berean jones on Nostr: Yes! It's a brave article in this day and age, but biblically it's common sense. ...
Yes! It's a brave article in this day and age, but biblically it's common sense.
First, we're not in the old testament era between the flood and the cross. If we were then there's a stronger argument about covenant promises preserving the nation until the birth of the Messiah. And yes, even then, blessing and protection were conditioned on repentance, humility, faith, and a general tearing down of systemic idolatry as part of 'returning to the Lord'. The first prayer was therefore always of repentance, and this needed to be on a national level not just by a faithful remnant (even though God often softened the blow for the sake of the remnant)
Second, since we are long after the cross, resurrection, and ascension of Christ, it is essential to grasp how the apostles interpreted the old testament as they were living out and writing down the new testament. Many today act like the new testament is an awkward parentheses between the real business of the old testament and "life after 1948/1967". This is jewish capture of new testament doctrine, and through it, the american mind.
Third, the new testament makes it very clear that salvation for the Jew comes the same way as salvation for the Gentile, by way of the cross. The apostles got constant flak from 'the Judaizers'... there was no compatibility between the Gospel and 'Judaism Without Yeshua'. In the first half of Acts, the Church is entirely made up of Jewish people who believed that Jesus Christ was the missing piece of their religion... the Servant, the Branch, the King, the Priest of a new order of Melchizedek, the Son at the right hand of the Majesty in the heavens, the Prophet who completed the law (yes Deuteronomy taught that the law as given couldn't save because they still needed the words of 'the Prophet' to complete it, so they had the full story).
Fourth, Yeshua made three prophecies. First, he would die and rise again on the third day. Second that Jerusalem and its temple would be utterly destroyed (and replaced by his body, the church, as the temple of living stones as a habitation of God in the Spirit), and third that he would come back to earth on a much longer time horizon, as king to take possession of what belongs to him. The epistles unpack all this beautifully. So Jesus is confirmed as the Prophet by rising from the dead and by the sign of Jerusalem's destruction within a generation. That along with the timings of Daniel's prophecy and other signs meant the end of the old (not a temporary pause) and the beginning of a glorious new in which Jew and gentile leave their baggage at the four and enter in to worship in Spirit and truth.
Fifth, if there is any praying at all for the modern 'Babylon' construction of Israel, upheld so faithfully by the US as head of the current world order, it is only for their blindness to be lifted so that they can turn away from the idolatry of Rabbinical Judaism, Political Zionism, Mystical Kabbalah, B'nai Berit Masonry, or just good old fashioned Western Hedonism... and turn to Christ. Again, this is what the apostles taught and prayed... not fooled by hybrids of 'Judaism and Jesus', or modifications to Hellenistic Judaism with virtues 'like what Jesus taught'. No, there would be no diluting or mingling of the Gospel into new syncretic forms.
Sixth, there is no positive future for the state of Israel in God's economy. The Jews are saved like us through Jesus. Babylon is however horribly destroyed by the rising federation of nations that will eventually cede their power to a single leader - identified as anti Christ. This person will persecute Christian because we do not bow to him as god-emperor. And soon enough Jesus will return to settle that score.
The whole state of Israel thing is a construct, but so deeply ingrained by dispensationalism bleeding into nationalism, and kept alive because the territory of Israel is strategic for a foothold in the Middle East.
We pray as the apostles prayed.
First, we're not in the old testament era between the flood and the cross. If we were then there's a stronger argument about covenant promises preserving the nation until the birth of the Messiah. And yes, even then, blessing and protection were conditioned on repentance, humility, faith, and a general tearing down of systemic idolatry as part of 'returning to the Lord'. The first prayer was therefore always of repentance, and this needed to be on a national level not just by a faithful remnant (even though God often softened the blow for the sake of the remnant)
Second, since we are long after the cross, resurrection, and ascension of Christ, it is essential to grasp how the apostles interpreted the old testament as they were living out and writing down the new testament. Many today act like the new testament is an awkward parentheses between the real business of the old testament and "life after 1948/1967". This is jewish capture of new testament doctrine, and through it, the american mind.
Third, the new testament makes it very clear that salvation for the Jew comes the same way as salvation for the Gentile, by way of the cross. The apostles got constant flak from 'the Judaizers'... there was no compatibility between the Gospel and 'Judaism Without Yeshua'. In the first half of Acts, the Church is entirely made up of Jewish people who believed that Jesus Christ was the missing piece of their religion... the Servant, the Branch, the King, the Priest of a new order of Melchizedek, the Son at the right hand of the Majesty in the heavens, the Prophet who completed the law (yes Deuteronomy taught that the law as given couldn't save because they still needed the words of 'the Prophet' to complete it, so they had the full story).
Fourth, Yeshua made three prophecies. First, he would die and rise again on the third day. Second that Jerusalem and its temple would be utterly destroyed (and replaced by his body, the church, as the temple of living stones as a habitation of God in the Spirit), and third that he would come back to earth on a much longer time horizon, as king to take possession of what belongs to him. The epistles unpack all this beautifully. So Jesus is confirmed as the Prophet by rising from the dead and by the sign of Jerusalem's destruction within a generation. That along with the timings of Daniel's prophecy and other signs meant the end of the old (not a temporary pause) and the beginning of a glorious new in which Jew and gentile leave their baggage at the four and enter in to worship in Spirit and truth.
Fifth, if there is any praying at all for the modern 'Babylon' construction of Israel, upheld so faithfully by the US as head of the current world order, it is only for their blindness to be lifted so that they can turn away from the idolatry of Rabbinical Judaism, Political Zionism, Mystical Kabbalah, B'nai Berit Masonry, or just good old fashioned Western Hedonism... and turn to Christ. Again, this is what the apostles taught and prayed... not fooled by hybrids of 'Judaism and Jesus', or modifications to Hellenistic Judaism with virtues 'like what Jesus taught'. No, there would be no diluting or mingling of the Gospel into new syncretic forms.
Sixth, there is no positive future for the state of Israel in God's economy. The Jews are saved like us through Jesus. Babylon is however horribly destroyed by the rising federation of nations that will eventually cede their power to a single leader - identified as anti Christ. This person will persecute Christian because we do not bow to him as god-emperor. And soon enough Jesus will return to settle that score.
The whole state of Israel thing is a construct, but so deeply ingrained by dispensationalism bleeding into nationalism, and kept alive because the territory of Israel is strategic for a foothold in the Middle East.
We pray as the apostles prayed.