships that carried Columbus across the ocean to the shores of what would become America. Why was this so crucial?

King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella were seeking a means to unite the country and selected Tomas Torquemada as the inquisitor-general for most of Spain. He began by trying to drive out the Jews, Protestants, and nonbelievers. Benzion Netanyahu, father of prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu wrote of the Marranos (Spanish Jews) and the basic reasons behind the attacks on them. According to history professor Netanyahu, the persecution launched against the Jews was based on “racial hatred and political considerations rather than by religious zeal.” he continued his explanation with:

The minority that still adhered to Judaism in the three decades preceding the inquisition was…constantly diminishing in size and influence; that it would have in all likelihood, soon faded into nothingness, had not the process of assimilation been violently interfered with by the repellent and bewildering actions of the inquisition; and that, thus; it was due to the inquisition its self that the dying Marranos in Spain was given a new lease of life….it was not a powerful Marrano movement that provoked the establishment of the inquisition, but it wa the establishment of the inquisition that caused the temporary resurgence of the Spainis Marrano movement….the aim of the inquisition, therefore, as i see it, was not to eradicate a jewish heresy from the midst of the Marrano group, but to eradicate the Marrano group from the midst of the Spanish people.

Part 8 coming 🔜

SHALOM!!! MARANATHA!!! HALLELUJAH!!!