Israel debate

  I just watched a debate on Israel and the Iranian war on YouTube.

One of the participants was a man named Clinton Baldwin (Ph.D.).

Baldwin said that “Israel is the “most apartheid and cruel nation on the planet.” And they are “committing genocide” and “war crimes” and are “more wicked” and “brutal” than the Palestinian people.

I call this zeitgeist. It's just getting worse.

Baldwin said he was a Bible believer.

But more zeitgeist...

He went on to say—I guess he was making a connection with the issue of the debate, though this is really off topic-- that in the Old Testament where Israel was told by God to go in and possess the land of the Canaanites by destroying them was not really what God said to do, but was “the ancient authors putting words on the lips of God.” He said it was not “history” or “factual”: “God never told them to do such a thing.”

I don't know if Baldwin rejects the authorship of Moses of the Pentateuch (Jesus said Moses wrote about Him), but he would be saying that Moses lied about God's command to the Hebrews. But that would mean that Moses or the ancient authors—as he worded it—said that God would also destroy them, Israel, if they brought the abominations of the Canaanites into their homes.

Deuteronomy does prophesy that Israel would soon perish in the land because of their turning away from God. Did the “ancient authors” put this on the lips of God? Did Baldwin never read about the Assyrian and Babylonian captivities of the Hebrew nation for their idolatry and injustices?

Baldwin also goes on to claim that all the prophecies in the Old Testament concerning Israel that speak of their restoration into the land should of happened back then, but they never happened at all, and the prophecies only had meaning to them back then.

This approach to Scripture and the growing attitude towards the Jewish nation and people are all part of the spirit of the age. It's getting worse as I see it on social media, and not just among theological preterists and historicists and social liberals but among social conservatives.

I was just reading Deuteronomy Chapter 7 and 8 this morning... some excerpts:

¹² "Then it shall come to pass, because you listen to these judgments, and keep and do them, that the LORD your God will keep with you the covenant and the mercy which He swore to your fathers.

¹³ And He will love you and bless you and multiply you; He will also bless the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your land, your grain and your new wine and your oil, the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flock, in the land of which He swore to your fathers to give you.

¹⁴ You shall be blessed above all peoples; …

¹⁶ Also you shall destroy all the peoples whom the LORD your God delivers over to you; your eye shall have no pity on them; nor shall you serve their gods, for that will be a snare to you.

¹⁷ "If you should say in your heart, 'These nations are greater than I; how can I dispossess them?'—

¹⁸ you shall not be afraid of them, but you shall remember well what the LORD your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt:

¹⁹ the great trials which your eyes saw, the signs and the wonders, the mighty hand and the outstretched arm, by which the LORD your God brought you out. So shall the LORD your God do to all the peoples of whom you are afraid. ...

²² And the LORD your God will drive out those nations before you little by little; you will be unable to destroy them at once, lest the beasts of the field become too numerous for you.

²³ But the LORD your God will deliver them over to you, and will inflict defeat upon them until they are destroyed. …

²⁵ You shall burn the carved images of their gods with fire; you shall not covet the silver or gold that is on them, nor take it for yourselves, lest you be snared by it; for it is an abomination to the LORD your God.

²⁶ Nor shall you bring an abomination into your house, lest you be doomed to destruction like it. You shall utterly detest it and utterly abhor it, for it is an accursed thing. Remember the LORD Your God ​

¹ "Every commandment which I command you today you must be careful to observe, that you may live and multiply, and go in and possess the land of which the LORD swore to your fathers. …

that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the LORD.

Deuteronomy 7:12 - 8:3