Mr
William Federer would have us believe that a whole host of catastrophes visited
upon cities, empires, rulers, etc. for the last 2,000 years are the result of
efforts to take land away from the Jewish people in the Middle East. Here is just one ensample (bold text in the
original):
As part of a U.S. brokered
"disengagement" deal, on Tisha B'Av, 2005, Jews began
to be forcibly evacuated from Gaza.
The last Jewish residents
were dragged out on August 22, 2005. The very next day, a tropical
depression in the Atlantic turned into Hurricane Katrina and headed
straight for New Orleans, forcing tens of thousands to evacuate.
Property damage in New Orleans exceeded
$81 billion.
Nearly 2,000
people died. It was one of the deadliest hurricanes in U.S. history.
However,
if it could be shown that Israel according to the flesh had lost her right to
the land she had dwelt in for so long, then we would have to re-evaluate the
causes of those disasters listed by Mr Federer. The Orthodox priest Fr Lawrence Farley has
shown just that. He writes,
. . . Thinking about the catastrophe that
befell Israel in 70 A.D. when the Temple was destroyed and the people of Judea
scattered through all the world, I would like to make two points.
The first point
involves the promises of God made to Israel through the prophets. The promise
was made over and over again that God would bring Israel back from the lands of
their captivity after the disaster of 586 B.C., and would raise up the Davidic
Messiah under whom they would finally find peace and security. . . .
The promise, plan,
and progression are clear—after the return from the Babylonian exile Israel is
regathered to the Promised Land, where the Davidic King Messiah reigns over
them, and under his rule Israel is finally safe from future threat. Note: the
return from the Babylonian exile forms the background for this regathering and
Messianic safety. If Jesus was the promised Messiah and if the Kingdom of God
was not of this world (as He taught), then all was fulfilled as the prophets
foretold: after the Babylonian exile, Israel returned to their land, the
Messiah came on time, and established a Kingdom of transcendent spiritual
peace. But if Jesus was not the Messiah—if the Messiah is still yet to
come—then the words of the prophets proved false, for the Messiah did not come
on time after the Babylonian exile. After the Babylonian exile, Israel was
indeed regathered after the catastrophe of 586 B.C. but then yet was again
scattered after the even greater catastrophe of 70 A.D. This post-70 A.D. thus
represents the terminus ad quem for the coming of the Messiah. For the prophets
did not simply promise that God would send the Messiah, but them He would send
the Messiah after the return from the Babylonian captivity.
The second point
involves the cause of the catastrophe of 70 A.D. when the Temple was razed,
Jewish nationhood lost, and its people led captive to all nations (Luke
21:23-24). The Law of Moses contains God’s covenant with Israel, and in this
covenant God promised to bless His people with prosperity, security, victory,
and peace if they would obey Him (Deuteronomy 28:1-14). He also promised that
if they disobeyed Him and broke His covenant, He would curse them, sending upon
them drought, famine, pestilence, and defeat, culminating in the scattering of
the nation to the four corners of the earth (Deuteronomy 28:15-68)—indeed, God
would “scatter them among all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other”
(v. 64). This theme and threat was the constant theme of the prophets:
obedience would bring prosperity and security, while disobedience would bring
disaster and exile.
The events of 586
B.C. proved the truth of the prophets’ words and the reality of the divine threat.
Israel disobeyed God, filling the land with injustice and turning from God to
idols, and for these sins God allowed the Babylonians to destroy the Temple,
destroy their nation, and take the majority of the people into exile. This
exile lasted until 538 B.C., when under Cyrus the Persian as many as wanted to
could return home to begin to rebuild the shattered nation and its Temple.
Given this covenant
with its cause-and-effect of obedience leading to victory, and disobedience
leading to defeat the question arises regarding the cause of the unprecedented
defeat of 70 A.D.—specifically what disobedience, rebellion, and sin could have
caused that catastrophic defeat. A view of history which excludes the
cause-and-effect promised in the Mosaic covenant will not seek any spiritual
cause at all, but will root the disaster solely in political and military
concerns. But as we have seen, Israel was not like the other nations, and its
fortunes were determined by their obedience or disobedience to their covenant Lord.
So, the question remains: what disobedience in Israel prior to 70 A.D. could
have caused that disaster?
The Christian answer,
based on the words of Jesus, is clear: Israel suffered such a disaster because
it rejected its Messiah, both at the time of the crucifixion and in the
generation following when Israel had a chance to repent of its national
repudiation of Christ. The Lord said so plainly: “The days will come upon you
when your enemies will cast up a bank about you, and surround you and hem you
in on every side, and dash you to the ground, you and your children within you,
and they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know
the time of your visitation” (Luke 19:43-44). If this Christian answer is
rejected, what other answer is left? The disaster that befell Israel in 70 A.D.
was much greater than the disaster of 586 B.C., for after the latter disaster
the Temple was rebuilt within a hundred years, while even now the Temple which
was destroyed in 70 A.D. has not been rebuilt. Accordingly, the sin which led
to the disaster of 70 A.D. must have been much greater than Israel’s pre-exilic
idolatry. If one takes seriously the words of the Mosaic Law then one must
conclude that Israel did something of unprecedented enormity to warrant such a
disaster. Only the Christian answer fits: Israel rejected its Messiah and paid
the terrible penalty.
When one situates the
disaster of 70 A.D. within the covenantal framework of the Law and the
Prophets, the lessons of history are clear: Jesus of Nazareth was the promised
Messiah. He came on time as the prophets said, and His rejection caused the
greatest disaster ever to befall the Jewish people.
Because
of their disobedience, their rejection of the Christ, the Jewish people have indeed
forfeited their right to their ancestral land, and there is nothing in the
words of the Lord Jesus, the Holy Apostles, or the Holy Fathers that indicate they
will ever recover them. Enter the Church
they may (and we hope they do), but a Jewish homeland in the Middle East is no
longer promised to them.
We
are left, then, with a great big bundle of false signs strung together by Mr
Federer. And this begs the
question: Why the obsession with signs
proving the chosenness by God of both the Jewish people after Christ’s birth
and Yankee America as the two exceptional, indispensable nations of the
world? Because deep down, both know they
are not chosen by God, but rather stand condemned because of their apostasy
from the Orthodox Church. Therefore,
they try to bury these thoughts by looking for, or making up, signs and
prodigies everywhere. But repentance
would be a far more fruitful task for them, so that they may unite with the
True Israel, the Orthodox Church:
Ver.
15, 16. For neither is circumcision any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new
creature. And as many as shall walk by this rule, peace be upon them, and
mercy, and upon the Israel
of God.
Observe
the power of the Cross, to what a pitch it has raised him! not only has it put
to death for him all
mundane affairs, but has set him far above the Old Dispensation. What can be
comparable to this power? For the Cross has persuaded him, who was willing to
be slain and to slay others for the sake of circumcision, to leave it on a level with
uncircumcision, and to seek for things strange and marvellous and above the
heavens. This our rule of life he calls a new creature, both on account of what
is past, and of what is to come; of what is past, because our soul, which had grown old with the oldness of sin, has been all at once renewed by baptism, as if it had been created again.
Wherefore we require a new and heavenly rule of life. And of things to come,
because both the heaven and the earth, and all the creation, shall with our
bodies be translated into incorruption. Tell me not then, he says, of circumcision, which now avails nothing; (for how shall
it appear, when all things have undergone such a change?) but seek the new
things of grace.
For they who pursue these things shall enjoy peace and amity, and may
properly be called by the name of Israel. While they who hold contrary sentiments,
although they be descended from him (Israel) and bear his appellation, have yet fallen
away from all these things, both the relationship and the name itself. But it
is in their power to be true Israelites, who keep this rule, who desist from the
old ways, and follow after grace.
--St John Chrysostom,
Homilies on Galatians (commenting on ch 6, vs 15 & 16; bolding added), http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/23106.htm
--
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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