God's Purpose for Israel - A Fundy Article

[Ricardo]

The problem with supporting Israel is that it is not a monolithic entity. With 41 political parties and 41 different visions of what Israel should be, which one are the Baptists supporting? Some of those parties what to institute a religious police like we see in Iran. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_pol..._in_Israel

The Arab Spring has raised a whole new set of problems for Israel, as the bulk of their negotiating with their neighbors had been done with the regimes that have fallen or are about to fall. Meanwhile, the man on the street on most of those countries is much more anti Israeli than their official country's stance.

And then, when we review the biblical stories, what we find is an exceedingly self-serving story of an Iraqi man, Abram, being chosen by God and being given land that was clearly owned by someone else. The idea of Abraham's grandsons and their families, 86 in total abandoning a drought-ridden Israel to go to Egypt, then coming back 400 years later as 3 million strong, to take back "their" land, doesn't really make sense. Do we ever keep track of how many people Joshua's armies kill? It is many many millions. It would give OT Palestine a population density higher than New York City.

Does God have a purpose for Israel? Of course! Just as he has a purpose for Burundi.

[Donb123]

Distinctions have been drawn by certain exceedingly wise men (measured by their own estimate of themselves), between the people of God who lived before the coming of Christ, and those who lived afterwards.
We have even heard it asserted that those who lived before the coming of Christ do not belong to the church of God! We never know what we shall hear next, and perhaps it is a mercy that these absurdities are revealed one at a time, in order that we may be able to endure their stupidity without dying of amazement.
Why, every child of God in every place stands on the same footing; the Lord has not some children best beloved, some second-rate offspring, and others whom he hardly cares about.
These who saw Christ's day before it came, had a great difference as to what they knew, and perhaps in the same measure a difference as to what they enjoyed while on earth meditating upon Christ; but they were all washed in the same blood, all redeemed with the same ransom price, and made members of the same body.
Israel in the covenant of grace is not natural Israel, but all believers in all ages.
Before the first advent, all the types and shadows all pointed one way—they pointed to Christ, and to him all the saints looked with hope.
Those who lived before Christ were not saved with a different salvation to that which shall come to us. They exercised faith as we must; that faith struggled as ours struggles, and that faith obtained its reward as ours shall.

-Charles H. Spurgeon

Just thought this was applicable since it popped up on my Spurgeon Quote of the Day on FB

[lucrezaborgia]

(04-20-2012 08:38 PM)IFB No More Wrote:  Supporting the State of Israel for geo-political reasons is justified

How so? They are just as new and artificial as all the countries surrounding them and do much to cause a near-endless shit-storm with the Palestinian situation and water rights.

[TurningIntoDavid]

I saw a pretty incredible documentary called with God on our side about how America helps Israel out in a ton of ways and the icky things that Israel is doing to the Palestinians. It's horrid.