Israel: The Promised Land

[This was written as an answer to a Pastor John who does not understand the importance of Israel.]

Pastor John’s Problem is the same as the rest of us. Ignorance knows no boundaries.

We are all ignorant of one thing or another. Some are ignorant about computers, others about music and many about Israel.

There are really ONLY TWO CHOICES..

1) Either you BELIEVE the God of the Old Testament when he makes a promise.

OR

2) You DON'T BELIEVE him when he makes a promise. Now if you don’t believe him, you cannot be a Christian because the founder of the church, Jesus, the Jewish Messiah believed him and believed the promises he gave in the OT.

It is a simple choice. This God also happens to be same God of the New Testament.

In the OT we see many promises reiterated over and over again to Abraham and his seed, the children of Israel.

If we won’t believe one, then we won’t believe many, so for simplicity I give you one.

Gen13:14 NASB

The LORD said to Abram, ..... "Now lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward;

15for all the land which you see, I will give it to you and to your descendants forever. [referring to the land of Canaan] NASB

I looked up the meaning of forever and it means FOREVER! Eternal, not changing, to the end of the age, everlasting .... FOREVER.

This is what God promised Abraham and his descendants the Israelites. If you keep looking through the Bible you will see this was affirmed over and over again to his descendants.

Let’s suppose that God changed his mind about stuff like this. Then he can also change his mind about ETERNAL life given to those who believe in and follow him.

Imagine God saying “For those who believe in me and my son Jesus, I will give ETERNAL life UNLESS I change my mind later.” I hope you don’t follow that God!

Now I know that no pastor would make decisions about Israel based on political rather than spiritual considerations. However in case there are some reading this who do not know history, let us mention the political.

The land of Israel [at the time a protectorate of Great Britain] by the Balfour Declaration of 1917 were given a MUCH LARGER ISRAEL than present. In fact the Arab representative agreed that this was the homeland of the Jews from ancient times.

Unfortunately, shortly after some other Arabs thought he was including too much land, he disappeared and Israel was pushed back to approximately its present borders.

In 1947, the United Nations, reaffirmed that Israel had been and was to be the homeland for the displaced Jews who somehow survived the Nazi holocaust.

“Resolution 181 laid a foundation within international law and diplomacy[9] for the creation of the state of Israel; as it was the first formal recognition by an international body of the legitimacy of a Jewish state, to exist within a partition of the territory along with an Arab state." Israel's declaration of independence soon followed on May 14, 1948.

So here we have two proofs that Israel has a right to its own land, both politically and by God’s spoken promise.

It was their homeland in ancient times, B.C., there were always some Jews who lived in the land, and it was formalized twice by Britain and by the United Nations.

Personally believing God should be good enough for those who call themselves Christians.

I believe that when God says ETERNAL LIFE, he means ETERNAL LIFE and when he says he gave the land to Abraham and his descendants, FOREVER, I believe he means FOREVER. If you don't I pray for you.

Charles Pedley
http://charlespedley.blogspot.com