Keith, a few things about prophecy
Temporal issuesIrrelevant prophecy: "The sun will rise tomorrow"
Relevant prophecy: "The sun will not rise tomorrow"
Irrelevant prophecy: "On some day, the sun will not rise"
VaguenessIrrelevant prophecy: "Human technology will continue to increase"
Relevant prophecy: "Humans will invent a device which allows them to fly through the air inside it, faster than an eagle"
Related:
Irrelevant prophecy: "Humans will invent a type of naval warship which can carry over 100 soldiers" (irrelevant because it is just expanding on technological advancement trends of the time)
Rewording by the readerIrrelevant prophecy: "In the future, people will fly through the sky on the backs of giant eagles." (eagles being reinterpreted by the reader to mean "airplanes")
Relevant prophecy: "In the future, people will fly through the sky inside self-powered craft."
Reader's opinions insertedIrrelevant prophecy: "The people of the world will be meaner to each other." (with the reader interpretting the people of the world as getting generally meaner)
Self-fulfilling propheciesIrrelevant prophecy: "My followers will always wear fruit on their heads." (if the person ends up having followers, they're going to want to live by their leader's ideals, and wear fruit on their heads; if not, the person will be lost into obscurity and no longer remembered. Thus, the relevance of the "prophecy" doesn't apply.)
As for rebuilding the temple (i.e., bulldozing down Al-Aqsa mosque), the majority of people in Israel, last poll that was posted in Haretz (an Israeli daily) that I saw, actually even support an unconditional withdrawl from *all settlements*. The right wing Likud government that they currently have under Ariel Sharon - majorly pro-settlement, ultra nationalist, pro-orthodox, etc - has largely banned Israeli
travel to the temple mount since the start of the Intifada. If the right-wing Israelis are willing to ban travel, what sort of Israelis are you thinking that want to plow down Al-Aqsa??
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"Illuminant light,
illuminate me."
[This message has been edited by Rei, 11-24-2003]