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Tuesday, September 25, 2012

What Should Be Our Foreign Policy Regarding Israel? (Part 1)


John Hagee wrote: “CUFI [Christians United For Israel] is the largest pro-Israel organization in the country and among the largest Christian grassroots movements in the U.S.  Support for Israel is not just an issue for Christians; it is our primary foreign policy focus.” 

To disagree with Hagee would invite his response that the Bible is a Zionist document and any idea to the contrary would incur the curse of God.   According to the Scriptures and the very Jewish follower of Jesus Christ, Peter,  there is but one foreign policy for the state of Israel and it is this: Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” (Acts 2:38, ESV). 

So-called Christian Zionism is neither Christian nor pro-Israel.  It is an obliteration of Scripture.  The promotion of such an aberrant form of Dispensational Theology will neither bring about peace nor serve the underlying need of all Jews.

Let me be clear about my stance on this issue:  To assume that the current ethnic nation of Israel represents God’s people is not only a gross misrepresentation of Scripture, but is also racist to the core.   So where do I get this?   Let’s start with Paul’s letter to Galatia.   Notice in Galatians 6:15–16 (ESV),

15 For neither circumcision counts for anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation. 16 And as for all who walk by this rule, peace and mercy be upon them, and upon the Israel of God.

Now when I turn to a highly Dispensational commentator[1] this is what he says:

“Israel of God is in contrast to Israel after the flesh. Those who received the Saviour who came through Israel are true Israelites, spiritual descendants of Abraham.”[2]

Who is a real Israelite?   A true Israelite is not a Jew according to the flesh but one who has experienced the New Birth.   This gives the correct interpretation of this commonly misapplied verse:

There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.” (Galatians 3:28–29, ESV)

No, to be part of God’s chosen people, the true Israel of God is to be born of the Spirit and cleansed by the blood of the Lamb because the Scripture bears witness to the truth that “. . . not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel,” (Romans 9:6, ESV).

The Church’s foreign policy to the nation Israel is to love ethnic Jews and tell them that unless they repent they will die in their sins and spend eternity separated from God in the Lake of Fire (as will every Palestinian, Canadian, American, etc.).

The Bible does not sanctimoniously guard the boundaries of the nation of Israel, nor does it guarantee its success or prosperity; and neither does it absolve it of moral and military crimes.  And what I have just said about Israel applies to Canada, Britain, Palestine, Syria, and the United States of America. 



[1] I do this purposely. I do not hold to a Dispensational interpretation of Scripture.  So to block the rebuttal that I disagree with Hagee because of my non-dispensational hermeneutic, I quote a credible Dispensational commentator.
[2] KJV Bible Commentary. 1994 (E. E. Hindson & W. M. Kroll, Ed.) (2402). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.

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