Zionism and The Way

Strap yourselves in, here goes another “ism.”

Around the world, the American church, and indeed America is seen as very pro Israel. This is called Zionism, and there is a primary verse Zionists use to defend their position. Genesis 12:3 “I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse;” To take advantage of this verse, you must interpret in a certain way. That way is to say that when God said “you” he really meant “them.” If you’ve read anything I have written on eschatology, this is something I bring up all the time. If the verse says something, and we have no reason to think it is using some sort of metaphorical or prophetical language, then there’s no reason why it cannot be taken literally. That’s the literal interpretation of the Bible that everyone loves so much. However, as with many hard and fast rules in theology, it seems it can be broken whenever the need suits. That’s how we got dispensationalism, and that’s why I don’t like “isms.” Truth is often trampled to support a position.

This verse is simple and straightforward. Throughout the whole thing, the whole promise, God is speaking directly to Abraham, person to person, “Man to man.” Speaking directly to Abraham, God says, “I will do this stuff to you and for you” there are no promises to the rest of anybody other than there will be a lot of them.

We must not forget the rest of this often used verse. “and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed." Don’t you see it? If you say that God is telling Abraham that he will bless those who bless the Jews, then you are contradicting the second half of the verse, because God says that all will be blessed through Abraham. That’s the Christian part of the promise, because certainly not every nation was blessed through the nation of Israel, other than through Christ.

Even if we take this verse to mean what most take it to mean, we still have one more snag. In Romans, Paul makes it abundantly clear that foremost, there is no difference between Jew and Gentile, and secondly, Christians are co-inheritors of the same blessings, a recapitulation of the promises made to Abraham. Therefore, instead of being pro Israel, you should be pro-Christian. Israel was judged by Jesus when he returned to heaven and was seated at the right hand of God. Their nation was dismantled, people evicted, their temple destroyed, their land taken, and their national promises delivered to individual hearts. God judged the nation of Israel, and found that they had been in direct opposition to his plan. And the results are undeniable. Not 40 years after Jesus ascended into heaven, Israel was no more. And in my view, YHWH’s Israel still doesn’t exist, and never will.

So some read this and say “So you are anti-Israel?” Absolutely not, just as I am not anti any other country. That’s just another “ism.” How can I be against a country without being against every individual person therein. What if all the people in there are Jews or Black or Chinese, that would make me a racist. No, I am a full believer in what Paul said and what Jesus lived, in Christ, there are no Jews or Greeks, slaves or free persons, men or women. Again with the literal interpretation of the Bible, it says what it means. God sees no race, no sex, no age, only the heart, the thing that is on the inside. God does not bless the outside, but what is done on the outside.

It seems to me that Americans want to find every reason to defend their prosperity. So we cook up reasons, “God is blessing me because I give money to the church, God is blessing me because our country is good to Israel, God is blessing me because I am white, God is blessing me because my kids are home schooled, God is blessing me because I am a Republican, God blesses our country because it was founded by Christians.”

Those who say America is blessed are looking through colored glasses. America has done more evil in the world in the last hundred years than is even fathomable. Why won’t people understand that the United States of America is just another country who goes to war and strong-arms weaker countries to protect its interests and the interests of its wealthy. If you think America is blessed, then you were not in Iran when the US overthrew a democratically elected prime minister and started this forest fire we now call “The War on Terror.” If you think America is blessed, then you were not in Hawaii when a peaceful queen was ejected from her throne by businessmen willing to do anything to keep their fruit profits. If you still think America is blessed, than you weren’t in Israel when Western empowered Jews forcibly and violently evicted countless thousands of Palestinians from their homeland of a thousand years. The United States of America is not blessed, it is powerful. Possession of blessing and possession of power are not the same things, though if you are deluded just enough, you might think you have one when you really have the other.

I know the kind of crap I’m gonna get for this, so let's have it.

WiredForStereo

Book Review of "The Apocalypse Code" by Hank Hanegraaff

I recently read the book "The Apocalypse Code" by Hank Hanegraaff. I have been listening to Hank's show "The Bible Answer Man" for years off and on, and I do disagree with quite a bit of the stuff he says, but one thing I agree with him on is Eschatology.

A little background: When I was a kid, my father was Seventh-Day Adventist. Being the kind of guy he was, we got kicked around quite a few churches, most of which were what you might call Historic Adventists, the prophecy pundits. Now when you are in 5th grade and you hear that the world is going to start ending in February of 1997, it's gonna loosen your stool. So as a kid, I was afraid of eschatology, and rightly so. Kids need security and love, not threat of impending world ending doom. In a way, it chased me away from the faith, though I never completely let go of it. When I used to get into trouble in middle school and early high school, my dad would make me memorize sections of scripture, and not the good stuff either, he was a prophecy buff, so I had to memorize prophecy. Woo. I ended up memorizing the entirety of Daniel 8, 12, and Matthew 24. When I got back into the faith, which was partly due to listening the Bible Answer Man radio show, I started reading the Bible again. I read through the New Testament four times before reading Revelation. I hated prophecy that much. So when I heard Hank talking about a far future upcoming book entitled Exegetical Eschatology or E squared, I was intrigued even though he consistently refused to lay all of his beliefs out on the table on the radio show. But the idea that much of prophecy in the Bible had already happened loosened my fear of it, and my fear of the future.

Fast forward a few years, I am married now with a kid on the way, and Hank's book is released. Now titled The Apocalypse Code because people have no idea what Exegetical Eschatology means, the book is an in depth look at the true meaning of scripture as deciphered by scripture, and a special focus on the shortcomings of the dispensationalist point of view, specifically those of Tim LaHaye.

The book is in typical Hanegraaff memory mnemonic acrostic style is laid out using the acrostic LIGHTS.

L is the Literal Principle, and the only one I'll focus on here. Hank has spent alot of time on this subject both on his show and in the book. He shows how the dispensationalist point of view becomes absurd when too many things are taken in a wooden literal sense. Then at other times, they change the literal words of even Jesus to match their eschatalogical model, specifically in Matthew 24 when he says (paraphrased) I tell you the truth, this generation will certainly not pass away till all these things have happened. Why cant we just listen to what Jesus says? The futurist point of view holds that when Jesus says "this" he really means "that" and when he says" generation," he means "race" and by "these" he really means "those." This makes no sense, why would he preach these things to people who would have no flaming clue what he was talking about if those things were to be taking place in the far future?

But the truth is that what Jesus and Daniel and John were speaking about was as they said it was, literally. The beginning of Revelation states that the prophesy of Jesus "will soon take place" not thousands of years in the future. By saying that he would be "coming on clouds with power and glory" Jesus was speaking of judgment on Israel, just as it had meant in the Old Testament. And that's exactly what happened. After the Jews had Jesus murdered, he sat at the right hand of the Ancient of Days and judged them, and Jerusalem fell not 40 years after He died.

So if I don't have the pre-tribulational rapture to look forward to, what do I have? I have exactly what Jesus said I did. He said no one knows the day or the hour when the Son of Man comes. He will take all his followers home with him, and there will be a new heaven and a new earth for the old earth has passed away, and there will be no more crying or pain. So I can live just as Jesus said to live, expecting that he will return today or tomorrow, but knowing that it may be many years until he comes. And so I care for the earth he has given me as if it must sustain my descendants for thousands of generations, but fully expecting him to return today.

And that's the hope that I have.
WiredForStereo