JERUSALEM (Historic Christendom’s Heartland City)
Jerusalem located on the Judean Mountains between the Mediterranean and the Dead Sea is one of the oldest cities in the world. Both Israel and the Palestinian Authority claim Jerusalem as their capital. As recorded in the Holy Bible, King David conquered the city from the Jebusites and established it as the capital of the united kingdom of Israel in 1000BCE (3000years ago), and his son, King Solomon, commissioned the building of the First Temple of Jerusalem – built in 957B.C., it was the center of Israeli Nation. But it was destroyed in 597BCE when Babylonian King Nebucadnezzer destroyed it. Through history Jerusalem has been destroyed at least twice, besieged 23 times, captured and recaptured 44 times, and attacked 52 times. Umayyad Caliphs commissioned the construction of the al-Aqsa Mosque and Dome of the Rock in 691 BCE on the site of the Second Jewish Temple. The usual Islamic heinous way to destroy other religions by annihilating/destroying holy sites of other religions and using these sites as their own worshipping centres. In modern era the Ottoman Empire had the longest reign from 1517 to 1917 over Israeli Palestine after which the British re-conquered it following WW1. It was in May 1948, Israel was officially declared an independent state with David Ben-Gurion, the head of the Jewish Agency, as the prime minister. While this historic event seemed to be a victory for Jews, it also marked the beginning of more violence with the Arabs. See the chaos the Arab Muslim world has caused on Christian Heartland Jerusalem with the illegal construction of the al-Aqsa Mosque and Dome of the Rock within Jerusalem atop the submerged destroyed first Jerusalem Temple. They even deny any excavations to unearth Jerusalem Temple. But there is worldwide change and nations are seeing the futility of supporting the destructive Palestinian Authority and Hamas. Israel in it’s ingenuity is at it to find it’s true roots in excavating to bring out the ancient Solomon’s Temple and in due course the world will have to acknowledge Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and Christian World.
- Opinions of Tony Chacko