In the future, Messiah is destined to reign from Jerusalem. But first, the Holy City will experience the ‘Times of the Gentiles.’ What does this mean? You will better appreciate the present when you understand the past.

Luke 21:23: And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.

It is the most famous city in the world with a long, illustrious, and troubled history. Four thousand years in total, with its second millennium being under Israelite rule. The ministry of Jesus of Nazareth was the watershed; from the point of His rejection and crucifixion by and at Jerusalem, the city would enter into a turbulent period called the ‘times of the Gentiles.’^[1] In any case, before Messiah rules from Jerusalem, the city will be subjected to a variety of Gentile imperial occupiers for the next two millennia. If you visit the holy city in the future, you may hear some of their names.

Volumes have been written about Jerusalem after the time of Jesus. The city has been invaded and occupied dozens of times. Our main purpose is to give you a general overview, from the time of Christ to the end of Ottoman rule in 1917. You will better appreciate the present when you understand the past.

Roman Rule: Three Stages

Stage One from 63 BC – 70 AD: Jerusalem’s central position, geographically and theologically, gave it a front-row seat to a grand imperial parade: Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, and now Rome. The first stage of Roman rule in the holy city commenced in 63 BC with the entry of Pompey. It was characterised by a pagan Rome over a Jewish city. The first Jewish revolt of 66-70 AD commenced against the empire. Stage One continued until the city’s destruction by Titus, son of Emperor Vespasian, in the year 70 AD. The city and Herod’s temple were completely obliterated and its smouldering rubble served as a camp for the Roman X Legion. It remained in its devastated condition for the next sixty years.

Stage Two from 130 – 312 AD: In 130 AD, Roman Emperor Hadrian decided to build a thoroughly pagan city on the ruins of Jerusalem. He called it Aelia Capitolina. This action lit the fuse of a second Jewish revolt led by Simon Bar Kochba. He was proclaimed ‘The Messiah’ by Rabbi Akiva. The Jews under Bar Kochba retook Jerusalem, offered sacrifices on the temple mount (minus the temple), and decimated the Roman troops. It took the empire three years under Sextus Julius Severus to brutally crush the revolt.

With Bar Kochba’s defeat and death, Aelia Capitolina was established and the second stage of Roman rule began: a pagan Rome over a pagan city. The Romans built a temple to Jupiter on the Temple Mount and a temple to Venus on the site of Calvary. Though meant to overwrite Judaeo-Christian sacred memories, this sacrilege inadvertently made the future identification of these sacred sites easier.

Stage Three from 312-638 AD: Stage Three of Roman rule began in 312 AD when the faith Rome once tried to destroy was adopted by its Emperor, Constantine. Now we had a Christian Rome ruling over a Christian city: Heathen Aelia was transformed into Christian Jerusalem. Constantine’s mother, Helena, went on a well-known pilgrimage to the holy city. She ‘discovered’ Calvary, the ‘true cross,’ a ‘holy tunic’ and ‘holy nails.’ Helena ordered the destruction of the temple to Venus, thus making room for the construction of Christendom’s most sacred shrines: these included The Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the Church of the Eleona (Ascension) on the Mount of Olives; and the Church of the Nativity in nearby Bethlehem. Two of these churches still stand today.

First Muslim Period: 638-1099 AD

The Christianised Eastern Roman Empire ruled Jerusalem for three centuries, except for a brief occupation by the Sassanid Persian Empire (614-629 AD). During this torrid period, the Persians destroyed many buildings and massacred many residents. The Roman Christians at Constantinople recovered Jerusalem in 629 AD, only to lose it for good nine years later.

Islam came to Jerusalem early in its history. The city, under the leadership of Patriarch Sophronius, peacefully surrendered to Caliph Omar in 638 AD. It became part of Jund Filastin province of the Arab Caliphate.

Though Jerusalem was under Muslim rule for the coming centuries, as you are about to see, the actual Muslim regimes, and their capital cities, changed.

638-750 AD: Jerusalem was ruled by the Ummayad dynasty out of Damascus. During their tenure, two famous Muslim sites were constructed on Mount Moriah: the Dome of the Rock in 691 AD and the al Aqsa Mosque in 702 AD. Both buildings still exist.

750-877 AD: Abbasid Empire, based in Mesopotamia and the new city of Baghdad. At one point, the Abbasids governed all the way to Spain.

877-1071 AD: Egyptian/Fatimid rule out of Cairo. It was their Caliph al-Hakim that made it his mission to entirely destroy the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, which he did in 1010 AD. His action helped spawn the Christian Crusades decades later.

1071-1099 AD: Seljuk Turks – the Turks migrated from Central Asia westward. Originally adherents to Shamanism, they adopted Islam en route to settling in Asia Minor. They replaced the four-hundred-year Arab leadership of the Muslim community and dominated the Islamic world for nearly a millennium. Their harassment of Christian pilgrims en route to Jerusalem provided another pretext for the Crusades.

While the Ummayads adorned Mount Moriah, known as al Haram al Sharif (the noble sanctuary) and the Temple Mount, with their famous buildings, Jerusalem did not prosper for many centuries. It was never the capital of any entity except for the Crusader Kingdom (1099-1187) and the British Mandate (1922). While one could argue that it was trodden down by the Gentiles over the years, it also remained on the map by attracting Jewish and Christian pilgrims from all over the known world.

In the next article, we will learn about Jerusalem from the time of the Crusades to the beginning of the twentieth century.

TO BE CONTINUED

^[1] Note: Some scholars begin this period with the Babylonian captivity around 586 BC. That’s when Nebuchadnezzar conquered and destroyed Jerusalem and Solomon’s temple.

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2023, like all years, has been eventful for Israel. What makes the difference is the intensity and unprecedented nature of those events. The shadow of Iran is growing.

Even without Israel, the geo-political situation in the Middle East is strategic, complicated and potentially dangerous. Yet things become hot and spicy when the Jewish state is added to the mix.

Like every year, the calendar year 2023 has been eventful in Israel. The difference is that the challenges, external and internal, have been unprecedented.

Endless Protests

For starters, the returning premiership of Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s longest-serving prime minister, has been confronted by serious internal opposition from Day One. Mass protests have been staged for weeks and months. Part of the problem is that Israel had gone from a left-leaning government under Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid to a conservative government in coalition with Itamar Ben-Gvir of Otzma Yehudit and Bezalel Smotrich of the Religious Zionist Party. Both leaders and their parties are considered ‘far-right,’ which is anathema to the Left. Also, Netanyahu’s long tenure in office means the longer he serves, the more enemies he makes. Does Israel have ‘Bibi fatigue?’

The trip wire for these protests has been Netanyahu’s proposed ‘judicial reform’ legislation. This topic has been visited in earlier articles but in summary, Israel’s fifteen-member, left-of-centre, supreme court holds an absolute veto over any and all legislation that comes out of the Israeli parliament, The Knesset. Since Israel does not have a written constitution, only – basic laws – the justices are making their decisions on the basis of a nebulous concept called ‘reasonableness.’ If, in the court’s opinion, the legislation is not ‘reasonable,’ it will be struck down, even if it enjoys widespread parliamentary support. This means that court decisions can be politically expedient, arbitrary, and sometimes contradictory. This kind of unfettered power is out of kilter with normal ‘checks and balances’ in good democratic governance.

While the media likes to paint the protests as grassroots, as if to make them more legitimate, the fingerprints of powerful labour unions, coupled with foreign meddling, are everywhere. Some of the protestors sincerely think the status quo with the court should remain. Others are using this topic to protest a bigger threat: the rise of the religious right. The fear is those ( secular ) freedoms are endangered by Netanyahu’s coalition partners Ben Gvir and Smotrich. With this fear in mind, many of the protestors simply want to bring down the coalition government, thus nullifying a democratic election. Change of government outside of an election is true ‘regime change.’

Where the protests became ominous is when major sectors of society refused to function if the reforms went through; also, reservists were refusing to report for military duty – a serious national security consideration. All of this is like an Israeli version of the culture war which is raging in the United States at present. While talk of civil war is premature, the situation needs to be watched.

The Shadow of Iran

The temperature with the Palestinians and neighbouring Lebanon and Syria has also gone up a few notches. These groups are heavily influenced by Iran. The Islamic Republic has a long shadow and it goes from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean Sea.

Both the Jewish Passover and Muslim Ramadhan occurred at the same time this year and these passionate holidays saw sparks fly. On Passover 2023, Hamas and Hezbollah launched simultaneous rocket attacks from Gaza, Lebanon, and Syria. Is this an ominous precursor for a multi-front rocket war against Israel, not unlike the Second Lebanon War of 2006 with Hezbollah?

Radical Muslims continue to accuse Israel of ‘undermining the al Aqsa Mosque.’ Despite the lack of evidence, it is a war cry that continues to spawn a strong reaction. There’s been an uptick in Palestinian attacks against Israelis with thirty-three killed in 2022 and over twenty so far in 2023.

Let us not forget the power behind it all. Iran has sought hegemony in the Middle East since the founding of the Islamic Republic in 1979. There is an eschatological overtone to this ambition. The long-oppressed Shia Muslims, of which Iran is the leader, are destined to prevail against their Sunni rivals at the ‘end of days.’ Iran’s rulers believe that victory is now.

Prudently, Iran normally rejects direct confrontation and uses proxies like Hezbollah and Hamas to do its work of it. Iran’s controversial nuclear program and repeated declarations that Israel will disappear off the world map have led to a shadow war with the Jewish state during the past decade.

The scorecard for Israel is impressive. It introduced the Stuxnet computer virus that attacked Iran in 2010, one of several successful attempts to sabotage its nuclear facilities. High-profile assassinations in Iran have targeted military personnel and nuclear scientists. The Israeli spy agency Mossad launched a successful operation at a Tehran warehouse which netted a treasure trove of Iran’s nuclear archive. Add to Israel’s repeated air attacks on Iranian forces and installations in Syria and it gives the appearance that Israel has the upper hand in the shadow war. Iranian counter-attempts to assassinate Israelis overseas have thus far failed.

The Islamic Republic has two options:

First, utilise its proxies. Taking the long view, Iran has sought to surround Israel with Iran-friendly groups like Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas in Gaza, the Houthis in Yemen, and possibly Palestinian groups in the West Bank. Once they are courted, Iran makes sure they are well-armed with rockets, drones, and conventional weapons. Together they can confront the Jewish state, especially in tandem with a coordinated effort among themselves.

The second option is riskier and has never been tried before: confront the Jewish State militarily in an actual Iran-Israel war. They have the troops, weapons, and long-range missiles (and soon nuclear weapons), so what’s stopping them? Long unrecognised Iranian pragmatism urges restraint since it is better to wait for maximum effect with little effort versus an ‘all guns blazing’ approach which could entail great damage, international repercussions, and worse.

At the same time, Netanyahu has threatened to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities for many years. He has been under intense pressure not to do it. Could a real hot war throw all restraint to the wind?

It’s time to pray for the people from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean in the spirit of Psalm 122:6. When you pray for the peace of Jerusalem – and its neighbours – you will prosper.

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