Monday, March 4, 2019

Evangelicals and Syria


Because Evangelicals believe that Old Israel, Israel according to the flesh, rather than the Orthodox Church, the New Israel, the crucified, resurrected, glorified, and ascended Body of Christ, is the apple of God’s eye, they persist in dreaming up strange doctrines about the Middle East (which affect foreign policy).  One of the latest of these concerns Syria:

If anything positive comes out of Syria’s civil war, it could be the new government formed in the northeast part of the country. It's based on equal rights and religious freedom. 

This new government runs from the Tigris to the Euphrates rivers.  

"We have a political system that was based on a social contract between all the groups – Arabs, Kurds, Syriac Christians – and this social contract they articulated it how they wanted to live together as diverse ethnicities and diverse religions," Bassam Ishak, President of the Syrian Democratic Council, told CBN News

 . . .

"Much of our aspiration, actually, is in line with American Revolution.  We don't want a country where citizenship and rights are based on ethnic identities or religious identity.  We want all Syrians to be equal.  We believe they were all created by God equal and to be free," Ishak said. 

They also find inspiration in the Bible where the prophet Isaiah wrote of a holy highway from Assyria – part of modern-day Syria – through Israel and Egypt.    

Isaiah 19: 23-25 states:

In that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria. The Assyrians will go to Egypt and the Egyptians to Assyria. The Egyptians and Assyrians will worship together. In that day Israel will be the third, along with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing on the earth. The Lord Almighty will bless them, saying, "Blessed be Egypt my people, Assyria my handiwork, and Israel my inheritance."   

"This is actually our dream is that our – that the highway that the crescent will be the Isaiah crescent, Lord willing, because it's a crescent of love, of peace and prosperity and according to Isaiah when this Isaiah crescent is established.  It will be a blessing for the whole earth.  So we are really yearning for that Isaiah crescent," Ishak explained.

 . . .


This is the false Judeo-centric reading of Isaiah 19:23-5.  What is the true Christo-centric interpretation?  A Coptic priest, Fr Tadros Malaty, comes pretty close, we think.  He writes,

g.  As  the  conflict  between  Assyria  and  Egypt  was  flaring  at  that  time;  with  the  other nations  including  Israel,  victims  of  that  conflict,  the  coming  of  the  Lord  of  Glory  Jesus  Christ, brought peace to all, and let all - in Christ Jesus - feel that the earth belongs to the Lord and His Christ, and is not a center of conflict; All partake together of worship. In a magnificent portrayal of that peace, the prophet says, “In that day, there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria. The Assyrians will come to Egypt, and the Egyptians to Assyria, and the Egyptians will serve with the Assyrians. In that day Israel will be one of three with Egypt and Assyria, even a blessing in the midst of the land, whom the Lord of hosts shall bless, saying, ‘Blessed is Egypt My people, and Assyria the work of My hands, and Israel My inheritance.” (Is. 19: 23-25)

 What does he mean by “In that day,” that came about five times in the verses 18 to 25, other  than  the  “fulfillment  of  time,”  when  the  Lord  Christ  came  to  grant  us  these  blessings; came, to be “the Way,” in which all nations gather together, to enjoy spiritual unity, and a flood of blessings.

 What does the gathering together of Egypt, Assyria and Israel, to share the enjoyment of divine  blessing  and  eternal  inheritance  mean?  It  is  a  portrait  of  the  (catholic)  Church  that embraces the enemies together, in a spirit of love and unity. Israel, has been struggling between making  an  alliance  with  either  Egypt  or  Assyria,  the  two  major  forces  at  that  time.  But  the coming of the Lord Christ solved that problem. All became members in one Church, enjoying the divine  work,  to  have  Egypt  called  God’s  people,  Assyria  His  handiwork,  and  Israel  His inheritance.


False teaching abounds today.  Do your best to guard against it.

--

Holy Ælfred the Great, King of England, South Patron, pray for us sinners at the Souð, unworthy though we are!

Anathema to the Union!

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