Questions about the Israeli-Gaza flotilla debacle by Scot McKnight
The following is by New Testament scholar, Scot McKnight from his blog [link provided below]:
Here are my unanswered questions:
Was that boat, or the flotilla, properly contacted in advance to say the boats must pass inspection? Is this protocol?
Was Israel within its rights to inspect the boats? Were those on the boat told this would happen if they entered improper areas?
Was that landing on the boat by Israeli personnel a surprise or expected?
Were the Israeli personnel who landed on the boat aggressive in behavior?
Why were the “pro Palestinian activists” using pipes as weapons to beat others? Had those others threatened their safety?
Who first initiated violence?
Does Israel recognize the humanitarian issues among Palestinians? What is Israel doing about it? What are Arab countries doing about it?
Do the Palestinians want peace? Do the Israelis want peace?
Who are the mediators? Who will the peacemakers be? What will peace look like in the Land?
Does a stance of advocacy lead to “othering” the other? How can we be advocates and not other the Israelis or the Palestinians?
Now the big one: How should a follower of Jesus respond? We can no longer believe Israel’s becoming a landed nation again had anything to do with biblical prophecy, so the simple equation that Israel’s behavior is justified because it’s Israel must be jettisoned. Israel, too, must be brought before the bar of its own Torah. But how do we as followers of Jesus respond?
Read more: http://blog.beliefnet.com/jesuscreed/2010/06/unanswered-questions-about-isr.html#preview#ixzz0pdjBl7aC
Categories: Blog
I think we should look at all sides of the issue. From a biblical perspective, in my opinion, God gave israel that land and not some WWII treaty. even so, palestine never had any right to that land in the first place. the land is Israel’s and the fact that some other people own it is Israel’s fault for selling land for peace.
From a national defense perspective think Israel has a right to inspect ships entering its waters the same as our coast guard in America can inspect ships coming close to our waters. This is for public safety and well within their right. Especially since it has been proven now that palestinian group like Hamas have been tied to the flotilla directly and speculations are that they hired men to stage this event to make Israel look like an enemy of peace.
Why is Israel’s return not prophetic? I think Christians should support Israel..not blindly but we should support it. If only because it is the nation built upon our religious forefathers and the nation that holds the great city of Jeruselem which will be a city we will see in the future and Everything Jewish in history points to Jesus…. We know our brothers in Israel still need to recognize the Jewish messiah. Yeshua(Jesus) Romans 9 talks about Pauls love for the Jewish people and his wish for their repentance and belief. romans 11-11-25 talks about their unbelief and the fact that one day they will no longer have a hardened heart. So we should see them in the same way as paul,a jew, saw them. They are the natural root. the gentiles have been grafted into that root. One day that root will see the Messiah for who he is and it will grow as a beautiful olive tree. So we should hope for their return and acceptance of Jesus, their savior as well as ours.
by Timothy Moncrief on Jun 14, 2010 at 1:17 pm
Hi Tim,
Thanks for reading and commenting. I first want to note what I totally agree with in your comments:
“So we should see them in the same way as paul,a jew, saw them. They are the natural root. the gentiles have been grafted into that root. One day that root will see the Messiah for who he is and it will grow as a beautiful olive tree. So we should hope for their return and acceptance of Jesus, their savior as well as ours.”
Yes, absolutely. However, this is very different than backing a secular geopolitical entity known as “Israel” today. Modern Israel is not the same thing as Mosaic Covenant Israel in Scripture.
As for the issue of the land, I’m afraid this can’t be borne out from an overall reading of the whole Bible. Here’s a great summary that challenges the popular notion that God’s giving of the land to Abraham’s “seed” has anything to do with the modern political nation of Israel:
http://www.cc-vw.org/articles/zcs3.pdf
Blessings,
JM
by jm on Jun 14, 2010 at 2:27 pm
That was very insightful and I have heard many theories into this. Such a good discussion. But is he saying in the article that God had no part in the restoration of Israel?
“The fact is nowhere is a third re-gathering to the land explicitly mentioned in the Bible.”
The article seems to speak like God has cut off Israel and has no hope for their return and the Below is an article to argue otherwise.
http://www.wordofmessiah.org/may_04_1.htm
thanks for your response..though it might be where we differ in opinion..still it is a good discussion.
by Timothy Moncrief on Jun 14, 2010 at 3:41 pm
Thanks for the link Tim. I agree this is a good and necessary discussion that Christians should have. One problem I have with the position he takes in the article you linked is that he assigns events very arbitrarily as fulfillment of the various “stages” in Ezekiel’s vision. This, to me, is a very dangerous thing to do because it basically takes present-day political events and labels them as “God’s doing”…which then leads to the conclusion that if anyone opposes actions taken by such political entities they are, in effect, opposing God Himself and His plan for His people.
What further complicates the issue is that that section of Ezekiel is a prediction, initially, of the return of Israel from the Babylonian exile and the inauguration of the New Covenant (ch.36) which, we all agree, began with Jesus. Ezekiel’s vision concludes with an eschatological image of a temple-paradise following a final destruction of worldwide evil by God Himself (parallel to Revelation 20-21’s depiction of a paradise-Temple/Garden following the final defeat of evil and death itself by God Himself). So to try to pick events in current historyand label them “the fulfillment” of Ezekiel’s vision is, in my opinion, an exercise in arbitrary and subjective reading of things into Scripture. What we end up with is an ever-changing-labels system of theology (such as that of Hal Lindsey, Jack Van Impe, etc.) where events are shoehorned into a predetermined “prophetic timeline.”
I’d much rather leave the geopolitical details up to God’s sovereignty and in the meantime seek to be a peacemaker and speak for those who are suffering–regardless of nationality or political affiliation.
Good discussion, once again. Thanks for contributing!
by jm on Jun 14, 2010 at 6:30 pm