My view of the Jews
***Again, this post is a work in progress, I’m posting it now for any initial feedback & to think it over as I go***
As a Reformed Baptist much of my theology comes from the Protestant Reformers, which I believe to be a faithful rendition of what is actually contained in the Word of God.
However, the Reformers weren’t always right. This can be seen in the book pictured above by Martin Luther.
Abraham was given the land of Israel as early as the book of Genesis, which entitles them to that land forever. Since the God of the Old Testament and the New Testament are the same God, there is no contradiction or need to change our view on this if we are Christians. What happened in 1947 is good news for all Jews and Christians. This needn’t have anything to do with our view of prophecy at all, in fact I don’t personally hold to any premillennialist or dispensationalist views.
Jews are a benign people. They won’t try to evangelise to your children. They won’t force conversion on anybody. They don’t infiltrate a country and eventually say “to be Australian (for example) is to be Jewish”. They just don’t think and behave like that.
Modern Judaism in particular is particularly compatible with democracy and human rights. Did you know that the only Middle Eastern state to have a gay pride parade is Israel? (Not that I’m endorsing such activity).
In our own small way, we make a statement to support the Jews by always buying Kosher Nuttelex brand margarine.
Most of the Reformers, other than the “Anabaptists” were also incorrect in their view of baptism, but we’ll save that for another post.
Israel is also the only country in the Middle East to have been created with a good dose of ethnic cleansing and that practices apartheid.
Do you even care for Palestinian Christians who make a significant minority of the West Bank, or made an attempt to hear their side of the story?
Thanks xtc,
You make a very welcome point. I’m not sure which point of mine your actually arguing with. From what you’ve said, you either (1) take issue with paragraph three, and don’t believe the land of Israel was promised to the Jews at all, (2) disagree with paragraph five, that Israel is compatible with democracy, given their forced occupation of the land in modern times, or (3) you have something against Jews as a whole.
I think if it’s point 2 that applies to you then fair enough, but remember that my post isn’t about being *against* a peoplegroup, whereas your response definitely is. Further, if you are a Christian you may need to think of point 1 in the light of that.
James
What makes you think that I have something against Jews as a whole??
Hi xtc,
I don’t think that at all, it was my 3rd of three of my guesses as to what your argument was about.
You mention in your first post the terms “ethnic cleansing” and “apartheid”, saying that Israel was the only country in the Middle East associated with such things in the process of their state being established. How, then do you feel about the dhimmitude being carried out by virtually everyone in the Middle East with the exception of Israel?
James
Please explain what you mean by dhimmitude and give me specific examples. You really shouldn’t learn Middle History from the likes of Robert Spencer. You should have more self-respect, James. Is this the best you can do? Have you read any scholarly works on the Middle East?
Here are a few links on Christian Zionism:
http://www.hcef.org/index.cfm/mod/news/id/16/subMod/NewsView/NewsID/1595.cfm
http://rightweb.irc-online.org/rw/848.html
Hi xtc,
Thanks for dropping by. I know you’d like to question my credentials and reading, but as I’ve already stated I’m curious to know whether you feel the terms “ethnic cleansing” and “practices apartheid” bear any relation to the common practice of dhimmitude. Dhimmitude is a term which speaks for itself and to say that it needs to be defined or have explicit examples provided is unnecessary obfuscation.
Perhaps if you wish for things to be so furnished with definitions and examples you may like to define and provide examples as to why there is anything particularly wrong with “the likes of Robert Spencer”.
James