Remember how the left kept screeching that Bush had alienated our allies and enraged our enemies? Remember how they said that Barack Obama would make the world love us again? Well, the Democrats get to wear their soiled underwear over their own heads, now. Because now we get to see on a nearly daily basis just how truly full of pure partisan garbage they have been for years.
N. Korea Says It Conducted 2nd Nuclear Test
SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea announced Monday that it successfully carried out a second underground nuclear test, less than two months after launching a rocket widely believed to be a test of its long-range missile technology.
North Korea, incensed by U.N. Security Council condemnation of its April 5 rocket launch, had warned last month that it would restart it rogue nuclear program, conduct a second atomic test as a follow-up to its first one in 2006, and carry out long-range missile tests.
And North Korea just test-fired a missile. “The Yonhap news agency report Monday comes just hours after the communist nation declared that it successfully conducted a nuclear test.”
And what is North Korea saying today?
N. Korea threatens to attack US, S. Korea warships
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) – North Korea threatened military action Wednesday against U.S. and South Korean warships plying the waters near the Koreas’ disputed maritime border, raising the specter of a naval clash just days after the regime’s underground nuclear test.
Pyongyang, reacting angrily to Seoul’s decision to join an international program to intercept ships suspected of aiding nuclear proliferation, called the move tantamount to a declaration of war.
But, but, but we’ve got OBAMA now. And the world is supposed to be wonderful again. Maybe Kim Jong-Il hasn’t heard that we’ve got Obama now?!?!
Obama did his “no preconditions appeasement offer” to Iran. And Iran responded by testing ballistic missiles in what is widely regarded as an open act of contempt and defiance of the United States.
We learned in March of this year that Iran can make 50 nukes with the material they’ve produced so far.
Iranian forces recently crossed into Iraq to launch attacks on Iraqi Kurds. In open defiance of the United States.
Obama wants to dialogue ad infinitum while “Iran vows to continue [it’s] nuclear program.”
And how is Obama responding to this Iranian resolve? Headline: “U.S. may cede to Iran’s nuclear ambitions.”
Israel – an alienated ally of the United States – is well aware that it has been betrayed by Barack Obama. And when Israel attacks Iran’s nuclear program – and it will – that will be a crisis that Barack Obama will have caused due to his own weakness and lack of resolve.
And the whole planet will erupt into “enraged enemies” and “alienated allies.”
As an additional plus of Obama’s weakness, the net result of an Iranian nuclear program will be that Sunni Muslim countries – who have worried over Shiite Iran’s nuclear ambitions – will develop their own nuclear weapons programs.
I’ve been SAYING that an Obama administration would allow Iran to develop nuclear weapons ALL ALONG. Back in April of last year, in urging support for McCain over either Obama or Clinton, I wrote:
A President John McCain can assure the Iranians, “We attacked Iraq when we believed they represented a threat to us, and we will do the same to you. You seriously might want to rethink your plans.” A President John McCain can say to Sunni Arab states such as Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey, “We have stood by Iraq even when it was difficult, and we will do the same for you. You don’t need those weapons; the United States will be there for you.”
And Obama, who can’t say ANY of that, is already blinking.
But let’s leave the unpleasant future that will be caused by Barack Obama and continue our present tour of enraged enemies and alienated allies under his current rule.
Russia just warned Ukraine and Georgia (remember Obama’s pathetic and appeasing message to Russia following its invasion of Georgia?) over moving toward the West by joing NATO. They won’t stand for it. And they clearly aren’t even the least bit afraid of any American response.
Russia took Obama’s measure back in August 8, 2008. And they know his response will be to shrink back and conceal himself behind meaningless “citizen of the world”-speak that will enable Russia to do whatever it wants.
CNN reported on April 30th that “Terror attacks have spiked dramatically in Afghanistan and Pakistan.”
And, goodness gracious, Pakistan and its 100 nuclear weapons are in very real danger of falling into the hands of the Taliban. A top adviser to the US Central Command has warned of the very real possibility of Pakistan collapsing within six months.
Well, that aint good. Wasn’t Obama supposed to make all our problems go away as he overcame all of Bush’s evilness with his magnificent wonderfulness?
Obama failed to win any support from European allies in Afghanistan, something he and his liberal allies repeatedly criticized Bush for failing to deliver as they promised that they would. The U.S. in Afghanistan is as much on its own as it ever was under Bush.
And so, while Obama sits atop the throne, the “security situation in Afghanistan is deteriorating” under his rule. The U.N. says “Human rights in Afghanistan are worsening, marked by setbacks for women, attacks on freedoms and seeming impunity for perpetrators.”
Obama has called for the same sort of surge strategy in Afghanistan (see also here) that he himself personally demonized Bush for pursuing in Iraq.
Reporters in Iraq note “a dramatic increase in spectacular attacks against Iraqi civilians and increasing attacks against occupation forces” by al-Qaeda.
We are facing a growing problem with pirates off the coast of Africa. And Obama is facing a particularly significant threat from Sudan and its dictator, Omar al-Bashir.
Clearly, our enemies haven’t become our friends. Not even a little bit. In fact, they are more hostile and more aggressive than ever. Not that the propagandist media that spent years writing about how Bush creating unrest all over the world would ever point that out.
How about our friends and allies? Surely they love us more, now that Obama is president. Surely the days of alienation are over, right? RIGHT?
Not so much.
You remember me telling you that the EU isn’t giving Obama any help in Afghanistan? Well, they’re not giving Obama any help in closing down Gitmo, either. As much as they like to rail against America for the evils of Gitmo, they won’t take their own people back which would enable us to close it down. Just like they wouldn’t under Bush. And the same countries that won’t take their Gitmo detainees are using our other terrorist detention facility in Bagram as their reason.
That’s not very helpful. I feel alienation.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy basically thinks Obama is a turd, calling his policies “‘utterly immature’ and comprised of ‘formulations empty of all content.’” That rather sounds like a heaping dose of alienation talking, to me.
The EU president called Obama’s stimulus spending “the road to hell.” Mirek Topolanek further said that President Barack Obama’s massive stimulus package and banking bailout “will undermine the stability of the global financial market.” The ABC News article already cited reports on “simmering European differences with Washington.”
Doesn’t that kind of sound like “alienation”? Doesn’t it?
Obama had previously ignited fear of a trade war with Europe with his “buy American” policy. The EU trade commissioner warned Obama that Europe would fight back. Obama also ignited the threat of a trade war with our third largest trade partner, Mexico, after he tried to renege on a trade deal in order to reward US unions.
Obama also inspired a great deal of British outrage toward America when he casually snubbed Prime Minister Gordon Brown and insulted our greatest ally.
Obama then proceeded to insult and undermine our relationship with our second greatest ally, Israel, with an inexcusable gesture of cold indifference for a top Israeli general.
Perhaps liberals believe that Obama’s disgrace America tour was a step in the right direction. I think he made a fool out of himself and undermined the prestige and respect of the once-great United States of America.
Russia and China have similarly sounded, well, VERY ALIENATED toward Obama and his policies.
Russia has warned Obama about what they view as his ruinous socialist policies.
Russian Prime Minister Vladamir Putin has said the US should take a lesson from the pages of Russian history and not exercise “excessive intervention in economic activity and blind faith in the state’s omnipotence”.
“In the 20th century, the Soviet Union made the state’s role absolute,” Putin said during a speech at the opening ceremony of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. “In the long run, this made the Soviet economy totally uncompetitive. This lesson cost us dearly. I am sure nobody wants to see it repeated.”
Luo Ping, Director-general for the China Banking Regulatory Commission, is on record saying, “We want some kind of a guarantee that your money is going to be worth something if you keep spending so much over there and devalue not only your currency but the currencies throughout the world.” He went on to say, “We hate you guys. Once you start issuing $1 trillion, $2 trillion, or more dollars, we know the dollar is going to depreciate.”
And, yeah. Don’t think I didn’t notice from the above link that the mainstream media truly doesn’t want us to know what China thinks about the ruinous course we are pursuing under Obama.
And all the while, we’re warned that “an economic storm with China is still coming for Obama.” In other words, in terms of alienation with China, you aint seen nothin’ yet.
Pardon me for pointing this out, but I’m just not feeling the love.
The same propaganda machine that undercut and undermined President Bush at every imaginable turn is going well out of its way to avoid reporting on just how much damage Barack Obama has done on the international front. They who routinely blamed Bush for everything won’t blame Obama for anything.
Whether liberals are honest about it or not, Obama has been a gigantic dud in terms of the glorious promise of overcoming all the bitterness in the world that Bush supposedly created. For one thing, Obama hasn’t actually “overcome” anything of the sort; for another, he has created a great deal of international bitterness all by himself.
Tags: Afghanistan, attack, Bagram, ballistic missile, Britain, China, collapse, Democrats, depreciate, dollar, Economy, empty of all content, EU, France, Georgia, Gitmo, Iran, Iraq, Israel, John McCain, Kim Jong Il, Luo Ping, Mexico, missile, Nicolas Sarkozy, North Korea, nuclear ambitions, nuclear test, nuclear weapons, Obama, Pakistan, pirates, Russia, Shiite, simmering differences, socialism, Sudan, Sunni, Surge, terrorist detention, test-fired, the road to hell, trade war, Ukraine, undermine stability, utterly immature, Vladimir Putin, warships, we hate you guys
Start Thinking Right 
May 28, 2009 at 5:21 am
Where’s the birth certificate?
May 28, 2009 at 10:40 pm
I’ve never written a “birth certificate” article, but I can’t for my life understand why Obama will not produce the “long” form of his certificate if he actually has one.
The document Obama has offered is a “certification of birth,” also known as a short-form birth certificate. The long form is drawn up by the hospital and includes additional information such as birth weight and parents’ hometowns. The short form is printed by the state and draws from a database with fewer details. If Obama was actually born in a hospital in Hawaii, he has a long form. The short form is simply FAR more susceptible to fraud, especially given the fact that Hawaii is an incredibly liberal state which could be catering to a liberal candidate.
I still have a hard time believing that Obama is not a US citizen, given the degree of conspiracy that would be required. But when he refuses to provide the document that would clear this controversy up once and for all, it makes me wonder whether it’s because he doesn’t HAVE that document to produce.
May 29, 2009 at 5:13 am
Any President that can’t solve all of the world’s problems in 100 days or less is obviously an abject failure. Oh how I long for the halcyon days of the Cheney/Haliburton administration. Now there was a government who knew how to get things done.
May 29, 2009 at 7:35 pm
I long for the days of the days of the Bush administration too.
Can’t wait for the Pelosi/ACORN administration to vanish in disgrace like the Dodo bird it is.
June 8, 2009 at 1:13 am
This administration is well on its way to becoming the most destructive and dangerous in the history of The United States Of America. 1)Insane fiscal policies dwarfing all prior administrations irresponsibility combined=catastrophe. 2)We now witness unconstitutional and aggressive government usurpation of the private sector at the expense of individual liberty=catastrophe. 3)Stunning niavete and equivocation repeatedly demonstrated toward the sworn and determined enemies of the U.S., interpreted, of course, as pure weakness and emboldening every doomsday nutbag dictator in the world. If your primary source of information is the state run pom pom waving Obama fan club ie NBC, CBS, ABC, MSNBC, CNN, PBS, AP, RUETERS, USA TODAY, NEW YORK TIMES, WASHINGTON POST ect ect ect., you may be unaware that there are a majority of Americans that are profoundly concerned and outraged over our apparent socialist apologist president. You see, a vast majority of Americans DO believe in American exceptionalism and are justifiably deeply and exceedingly proud of this unique and magnificent nation. We now live in perhaps the most dangerous period the world has ever seen. Tyranny is on the march. Evil regimes all over this world smell weakness. Strength and resolve and an iron willed determination to protect and defend our commitment to American principles of individual liberty and freedom are what the American people now demand of our leadership.
June 8, 2009 at 11:28 am
Agree with every word, Bobby.
When you say, “We now live in perhaps the most dangerous period the world has ever seen,” what I see is the USA floating in a tub, hovering over a giant drain.
And the only engine that will power us away from the drain is a restoration of individual freedom plus responsibility, acting in a free market according to religious moral principles.
July 23, 2009 at 4:12 am
It is true that Obama, like all leftists, is largely ineffective. This is because the ideology of the left is a religion, an elation of emotion that beckons the disciple to a wonderful new world which purports to render the way things have been done for thousands of years, a mistake.
However Israel is not the greatest ally of the U.S; rather, it is the other way around. The U.S is littered with CEOs and politicians at all levels, who have been brought up in Christian Sunday Schools, or taught by their Christian Grandmother, that if you look after Israel, then God will look after you. It is this superstition, and this superstition alone, which fuels the relationship between the U.S and Israel.
The error underlying the superstition, is, believe it or not (and it will be hard to believe)……the single error underlying all the superstition and all the support for Israel and all the death’s associated therewith, is the errant interpretation of one single New Testament bible verse: Romans 11:26, which states that all Israel shall be saved.
Those errant believe this to be referring to the nation Israel (and therefore that Israel is (still) God’s chosen nation), when it in fact refers to the church, the followers of Jesus Christ. The apostle Paul used the term Israel to refer to the church. Thus he said earlier in the same chapter: “not all are Israel who are of Israel”, meaning, “not all are the church who are of the nation Israel”.
Nobody wants to believe a simple reason like this, for that puts an end to all the sensationalism and all the debate; so they say: “hmmm, interesting..” and then they go back to complaining about everything.
You know, all it would take would be one generation of newborns, to be taught properly about this bible verse when brought to Sunday School and church (assuming they are Christians of course), and none of this superstitious support for Israel would ensue. That’s right, absolutely none of it. Hard to believe isn’t it. But ideas are powerful, especially when taught to you on your mother’s knee. So you had better believe it.
There is one other erroneous support for Israel, and that is the Zionists. But the Zionists in the U.S would be disembowelled of their power in this regard, if the Christians started to properly understand their own New Testament.
This is not to say that Jews shouldn’t have a place to live. We all need a place to live. It is simply to say that the alliance between the U.S and Israel would be changed from a religious alliance to a straight-forward political alliance (assuming the two countries maintain similar political ideologies), which would basically spell and end to all the silly fighting in the middle east.
Hard to believe isn’t it? If you don’t believe me, write a letter to a southern Baptists pastor, or the Dallas Theological Seminary, or Moody Bible College in Chicago, or even the Freemasons, and see what they tell you about “God’s plan for Israel!”. And then check out the religious backgrounds of people like Obama and even Ronnie Regan and Richard Nixon. You will find that pretty well all our presidents believe (either consciously or unconsciously) that Israel is God’s people, and that, if you’re going to be blessed by God, you better start by ‘blessing’ Israel.
July 23, 2009 at 6:10 pm
I’ve got to disagree with a few things.
1) First of all, I disagree that basing political ideology on “religion” itself is wrong. The problem with the left – and with Islam, for that matter – is that they base their ideology on false and flawed views of religion that result in their not being able to comprehend/understand the world as it truly is.
Our founding fathers – who formed, shaped, and guided the greatest system of government the world has ever known – were profoundly influenced by their Judeo-Christian worldview. I’ll conclude this with a bunch of statements from them to document that fact.
2) Israel has in fact been one of the greatest allies of the US, although without question we have done more for they than they for us.
Few people realize this, but having Israel in the Middle East/Persian Gulf has freed us from otherwise having to maintain a massive military presence in the region. I remember hearing a former defense secretary on Nightline declaring that we would have to have five additional carrier wings in the Gulf if not for Israel. They are an ally who pass on an incredible array of intelligence about our chief enemies/adversaries. And since we ARE allies, we have similar interests in terms of what goes on in the Middle East. For instance, Israel most certainly doesn’t want Iran blockading the Strait of Hormuz. Or Iran to have nukes. Etcetera.
3) your view that our support for Israel is based on a single verse is incredibly simplistic and incredibly wrong. I would ask you to pick up a copy of Robert Saucy’s “The Case for Progressive Dispensationalism” – consisting of 336 pages – to see that it’s a wee little tad more involved than you erroneously believe it is. For your information, he has a ten-page Scripture index, citing passages in nearly every single book of the Bible for support.
I further find it amazing that you would so completely sever and disconnect Christianity from Judaism and Israel. 2/3rds of the Bible consists of Old Testament Books written by Jews from Israel, to Israel, and about Israel. And yet you just obliterate the connection between Israel and Christianity with the word “superstition.”
There are only three eschatological views: premillennialism, postmillennialism, and amillennialism. Of the three, postmillennialism has been thoroughly discredited, given that two world wars “hampered” the belief that the world was getting better and better, until Christ would just show up with the Church having perfected the planet for Him. And premillennialism, like it or not, gave itself a WHOLE lot of “street cred” with dispensationalist theologians BOLDLY and directly claiming that Israel would HAVE to one day become a nation to fulfill prophecy 150 years before the event actually occurred. And I will simply state the fact that far and away the majority of Protestant Christians today believe your “superstition.”
4) I’m not sure what Obama’s religious background is – he grew up in Indonesia and went to a Muslim school, and described himself as an atheist before his “conversion” in Jeremiah Wright’s racist, anti-American, AND anti-Jewish church which featured Nation of Islam leader Farrakhan as hero. But he is no friend of Israel, and Israel is becoming well aware of that.
Here are our founding father’s comments as to “religion.” While I understand that you have testified as a Christian, I have encountered Christians whose misunderstanding of our nation’s history and roots led them to pursue a “secular” society and deny its Christian heritage.
July 24, 2009 at 3:35 am
This simply begs the question, and is therefore invalid.
Which is why Israel is your ally.
You already maintain a military presence in the region. It goes under the alias “Israel”.
You error here is a common one, namely, to think of the NT as an addition to the OT (that the two are juxtaposed). Rather, the NT summarises the OT.
If then your ‘understanding’ of the OT is not found in the NT, then your idea is wrong.
There is no idea apart from the erroneously interpretted Rom 11:26 which supports your OT understanding, therefore your understanding is wrong.
In line with this, Christ said that the kingdom of God would be taken from Israel.
July 24, 2009 at 8:13 pm
I’ll take your points in order:
1) You beg the question by simply claiming I beg the question. And you don’t even HAVE a point – simply the hand-waving allusion to one. In addition to my paragraph, I cited dozens of statements from our founding fathers supporting my basic point: that religion and morality were ESSENTIAL to the founding of America.
2) You in absolutely no way refuted or even DISPUTED my statements on Israel. They are our ally because we share common interests/goals and have frequently assisted one another.
3) If you want to tear the OT out of your Bible, I can’t stop you. But you utterly fail to understand the New Testament apart from the Old. Which is why I would contend that you ultimately fail to understand the Bible. Your reasoning amounts to question begging. You tell me that nothing in the Old Testament is valid, so therefore anything I cite to support my contentions about the Word of God is immaterial to you. Someone wrote a book with the title, “The Bible Jesus Read.” And what Bible would that have been? The Old Testament, that’s what. And what did Jesus say He was going to do? Jesus said, “Do you think I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets? I did not come to abolish, but to fulfill.” And you seem to have turned it around so He says He didn’t come to fulfill, but to abolish. What Bible did the apostles begin with? The Old Testament, and nothing but. And when Paul in Acts 17:2 went to the synagogue “and reasoned with the Jews from the Scriptures,” it was the OLD TESTAMENT he reasoned from. And now you come along and tell me that I can’t do what Jesus and the apostles did?
Your very argument collapses UNLESS YOU CAN FIND ME A NEW TESTAMENT PASSAGE THAT SAYS THAT “THE NT SUMMARIZES THE OT.” Or even that no doctrine or teaching counts unless it has been “verified” by the New Testament. I demand to see the passage that says that Christians should disregard their Old Testaments because the New Testament tells us everything we need to know.
Meanwhile, I’ll just keep all the pages of my Bible together, thank you very much.
God told Abraham that He would give Abraham and his descendants the land of Israel forever. And He made a Covenant to seal the deal (Gen 15:18; 17:2, 4). An EVERLASTING covenant (17:7) with Abraham’s descendants. Jesus used the phrase “until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.” Paul argues that “God has rejected His people [the Jews] whom He foreknew” (Rom 11:2). Paul tells us that God didn’t start an entirely different tree of salvation, but GRAFTED Gentiles IN (Rom 11:17). He says to Gentile Christians, “Don’t be arrogant; it’s not you who supports the root, but the root that supports YOU” (11:18). Then we start to get to the verse you’re so upset about. Paul says he has a mystery to reveal: that there will be a PARTIAL hardening of Israel UNTIL the fullness of the Gentile has come (Rom 11:25). This clearly tells us that there will come a time when the fullness of the Gentile is complete and God will turn AGAIN to Israel. And lo and behold: we have 144,000 Jews, 12,000 from EACH of the 12 tribes (Rev 7). And then we have this satanic attempt to destroy Israel (Rev 12:17). The demonic forces gather at Armageddon (Rev 16:16). And Christ shows up to destroy the wicked army of Antichrist (Rev 19) and the earth splits when His foot touch the Mount of Olives it will split in two. Christ returns to save Israel. He doesn’t set foot in Los Angeles.
Doesn’t sound to me at all that God is done with Israel. Not for a nano-second. And the Millennial reign of Christ is a period of time that all the prophecies made to Israel come true. When the Greater David (the One whom King David wrote, “The Lord said to my Lord, “let me make your enemies a footstool for your feet” in Psalm 110) – which Jesus applies to Himself (Matt 22:44) – finally sits on the throne of David and rules and reigns from Jerusalem (2 Samual 7:11-16). R.H. Boll has a great article titled “The Throne of David..” The throne of David is a forever throne, promised by God to last forever. And one day Christ Himself – the Son of David – shall sit on that throne and judge the nations.
My God is not the kind who utterly turns His back on His people. And the day is coming, and coming soon, that He will restore and bless Israel.
July 25, 2009 at 6:55 am
[i][b]You beg the question by simply claiming I beg the question.[/i][/b]
You don’t understand the principles of debate. When you state that other religions are based on flawed ideas, you beg the question.
[i][b]You in absolutely no way refuted or even DISPUTED my statements on Israel. They are our ally because we share common interests/goals and have frequently assisted one another.[/i][/b]
This is an old debaters trick: restate your idea as ostensible defence of your idea.
They are your ally because you believe they are God’s chosen people, and because they know you believe this. And because you believe this, you also believe that if you don’t support them, God won’t support you. You need to be honest with yourself. Why lie to yourself? Who wins when you lie to yourself?
[i][b]If you want to tear the OT out of your Bible, I can’t stop you. But you utterly fail to understand the New Testament apart from the Old.[/i][/b]
The Testament which must be understood, is the Testament which is in force: the New Testament. In line with this, you need to understand that “Old” doesn’t mean “older”, but “superseded”. And “New” doesn’t mean “newer” or “addendum”, but “that which fully replaces what is superseded”. But read on before your knee flies up in your face.
The New Testament can be likened to a 3G computer language such as Pascal, and the OT to the machine code that underlies it. It is the 3G language that tells the story plainly: the machine code is not readily decipherable.
Accordingly understand that if your ‘understanding’ of the machine code is that which is not present in the 3G code, then your understanding of the machine code is errant.
The only message in the NT is the salvation of individual souls on an individual basis, by the work of Christ at Calvary. Any other message is necessary distraction, carnal, and errant. The idea that God is going to do something special for any country cannot be located in the message of the Cross of Christ, and is therefore wrong. Anyone who supports such an idea, is therefore doing so for emotional reasons, and is not being led by the Spirit in this regard.
[i][b]And what did Jesus say He was going to do? Jesus said, “Do you think I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets? I did not come to abolish, but to fulfil.”[/i][/b]
Such fulfilment, is exhaustively described in the NT. Therefore you trip yourself up.
In your mind you have the prophets fulfilling Christ, rather than Christ fulfilling the prophets.
[i][b]God told Abraham that He would give Abraham and his descendants the land of Israel forever.[/i][/b]
The word was “seed”, which we are told at Gal 3:16 is singular and that it therefore refers to Christ.
Only Christ receives from God, for only Christ is worthy. It follows then that those in Christ necessarily receive from God along with their Head, Jesus Christ.
But you have distracted yourself with the flesh, rather than with the Spirit.
The story of the Kingdom of God is not like WW2, which was divided into the Japan campaign, and the German campaign, with perhaps your Israel idea aligning with one of the these, and individual salvation with another.
No rather, there is only one campaign in God’s kingdom: the glorification of God the Father by the work of His Son on the cross. Nothing more. Anything else, is necessarily errant, and born of carnal romanticism which has nothing to do with the Holy Ghost.
Go and understand the weight of the following: “[In Christ] there is neither Jew nor Greek”. And then really take it on board fully, and abandon your Israel superstition which smacks in the face of the Cross of Christ. God is a spirit, and desires worship in spirit.
You have clearly confirmed, for all who visit this site to see, what I have said in my first post: your lack of understanding of how the bible fits together (the protocol within it), has led you to the zealous but ignorant superstition which you have now exposed as the motive behind your support of Israel.
It is a pity that so many people have gone to an early grave because of such superstition. And it is a greater pity, that so many so-called Christians have wasted countless hours distracting themselves with what Paul refers to as the “Israel of the flesh”, instead of preaching the gospel of the Spirit.
At present you are simply parroting what man has taught you: all this clap-trap about Armageddon and marks of the beast and Israel: I used to believe those things too as a young Christian. Then the Lord showed me the real story. You need to hear from the Lord on these issues so that Christ is glorified in your life. At present, although you may be born again, you have merely a zeal for God on these issues, which zeal is not according to knowledge.
July 25, 2009 at 6:53 pm
Let me simply turn what you said around to point back at you:
They are not your ally because you don’t believe they are God’s chosen people. And because you don’t believe this, you also don’t believe that if you support them, God won’t support you. You need to be honest with yourself. Why lie to yourself? Who wins when you lie to yourself?
So right back atcha.
I specifically asked you this:
“Your very argument collapses UNLESS YOU CAN FIND ME A NEW TESTAMENT PASSAGE THAT SAYS THAT “THE NT SUMMARIZES THE OT.” Or even that no doctrine or teaching counts unless it has been “verified” by the New Testament. I demand to see the passage that says that Christians should disregard their Old Testaments because the New Testament tells us everything we need to know.”
And, rather than find such a passage, you say this:
“The New Testament can be likened to a 3G computer language such as Pascal, and the OT to the machine code that underlies it.”
So for the official record, I am the one who is following the Bible, and you are the one who is following computer code.
You cite Galatians 3:16 to tell me that I’m misunderstanding what God said to Abraham. And that the “seed” actually refers only to Christ, and NOT to “the Jews.”
Well, let me ask you something, “How many “Jesuses” are there? Are there a million? A trillion? Are there so many Jesuses you can’t count them? Are Jesuses as numberless as the stars (Gen 15:5; 26:4) or as dust (Gen 13:16)? That’s an awful lot of Jesuses. And here I thought there was only ONE Son of God.
Let me cite Genesis 15:5 – And He took him outside and said, “Now look toward the heavens, and count the stars, if you are able to count them.” And He said to him, “So shall your descendants be.”
For the record, “descendants” in Gen 15:5 is a masculine singular noun in Hebrew.
Your argument kind of implodes.
You are fundamentally misunderstanding Galatians 3:16. Paul begins by talking about the LAW and its eternal ramifications: the question as to whether the law justifies or whether it is Christ who justifies. And IN that context what Paul is saying in Gal 3:16 is that the promise made to Abraham did not merely include what EVERYONE KNEW it included: the promise of a son and the promise of his NUMBERLESS descendants the Jews who would all be under God’s covenant with Abraham and through him. But there was also a component Paul wanted to expound upon which included Christ.
If the promises were meant for Abraham and his descendants ALONE (i.e. to his seed in the plural sense), then it might appear as though the promises had already been fulfilled, and that the law had appeared as a new phase in God’s dealing with His people. But the promises had been given to “THE Seed” as WELL as “the seeds” – that is, to Abraham’s GREATEST descendant, Jesus Christ – who came many years after both Abraham and the law. Thus, the teaching is that the law had and has an important function, but salvation by grace through faith was God’s promise from the beginning of time until eternity.
Language experts say that “seed” can also be plural (e.g. “The farmer planted seed” – which certainly refers to more than ONE seed). But Paul here correctly understood and applied the singular form of the word in His teaching of Christ. The promises were not fulfilled prior to the giving of the law, nor by the giving of the law. Instead, they were fulfilled when Christ came as Abraham’s “Seed.” Christ alone fulfilled as Abraham’s “Seed” (which CLEARLY also included ALL the Jews leading up to Christ, as well as all the Jews SINCE. If nothing else, HOW WOULD WE EVER HAVE GOT TO CHRIST IN THE FIRST PLACE IF IT HADN’T BEEN TO ISAAC, JACOB, ETC. ETC. ETC.???).
Paul is telling us that Christ alone fulfilled the Messianic implications of His covenant to Abraham and showed that God’s promises are in effect for all time. And it is in point of fact that SAME “all time” aspect to the eternality of the promise of Christ found in God’s covenant promise to Abraham that ALSO guarantees that His promise to the remainder of the “seed” – now in the plural sense – ALSO last for all time. The promises made to descendants who would be as numberless as the stars are EVERY bit as eternal as the promise made through the “STAR DESCENDANT,” Jesus.
By the way, here’s another promise God made to Abraham: The LORD had said to Abram, “Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you. “I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”
Now, I’m not going to keep arguing with you, if for no other reason than that I weary of your constantly bombastic and smarmily arrogant tone.
July 25, 2009 at 8:31 pm
John,
I’m not going to keep wasting my time endlessly debating you. You have utterly ignored my points anyway, which means that I have to keep restating what I said over and over again. Really don’t feel like doing that.
You told me that you had “proven” how inadequate my understanding of the Bible was earlier. So given that you think you’ve already won the debate, you won’t mind my ending it.
Michael Eden
July 26, 2009 at 11:52 pm
These are the last words from John you will ever hear on this blog:
John went on. But I’m stopping this here. Because John – who has abjectly refused to deal with virtually ANY of the arguments I presented (e.g., asking him for now the third or fourth time to provide a Scripture which justifies his claim that the Old Testament has been entirely replaced by the New, which he never did; followed by patently refusing to interact with my refutation of his view of Gal 3:16, and instead merely repeating his own views as though I had said nothing).
He presented Galatians 3:16 to claim I was wrong; I substantively dealt with Galatians 3:16 in its context to show otherwise. And I deserved the same interaction from him. In a rational debate, he would have explored my presentation and interacted with it. He didn’t bother.
That’s bad enough. It’s a waste of time to deal with someone who won’t interact with your arguments, but only pretends you haven’t made any while going on like a steamroller. But when he flat out lies about my view of salvation – claiming I deny the Person of Christ and the need for individual personal salvation, he has crossed any acceptable threshold.
I have NEVER said anything of the sort, and I have certainly NEVER written anything of the sort on my blog. John’s charge amounts to naked demagoguery and demonetization. It is literally evil.
Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior. I in fact invited Christ to be the Lord of my life and my Savior from my personal sin on September 25, 1979. Christ changed my heart and my mind; I’ve never been the same since that encounter.
And I will not allow a lying demagogue to make a false claim about my relationship to Jesus Christ, His Deity, or His unique role in the universe – the universe He created – as King of kings and Lord of lords.
And then this man – who has despicably lied about me – calls me a liar.
Here are a number of entirely secular reasons why Israel is an ally of the United States, and why I support Israel:
1) President Truman was the FIRST national leader to recognize Israel. And every single president since Truman – both Democrat and Republican (until our current president, but that’s another story) – has continued to recognize Israel as a primary ally. I am supporting Israel from a universal base of support for Israel. And there aren’t many issues which both Republicans and Democrats have supported more.
2) Israel is a democracy, and the ONLY democracy in the Arab world until we essentially created one in Iraq. Do we support Arab-Islamic totalitarianism, or do we support democracy? As we have acted against Soviet communist expansion into the Middle East through Arab allies – all of which denied freedom – we found a natural ally in the nation of Israel. And in supporting Israel, we have denied the enemies of freedom and democracy an opportunity to expand.
3) Israel has the virtue of being right in its struggle against those who have publicly and repeatedly said they would annihilate, eradicate, and wipe out the Jews. a) The Jews inhabited the land as recorded in the Old Testament that John believes is so unnecessary; b) The Arab Palestinian claims that they were in the land are false, as proven by Mark Twain’s statements that the land was desolate, or the census tallies taken by the Ottoman Empire. Rather, Jews came into the territory and made it prosper; c) Jews further actually purchased the land from the Ottoman Empire, the legal owners of the land at the time; d) Jews received further title to the land by way of the Balfour Declaration; e) Jews received STILL further title to the land by means of the U.N. resolution; f) the Jews received STILL MORE right to the land by being attacked in what was described by the Arabs as a war of annihilation, and then winning victory. Subsequent military victories after acts of war were committed by the Arabs further sealed the deal; g) Arabs have used the most illegitimate means of “debate” imaginable, in the form of terrorism against innocent civilians; h) as we continue in the future, Israel and the United States continue to share fundamental mutual interests, such as preventing Iran from developing nuclear weapons, or for fundamentalist Muslims or totalitarian Arab regimes from gaining a stronger position in the region.
Now, that’s a whole bunch of reasons to support Israel, having nothing to do with one’s interpretation about the role of Israel in future eschatology.
So when John accuses me of “lying” based on superstition, he proves who the real liar is. After he presented a hateful lie about me personally. And I’m not going to debate a proven liar and demagogue. Which is why I am going to block him from any further posting on this site.
Michael Eden
July 29, 2009 at 8:48 am
I thought of this too late to include it in any of my comments above.
John’s contention is basically 1) the Jews have utterly vanished from God’s program, and 2) that the Old Testament is useless – having been replaced by the New (taking Replacement theology to a whole new level). Christians who have been treasuring and carrying around their Old Testament-included Bibles for two millennium have just been mistaken.
I challenged him to provide a single passage in the Bible that substantiates that the Old Testament has been utterly replaced by the New, making the Old irrelevant. He never did so, and offered something about Pascal computer language instead of something from the Bible.
In any event, he cited Galatians 3:16, and I spent some time properly explaining the passage in context (above). The word “seed,” even when singular, clearly can have a plural context – as when a farmer plants seed. This was obvious the primary sense of the promise. But Paul – inspired by the Holy Spirit – pointed out that the fact that “seed” or “descendants” is singular (the word translated as “descendants” is a masculine singular noun) points to a previously unrevealed meaning. In addition to referring to the entire Jewish race, Paul identifies that he word “seed” ALSO had a unique reference to Christ as the ultimate fulfillment of God’s covenant to Abraham.
John fundamentally misunderstands Paul by claiming that this was the ONLY meaning of “seed”/”descendants,” that it literally no longer referred to the Jewish race through Abraham. Therefore, John insisted, the fact that God told Abraham that his descendants would be as numberless as the stars in Genesis 13:16 (with the word “descendants” or “seed” AGAIN being a masculine singular noun and CLEARLY having a plural referent) didn’t matter because the Old Testament (no longer having any validity) doesn’t matter.
But I thought of the fact that Mary used the word “descendants” or “seed” in the plural sense to refer to the Jewish race through Abraham in her Magnificat.
Mary says, “He has helped His servant Israel, remembering to be merciful to Abraham and his descendants forever, even as He said to our fathers” (Luke 1:54-55).
Clearly this is a reference to the Jews, as promised to and through Abraham. And note that Mary uses the word “forever.”
So that whole “the Old Testament has been replaced and so no longer matters” argument ITSELF doesn’t matter. Because Mary’s Magnificat is recorded in the NEW Testament. And Mary says that God remembers His promise to His descendants THE JEWS forever.
Paul in Galatians 3:16 is providing us with an additional sense in which God’s promise of descendants to Abraham is true regarding Jesus. And ultimately, it would be through Abraham’s most significant descendant Jesus – and not through the Jewish race per say – that the world would be blessed. That’s why Paul emphasizes that “seed” is a singular word – NOT because it has no plural sense (referring to the Jewish race) whatsoever. It in no way “replaces” the promise regarding the Jews – who as I already said earlier were necessary JUST TO GET TO JESUS. Mary and Joseph were descendants of Abraham. Did God’s promise not apply to them? Did it not apply to King David? Did it not apply to the great prophets such as Isaiah? I mean, come ON.
I just wanted to come back with that passage in Luke 1 to again point out John is completely wrong in his understanding of the Bible. In this case he must either say that Mary is wrong or Paul is wrong because he doesn’t understand either one of them correctly. And he was more than just “wrong” in so personally attacking my own faith – which is why I have blocked him.
I am a Christian who believes that the “Old” Testament is every bit as inspired as the New. The New Testament explains how God fulfilled every promise He made in the Old, especially the promise of His Messiah. The Old and New Testaments contain the record of God outworking His divine plan through human history.
I am also a Christian who prays for the peace of Jerusalem (Psalm 122:6) and who believes that God will ultimately provide for the salvation of His special people the Jews through Jesus Christ.