Posted on 10/25/2001 7:17:34 PM PDT by truthandlife
And I have also established my covenant with them, to give them the land of Canaan (Exodus 6:3-4).
Thus saith the Lord GOD; I will even gather you from the people, and assemble you out of the countries where ye have been scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel (Eze 11:17)
The Bush administration's shifting policy toward Israel, including support for a Palestinian State, should be of grave concern to every Bible-believing American. U.S. policy, which effectively opposes Israel's right to self-defense, is so thoroughly hypocritical, especially in light of the U.S. action in Afghanistan, that even Congressional Democrats who favor a Palestinian state are reacting to it. But far more important:
--God's covenant with the Jewish people regarding their inheritance of the land of Israel is one of the most frequently mentioned themes in Holy Scripture. God will keep His promises. American Christians must not stand idly by and allow our young-Christian President to be hoodwinked by advisors who do not know the Bible or the God of the Bible (see Gen 15:18; 17:8; 28:13-15; 35:1213; Dt 30:1-6; Jer 11:5; 30:3; 32:37-33:26; Eze 11:16-17; 20:41-44; 34:12-13; 36:22-24; 38:8; 39:25-28; 47:13-48:35; Amos 9:13-15; Zec 7:14; 8:1-8).
--God is watching. Although He lifted His Hand to allow the terrible attacks that have led to the present war, we believe His hand of protection has not been removed totally. But we also believe that if we abandon Israel, whether motivated by oil, military or political strategy or for our own nation's self preservation, it will be "the last straw" for America. God's hedge, upon which we depend, could be lifted from our beloved land altogether. God is Judge of all nations! (Ps 9:17; 82:1; Is 2:4a; Zec 2:7-13; 12:3; 14:3).
God warned Israel not to trust in horses or chariots but to trust in the Lord our God. America must do likewise and stand by Israel even if it means alienating many others. If we bend, in the long run, these nations will hate us still and we will have lost everything - including God's favor. Although the administration is vacillating and may appear to be shoring up its commitment to Israel, President Bush needs to hear from each of us. Please take time right away to write President Bush a letter from your own heart. A letter is better than a fax, a fax better than a phone call, a phone call better than an email. This simple act could be the most important of your life. (White House mail is being processed, albeit slowly, because of the anthrax attacks. But don't let this deter you from writing.)
Write: The White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., NW, Washington, DC 20500
Call or Fax: The White House Switchboard - 202-456-1414, Fax - 202-456-2461
Please Join us in Prevailing Prayer:
--Heavenly Father, SPEAK to our President! Cause men & women of God from across America & from around the world to make an EFFECTIVE APPEAL. May George Bush HEAR Your Voice, LEARN Your Word and DO Your Will. May the U.S. remain immovably loyal to Israel. In Jesus' Name. Amen (1 Kg 22:5, 13; 2 Kg 22:18-19; Es 4:14; Pr 21:1; Is 30:21; Mt 6:10; 1 Cor 15:58).
You are quoting OT scripture, written before the return from Babylonian captivity. You will find that in the NT book of Galatians, Christians [believers in Christ - the true seed of Abraham] are the heirs of the promises to Abraham. You must remember Paul's words in Romans that not "all Israel is of Israel."
An apology from me is not warranted and certainly not owed to you or the American people since I have said nothing derogatory against them. Moreover, since my courtesy to you has been unappreciated, I will no longer extend it to you.
I'm done with you.
IT'S MIND-BOGGLING! The Bible is not one book, but a library of 66 books written over a 1500-year period in 3 languages by 40 authors living in 10 different countries. The authors' works include history, mystery, romance, poetry, prose, and even humor! A cast of 2,930 characters are depicted in 1,551 places. How did this amazing collection ever come about?
God revealed Himself through His Hebrew prophets. The Jews reverenced the writings of the prophets and carefully preserved them. These sacred writings became the Scriptures of the first Christians. Christians recognized these Scriptures contained promises of the coming of Jesus. Inspired writings from the earliest church were later added to the Hebrew sacred books to make up a canon of Scripture.
The Greek word canon (quite different from the Latin cannon -- used in warfare!) meant a rule, measuring rod, or standard. By the fourth century the Christians conclusively recognized that there was a Christian canon - the collected writings which set forth the standards of Christian truth as first taught by the apostles. In part, this finalization of the Christian canon came about because of the rise of various heresies.
Internal Threat
The Gnostic heretic Marcion, about 140 A.D., was the first to make a list of what books he thought were repositories of the truth. Marcion believed the God of the Old Testament was evil, so he rejected the entire Old Testament! He only accepted parts of the gospel of Luke and ten of Paul's epistles as true. Surprisingly this false teacher was performing a valuable service. By listing the books he thought were evil and wrong, the church leaders were forced to carefully consider and confirm what Christian writings were true and authoritative.
Irenaeus, a church father writing about 180 A.D., and only two generations from the apostle John, attacked Marcion's Gnostic heresies. Irenaeus affirmed the Hebrew Scriptures, the Old Testament, as true because in them were the many prophecies fulfilled in Jesus Christ. He also used quotations of many of the New Testament writings to show the error of Marcion's teachings about the person and salvation work of Jesus Christ.
Throughout the second and third centuries the church fathers constantly quoted the early apostles and the gospels to explain Christian teaching to believers and to wage war against heretics. These Scriptures were a canon or rule to both measure truth and resist error; and the early church was in strong agreement as to which writings were sacred.
Scriptures Burned
In 303 the Roman Emperor Diocletian sponsored the last empire-wide persecution of the Christians. His edicts demanded that churches be destroyed and the scriptures burned. Some Christians themselves were burned because they refused to turn over their sacred books.
Soon after the Emperor Constantine proclaimed Christianity a legal religion in 324 A.D., he requested that Eusebius of Caesarea produce 50 copies of the Scriptures for use in the capital city of Constantinople. Of the many Christian writings available, Eusebius was to collect only the sacred ones and combine them into one volume (Some believe Codex Sinaiticus mentioned in Glimpses issue #55 was among these copies). This is the first reference to all the writings of the New Testament being brought into one book. Previous to this, the various writings of the New Testament were in separate scrolls or smaller collections of writings.
Final Confirmation
Two North African church councils, at Hippo Regius in 393 and at Carthage in 397, also accepted the 27 books listed by Athanasius as comprising the New Testament canon. However, neither Eusebius, nor Athanasius, nor the church councils established the canon of Scripture. As New Testament scholar F.F. Bruce explained: The New Testament books did not become authoritative for the church because they were formally included in canonical literature; on the contrary, the church included them in her canon because she already regarded them as divinely inspired. -http://www.gospelcom.net/chi/GLIMPSEF/Glimpses/glmps056.shtml
Men? Have you read much about the theory that the J writer was a woman? The theory is that she (J) was a woman living during the peaceful, plentiful, good times of David and Soloman (around 950 BCE) and was probably close to the Kings of that time, maybe a woman of the Court.
The theology of J is that God is close at hand, very near to us, and that the blessing we experience attest to that. J portrays God as one who has upmost mercy and the capacity to forgive. J's most obvious characteristic is her description of a human God. Her God gets on his hands and knees and digs in the dirt and forms Adam with his own loving hands. Imagine, God has hands! A loving, forgiving and humanlike God....sounds like a woman to me. What do you think?
Even though this book is supposed to be accurate, I've seen two versions of the old testaament. In one version it says "and god created man" and you turn the page and it says "and then God created man in his own image"(twice). Some of them just say the later. To me, the first (twice) explains the Neandertals.
Anyway, living under the threat of being in hell if I don't believe this is a bit of an oversell. My son will never have to wrestle with that choice.
Sorry for the miss-spelling, I'm the worlds worst, and no offence was intended.
God chose you the day he chose (Abram)Abraham. God made a covenant between Himself and Abraham's seed, and that is for all time. He then told Abram (Abraham) to leave his land (Ur of the Chaldees, which is in Mesopotamia,(Iraq), and go the land which God would show him.
In faith, Abram left Haran and went to the land that God promised him. Abram left the land of his birth, his relatives, his father's house, and set out for the land of Canaan.
And Abram took his wife Sarai and Lot his nephew, and all of their possessions, which they had accummulated. They also took the persons they acquired in Haran...Genesis 12:5.
And the Lord appeared to Abram and said, "To your descendants I will give this land." So he built an altar there to the Lord who had appeared to him.
This is the covenant found in Genesis 12:1-3,which chose Abram the father of Israel:
Now the Lord said to Abram (Abraham),
"Go forth from your country,
And from your relatives,
And from your father's house,
To the land which I will show you;
And I will make you a great nation,
And I will bless you,
And the one who curses you I will curse.
And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed."
And as a Gentile who is saved by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, I am also grafted in as a branch into the true vine of Israel (Romans 11). Therefore, I can never go against something I now belong to by adoption or the grafting in through Christ...I will never go against Israel.
And to answer sola gracia on whether the covenant is now null and void with Israel:
"I say then, that God has not rejected His people, has He? May it never be! For I too am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not rejected His people whom He foreknew. Or do you not know what the Scripture says in the passage about Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel?Romans 11:1-2
To gain the full text please read Romans 11. God never rejected His chosen people, By their transgression salvation has come to the Gentiles, to make them jealous, Romans 11:11.
God has not broken or ended any covenant with Israel.
Joel 3
1. For, behold, in those days, and in that time, when I shall bring again the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem,
2. I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land.
Joel 3
6. The children also of Judah and the children of Jerusalem have ye sold unto the Grecians, that ye might remove them far from their border.
7. Behold, I will raise them out of the place whither ye have sold them, and will return your recompence upon your own head:
8. And I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hand of the children of Judah, and they shall sell them to the Sabeans, to a people far off: for the Lord hath spoken it.
9. Proclaim ye this among the Gentiles; prepare war, wake up the mighty men, let all the men of war draw near; let them come up:
10. Beat your plowshares into swords and your pruninghooks into spears: let the weak say, I am strong.
11. Assemble yourselves, and come, all ye heathen, and gather yourselves together round about: thither cause thy mighty ones to come down, O Lord.
12. Let the heathen be wakened, and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat: for there will I sit to judge all the heathen round about.
13. Put ye in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe: come, get you down; for the press is full, the fats overflow; for their wickedness is great.
14. Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision: for the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision.
15. The sun and the moon shall be darkened, and the stars shall withdraw their shining.
16. The Lord also shall roar out of Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem; and the heavens and the earth shall shake: but the Lord will be the hope of his people, and the strength of the children of Israel.
17. So shall ye know that I am the Lord your God dwelling in Zion, my holy mountain: then shall Jerusalem be holy, and there shall no strangers pass through her any more. 18. And it shall come to pass in that day, that the
mountains shall drop down new wine, and the hills shall flow with milk, and all the rivers of Judah shall flow with waters, and a fountain shall come forth of the house of the Lord, and shall water the valley of Shittim.
19. Egypt shall be a desolation, and Edom shall be a desolate wilderness, for the violence against the children of Judah, because they have shed innocent blood in their land.
20. But Judah shall dwell for ever, and Jerusalem from generation to generation.
21. For I will cleanse their blood that I have not cleansed: for the Lord dwelleth in Zion
The obvious is that you are a hypocrite, because you pal around with 16th Century religious fanatics who hate Jews for killing the Nazarene while posing as a rationalist freethinker when a religious fanatic supports the Jews.
Go spew your atheism on a Communist forum where it belongs.
Thank you for your kind words. However, like many others, you are mistaken regarding the "choice".
"There were ten generations from Noah to Abraham to make known the patience of G-D, until Abraham our father came and received the reward they all should have earned." Pirke Avoth.
We believe that HaShem loves all His children - there is no choice on His part. The choice was Abraham's who, after he chose, received the Covenent. The choice is yours and mine and all others. Sadly, as demonstrated on this thread, some choose another path and others choose to misinterpret. How different are they?
None of those other people are the subject of the Bible.
Sheesh. How many "conservative" Bible-hating atheists are there in the world?
I beg your pardon. The Palestine Liberation Organization was and is a Communist organization, and it was they to whom I was specifically referring. Even the John Birch Society said it was run as a bureau of the KGB.
And once again, you Israel-haters ignore the fact that you supported alienating other Third Worlders (Blacks in souther Africa, for example) and only make excuses for Arab Communists because you think they are unwittingly getting rid of Communism for you by killing Jews.
I'm not wasting bandwidth on him or his accusations. Why should you? He obviously is not interested in exchanging ideas, he has his preconceived notions, and perhaps he believes he has justification for them. However, no amount of discussion will change his opinions.
That’s nonsense. Everyone who believes in the terms of the New Testament are the subject of the Bible. If you believe only in the Old Testament, then that’s your business.
Here, see this.......
John 10
15 As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down my life for the sheep.
16 And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd.
17 Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again.
If you don’t believe this, then that is your business. My “homeland” is the United States of America.
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