Recommended reading . . .
A World Full of Gods
by KEITH HOPKINS
Comments by Mark Mountjoy
How did Christianity succeed where other religions populating the early Roman Empire (and even some in the Holy Land that competed with Biblical Judaism) failed? This book is delightful reading, but may still miss the real answer, because, where Hopkins thinks the success of Christians came about based on how they ‘marketed’ their faith, the truer answer seems to be that the prophecies about the Temple, the priesthood and Aristocratic Jerusalem along with the Zealot and Sicarii nationalist armies coming to two sudden ends in less than a century might just hit the nail on the head! The Christians never would have succeeded if Christ had not intervened and fulfilled the prophecies he uttered and promised with oaths, plain and simple!1
Four specific debacles spelled the end of the glorious but hoary Second Jewish Commonwealth:
- The forty-two-month-long Zealot ‘abomination of Desolation‘ (grave acts of sacrilege in God’s own house!!), the Destruction of the Second Temple and Jerusalem, from A.D.66-70.2 3
- The downfall of the Zealots at Masada in A.D.73.4
- The complete failure of the Zealot wars during the Judæa Capta interregnum.5
- The downfall of the Bar Kokhba rebellion, from A.D.132 to 136.6
The combined effect of these failures was sufficient to deprive the Aaronic [Levitical] priesthood, ministries and services of its functionality and legitimacy forever, making the system of religion based squarly on the Tanakh both defunct and obsolate.7 And so, in order for a cause or an idea to beat the competition, it must first prove or demonstrate itself to be valid. The fulfillment of Bible prophecy did just that and that is the real reason why Christians were able to triumph as the ‘nominee’ and take what the ‘incumbent’ mother religion thought she was entitled to: The Kingdom of God.8
Endnotes
1 Matthew 10:23; 16:27-28; 24:34; 26:63-64, John 21:21-24, and Revelation 22:10.
2 Revelation 11:1-18—16:21.
3 Revelation 19:1-4.
4 Revelation 19:21.
5 Revelation 2:24-29.
6 Revelation 20:7-15
7 Hebrews 7:11-28; 8:7-13, and 10:1-9.
8 Revelation 11:15; 12:7-12.
Caption: Silver star marker at the place where Jesus was born in Bethlehem, Judæa 20 centuries ago. Source: encirclephotos.com