According to some sources on Islamic Eschatology, two of the world's greatest powers shall gang up on the Islamic State, and bring about the "End Times." Who are these two great countries? Could it be, that there may be a scriptural origin? There may be many interpretations.
In this interpretation, we will look into the story of Joseph in the Jewish Tanakh, perhaps some details easily glossed over or forgotten, or dismissed as "poetic talk." Or maybe it is poetic talk, we don't know.
Joseph became governor in a pagan nation, his two sons are Ephraim and Manasseh. That means Ephraim and Manasseh, and their nation-state correspondents, may be associated with so called "pagan nations." At least there seems to be no counter-arguments yet...
Ephraim and Manasseh were prophesied by Jacob to become a group of nations in the world. With the lost tribes at literally any locations of the world, where the possibility of intermarriage and assimilation is great, one can assume that, if the Tanakh was true, the tribe of Ephraim and Manasseh has already became the two prophesied nations.
He named his eldest son Manasseh, to mean "God has made me forget about my trouble and my father's household." The United States is one country where its citizens are blessed enough to be shielded from the suffering of the rest of the world. It is also a powerful country, as Manasseh was the son who conducted the arrest of Benjamin, whom the brothers likened the strength to that of Jacob's descendant.
The younger son, Ephraim, was named to mean "G-d has made me fruitful in the land of my affliction..." One can, perhaps, attest this to China's shear population. Ephraim was a tribe which "rebelled against G-d" sometimes after Solomon's era. Could China's official policy of atheism be a testament to Ephraim? Maybe not. Although one can perhaps not rule out the possibility of the Ephraim tribe reaching China during the Diaspora or something...
What is interesting, is that according to certain Mormon texts, Manasseh was a tribe which reached the land of Americas through the Native Americans.
Whatever the interpretation may be. One thing is certain, and that is the tremendous potential when the two mentioned countries work together to achieve anti-terrorism goals, in alignment with Islamists' own eschatological scripts. China is also a great candidate for humanitarian work in Africa, which in turn provides her the natural resources she needs for her own people, thus removing the crutches of oil in the Middle East area.
Warfare has long been a standing nation's game, much like martial arts based on erect postures. With terrorist activity coming into the picture, warfare has shifted to fighting an enemy with no shape, no uniform, and many cases, no land.
Such kind of warfare, or 4th generation warfare, is much like a traditional martial artist fighting Roy Gracie, master of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. Once a ground fighter takes his opponent to the ground, the arena belongs to the ground fighter. As such, once an elusive enemy takes a nation to the ground, where law and order no longer stands, trust for its own government is undermined, the battleground belongs to the enemy with no standing nation.
There is a caveat, and that is international cooperation. Self defense experts know that while ground fighting styles like Brazilian Jiu Jitsu are great in the MMA octagon, it is no match for a street situation in which multiple attackers gangs up on the BJJ guy. The nation-state equivalent of this is when multiple nations get together to fight these enemies together, and bringing their own unique tactics and strategies to the table.
China and the US are special examples, because there are distinct differences in styles of thought and approaches. In one dimension, one can say American culture (not thinking) tend to be linear, while Chinese culture tend to be non-linear (yes almost never means yes.), while thinking wise, it can be reversed. In Judaism, linear vs non-linear is associated with Chokhmah and Binah, which in the human body, corresponds with the right brain and left brain, respectively.
Militarily, western tactics had long been linear, since the days of the Roman Empire and their advanced tactics of the linear rank and file units. While eastern tactics tend to be more fluid and non-linear, subversion, deception are the norm. We cannot kill terrorism by bombing the shit out of terrorists locations, alone, we need the ancient martial strategies that has so characteristically represented China's.
Like Napoleon said, China' is a sleeping giant. Even if the rest of the world sees China as a potential enemy. Why not use the enemy? Isn't that something Sun Tsu would say?
So, based on this interpretation of Ephraim and Manasseh, if applicable, it may give us the "green light" to go ahead and work together, to destroy evil, and more importantly, to establish a system of sustainable international community, into the era of redemption.
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We admit the title was meant to catch your attention, sorry for the click-and-bait, but we hope that the bait is the tastiest, most nutritious bait you've ever eaten in your life, and it's well worth getting hooked up and cooked into a kosher meal in the World to Come ;) Hopefully it still scared you, and if you still read the whole article, then we salute you for having the balls to read it all, you remind us of Jacob himself.
Sincerely,
Unpatented Inventions
