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>Over the last 20 or so years I had heard, maybe a couple of times, this idea about the Rapture and the connection with the Jews. I dismissed it as the rantings of some crazy religious sect.
>But in the last 6 months or so, usually in connection with President Bush's religiosity, I've heard the same thing possibly 10 times, from apparently serious commentators. A couple of these TV "articles" even showed Prime Minister Sharon at a huge rally (in Colorado I think) where he was clearly adored and showed him addressing the crowd saying "We will win! We will win!", the commentary implying 'if only he knew why he was actually there'.
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>I found the whole idea very hard to believe, personally, but repeated references with the exact same detail got me thinking that there was more to the whole thing. Possibly I'm a victim of oft-repeated "information" coming to be believable. I just don't know.
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>So I summed it up in my mind as follows: *IF* it's in any way true it is in my mind most unChristian.
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>Actually, I'm anxious to have the whole notion corrected, for my own peace of mind.
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>Jim
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Well Jim, I don't know what was said, but here's my take. Anyone who purports to be a Christian, I would think, would have to have a special place for the jews. Jesus was a jew. God says over and over in the Old Testatment that they jews are His chosen people. He warns that anyone who is against them, He will be against. If you don't believe in that, then thats ok. If you do, then it's a no brainer, that you would support Israel.
Having said that, that doesn't mean I think Israel cannot do anything wrong. They are like any other country.

As for a connection of the jews to the rapture, there isn't any direct correlation, from my perspective. The rapture is taken from Revelations, in the new testament where John talks about what God has revealed to him. The rapture refers to Christ's second coming and there is much debate on the interpretation of that. It is typically viewed from three perspectives: pre-millenialist, a-millenialist, and post-millenialist. I happen to belong to the first group, those who believe the Bible teaches that the Christians will be "raptured" before the 1000 year period. Others read the same material and come up with totally different perspectives. There is a reference to 144,000 jews converting to Christianity in Revelations, but I'm not sure that isn't a number that has more meaning from a numerologists perspective. Numbers in the Bible have more meaning than their face value.