Saturday, December 23, 2017

The People of God: Apostate Israel or Sodom?

A large segment of American Evangelicalism, especially of the dispensationalist stripe, insists on calling the nation of Israel "the people of God," and, therefore, pushing American government policy to an inordinate support for the government of the State of Israel.

However, I deny that the Jews are any such thing, or that there is a special blessing or curse on America, depending on our political attitude toward the modern nation of Israel.

Why? Well, I have mentioned some reasons before, such as here and here. I want to address an additional reason now.

In Matthew 10, Jesus sends the Apostles out on an early mission to the cities of the Jews. He explicitly forbids them to preach to the Gentiles or Samaritans. And of any city that rejects their message, he says (Matthew 10:15), "Truly, I say to you, it will be more bearable on the day of judgment for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah than for that town." He extends that warning more explicitly in Matthew 11:20-24: "Then He began to denounce the cities where most of His mighty works had been done, because they did not repent. 'Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty
Fire Falls on Sodom
works done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes.
But I tell you, it will be more bearable on the day of judgment for Tyre and Sidon than for you. And you, Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven? You will be brought down to Hades. For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day.
But I tell you that it will be more tolerable on the day of judgment for the land of Sodom than for you.'"


This is an astounding warning! We know what happened to Sodom (Genesis 18 and 19): It was destroyed with fire and brimstone when ten righteous men couldn't be found in her. Yet, Jesus says, Sodom was more righteous than were these Jewish cities that rejected Him and His message.

The question that this should raise in anyone's mind is, Did Jesus, therefore, prefer Sodom over these unbelieving Jews? And I think the answer is self-evident! The implication of that can only be that ethnicity has no standing in the purposes of God (Matthew 3:9, Galatians 3:7, and especially Acts 10:34-35). What implication does that have for the question I asked in the headline above? I will leave it to my reader to decide.

2 comments:

Donald Bowers said...

I don't see anything inordinate about America's policy toward Israel. They are our most reliable ally in the Middle East, unless you count our relationship with Saudi Arabia; which resembles a prostitute riding on the back of a beast (not saying that's necessarily how I interpret Revelation 17). The problem is without our alliance with Saudi Arabia our monetary system would collapse, because the dollar is based on the oil deal Henry Kissinger made with them under Nixon.

But, I don't necessarily think it's wise to turn your back on an important ally because of their religious beliefs. Most Jews are more basically humanists anyway. Most of the ones who do practice the religion do so more out of tradition than belief, just like most of Christendom. I just don't see this idea of turning your back on a dependable and trustworthy ally over religion.

Without the support of the U.S. Israel would be in a lot of trouble because most of the rest of the world, especially their middle east neighbors, has an unfounded Satanic hatred for them. Israel is a strategic ally to help keep the religious nuts who run most of those countries at bay.

That's not to mention the fact that their being regathered back to their land is clearly a fulfillment of Bible prophecy, and is a sign to the nations of the world. That's so clear that no elaborate interpretation or even any commentary whatsoever is necessary to show it in the scriptures.

Chris Cole said...

You're talking about political justifications. That is completely unrelated to what I said above.