CoE on eschatology

[Paul Younan]

Very true! <!-- s:biggrin: --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/biggrin.gif" alt=":biggrin:" title="Big Grin" /><!-- s:biggrin: --> Even today, if you take a trip to Greece, the Greeks still can't stand them, and refer to them as "sekhameni Turki" (bloodsucking Turks). (Including my relatives in Thessaloniki, my grandparents were from Turkey). And they still refuse to call Istanbul by it's new name, they'll only ever call it "Konstantinopoli". Even the Arabs can't stand them!

All four of my grandparents were from modern-day Turkey as well.

I like the bloodsucking quote: my grandfather used to tell me if I ever shook the hand of a Turk to count my fingers when I got it back. =)

'Course he watched both of his parents get their neck sliced off and thrown into a pit of Christian bodies because they wouldn't convert to Islam. And his little sister was kidnapped by them never to be seen again. Then they cut his neck (at 12 years old), but they missed the major arteries and he survived.

Can't blame him too much for those harsh feelings. <!-- s --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/sad.gif" alt="" title="Sad" /><!-- s -->

What can I say, the enemy is determined to undo any work we do for MarYah & His Son. I've read before that the pre-Islamic Turks tried out different faiths including Buddhaism & Judaism, in addition to "Nestorian" Christianity (so yes you were right about that). And to think that the apostle Paul spent so much time & effort in the region (Asia Minor) bringing the gentiles to faith in Y'shua, but now it's infested with the "antichrist" spirit (same goes for Mesopotamia & the rest of the Mid East)!

Once the Cradle of Civilization, now the Armpit of Satan. =)

BTW what is your opinion of all those OT prophecies about "the Assyrian"? Sorry, Bible Prophecy is a huge interest for me.

Personally, I believe in the prophetic rebirth of Assyria:

"In that day shall there be a highway out of Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrian shall come into Egypt, and the Egyptian into Assyria, and the Egyptian shall serve with the Assyrians. In that day shall Israel be the third with Egypt and with Assyria, even a blessing in the midst of the land:" (Isaiah 19:23-24)

However, even if "Assyria" is never reborn....remember that 99% of Assyrians/Babylonians today are Arabic-speaking and Muslim. They are known as "Iraqis", of the Shiite and Sunni branches.

Iraqis are just Babylonians and Assyrians who converted from paganism to Christianity, then to Islam.

The only "Arabs", in the ethnic sense, are people from Arabia. The nations of the middle east speak Arabic, but none are "Arabs" ethnically except for those in (Saudi) Arabia.

The Arabic-speaking Muslims of modern-day Syria are the descendants of the old Arameans. The Arabic-speaking Muslims of Lebanon are Phoenicians. Arabic-speaking Muslims in Egypt are descended from the old Egyptians. None of these people are "Arabs."

Likewise, in Mexico, most of the people are natives (Aztecs, Mayans, etc.) even though they are Spanish-speaking and Catholic. Just because they speak Spanish and practice Roman Catholicism doesn't make them Spaniards, right?

So even if there's never a nation called "Assyria" again, still the "Assyrians" are today alive and well in ancient Mesopotamia.

Did that make sense? <!-- s:eh: --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/eh.gif" alt=":eh:" title="Eh" /><!-- s:eh: -->

Could the "Anti-Christ" be an ethnic "Assyrian" (whatever that means?), Sure. Saddam was one "Assyrian' who sure came close, after gassing hundreds of Christian Assyrian villages in the north and making up plans to invade all the rest of the nations in the middle east, especially Israel.