By O. Palmer Robertson
"If you abandon Israel, God will never forgive you...it is God's will that Israel, the biblical home of the people of Israel, continue for ever and ever."
So spoke the President of the United States in a speech delivered before the Israeli Knesset assembled in Jerusalem. He was recalling with apparent approval the words of his desperately ill pastor. He concluded the speech by saying, "Your journey is our journey, and America will stand with you now and always." [President Bill Clinton on October 27, 1994, as reported in Vital Speeches 61, no. 3 (November 15, 1994): 70 (3).]
In this historic statement, the President made some striking assertions.
First of all, he expressed the view that an abandonment of the people of Israel by the United States would be an unforgivable sin.
Second, he asserted that the land of the Bible, according to the will of God, should continue as the possession of the nation of Israel forever.
Third, he committed the United States to support the nation of Israel without qualification forever. As in the case of most speeches made by government officials, some allowance must be made for overstatement for the sake of political expediency. Yet at the heart of these assertions are some strong commitments.
On the basis of supposedly Christian principles derived from the pastor of a Christian church, far-reaching political commitments have been made publicly with respect to the people of Israel and the land of the Bible. By these commitments, the course of nations has been set, for good or for ill. Because of the biblical and theological influences at the root of these significant public policies affecting the world today, it is important to look once more at the question of the Israel of God yesterday, today, and tomorrow.
"If you abandon Israel, God will never forgive you...it is God's will that Israel, the biblical home of the people of Israel, continue for ever and ever."
So spoke the President of the United States in a speech delivered before the Israeli Knesset assembled in Jerusalem. He was recalling with apparent approval the words of his desperately ill pastor. He concluded the speech by saying, "Your journey is our journey, and America will stand with you now and always." [President Bill Clinton on October 27, 1994, as reported in Vital Speeches 61, no. 3 (November 15, 1994): 70 (3).]
In this historic statement, the President made some striking assertions.
First of all, he expressed the view that an abandonment of the people of Israel by the United States would be an unforgivable sin.
Second, he asserted that the land of the Bible, according to the will of God, should continue as the possession of the nation of Israel forever.
Third, he committed the United States to support the nation of Israel without qualification forever. As in the case of most speeches made by government officials, some allowance must be made for overstatement for the sake of political expediency. Yet at the heart of these assertions are some strong commitments.
On the basis of supposedly Christian principles derived from the pastor of a Christian church, far-reaching political commitments have been made publicly with respect to the people of Israel and the land of the Bible. By these commitments, the course of nations has been set, for good or for ill. Because of the biblical and theological influences at the root of these significant public policies affecting the world today, it is important to look once more at the question of the Israel of God yesterday, today, and tomorrow.
