We support Israel–and I should have said so sooner. Sometimes trying not to make waves only makes bigger ones.
I feel like some ninny in 1775 who didn’t hear Paul Revere because he was fatzing around with his stamp collection.
Today the world is in the midst of its worst wave of antisemitism since World War II. Hamas terrorists broke out of Gaza on Oct. 7 and started slaughtering Israeli civilians. Their blood-lust moved them to assassinate babies. Every atrocity you can imagine, they committed. And now the whole Woke world is screaming at Israel for not just putting up with it! For not consenting to be exterminated.
I was not covering that story. My reasons for not doing so seem indefensible now. A) It was breaking news and would have to be updated every day or even every few hours; and B) every news agency was already covering it, so who would need me for that? And then C) I didn’t want to make waves among my readers.
Everything that has gone wrong here is my fault.
I’m not here to play woulda-shoulda-coulda. The business at hand is to try to undo the damage. I hate to delete posts, but I think there are a few, over the past two or three days, that I probably ought to get rid of. I seek the readers’ advice here.
I have prayed over this, racked my brain, and sought advice from a wiser and more experienced source, who generously gave it.
The theological question is, does everyone who does not accept Jesus Christ as Savior get pitched into Hell for all eternity? My source, who is a theologian (name withheld because I don’t want him drawn into this mess I’ve made), says this has been a controversy within the Church for centuries. Which is to say, no one has the answer nailed down–and yes, I mean persons who have assiduously studied Paul’s epistle to the Romans and still come up with widely varying ideas of what it means.
My source says the point of the epistle is the opening up of God’s promise to all mankind, not just the Jews. God is not “done” with anybody! The Christian sense is “not by race, but by grace”–God’s sovereign grace, by which he restores life to a valley of dry bones. Dependent on that grace, and certainly not able to save ourselves by our own works, we are all in the same boat, Jew and Gentile alike.
Anyhow, now I have damaged what I had hoped would grow into a kind of house church in cyberspace–aka my blog. I delayed when I should have spoken out–I sought the path of least resistance and went stumbling into a hornets’ nest. Some of you have been deeply offended by certain reader comments that I allowed to be displayed. Some of you have been hurt. My lack of judgment, and my lack of leadership, caused that.
I am sorry. I hope I’ve learned a lesson here. Sometimes there is no easy way. Church controversies that have been going round and round since Paul’s day are not likely to be settled by any of us here. And making self-righteous pronouncements and letting the chips fall where they may… just might set off an avalanche.
There is no excuse for heartlessness. As God is merciful to us, so should we be to each other.
Meanwhile the Jewish people are fighting for survival; they need and deserve our support. Their enemies are implacable, merciless, and not to be appeased.
May God smite them.
Thank you for your humble spirit Lee, Ive been reading your stuff for a month or two and have yet to be offended. As a child of the Kingdom, and a follower of Jesus my heart and energy will always lean towards those that are like minded. Is that wrong? As for your theological question, I believe the Bible to be trust worthy and mine says, “And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven that is given among people by which we must be saved.”, of course you knew that, so maybe Im not understanding the question. Shalom
Thank you, Bob.
Clearly I’m not going to settle questions that theologians have been batting back and forth for years. We are not universalists here: but surely God will save whom He will save. Dry bones and all.
As to the eternal prospects of anyone; that is a question which is not ours to answer. Judgment happens well above the human level. Our God is a merciful God, and I don’t believe, and cannot believe that God would negatively judge someone just because of the accident of their birth, or because they happened to live in a time and place where they were never exposed to the knowledge provided in scripture. Of all the billions who have lived before us, many, likely most, have never heard of Christ.
One amazing example of how people kept in ignorance can respond positively is the growth of Christianity in Iran. That is a place where Christian missionaries are not welcomed, and would probably be executed upon discovery. Yet, Christianity has its greatest rate of growth there. Obviously, God is blessing this growth. He looks at the heart.
In Genesis 12, God spells out his promise to Abraham. In verses 2-3, so,e important information is conveyed: “2 And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
God blessed Abraham, so that his seed would be a blessing to the nations. Our salvation, and our Redeemer, comes through the line of Abraham. God didn’t bless Abraham for trivial reasons; this is His arrangement to save mankind. But there’s a serious obligation in those verses: I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse.” It is my resolve, to never be found cursing the seed of Abraham.
As to the eternal prospects of any person in Israel, I will leave that in the hands of Christ.
Thank you–I hope this helps.
I think both of you make good points, and I applaud your honesty, even without knowing
all the details. I see no reason for anyone to get all knotted up over any of this. Personally,
I love the Jewish people, pray for them and the land that is theirs, chosen by God and to the
best of my ability, I search the Scriptures and believe every line in them. Please be comforted over this whole thing and remember I John 1:9 and trust in it..
Thanks so much, Erlene.
It’s your blog. You can talk about – or not talk about – whatever you want. Plus, sometimes – especially with things as insane as what’s going on in the Middle East – saying nothing for a time is the wise thing to do. Information takes time to get out, and it’s even harder to get good information when so many (eyeballing the mainstream and social media platforms here) are deliberately trying to portray evil as good and good as evil.
thank you (WordPress has concealed your name–*sigh).
I really don’t want to cover war news. Unavoidably, a big portion of it turns out not to be true: “the fog of war.” Plus the need for constant updates. So I was keeping my distance–but I should have done more.
It astounds me that there are chants of “death to the Jews”, here in the US. Eisenhower insisted on a film record when they liberated the death camps in Germany, because he knew that sooner or later, it would be denied. He obviously knew human nature, very well.