Palestine and the Cosmos: Reading the Bible with Paul
Written by Stephen Taylor Monday, 17 November 2014 00:00
Events in Israel-Palestine have recently been overshadowed by the horrors in Syria and Iraq, but the tragedy of the Holy Land continues unabated. Even today (at the writing, Oct. 28, 2014) The Philadelphia Inquirer ran a brief article on the pledge of Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, to continue building in East Jerusalem (p. A5). “[T]hese places will stay in Israeli sovereignty under any agreement,” he is quoted as saying.
Sadly, a majority of American evangelicals continues to regard Netanyahu’s stance as fully justified. With some notable exceptions, evangelical leaders and pundits are reluctant to focus on the suffering of Palestinian Arabs, many of them Christians, in this long ordeal. For some this reluctance is based on a complex set of considerations, but for nearly all – including the minority just mentioned – the prophetic promises to Israel enumerated in the Old Testament play a major role.
The question is: are Bible-believing evangelicals reading their Bibles as Christians should? I don’t think so. And in this and a subsequent post, I will try to explain why.
Read more at http://biblical.edu/faculty-blog/96-regular-content/975-palestine-and-the-cosmos-reading-the-bible-with-paul
Events in Israel-Palestine have recently been overshadowed by the horrors in Syria and Iraq, but the tragedy of the Holy Land continues unabated. Even today (at the writing, Oct. 28, 2014) The Philadelphia Inquirer ran a brief article on the pledge of Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, to continue building in East Jerusalem (p. A5). “[T]hese places will stay in Israeli sovereignty under any agreement,” he is quoted as saying.
Sadly, a majority of American evangelicals continues to regard Netanyahu’s stance as fully justified. With some notable exceptions, evangelical leaders and pundits are reluctant to focus on the suffering of Palestinian Arabs, many of them Christians, in this long ordeal. For some this reluctance is based on a complex set of considerations, but for nearly all – including the minority just mentioned – the prophetic promises to Israel enumerated in the Old Testament play a major role.
The question is: are Bible-believing evangelicals reading their Bibles as Christians should? I don’t think so. And in this and a subsequent post, I will try to explain why.
Read more at http://biblical.edu/faculty-blog/96-regular-content/975-palestine-and-the-cosmos-reading-the-bible-with-paul
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