WHO ARE ABRAHAM'S CHILDREN?
By Rev. Ted Pike
23 Mar 10
Christian evangelicals in America overwhelmingly supported creation
of the Jewish state of Israel in the 20th century. Today, they remain
its most fervent supporters. This is because the Bible tells us to
bless the “seed of Abraham,” and evangelicals have believed
this means his genetic descendants. Jews said they possess a divine
land grant to own and occupy Palestine because God promised Abraham, “Unto
thy seed will I give this land.” (Genesis 12:7) And evangelicals
agree.
But the apostle Paul, in Galatians 3, does not agree that
all racial Jews are blessed by God. He says the “seed of Abraham” is
singular, not plural. It refers only to Jesus Christ! It does not include
Abraham’s wicked posterity. Abraham was promised heirs who would
become as numerous “as the sands of the sea and the stars of
heaven.” But Paul says those heirs aren’t racial heirs
but spiritual ones who belong to Christ. They are righteous
Jews and Gentiles throughout the ages who trust and obey God like the
patriarchs did.
Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. He does
not say ‘and to seeds’ as referring to many but rather
to one, ‘And to your seed,’ that is, Christ …And
if you belong to Christ then you are Abraham’s offspring,
heirs according to the promise. (Galatians 3:16, 29)
Nowhere does the Bible say the promises of God—given individually
to the righteous patriarchs—unconditionally apply to unrighteous Jews,
including most of the 7 million in Israel today. God in fact refuses
to extend His covenant to wicked Jews because of a simple fact: Unrepentant
sinners of any race have no inheritance from a holy God—on earth
or in heaven. They can only expect God’s wrath.
Evangelicals misinterpret God’s blessing to Abraham and also
misread His curses. God told Abraham, “I will bless them that
bless you and curse them that curse you.” (Gen. 12:3) Most Christians
mistakenly fear that to criticize evil Jewish leadership is to “curse
God's chosen people.” Result: they unconditionally
support Israel's most egregious injustices. But this verse applies
to righteous Abraham and only to those descendants who also walk in
righteousness.
Palestine: Promised to Jews?
Yes, God did promise the land of Israel to Abraham’s
genetic descendants. But only obedient Jews can enjoy that inheritance.
Paul says someday a Jewish remnant will repent at Christ’s return; "the
Lord shall return to Zion and turn ungodliness from Jacob (Rom. 11:26).
The Promised Land is their birthright. Out of the dry bones of Jewish
unbelief, Christ will raise up a nation of saints (Ezekiel 37); and
for the first time in at least 2,000 years, believing Jews will be
divinely endorsed to occupy Palestine.
Unrepentant Jews are not blessed in this way. Christ-rejecting
world Jewry today does not have God’s favoritism, blessing or
protection. Paul says, “For not all who are descended from Israel
are Israel. Nor because they are his descendants are they all Abraham's
children." On the contrary, "It is through Isaac [through
faith] that your offspring will be reckoned" ( Rom. 9:6,7). Unbelieving
Jews are part of what Christ described as “the synagogue of Satan,
who say they are Jews but lie” (Rev. 3:9).
When He was about to be crucified by such wicked Jews, Jesus told
the Jewish nation they would never see Him again until they said, “Blessed
is He that comes in the name of the Lord” (Luke 13:35). He meant
it. Israel today cannot expect to see Christ’s guidance or protection
in her national life.
During the 20 th century, Jewish leaders rammed an arrogant, violent
return down the throats of the Arab world, inciting what has become
international Arab terrorism. The Jewish state was created through
terrorizing 800,000 Arabs into fleeing their ancestral lands and through
massive arms shipments from Stalin. Israel “saw” victory
in 1948, not by the hand of God but by the arm of the flesh. In more
than two dozen of the clearest Old Testament Scriptures, God says Jews
will be exiled if they disobey. They cannot reenter except in obedience.
[See footnote]
God’s conditional terms of covenant could not be more clearly
stated than in Deuteronomy 7:12.
Then it shall come about, because you listen to these judgments and
keep and do them, that the Lord your God will keep with you His covenant
and His lovingkindness which He swore to your forefathers.
God’s terms are as simple today as then: Jews, keep faith with
God, and God will keep His covenant with you. Forsake obedience and
lose His blessings and protections.
Will God Hear our Day of Prayer?
Interestingly, Orthodox Jews for 1,900 years agreed that God required
obedience from Jews to occupy the Promised Land. Although bitter about
the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD, they believed God righteously
exiled their fathers because they had disobeyed Him. Traditional Judaism
said when Israel’s messiah comes he will effect moral renewal
and “turn the hearts of the children to the fathers and the hearts
of the fathers to the children” (Malachi 4:6). Only a return
to wholehearted obedience to what Orthodox Judaism considers “God’s
law,” the
Talmud, would entitle Jews to reestablish a national homeland.
But these beliefs changed at the beginning of the 20th century.
Secular Zionist Jews like Theodore Herzl said obedience no longer mattered;
political action could fulfill Isaiah’s visions and make possible
Jewish occupation of Palestine. Today, only a small minority of ultra-Orthodox
Jews, such as Neturei Karta, still teach the demand for obedience.
Orthodox/secular Jews and most evangelicals agree it no longer matters.
Somehow God has forgotten or waived His demands laid down so extensively
and insistently in the Bible.
Yet God hasn’t changed. He said the Jews turned away from Him,
but He remained the same (Malachi 3:6). Those who have changed and
forgotten God's law are not only the Jews—but tens of millions
of evangelicals.
As American Christians prepare to observe the
National Day of Prayer on May 6, the question must be asked: "Could
the church's support of an ungodly return of Jews to Israel be viewed
as sin that prevents God from healing America?" Yes. Scripture
says, "If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear
me" (Psalm 66:18). The church has promoted spiritual lawlessness
regarding Israel. It has blessed an emerging anti-Christ system which
forbids the gospel, persecutes believers in Israel today, and lays
the foundation for eventual world government ruled by Israel's false
Messiah, Anti-Christ. (See, Christians
in Israel: An Endangered Species)
On May 1 (preceding the National Day of Prayer) evangelicals will
descend on the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. to observe "May
Day: a Cry to God for Our Nation in Distress." The agenda includes
an extensive list of national sins for which to repent. It does not
mention one of evangelicals’ greatest sins over the past century:
spurning God's clearest warnings that anti-Christ Jews must not own
and occupy Palestine. Generations of evangelicals have joined largely
atheist Jewish Zionists to trample God's law and, in turn, trample
the indigenous Palestinians, inflaming the whole Arab world against
not only America but also the gospel.
I completely support national prayer. But God may not answer the
prayers of those in blatant disrespect of His will. He honors people
He respects - those who do not support
evil, but hunger to know His law and keep it.
Footnote:
Scriptures requiring obedience to occupy Palestine include: Lev. 18:23-28,
26:27-46, Deut. 1:37, 4:26-7, 6:18, 7:12, 8:21,25,37,41,63-4, 29:28,31-3,18.
