Wednesday, February 14 2007

Zionism

True Zionism Is About Those Who Accept The Messiah, Not Those Who Reject And Blaspheme Him

After David captured Zion from the Jebusites, his citadel and palace became "the city of David." Located on the south-eastern hill of Jerusalem, it was mostly surrounded by defensive valleys, the Tyropoeon Valley, the Kidron Valley and the Valley Of Hinnom. The meaning of Zion has however grown tremendously from David's time 3,000 years ago, from the physical place where a conquering Israelite king established his home for the benefit of his people, to a spiritual place where another conquering King will establish His home for the benefit of all people.

When David's successor, his son Solomon, moved The Ark Of The Covenant, containing the The Ten Commandments to the new Temple (see Temples) on nearby Mount Moriah (popularly known today as The Temple Mount), the name Zion was extended to include the Temple.

"Then Solomon assembled the elders of Israel and all the heads of the tribes, the leaders of the fathers' houses of the people of Israel, before King Solomon in Jerusalem, to bring up the Ark of the Covenant of The Lord out of the city of David, which is Zion." (1 Kings 8:1 RSV)

"Behold, I and the children whom The Lord has given me are signs and portents in Israel from The Lord of hosts, who dwells on Mount Zion." (Isaiah 8:18 RSV)

In later times of the kings (see Kings of Israel and Judah), the term Zion came to be used for all of Jerusalem, and then further for the Israelite people themselves.

"This is the word that The Lord has spoken concerning him: "She despises you, she scorns you - the virgin daughter of Zion; she wags her head behind you - the daughter of Jerusalem." (2 Kings 19:21 RSV)

"Hear, you who are far off, what I have done; and you who are near, acknowledge My might. The sinners in Zion are afraid; trembling has seized the godless: "Who among us can dwell with the devouring fire? Who among us can dwell with everlasting burnings?" (Isaiah 33:13-14 RSV)

And then, in reference to The Messiah for all people, of all nations:

"And when they drew near to Jerusalem and came to Bethphage, to The Mount Of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, "Go into the village opposite you, and immediately you will find an ass tied, and a colt with her; untie them and bring them to me. If any one says anything to you, you shall say, 'The Lord has need of them,' and he will send them immediately." This took place to fulfil what was spoken by the prophet, saying, "Tell the daughter of Zion, Behold, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on an ass, and on a colt, the foal of an ass." (Matthew 21:1-5 RSV)

"Lest you be wise in your own conceits, I want you to understand this mystery, brethren: a hardening has come upon part of Israel, until the full number of the Gentiles come in, and so all Israel will be saved; as it is written, "The Deliverer will come from Zion, He will banish ungodliness from Jacob" (Romans 11:25-26 RSV)

"But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the first-born who are enrolled in heaven, and to a judge who is God of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks more graciously than the blood of Abel" (Hebrews 12:22-24 RSV)

Fact Finder: Who is the "daughter of Zion"?
See Daughter of Zion

Today's Word
The Holy Bible was primarily written in Hebrew, Greek and Aramaic. Today's Word examines the pronunciation and literal meaning of one of those actual words of the Holy Scriptures and how it is usually translated into English-language Bibles.

The Greek word pronounced boh-ay-theh-oh means to help. It is most often translated for use in English language Bibles as help or succour.

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This Day In History, February 14

1014: Pope Benedict VIII crowned Henry II as Holy Roman Emperor (see Emperors and Popes).

1400: The deposed King Richard II was murdered in Pontefract Castle in Yorkshire.

1658: The Battle of Bahadurgarh, helped to decide the war of succession among the sons of Shah Jahan, Mughal emperor of India.

1779: British explorer Captain James Cook was killed in Hawaii.

1797: The British fleet, under Admirals John Jervis and Horatio Nelson, defeated the Spanish at the battle of St. Vincent off Portugal.

1859: Oregon became the 33rd U.S. state.

1876: Inventors Alexander Graham Bell and Elisha Gray applied separately for American patents related to the telephone. The U.S. Supreme Court eventually ruled that Bell was the rightful inventor.

1896: Der Judenstaat by Theodor Herzl was published in Vienna; English and French translations soon followed.

1912: Arizona became the U.S. 48th state.

1922: Italian inventor Guglielmo Marconi began the first regular radio broadcasting transmission from England.

1929: "St. Valentine's Day Massacre" in Chicago. Al Capone's gunmen, in order to prevent the hijacking of whiskey shipments, killed 7 members of the Bugs Moran gang in a Chicago garage.

1939: The German navy launched the battleship Bismarck.

1942: The German Afrika Korps was organized under the command of Lt. Gen. (later Field Marshall) Irwin Rommel. It consisted of two armored divisions and one motorized infantry division. After initial successes, the Afrika Korps was defeated by British and Canadian forces under Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery.

1944 The Mark I, the first computer that could perform arithmetical operations without human intervention, was completed by inventor Howard Aiken. It was 51 feet long, 8 feet high, and weighed 35 tons. It had about 500 miles of wire and 3 million connections.

1946: An "electronic brain", or "computer", began working at the University of Pennsylvania, taking seconds to do calculations which normally took hours. It was called ENIAC, or Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer.

1946: The Bank of England was nationalized.

1947: British Foreign Secretary Ernest Bevin announced that Britain was turning the "Palestine situation" over to the United Nations.

1949: The first session of the Constituent Assembly (later entitled the Knesset) of the new state of Israel was opened.

1958: The Arab Union, a federation of Jordan and Iraq, was formed to counter the formation of the United Arab Republic by Egypt and Syria 2 weeks earlier. King Hussein of Jordan dissolved it August 2 of that same year.

1971: President Richard Nixon installed a secret taping system in the White House.

1989: Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini ordered a worldwide death sentence for writer Salman Rushdie for his book "The Satanic Verses.

1992: The European Community and the seven-nation European Free Trade Association struck a final deal, clearing the way for the creation of the world's biggest single free market, exceeding that of the combined markets of the United States and Canada.