Racing Toward Armageddon: The Three Great Religions and the Plot to End the World

304 Pages·2009·0.09 MB·English

by  Michael Baigent

Racing Toward Armageddon
The Three Great Religions and the Plot to End the World
Michael Baigent
Contents
Acknowledgments
Timeline
Preface

One Taking the Temple
Two The Red Heifer
Three Destroying the Mosques
Four Armageddon
Five John of Patmos
Six Revelation
Seven The Day of the Beast
Photographic Insert
Eight Carried Away by the Rapture
Nine Fighting for God
Ten Planet Rushdoony
Eleven The Caliphate
Twelve Jerusalem
Thirteen Welcome to the Gods

Notes
Bibliography
Searchable Terms
About the Author
Other Books by Michael Baigent
Credits
Copyright
About the Publisher
A
CKNOWLEDGMENTS
T
his book explores the power of ideas to both create and change the beliefs that define
people and nations. Bad ideas lead to bad outcomes. And as bad outcomes go, the belief
in Armageddon is one of the worst.
I am grateful for the constant support and encouragement of my wife, Jane, and my
family, as they know only too well the dangers of those who act with the certainty of
god burning in their eyes. I am grateful, too, for all the encouragement from my
longtime friend and literary agent Ann Evans of Jonathan Clowes Ltd., London.
I owe a huge debt to my editor, Hope Innelli, vice president and associate publisher,
HarperPaperbacks, New York, and guest editor for HarperOne, San Francisco. Most
important, she had the intuitive ability to sense where things deeper and darker lay.
I should also like to thank Mark Tauber, senior vice president and publisher;
Michael Maudlin, vice president and editorial director; and Gideon Weil, executive
editor, all at HarperOne, for their interest in exploring what is a controversial and
treacherous region littered with vested interests. I am particularly grateful to Michael
Maudlin for suggestions as to the focus of my research.
Writing any book like this is useless unless it is put into a position where it can
communicate, where its ideas can be mixed into popular culture, which, in a kind of
modern alchemy, is endlessly transmuting itself. For this I am grateful to Claudia
Riemer Boutote, vice president and associate publisher at HarperOne.
Finally, during the writing of this book, I was fortunate enough to have a liver
transplant. I found myself overwhelmed with gratitude for the skill of the surgeons,
doctors, and nurses and, above all, for the gift from my anonymous donor.
I have some extra years; I intend to do my best with them.
Contemporary Map of the Old City of Jerusalem
NEAR TO THE SOUTHERN ITALIAN TOWN of Terranova da Sibari are the ruins of the ancient
Greek city of Thurii where the historian Herodotus lived out his final years. The site
held some burial mounds, and upon excavating them, archaeologist Francisco Cavallari
discovered a stone tomb.

On Sunday, March 23, 1879, before a large audience, he ceremoniously opened the
tomb and found a male skeleton with a tightly folded thin gold plate lying near to his
head. When this was opened, it was found to contain instructions for those passing
across the frontier of death so that they might not get lost in the other world. Since then
thirty-one such plates have been found, most dating from the third or fourth centuries
B.C.

One plate, probably from Thessaly, and now in the J. Paul Getty Museum, Malibu,
California, gives the following advice to the traveler: a question which will be asked
and the reply which must be given.

“Who are you? Where are you from?”
“I am a child of Earth and of starry heaven,
but my race is of Heaven (alone).”1
T R T A
IMELINE: ACING OWARD RMAGEDDON
ISRAEL AND MIDDLE EAST TO THE END OF THE CRUSADES
4™ MILLENNIUM B.C.____
Era of the garden of Eden with Adam and Eve according to biblical
chronology.
1479 B.C._________
Egyptian pharaoh Thutmosis III fights the Canaanites at Megiddo and captures
the city.
722–628 B.C._________
Assyrian rule of Israel.
597 B.C._________
Jewish king Jehoiachin, besieged in Jerusalem by the Babylonians, surrenders
to Nebuchadnezzar and is taken, along with leading citizens, to Babylon.
Babylonians crown Zedekiah king of Judah; he was to be the last.
586 B.C._________
King Zedekiah rebels against the Babylonians who captured and destroyed
Jerusalem and its Temple. Nebuchadnezzar has Zedekiah blinded and his sons
executed. Zedekiah and many Jews taken in exile to Babylon—the
“Babylonian Captivity.”
538 B.C._________
Edict of Cyrus, return of Jews from exile.
537 B.C._________
Foundation of the Second Temple.
520–515 B.C._________
Building of the Second Temple.
333 B.C._________
Alexander the Great conquers Syria.
319–197 B.C._________
Judaea ruled by the Ptolemaic pharaohs of Egypt.
197–142 B.C._________
Judaea ruled by Syrian Seleucid kings.
167 B.C._________
Massacres in Jerusalem; Syrian king sets up an altar to Zeus in the Holy of
Holies in the Temple.
166 B.C._________
Judas Maccabaeus emerges as the leader of a revolt against the Syrians and
their supporters.
63 B.C._________
Judaea placed under Roman rule.
37 B.C.-A.D. 4_________
Rule of King Herod.
27 B.C._________
Roman emperor Octavian (Augustus) declared divine. Sacrifices offered to
him—and subsequent emperors—in temples throughout the Empire, including
that of Jerusalem.
A.D. 6_________
Birth of Jesus according to information in Luke 2:1–7. Census of Quirinius,
governor of Syria.
A.D. 27–28_________
Traditional date of the baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist (Luke 3:1–23);
beginning of Jesus’ ministry.
A.D. 34–35_________
Execution of John the Baptist following the marriage of Herod Antipas and
Herodias—according to evidence in Josephus; Jesus is still alive at this point.
A.D. 36_________
Crucifixion of Jesus at Passover—according to Matthew’s timetable.
A.D. 50–51_________
Paul, resident in Corinth, writes his letter to the Christians of Thessalonika.
A.D. 61_________
Paul in Rome under house arrest.
A.D. 62_________
Roman army defeated on the banks of the Euphrates River by the Parthians.
A.D. 64_________
Fire of Rome and persecution of Christians by Nero.
A.D. 66–74_________
The Jewish War against the Romans and their Herodian supporters; destruction
of Jerusalem and the Temple in A.D. 70. Fall of Masada in A.D. 74.
A.D. 68_________
Suicide of Nero followed by political chaos.
A.D. 79_________
Eruption of Vesuvius and destruction of Pompeii.
A.D. 81–96_________
Reign of Roman emperor Domitian; Book of Revelation written by a Christian
convert, John, on the island of Patmos toward the end of this reign.
A.D. 92_________
Significant shortage of grain in the Roman Empire.
A.D. 115_________
Wealthy and influential Jewish community in Alexandria rises in revolt against
the Romans and is destroyed.
A.D. 132–135_________
Second revolt against the Romans in Judaea under the leadership of Simon bar
Kochba; Temple brought back into use; ends with final destruction of Jewish
resistance.
A.D. 391_________
Emperor Theodosius bans pagan religions in the Empire.
A.D. 397_________
Council of Carthage; final agreement on books to be in the New Testament.
A.D. 632_________
Death of Mohammed.
A.D. 638_________
Muslim caliph Omar ibn al-Khattab takes Jerusalem from the Byzantine
Christians.
A.D. 691_________
Dome of the Rock built on the Temple Mount by Muslim caliph ‘Abd al-Malik
ibn Marwan. He or his son built the first al-Aqsa Mosque early in the eighth
century.
A.D. 874_________
Disappearance of the Twelfth Imam whom Shiites believe will return as the
Mahdi, the prophesied redeemer of Islam.
A.D. 1009_________
Destruction of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem by Caliph al-
Hakim.
A.D. 1099_________
The Crusaders take Jerusalem from the Muslims.
A.D. 1187_________