STOP IT!

I saw this report on Nightline the other day, and it spoke of some Christian groups that support Israel mainly because they believe that they are God's people. Waco got some more bad publicity because one of the preachers mentioned in the report was a pastor in Robinson, and of course, the report cast her in a negative image. In a nut shell, some Christians are pretty much blindly supporting Israel's attacks on Lebanon solely because of their interpretation of scripture. I gather that those who think this way are the Tim LaHaye/Left Behind types who interpret literally the apocalyptic literature found in Daniel and Revelation. They think that the "prophecies" found in these books foresee an outline of the distant future, and they believe that the nation of Israel is one of the main players in the story.

STOP IT! This kind of thing makes us look ridiculous. We (especially the church) should not blindly support a nation that bombs the heck out of somebody else because of a kidnapping. Where is the justice there? Where is the mercy? The nation of Israel is NOT the representation of the people of God. I'm sure that there are Godly people in Israel, but the nation as a whole does not adequately represent the God of the Universe. If you want to look at this situation through the light of the scriptures, the church is the people of God - not any nation founded through war. The church represents God's people, not Israel. God's people are those who pray for their enemies and who love their enemies.

I guess if you want to support Israel, that's fine, but don't do it because of some futuristic interpretation of scripture. We have to remember that people wrote the Bible, so there is naturally going to be a certain difference in thought, literary style, and motives of writing from what we might think today. There are certain places in the Bible where we can't just pick it up and expect to know exactly what it means without a certain amount of study. Prophetic and Apocalyptic books in the Bible are some of those places.

Support Israel if you really think they're doing the right thing, not because of literal interpretations of Revelation or Daniel. Just from my own personal viewpoint, though, I don't see how Israel's reaction to Hezbollah is really going to solve anything. Israel has been in the same cycle of violence since its inception, and the blame should be placed on both sides.