WWW, wheels-within-wheels, continue to roll as dear Neil’s revisiting ‘RT’ and strong stand against anti-Semitism takes this blog full circle back to its beginning fourteen years ago in November when my emailing him and other friends on End-times went public. That month I’d already written about a broadcast theological debate and my very first item, after launching with a Welcome to the wider public, continued with a follow-up, viz

False theology and false history

As ever, ‘God-incidental’ timing is intriguing because Neil wrote his latest as a result of a “curious series of events happened over the weekend” (Psalm Sunday) exposing the need for a proper grasp of scripture’s relevance to our times, and he wishes to share:

“Saturday morning I attended a Men’s Breakfast…I went with no intention or expectation of speaking….

There was a guest speaker from America who I did not know, and have never heard. He started by saying that he had decided the best format for the meeting would be if we attenders where to ask any question we liked, and he would answer. There was a long silence; so, to break the ice, I asked “Do you think Gaza could be under the judgement of God?” there was another silence, then he said: “I don’t know about Gaza, but I think America is under judgement”.
I said: “I asked the question because the people of Gaza have been cursing Israel for at least 20 years, and probably 77. In the Bible God says that if you curse my people Israel you will be cursed: there must be an outcome”. He said: “it depends on who you think “Israel” is. It is not the land, it is the people of God who are now “Israel” and there is only one “people of God”. My comment: “that sounds like replacement theology”. He then said something about different dispensations and “grafted-in Theology”, at which point the host stepped in and said we needed to move on to other questions.”

The next day Neil was interrupted during conversation by someone saying she’d heard he’d been “controversial” at the breakfast – but the speaker was entitled to a different point of view. “I tried to explain that replacement theology is not just “a different point of view”. However, I could see I wasn’t going to get anywhere… I don’t know why what happened, happened, but I am convinced it was God engineered.”

The sadness is that very few people understood, or cared about, what had taken place. The woman’s belief that it was a fluffy little difference of opinion between two equally valid points, seems to be the consensus view.”

Such a clueless position, instead of taking a stand against hatred, it implicitly supports….

BBC and ANTI-SEMITISM

As a consequence of writing about ‘RT’ in November 2011 I noticed and posted many times in the blog’s first year on the BBC’s deeply biased reporting against Israel – hence the need for a BBC tag!

AND IT JUST SO HAPPENS that since Neil’s ‘God engineered’ encounters, relevant news emerged on Tuesday regarding a vastly overpaid sports ex-commentator:

Now, let’s get back to what holy scripture says, for this passage in Ephesians 2 featured the next day at a local house group:

Brought Near by His Blood

¹¹ Therefore remember that you, once Gentiles in the flesh—who are called Uncircumcision by what is called the Circumcision made in the flesh by hands— ¹² that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. ¹³ But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

Christ Our Peace

¹⁴ For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation, ¹⁵ having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, ¹⁶ and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity. ¹⁷ And He came and preached peace to you who were afar off and to those who were near. ¹⁸ For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father. (Ephesians 2 NKJV BibleGateway)

This points to God’s ultimate goal of all people, Jews and non-Jews, becoming united believers in Jesus Christ through His awesome grace. This is extensively explained in the books written to the Hebrews and the church in Rome.

SELAH!