Posted on 11/07/2004 11:21:16 PM PST by goldstategop
Any observer of last week's American elections would have to conclude that it is the United States that has now taken upon itself the role of being God's chosen people.
Although they have become the most hated nation on earth for doing so, Americans chose another four years of a faith-based presidency, dedicated to exporting freedom and democracy – by military force if necessary – and were happy to continue with their pariah president, even if that meant being rejected by the international community for their commitment to a moral foreign policy.
If only Israel would follow their close ally's example and behave more like a chosen nation themselves! Unfortunately, the United States and Israel could not be headed in more different directions.
President Bush's stunning victory was a mandate from the people for a more moral nation. Pollsters were shocked to discover that the No 1 issue for American voters – more important that security or the economy – was moral values. Even John Kerry went from church to church talking about God and reminding voters that he had been an altar boy. In modern-day America, a man cannot become president unless he shows an authentic commitment to God, and since 80 percent of the morality voters did not discern that in John Kerry, he lost the election.
The contrast with Israel could not be more stark, where an Israeli prime minister speaking about God is the certain kiss of electoral death. Most Americans would find it shocking that the political leaders of the Jewish nation, who gifted the Creator to the world, would never consider mentioning God for fear of alienating a majority secular electorate who are deeply distrustful of faith. In this respect, Israeli leaders are more like European leaders who are about as likely to invoke the name of God as they are the name of Zeus.
Then there is the fact that the majority of Americans don't care about being cut off from the rest of the world. In this election, the American people made a resounding judgment: If America is right and the world is wrong, we will show them our contempt. John Kerry's central campaign platform was the need to rebuild frayed alliances with Europe and the United Nations that he said were damaged by Bush administration arrogance.
In the end, Americans decided that their strength lay not in being popular but in being moral. An America that finds Europe and the United Nations arrogant, dishonorable and condescending is content to live in splendid isolation. Kofi Annan can stick up for Saddam, and Jacques Chirac can visit Arafat in the hospital. We'd rather not be invited to those parties.
Yet Israel continues to grovel before the Europeans for acceptance and has always been a supplicant for U.N. approval. I am well aware of the old argument, that America is a superpower that can go it alone, but Israel is a tiny country in need of friends. But that argument is unpersuasive – first, because Israel has a phenomenal friend in the United States and can easily be strong and secure with that friendship alone. And second, because Israelis should have learned by now that no matter how many concessions they make to the Arabs, they will forever be rejected by the international community in favor of the Palestinians. Since that is the case, better to build your walls, protect your people, and proclaim your contempt for the world's amorality, just as Americans have.
Finally, there is the colossal discrepancy between how the United States and Israel have decided to deal with a terrorist insurgency. American soldiers are being attacked and killed in greater number in Iraq than even Israeli soldiers in Gaza. The pundits were convinced for this reason the American people would choose John Kerry's "wrong war" philosophy over George Bush's "no retreat" pledge. In the end, the American people decided they would not be pushed out of Iraq by a bunch of murderous thugs because that would only produce more murderous thugs.
But Sharon's withdrawal from Gaza under fire is sure to vastly increase terrorist pressure on Israel in every corner of its land. Any terrorist leader who sees the shrinking borders of Israel that began with the Camp David accords 25 years ago can only conclude that the once glorious goal of pushing Israel into the sea is slowly becoming a reality. Nobody wants to see Israeli soldiers die in Gaza, just as no one wants to see American soldiers die in Iraq.
But while the Americans understand that withdrawing the troops will lead to more American deaths at home, Sharon mistakenly believes that withdrawing the troops will lead to international acceptance of Israel's claim to most of the West Bank and partial pacification of the Palestinians. By retreating under fire, Ariel Sharon has proven himself to be the John Kerry of Israeli politics when what Israel really needs is its own George Bush.
From the earliest days of the American republic, the patriots who built this nation – devout Christians all – drew upon the biblical idea of a chosen nation as the inspiration behind the struggle against British tyranny. In the same way that ancient Israel was heralded by the prophets as "a light unto the Nations," American visionaries spoke in strongly spiritual terms of a country with a "manifest destiny" that was to serve as a refuge for the world's "teeming masses yearning to be free."
Yet, since its founding, Israel's leaders have totally missed the universality of Israel's chosenness to the rest of the world. Every week, hundreds of American Christians write to me about how much they love Israel and see in its founding the fulfillment of a biblical prophecy for the Jews to bring blessing to the world from their ancient homeland.
How ironic that while 70 million born-again Christians believe that with all their heart, the average secular Israeli would scoff at such a notion.
I have long since shared the conclusion... the Promised Land - where mankind would live in true freedom - is America.
lol grammer mistake. proofread next time. doh
Arguments that are not based in reality is the hallmark of liberals. I don't think we should engage in such folly.
Perfectly stated. Let the appeaseniks and terrorist-worshippers choke on their moral equivocation and their "nuanced" decadence and love of evil. They will certainly reap what they have so bitterly sown.
There is something about the way that is worded that just doesn't sound right.
While I like the sound of the United States being described as the chosen nation of God, at the same time I must admit to a certian amount of uncomfortableness with it.
We are a nation with so much promise. We have been blessed, but the reality is that our nature is changing.
Today we live in a nation that refuses to allow our children to pray to, or mention God in our schools. Moral relativism has become the cause celebre in our teaching institutions. Cities can't place a manger scene in the city square for fear of the devil's own ACLU Satyrs going on the attack. Our church attendence is abysmal, as a percentage of the populace. We experience a moral decline that sees the likes of Bill Clinton and John Kerry either elected or very close to it. We see all to many of our movies exported to foreign markets, that are not only devoid of moral values, but deliver some of the most twisted values known to man.
I believe that we have a grave responsibility to the God who has undeniably been a major part of this nation's history. I'm not sure that we are living up to the responsibility, and do not think that we are insured that we will remain God's chosen in perpetuity.
It has been my thought that the United States is the last and best chance for man to prove that wholesome self-determination is in fact possible on planet earth. Over the last decade, I have become convinced that man can't pull it off, and it's only a matter of time.
No country in which the murder of babies is legal is God's country.
Holy smokes!
Romans 11:25 For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.
Genesis 48:10 Now the eyes of Israel were dim for age, so that he could not see. And he brought them near unto him; and he kissed them, and embraced them...
Genesis 48:19 And his father refused, and said, I know it, my son, I know it: he also shall become a people, and he also shall be great: but truly his younger brother shall be greater than he, and his seed shall become a multitude of nations [fulness of the Gentiles].
mmm the original presidential seal was to be Moses crosing the Red Sea.. guess america is the new promised land.
Leviticus 20:1-3
1 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
2 Again, thou shalt say to the children of Israel, Whosoever he be of the children of Israel, or of the strangers that sojourn in Israel, that giveth any of his seed unto Molech; he shall surely be put to death: the people of the land shall stone him with stones.
3 And I will set my face against that man, and will cut him off from among his people; because he hath given of his seed unto Molech, to defile my sanctuary, and to profane my holy name.
***
Hosea 1:8-11
8 Now when she had weaned Loruhamah, she conceived, and bare a son.
9 Then said God, Call his name Loammi: for ye are not my people, and I will not be your God.
10 Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured nor numbered; and it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people, there it shall be said unto them, Ye are the sons of the living God.
11 Then shall the children of Judah and the children of Israel be gathered together, and appoint themselves one head, and they shall come up out of the land: for great shall be the day of Jezreel.
What ever gave you that hope? US is not Gods chosen folks.
The problem is the humanistic view that governs the Democratic party...even so called "christians" vote along with their secular buddies.
"Over the last decade, I have become convinced that man can't pull it off, and it's only a matter of time."
DoughtyOne, take heart and have hope. We all just gave a great big POKE in the EYE of the leftists; for 40, maybe 70, years the philosophy you state has been under assault. It is really only since 1973 (and Roe v. Wade) that the Right got really organized and energized and started to fight back. We've had some good victories, Bush's re-election is a big one. But it's going to be a long, hard, fight.
We must not give up, we must fight on. I'm sure you can provide your own Churchill paraphrase here, the guy had the attitude we need to maintain. Never give up.
We are not the Biblical chosen of God. That goes without saying. I do however believe that the United States has been blessed by God, and owes much of it's success to the high ideals it's founding fathers tried to impart into it's creation.
These men were not perfect by any means, but I believe they did try to create a framework that would give man as much chance as possible of avoiding the problems with prior governments the world had seen. I believe they did an excellent job, and the success of the nation reflects that.
I agree that we should do our best to avoid going down the road the leftist want us to. I will remain supportive of that.
My perception has been that 'in the last days', our nation will go down that road along with the rest of the world. In the end, we won't be able to stop it.
I'm not generally pesimistic over this, because I have always thought that this was necessary in the overall plan of God.
I believe that moral people should always stand by and defend moral stances.
"I believe that moral people should always stand by and defend moral stances."
That's the spirit : )
Thanks. Take care.
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