It's been awhile, but I'm back now. Many things have been going on in my life the last several weeks. My last grandparent, my paternal grandmother, died the 3rd of this month and we were fortunate enough to be near her when that happened. But that's not the focus of this post.
There's a guy who has been coming to our men's weekly Bible study of late. Nice enough fellow, but he kind of gets under my skin. We're doing a study on Isaiah, so obviously there are many potential pitfalls. He seems to be an apocalypticist of sorts; that is, he views Isaiah through the lens of it is referring to events happening today or about to happen and which, when coupled with Revelation, point to the end of the world and the second coming of Christ. Along with this, he seems to be a Zionist of some sort - very big on modern Israel and how we need to watch our backs and ally ourselves (the United States) with them because if we don't, we're going down with all their other enemies. Wow.
I, being in a pastoral role of sorts as an intern, have remained pretty quiet about it, as I don't want to be confrontational. But I'm wondering if I need to be somewhat confrontational. If we get into discussions on missions and ministry, his take is one of looking out specifically for the Israelis first and others second, if at all. Is this type of teaching harmful for individuals and for the church? Or, is it just good enough that he's involved in a Bible study and who knows what will happen?
Technically, I can't dispute a couple of things he says. Chiefly, that we are, in fact, in the end times...insofar as Jesus birth 2,000 years ago marked the beginning of the end times (the breaking in of the kingdom of God); see Hebrews 1:1-2. Also, it is important to remember our Jewish roots and to recognize that we do have a sort of kinship with Jews. But if there's a line that is being crossed, where exactly is it? Why does this fellow bother me so? Ideas?
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
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