Stand for Israel's Right to Exist!

Israel deserves to exist because it values its citizens. The Jews love each other and share a democratic government, even though they are divided about how to be a proper Jew. They even accept Christians, who haven't always been the best neighbors, and nearly a fifth of Israelis are Arab Muslims who, by the way, don't want to destroy Israel. 

Muslims under Israeli "oppression" are treated better than the Palestinians treat each other when given their own Islamic government. We will never believe that Palestinians want a two-state solution. They just want an excuse for hating Jews. They have been offered their own state many times, on the one condition: Acknowledge Israel's right to exist. Nothing else. They refuse every time. Instead they chant, "From the River to the Sea," a call for renewed genocide.

Even if you don't believe that God gave the Jews this land 3700 years ago, you have to see that a people who have been persecuted, murdered and chased from their homes, simply because they have a different faith, for 2000 years needs to have a homeland. They suffered terribly at the hands of the Nazis, so much so that the terms "genocide" and "ethnic cleansing" had to be invented, not to even mention "Holocaust." What kind of person so despises the Merciful God that they would refuse to allow them to live in the one place on Earth that they have always called "Home"? You claim that your God is merciful and compassionate, but you have none of it. The only attribute of Allah that you emulate is his lying.

And don't even go on about the "Nakba." Your grandparents ran to leave the country so that their Arab friends could invade and destroy Israel, and they wouldn't be in the way. They expected to return to clean up the slaughter and claim the spoils of war. I feel ZERO sympathy for the Palestinian refugees. Every Arab Muslim who stayed was given citizenship in Israel, and they are happy to be Israeli. The so-called refugees, after 75 years of self-imposed exile, need to disperse and take new citizenship with any Arab country that will accept them, if any will. Go live under your Sharia law, if you want. Or maybe, petition Israel to accept you, and swear to accept and defend Israel's existence. Your plight is your own fault.

There is no excuse for terrorism, no excuse for teaching your children to hate Jews, no excuse for hiding your fighters under hospitals, no excuse for sending your children out with bombs in toys to explode and die. Your young men throw rocks at soldiers and run away like cowards. And you subsidize terrorist "martyrs" by paying the families of those who commit suicide attacks. If any people on Earth deserve no sympathy, and no homeland of their own, it has to be the Palestinians. If the rest of the Muslim world objects, let them take them in and give them citizenship. They are rich, and they share their Islamic values. It would be no burden at all. Who wants to shelter some terrorists? But I guess, if anyone needs mercy more than they deserve it, it must be those who gave us Hamas.

So now, the situation has developed into war. We must pray that our God will make his ruling from Heaven with justice, mercy and love. For those who have truly suffered, justice; for those who deserve reproach, mercy; and for all involved, love. 

Oh, my Jesus, forgive us our sins. Save us from the fires of Hell. Lead all souls to Heaven, especially those who most need thy mercy. Amen. 

Are Bible Stories Really True?

Why argue over whether we all agree that God created the world in just six days? Have you never heard or used the words "eon" or "age"? An "eon" is like a billion years, more or less. For God, who is eternal, any long "open-ended extensive period of time" could be viewed as a single day. But since we are mortal and of short duration, we look at time very differently. The Bible, which tells about history, says that for God a thousand years is like a day and a day can be a thousand years. We too often think that God must think like men, when we need to learn how to think like God.

Science knows nothing about meaning or purpose. It only shows "how" God manages to do things. He observes the physical laws that He set down during creation. If you don't like God's methods, just remember that the world has been corrupted by an alien influence called "evil." There was already a war in Heaven before we were created. Still, God works everything together to fulfill his plans and insure that the final results will be good. We have to trust Him.

Always judge Man's ideas by God's Word. But, you also have to understand that the kind of Word reflects the kind of information being relayed and how the question was being asked. Four thousand years ago, they were not asking for scientific facts the way we do today. They wanted to know and understand God, his plans, and what He was doing in the world. So God explained in a fashion that they could grasp.

You're making a controversy over how the authors intended to pass on knowledge and wisdom, whether they were using metaphor or speaking literally. Most authors, and especially Moses, use both according to the subject and the need to accomodate the audience's worldview. His aim was for their edification first. Later, passing the stories on became enculturation.

Here's my take on the books of Torah: 

*Creation of the Cosmos & Earth* -- metaphorical. Moses wasn't a witness and would not have grasped the science if God had given him details.

*Adam & Eve* -- probably metaphorical, allowing that God chose one specific couple to use as an example to reveal our common problem with sin.

*The Great Flood* -- literal fact, within a limited point of view. This occurred all over the world. Lots of survivors, but only Noah and his family were chosen for a covenant.

*Tower of Babel* -- mixed facts with metaphor. Many people built ziggurat temples, but their deeds and intentions were not acceptable to God. So God kept them divided.

*Calling Abraham* -- a literal covenant, fact mixed with moralizing storytelling to establish God's purpose in history.

*Joseph & Hebrew captivity* -- late memory of literal facts. Akhenaten may have been Joseph's Pharaoh. Persecution of the remnant monotheists led to their escape. 

*Exodus* -- mostly literal, a return through the wilderness under Moses' reformation leadership. 

*Leviticus & Numbers* -- a literal collection of Moses' laws given to establish a national identity, and a record of the people who were to be included.

*Deuteronomy* -- a reformed copy of the covenant Law found in the Temple precincts during the reign of King Josiah.

*Conquest of Canaan* -- recounted in later books. Mostly literal fact, with moralizing content & point of view context. God is keeping his covenant by confirming it with historical deeds.

The entire Book of Genesis was inspired by God to tell the origin stories of the world, mankind, civilization, and the beginnings of the Hebrew people. It often glosses over scientific ideas that were too advanced, and occasionally writes history with a particular point of view. The author's intention was to develop a unifying story, and establish an authority adequate to allow the discipline of the Law, a legal system meant to instill an advanced sense of morality and a peculiar identity of the people of YHWH. Moses established a cult of Atonement, under the ostensible leadership of a singular God who hates idolatry but loves righteousness. Given a prophetic outlook, the nation conquered their territory and established a monarchy under that God, YHWH.

Further prophecies promised that a great leader, a "Messiah," would come to rescue us from oppression, and eventually establish a perpetual theocracy under the spiritual leadership of the transcendent Presence of the Creator/Word/Comforter who dwells in the human heart. Jesus came to fulfill the demands of the Law and the cult of Atonement, and to establish the spiritual dimension of love as moral emulation of God's justice and mercy. He gave us the Church as the basis for our growth in faith and love, and to comfort us during our inevitable contest with the surrounding pagan cultures. He promised to complete the remaining historical prophecies upon his return as the King of Heaven. 

And this is the Gospel proclaimed by those He chose as disciples:

God (YHWH) promised us a Messiah to lead

   us to goodness and Heaven. 

Jesus (Yeshua) is that Messiah (Christ). 

He is both fully God and fully Man.

He preached repentance & forgiveness. 

He did miracles as signs of his authority.

He was crucified and died to forgive us.

He was buried, and rose again from death.

He visited his disciples to show them that

   He is alive again, on several occasions. 

He ascended to Heaven. 

YHWH and Jesus sent the Holy Spirit down

   to dwell in us and guide us.

He promised to return and establish his 

   Kingdom, and to fulfill God's plan and 

   purposes for the world. 

That is the simple core of the Gospel, and it is the literal Truth. You can refer to either the Apostle's Creed, or the Nicene Creed. The message is the same. It comes from the Bible, especially the eyewitness Gospels in the New Testament. All of these have been examined and acknowledged as trustworthy. If you read them, you will see all of this with enough detail to lead you to faith and salvation in Jesus.

Don't divide the Church over squabbles about literal or metaphorical interpretations of the Torah. We are not omniscient now, and we never were. God gave us stories that we could understand 4,000 years ago. To insist that his words must be teaching undeniable scientific facts is absurd, and it's trying to put God in a box built of our own inadequate intellect. We need to learn how to think as God thinks, and to accept each other as his children. Don't presume to say that our salvation hangs on such minor details. Salvation comes only from God's mercy and grace, granting us the faith to put our trust in Him.