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The End of Days: Fundamentalism and the Struggle for the Temple Mount
A senior columnist for The Jerusalem Report focuses on the religious passions that make fundamentalists of three major religions--Christianity, Judaism, and Islam--battle over the Temple Mount in Jerusalem and why this sacred site has become a catalyst for potential conflict. 25,000 first printing.
288 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2000
13 people are currently reading
489 people want to read
About the author
Gershom Gorenberg
10 books57 followersGershom Gorenberg is a historian and journalist who has been covering Middle Eastern affairs for over 35 years.
His latest book, War of Shadows, began with a conversation in Jerusalem that set off years of searching through archives for long-secret documents, though attics for lost papers, through streets in Cairo, Rome, London - endless days and nights of seeing facts unravel and new ones take shape in place of them, of following one lead to another to find someone who remembered the mysterious woman at Bletchley Park who discovered Rommel's source in British headquarters in Cairo - an obsessive hunt that led to the real story of how the Nazis came within an inch of conquering the Middle East.
Gorenberg was previously the author of three critically acclaimed books - The Unmaking of Israel, The Accidental Empire, and The End of Days – and coauthor of Shalom, Friend: The Life and Legacy of Yitzhak Rabin, winner of the National Jewish Book Award.
Gershom is a columnist for The Washington Post and a senior correspondent for The American Prospect. He has written for The Atlantic Monthly, The New York Times Magazine, the New York Review of Books, The New Republic, and in Hebrew for Haaretz. He will return to the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism in 2021 to teach the workshop he created on writing history.
He lives in Jerusalem with his wife, journalist Myra Noveck. They have three children – Yehonatan, Yasmin and Shir-Raz.
His latest book, War of Shadows, began with a conversation in Jerusalem that set off years of searching through archives for long-secret documents, though attics for lost papers, through streets in Cairo, Rome, London - endless days and nights of seeing facts unravel and new ones take shape in place of them, of following one lead to another to find someone who remembered the mysterious woman at Bletchley Park who discovered Rommel's source in British headquarters in Cairo - an obsessive hunt that led to the real story of how the Nazis came within an inch of conquering the Middle East.
Gorenberg was previously the author of three critically acclaimed books - The Unmaking of Israel, The Accidental Empire, and The End of Days – and coauthor of Shalom, Friend: The Life and Legacy of Yitzhak Rabin, winner of the National Jewish Book Award.
Gershom is a columnist for The Washington Post and a senior correspondent for The American Prospect. He has written for The Atlantic Monthly, The New York Times Magazine, the New York Review of Books, The New Republic, and in Hebrew for Haaretz. He will return to the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism in 2021 to teach the workshop he created on writing history.
He lives in Jerusalem with his wife, journalist Myra Noveck. They have three children – Yehonatan, Yasmin and Shir-Raz.
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
October 14, 2019
Here is yet another alarmist tome by an author who can't seem to see the truth that is exploding all around him. I suppose I can be considered a fundamentalist. I believe that because the scripture compels me to "love my neighbor just as I love myself" that I should actually do everything in my power to do just that. I know hundreds of other fundamentalists and I am dismayed by these books from journalists or commentators who are clearly secular if not agnostic/atheist in their world view who attempt to analyze the state of fundamentalism. How absurd. It's alike a rich white kid from Beverly Hills writing books about the pitfalls of being a welfare mother in Compton.
Sam Harris also writes with apocalyptic alarm about the millenarianism of fundamentalist Christians. He loves to cite studies which show that a large percentage of Christians believe in the imminent return of Jesus Christ. The scares the pants off of people like Harris and Gorenberg because they immediately conclude that every decision made by such believers is based on their belief in the imminent return of Christ. This is complete nonsense. Yes fundamentalist believe that Christ will return and many think it will be in their lifetime (though very many do not believe this) but they still have retirement funds and 30 year mortgages. They still have babies and plan for their college expenses. This belief does not change anything about ones day-to-day life because any good Christian knows that one can never discern the day or the hour of His return. Most fundamentalists that I know do not have a unified or comprehensive understanding of Revelations and most of them clearly recognize the oblique and metaphorical nature of the book. To suggest that people are voting for a President based on anything from the book of Revelations is total fabrication. If that happens, it is anomalous at best and certainly would not weigh significantly on an election. Christians vote for many reasons and the irreligionists might be surprised to find that there is a great deal of diversity of opinions in fundamentalists' circles when it comes to politics. They speak of the religious right as if it is a monolithic body receiving its marching orders from Falwell and Dobson.
What is even stranger to me is that there exists in the world today a belief system with more than a billion adherents and by all accounts hundreds of millions of fundamentalists which plainly does advocate a doctrine which is dangerous and which is bringing death, dismemberment, slavery, inequality, and brutality to wide swaths of planet earth. These people are commanded by their god to "make war on the unbelievers who live around you." (Sura 9:123) and they are doing that with a horrific fervor. This doesn't alarm anyone? Even within a stones throw of these bloodthirsty zealots who are rewarded in heaven for being psychopathic killers, journalists like Gorenberg continue to feel that the more dangerous belief is that Christians in America believe the New Testament (which has none of the incitements to violence which fill the Quran). Christians aren't exploding buses full of innocent people, or blowing up soldiers' convoys, or cheering wildly on 9/11, or oppressing women, or beheading people and taping it to send to the adoring fans. These horrible right wingers are not denying girls the right to be educated or committing genocide and slavery in Darfur and they aren't really killing or hurting anyone. The Christian right wing is in fact sending millions of dollars and thousands of missionaries to the poorest nations on earth to build hospitals, provide clean water, repair schools, and give tons of food and medicine away. They live lives of self-sacrifice to be teachers, nurses, doctors, and pastors to the poorest of the poor. I am in utter dismay to understand books like this and I wish that such authors would just say from the start: "this is an op ed piece....I am attempting to find justification for my own far left, West-hating views and as a sideline, I've never met a Palestinian I didn't like (with bombs strapped on or without). In Palestine today, more than 80% of the school children when asked what they want to be when they grow up, say that they want to be suicide bombers. Yes, but Christians are the real problem!
Sam Harris also writes with apocalyptic alarm about the millenarianism of fundamentalist Christians. He loves to cite studies which show that a large percentage of Christians believe in the imminent return of Jesus Christ. The scares the pants off of people like Harris and Gorenberg because they immediately conclude that every decision made by such believers is based on their belief in the imminent return of Christ. This is complete nonsense. Yes fundamentalist believe that Christ will return and many think it will be in their lifetime (though very many do not believe this) but they still have retirement funds and 30 year mortgages. They still have babies and plan for their college expenses. This belief does not change anything about ones day-to-day life because any good Christian knows that one can never discern the day or the hour of His return. Most fundamentalists that I know do not have a unified or comprehensive understanding of Revelations and most of them clearly recognize the oblique and metaphorical nature of the book. To suggest that people are voting for a President based on anything from the book of Revelations is total fabrication. If that happens, it is anomalous at best and certainly would not weigh significantly on an election. Christians vote for many reasons and the irreligionists might be surprised to find that there is a great deal of diversity of opinions in fundamentalists' circles when it comes to politics. They speak of the religious right as if it is a monolithic body receiving its marching orders from Falwell and Dobson.
What is even stranger to me is that there exists in the world today a belief system with more than a billion adherents and by all accounts hundreds of millions of fundamentalists which plainly does advocate a doctrine which is dangerous and which is bringing death, dismemberment, slavery, inequality, and brutality to wide swaths of planet earth. These people are commanded by their god to "make war on the unbelievers who live around you." (Sura 9:123) and they are doing that with a horrific fervor. This doesn't alarm anyone? Even within a stones throw of these bloodthirsty zealots who are rewarded in heaven for being psychopathic killers, journalists like Gorenberg continue to feel that the more dangerous belief is that Christians in America believe the New Testament (which has none of the incitements to violence which fill the Quran). Christians aren't exploding buses full of innocent people, or blowing up soldiers' convoys, or cheering wildly on 9/11, or oppressing women, or beheading people and taping it to send to the adoring fans. These horrible right wingers are not denying girls the right to be educated or committing genocide and slavery in Darfur and they aren't really killing or hurting anyone. The Christian right wing is in fact sending millions of dollars and thousands of missionaries to the poorest nations on earth to build hospitals, provide clean water, repair schools, and give tons of food and medicine away. They live lives of self-sacrifice to be teachers, nurses, doctors, and pastors to the poorest of the poor. I am in utter dismay to understand books like this and I wish that such authors would just say from the start: "this is an op ed piece....I am attempting to find justification for my own far left, West-hating views and as a sideline, I've never met a Palestinian I didn't like (with bombs strapped on or without). In Palestine today, more than 80% of the school children when asked what they want to be when they grow up, say that they want to be suicide bombers. Yes, but Christians are the real problem!
January 8, 2017
It's been three months or more since I read this, so my memory has dimmed.
In a way that's good, as I can now remember only simple, over-arching themes and/or facts.
First fact, as long as Islam and Judaism both lay claim to the Temple Mount site for housing key religious sites, there will be endless turmoil over managing and visiting the mount.
Second, while Christians who await the titled "end of days" 1) highly respect the Jews as God's chosen people, and 2) support the Jewish claim to the Temple Mount site, and therefore 3) appear to be staunch allies of Israel ... in fact, most Jews see something amiss and condescending in the Christians' underlying assumption that the Jews eventually will see Jesus as Messiah.
Third, Israel naturally takes comfort in the political support from American Christians, even if the Christian motivation is off.
Last, the author appears to be a fairly secular Jew since at times he pokes fun at the efforts of devout Hasidic Jews to determine whether various scriptural prophecies are coming true.
The book's prime example is its opening section, "Cattlemen of the Apocalypse," which details the intense monitoring of a dairy heifer named Melody, born bright red in 1996 in northern Israel (the Jezreel Valley), to see if she was the prophesied entirely red heifer that would usher in renewed animal sacrifice on the mount, where the Third Temple is to be built.
(BTW - no, as Melody matured some stray white hairs grew in, ending her chances as THE prophesied end-time red heifer. And thus her exclusion kicked a can down the road to Apocalypse, eliciting from some Jews a sigh of relief.)
In a way that's good, as I can now remember only simple, over-arching themes and/or facts.
First fact, as long as Islam and Judaism both lay claim to the Temple Mount site for housing key religious sites, there will be endless turmoil over managing and visiting the mount.
Second, while Christians who await the titled "end of days" 1) highly respect the Jews as God's chosen people, and 2) support the Jewish claim to the Temple Mount site, and therefore 3) appear to be staunch allies of Israel ... in fact, most Jews see something amiss and condescending in the Christians' underlying assumption that the Jews eventually will see Jesus as Messiah.
Third, Israel naturally takes comfort in the political support from American Christians, even if the Christian motivation is off.
Last, the author appears to be a fairly secular Jew since at times he pokes fun at the efforts of devout Hasidic Jews to determine whether various scriptural prophecies are coming true.
The book's prime example is its opening section, "Cattlemen of the Apocalypse," which details the intense monitoring of a dairy heifer named Melody, born bright red in 1996 in northern Israel (the Jezreel Valley), to see if she was the prophesied entirely red heifer that would usher in renewed animal sacrifice on the mount, where the Third Temple is to be built.
(BTW - no, as Melody matured some stray white hairs grew in, ending her chances as THE prophesied end-time red heifer. And thus her exclusion kicked a can down the road to Apocalypse, eliciting from some Jews a sigh of relief.)
December 7, 2024
It’s all about the Temple Mount…End of Days🙏🏻
Pretty deep book…
Pretty deep book…
June 25, 2011
For a modest book it packed such an army of characters in the 250 pages that I have trouble remembering who was who. The book mostly talks about the Temple Mount / Dome of the Rock as the focal point for extreme religious energy.
In the U.S. You can get an earful of millennialism (pre-mil usually) just by scanning “Christian” tv, but I gather there is a strong current of Messianic thought in Israel which is just as intense if not more so than the Christian version. AND it turns out a there is a growing branch of this kind of stuff in Islam, which strangely has gained popularity only recently and seems to unknowingly pick up the same structure as Christian End Times enthusiasts.
Interestingly (but obviously if you think about it) each side sees the others as being the crazy ones. And it is a given for every evangelical view that the Mosque on top of the Temple Mount is a sacrilege, the Muslims feel the same about any encroachment on their holy site. But all three believe a final battle will come and God will clear away the other guys.
It is a triangle of zealotry with each side thinking in the end only they will be left standing.
My one sentence synopsis is...
“This book shows there is not shortage of crazies, be they Jewish, Muslim or Christian and if any of them get worked up enough they have no problem with all the other “non-believers” being blown away, either with guns or by God.”
Here are just a few quotes from a few of the pages I dog-eared.
By the time we get to Hal Lindsey deciphering those name in 1970 as referring ot Russia and the "Iron Curtain countries," who will invade Israel and might be destroyed by nuclear weapons, we have reason to wonder what is literal about the reading. The man who says, "I had those who read their ideas into the scripture by using allegory," seems as capable as any allegorist of reading what he wants into scripture. 245
A parable from the Jewish mystical tradition known as hasidism: A man was once walking through a forest at niht and came to a house . Looking through the window, he saw people flinging their arms and legs about in grotesque motions. How awful, he thought, they're having seizures, they must ball have a terrible illness, or perhaps they're mad. But the man outside the window didn't hear the singing inside, and didn't know they were dancing. If you don't hear the the music of faith, says the story, you'll see the dance as disease. To take the point further, if you don't pay attention to the particular song being sung, you may notice only "seizures"_ and not which dance you're see out of the many possible. 236
Beneath the sci-fi veneer, for instance, the Heavan's Gate dream of ascent to heaven looked a lot like the Rapture...
..(they) had been making apocalyptic predictions for years. They couldn't sustain expectation forever, so they had to take irrevocable action.”This is the ultimate dogmatism: Any price is worth paying save the price of admitting that the Idea was wrong. 227
In the U.S. You can get an earful of millennialism (pre-mil usually) just by scanning “Christian” tv, but I gather there is a strong current of Messianic thought in Israel which is just as intense if not more so than the Christian version. AND it turns out a there is a growing branch of this kind of stuff in Islam, which strangely has gained popularity only recently and seems to unknowingly pick up the same structure as Christian End Times enthusiasts.
Interestingly (but obviously if you think about it) each side sees the others as being the crazy ones. And it is a given for every evangelical view that the Mosque on top of the Temple Mount is a sacrilege, the Muslims feel the same about any encroachment on their holy site. But all three believe a final battle will come and God will clear away the other guys.
It is a triangle of zealotry with each side thinking in the end only they will be left standing.
My one sentence synopsis is...
“This book shows there is not shortage of crazies, be they Jewish, Muslim or Christian and if any of them get worked up enough they have no problem with all the other “non-believers” being blown away, either with guns or by God.”
Here are just a few quotes from a few of the pages I dog-eared.
By the time we get to Hal Lindsey deciphering those name in 1970 as referring ot Russia and the "Iron Curtain countries," who will invade Israel and might be destroyed by nuclear weapons, we have reason to wonder what is literal about the reading. The man who says, "I had those who read their ideas into the scripture by using allegory," seems as capable as any allegorist of reading what he wants into scripture. 245
A parable from the Jewish mystical tradition known as hasidism: A man was once walking through a forest at niht and came to a house . Looking through the window, he saw people flinging their arms and legs about in grotesque motions. How awful, he thought, they're having seizures, they must ball have a terrible illness, or perhaps they're mad. But the man outside the window didn't hear the singing inside, and didn't know they were dancing. If you don't hear the the music of faith, says the story, you'll see the dance as disease. To take the point further, if you don't pay attention to the particular song being sung, you may notice only "seizures"_ and not which dance you're see out of the many possible. 236
Beneath the sci-fi veneer, for instance, the Heavan's Gate dream of ascent to heaven looked a lot like the Rapture...
..(they) had been making apocalyptic predictions for years. They couldn't sustain expectation forever, so they had to take irrevocable action.”This is the ultimate dogmatism: Any price is worth paying save the price of admitting that the Idea was wrong. 227
December 7, 2008
Why does the peace process keep collapsing in the Middle East? Gorenberg carefully reviews the seemingly unending struggle for the temple mount in Jerusalem. The Christian fundamentalists, the Muslims, and the Israelis all have interest in the area, with groups within each of these expressing opinions (and actions) ranging from political expediency to religious radicalism. Published by Oxford Press, this is a well-researched and very thought-provoking book. Highly recommended. Even a casually interested reader would enjoy reading about Melody, the red heifer or the tunnels unearthed beneath the city.
July 31, 2007
A quick read on Millenialists (Muslim, Christian and Jewish)and the consequences their beliefs have on what is occuring in the Middle East today. Apparently "normal" people with no doubt in their minds that their actions are God-driven and pure are depicted without malice. Gorenberg is able to laugh through his tears as he describes religiously motivated horrors and absurdities. This is a good over-view of a volatile situation which most Americans choose to ignore .... how many of you know of Tim LeHaye's books or their perennial place on the NYTimes Best Seller List?
September 11, 2008
The author examines the interplay between Christian fundamentalists and the role of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem at the time of the Second Coming. This was interesting but I wanted more information about the Mount and its history.
It's kind of bizarre that some fundamentalist Christian groups are trying to make something happen on the Mount in order to force a fulfillment of scriptural prophecy. That's weird.
It's kind of bizarre that some fundamentalist Christian groups are trying to make something happen on the Mount in order to force a fulfillment of scriptural prophecy. That's weird.
August 2, 2014
This is a very disturbing look at how fundamentalists of every stripe are standing in the way of a lasting peace in the Middle East. I suspect the low ratings many have given this book stem from their expectation from the title that this is yet another propaganda piece in the mold of the Left Behind series, and to their disappointment it is not a book of apologetics. It is an eyeopening look at frightening trends in the world.
July 16, 2007
Gorenberg explains in an academic and apolitical fashion as to what all the fuss is about the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. Think of it as "The Apocalyptic Views of Christianity, Judaism and Islam for Dummies". A must read for anyone who wants to better understand the current events in Israel. A very easy read for anyone with or without a religious/political background.
March 15, 2012
The influences of End Time believers on Israel and Palestine during the twentieth century. Mentions include Millerites, Red Heifer prophecy, Millennialists, Third Temple hopeful, Waco, Heaven's Gate, Herbert Armstrong, Jerry Falwell, and Pat Robertson.
July 28, 2012
Biased and nothing like I expected it to be. Glosses over atrocities committed by the Zionist settler movement. However, some interesting points about the mad fundamentalists on all sides.worth a read.
July 29, 2008
A must read for those who want to know about the history of and the conflicts surrounding the temple mount.
January 10, 2009
A look at a very strange world.
August 25, 2009
I love this book. It's wildly interesting and shows how nutty the folk in Jerusalem are about the Temple Mount.
February 19, 2010
Very interesting topic, but a bit arduous throughout.
May 27, 2012
A book I've re-read many times and still find prescient and very troubling.
September 24, 2013
This is a great book that filled in a troubling gap in my understanding of the powers that influence our government. A book everyone should read, but almost no one will!
September 12, 2016
Gershom Gorenberg: Being consistently thoughtful about everything.
August 14, 2024
So pointless. It's not like I even learned anything, just a massive collection of unnecessary information.
April 20, 2017
A great book, detailing the milleniarist dreams and designs on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. It’s full of interesting details such as the search for a perfect red heifer (the ashes from its sacrifice will be used to purify the worshipers in the Temple), and the various groups working towards establishing control over the Temple Mount.
Highly recommended.
Highly recommended.
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews