Christian Zionist World Federalism, the Third Temple, and the Nicene Gauntlet

Chag Sameach. I attended a Panim el Panim (PEP) class on Tuesday afternoon during the second week of April, and with all due respect to Rabbi Joshua Brumbach, who deftly handled some challenging material at the crux of recent ICJ and ICC deliberations, the high point of the hour was a February 2026 PEP teaser appearance by Rabbi Vered Hillel standing strong in Israel. That is a PEP course not to be missed! As a born-again Christian opponent of anti-Semitism, I must learn to navigate the continuum of Gentile Christianity, Jewish Christianity, Messianic Judaism, and orthodox Judaism with deep appreciation for contradictory perspectives. The mystery of my midlife conversion to celibate faith in the literal resurrection of a first century Jewish Messiah could be delusional faith in the fictional resurrection of a false Messiah, from an entirely reasonable orthodox Jewish point of view. Indeed, have I fallen into a conflict-riddled "God delusion," as the new atheists call it, or have I made a quantum leap in Judeo-Christian spiritual and civilizational wholeness? "The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposing ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function," according to F. Scott Fitzgerald. What does it mean to hold faith in Judaism and Christianity in mind at the same time? Along these lines, my mother has asked me to look into Israel and Civilization: The Fate of the Jewish Nation and the Destiny of the West by Josh Hammer. I am planning to tell her that I did, and it seems helpful, but that I have decided to read The Builder’s Stone: How Jews and Christians Built the West—and Why Only They Can Save It by Melanie Phillips, instead. The latter seems like it will best complement my ongoing reading in Stones the Builders Rejected: The Jewish Jesus, His Jewish Disciples, and the Culmination of History by Mark Kinzer and Jennifer Rosner. But I could be wrong. Maybe I need the Hammer right now, not the Phillips!

As a "blue state" Christian Zionist grappling with the reasonableness of my faith at the beginning and end of a new era in United Nations history, I very much support reform of the UN system, and I think most New Yorkers do, too. Where I might differ from some of my neighbors is in my idealistic commitment to UN reform in the direction of true world federation, with a broader and stronger Abraham Accords at its interfaith core. The question of the Third Temple is very delicate in this regard, and I don't want to think or say anything that disrupts the Temple Mount status quo in the direction of conflict. This is a sensitive matter between Israel, the Arab League and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation. I certainly don't want the Third Temple question to be solved by violence, or even in court, but rather by peace talks. Nonetheless, it is possible the matter may need to be solved by an ICJ ruling in a contentious case involving Israel, Jordan, and Palestine. If that eventually happens, the precedent of the ICJ is not up to the task, except for the dissent of Judge Sebutinde.

Who am I to judge the opinions of the ICJ? Well, I have watched many UK Lawyers for Israel webinars over the last few years, alongside TV7 and JNS. But I am basically expressing myself as an aspiring Christian vegan hermit with an interest in peaceful resolution of the Third Temple question. As confined as I may be to my New York hermitage, I am able to cloud hop in real time to a Skyline Webcam of the Western Wall. When I sit on my meditation cushion in Centering Prayer twice a day for twenty minutes (on good mental health days), I sometimes use the word "Temple" as a kind of Jewish-Christian mantra. This word reminds me that my two daily Centering Prayer periods symbolize my contribution to the continual burnt offerings of the Temple, on the one hand, and my belief in vegan supersession of animal sacrifice in the Messianic era, on the other. Perhaps the Third Temple will be essentially virtual, and all of the sacrifices will be made through prayer and philanthropy. Third Temple expert Rabbi Chaim Richman is another Jewish visionary (cf. Frank Hoffman) whom I listen to regularly. Rabbi Richman's discussions of the weekly Torah portions are an important counterpoint to those of Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks and First Fruits of Zion. 

I suspect we have been living in a new vegan dispensation since 1948, when the modern state of Israel was established and when the word "vegan" was coined, and that it will take us a millennium, give or take, to reach the full flowering of a non-violent Christian Zionist world federation. During these birth-pangs at the beginning of a new planetary order (cf. Martin Luther King Jr. Nobel Peace Prize Acceptance Speech), I support both dietary liberty and healthy regulation of advertising for a more balanced mix of vegan, vegetarian, and flexitarian dietary patterns worldwide by 2050, consistent with a cautious, consensus approach to climate and energy security. As you can imagine, I have mixed feelings about the Third Temple and animal sacrifice. Vegan Third Temple lawyers at the ICJ (if not the Supreme Court of Israel) would likely convince me that the Temple Mount should remain entirely vegan. But there is a chance that flexitarian Third Temple lawyers might convince me the bloodshed should be reinstated. As it stands now, I am firmly with the vegans. I think we want to keep the Temple Mount and the Third Temple as free of bloodshed as possible moving forward. But I am open to respectful consideration of the strongest possible arguments against the vegan Third Temple position. I am sure they are coming.

Mapping the territory ahead, I would like to one day spend time observing construction of the vegan Third Temple (in its virtual form, at least) in the context of a stronger Abraham Accords at the heart of a more peaceful, just, and sustainable United Nations. With this overarching vision in my hermit's mind's eye, it is safe to say that I am passing through the Gauntlet of Nicaea 1700 during this present stage of my vocational clarification here in CE 2025. Will I decide by the end of this 1700th commemoration year that God is indeed calling me to seal my faith with a water baptism in obedience to the Nicene Creed, or will I conclude that I instead subscribe to some kind of ante-Nicene or post-Nicene vanguard statement of faith, e.g., "In essentials, unity; in non-essentials, liberty; in all things, charity?" As you can see below in this helpful image from the United States Conference of Secular Institutes, my wrestling with obedience to the Nicene Creed goes to the rite of baptism at the very foundation of my vocational discernment journey. But more on this in the weeks and months to come.