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... and a lot of the Rapture stuff is a mishmosh of Old Testament, Revelations and the added notations in the so-called Scofield Bible.
But, as I understand this mythology, Christ will not reappear until a number of conditions are met. A dark force invades the Holy Land (in current thinking, that dark force is either Russia or the UN, depending upon just how crazy the fundie is). In some versions, all Jews must return to the Holy Land. In most versions, though, the Jews must repent and accept Christ, even though only 144,000 of them will be saved and rise up to heaven. The remainder build the new Temple of Christ on the site of the Dome of the Rock, then have to fight it out at Armageddon against the dark forces led by the anti-Christ. The Jews that won't convert get slaughtered in the battle for the world.
The good fundies are lifted up to heaven where they watch the battle and share some of God's popcorn while all the misery goes on below. When the battle is won, Christ assumes the throne and the world goes on blissfully for a thousand more years under his benevolent guidance. Or something like that. :eyes:
But, ultimately, the fundies' view of Israel is strictly manipulative and rife with ulterior motives.
Jives very well with the neo-cons' cynical desires to strengthen Israel militarily until it is capable of dominating the Middle East.
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