Fulfilling God's Will ?
We found an article today that would really be funny if it wasn't so sad.
The author of the article Iran: The Religious Right's New Bugbear wonders if "Conservative Christian Evangelicals [are] Gearing Up to Join the the Attack-Iran Brigades?", and goes on to prove that this is the case. The arguments presented are highly interesting:
"On Sunday March 11, Pastor John Hagee, the founder of Christians United for Israel, received a rousing reception during his address at the opening dinner plenary of the annual American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) conference.
Hagee warned the crowd that "Iran poses a nuclear threat to the State of Israel that promises nothing less than a nuclear Holocaust." Hagee claimed that the situation is like 1938, only "Iran is Germany and [President Mahmoud] Ahmedinejad is the new Hitler."
Hagee added: "We must stop Iran's nuclear threat and stop it now and stand boldly [with] Israel, the only democracy in the Middle East.""
This proposed pre-emptive move is based, so they claim, on a biblical prophesy as found in the book of Ezekiel, Chapters 38 and 39. Following Joel Rosenberg in his interpretation, Christian Zionists Hagee claimed last July that "The United States must join Israel in a pre-emptive military strike against Iran to fulfill God's plan for both Israel and the West ... a biblically prophesied end-time confrontation with Iran, which will lead to the Rapture, Tribulation [...] and [the] Second Coming of Christ."
Well, let us shine the light of Scripture on such statements to test the spirits, as we are called to do (1Jn 4:1):
1. Ezekiel states that Israel will be attacked by a mighty enemy from the north, "Gog", that God will drag this enemy out by the jaw to attack Israel (Eze 38:3-4), that an evil scheme will come into the head of that enemy "Gog" to invade Israel (38:10-13). So bible prophesy does not at all support a pre-emptive strike, since it will not be Israel and her friends who attack "Gog", but the other way round, according to God's will. And this is done precisely BECAUSE God is against "Gog", for this attack will lead to Gog's destruction (38:18-22), and it will be absolutely clear that not the US and Israel will have destroyed "Gog", but God Himself (38:23). We cannot see how the proposed pre-emptive strike fulfills God's will at all, but it rather tries to take the initiative out of God's hands to attack someone who is supposed to be "Gog", though you really have to stretch it a lot to equate Ezekiel's "Rosh", which in most translation is simply rendered as "chief", with Russia, and stretch it even further to place the other two names mentioned in Eze 38:3 within Russia too.
The antichrist will not be overthrown by men, but by God (Dan 8:23-25). We should not forget that.
2. Hagee says that we have to "stop Iran's nuclear threat and stop it now and stand boldly [with] Israel", which means that he advocates that we should try to stop God from what He said He would do in the final days. Well - if we are honestly waiting for Christ's return, are trying to read the signs of the times properly and not be deceived (have a look at Matthew 24 and 25 to learn how Jesus tells us how to know the signs), but repent now, live according to God's will, and flee to the mountains as soon as we see the abomination that causes desolation standing in the holy place (Dan 9:27; Mat 24:15-18) - then we should be happy and rejoice that the day of Christ's Second Coming is close at hand, according to Rosenberg's and Hagee's interpretation of Ezekiel, and not try to stop God from doing what He said He would.
To claim that the idea of a pre-emptive strike against Iran and Russia is a fulfillment of bible prophecy is obviously not confirmed by the bible.
Technorati Tags: Russia, Iran, eschatology, end times, Rosenberg, Hagee, Gog, Magog, Joshuah's House, Iran, Iraq, nuclear, prophesy, Ezekiel, Christians United for Israel, AIPAC
The author of the article Iran: The Religious Right's New Bugbear wonders if "Conservative Christian Evangelicals [are] Gearing Up to Join the the Attack-Iran Brigades?", and goes on to prove that this is the case. The arguments presented are highly interesting:
"On Sunday March 11, Pastor John Hagee, the founder of Christians United for Israel, received a rousing reception during his address at the opening dinner plenary of the annual American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) conference.
Hagee warned the crowd that "Iran poses a nuclear threat to the State of Israel that promises nothing less than a nuclear Holocaust." Hagee claimed that the situation is like 1938, only "Iran is Germany and [President Mahmoud] Ahmedinejad is the new Hitler."
Hagee added: "We must stop Iran's nuclear threat and stop it now and stand boldly [with] Israel, the only democracy in the Middle East.""
This proposed pre-emptive move is based, so they claim, on a biblical prophesy as found in the book of Ezekiel, Chapters 38 and 39. Following Joel Rosenberg in his interpretation, Christian Zionists Hagee claimed last July that "The United States must join Israel in a pre-emptive military strike against Iran to fulfill God's plan for both Israel and the West ... a biblically prophesied end-time confrontation with Iran, which will lead to the Rapture, Tribulation [...] and [the] Second Coming of Christ."
Well, let us shine the light of Scripture on such statements to test the spirits, as we are called to do (1Jn 4:1):
1. Ezekiel states that Israel will be attacked by a mighty enemy from the north, "Gog", that God will drag this enemy out by the jaw to attack Israel (Eze 38:3-4), that an evil scheme will come into the head of that enemy "Gog" to invade Israel (38:10-13). So bible prophesy does not at all support a pre-emptive strike, since it will not be Israel and her friends who attack "Gog", but the other way round, according to God's will. And this is done precisely BECAUSE God is against "Gog", for this attack will lead to Gog's destruction (38:18-22), and it will be absolutely clear that not the US and Israel will have destroyed "Gog", but God Himself (38:23). We cannot see how the proposed pre-emptive strike fulfills God's will at all, but it rather tries to take the initiative out of God's hands to attack someone who is supposed to be "Gog", though you really have to stretch it a lot to equate Ezekiel's "Rosh", which in most translation is simply rendered as "chief", with Russia, and stretch it even further to place the other two names mentioned in Eze 38:3 within Russia too.
The antichrist will not be overthrown by men, but by God (Dan 8:23-25). We should not forget that.
2. Hagee says that we have to "stop Iran's nuclear threat and stop it now and stand boldly [with] Israel", which means that he advocates that we should try to stop God from what He said He would do in the final days. Well - if we are honestly waiting for Christ's return, are trying to read the signs of the times properly and not be deceived (have a look at Matthew 24 and 25 to learn how Jesus tells us how to know the signs), but repent now, live according to God's will, and flee to the mountains as soon as we see the abomination that causes desolation standing in the holy place (Dan 9:27; Mat 24:15-18) - then we should be happy and rejoice that the day of Christ's Second Coming is close at hand, according to Rosenberg's and Hagee's interpretation of Ezekiel, and not try to stop God from doing what He said He would.
To claim that the idea of a pre-emptive strike against Iran and Russia is a fulfillment of bible prophecy is obviously not confirmed by the bible.
Technorati Tags: Russia, Iran, eschatology, end times, Rosenberg, Hagee, Gog, Magog, Joshuah's House, Iran, Iraq, nuclear, prophesy, Ezekiel, Christians United for Israel, AIPAC
1 comment:
Thanks for writing,a nd for reminding me to enable comment moderation, which is in effect as of now ;-)
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