The queue to “surely and definitely tame the mentally deranged US dotard with fire” has just got a little longer.
That was Kim Jong Un's threat back in September. This week, after Donald Trump announced that the US recognises Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and that it will eventually relocate its embassy to the city, a spokesman for the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, said the US was "plunging the region and the world into a fire with no end in sight".
“Dotard” is a somewhat archaic word meaning someone who is senile. That would be the kindest explanation for Trump’s decision, but a far more likely explanation is pleasing an element of his evangelical Christian base, perhaps even a greater motivation than the obvious appeal to Jewish voters.
President Trump seems indifferent to the fact that his actions will more than likely derail his son-in-law, Jared Kushner’s, admittedly not very successful attempts to broker a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. (Kushner is an Orthodox Jew.)
Promised Land
For a significant number of evangelicals, Israel has a mystical significance as the Promised Land, and they believe that Jews must be restored to Israel before the second coming of Christ can happen. This leads to fervent, uncritical support of the state of Israel and rejection of the need for justice for Palestinians.
Christian Zionism, particularly the apocalyptic version, has never had much support among Catholics, who often object to a simplistic mapping of biblical prophecies on to the modern state of Israel
However, while about 25 per cent of Americans identify as evangelical, they are not a homogeneous group and younger evangelicals are different in many ways from their parents.
In 2013, the Pew Research Center found that 82 per cent of white evangelicals believe God gave the land of Israel to the Jewish people, compared with only 40 per cent of American Jews who believe the same.
A survey released this week by Lifeway Christian research group found that 77 per cent of evangelicals aged 65 and older say they support the existence, security and prosperity of Israel. However, that drops to 58 per cent among younger evangelicals, those aged 18 to 34.
Christian Zionism, particularly the apocalyptic version, has never had much support among Catholics, who often object to a simplistic mapping of biblical prophecies on to the modern state of Israel.
One of the most anguished pleas for Trump to desist from moving the US embassy came from Pope Francis. Similarly, Catholic leaders and Orthodox patriarchs wrote an open letter to Trump asking that Jerusalem not be deprived of peace coming up to Christmas.
Ironically, any escalation in conflict will impact Christians disproportionately, as a minority in both Israel and the Palestinian territories.
Distinct periods
Among Protestants, a theological outlook called dispensationalism was promoted in the late 19th century by John Nelson Darby, at one time an English Anglican clergyman who worked in Delgany, Co Wicklow, and later on, a founder member of what became the Plymouth Brethren.
For this millennium to come about, the Jewish people must be living in Jerusalem, and the Temple must rise again. Then Armageddon will signal the end times
It sees history as having seven distinct periods, or dispensations, ranging from the age of innocence before the fall of Adam and Eve, to the current age of grace after the coming of Christ.
Dispensationalism believes that the end of the world will be preceded by a millennium of earthly paradise.
For this millennium to come about, the Jewish people must be living in Jerusalem, and the Temple must rise again. Then Armageddon will signal the end times.
A modern version of dispensationalism is found in the Left Behind series, 16 best-selling religious novels by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B Jenkins, which have sold 65 million copies in the US.
Set in apocalyptic times, the plot concerns the true believers among Christians being swept up to heaven, leaving the remnant behind. An obscure Romanian politician becomes the secretary general of the UN, but is actually the antichrist.
Antichrist
Nineteenth-century dispensationalists flirted with the idea that the antichrist would be the pope, but these novels merely characterise the “left behind” pope as devious and corrupt.
Recognising Jerusalem as the eternal capital of Israel is crucial to this worldview.
Since 1995, it has been US policy to transfer the embassy to Jerusalem but knowing that it would inflame rather than help matters meant that a waiver was signed every six months by successive presidents.
When Trump signed the waiver for the first time in June, influential evangelicals such as pastor John Hagee, the founder and national chairman of Christians United for Israel, began to pressurise the president to keep his election promises.
Hagee’s organisation alone has three million members. There are many other highly organised evangelical organisations with the same goals.
Trump has just signed the waiver again, presumably because it will take years to build an embassy but evangelicals still have achieved one of their major aims – recognition of Jerusalem as capital of Israel.
Again, it is important to note that many evangelicals are adamant that justice for both Palestinians and Israelis is closer to authentic Christian belief and they reject uncritical support for Israel.
However, if the president really is motivated by pleasing one part of his evangelical base, it is even scarier than jousting with Kim Jong Un, because humouring people who think that hastening Armageddon is a great idea rarely ends well.