Well now, I don't wanna get mad in a biblical place like this.

Today is the 60th birthday of the modern nation of Israel, which became a nation on May 8, 1948.

That one event, perhaps more than anything else, I contend led to the rise in popularity of the dispensational, pretribulational rapture view of the end times and Jesus' 2nd coming.

One of the things I find particularly interesting is the popular opinion in Christian circles that the US needs to be nice to this nation of Israel in order to benefit from the Abrahamic Covenant and to not be cursed by it.

You may recall God's promise to Abraham:

"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, ESV

Thus, for many evangelicals their foreign policy has the priority that the US be nice to Israel.

But is this a valid application/understanding?

Is it not those who are of the faith (i.e., Jews and/or Gentiles) who are the true children of Abraham?

28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.
-Galatians 3:28-29, ESV

Did not Jesus tell the Jewish Pharisees that they were not children of Abraham, but children of the devil?

39They answered him, "Abraham is our father." Jesus said to them, "If you were Abraham’s children, you would be doing the works Abraham did, 40but now you seek to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. This is not what Abraham did. 41You are doing the works your father did." ... 44 You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires.
-John 8:39-41, 44, ESV

So, wouldn't it stand to reason that God's blessing is upon those who respond rightly to the children of Abraham, that is Christians?


Just a thought, but shouldn't there be greater concern for the future of the nation with regard to how it treats Christians than how it treats the nation of Israel?

Nonetheless, Happy Birthday, Israel. I mean you no ill will on your special day.