Remainders of the Day: Ariel Sharon’s Death and the Return of Jesus

Rabbi Messiah Discounted

From WND (WorldNetDaily), 22 January:

…today only, WND readers can get Carl Gallups’ “The Rabbi Who Found Messiah” for only $4.95 – a huge $21 discount off the regular $25.95 price!

In the fall of 2005, a 108-year-old rabbi, the most venerated rabbinical Jewish leader in Israel, proclaimed that he knew the name of the real Messiah. He insisted that he knew where the Messiah was and when He was going to reveal Himself to the world. Rabbi Yitzhak Kaduri claimed that he had personally seen the Messiah in a vision.

But … there were just a couple catches: Kaduri declared that a particular and famed world leader had to die before the Messiah appeared publicly.

By “today only”, WND actually means “forever until we shift these books” – as of 1 February, clicking on the link and adding the item to the shopping cart shows that’s still available for $4.95, billed as “SPECIAL ONE-DAY OFFER… OFFER ENDS TONIGHT AT 10 P.M. AND IS VALID IN THE U.S. ONLY.” There is one slight catch, though: the purchase is bundled in with a sample subscription for WND‘s fringe-right Whistleblower magazine which the buyer has to opt out of to avoid being charged for a year’s worth of issues.

The “famed world leader” referred to in the blurb, of course, was Ariel Sharon – Kaduri (actually a politically controversial obscurantist rather than “the most venerated rabbinical Jewish leader”) had predicted that he would be the last Prime Minister of Israel, and when this prophecy failed it was reinterpreted by his followers as referring to Sharon’s death.

Kaduri also said that the Messiah had “attached his soul” to someone in Israel, and a note emerged after his death identifying the name of this person as “Yehoshua” or “Yeshua”. Even though Kaduri was a life-long adherent of a mystical form of Judaism, elements of the Christian Right in the USA decided this was a sign that the life-long Kabbalist had had a supernatural encounter with Jesus. Those who jumped on the bandwagon included Left Behind author Tim LaHaye:

when a much loved Jewish Rabbi dies at 106 years of age, shortly after leaving a secret message revealing the true identity of the Messiah of Israel, it is news of worldwide significance. This is a well-written story worth reading!

The book and an accompanying DVD were published last autumn, and its main selling point was that the death of Sharon would be somehow mystically linked to the return of Jesus. The book’s absurd and Landoveresque author, Pastor Carl Gallups (best-known for his crank claim that the Bible predicts that the anti-Christ will be named  “baraq o bamah”) has attempted to maintain interest by arguing that Jesus’ non-return before the death of Sharon shows that Kaduri’s prophecy “has come true”, but it’s clear that the book and its thesis are now past their sell-by date.

A screenshot of the cover of the book as it appears on the 22 January page shows that WND has slapped a sticker on the front advertising another apocalyptic product: a DVD called The 9/11 Judgment. This is an official tie-in with Jonathan Cahn’s book The Harbinger, which links the 9/11 attacks with God’s judgement against the USA. That book – published by Steve Strang’s Charisma House – has achieved bestseller status.