On God's side

". . .You might even be found opposing God!" (Acts 5:38-39).

This is a scary thought, isn't it---to pour all your guts into a cause and then find out that you were on the wrong side. This is the specter Gamaliel raises before the Jerusalem Council, who are hell-bent on snuffing out the mad ramblings of 12 men turning the world upside-down about some person named Jesus supposedly raised from the dead.

Paul knew the feeling. He was raised to be a Pharisee of Pharisees---till knocked off his feet on the Damascus road with the revelation that his Moby Dick was the way and the truth and the life.

And so, with President Obama cozying up to Muslim nations and seeming to snub Israel, I am feeling confused all over again about what my posture should be toward Israel.

According to Pat Robertson:

"Evangelical Christians support Israel because we believe that the words of Moses and the ancient prophets of Israel were inspired by God. We believe that the emergence of a Jewish state in the land promised by God to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob was ordained by God. We believe that God has a plan for this nation which he intends to be a blessing to all the nations of the earth"

That's one side of the argument. But what keep giving me indigestion are the Bible verses typically adduced for this position: "I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the countries and bring you into your own land. I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleanness, and from all your idols I will cleans you. And I will give you a new heart . . . and cause you to walk in my statutes . . ." (Ezekiel 36:24-27).

To be sure, God isn't through with Israel (Romans 11). But for the moment the Ezekiel 36 shoe fits only halfway: The Jews have returned to the land, but Benjamin Netanyahu's Israel is no more walking in his statutes than Sweden. So what do you do? Do you ignore Part B and hope that "if you build it their hearts will come"? Do you "help" God out that way? Or is that approach uncomfortably reminiscent of Abraham helping out the prophecy by sleeping with Hagar?

Who is Israel, anyway? Part of our problem is the Bible's ambiguity about the word "Israel." Sometimes God talks as if the true Israel is not folks of the bloodline of Abraham but of the faith of Abraham (Galatians 3:7). But then just when I have decided to dismiss the geo-political entity called Israel, God talks longingly about her future restoration (Romans 11, Psalm 80).

We Christians have a responsibility to Israel, but what is it? To be cheerleaders for her current Messiah-rejecting government, or to preach to her the gospel? If you tell me it's both, then how do you pull that off? How do you bankroll her without giving her (and the world) the impression that you are behind her without qualification? Or without tipping her off that she is completely lost unless she repents?

If you then tell me that evangelicals support Israel because she is, as Pat Robertson said, "an island of democracy . . . in the midst of a sea of dictatorial regimes . . . and a fanatical religion intent on returning to the feudalism of 8th century Arabia," that's fine as long as you're aware that you just switched horses. Democracy is an entirely separate reason for supporting her.

And if it's a true reason, then presumably you will be prepared to revoke your support if she is ever found to be not so democratic. "The political support for the nation of Israel is a distinct issue," said Vern Poythress, "and should be qualified by the standard of the justice of God." That is, you apply the same yardstick to Israel's behavior as to any other nation's: Does she honor her treaties? Does she treat her citizens with equity? Is she engaged in genocide? Etcetera.

"I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed" (Genesis 12:3).

If that promise and threat still apply, I sure want to be found on the right side of history when the end comes.

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