Plans to divide up the Holy Land

The Old Testament describes the promised land as follows: “To your descendants I give this land, from the Wadi of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates— the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites, Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites and Jebusites.” (Genesis 15:18-21)

Some Evangelicals’ idea of the Holy Land differs from that of the Jews. The Jews regard the current land of Israel as compatible with the Torah, while some Evangelicals refer to a much broader territory, even including part of Turkey.

For Evangelicals, this passage from the Old Testament describes the Holy Land, and these lands have to be taken by the Jews before the coming of the Prophet Jesus (pbuh). These lands between the Nile and the Euphrates include parts of Iraq, Syria, Egypt, Sudan and Turkey and all of Jordan, Lebanon and Kuwait.

The taking over of these lands is thus of great importance for some Evangelicals and represents a significant portent of the Last Coming.

The thing about this map of concern to Turkey is that according to the Evangelicals, this Holy Land also includes Adana, Gaziantep, Hatay, Kahramanmaraş and Adıyaman; some sources actually include all of Southeast Turkey. A great deal of stability and democracy have been achieved during the 90 years of the Turkish Republic. The constant instability in the region in question, while the country has been making enormous progress in recent years, is thought-provoking. Turkey is obviously part of this plan, based on a series of misunderstood prophecies, to break up the Middle East, which explains the constant state of unease in the Southeast Turkey.

One very important point needs to be mentioned here. For the Jews, the Holy Land, that is described as stretching from the Nile to the Euphrates in the Old Testament, extends (from east to west) from the Mediterranean to the River Jordan and (from south to north) from Sinai to the Hasbani River in northern Lebanon. That definition therefore includes the current state of Israel, but not Turkey. However, some Evangelicals interpret the passages of the Old Testament in question rather differently. One of the most important reasons for this difference is that some Christians have expanded the concept of the “Holy Land” to include not just those promised to the Prophet Moses (pbuh), but also those promised to the Prophet Abraham (pbuh). However, the Old Testament does not employ the term “Holy Land” in that context. Therefore, generally, the Jews do not regard this broad map described by the Evangelicals as accurate, for which reason they do not favor the desire to expand the Holy Land outside the current borders of Israel.