Regardless of whatever interpretation of the end times someone has, if they don’t support Israel, God is NOT going to bless them.
I second that face-palm. We should be getting all kinds of blessing due to the heat we are taking from the Muslim world in our support of Israel, the billions we pour into Israel in the form of financial aid, and the military and intelligence protection that has ironically bankrupted our nation. Has anybody cared to ask where Israel got materials for The Bomb and for their missile defense system? When it comes to any friend in the world to Israel, what name first comes to mind? Why are there more Jews with American passports than with Israeli? Where is our blessing!! And why was the US winning wars and growing mightily in wealth and land prior to 1948, but since then we have been falling apart and can't even win a war anywhere?
Recently I was treated to a link to video of some joker name John McTernan who spoke for an hour at some 2009 Prophecy Conference. I was provided this link because I openly questioned why Dysfunctionalists keep linking natural disasters to this concept of "cursing Abraham". This video has now convinced me that Premillennial Dysfunctionalism as it is now practiced isn't your father's Dispensationalism, it is totally unhinged and quite frankly the whole presentation was from the pit of Hell. I had to read some DeMar books and listen to Riddlebarger for a couple hours to relieve me of the demons that poured out from that message.
I did write down some notes, and then I spent some time contemplating what deranged line of thinking is required to get to where John McTernan is. I think I have distilled it down to this primary error - Dysfunctionalists have bastardized Genesis 12:3 so much that it retains none of its original meaning and it now acts as the foundation of their WWGC (Who Would God Curse) jewelry set and their universal "Commerce Clause" to condemn anyone who doesn't have an obsessive Jew fetish.
Before coming out and trash this fundamental doctrine of the Dysfunctionalist, it I it responsible to reach back into time and read the commentary of it through the ages. From the early writers until well into the 19th century it was universally held to be a poetic way for God to say, "Abram, trust me when I ask you to leave your home country, I will take personally how you are treated and respond in kind." Then I started reading some commentary from the non-reformed of the 20th century and while some retained this opinion, I noticed that the gratuitous opinion that "this could be extended to the Jews" was carefully added into the commentary. Reading Dysfunctionalist commentary, they completely departed from the centuries old majority view and just claimed "This means Jews".
Furthermore, the "bless those who bless you, curse him who curses you" part was not repeated by God to Isaac yet all of the other promises were. When Isaac blessed Jacob, he personally added "bless those who bless you" but did not restore the "curse". This is further scriptural evidence that the "blessing/cursings" promise was only to Abram and was a reward for his faith.
I also noticed that modern paraphrases tend to deviate from the Hebrew and traditional English translations. When the "Bless those who Bless thee...curse the man who curses thee" line in the Hebrew ('curse' here comes in two different words), the modern translations convert the singular "the man" who curses to the plural "those" who curse. Modern Evangelicals are largely illiterate and disinterested in details, so this change from the singular to plural escapes notice yet is critical to Dysfunctionalist doctrine of the God who throws bolts of lightning down from heaven at nations when a leader "curses Abraham".
If the original words were kept, then the worst thing that could happen when Bill Clinton met with the Syrian leader in Geneva would not be the Northridge Earthquake that killed people unrelated to the Clintons as God's "curse", but would be that Bill Clinton himself would drop dead on the spot.
But even that would be an unBiblical view of curses, since God doesn't "curse" in any manner similar to what the Dysfunctionalist Tempests claim. When George H W Bush met with Arab leaders in Madrid to discuss Israel, John McTernan claimed that this "curse against Abraham" resulted in Bush's Kennebunkport being damaged by storm, and a dozen or people getting killed by the freak 1991 "Perfect Storm" that occured hours after his proclamation about Israel.
Later in the presentation he literally blamed Katrina on the actions of George W Bush because Bush somehow "cursed Abraham" by talking to the Palestinians about the fate of Israel.
When God releases His Wrath on a people, He gives them ample warnings - like the people of Ninevah received. They were told by a Prophet of God that they corporately were to repent or be corporately destroyed. Dittos with the Pharoahs of Egypt were sent Joseph then later Moses and Aaron and others, the Persian kings were sent Daniel, Edom was warned by Obadiah, Ezekile, Isaiah, Jeremiah and others warned the remaining nations that we read were judged.
This idea that Obama and Hillary are causing our financial depression because of how we treat Israel is even contrary to other Dysfunctional teachings that the US isn't mentioned in prophecy and that Ezekiel, Daniel, Isaiah, Joel, Zechariah, Obadiah et al were not speaking of their contemporary nations under God's judgment, but were speaking exclusively TO today's nations. IOW, the prophets of millennia ago are our warning today, and none of their prophecies talk about negotiating with the Palestinians or our conduct in UN Security Council meetings. Furthermore, they keep telling us to take things literally, and none of the "curses" involved Gulf oil spills and hurricanes.
I'm still trying to figure out why the Balfour Declaration of 1917 resulted in the Flu Pandemic that killed tens if not hundreds of millions - which pestilences are common traditional "curses".
So the Dysfunctionalists have hijacked a passage, claimed that a personal promise to Abram is magically extended to a nation God has judged out of existence, that the actions of one person will decimate the innocent, that God now destroys nations capriciously without first sending a prophet and listing the charges, and He uses the stock market as evidence that "I am God". (Yes, John has claimed that since we haven't had a damaging year of natural disasters aka "Acts of God" we are now cursed by God with dramatic falling stock prices (something man actually does control)
Given the Scriptural, doctrinal, logical and empirical refutation to the claim "Curse those who curse you, and bless those who bless you" of Genesis 12:3 somehow is relevant to unnamed nations against a judged and dispersed people, I can't see any reason to pretend that there is this Raiders of the Lost Ark sort of Voo Doo that returns a "recognition of Palestinians" as a reason to destroy billions in personal property. But given that the Dysfunctionalists must get louder and shriller in order to stay in the news, the bookstores and be choice speakers on the lecture circuit, I can only imagine it getting even worse.
Nonsense.
There are those who believe in this manner and there are those who do not. You apparently do not. Me, I'd say I'm not entirely opposed to some things likely qualified as "dispensationalist" but not all. I do support the modern state of Israel, not only for reasons of faith but for conservative geopolitical reasons.
Others don't, but I'm certainly not going to fly completely off the handle about it. People are entitled to their views; you are, and so is this author who's seemingly put a bee in your bonnet by looking for indications of prophecy being fulfilled in current events.
I don't believe the so-called rapture will occur prior to the Tribulation, but that it will occurs sometime during the course of it, which is a conclusion drawn from an earnest, personal study of the Bible. After the fact, I've found my views to largely coincide with most early Church "fathers."
Finally, I've got to say that this is rather disturbing:
Why are there more Jews with American passports than with Israeli? Where is our blessing!! And why was the US winning wars and growing mightily in wealth and land prior to 1948, but since then we have been falling apart and can't even win a war anywhere?
This in my opinion teeters on anti-Semitic. It strikes me that you might need to reconsider the implication of making such statements.
“I think I have distilled it down to this primary error - Dysfunctionalists have bastardized Genesis 12:3 so much that it retains none of its original meaning and it now acts as the foundation of their WWGC (Who Would God Curse) jewelry set and their universal “Commerce Clause” to condemn anyone who doesn’t have an obsessive Jew fetish...From the early writers until well into the 19th century it was universally held to be a poetic way for God to say, “Abram, trust me when I ask you to leave your home country, I will take personally how you are treated and respond in kind.” Then I started reading some commentary from the non-reformed of the 20th century and while some retained this opinion, I noticed that the gratuitous opinion that “this could be extended to the Jews” was carefully added into the commentary. Reading Dysfunctionalist commentary, they completely departed from the centuries old majority view and just claimed “This means Jews”.
Furthermore, the “bless those who bless you, curse him who curses you” part was not repeated by God to Isaac yet all of the other promises were. When Isaac blessed Jacob, he personally added “bless those who bless you” but did not restore the “curse”. This is further scriptural evidence that the “blessing/cursings” promise was only to Abram and was a reward for his faith.”
If you look beyond Gen. 12:3, you can see that this promise was indeed made for the Jewish people. Take a look at Gen. 27:29 (promise to Isaac):
29 May peoples serve you,
And nations bow down to you;
Be master of your brothers,
And may your mother’s sons bow down to you
Cursed be those who curse you,
And blessed be those who bless you.”
Looks to me like the “curse” part is indeed in place.
Also, further support that God has continued this promise for the Jews is found in Numbers 24:1-10:
1When Balaam saw that it pleased the LORD to BLESS ISRAEL, he did not go as at other times to seek omens but he set his face toward the wilderness.
2And Balaam lifted up his eyes and saw Israel camping tribe by tribe; and the Spirit of God came upon him.
3He took up his discourse and said,
“The oracle of Balaam the son of Beor,
And the oracle of the man whose eye is opened;
4The oracle of him who hears the words of God,
Who sees the vision of the Almighty,
Falling down, yet having his eyes uncovered,
5How fair are your tents, O Jacob,
Your dwellings, O Israel!
6”Like valleys that stretch out,
Like gardens beside the river,
Like aloes planted by the LORD,
Like cedars beside the waters.
7”Water will flow from his buckets,
And his seed will be by many waters,
And his king shall be higher than Agag,
And his kingdom shall be exalted.
8”God brings him out of Egypt,
He is for him like the horns of the wild ox
He will devour the nations who are his adversaries,
And will crush their bones in pieces,
And shatter them with his arrows.
9”He crouches, he lies down as a lion,
And as a lion, who dares rouse him?
BLESSED IS EVERYONE WHO BLESSES YOU,
AND CURSED IS EVERYONE WHO CURSES YOU.”
10Then Balak’s anger burned against Balaam, and he struck his hands together; and Balak said to Balaam, “I called you to curse my enemies, but behold, you have persisted in blessing them these three times!”
So you see, this is not only a personal promise to Abraham, but to his descendants as well.
I leave you with Deut. 10:15:
“Yet the LORD set his affection on your forefathers and loved them, and he chose you, their descendants, above all the nations, as it is today.”
Everlasting.