This is a post, at full length, by Dr. Russell Moore: I highlighted a few important parts in the post and following the post I have a few questions…
“Last week I stood over the Valley of Armageddon, with Israeli warjets flying overhead and the sound of the Muslim call to prayer humming all around from the loudspeakers attached to the mosques below. It was a sobering moment, more sobering even than the images of explosions in Gaza seen on television round the clock.
Israel is, as always it seems, at war. So should Christians pray especially for Israel, for the Jewish people?
Dispensationalists have served the church by pointing us to our responsibility to support the Jewish people and the nation of Israel through a century that has seen the most horrific anti-Semitic violence imaginable.
We need not hold to a dispensationalist view of the future restoration of Israel (and I don’t) to agree that such support is a necessary part of a Christian eschatology (and I do).
Novelist Walker Percy pointed to the continuing existence of Jewish people as a sign of God’s presence in the world. There are no Hittites walking about on the streets of New York, he remarked.
There does appear to be a promise of a future conversion of Jewish people to Christ (Rom 9-11). The current secular state of Israel is not the fulfillment of God’s promise to Abraham; Jesus is.
Nonetheless, the state of Israel is important, indeed critically important. The nation is the guardian of post-Holocaust world Judaism. This does not necessitate that we support every political decision of the Israeli government (and I don’t). It does mean that we stand with Israel against every form of anti-Semitic violence.
We know that these are the kinsmen according to the flesh of our Messiah. There’s a reason, therefore, the Powers rage against them so. A Christian anti-Semite is a contradiction in terms.”
I also want to post a couple of quotes from John Piper on this issue:
“How should Bible-believing Christians align themselves in the Jewish-Palestinian conflict? There are Biblical reasons for treating both sides with compassionate public justice in the same way that disputes should be settled between nations generally. In other words, the Bible does not teach us to be partial to Israel or to the Palestinians because either has a special divine status.”
“The Christian plea in the Middle East to Palestinians and Jews is: “Believe on the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved” (Acts 16:31). And until that great day when both Jewish and Gentile followers of King Jesus inherit the earth (not just the land), without lifting sword or gun, the rights of nations should be decided by the principles of compassionate and public justice, not claims to national divine right or status.”
My questions:
How is supporting the Jewish people and the nation of Israel a necessary part of Christian eschatology? How would you explain this to a Palestinian Christian?
Why should Christians care to preserve post-Holocaust world Judaism and not, say, postcolonial Indian Hinduism? Both are false religions, right?
Also, here is a comment from another blogger in respond to Dr. Moore’s post:
Too often I find Christians automatically backing/supporting Israel regardless of their actions. I think blind support of any country, whether it be Israel or America, tends to make Christians look like uninformed/caustic fools.
What are your thoughts? If the promises of Abraham were fulfilled in the person and work of Jesus(which they were), why is supporting Israel necessary?