The many-faceted Israel (2)

I understand that some modern Jews do not even know that Jesus “the Nazarene” is a Jew, explaining his ministry from the Hebrew Scriptures and (uniquely) obedient to torah throughout his life. Christianity seems to be regarded by them as a Gentile heresy to which Jesus, or Paul, or both, “converted.”

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The many-faceted Israel (1)

If we consider Christians’ attitudes towards Israel, I suggested in my last post that there is a need to identify what they actually mean by the term “Israel.” The Bible gives a surprising number of options. Here I’m mainly going to list as many of the meanings as I can, and even then I may miss some. Today I’ll focus on the Hebrew Bible, with a follow-up post on the New Testament, and my conclusions, next time.

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Christian Replacement Zionism (or something)

The prominence of Israel’s conflicts against genocidal Islamism and an unexpected surge of Western antisemitism, together with my recent studies in the Jewish roots of Christianity through Seth Postell, David C Mitchell and others, have brought into focus the wide range of views about “Israel” amongst those calling themselves Christians.

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Luke – historian and literary stylist

Our church sermon and Bible-study series on the Book of Acts has reached chapter 12, and the miraculous escape of Peter from Herod’s prison.

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The generations of pre-adamic man

I came across a short clip of a discussion between the late Michael Heiser and Joshua Swamidass. It is on the Genealogical Adam theory Josh and I developed, he in the mainly scientific Genealogical Adam and Eve, and I in the almost simultaneously published, and primarily theological, Generations of Heaven and Earth.

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Fearfully and wonderfully bodged?

Back in October 2020, I participated in a Webinar organised by the Christian Scientific Society, which also included Stuart Burgess from the UK, and Fuz Rana, Scott Minnich and David Snoke from the US.

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Knowing God or hearing God

The current Charismatic claim (but only since the particular flavour of that theology that came in with John Wimber in the 1980s) is that God speaks to us during prayer if we listen hard enough. My response, so far unrefuted, is that nothing in Scripture teaches this (and what is not in Scripture is, of course, unscriptural teaching). But the justification for it is that Scripture may have been jolly good for “then,” but we need to hear God’s word for now.

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Omnicorruption week

Last week was, in my view, rather remarkable for the release of at least five massive tales of corruption and deception simultaneously. Most have attracted less attention than they deserve. All are profoundly depressing.

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Righteousness exalts a nation

Soon after the Epstein files were released, the MSM tried, apparently unsuccessfully, to launch a story that Epstein was actually employed by Russian Intelligence to create a honey-trap to uncover Western secrets.

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On miracles and miracle-workers

“Jesus worked miracles through the Holy Spirit. Christians have the same Spirit. Therefore they can do the same miracles.” This is the syllogism often put out by Bill Johnson of the Bethel Redding cult. It depends on an erroneous kenotic view of the incarnation and is proven useless by the trail of failed wonders and the fraudulent leg-lengthening, angel-feathers etc widely used by their acolytes as a substitute.

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