March 5: The Christian Movement to Establish a Modern Israel

On March 5, 1891, William Eugene Blackstone presented a petition to Congress and the President urging the United States to support the repatriation of the world's Jews to Palestine. A Christian Zionist motivated by hopes of stimulating the Apocalypse, Blackstone's manifesto "Jesus is Coming" was backed by the Stewart brothers (owners of the Union Oil company) who had 700,000 copies of his work distributed in the U.S.