A good article from Israel Watch, a weekly commentary by Jim Fletcher.
This week his commentary addresses the churches stance on Israel.
Unfortunately, we are not all on the same path or with one voice for Israel…
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Increasingly, I feel ill winds blowing for Israel. On all fronts, the Jewish state is threatened, and most of them we expect. The PLO, foreign diplomats, various terrorist groups worldwide, dictators like Hugo Chavez…these are the obvious villains. They deserve the label.
Yet the threat that bothers me most is the one from the Church. The subject itself is controversial, and even diabolical in that many of those who “oppose Joshua” today would deny that they do!
I was visiting recently with a person I’ve known quite some time, a solid Christian. This person said that I had painted a bull’s eye on my back, due to my support for Israel. This person hinted that I had dragged others close to me into this. I didn’t appreciate that. Five minutes before this conversation, I would have said this person would be with me in a foxhole.
Not sure of that now.
A day later, a friend emailed and said he’d attended a conference in which an apologist for the Christian faith had claimed that eschatology and “end-times” was a “side issue.” By extension, of course, this opens up the mind to the idea that the Jews are no longer significant to God. This is not a stretch, by the way; millions of Christians have bought into Replacement Theology, and efforts to undermine Israel and the Jews take many forms.
Replacement Theology makes strange bedfellows. Arabs who loathe the West can link arms with those useful idiots from the West, from the Church. Those who call themselves evangelical pastors/leaders are increasingly willing to adopt the long-time mainline stance that Israel is the obstacle to peace in the Middle East, and Utopia for the world at large.
(By the way, I was visiting with Noah Hutchings at Southwest Radio Church recently and he kindly gave me a copy of his latest book, 40 Irrefutable Signs of the Last Generation. Boy, he doesn’t hesitate to call it like he sees it; I suppose age gives one the perspective that one might as well tell it like it is. See also Pat Boone’s recent column about Barack Obama: www.wnd.com/index.php?pageId=193897.)
It’s too bad more nationally known Christian leaders won’t challenge the rising Replacement Theology in the American Church. The efforts to marginalize the Jews, Israel, and their Christian supporters boggle the mind.
One of the problems with Bible prophecy teaching today—and by extension, a focus on Israel—is that prophecy teachers to some degree are no longer credible. Part of that is their fault, much of it isn’t (such as the sneering efforts by people like Brian McLaren to categorize prophecy teachers and students as mean-spirited and off-base theologically.
On the other hand, too many prophecy teachers have gone off on tangents and either set dates for the return of Jesus Christ, or came very, very close to setting a date. Such dates—which we all know have come and gone—causes more people to pay less attention.
Which is ironic, since the signs are gargantuan that we are living in what the Bible describes as the last days. If one stays with the issue of Israel, and the marvelous predictive prophecy associated with the miracle that is the modern Jewish state, more people would be paying attention to where we are at in history.
That’s the thing: focus on the re-establishment of Israel and the wonderful promises to the Jews that the Lord has kept, is keeping, and will keep…and people from all walks of life will begin to pay attention and consider that the Bible might be true after all, and the ultimate guide for life, rather than a dusty, outdated book in the corner.
For example, one has only to look at a photo this week of five men at the White House meeting together: Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu; America’s Barack Obama; Jordan’s King Abdullah; the PLO’s Mahmoud Abbas; and Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak…to understand that Israel is being squeezed diplomatically. Each of the other four men has utter contempt for Israel; this kind of pressure is the lead-up to the final war coming to Israel, as predicted in the books of the prophets.
How anyone can say that the clear signs of the Lord’s return, including the astonishing signpost of Israel, is a “side issue” is hard to fathom.
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