Modern Israel’s Wars Are Not the Faithful Christian’s Wars
What do Korah, Dathan, Abiram, Achan the son of Carmi, Abimelech the son of Gideon, the sons of Eli the priest, Absalom the son of David, Jeroboam the son of Nebat, Ahab the husband of Jezebel, the elders of Israel who opposed Jeremiah the prophet, and the leaders of Israel who delivered Jesus to be crucified all have in common? Many of them died in special acts of God’s vengeance. They were all certainly especially wicked in God’s sight. Most or all of them would have professed that they loved God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and would have said that they were on His side and in His grace while they lived (though God testified otherwise concerning all of these and of many others like them). And they were all natural Israelites.
The seed of the women, the Messiah who was promised to crush the serpent’s head and offer redemption to mankind, has come forth through the ancient nation of Israel, not the modern one. The foundations of the Messiah’s people are those of ancient Israel who received Him and followed Him faithfully. The nation of Israel itself rejected its Messiah. The nation was destroyed by the Romans after the Messiah came and the division concerning Him had been made (the leadership and the majority of the nation rejected Him). The Jews themselves were divided regarding the reception of Jesus Christ as the promised Messiah (or Christ, meaning the Lord’s anointed- and even though a Jew is technically a descendant of the tribe of Judah; it had come to be a reference to all natural Israelites by Jesus’ time- even well before that really).
Jesus Himself said in Luke 12:51-53: “Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you, Nay (no); but rather division: For from henceforth there shall be five in one house divided, three against two, and two against three. The father shall be divided against the son, and the son against the father; the mother against the daughter, and the daughter against the mother; the mother in law against her daughter in law, and the daughter in law against her mother in law.”
So as God had raised up the nation of Israel through the seed of Abraham to bring forth His promise of redemption through His Messiah, His Messiah’s people continued on through the faithful of that nation who received Him (remember John the Baptist calling Israel to repentance so that the Israelites would be ready to receive the Messiah). God had warned that the land on which that nation was built would be smitten and judged by Him if the nation as a whole rejected its Messiah. The Hebrew Scriptures, aka the Old Testament, end with a direct warning concerning this.
Malachi 4:4-6: “Remember ye the law of Moses my servant, which I commanded unto him in Horeb (Sinai) for all Israel, with the statutes and judgments. Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet (whom John the Baptist came in the spirit and power of- Luke 1:17) before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord: And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse (this is primarily a reference to Israel’s need to turn to be in agreement at heart with their faithful forefathers- especially Abraham whose circumcision in his flesh only had significance because he was circumcised at heart; he was thus circumcised in the flesh at God’s command because he had an authentic living faith).”
Remember Scriptures like Jeremiah 9:25-26 along the same lines: “Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will punish all them which are circumcised with the uncircumcised; Egypt, and Judah, and Edom, and the children of Ammon, and Moab, and all that are in the utmost corners, that dwell in the wilderness: for all these nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in the heart.”
God then punished Israel as a whole after its rejection of Christ and brought an end to the Jewish nation through the Romans. The spiritual Israel which was built upon faithful Israelites who heeded the Jewish Scriptures (which testify of Jesus Christ) continued on, and yet continues on. The people who are born again through a living faith in the King and the Savior of mankind which was promised to come through the seed of the woman in Genesis chapter three is the remnant from ancient Israel in accordance with its God-ordained function. And it is these which the serpent is at war with.
Revelation 12:17: “And the dragon was wroth (very angry) with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.”
This has nothing to do with modern Israel except that the nation itself is an instrument of Satan at least as much as any other nation is. The modern nation of Israel is bitterly at enmity with Jesus Christ and His people.
The nation of modern Israel has been founded by people who are both the natural and spiritual descendants of the people of the wicked Israelites who were mentioned at the very beginning of this message. With all the reporting on the terrorism by Hamas (which we do not condone but which the mainstream media has also exaggerated and has even been caught red-handed already in doing so), what you are not likely to hear is that the nation of (modern) Israel was founded by the terrorism of the Jewish people upon the Arabs who had come to lawfully inhabit that land. These people were for the most part violently killed, driven from their homes, and displaced because they stood in the way of what the Jews wanted.
Rather than crying out to God in repentance for dealing treacherously against Him by rejecting His Son who is the glory of (ancient) Israel, and whose bringing forth was ultimately the only reason why the Jews were ever raised up and exalted as a people by God, the natural Jews rather increased their sin by dealing treacherously with their fellow man, thinking they were privileged to do so because they are Jewish (God rebuked Israel over and over for this throughout the Bible, even often right in the Hebrew Scriptures).
Even though many Arabs have sinned much in this conflict too, and we should never condone sin who does it, the Jews have been the greater offenders by miles as they have been the instigators, the originators of the terrorism (even terrorizing the British who took care of Palestine after the Ottoman Empire fell), and they are the ones who have violently stolen land and have oppressed those whom they have stolen from (not just in 1948, but also as a general pattern since in which they have generally gained more land, pushed the Palestinians into smaller areas, and exercised increased oppression upon them).
Consider that undeniable pattern and how a ground invasion of Gaza, and its likely consequences, would only be a continuation of that pattern. And that is why I think it would be naive to believe that this recent border breach by Hamas was a mistake by the IDF and not rather a plan to allow a little terrorism by Hamas in order to give Israel a pretext to go into Gaza and gain further territory from the Palestinians and exercise greater oppressive control over them. Anyone can see that this has already been the proven pattern over the past 75 years.
Someone recently asked me what the IDF should do now. I responded that they should punish those responsible for the breach at the border which led to this attack. If they can find any of the Hamas terrorists within their current borders they should punish them too. They should certainly not punish the common citizens of Gaza like they are doing. Better yet, the IDF soldiers and the Israelis should protest Israel’s very existence and insist that Israel restore the land which they stole from the Arabs back in 1948. They should certainly not bomb Gaza like they are doing now nor should they do a ground invasion of it like they are currently planning. They also know very well that this will not do much, if anything at all, against Hamas. Many of its members, and multitudes of its sympathizers, are not in Gaza now anyways and Israel knows that.
Don’t think then that siding with modern Israel is siding with God. Christians should be against all terrorism (all violence and intimidation of civilians for political ends). And since that is so, a nation like modern Israel which was literally founded upon terrorism should be an object of reproach and moral repugnance to anyone who would be on the Lord’s side and have their hands and hearts pure from all evil. The fact that modern evangelical Christianity has largely sided with modern Israel is a disgrace. This has been a terrible witness to the Arab world (and the world as a whole) and a great wrong towards the Palestinians. And it has also been a great disservice to the Jews themselves. To make them think that they are in covenant with God in their rejection of Jesus Christ and their manifold sins (and they have surely proven that these do indeed go hand in hand- see John 3:18-21), this is not love for the Jewish people.
And though they are not in covenant with God, to say that God yet has dealings with the Jewish nation is another matter. And by the testimony of Scripture itself we can be sure that any dealings which God might yet have with modern Israel, and with the Jewish people as a whole, would very much involve teaching them that they don’t have the right to steal from others and oppress others because they are Jewish. God is surely no respecter of persons. Consider then how you are actually opposing God and falsely testifying that He is a respecter of persons when you say the Jews have an unconditional right to the land that they have stolen from the Arabs and you help them in matters related to this endeavor. And that is even more the case since God Himself also testified that He would drive the Jews out of that same land for their rejection of Jesus Christ and that His wrath would especially be upon them in their rejection of Him.
John 3:35-36: “The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into his hand. He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not (obeys not) the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.”
Matthew 12:43-45: “When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest, and findeth none. Then he saith, I will return into my house from whence I came out; and when he is come, he findeth it empty, swept, and garnished. Then goeth he, and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first. Even so shall it be also unto this wicked generation.”
And “so it shall be also unto this wicked generation” was especially spoken regarding the Jewish people as a whole in their rejection of their Messiah (the preceding verses to the ones just looked at were especially a rebuke to Israel for not repenting and heeding Jesus Christ though He was right in their midst).
1 Thessalonians 2:13-16 (the Apostle Paul writing to the Thessalonian Christians): “For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe. For ye, brethren, became followers of the churches of God which in Judaea are in Christ Jesus: for ye also have suffered like things of your own countrymen, even as they have of the Jews: Who both killed the Lord Jesus, and their own prophets, and have persecuted us; and they please not God, and are contrary to all men: Forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they might be saved, to fill up their sins alway: for the wrath is come upon them to the uttermost.”
Don’t let people make you think that quoting verses like that is antisemitism. That’s the Word of God. And it was written by a Jewish follower of Jesus Christ.
Matthew 22:1-7: “And Jesus answered and spoke unto them again by parables, and said, The kingdom of heaven is like unto a certain king, which made a marriage for his son, And sent forth his servants to call them that were bidden to the wedding: and they would not come. Again, he sent forth other servants, saying, Tell them which are bidden, Behold, I have prepared my dinner: my oxen and my fatlings are killed, and all things are ready: come unto the marriage. But they made light of it, and went their ways, one to his farm, another to his merchandise: And the remnant took his servants, and entreated them spitefully, and slew them. But when the king heard thereof, he was wroth: and he sent forth his armies, and destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city.”
This was specifically spoken to the Jews; and this judgment already happened through the Romans in the late first century (and continued into the second century AD).
The very return of the Jews to that land in the manner in which it happened was in itself an act of defiance against Jesus Christ and a provocation of the God of the Hebrew Scriptures whom they profess to worship yet their heart is far from.
If you are truthfully morally disgusted by modern Israel, then the very best response (and the right thing to do anyways) is to choose to love and follow Jesus Christ and keep His Word unto blood as necessary. If you want to support terrorism and illegal immigration, then there is no better way to do that than to support modern Israel which epitomizes terrorism and illegal immigration at its very roots. If you want to be killed for preaching Jesus Christ, your best bet is probably to go to a country which is near 100 percent Muslim, where the Government is also greatly opposed to Jesus Christ, and also sees no need to even put on a show of tolerance of other religions. But if you want to experience the most pure hatred and the utmost scorn (and who knows, maybe even die too) go preach Jesus Christ among the Jews in Jerusalem and in the illegal Jewish settlements.
Look at God’s verdict about Jerusalem in its rejection of Jesus Christ, a place where there will yet be faithful Christians killed by the Jews for faithfully testifying of Jesus Christ and against the manifold sins of the modern Jews.
Revelation 11:8: “And their dead bodies (this is referring to faithful witnesses to yet testify in Jerusalem) shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified.
If you want to be aligned with a spiritual Sodom and Egypt, then support modern Israel. If you want to do what is right before God, condemn all terrorism, insist criminals be brought to justice- that murderers be put to death, that thieves be punished and restore what they stole, and insist that the punishment of criminals not affect those who are innocent in the matters at hand. If that should happen, Israel will be reduced to a fraction of what it is now if it remains at all, the Palestinians will be freed from their control, and Islamic terrorism and Islam itself will be stripped of their greatest impetus. It is common knowledge that Hamas was formed as a response to Israel’s oppression. The Palestinians were not extremely Islamic when their calamity at the hands of the Jews occurred in 1948 (they call it the “Nakba” or the calamity or disaster- it’s an Arabic word); and even in the late 1980s when Hamas formed it had very little support from the common Palestinian. Jewish power has given impetus for the thriving of Islam and Islamic terrorism.
Don’t foolishly think that you are siding with God by siding with Israel. And also don’t think that you are siding with Islam by seeking Palestine’s freedom from their Jewish oppressors and occupiers. It is truly pathetic that the USA has sent over $150 billion dollars to Israel (and that is just what has officially changed hands and it is not adjusted for inflation).
Some say that being opposed to Zionism aligns one with wickedness on the Left since the political left is generally much more opposed to Zionism than the political right is. Yet a broken clock is right twice a day. To be a faithful, honest judge you must judge the broken clock to be right and agree with it for 2 minutes of the day while disagreeing with it the other 1,438 minutes. There are some who would be against Israel no matter what they do, yet these are no worse than those who support Israel no matter what evils they do. Opposing Zionism does not, and should not, mean being opposed to Jews on a personal level nor justifying evil perpetrated against Jews. We should not have partiality. Not having partiality means opposing Zionism and standing up in a lawful manner for those whom the Zionists have oppressed.
The Left’s general hatred for Israel seems to be related to how Communist Russia turned against Israel in the late 1960s even though Communist Russia was the first nation to legally recognize Israel in 1948. The Leftist scholarship which recent generations have produced has molded a specific, systematic worldview. The norm for those who have embraced Leftist ideology has been to adopt this package in totality. This package has come to be the socially accepted norm in certain segments of society where Leftism has gained a foothold- especially college campuses. We need to do our own thinking and let the principles of the Word of God and facts (as much as available evidence reveals things to indeed be facts) mold our worldview and our way of thinking. Otherwise, we will call evil good; and call good, evil. Those who are molded by an ism, any ism, will fall prey to lies, side with evil, not do the good which they ought to do, and be enemies of God.
Some will cite Psalm 122 which talks about praying for the peace of Jerusalem to justify support of modern Israel. Yet praying for the peace of Jerusalem in this Psalm is connected to the house of the Lord in Jerusalem. God rejected Jerusalem in AD 70, His house is no longer there, and Jerusalem is no longer the center of His worship. It’s good to pray for any and every city, but the circumstances related to the call to especially pray for Jerusalem in Psalm 122 do not exist now. Regarding Jerusalem in its present spiritual state, we have an appropriate rebuke in Isaiah 57:20-21: “But the wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt. There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked.”
Being a physical descendant of Abraham never put one in God’s grace. This was proven with Abraham’s son Ishmael. It was also proven with Abraham’s grandson Esau. Being his natural descendant through Isaac and Jacob (that is, a natural Israelite) also never put a person in God’s grace. This was a key point in the things which Paul was explaining concerning Israel as a people group in Romans chapter nine.
Romans 9:6-8: “Not as though the word of God hath taken none effect. For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel: Neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children: but, In Isaac shall thy seed be called. That is, They which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted for the seed.”
Directly related to this, we read (in John 8:34-47) of an interaction between Jesus and some of His Jewish naysayers in Jerusalem: “Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin. And the servant abideth not in the house for ever: but the Son abideth ever. If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed. I know that ye are Abraham’s (natural) seed; but ye seek to kill me, because my word hath no place in you. I speak that which I have seen with my Father: and ye do that which ye have seen with your father. They answered and said unto him, Abraham is our father. Jesus saith unto them, If ye were Abraham’s children (spiritually), ye would do the works of Abraham. But now ye seek to kill me, a man that hath told you the truth, which I have heard of God: this did not Abraham. Ye do the deeds of your father. Then said they to him, We be not born of fornication; we have one Father, even God. Jesus said unto them, If God were your Father, ye would love me: for I proceeded forth and came from God; neither came I of myself, but he sent me. Why do ye not understand my speech? even because ye cannot hear my word. Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it. And because I tell you the truth, ye believe me not. Which of you convinceth me of sin? And if I say the truth, why do ye not believe me? He that is of God heareth God’s words: ye therefore hear them not, because ye are not of God.”
We read of how great this opposition was to Jesus among the Jews even before He was crucified and rose again in John 9:22b: “for the Jews had agreed already, that if any man did confess that he was Christ, he should be put out of the synagogue.”
We have other messages dealing with modern Israel and rebuking Christian support for Zionism such as “Why Christians Must Oppose Zionism”, “Are Jews More Important to God than Gentiles?” “Why We Shouldn’t Fellowship with Those Who Support Zionism”, “Lessons from the Destruction of Israel’s Temples” as well as concise and expanded studies on both the true Israel and on modern Israel.
If you really don’t know how God continuously rebuked Israel throughout the Bible, even in the Hebrew Scriptures before Jesus ever came in the flesh, then study the Bible. To identify with modern Israel and to think it is God’s special nation, or to even justify it in the theft and murder which is at the foundation of its existence, is grave error which could cost you your soul.
Proverbs 17:15: “He that justifieth the wicked, and he that condemneth the just, even they both are abomination to the Lord.”
Those who say that natural Jews who reject Jesus Christ are God’s chosen people in covenant with Him justify the wicked. To reject Jesus Christ, the rightful King of mankind, and say “we will not have this man to reign over us” is to continually condemn the just.
Aaron’s email is: [email protected]
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