The history of the Holy Land is long and bloody and complicated.
Unfortunately, US American politics has added tremendously to the complications by believing the BS that is the Rapture Theory.
And BS, it is:
In 1827, John Nelson Darby, a disgruntled parish priest in the Church of Ireland, fell from a horse and was seriously injured. In the cases of many near-death experiences, he began to question his life and faith. Over the course of five years he developed the pre-tribulation rapture doctrine “wherein Christ will suddenly remove His bride, the Church, from this world to its heavenly destiny before the judgments of the tribulation.”
In 1831 John Nelson Darby left the church and was no longer committed to the priesthood in any fashion.
Around the same time, Margaret MacDonald, of Port Glasgow, Scotland, had an unusual dream, some would call it a trance or an utterance given to her by the Holy Spirit, which further bolstered Darby’s theory.
KEEP IN MIND: this dude, Darby, made the Rapture Theory up ALL BY HIMSELF.
In 1873, Cyrus Ingerson Scofield, was appointed US District Attorney for Kansas, but that same year Scofield was forced to resign "under a cloud of scandal" because of questionable financial transactions, that may have included accepting bribes from railroads, stealing political contributions, and securing bank promissory notes by forging signatures.
Later, Scofield defrauded his mother-in-law out of her life savings; he was convicted of forgery and in another case was sent off to prison; he openly carried on with other women; abandoned his wife and family and never sent them a dime of support; when his wife finally divorced him he married the woman with whom he was living; he called himself Doctor (PhD), yet he never went to any college which could convey that degree...and in October 1883, Scofield was ordained as a Congregationalist minister...and in the early 1900’s he began working on the Scofield Reference Bible which contained annotated notes to support the Rapture Theory made up by Darby.
Friends, the Rapture is NOT Biblical.
The “Rapture” is considered to be an event in time that will signal the return of Christ to the world. Some folks will be raptured, or “taken up,” to heaven to leave others, who have not followed Christ, on earth to go through years and years of torment. Those who believe in the Rapture also typically believe that the people who will be raptured, have already been chosen.
Actually, according to Rapture theorists, the numbers tend break down like this; only 200 million people are chosen, which may seem like a lot, but it’s LESS THAN 3% of the ever growing world population. So after 2000 years of spreading the message of Jesus, according to Rapture Theory, 97% of us will not be taken up into God’s glory...and that is a pretty high failure rate for Jesus Christ the Savior and Redeemer of the world.
That’s pretty sad.
And so to advertise something like the rapture to people on street corners, not only is it false, but it’s not hopeful.
And what does this have to do with the Holy Land?
It is believed that the Jewish people must control Israel (make Jerusalem the undisputed capital of Israel) before Christ can come again.
I REPEAT: Rapture Theorists believe that the the Jewish people must control Israel before Christ can come again.
By the United States proclaiming to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital, we have now officially taken sides in ways that have destroyed any possibility of a two-state solution and completely delegitimize the United States as an arbiter in the peace process
Why?
Not for peace...but because the concept of a theory that was made up by one dude suffering from PTSD following a near-death experience and one dude who was an immoral criminal looking to make a buck by writing a Bible less than 200 years ago, has corrupted our sense of Christianity, our sense of who Jesus is, and yes our US American Politics.
