I am an American, of American descent (as many generations back as there was an America, and then some)--but my heart has always been in the Middle East. It is a region of great tragedy--from the failed attempt on the part of God's people (Israel) to maintain their place in Palestine in ancient times, to the wars and rumors of wars that dominated the region before and after the Roman Empire, to the failed Christian "New Jerusalem" of the Middle Ages, to the complex rivalrise, hostilities, and identities that have raged across the region over the past century or so. And it is a region of great tragedy, largely because unlike other regions of the world, the Middle East is a place of strong traditions, values . . . and memories.
Ten years ago, something unheard of in a region where people who do not strike back when struck are often dismissed was in the process of happening: a full, complete move across the Middle East toward peace. Personally, I don't care what all of you Rapture freaks out there have to say about Daniel 9:27 and about peace in the Middle East bringing on the end of the world. This region has seen more war, more bloodshed, and more random (and utterly irrational) violence between nations, neighbors, and brothers than I care to comment on in this post, and those deaths (and the violence of the Middle East) are not unimportant in the eyes of God.
It is this particular point of view that I want to address today because it is, I believe, at the heart of why things have come to the point at which they are now in the Middle East. A couple of days ago, on NPR, I heard a Christian leader say, and I paraphrase, that it is a biblical mandate that every Christian support Israel (I believe the exact words he used were "the Bible commands"). Ladies and gentlemen, I have been reading the Bible over and over again for 6 years, ever since I first came to Christ, and I have yet to see one verse saying anything about Christians supporting Israel. I also have yet to read a verse that promises a blessing or special favor from God to be bestowed on Israel's supporters (another teaching that I have personally heard in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex).
The following is the closest thing I can see to a biblical "injunction" on the matter of Christians/Israel:
17If some of the branches have been broken off, and you, though a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing sap from the olive root, 18do not boast over those branches. If you do, consider this: You do not support the root, but the root supports you. 19You will say then, "Branches were broken off so that I could be grafted in." 20Granted. But they were broken off because of unbelief, and you stand by faith. Do not be arrogant, but be afraid. 21For if God did not spare the natural branches, he will not spare you either.
--Romans 11:17-21
Paul's letter to the Romans addressed a specific community of Christians made up of Gentiles (whom he describes in this passage as ingrafted branches) and Jews (whom he describes as the branches that have been broken off). This passage, in particular, calls upon Jewish and Gentile Christians alike to consider the "root" (Christ--the source of their faith) over and above their particular standing as "branches" of the root. In other words, Paul was having the same conversation with the Roman believers that Jesus had with his disciples over and over again, the conversation that almost always began with the question, "Rabbi, which of us is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?"
Nowhere in this passage is there an injunction (or anything that could be interpreted as an injunction) for believers to support Israel. (In fact, for most of the time in which the New Testament was transmitted and published, Israel did not even exist, so I wonder how such a reading is even possible.) Verse 21 even seems to undercut the idea, pointing out that God (as outlined in the Hebrew Bible) in effect "disinherited" Israel because of its wickedness and stubborn refusal to listen to or obey the God of her forefathers, so that God (as also outlined in the Hebrew Bible) does not show partiality between Jew and Gentile (or, in the Middle East of today, between Jew and Arab) and considers everyone in the world his "people."
In other words, God can "inherit" and "disinherit" whomever he chooses, and it is one's relationship to God via Christ that determines one's "standing," not family or blood or nationhood.
And it seems the words of Christ 2000 years ago about turning the other cheek, loving one's enemies, and sacrificing one's life for one's brothers have gotten lost in the zeal among some Christians to take sides in the current war between Israel and its neighbors.
Ten years ago, something unheard of in a region where people who do not strike back when struck are often dismissed was in the process of happening: a full, complete move across the Middle East toward peace. Personally, I don't care what all of you Rapture freaks out there have to say about Daniel 9:27 and about peace in the Middle East bringing on the end of the world. This region has seen more war, more bloodshed, and more random (and utterly irrational) violence between nations, neighbors, and brothers than I care to comment on in this post, and those deaths (and the violence of the Middle East) are not unimportant in the eyes of God.
It is this particular point of view that I want to address today because it is, I believe, at the heart of why things have come to the point at which they are now in the Middle East. A couple of days ago, on NPR, I heard a Christian leader say, and I paraphrase, that it is a biblical mandate that every Christian support Israel (I believe the exact words he used were "the Bible commands"). Ladies and gentlemen, I have been reading the Bible over and over again for 6 years, ever since I first came to Christ, and I have yet to see one verse saying anything about Christians supporting Israel. I also have yet to read a verse that promises a blessing or special favor from God to be bestowed on Israel's supporters (another teaching that I have personally heard in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex).
The following is the closest thing I can see to a biblical "injunction" on the matter of Christians/Israel:
17If some of the branches have been broken off, and you, though a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing sap from the olive root, 18do not boast over those branches. If you do, consider this: You do not support the root, but the root supports you. 19You will say then, "Branches were broken off so that I could be grafted in." 20Granted. But they were broken off because of unbelief, and you stand by faith. Do not be arrogant, but be afraid. 21For if God did not spare the natural branches, he will not spare you either.
--Romans 11:17-21
Paul's letter to the Romans addressed a specific community of Christians made up of Gentiles (whom he describes in this passage as ingrafted branches) and Jews (whom he describes as the branches that have been broken off). This passage, in particular, calls upon Jewish and Gentile Christians alike to consider the "root" (Christ--the source of their faith) over and above their particular standing as "branches" of the root. In other words, Paul was having the same conversation with the Roman believers that Jesus had with his disciples over and over again, the conversation that almost always began with the question, "Rabbi, which of us is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?"
Nowhere in this passage is there an injunction (or anything that could be interpreted as an injunction) for believers to support Israel. (In fact, for most of the time in which the New Testament was transmitted and published, Israel did not even exist, so I wonder how such a reading is even possible.) Verse 21 even seems to undercut the idea, pointing out that God (as outlined in the Hebrew Bible) in effect "disinherited" Israel because of its wickedness and stubborn refusal to listen to or obey the God of her forefathers, so that God (as also outlined in the Hebrew Bible) does not show partiality between Jew and Gentile (or, in the Middle East of today, between Jew and Arab) and considers everyone in the world his "people."
In other words, God can "inherit" and "disinherit" whomever he chooses, and it is one's relationship to God via Christ that determines one's "standing," not family or blood or nationhood.
And it seems the words of Christ 2000 years ago about turning the other cheek, loving one's enemies, and sacrificing one's life for one's brothers have gotten lost in the zeal among some Christians to take sides in the current war between Israel and its neighbors.
posted by Brian Bly at 11:56 AM
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