AND HOW YOU SEE IT WILL DEPEND UPON WHO YOU ARE, AND HOW YOU SEE IT AND OFTEN HOW YOU HEAR IT

part two

THE BILL MOYER’S JOURNAL Transcripts gives this:


Let's take a look at different perceptions of The Middle East peace talks in Annapolis this week.

• The liberal NEW YORK TIMES found good news: "Israel and Palestinians set goal of a treaty in 2008."


• But the conservative NEW YORK SUN described the results with a militaristic metaphor: "Bush Declares 'Battle for Mideast.'"

A look at the headlines related to this week's conference on Mideast peace in Annapolis might leave a reader confused about expectations and results:

• "Restraint in Quest for Peace," THE NEW YORK TIMES; "Annapolis Talks Prompt Much


• Doubt, a Few Jokes, in Mideast," THE WASHINGTON POST, "Olmert warns of 'end of Israel'," THE BBC, "Annapolis conference gave Rice little to build on," NEWSDAY.
  As usual in the Middle East, what you see depends on who you are.

Pastor Hagee is one of the Christian right's most powerful preachers. Israel is his passion.

JOHN HAGEE: Let us shout it from the housetops that a new day has been born in America. The sleeping giant of Christian Zionism has awakened. If a line has to be drawn, draw the line around Christians and Jews. We are united. We are indivisible. And together we can reshape history. Among them was the organization Christians United for Israel - also known as CUFI.

THE JOURNAL gets theological and political perspective on the story in the Middle East from Ronald J. Sider, Professor of Theology and President of Evangelicals for Social Action, and from M.J. Rosenberg, Director of Policy Analysis for Israel Policy Forum.
Ronald J. Sider says,

The religious right - whether Pat Robertson, James Dobson or Rev. Hagee of Christians United for Israel - simply do not represent the evangelical center.
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/blog/2007/11/an_evangelical_christian_for_p.html

Centrist evangelicals reject the key arguments of Christian Zionists.
Is there a biblical basis for supporting Israelis more than the Palestinians? Some point to God's promise to Abraham in Genesis 12:3: "I will bless those who bless you." Does that text mean that we ought to uncritically support the modern state of Israel? Hardly. The biblical prophets repeatedly taught that God demands justice of all people, starting with his chosen people. When the Israelis acted unjustly, God punished them. The best way Christians today can bless the descendants of the ancient Israelites is to urge them to practice the universal justice that their prophets proclaimed to the world. Today that means a fair, two-state solution.

Others will argue from a dispensationalist, pre-millennialist theology that God has established the modern state of Israel as a necessary part of the end-time scenario, preparing for Christ's second coming in the very near future (see Hal Lindsey's LATE GREAT PLANET EARTH and the Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins' LEFT BEHIND novels.) But this idea poses huge problems. For one thing, Christians for centuries have been pressing the imagery of Daniel and Revelation to find detailed predictions about the end of the world –– all of which have proved foolish and wrong!

To suggest that we know that Christ will return in the next few decades is flatly unbiblical. Jesus even said he did not know the time of his second coming (Matthew 24:36) –– beware of people who claim to know more than Jesus!

John Hagee says

• During the Holocaust, too many Christians were silent, and we were left to mourn the slaughter of 6 million Jews. Today, Bible-believing Christians must speak up and stand up for Israel. We must act to do whatever we can to protect Israel’s 6 million Jews from the second Holocaust. We must get it right this time. Our faith demands it. The times require it. Silence is not an option.


• The Bible commands us to pray for the peace of Jerusalem (Psalm 122:6), to speak out for Zion’s sake (Isaiah 62:1), to be watchmen on the walls of Jerusalem (Isaiah 62:6) and to bless the Jewish people (Genesis 12:3). These and so many other verses of the Bible have one overriding message-- as Christians we have a Biblical obligation to defend Israel and the Jewish people in their time of need.
  


• JOHN HAGEE: They intend to bring that bomb online and if they use it, you think gas is high now. Life as we know it is going to change instantly and forever and I'm telling you, you need to get your life ready to meet the son of God in all his glory. It's going to happen, it's going to happen, it's going to happen.


• There are going to be people in this tribulation period who do not take...

Here you have groups of Christians who have a different viewpoint of what the Bible says about Israel.

You have one event and you have three very different points of view about what they hear.

People view what they see and hear through their own grid of thinking.

And how you see it will depend upon who you are, and what you believe and who you follow

Written by Charles E. Whisnant 12 01 07 and checked over for clarity as possible by Charity

Of course clarity of though is not possible usually when I put together this kind of thought.
You need to read Bill Moyer’s Journey transcript on the Middle East Peace Talk to have a clear understanding of what I was trying to report.

And you would likely need a better understanding of the situation involving my current situation to have a better perspective of what I am saying as well.