Jerusalem the Capital of State of Israel? Bible says so???

A petition to sign up in support of Jerusalem as capital of the State of Israel, because the Bible says so ... Christianity.com ...

Here's my note in reply:

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Oh please, this is just baloney, and bad Bible as well.

Israel, as a religious/political entity, hasn't existed since Babylon tore down the walls in 568 BCE.

The political State of Israel has existed only since 1948.

It has no more claim to Jerusalem than anyone else.

Jerusalem, in fact, should be an international city, shared by all of Abraham's children.

Come on gang, you're mouthing the stuff of radical Zionism, and crazy dispensationalism, philosophies denied and repudiated by many Jews and Christians.

If you truly claim to follow Jesus who said of the temple: it'll soon be done! and overturned its tables, then you can no longer abide by these foolish claims and political ambitions.

The State of Israel is no more or less than any other political entity anywhere. To claim divine dispensation for its political ambitions is a violation of Scripture and the world-wide love of God for all the nations.

Israel's crimes, funded by the US, against Palestinians have intensified over the last ten years, including a systematic effort to rid the country of Arab Christians.

Right now, it seems the State of Israel is increasingly under the grip of radical Orthodoxy - a group of people and ideas no different than any other radical group hiding behind the skirts of God.

In Christ, for Christ and with Christ,

Rev. Tom Eggebeen

Los Angeles, CA.

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On Sep 25, 2012, at 6:57 AM, Christianity.com Presents wrote:

	Over 3,000 years ago, Jerusalem was recognized as the capital of the Jewish people.  Yet today, the United States government, in defiance of a law passed in 1995, refuses to  recognize Jerusalem as the capital of the nation of Israel. Every other nation in the world is  allowed to designate their own capital…except for the Jewish state.  Stand with us, the Jerusalem Prayer Team, as we launch the Jerusalem DC (David’s Capital)  Campaign to call on the American people to recognize Jerusalem - the entire, undivided Holy City -  as the capital of Israel, and to do so publically.

Jesus, the Temple Cleansing and OWS

The Jerusalem Temple was Judah's central bank and financial institution.

It traded in commodities: sheep, lambs, goats, bulls, doves and grain - thousands of animals slaughtered, and while some of the meat was entirely consumed in the fires of sacrifice, most of the meat was sold in the market, and much of the grain was made into flour and bread for the Temple employees, along with some of the meat, cooked right there. It was a huge enterprise, and only got bigger on the Festivals, especially The Passover, when tens of thousands of pilgrims made their way to Jerusalem from all over the Roman Empire.

The Temple was where financial records were kept - loans and ownership, to which Jesus refers when he speaks of the "legal experts" (Matthew 20.45ff) who cheat widows out of their homes and then walk around in "suits" - long robes, and say long prayers.

It was no accident that when Bar Kochba led a revolt (132-36) against Rome, they stormed the Temple and burned all the financial records, which, in effect, brought about the Jubilee, or the Year of the Lord's Favor (noted by Jesus in his hometown sermon in Nazareth).

Debt was a huge issue for the people - so it's no accident that Jesus zeros in on the wealthy and says, "It's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God."

It is no coincidence that Jesus uses "debts" in the Lord's Prayer, in spite of the fact that some English translations prefer the word "trespass," or "sins" - the word would have caught the ear of many a listener. Clearly, there's a double meaning here: the spiritual debts incurred to God by our many failures, the breaking of covenant with God; but for the people to whom Jesus was speaking, the burden of debt was always in mind, as it is for us. And the center phrase, "as we forgive our debtors" would surely have been the Jubilee dream of a fresh start for all, free of the crushing burden of debt - the moral and spiritual debt to God, and the burdens of financial debt - for both the debtor and the creditor.

When Jesus storms into the Temple upon his arrival in Jerusalem (the Synoptic Gospels; John places the Temple cleansing early in the story) and overturns the money-changing tables, he's going after the central financial system of Judah ... claiming that Judah had, in fact, made mammon it's god.

If Jesus were to do the same thing today, would he storm into a church somewhere?

Not likely.

He'd more likely storm into a bank lobby and break a few things.

Would he join the ranks of OWS?

The poor, the outcast, the debtors?

What do you think?

Rowan Williams

The current flap about Rowan Williams, head of the world-wide Anglican Church, over his remarks about Sharia Law in Britain, has rightly brought a loud cry of debate, but I'm struck by one of the voices consistently heard when a clergy makes a suggestion that runs counter to accepted practice - "he's naive."

I chuckle when I hear it. And I counter: "Who's naive?"

Rowan Williams isn't naive; he may be wrong, he's likely bold and brave, but naive? Never!

I think politicians and bureaucrats, corporate and government attorneys, and all the machine functionaries are naive, surprised when someone counters their take of things, when someone dares to offer a alternative scenario.

I suspect the bigwigs of Jerusalem said of Jesus, "He's naive" as they patted one another on the back, had another martini and checked their portfolio.

But history amply proves the point: they were tragically naive - they couldn't see the handwriting on the wall, they couldn't add up the realities cascading in upon them, they were blinded by the narrow boundaries of their own power and temporary success.

Pilot was disgraced and banished. Jerusalem fell under the iron fist of Rome, and Rome went the way of all empires.

Who's naive?

Certainly not Rowan Williams!