Posted on 08/07/2006 6:18:10 AM PDT by topcat54
David Brog has written Standing with Israel: Why Christians Support the Jewish State. The ten reviews I read on Amazon were quite favorable, and it is being advertised on WorldNetDaily. The fact that the Foreword was written by John Hagee, author of Jerusalem Countdown, From Daniel to Doomsday, Beginning of the End, and Final Dawn over Jerusalem, is a clear indication that the book’s thesis fits with the modern-day prophetic system known as dispensational premillennialism. I doubt that the book covers what this article reveals.
In my debate with Tommy Ice at American Vision’s Worldview Super Conference (May 26, 2006), Ice pointed out that one of the unique features of the dispensational system is that near the end of a future, post-rapture, seven-year tribulation period, Israel will be rescued by God. After nearly 2000 years of delayed promises, God will once again come to the rescue of His favored nation. Ice and other dispensationalists imply by this doctrine that they are Israel’s best friend, and anyone who does not adopt their way of interpreting the Bible is either anti-Semitic (Hal Lindsey) or a methodological naturalist (Tommy Ice).
In the debate, I wanted Tommy to explain how a belief in Israel’s glorious future results in the slaughter of two-thirds of the Jews living at the time the Great Tribulation nears the end of its seven-year run. I quoted the following dispensational writers to show that there is no glorious future for “all Jews who are under siege,” to use Tommy’s words, in the dispensational version of the Great Tribulation.
There are geopolitical implications to the dispensational system that some people have picked up on.
Dispensational theology as it relates to Israel is alarming to some Jewish leaders as well. Rabbi David Saperstein, director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, asks, “To what extent will a theological view that calls for Armageddon in the Middle East lead [evangelicals] to support policies that may move in that direction, rather than toward stability and peaceful coexistence?”(2) The most probable scenario is that prophetic futurists will sit back and do nothing as they see Israel go up in smoke since the Bible predicts an inevitable holocaust. It is time to recognize that these so-called end-time biblical prophecies have been fulfilled, and Zechariah 13:7–9 is certainly one of them. Those Jews living in Judea prior to the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70 and who fled before the assault on the temple were saved (Matt. 24:15–22).Convinced that a nuclear Armageddon is an inevitable event within the divine scheme of things, many evangelical dispensationalists have committed themselves to a course for Israel that, by their own admission, will lead directly to a holocaust indescribably more savage and widespread than any vision of carnage that could have generated in Adolf Hitler’s criminal mind.(1)
1. Grace Halsell, Prophecy and Politics: Militant Evangelists on the Road to Nuclear War (Westport, CT: Lawrence Hill & Co., 1986), 195.
2. Quoted in Jeffery L. Sheler, “Odd Bedfellows,” U.S. News & World Report (August 12, 2002), 35.
Gary DeMar is president of American Vision and the author of more than 20 books. His latest is Myths, Lies, and Half Truths.
Permission to reprint granted by American Vision P.O. Box 220, Powder Springs, GA 30127, 800-628-9460.
I just love that don't you? That is a day I long to see.
And those who do long to see that day, will receive a crown at the Judgement seat of Christ (2Tim.4:8)
Paul was a Jew racially, but he rejected that part of the culture that was non-Biblical.
He was a new creature in Christ and as he grew he put away the old things.
He was born a Jew, but was born again, a Christian.
Arabs and Jews are half-brothers, coming from the same father, Abraham.
The difference is in the mother, Hagar or Sarah.(Gal.4)
A Christian is not a Jew.
He is only considered a 'Jew' in that he shares the same faith that Abraham had (Rom.4,9:30-32)
And how long have the Chinese Communists been in power?
How long has Castro been in power?
The wicked do prosper, but their time is limited (Ps.73)
Only the Second Coming itself (or is it the Third Coming, since the Rapture is pretrib?) is powerful enough to intervene and stop humankind from doing what they first tried at the Tower of Babel.
And what stopped them at the Tower of Babel?
God coming down and confusing their language.
What stopped mankind before that?
The Flood.
It would seem that man's corruption takes drastic action on the part of God.
Christ's church, of which it's said "the Gates of Hell will not prevail against it", was apparently sent to the wrong front to fight.
The Church was never meant to change the world, but to get people saved and living apart from it (James 4:4).
The gates of hell will not prevail against the church since she is removed before all hell breaks out.
And the Second advent is in two parts, the first where Christ comes in secret and snatches His church and the second part, when He retakes His Kingdom (Rev.11).
But according to the Post-Millennialist the world is really getting better and better!
Their eschatology is like the Soviet five year plans, always promising that things will improve.
What "ancestral" land? The land as described by Moses? The ancestral land during the time of David? The ancestral land during the time of Solomon? Are you referring to the ancestral land of the 10 northern tribes called Israel or the ancestral land of the southern tribe which encompassed Jerusalem, which was called Judah? The land as pictured by Ezekial?
Trying to determine what precisely is the "ancestral" land becomes a murky issue. In any case, Israel is not occupying any of these but has a different set of boundries.
We are nit-picking.
You do admit, though, don't you, that AFTER Paul became a Christian that he went through Temple rituals and participated in Temple worship. (Acts 21?)
There was nothing about Judaism that was off-limits to Jews. The Jerusalem Jewish Christians were obviously still involved in worshipping in the Temple. Likewise, in the millennial kingdom Temple worship will be a part of the lives of Jews in Jerusalem.
What land? You can't be serious.
You are simply nitpicking.
Where is Jerusalem, Golgotha, Galilee, Samaria, etc.?
We aren't talking about a theologian with a GPS and a surveyor's tripod, HD. We're talking about Jews in Israel. Who do you think is attacking Hezbollah after rocket attacks on Haifa and other Israeli cities?
I understand completely what Paul is saying about the Jews and anyone who has ever known any true Jew who has become a Christian understand it as well. The richness and beauty of their heritage is a very special thing given to our "Jewish" Christian brethren. Those Jews who have accepted Jesus as the Messiah understand the richness of the Jewish ceremonies and rituals in a way that we Gentiles can never fully understand or appreciate it. To them were given all the grandeur of God's law and because of their heritage, they are allow to see into things the rest of the world can't.
But without Christ they are lost in darkness. The rituals and ceremonies become distortions of reality, and the Torah a rulebook. There are no promises for those without Christ except the promise of everlasting hell and eternal damnation. If this does not sound politically correct these days then so be it. I would much sooner our Jewish friends understand this true and come to the saving knowledge of Christ; sharing in that divine heritage God has given them.
Paul was told by God not to go to Jerusalem and he spent two years in jail for disobeying God. (Acts 22:18-23)
The point is, there is no reason for any saved Jew to be following Jewish customs.
God lost someone?
Christ came to save the lost, and He came first for the lost sheep of Israel.
Let's assume for a moment Israel means Jews in the "Holy Lands". How do you determine whether God has assembled them there based upon promises He made 6,000 years ago or according to His divine wisdom for purposes that we do not know? It's totally impossible.
Let's also assume that three years from now Israel and the surrounding Arab nations are completely dissolved based upon some UN resolution into an "international" state. Would you be opposed to that? I would suspect most Pre-mil would simply because they would see their theology melting right before their eyes. Their politics are colored by their theology-trying to make things turn out the way they think it should and not according to God's will.
It is hard to say why God has raised up Israel for this time. It could very easily be that we are heading for the end times. However, to say they were raised up because God is blessing them is hogwash. God raised up many nations simply to enact His divine purpose.
Luk 19:10 For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.
The Holy Spirit told Paul through Agabus what would happen when he went to Jerusalem. Prior to this other Christians on his journey were also made aware by the Spirit what would happen. THEY urged Paul not to go. That is not the same as God telling Paul not to go.
I've always assumed that Paul was closer to the Lord's intent than these others. This MUST BE because Paul says to Agrippa, "21 That is why the Jews seized me in the temple courts and tried to kill me. 22 But I have had God's help to this very day, and so I stand here and testify to small and great alike."
He also says to those aboard ship on the way to Rome: 23 Last night an angel of the God whose I am and whom I serve stood beside me 24 and said, 'Do not be afraid, Paul. You MUST stand trial before Caesar;
Harley, you entirely miss the point.
The point is that at this time, in that place, that the Jews are there in Israel.
That fact should AT LEAST cause someone to ponder. If there are lines of theology that include Israel being in their land, then they, too, should be reflected upon.
All kinds of things could happen: an asteroid could land smack dab atop of Israel and blow it out of existence. In the meantime, however, the current fact, the real fact, the indisputable fact of their being there cannot be denied.
Lots of folks who hold to a "literalist", futurist view of the second coming are reluctant to appreciate that many non-futurists believe in a visible second coming.
On DeMar's web page he says simply in the statement of faith that, "Christ will return personally and bodily to consummate His kingdom."
There is no religious reason for a saved Jewish person to be keeping the old covenant rituals. They are free to observe certain customs for social reasons, e.g., the eating of certain foods, but those customs have no religious significance under the new covenant for either Jews or gentiles.
They also need to be careful to appreciate that certain customs cannot be kept in the fashion of the old covenant in any appropriate form, e.g., the sacrifice of animals for the "remission" of sin. This poits out one obvious difficulty with trying to observe the old covenant feats days. They were all intimately tied to the temple sacrifices, and once the temple was destroyed and the sacrifices ended, the feast could not be properly conducted. The Jewish feast customs today (Passover, etc) are based on post-exile rabbinic traditions. Jewish believers should be very wary about following such traditions and customs.
It was God's intention for Paul to go to Rome, but not in chains!
God warned Paul not to go to Jerusalem by the prophet as you stated above.
Amen. Paul calls them 'weak and beggarly elements' (Gal.4:9)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.