I was disappointed when Helen Thomas resigned over her offensive (to some) remarks regarding the State of Israel. I kinda liked this old war horse who hails from an old family in Winchester, Kentucky. Commonwealth natives remember her fondly, and she has been a top-notch journalist.
She probably should not have said what she did, but most of us succumb to that sometime or other, as did Rick Sanchez recently on CNN. However, she proved her metal as a journalist throughout a long career. She was also old enough and savvy enough to put the founding of Israel in 1948 into as sensible a perspective as most any of our double-speaking politicians.
I have no problem with Jewish people having their own homeland. I do have a serious problem with Palestinians being left out. That Palestine belongs to the Jews by “divine election” (i.e., God-given) - as claimed by "dispensationalist" Christians I also find open to discussion. Moreover it is only part of the story.
Diplomats and leaders of nations could find real assistance through serious Bible study when grappling with problems among the nations of the world, especially the Middle-east. No, I’m not promoting religion, or Christianity, or the Jews premillennial rule of the world for one thousand years.
Fact is, I’m not even suggesting that one must of necessity believe in God or the “faith” of the Bible. Paul Harvey always insisted, there is more to the story, and we really need to know the rest of the story, which does not conclude with the Jewish Bible (Old Testament).
Core to this political problem is the fact that Israel did not keep their end of the bargain with God. They were more interested in polital kingdoms than in revealing God to the world. Most anyone but a dispensational premillennialist knows this. It is made clear over and over again. Premillennialists insist that God made the covenant forever (literally), yet they fail to follow their literal application with serious consistency.
They would insist that Jesus came in his first Advent to establish his kingdom but the Jews rejected him. In other words, they maintain that the Jewish nation could actually prevent God from fulfilling his intention and cause him to resurrect his idea centuries later. If that is true, you might want to consider what that theory does to the their theory of inspired scripture. It leaves it badly flawed!!
Or, consider the last statement Jesus made during his trial. In the official proceedings the chief priests voiced this word (John 19:15): “We have no king, but Caesar.” God took them at their word. For almost two thousand years they have reaped the lamentable consequences of their fateful choice. The prophecy of Deuteronomy 28:64 declared that in the event of their disobedience, “the Lord shall scatter thee among the people from one end of the earth even unto the other” (emphasis added). This has most certainly been fulfilled. Some have even suggested that their request that His blood be on us and on our children is still in effect for whatever reason (1 Thessalonians 2:15; Matthew 27; 25), but I'm not sure I would say that.
The Kingdom of God is open to the Jewish people just as it is to every other people, but the Israel of today has no special place in the plan of God, any more than America or any other nation. The Israel of today is a secular state, not a theocracy under God, and the inhabitants are not truly Jews in the original meaning. That nation-state was exterminated in AD 70 when General Titus utterly wasted Jerusalem and Israel longer existed as a nation ... until descendants and refugees were decreed to be a political entity in 1948, so they could have an identifiable homeland.
Jesus will return again, when he is ready, as the Bible claims. However, it will be to receive his church as his bride and time will be no more. The elect will be "a spiritual kingdom" from all nations and peoples and will have nothing whatsoever to do with the politics of nations.
from Warner's World,
I am
walkingwithwarner.blogspot.com
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