Introduction
This last weekend has reminded me of the necessity of classical education and of the fact that we still have work to do, speaking of which, I look forward to seeing many of you in Nashville next week. So last Friday I posted an article entitled “Israel is Our Apostate Brother,” and as I told one friend, it was like catnip for internet anons. And let me be clear, I don’t mind the honest questions at all. I don’t mind even very direct disagreement that engages the actual arguments. Happy to spar. But the funny thing was the number of unhinged comments, completely disconnected from reality. I lost track of how many comments accused me of taking money from Israel. There were other comments speculating that said-non-existent-money was how Canon Press was able to offer 10 Million for Christianity Today (ha!). Other comments accused me of “shilling for Israel” and spouting “Zionist slop” and “selling my soul.”
But look, if I had to guess, most of those comments are coming from people who have listened to three podcasts about alleged Israeli corruption and interference in American politics (OK, maybe four). But here’s the deal: when I visited Israel, I was meeting with conservative Jews who *acknowledge* Israeli corruption. They were not hiding the fact that Israel has been dominated by progressive and globalist socialists. They actually invited one such member of the Knesset to talk to us so we could hear directly from the horse’s mouth.
I was invited to Israel because these conservative Jews know that there is deep state corruption and conspiracies in both of our nations, and they want our respective nations to be truly free, independent, and self-determining. They are Israeli/Jewish nationalists who want to establish an Israel-First doctrine, even as they want and respect the need for America to be America-First (and Christian). These are conservative Jews who would want to see all the ponzi-cash games and blackmail to stop.
But I Repeat Myself
What I wrote in my article is that Israel is a cut-off natural branch, a disinherited old covenant brother. And the only way back into God’s blessing is through Jesus the Messiah. I don’t know how to be more clear than that. My *only* point was to take Paul’s language in Romans 11 seriously: “As concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes: but as touching the election, they are beloved for the fathers’ sakes. For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance” (Rom. 11:28-29). Yes, I fully realize that some good Reformed brothers take the central claim of Romans 11 — of a re-grafting-in of Jews into the covenant vine as something that already happened in the first century AD, prior to the destruction of the temple. But you should know that the futurist position has been a mainstream view in the Reformed tradition. If what I wrote is shilling for Israel and you call yourself Reformed, you’re accusing much of your own tradition. And this tradition is not dispensationalist. Let me repeat that: I’m not a dispensationalist. I’m what I guess you could call a “soft supersessionist.”
But even if you take the “in-grafting” of Romans 11 as already fulfilled, I’m still not sure how Romans 11:28-29 can possibly mean that modern Jews are absolutely no different than any other pagan: “The gifts and calling of God are without repentance.” Some translations say “irrevocable.” How can they be “irrevocable” if they were in fact “revoked” at 70 AD? Israel lived in exile in the Old Covenant for hundreds of years without temple, without sacrifices, and yet God restored them. Why couldn’t He restore them to Himself after thousands of years, if they turn to Christ?
At any rate, I also wrote that as with any apostate family member or friend, the apostasy really matters. Given the apostasy, there would be any number of tensions, disagreements, and perhaps even periods of time where there was little-to-no contact. How could this be taken as anything other than implying the same thing about modern Jews and the modern nation of Israel? And while I agree that Jews and the modern nation state of Israel are not necessarily synonymous, they do heavily overlap. To the extent that Israel self-consciously considers itself Jewish, that overlap is hard to disentangle. Bur regardless, depending on what they’re doing, it could be necessary to oppose them, resist them, reject them, or avoid them entirely. If that’s “shilling for Israel,” that’s some 4D chess for you, and I have no idea how it works. Faithful are the wounds of a true friend, and we are no “friend” of Israel if we do not resist every form of corruption and blasphemy.
And Another Thing
One of the other slanders raised in the aftermath of our recent CrossPolitic episode was that I am calling modern Israel some kind of bulwark against the LGBT movement. Ha. Double ha. A number of “helpful” people have been linking news stories of Pride Parades from Haaretz and other progressive propaganda rags to help me see the error of my ways. Look, I *know* that Israel has been a progressive haven. I acknowledged the Pride Parade in Tel Aviv on our CrossPolitic show. Heck, I saw the Pride flags in Tel Aviv with my own two eyes. But I also saw a Trump flag in Jerusalem, for whatever that’s worth. A bunch of you didn’t listen to the whole show and listened to slander about it and then spread that slander around like a bunch of gullible old ladies.
What I said was that there is a “conservative resurgence” in Israel that is a frontline against all forms of barbarism — including LGBT perversions in Israel. Slow down and try to breathe: “a conservative resurgence in Israel.” I’m talking about people I met personally who take the 10 Commandments seriously, believe in natural marriage, male and female, the blessing of children, are pro-life, and are working for constitutional law and justice. And what I said on the show was that insofar as global LGBT perversions align with Hamas and Islamic barbarism (witness all the Palestinian flags next to Pride flags), the conservative Israelis are on the front line of that battle. Read my words carefully. Think about what I’m actually saying, not the bad thing you wish I were saying so you could keep screeching. I know there are massive forces of progressive perversion in Israel, and I know that our American progressive perverts are in bed with them (literally and politically and economically). But there are *some* conservative Israelis fighting back. For example, did you know that there is an anti-Pride parade in Jerusalem every year? Don’t you think that matters? Israel also has the highest birthrate among Western nations. Doesn’t that matter at all?
A number of bots (I believe this is the most charitable reading) wondered if I had “kissed the wall” and of course several AI generated photos appeared with yours truly wearing a kipah. But if anyone had cared to actually listen to our CrossPolitic episode on our trip to Israel, you would know that we closed the episode describing the incredibly sad scene at the Western Wall, and how I cannot describe it as anything other than a form of lost superstition. But it is also true that God gave me a deep compassion for the Jews, a deep sorrow for them, and for our friends in particular, a true love for them and prayer for their salvation in Jesus Christ. A bunch of the hysteria surrounding these recent conversations appears to me to be nothing but unfettered rage and hate. If you can’t write a coherent response to a pastor on social media without gnashing your teeth and spitting at your screen, yeah, I’d call that real live antisemitism. And ironically the same “hate” you seem to want to expose in the Jews is growing like a malignant tumor in your own heart. Remember the old saying, bitterness is like eating rat poison and hoping the rat dies. Talk about shilling for Israel, only very ironically.
Conclusion: A Way to Hold it All Together
Look, it’s possible to assume that there is great corruption and conspiracy at the highest levels of societies (CIA, FBI, Mossad), as I do — heck, if there’s a deep state in the US, why wouldn’t there be deep states in other countries, including Israel? It’s possible to believe that, and to also believe that God sits in Heaven and laughs at all their pitiful attempts to conspire against gravity, basic math, and the Lordship of Jesus Christ — as I also firmly believe. This means that Christians should work to expose, resist, and destroy every vestige of that corruption (in America, Israel, England, and wherever we’re entangled), but they should do so while believing that Christ is King and the machinations of men are futile, worthless, and vain.
And closely related to all of this is the fact that I believe every nation on earth has demented elements that must be resisted, rejected, and destroyed. And I believe that every nation on earth has elements that are either good and glorious or else natural goods that can and should be redeemed. America, England, France, China, and the modern nation of Israel have elements of these things: some true Christian glories, some demented and foul sins and idols, and some natural goods that are not yet redeemed in the blood of Christ. Natural goods are always a bit dicey to praise and affirm. On the one hand, we should be truly grateful for the common grace that allows unbelievers to produce good things for the world, like inordinate numbers of Nobel Peace Prizes. On the other hand, we have to recognize that natural goods are also sources of pride that keep many out of Heaven because they think they don’t need Jesus. So it takes wisdom. By the same token, I can be thankful for Israel’s resistance to Islamic barbarism, and at the same time uneasy about the likelihood of nationalistic hubris that denies the need for Jesus Christ. The true form of every nation is found in Christ, and apart from Christ, no amount of common grace can overcome the demented elements — and that’s true for America, as well as Israel.
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