Somehow, we seem to have a disconnect here. Let me just give an overview of what's happening in the Middle East today, and how this is connected to your lives. Bear in mind that I am a "heretic", in that I didn't consult any of the Church Fathers before composing this: It's just what I have picked up directly from reading the Bible. If there is an occasional discrepancy between what I say and what you (including you atheists) hold dear, please forgive me -- no harm is intended.
Somewhere between 12,000 and 6,000 years ago, a dramatic change happened in the development of mankind, called the Neolithic Revolution. Up until this time, mankind did some pretty crafty things, fashioning tools from stones, bone, etc., and hunting and gathering for food. During the "Revolution", man started domesticating plants and animals. This made him more settled in one location and, because he could produce far more food through agriculture than he could by hunting and gathering, people began to start living closer together.
The Bible begins with the Books of Moses, which were compiled during and shortly after the time of said Moses, around 1410-1450 BC. The scriptures begin with the story of creation, which Moses obviously was not an eyewitness of; he had to have received that as a revelation, probably at Sinai. The creation narrative ends at Gen 2:6, with the words,
[
4] These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens,
[
5] And every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew: for the LORD God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground.
[
6] But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground.
The whole creation process, up to the time of Adam, took, according to scientific calculation, about 14-15 billion years from our inertial frame of reference, which, from the frame of reference of the Big Bang, was six days (cf. Prof. Gerald Schroeder --
http://www.amazon.com/Science-God-Convergence-Scientific-Biblical/dp/1439129584). Then the "human" narrative of the Bible begins, with an individual called "Adam":
Gen 2
[
7] And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
Gen 2
[7]
[FONT=TITUS Cyberbit a href=]וייצר[/FONT] יהוה אלהים את האדם עפר מן האדמה ויפח באפיו נשׁמת חיים ויהי האדם לנפשׁ חיה׃
The term [FONT=TITUS Cyberbit a href=]נפשׁ[/FONT], pronounced "nehphesh", means "breathing
"; but in the case of Adam, it obviously doesn't mean ordinary breathing of ordinary air; it means breathing the holy spirit of God. He was the first man in the Biblical genealogy to have a relationship with God. From this point onward, the Bible talks about his descendants, and about their relationship with God and with one another. That relationship did not have to come as a direct revelation to Moses or to anyone else; it became part of mankind's written and oral history.
This significance of Adam to us, therefore, is that from Adam, through an unbroken succession of generations, we have received the knowledge of God. The Bible records this genealogy, interspersed with short stories about important characters such as Enoch and Noah, up to the time of the Flood. From there, the genealogy and stories focus on one line of descent, that of Abraham. That is because although all of the sons of Noah were NATURAL descendants of Adam, only Abraham transmitted to us the knowledge of God.
From this, the importance of the Jewish people should be obvious: Abraham was an INDIVIDUAL with a living relationship with God (Namely, he received revelations from God and spoke with heavenly messengers), a relationship which he passed on to his son and grandson, Isaac and Jacob. Through Jacob, however, something else happened. Jacob also had personal encounters with God, in one of which his name was changed to "Israel". From Jacob came twelve sons, who grew to be a great nation. In Egypt, God culled that nation. He spoke to Moses; and whoever believed God through Moses became part of that nation; the rest remained behind in Egypt. Then, at Sinai, God revealed himself from the cloud to the entire congregation. From that time forward, man's relationship with God was no longer a matter of individual revelations, but of a connection through faith with ONE revelation, which we know as the Bible.
Christians count their connection with God through Jesus; and this is so. Jesus, however, did not come to give us a brand new revelation, as Adam did. Jesus' revelation to us came as an EXPLANATION of what came before. He explained that revelation through parables, through his life among his followers, and finally, through the demonstration in his own body of the power of God through his resurrection from the dead.
Believers in the New Testament acknowledge that the word of God did not come to us first through Jesus, but through the Jewish people. That is why we consider the Old Testament, which was written before Jesus was born, to be the inspired word of God. In fact, among all the saints in the New Testament, the Old Testament WAS the "scriptures" which Paul and the other apostles used to instruct and admonish the church: There WAS no New Testament -- The New Testament was being written by their lives. As Paul charged the church,
Rom 15
[
12] And again, Esaias saith, There shall be a root
of Jesse, and he that shall rise to reign over the Gentiles; in him shall the Gentiles trust.
and
Rom 11
[
16] For if the firstfruit be holy, the lump is also holy: and if the root be holy, so are the branches.
[
17] And if some of the branches be broken off, and thou, being a wild olive tree, wert graffed in among them, and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree;
[
18] Boast not against the branches. But if thou boast, thou bearest not the root, but the root thee.
[
19] Thou wilt say then, The branches were broken off, that I might be graffed in.
[
20] Well; because of unbelief they were broken off, and thou standest by faith. Be not highminded, but fear:
[
21] For if God spared not the natural branches,
take heed lest he also spare not thee.
[
22] Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in his goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off.
God made a covenant with the Jewish people through Moses, a covenant described as "eternal", which he has never abrogated. Christians claim to be heirs of a "new" covenant with the Jewish people, described in Jeremiah 31:31; but though the Jews broke the covenant that preceeded it, this did not destroy it.
As part of that covenant, God promised to resturn Israel to their land, and to restore their fortunes. This promise, in fact, was given BEFORE promises of Messiah and was repeated AFTER those promises. If we accept Messiah, then, as having been scripturally ordanied, we must also accept the validity of God's promises to Israel; and if we say God's promises to Israel, transmitted through the eternal life of His spirit, have become old and died, then what guaranty have we that His word through Jesus has not also perished? As Paul said, "if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not thee."
It is therefore vitally important to us, that God has returned Israel to her land in these last days. There is a great controversy over this return, a controversy that comes up month after month in the United Nations (which, in the Hebrew, is translated as the "United Gentiles"); and the matter takes up MOST of the time and paperwork of that prestigious body. This is not just "a" controversy. It is
THE controversy of our day,
which all the nations of the earth have taken upon themselves to get involved in; and it is written in blood.
Our lives and heritage are bound up in this controversy. That is why I find it curious, that so few Christians are interested in it.
Shalom shalom
