I’ve been thinking long and hard on whether to post about this topic for quite some time…the reason?…my knowledge on this topic is limited and room for disagreement is huge…
Why should that matter?…well I’ve never really liked people criticizing anything I do…(I try to stay out of conflict I guess)…but I feel this is an important thing that Christians need to dialog about…correct views and understanding are vital…so here goes nothing…
What brought this up?…well I was at work last week and someone came up to me (a fellow Christian) and said…”my pastor’s message was really good yesterday…he was talking about Israel and how we need to back them up at all times…cause if we don’t bad things are going to happen to us because they’re God’s chosen people”…
…my response…
…”I don’t believe that”…
…after they gave me a confused look……I told this person why…
I’m really going to try to keep this post as short and to the point as possible…otherwise a 10 page paper may come out…so I’m going to stick with the statement this person said to me…(in other words this is by no mean exhaustive)…
(a lot of my research was guided by a book by Gary Burge, “Whose Land? Whose Promise?,…so I may be just a little partial to his point a view)
I’m going to look at three things…first, supporting Israel…second, God chosen people…and then I’ll finish with the issue of the land everyone seems to be fighting over…
On the issue of supporting Israel…
I’ve found that most Christians who say “we must support Israel at all times” use Genesis 12:2-3 as their foundation…
“I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed”
Instead of interpreting this as “back Israel or die”, perhaps it should be interpreted, “because of Israel’s greatness and goodness, God will use them to bless others”…
it’s hard for me to believe that this passage gives Israel the right to do whatever they want and if anyone goes against them, curses will be upon them…
In fact in Leviticus 18 and 20, and in Deuteronomy 4 and 8, explains how the covenant that was with the Jews was conditional on them living by God’s standards… So “supporting Israel no matter what” seems like a silly thing to say…
On the issue of God’s chosen people…
I tend to lean toward the side that when Jesus came he began a new Israel and a new covenant; “he has made the first one obsolete” (Heb. 8:13)…
now Romans 11 says that “unbelieving Israel still holds a place of honor”…but that doesn’t necessarily mean they are still apart of Abraham’s promises…(Burge, 188)
Paul, in Galatians 3, makes it pretty clear that when God made a promise to Abraham’s seed it was to one person…Christ…it did not say “seeds” but “seed”…
“Hence, Christ is the true recipient of Abraham’s blessings, and if we are “in Christ,” we are heirs both of Christ and of Abraham simultaneously.” (Burge 183)
So I kind of hold to the view that “God’s chosen people” are now those who follow Jesus Christ…
On the issue of the Land…
Now some would go so far to say that because of this, (Christians being God’s chosen people) the promise that was made to Abraham now goes to those who follow Christ…(mainly talking about land)…so really…Christians are the ones that should get the land…
I’m not sure I really agree with that…it seems that in the Gospels, Christ spends a lot of his time making people think differently about traditional Jewish holy places…”Sacred sites now fade in comparison with Jesus, who offers what the site only suggests”…
Everyone thought Christ was going to bring a literal kingdom…(land, royalty, freedom from the Romans)….the kingdom was not an actual earthly kingdom…but a spiritual kingdom…the focus was away from these earthly things…and on him…
So with the exception of the tremendous amount of history in that part of the world…after Christ came…I view that land…as just land…
(now I’m not sure how Jewish Christians view the land but I’m sure it is not just land to them…and I apologize for not knowing where they stand)
If you want to support Israel because you believe they are a good allie…ok…I can be cool with that…(although it’s hard for me to support Israel if it means persecuting Palestinian brothers and sisters in Christ)…but if you bring in religious reasons and you’re a Christian…I ask you take some time to try to see the other side of this issue…read the book I mentioned…spend some time studying scripture…you may think differently afterward…
