When the State of Israel was established in 1948, the Vatican experienced a theological crisis. For centuries the Church had pointed to the exile and subjugation of Israel as proof for the validity of the Christian faith.
Israel returning to political independence in our land threatened not only the foundations of Christian dogma but also the very underpinnings of Western civilization (of which Christian theology is a foundational base).
The Vatican ultimately reconciled Israel’s rebirth by denying its historical significance. The Church made two claims:
1. We (the Western world) had mercy on the Jews following the Holocaust and decided to allow them a tiny bomb shelter state.
2. This Jewish state is anyway not really in the historically significant portions of the holy land.
But then in 1967, the world experienced a Biblical-style miracle in the heart of the 20th Century according to not the Christian but rather the Jewish interpretation of Scripture.
An ill-equipped and outnumbered Israeli military defeated three Arab states armed with modern Soviet weaponry. The central mountain region was liberated from Jordanian rule and the children of Israel returned to Jerusalem, Shkhem, Shilo, Beit El, Jericho, Bethlehem and Hebron.
Israeli forces not only defeated the armies of Egypt, Jordan and Syria in the Six Day War but also smashed the false idols that had been erected by Catholicism, threatening the very stability of Western civilization. The Jewish return suddenly possessed undeniable historical significance – unless the results of that war could be reversed.
Since then, Western civilization has been determined to not only force Israel from the lands liberated in that war but also to suppress the political and ideological influence of those who see deep historic significance and purpose in Israel’s national rebirth.
