Did God Lie to Israel About Giving Them A Jewish Homeland? Part 1

“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them," said Jesus in Matthew 5:17.  Despite Jesus' commitment to not abolish the prophetic message, Reformed theologians believe the modern state of Israel has not been divinely given to the Jewish people as promised by the prophets.

 One such theologian is Wheaton College New Testament professor Gary Burge.  More than a theologian Burge often serves on panels where politically charged anti-Israel messages are delivered by himself and other speakers.

In a radio conversation on a 2010 Moody Radio broadcast between himself and Moody Bible College Jewish studies professor Michael Rydelnik, Burge explains his position on Israell:  Since Israel is not faithful to the covenant God made with Israel as found in the Mosaic Law, then the land does not belong to the Jewish people.

Professor Burge noted the modern state of Israel bears no likeness to a country living in obedience to the Torah.  In fact,  the state of Israel was founded by secular Jews not religious ones. The modern state of Israel, according to Burge, is disqualified from having divine ownership of the land.

So the question remains, "Did God make a promise to Israel that still holds true or is it no longer relevant due to Israel's disobedience?"

Burge argues the promises made to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob concerning the land of Israel were conditional upon Israel's obedience.  To prove his point he points to the times when God took the Jewish people from the land and  delivered them into the Assyrian and Babylonian Captivities due to their refusal to heed the statutes of the Torah.

The professor is correct on the fact God removed Israel from the land because of their disobedience.  Leviticus 20:22 warns, "Keep all my decrees and laws and follow them, so that the land where I am bringing you to live may not vomit you out."

Though God sent His people out of the land, it is essential to note that He never took away their title deed to the land.

The interplay between Israel's disobedience caused them to be removed from the land and later returning to the land is explained in Leviticus 26:3-6.

Initially, God focuses on Israel's enjoyment of the land in Leviticus 26:3-6 when He cautions:

If you follow my decrees and are careful to obey my commands, I will send you rain in its season, and the ground will yield its crops and the trees their fruit. 

Your threshing will continue until grape harvest and the grape harvest will continue until planting, and you will eat all the food you want and live in safety in your land.

I will grant peace in the land, and you will lie down and no one will make you afraid. I will remove wild beasts from the land, and the sword will not pass through your country.

Then He warns Abraham's descendants they will be removed from the land if they refuse Him as witnessed in Leviticus 26:32-35

I myself will lay waste the land, so that your enemies who live there will be appalled.  I will scatter you among the nations and will draw out my sword and pursue you. Your land will be laid waste, and your cities will lie in ruins. 

Then the land will enjoy its sabbath years all the time that it lies desolate and you are in the country of your enemies; then the land will rest and enjoy its sabbaths. All the time that it lies desolate, the land will have the rest it did not have during the sabbaths you lived in it.

Finally, God says He will bring His people back to the land upon their repentance and humbling themselves before Him as described in Leviticus 26:40-42

But if they will confess their sins and the sins of their ancestors—their unfaithfulness and their hostility toward me, which made me hostile toward them so that I sent them into the land of their enemies—then when their uncircumcised hearts are humbled and they pay for their sin,  I will remember my covenant with Jacob and my covenant with Isaac and my covenant with Abraham, and I will remember the land.

Notice, God says He "will remember my covenant with Jacob and my covenant with Isaac and my covenant with Abraham, and I will remember my land." The covenant He refers to is the Abrahamic covenant as found in  Genesis 12, 13, 17 where God promises the land to Abraham's seed without any strings attached.  In fact, when God ratifies the covenant He alone passes through the pieces of the sacrifice needed to ratify His promise,  and then restates the covenant to Abraham and the geographical boundaries of the promised Holy Land in Genesis 15:17-20

When the sun had set and darkness had fallen, a smoking firepot with a blazing torch appeared and passed between the pieces. On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram and said, “To your descendants I give this land, from the Wadi[e] of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates— the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites,  Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites and Jebusites.”

Yes, for Israel to enjoy, not own the land, they are to be obedient to the Lord. Most importantly, when we read the prophets, we witness the grace of the Lord is promising to bring the Jewish people back from their worldwide dispersion into the land of Israel despite their disobedience, but in order to protect the honor of God.  This prophetic promise is found in Ezekiel 36:22-24:

Therefore say to the Israelites, ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: It is not for your sake, people of Israel, that I am going to do these things, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations where you have gone. I will show the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, the name you have profaned among them. Then the nations will know that I am the LORD, declares the Sovereign LORD, when I am proved holy through you before their eyes.For I will take you out of the nations; I will gather you from all the countries and bring you back into your own land.

For Burge to deny this passage and many more like it, is to make Jesus abolish rather than fulfill the prophecies of the Jewish Scriptures. 

The weakness of the Reformed position is that most of their advocates like Burge are weak in their knowledge of the Jewish Scriptures. Their Reformed systematic theology forces them to ignore myriads of prophetic passages where God promises the land of Israel to the Jewish people.

Gary Burge maintains those who believe God promised the Israel to the Jewish people hold to a "land theology." He also states this "land theology" is not in the New Testament. Rather, the New Testament moves away from the territorial aspect of God's promises to Israel and focuses solely on the spiritual dimension.

Individuals who hold to God's promise of the land to Israel are guilty of holding to a "Jewish theology" not a "Christian theology."  I prefer to call what I believe a "biblical theology" - a theology that encompasses both testaments.

Burge, like many theologians who deny the land is promised to Israel, start with a presupposition they cannot prove - any of God's promises found in the Old Testament that are not repeated in the New Testament are no longer applicable. I find his position untenable simply because it is a man made theological belief not found in any biblical passages.

I wonder since Burge maintains that if a promise of God is not repeated in the New Testament, it has been superseded by New Testament theology, how he feels about God's promise in Genesis 9:11-16 to never destroy the earth with a flood? The sign of this covenant is the visible appearance of a rainbow;

 I establish my covenant with you: Never again will all life be destroyed by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth. And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come:  I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. 

Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds,  I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life.  Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth.

This promise is not repeated in the New Testament, so according to the Wheaton New Testament professor, the promise doeS not hold true and God can destroy the earth with a flood again. We see how foolish Burge's presupposition is when we apply it to many Old Testament promises that are not repeated in the New Testament.

Burge grew strangely quiet during his interchange with Rydelnik when the Moody professor read Romans 11:28-29 regarding God's unchanging covenants with Israel:

but as far as election is concerned, they are loved on account of the patriarchs, for God’s gifts and his call are irrevocable.

Though Burge claims he is not a replacement theologian which teaches the Church has replaced Israel, Gary still tiptoes through the minefield of replacement theology and agrees with them on many points.

To his credit, Burge expressed his conviction that God has a special love for the Jewish people and that antisemitism is a sin against the God of Israel.  However, after Burge is finished stripping Israel of the promises the Lord laid down in the Jewish scriptures, he still ends up with the position that the church has replaced Israel. No longer are Israel's national promises of a land, a growing nation and the blessing of all the nations through Israel applicable. According to Burge, all the promises made to Israel are now fulfilled in Christ. That sounds like replacement theology to me. 

Did God Lie to Israel About Giving Them A Jewish Homeland? Part 1

Ziggy Marley Refuses to Cancel Israel Concerts

Today the Jerusalem Post  reported reggae musician Ziggy Marley, son of icon Bob Marley did not bow to anti-Israel pressure to nix his two concerts in Israel. Instead, Marley kept his commitments to perform in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem at Sacher Park.

In light of the recent pressure by activist groups wanting musicians to boycott Israel, Marley's snub of these anti-Israelists comes as an act of courage on his part.  Along with Bob Dylan's concert in Israel last month, it is refreshing to know certain musicians will not politicize their music or allow others to drag them into their anti-Israel politics.

My hat's off to Ziggy Marley. Though I'm not as familiar with his music as with his Dad's, I may even go out and buy one of his CDs to show my approval of his decision.

Reggae star Ziggy Marley rejects calls to boycott Israel

By KAROLYN COORSH
07/20/2011

“Rastafarianism has a lot to do with the Old Testament and Solomon and David and Moses, so we have a strong connection from many years back,” singer says.

Online pressure to boycott Israel didn’t dissuade reggae star Ziggy Marley from performing in Tel Aviv Tuesday night or on Thursday at the Return to Zion festival at Sacher Park in Jerusalem.

“People say, don’t disgrace your father’s name by going to Israel and all these type of things,” the eldest son of the late musical icon Bob Marley said at a press conference Tuesday at the Sheraton Hotel in Tel Aviv, referring to the negative responses he saw on Facebook and other sites upon publication of his Israel tour dates.

“What I tell them is that, listen, I follow nature, I follow the universe, I follow God. I’m not a part of the segregation that people put on each other … I’m a part of nature and God, and God made the sun shine for everybody.”

This isn’t Marley’s first visit to Israel, both as a performer and visitor. His wife is Israeli and he said his young children speak Hebrew. And there are other ties to the land for Marley, who said his culture of Rastafarianism is rooted in concepts developed in “this region of the world.”

“Rastafarianism has a lot to do with the Old Testament and Solomon and David and Moses, so we have a strong connection from many years back,” he said.

Marley, who recently released his latest album, Wild and Free, said the message he is trying to convey is one of love and spirituality.

But at the press conference he didn’t shy away from questions of a political nature. Marley weighed in on the Knesset’s recent passing of the antiboycott law, which allows civilians to file lawsuits against organizations or people who impose boycotts on Israeli economic, academic or commercial institutions.

“I think the people should have a right to boycott whoever they want to boycott without the government making them into criminals, and try to protect corporations from people,” he said. “They should protect people from corporations.”

A strong advocate of the widespread use of marijuana, Marley also chastized corporations and politicians for criminalizing and demonizing the plant. He said hemp seeds have nutritional and environmental benefits, and can be used in a wide variety of sustainable practices.

But the tour this time around is mostly about music, and Marley said he is still happy to be known as the son of Bob Marley.

“People love me everywhere I go,” Marley said to laughter.

Becoming serious, he said his father is one of his favorite musicians.

“He was just a great artist and that is one of my biggest inspirations.” But he said he doesn’t expect his children to follow in his or his father’s footsteps, adding that he hopes his children do whatever they feel “inside of them.”

Asked whether he or his family practices Judaism at home, Marley replied: “I practice love.”
Download JPost's iPhone application

Ziggy Marley Refuses to Cancel Israel Concerts

Are Evangelicals Pulling The Plug on Supporting Israel?

Ever since I've been a follower of Jesus, life has been one long battle in standing for the truth. Over the years I've stopped trying to end the combative lifestyle I find myself in and have accepted the fact conflict comes with the territory of defending God's word against those who would try to corrupt it and deny its truths.

In my 20s  I enrolled in Dallas Baptist University as a religion major,  There I discovered my professors were all replacement theologians who believed the Church had replaced Israel and now all the promises made to Israel in the Jewish Scriptures are fulfilled in the Body of Christ.

I was confused, angry and felt as a Jewish person I had been duped into believing in a faith that caused me to mistrust God's word and those who interpreted it. How could God promise Abraham a geographical territory known as Israel, but later on reveal that His land promise was not to be taken seriously? Now the land of Israel, as I was taught, has been replaced with heaven, the true territorial goal of the Christian.

For the next few years I familiarized myself with books written by Covenant and Reformed theologians, amillennialists, post-millennialists and historic pre-millennialists (George Ladd).  During college and seminar I wrote papers disputing the replacement theological system and in the process became stronger in my belief that the New Testament makes a clear distinction between the Church and Israel, and that Israel is never replaced by the Church.

My break through came in an hermeneutics (science of biblical interpretation) class taught by Dr. Bell, a renegade graduate of Dallas Theological Seminary.  When Dr. Bell pronounced he was a "true Jew" and that Jewish people were no longer God's chosen people, I almost fell out of my chair.  I responded, "Dr. Bell, I perceive the weakness of your theology is that you totally disregard 1000s of passages in the Old Testament describing God's plan for Israel and it's those very passages that dismantle your theology.  It's as if you have a theological filter through which you interpret the Jewish scriptures that fit your theology but the passages that won't pass through your pre-conceived filter are ignored."

I made an "A" in Dr. Bell's class, God rest his theologically incorrect soul.

Today a  new element has been added to replacement theology. No longer is replacement theology or Reformed beliefs (it's all the same Israel denying theology) just a theological system but it has taken on a political dimension.

Replacement theology and their theologians such as Dr. Gary Burge, Wheaton College New Testament professor,  has now formed a clear merger with Palestinian Christians who are dead set on promoting an anti-Israel perspective in evangelical churches.

Already several Christian leaders have drunk the Palestinian Christian Kool-Aid such as Lynne Hybels, wife of mega church leader, Bill Hybels (Willow Creek Church), Jim Wallis of Sojourners, Tony Campolo and others who appear on the docket at the 2012 pro Palestinian Christians Christ at the Checkpoint Conference at Bethlehem Bible College in the West Bank.

These theologians and activists claim to be non-violent in their stance against Israel, yet they all share the common goal of distorting the history of the Middle East to make Israel the sole culprit of perpetrator of all of Palestinian ills. Sami Awad, in a lecture given at the Arvada, Colorado Vineyard, complains that the Palestinian Christian community has shrunk from 30% to 3%.  Yet he fails to go through the sequence of historical events in which the Palestinian Authority disrespectfully destroyed Christian churches and took over these holy sites as locations to engage the Israelis in battle.  Did Sami ever ponder the fact that Christians are leaving the disputed territories due to the mistreatment of his fellow Christians by Palestinians Muslims?  Oddly, the Christian population in Israel is increasing.

Bottom line: Evangelicals are being taken on a wild ride by these anti-Christian Zionists and Palestinian Christians who distort facts about Israel's involvement in the ME conflict, misuse biblical passages about God's promises to the Jewish people, claim to advocate non-violence while refusing to condemn the PLO or Hamas and focus only on Israeli soldiers and appeal to the evangelical concern for the underdog to persuade followers of Christ to play into the hands of these double tongued leaders who come "bearing words of peace."

What can be done?  If you are an evangelical -Jewish or Gentile - I appeal to you to share the blogs you find on Thinking Outside the Blog about the Palestinian Christian issue.  Read other blogs such as seismic-shock.com and ElderofZyon.blogspot and a messianic Jewish blog roshpinaproject.com. Share the articles you find on these blogs on your Facebook page.  Tweet the articles you find on my blog and others.

The underhanded work of Palestinian Christians in America's evangelical churches must be stopped. Do not be fooled by their words of reconciliation, "just cause" and non-violence.  Most of these groups such as Sami Awad's Holy Land Trust align themselves with Israel hating groups involved in divestment, boycott and sanctions against Israel and do all they can to foster an anti-Israel theology in the evangelical church.

I admonish my readers to start reading books on Middle East history so you can respond to the twisted lies perpetrated by these leaders who speak to unknowledgeable Christians regarding the recent history of Israel.  Go out and purchase Mitchell Bard's Idiot's Guide to the Middle East Conflict for starters.

Are Evangelicals Pulling The Plug on Supporting Israel?

Truth Doesn't Matter for Hanegraff Regarding Israel

Christian Research Institute headed by Hank Hanegraff (the Bible Answer Man) prides itself on its motto, "because Truth matter." However, in a recent article authored by Palestinian Christian Mourice Mrabe,  despite CRI's stance, truth went out the window.

Mrabe tells the story of his youth growing up in the Arab Christian community in Palestine.  Usually with Christian ministries and leaders, if a person puts the word "Christian" after his nationality, then it is assumed that person is telling the truth.  In this case Mrabe is poor example of CRI's commitment to checking out the facts behind one of their writer's claims.

Mourice Mrabe states that during the 1948 war of Israel's independence, the Jewish forces "took over most of Palestine, leaving only twenty percent of the land for the Arab majority, and displacing at least 750,000 from their homes and villages." As a result of the Israeli "take-over" Mrabe ended up as a refugee in the West Bank.  The Israeli showed no discrimination is ousting both Arab Christians and Arab Muslims from the land.

It is very common for Palestinian Christians who speak to Christian groups to emphasize how the Israelis expelled Palestinians from the land during the period of 1947-1949. But nothing could be further from the truth.

Let it not be forgotten if the Palestinians accepted the 1947 UN resolution, not a single Palestinian would have any need to become a refugee.  An independent Palestinian state would now exist beside Israel.  The actual responsibility of the refugee problem, as unpopular as this sounds, rests with the Arab peoples.

In fact, even the numbers of refugees Palestinian Christians commonly quote is highly dubious.  They claim 800,000 to a million Palestinians became refugees during Israel's War of Independence. The last census taken by the British in 1945 found there were approximately 1.2 million permanent Arab residents in all  of Palestine. A 1949 Government of Israel census counted 160,000 Arabs living in the country after the war.  In 1947 a total of 809,100 Arabs lived in the same area. This means that no more than 650,000 Palestinians could have become refugees.

But Palestinians often forget the Jewish side of this story when it comes to refugees.

Palestinian Christians conveniently forget the large number of Jewish people who fled from Arab states. In fact, the number of Jewish people escaping Arab countries for Israel after the War of Independence was nearly double the number of Arabs leaving Palestine! In fact, Arab countries expelled over 820,000 Jews from their lands between 1948-1972.  Of these refugees 586,000 settled in Israel without going to refugee camps like Palestinians.

What's even more astounding is that through November 2003, 101 of the 681 UN resolutions regarding the Middle East conflict solely concerned the Palestinian refugees. Not one mentioned the Jewish refugees who fled from Arab countries.

Christian Palestinians like Mrabe fail to mention that Jewish leaders prior to the War of Independence invited the Arabs to remain in Palestine and to become citizens of Israel.  A few sentences from the Assembly of Palestine Jewry issued in October 1947 will suffice:

We will do everything in our power to maintain peace, and establish a cooperation gainful to both. It is no, here and now, from Jerusalem itself that a cal must go out to the Arab nations to join forces with Jewry and the destined Jewish State and work shoulder to shoulder for our common good for the peace and progress of sovereign equals (David ben Gurion, Rebirth and Destiny of Israel, pg. 220). 

In the weeks following the announcement of the UN partition resolution, the Arab exodus already started. The first to leave were roughly 30,000 wealthy Arab who anticipated the coming war and got out of Dodge to other Arab lands to wait out the war.  Less affluent Arabs also left Palestine to live with relatives and friends.

I. F. Stone in This Is Israel recalls that by the end of 1948, the evacuation of Palestine by its inhabitants was so alarming that the Palestine Arab Higher Committee "asked neighboring [Arab] countries to refuse visas to these refugees" to stop the flow of abandonment.

When one reads the press reports during the War of Independence, there is no mention of any forcible expulsion of Arabs by Israeli forces. Rather, the press described the Palestinians as fleeing and evacuating their homes on their own recognizance:

Let us not forget Palestinian were also encouraged to leave their dwelling places to make way for the invading Arab forces.

In his memoirs, Haled al Azm, the Syrian PM in 1948-1949, also admitted the Arab role in persuading the refugees to leave:

Since 1948 we have been demanding the return of the refugees to their homes. But we ourselves are the ones who encouraged them to leave. (The Memoirs of Haled al Azm pp. 386-387) 

in recounting his story Mrabe tells how one of his brothers sought work in Jordan and was refused entrance to be reunited with his family in the West Bank by the Israelis. Since his brother could not come back to the land, he went to Lebanon during the 70s.  The brother joined the PLO while in Lebanon "after suffering the loss of his homeland." Mrabe claims that his father believed his PLO gave his life for the cause of peace.

The PLO is a terrorist organization devoted to the destruction of Israel and whose aim is to expel the Jewish presence from the Holy Land.

The fact that Mrabe did not even refer to the terrorist nature of  the PLO is disconcerting. This is especially true because in ending his article Mrabe, worship leader of a church in Sacramento, mentions Palestinian Christians play an essential role to bring "individuals closer to God" and provide "reason and hope for equality and reconciliation between the different groups in Israel/Palestine."

I'm not sure how useful Palestinian Christians can be if they refuse to recognize the terrorist nature of the PLO and find it useful to revise Middle East history for their own self serving aims.

Hank Hanegraff and the Christian Research Institute dropped the ball on doing their research in allowing a Palestinian Christian to get in his digs against Israel without checking out his facts.

Truth Doesn't Matter for Hanegraff Regarding Israel

Messianic Jewish Scholar Debates Christian Professor Over Israel

The debate over the ownership of the land of Israel is not a dead issue in evangelical Christian circles.  On one side, there are theologians who believe the covenants God made with Israel continue even to this day.
Those individuals refer to such statements made by Paul in Romans 11:28-29 which states "but as far as election is concerned, they [Israel] are loved on account of the patriarchs, for God’s gifts and his call are irrevocable."

On the other side of theological aisle is professor Gary Burge from the New Testament department of Wheaton College in Wheaton, Illinois.  Burge, a self proclaimed Reformed theologian, believes the Bible teaches that because of Israel's disobedience in rejecting Jesus as Messiah, the Jewish people have lost ownership of the land of Israel.

Burge maintains the Jewish people living in Israel today have no divine right or authority to claim Israel as their God-given homeland. Like a domino affect Burge has also become involved in evangelical efforts to delegitimize Israel's claim to land and has become a participant in various pro-Palestinian Christian efforts to cast dispersion on the nation of Israel in their treatment of Palestinians.

The debate rages on.

Last year Rydelnik and Burge appeared on Moody Radio on the Janet Parshall show to discuss their views on "land theology."  I recommend my readers spend the time to listen to this quick moving dialogue over an essential issue.

Has God given the Jewish people the land of Israel to be their homeland, or has the covenant God made with Abraham to give his descendant the land of Israel ended because of their disobedience?

Listen to Rydelnik and Burge hash out their different perspectives on this most essential issue. Please click here to listen to this broadcast.

Messianic Jewish Scholar Debates Christian Professor Over Israel

Bob Dylan Plays in Tel Aviv Despite Pleas to Boycott Israel

On June 20th Bob Dylan performed in Israel amid a lot of pressure by various anti-Israel groups in favor of boycotting the Jewish state. One group Please Don't Play for Apartheid Israel expressed their disappointment when the legendary rocker ignored their pleas and went forward with his concert.

Hooray for Bob Dylan who stood up to these groups calling on the singer to boycott Israel. Such groups are using videos to call on such artists as Paul Simon, Moby and Duran Duran to cancel their concerts. Some of the artists who have honored the boycott include Carlos Santana, who cited scheduling problems for the cancelation. Yet boycott groups against Israel are claiming Santana as one artist who has honored their call to boycott Israel.

Regardless of the call for a boycott, Dylan performed and even sang several of his Christian songs for the mostly Israeli crowd.  I've gained a new respect for Dylan for standing up to pressure and not giving in to pressure to anti-Israel groups.

Bob Dylan Plays in Tel Aviv Despite Pleas to Boycott Israel

Are Anti Zionists also Anti Semitic?

A standard line by anti-Zionist Christians is that their stand against Israel does not mean they are anti-Semitic.

Stephen Sizer, Vicar of Christ Church in Surrey, UK is a noted anti-Zionist who claims to be pro-Israel and not an anti-Semite.

I ask you to be the judge of whether Reverend Sizer, who appears at almost every Palestinian Christian conference, is an anti-Semite. Based on the company he keeps and the authorities he quotes, I have good reason to tag this Christian pastor as both anti-Israel and an anti-Semite whose writings help fuel the enmity of Israel's enemies against the Jewish nation.

This is the same Stephen Sizer who is a featured speaker at the Bethlehem Bible College's Christ at the Checkpoint Conference which includes such notables as author John Ortberg, Lynne Hybels, wife of Willow Creek Pastor, Bill Hybels, Christian writer Ron Sider, Jews for Jesus worker Richard Harvey, speaker and author Tony Campolo and many others.

Here is a recent video on Stephen Seizer and his associates:

Are Anti Zionists also Anti Semitic?