of an animal. Brutality and unbeliev able persecution was the order of the day. It was in A.D. 115 that Em peror Hadrian, in utter contempt for the Gospel, drove a plow through the very spot where the altar previously had stood. As far as the other Pales tinians cities were concerned, some 985 were destroyed and leveled. An other 580,000 men were killed, to say nothing of the women and children. In 362 A.D., Julian the Apostate tried to rebuild the temple, but it was an abortive attempt for the superstructure burned down. No fur ther effort was made. In 628, the Jews were banished from Palestine. In 634, the Arabs conquered the city under the leadership of General Omar in whose honor the so-called Mosque of Omar, the Dome of the Rock, was named. Then, in 1096, the first Crusade took place. It was in the name of Christianity, but unfortunately as •they sought to capture the holy places from the Ottoman Muslims, they made it a time of merciless slaughter. Before ever getting to Israel, they stopped to kill the Jews in Europe. Their avowed reason was to avenge the blood of Jesus. This was all un der the leadership of Pope Urban II. Finally, when they arrived in the promised land, every single Muslim
to be found was put to death. Not too long after that, in 1146-47, the sec ond Crusade was sent out. The only thing about this endeavor was that the carnage and bloodshed even ex ceeded that of the first. In 1306, France and England ex pelled the Jews from their shores. During preceding years, the Jews had enjoyed what was known as the golden age in Spain. By the end of the 15th Century, the Inquisition took place, and once again, thousands of Jews were annihilated. Anti-semi- tism of the worst dimension has been the whole history of man. We could mention other hardships such as in 1799 when Napoleon laid siege to Jerusalem. This was to be his first great defeat. In 1853 to 56 there was the Crimean War. This unfor tunately took place because of a dis pute between the Greek Orthodox and the Roman Catholic churches. They couldn’t agree upon which one of them should have control of the tra ditional Christian shrines. Then, no doubt the bitter hatred and evil persecution of the Jews reached its zenith and the very pin nacle of hell itself, when Adolf Hitler slaughtered perhaps as many as 6,000,000 Jews. There are several new books out on this subject which while frightening, are intensely in teresting. One is titled, Holocaust, and the other, While Six Millions Died. Keep in mind that the persecution of the Jews throughout the long cen turies is but another clear indication of the fulfillment of Scripture. Be cause of their unbelief, they could expect nothing else. Leviticus 26:33 states in the words of the Lord, “I will scatter you among the heathen, and will draw out a sword after you: and your land shall be desolate, and your cities waste.” Prophecy such as Deuteronomy 28:64-67 and Ezekiel 36:16-20 give us additional informa tion in this area. It was prophesied, “And thy life shall hang in doubt
Students at Talbot Theological Seminary enjoy a time ot fellowship In the lounge. From left to right are Richard Johnson of Oakland, Calif., Wes Anderson of Norwalk, Calif., Dave Jenkins of Hunfington, Wesf Virginia, and Marvin Blundell of Chadron, Nebraska.
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