This is an attempt to show why things are as they are today as a result of evnts in the past. All writing about history is based upon the writer's paradigm - that is to say the writer's perception of the world. The paradigm used here is that the affairs of man are guided by Divine Will/Divine Destiny. When one looks at the Bible, one of the oldest historical records of those affairs, it is astounding at how related current events are to ancient events and prophecies given long ago in what many refer to as these 'Last Days'.
Specifically, this paradigm holds that present events revolve around the 'restoration of Israel', and the destinies of the City of Jerusalem and the City of Damascus, and that the culmination of current world events ('The Last Days') is tied to those destinies. When we look at the record of present day 'futurists' we see that they have difficulty predicting events 10 years out, and yet The Bible is a Book that thousands of years earlier accurately predicted the restoration of Israel and the predominant role of two specific cities - Jerusalem and Damascus at the time Israel would be restored. Can you think of any comparable forecasting elsewhere?
The last hundred years has witnessed the 37 million casualties of World War One and 60 million killed in World War Two. Even those incomprehensible numbers fail to take into account the tragedies of those wounded, widowed and orphaned, nor the immense numbers more left homeless and in poverty in a disturbed century of the sub-conflicts of Armageddon in innumerable locales such as in Korea, Vietnam, throughout S.E. Asia, Africa and elsewhere throughout the world. It has been a century of immense light that saw greater advance in the social, economic and scientific affairs of man, than all previous centuries combined, and a century of immense darkness that saw greater dissolution of morals accompanied by death and destruction of more millions than all previous centuries combined. A process that is continuing today.
Of course, none of the tragedy that has occurred before holds a candle to The Last Great Battle of Armageddon and The Great Catastrophe that looms on our horizon. Those are themes that I deal with elsewhere, and which are not a part of this accounting.
Some will question then, among the overwhelming number of events and persons, why in this account there have been chosen these few events and individuals to present here. The reason is, that they present a thread woven through the tapestry of history, that when one pulls upon this single thread it pulls together the tapestry of events, in such a way, that one can see the Divine Destiny.
While the present day events are dramatic and alarming, the activities surrounding the Divinely Ordained Events have a human face and have left a secular record in the century of activity culminating in the activities that we see before us today in Syria (Damascus) and Israel (Jerusalem). Some of the names mentioned in this account may be familiar to you, and others not, but you will find here an accounting that brings together the names and roles of Woodrow Wilson, Nathan Birnbaum, Theodor Herzl, Baron Rothschild, Balfour, Sykes, Picot, Lawrence of Arabia, Tudor Pole, Abdu'l-Baha, General Allenby, Adolph Hitler, the MS St. Louis, the Exodus 1947, Ben-Gurion, and the current Caliph or prentender (as you may choose) to the current Isalmic State, Caliph Abu Bakr.
The above names are listed roughly in their historical order, or rather in relation to the historical order of events, in which they played a part. In the newspaper headlines at the time of the actual events there were many other names, some much more prominent, and there were multi-millions whose acts and whose names never made the headlines at all, who undoubtedly affected the course/path of history towards its Defined Destiny.
Most assuredly it is questionable that many of those individuals, whose role is recounteh here, understood their role in The Destiny towards which the world marches. Few today understand The Destiny itself. Armageddon and The Great Catastrophe, as stupendous as they may be, are but marks along the path, indicating by their momentousness the importance to which all this leads. But that too, is another story beyond which will be dealt with here.
There are innumerable differing paradigms regarding the nature of the world and its Destiny. Many views revolve around quite differing concepts regarding The Return of Christ, the coming of the Muslim Mahdi, or comparable events in the Buddhist and Hindu religions.
The five thousand year old Divine Record, recorded in the Bible, culminating in what is called the "Last Days" or "The End", actually only brings us to the end of the "Prophetic Period" and the threshold which marks the beginning of the development of humanity's current Divine Civilization on this planet. "The Divine Purpose of Fulfillment" is to continue five-hundred thousand (500,000) years, which is a hundred times longer than the five-thousand (5,000) year "Prophetic Period" from which we are emerging. Any who desire to understand these views will be able, if they wish, to search them out in the Baha'i Writings, but we are very blessed to live in the time of transition when we can be of the great service to humanity in progressing toward its goal of spiritual civilization.
Any atheists, or those who believe that the Bible is merely a collection of myths, may well discount the paradigm used here, but they should still accept that the analysis presented here comprehends the motives of certain powerful players in current events, who do subscribe to some similar paradigm.
The past predicts/portends/plots the present; and today's present had its beginning when King David, (son of Judah, son of Jacob (Israel), son of Isaac and therefore-) the great, great grandson of Abraham, purchased a threshing floor in order to obtain land for the building of a Temple in Jerusalem by his son, King Solomon, as penance for having disobeyed the Lord and in appreciation of having survived a terrible plague (think Ebola).
The story is here:
1 Chronicles 21:22 Then David said to Ornan, Grant me the place of this threshingfloor, that I may build an altar therein unto the LORD: thou shalt grant it me for the full price: ...
1 Chronicles 21:23 And Ornan said unto David, Take it to thee, and let my lord the king do that which is good in his eyes: lo, I give thee the oxen also for burnt offerings, and the threshing instruments for wood, and the wheat for the meat offering; I give it all.
1 Chronicles 21:24 And king David said to Ornan, Nay; but I will verily buy it for the full price: for I will not take that which is thine for the LORD, nor offer burnt offerings without cost.
1 Chronicles 21:25 So David gave to Ornan for the place six hundred shekels of gold by weight.
1 Chronicles 21:26 And David built there an altar unto the LORD ...
1 Chronicles 22:1 Then David said, This is the house of the LORD God, and this is the altar of the burnt offering for Israel.
1 Chronicles 22:5 And David said, Solomon my son is young and tender, and the house that is to be builded for the LORD must be exceeding magnifical, of fame and of glory throughout all countries: I will therefore now make preparation for it. So David prepared abundantly before his death.
1 Chronicles 22:6 Then he called for Solomon his son, and charged him to build an house for the LORD God of Israel.
Thus it is that we have this ancient record of purchase for the site of Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem by the Jews, the descendants of Judah and Jacob (who wrestled with an Angel and had his name changed to Israel). I won't go into the details of how the Temple was destroyed and rebuilt (the date of which is the marker date for all future Biblical prophecy), nor how according to the Prophecy of Jesus that Second Temple would be destroyed -
Matthew: 24:1 And Jesus went out, and departed from the temple: and his disciples came to him for to shew him the buildings of the temple.
Matthew: 24:2 And Jesus said unto them, See ye not all these things? verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down.
Matthew: 24:3 And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?
Matthew: 24:4 And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you.
Suffice it to say that the Temple site and the Wailing Wall that was left outside it became very significant to the Jews, Christians and Muslims. It is considered by the Jews to be the Most Holy Site and Jerusalem is mentioned in 747 Bible verses. The Pope feels the Temple Mounnt should be under Christian control because of Jesus, and the Muslims consider it the Third Most Holy Site after Mecca and Medina and are determined that they shall control it because of a night vision of Muhammad, although Jerusalem is not mentioned even once by name in the Quran.
Needless to say, the vortex of world history swirls around Jerusalem and the Temple - in the past, in the present, and in that which it presages/portends/prophesizes for the future. The promises and prophecies regarding Jerusalem and the promises of God to Abraham regarding all the peoples and religions of the world, are told about in the Bible. Many interpret the unfulfilled events, regarding the Building of the Third Temple, the central role that Jerusalem will play, and so forth, in accordance with their own theologies, Jewish, Christian, Muslim, and there are immense varieties of interpretations within each of those major divisions.
All that that has been related so far, occurred over two-thousand years ago and whether or not you think it is true, there is a centuries old record of it that inspires/motivates great numbers of people towards what they call the rebuilding of The Third Temple. Over the centuries, these concepts have inspired momentous events from the Crusades, to the establishment of Masonry, and so forth. They were the basis of the historical theory of Isaac Newton, considered by many as the greatest scientist of all time, as well as many other great thinkers.