Question:
Dear Greg,
Some
Christians at work have wondered about the prophetic possibilities of the
current U.S. action in Iraq. While I
don’t think that we can ever be sure about what God is going to do in the near
term based on prophecy, I find it perplexing that people seem to assume the
worst. They believe that the end may
be right around the corner. I’ve
pointed out to these people a surprising possibility.
Consider
the possibility that God may have raised up the U.S. as a superpower for a
different purpose. The U.S. already
has provided the state of Israel with the help it needed to be a viable country.
The post 9/11 geo-political situation is putting the U.S. on a collision
course with fundamentalist religious zealots and violent dictators throughout
the Middle East. While it may be
difficult for the U.S. to bring about a good outcome in Iraq and the entire
Middle East, the dire political consequences that will ensue if the U.S. should
fail will be enormous. Pulitzer
Prize winning author and columnist Thomas Freidman mentioned that it is in the
best interest of the U.S. not to fail in this enormous task.
Someone pointed out that in the last 5 or 10 years that the U.S. has
spent more money modernizing its military than all other nations combined.
Now
for an equally plausible prophetic scenario to those currently circulating.
Consider that God could be bringing peace for a time to the Middle East.
For how can Israel fit the prophecy of a non-militarized state and
apparently exceptionally prosperous country that doesn’t spend its money on
military defense—unless Israel is a non-militarized state and wealthy.
U.S. dominance over the region could give Israel the sense of security
that it needs to bring about this peace. Israel
has a lot of talent and if the dark political and military cloud over Israel
dissipates, then the investment and prosperity that will take place among this
vibrant, diverse and very highly educated people will probably be astounding.
Ezekiel
38:10-12 says, “This is what the Sovereign Lord says: On that day thoughts
will come into your mind and you will devise an evil scheme.
You will say, ‘I will invade a land of unwalled villages; I will attack
a peaceful and unsuspecting people—all of them living without walls and
without gates and bars. I will
plunder and loot and turn my hand against the resettled ruins and the people
gathered from the nations, rich in livestock and goods, living at the center of
the land.” (NIV)
When
I entered the conversation that my religious co-worker started, I explained that
the current situation could also be viewed from a prophetic viewpoint in which
peace could come to the Middle East. He
added that over a hundred years ago Scofield (who wrote the Scofield Study
Bible) did a historical study to see if that prophecy in Ezekiel was ever
fulfilled. Scofield concluded, he
said, that it was never fulfilled.
War
will probably be in the future of the U.S. for quite some time.
May
God grant you boldness to do his will and grant you clarity and accuracy in your
communications.
Tom
Answer: Dear Tom,
I
appreciate the thoughts you offer, but at best, the thoughts about what the
Bible says specifically about any war that is current or anticipated are subject
to subjective interpretation. On a
related note, apart from biblical interpretation, what we perceive God to be
doing or not doing is similar. If we
can divorce our thoughts about what we believe God is doing or not doing from
specific thoughts about “what a passage means” then we have a better chance
of understanding God, in my opinion.
A
basic rule of biblical understanding is the credo that a passage may not have a
meaning it never did. That is, we
must find the meaning of the passage for the original audience, in its original
milieu and culture before we attempt any exegesis for our day.
Put another way, we cannot jump to a conclusion about a biblical passage,
deciding that it means something that it never did.
All interpretation must be grounded in the original understanding, with
obvious allowances for history, culture, etc.
This is not to say that the Bible does not have meaning for us today—it
does. But the Scofield Study Bible
school of biblical interpretation is sensational, flawed and biblically
bankrupt.
At
the end of the day, the Sermon on the Mount, the cross of Christ and the empty
tomb have infinitely more to say and are far more spiritually relevant than what
C.I. Scofield and his followers think about Ezekiel’s prophecies.
In the context of the cross, the prophecies all center in the person of
Jesus in any case, for he is the only source of life, the Prince of Peace—the
only way to peace. May he rule in
our hearts and may we truly focus on him.
In
Christ,
Greg
Albrecht