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Friday, January 13, 2017

Israel Hysteria



Evangelical Christians in the [u]nited States are unhinged.  Which usually means one thing:  not that the Church is under attack, but that the nation-state of Israel is (in this case, as they see it, by UN Security Council Resolution 2334). 

Such a mindset comes from a misunderstanding of who the true Israel is.  Seraphim Hamilton has some helpful words in this regard:

 . . .

I belabor this point for one reason: understanding that Jesus Christ is the one-man Israel allows us to understand the relationship of Israel and the Church. God has not cast off Israel, only to call a new people. Instead, God has focused Israel’s election onto one man—Jesus of Nazareth—who is faithful unto death and finds life in the resurrection. As a result, all who are “in Christ” are constituted as the “Israel of God” (Gal. 6:16–17). Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything; only a new creation. This is why Paul says that he “bears on his body the marks of Jesus.” The marks of Jesus are opposed to the ‘marks of circumcision,’ since to be ‘Israel,’ one must be ‘in Jesus.’ The only way to be ‘in Jesus’ is suffering with Him—a sentence-unto-death we all receive in the waters of baptism.

The restoration of Israel from exile took place in the resurrection of our Lord. As such, Israel’s identity depends on union with him. To deny that the Church is identical with Israel is to deny that God has fulfilled His promises in the crucified and risen Messiah. And that is why this is all so important: The true Israel is not Israel ‘according to the flesh,’ because “you are not in the flesh; you are in the Spirit” (Rom. 8:9).

 . . .

Proponents of a distinction between Israel and the Church often argue that to understand the Hebrew Bible on its own terms is to grant an ongoing, covenantal election of Israel in the flesh. But on the contrary, the opposite is true. If Israel is constituted by ethnic Jews and not the Church, God has failed in his promise.

Moses promised that there would be one exile and one return, and that return would be accompanied by the circumcision of the heart and the endowment of the Spirit. As N. T. Wright demonstrates in The New Testament and the People of God, Israel understood their exile as ongoing in the first century, having only partially ended with the return from Babylon. However, if a second exile began under the Romans in A.D. 70, then the words of both Moses and the prophets are thwarted. The Old Testament becomes a ‘lifeless, dusty, and mostly useless archive’ of promises that have failed. Only if the return from exile is constituted by the resurrection of Christ are the words of the prophets kept alive.

 . . .


Christopher Pisarenko also has some interesting thoughts on evangelicals and their support for the modern state of Israel:

. . . It is by no means accidental that the Puritanical belief that Americans are God’s Chosen People was then projected on to the Zionists. Indeed, more and more Americans came to consider the Jews as a special kindred people – as being like themselves. It is therefore easy to see how it is an integral part of American culture to be pro-Jewish – this has been true, historically, since the earliest days of colonial settlement, long before the official establishment of the state of Israel in 1948. Today, it is even highly doubtful whether a genuine American identity could exist without there being a firm pro-Jewish ethos in place, despite what the ever-dwindling numbers of paleoconservatives have to say. It all goes back to the civil millenarian tradition which arose out of a Puritanical religious source in the 17th century and then mixed with a late 19th century imperialist worldview.

Hence the fanatical support for Israel among evangelicals (aka Christian Zionists) in the United States. The evangelical belief in the rapture and Judeocentric prophecy interpretation, in addition to the central role which the Jews and the state of Israel play in the evangelicals’ overall belief system – all these fundamental pillars of the Christian Zionist worldview translate to mean that evangelicals (and Christian Zionists in general) have to support Israel and the Jewish lobby in America. It is quite literally a part of their religion – and I dare say the number one tenet of their entire Weltanschauung – to be pro-Israel. Their support for Israel is so important, in fact, that if Israel ever ceased to exist, their religion would be proven wrong. So the evangelicals/Christian Zionists must do whatever they can to support Israel in any way possible.

 . . .


The people of Israel, that is, those descended from the Abraham according to the flesh, are now no different from any other people:  They will be blessed if they enter the Orthodox Church, the Body of Christ, the True Israel, and they will be cursed if they refuse to do so.

Does the return of the Jews to Palestine mean anything prophetically, then, as the evangelical Dispensationalists are eager to claim?  Yes.  But it is not the blessing that they think it is:  i.e., moving us closer to the ‘rapture’ of the Church (which will not happen) and Christ’s Second Coming.  It is in fact a step toward the enthronement of Antichrist:

 . . . The initial phase of this plan [of Antichrist becoming world ruler--W.G.] will be the achieving of popularity among the Jews.  The Antichrist will put forth every effort to induce the Jews to acknowledge him as their promised messiah.  He will be successful in establishing a Jewish realm and will undertake also the restoration of the Temple of Solomon, realizing a dream the Jews have cherished for thousands of years.  Then, “compelled by the people, he shall be proclaimed king.  And the Jewish people shall love him much, and he shall reach Jerusalem and raise up their Temple” (Lenten Triodion, loc. cit.).  (Archpriest Boris Molchanoff, Antichrist, St. John of Kronstadt Press, p. 6)

Modern Israel is certainly acting the part of a friend of Antichrist.  Since the current state was established in 1948,

Christians in Jerusalem have gone from 50% of the population to under 4% (around 10,000);

Christians in all of Palestine have gone from 13-25% of the population to less than 2% (60,000 at most);

3,000 Christians have left Bethlehem since 2000;

the Ascension Church on the Mount of Olives was bulldozed by the Israelis in 1992;

1979 and 1995 witnessed the martyrdom of Christians at the hands Israeli Jews;

and in 2012 many Christian holy sites were attacked by the same (Saint Herman Calendar 2013: Orthodox Saints of Palestine, St. Herman of Alaska Brotherhood, pgs. 6 and 77).

The evil Elite’s efforts to transform mankind into subhumanity (as Fr Seraphim Rose called it in Nihilism) through various chemical, biological, radiological, etc. means (GM crops, Wi-Fi blasting everything, harmful vaccines, and all the rest) is preparing the world for the appearance of their false savior.  The adoration of evangelicals for the old Israel of the flesh is also helping.  May God help us all to repent, and save us.

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

Anathema to the Union!

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