American Exceptionalism, Warfare And Global Hegemony


The USA's, UK's and EU's wars are working with God to protect Israel



Comment by Christopher King
 
The Motivation For American Exceptionalism And The Right To Global Hegemony

Summary

The USA's doctrine of its exceptionalism in justification of its wars arises from beliefs in the minds of its Elites and their UK and EU collaborators, that is, models of reality, their and others' places in it.   They have not shared these beliefs with the rest of the world that suffers from their aggression.  We must therefore attempt to discover their motivation for ourselves from their behaviour, its results and their known beliefs.

The USA's exceptionalism evidently developed from its history, self-identity and a folk myth of manifest destiny.  These factors pre-disposed its elites to perceive a greater destiny. Many USA and UK elites are fundamentalist Christians who believe that everything in the Bible is God's word.  This includes the Old Testament view that the Israelites were God's Chosen People.

When in 1948 the Nation of Israel was founded many Christians saw it as a sign that God had re-established Israel for His biblical Chosen People and Jesus’ imminent return.  Based on this, both the USA and UK gave Israel political and material support. This included In 1958 the secret sale by the UK of 20 tons of deuterium that was used in Israel's Dimona reactor to produce plutonium for a nuclear arsenal.

There is evidence that recent wars, including the Ukraine war against Russia, originate from USA and UK politicians and elites' belief that they are supporting God's biblical Chosen Nation reborn from its Old Testament beginning 3,500 years ago. In doing so, they believe that they are working with God's purposes and gain exceptionalism from Him to enable them to make the world safe for Israel.  The evidence is that this is their model of reality.

Most members of the United Kingdom (UK) Parliament are members of the Friends of Israel Gospel Ministry, an international Christian organization.  Accordingly, these  elected MPs believe that the Nation of Israel is God's Chosen nation where Jesus will return imminently to take the Faithful to heaven (rapture), followed by great trouble on earth for seven years (tribulation or apocalypse), then Jesus' return in the flesh to reign for one thousand years (the Kingdom of God).

The Friends of Israel Initiative is a separate registered charity with political objectives based on the religious beliefs of the Friends of Israel Gospel Ministry.

The Friends of Israel initiative was launched at an event within the UK Parliament building.  This makes clear that its political objectives will be supported by those of its members who are Members of Parliament. This is the purpose of the Friends of Israel Initiative.  UK government policy therefore appears to be biased in favour of a view that Jesus will return in Israel to take those of faith, presumably the Friends of Israel, to Heaven among other dramatic biblical events from the book of Revelation.

The Friends of Israel Gospel Ministry spreads its religious message in the USA and most European countries together with its political Initiative.  It is not clear what its political connections are outside the UK . What is clear is that the UK and USA  lead the European commitment to protect Israel by military means.  The USA and UK have been unaccountably vicious in attacking those Islamic states that are Israel's perceived enemies, under the guise of other reasons, which is consistent with the objective of the Friends of Israel Initiative to protect Israel.

The Friends of Israel Initiative claims that the survival of the Western Nations is dependent on Israel's survival in an article If Israel Goes Down We All Go Down. This is the religious-based existential threat that is motivating the USA/EU/UK's elites in their wars for Israel. This group was detected by General Wesley Clark immediately prior to the invasion of Afghanistan. General Clark mentions the involvement of Richard Perle , Bill Kristol and Paul Wolfowitz.  It may be that as well as Jesus' return this article might refer to the nuclear threat of the Samson Option first revealed by Martin Van Creveld in the event of an imminent threat to Israel's existence.

In adopting the role of Israel’s protectors, the USA's elites in particular appear to imagine that they have a real-world link with God as the Old Testament prophets had with Yahweh. 

To truly protect Israel and make it safe for Jesus' return, it is a logical extension of that objective for the USA and other European Christian elites to assist the USA to become the World's only superpower, or Global Hegemon.  This would be a worthy objective blessed by God and a beneficial justification for the USA's military-globalists' interventions, its military 'commands' covering the globe and its reliance on military power and wars on other countries, particularly Russia and China.  In brief, fundamentalist Christians are waging 'holy war' for God and Israel in which the lives of those who do not support them are valueless.  This is what we see.

The US Defense Establishment is telling its workforce that nuclear war can be won according to the Bulletin Of The Atomic Scientists. and other public sources eg the Wall Street Journal.   Fundamentalist Christian 'believers' apparently have faith that God will protect them in the event of nuclear war since all rational evaluations are that such a war will be the end of humanity.  It is possible that they will attempt to assist Jesus' return by initiating an apocalypse, whether nuclear, biological or by artificial intelligence..  With God's imagined support, anything may be imagined possible.  This is psychopathy, departure from reality, commonly called insanity.

Religious beliefs are very difficult to change because they are models that make sense of the world, our place in it and how we should live.  They make sense of our existence but in closed systems that are self-referential.  Where the evidence of material reality is in conflict with the believer's world view there is always an explanation within the system.  Believers will then become more persistent in pressing their beliefs to total system breakdown rather than abandon it.  That is particularly so in group thinking.  It appears therefore that the USA, EU and UK are on a course to disaster.

The USA/EU/Globalists do not recognize two enormous negative events that they have initiated because they do not consider them important: 1) Their Middle Eastern wars in defence of Israel that with destabilization of sub-Saharan Africa created unstoppable migration flows and terrorism with far-reaching implications for Europe; 2) The Ukraine war, intended to develop US world hegemony for Israel's protection, is destroying Europe itself.  This is persistent religious-based blindness. In a rational situation, failure with unintended consequences would be recognized and remedied.  As the Ukraine's war against Russia is failing, we may expect persistence in the objective to protect Israel by escalation of this war or by other means.  

We see no de-escalation effort or attempt at peace.  The projected escalation of present events that are being driven by the USA, UK and EU is to nuclear war.

I have added a post script note relating to the current Palestinian intifada.    

(Please see Appendix 1 below for the mission and beliefs of the Friends of Israel Gospel Ministry
Appendix 2 shows the statement from the Friends of Israel Initiative website by the former Prime Minister of Spain entitled "If Israel goes down, we all go down.")

Introduction

My friends, this is a lengthy article because I found it complex and in new territory.  I have tried to give as good an explanation of the evidence and where it leads as I understand.  Some of you will have more knowledge or information than I so hopefully you will be able to confirm or refute what I say..

I had thought until the Ukraine war that the USA's military aggression was due to the secular reasons discussed by most analysts - Cold War thinking, geopolitics, greed etc., with support for Israel due to sympathy following the Holocaust and past injustices.  There were curious anomalies and incidents, particularly the doctrines of exceptionalism and the USA's ambition to have 'full spectrum dominance' or to be the world hegemon.  They were clearly over-reach but it still seemed that the USA's wars against Israel's Islamic enemies were to help Israel as its political ally in the region as well as profiteering by the military-industrial complex.   However, there was the mysterious USS Liberty affair. and other anomalies mentioned below.  It is only on writing this article that an underlying religious motivation emerged.  We have encountered extremist Islam; now we need to consider extremist Christianity.

The response of some Christians to the foundation of the Nation of Israel appears to be the basis of recent wars including the Ukraine war.  As I wrote in my last article of 8 April 2023, some Christian beliefs have always been dangerous.  They have now become more so.  Religion forms our subconscious experiential model of the world as distinct from our analytical conscious model.  It is related to everything that makes us human, eg ethics, conscience and emotions.  Love in particular. It is about who we are and our place in the universe.  Christianity has to be re-examined as a 21st century belief system based on Jesus rather than the model created by the Church in  AD 325 for its own benefit in gaining the Roman Emperor Constantine as its patron.

The doctrine of American 'exceptionalism' suggests of itself to be a dispensation from God.  This article highlights the Christian organization Friends of Israel Gospel Ministry, whose members apparently include most MPs of the UK Parliament and who, from the beliefs of the Friends of Israel, accordingly believe that God is intervening in the world through the Nation of Israel.  They therefore take political decisions as part of the Friends of Israel Initiative the political arm of the Friends of Israel Gospel Ministry.

By its MPs' membership of this organization, the UK Parliament appears to be committed to supporting this religious oganization's interpretation of the bible, which by the way, is virtually mainstream, but applying it to the Nation of Israel.  The purpose in bringing such beliefs into political action, appears to be to facilitate Jesus' return and possibly the Apocalypse and Rapture.  The view suggested here explains the anomalous behaviour by the USA's, British and European elites, that otherwise makes no sense.

You can appreciate the attraction of Israel being God's chosen nation.  One gets a real-world relationship to God through Israel.  Miracles become possible again.  My Anglican friends occasionally muse about why we don't get biblical-type miracles now.  Praying is a very uncertain means of getting what you want and church services are repetitive and even boring unless one has a vicar or church leader of unusual talents.  Israel is a gateway to God as in biblical times. If one isn't accustomed to reflecting on how the bible relates to the various cultures of its time as well as our present one,  Israel presents Christians with wonderful possibilities.

Following the World Trade Centre attack, the ferocious violence and killing by the Christian NATO countries against Middle Eastern Islamic counties were an extraordinary departure from Christian principles, international law, United Nations authorization and were disproportionate by any standard.  The given justifications, to capture Osama bin Laden, to support democracy and human rights, remove WMD etc. were failures and wholly inadequate in view of the appalling loss of life, destruction and humanitarian misery caused.  It is undeniable that they were carried out on the basis of lies and manipulations in a spirit of triumphalism by powerful countries over weak enemies 

To justify these outrages the USA invoked its doctrine of exceptionalism that it claimed exempted it from complying with the laws and ethics that it expected other countries to follow.  This doctrine has never been explained so it is right that we should examine and attempt to understand it.  The UK and European elites that joined it evidently considered that this doctrine covered them by association while using NATO to protect Israel and justify its own existence following the dissolution of the Soviet Union. 

The Islamic countries that the USA attacked opposed the establishment of the State of Israel in one way or another.   Iran was attacked by Saddam Hussein as the USA's proxy.  The Saudi, Osama bin Laden, lived in Afghanistan, a country that had nothing to do with the WTC attack.  Saudi Arabia, bin Laden's country was actively opposed to Israel, as I recall,  by leading the 1973 oil embago against the countries that supported Israel's Yom Kippur War, including the UK and USA.  

The unwarranted vicious attack on Afghanistan to target one man, bin Laden, who by the way the USA trained, has always been inexplicable.   I suggest that it was a warning by proxy to Saudi Arabia not to intervene in its subsequent US wars as it had previously.  The USA's subsequent wars were all planned (as the 'axis of evil') at that time according to US General Wesley Clark (2007) who says that after 9/11 there was a policy coup by 'some hard-nosed people' who took over (foreign) policy.  I suggest that these people are American and British politicians and their elite manipulators and paymasters who believe that they are protecting God's Chosen People and facilitating Jesus' return.  Two of these had business with Boris Johnson: Bill Gates about Covid policy and Rupert Murdoch who paid Johnson to sabotage the Istanbul Agreement between Ukraine and Russia..  There were always suspicions that Bush and Blair were acting from religious motives and there is good reason to believe that this was the case.

A further development of the USA's programme of warfare is its use of NATO and Ukraine as proxies in its war against Russia.  It's amazing.  Christian countries are now fighting each other in Europe again as proxies for a third party Christian country.  It's certainly the collapse of Christianity and its ethics which have never been strong.  The reason is that Christianity has never escaped from the biblical culture of 3-4,000 years ago from the late bronze age.  It's still focused on Jesus death as human sacrifice rather than his message. It still has the notions that Yahweh, the Israelites' God, intervened directly in the material world to help the Israelites, His Chosen People in warfare.  This is what Christians still believe in the 21st century, two thousand years after Jesus. 

My article of 8 April 2023 was about the general justification for Christian warfare from the example of the Israelites' Old Testament behaviour that in turn was supported by Yahweh, Moses' conception of God.  It is absolutely clear that Jesus taught a different conception of a God who loves and forgives us and requires us to do the same to each other.  We therefore need to understand the thinking of the Christian elites who promote warfare and mass killing that is totally inconsistent with Jesus' teaching but is justified by the bronze age old testament culture.

The solution is simple as I've discussed in my article of 8th April 2023: Christianity must view the bible's Old Testament as history that is, where we've been, and adopt a view of experiential human reality based entirely on Jesus and where we're going to. 

Why is there a war in Ukraine - and other anomalies

There were various reasons given by the USA for its enmity to Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Libya and Syria, most of which were false such as Afghanistan's responsibility in the World Trade Centre attack, after the fact, by 'providing safe haven for Bin Laden'.  There were corrupt reasons such as the theft of oil, and fantasy reasons or lies, such as the democratic transformation of these countries to beacons of prosperity and good governance.  The most obvious reason was that these countries were, with the exception of Afghanistan, Israel's enemies.  All this was understandable, since there was a number of reasons why the USA might protect Israel that are understandable in rational terms. These might be sympathy for the Jews' holocaust experience, having a firm ally in the Middle East, AIPAC's lobbying and political activities, American Jewish support, some Christian Zionist support and profiteering by the Military-Industrial complex.

What is not understandable in rational terms are:

The USA's claim to exceptionalism in its wars and interventions..

The USA's war in Ukraine against Russia which wanted cooperation with the USA following the dissolution of the Soviet Union and might have been a major ally.

Why European and UK elites followed the USA into a war with Russia rather than peace and trade, knowing that the Maidan murders, Kiev coup and attack on the Russian regions of Ukraine had been arranged by the USA.

Why having agreed the 2010 Deauville Agreement between the EU and Russia for integration of their economies, four years later in 2014 the EU followed the USA into war with Russia knowing that the USA's allegations against Russia were lies, which they repeated themselves.

Why Angela Merkle who voted against inviting Ukraine into NATO because of Russia's security concerns at the 2008 NATO summit, with  Francois Holland in 2015, falsely used the Minsk normalization Agreement to prepare Ukraine for war against Russia while lying for eight years to Vladimir Putin.

Why the Germans in particular are at war with Russia when it was the USA that blew up the Nord Stream 2 pipeline that was a crucial support to the German economy.

Why the EU and UK are not concerned about the effect of this war on non-aligned countries, particularly Merkle and Holland's Minsk deception and Merkle's confession which makes clear to the world that the European countries don't make agreements in good faith, lie unashamedly in doing so and wanted a war in Europe.

Why the Christian churches of Europe or World Council of Churches do not press for a cease-fire and peace in Ukraine on the basis of Jesus' teaching.  Also why no country in Europe is attempting to make peace in Ukraine when Ukrainian deaths are now about 500,000,  it is clear that the war is destroying Ukraine and escalating toward EU / NATO's direct involvement - which arguably is already occurring.

The USS Liberty false flag incident when the USA and Israel colluded in Israel's attack to sink a US ship during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war so that Egypt could be blamed, enabling the USA to enter the war on Israel's side.  34 crew and others on board were killed.

Why people in the USA's defence industries now believe that a nuclear war can be fought and won - presumably by themselves, when the informed consensus is that it will probably end life on earth.

Why in 1958 the UK sold deuterium to Israel to enable it to construct nuclear weapons using a subterfuge transaction involving Norway while concealing it from the USA its nuclear treaty partner. This is the 'special relationship' treaty made between the UK and USA at the time the UK made its advanced nuclear research available to the Manhattan Project around 1942.  In 1958 Eisenhower was US president.  As a wartime general who was suspicious of the military-industrial complex he would never have agreed this sale.  The UK Prime Minister MacMillan, although doubtless Christian, valued the special relationship treaty and had refused to disclose US nuclear secrets to France.  An old-school man of honour he would not have agreed it either.  This was a traitorous transaction deserving of life in prison.  It clearly had elite backing and religious motivation.

There's a shape concealed under all this and it's not secular. It's a religious one.  It's the belief  that the Jews are Gods' chosen people and the USA's and European elites' belief that Jesus' return with an apocalypse is imminent. By protecting God's Chosen Nation Israel they are working with God, giving the USA exceptionalism from man-made laws and expectations. Through faith in God they are worthy of His protection themselves, both from the Apocalypse and in the event of nuclear war.  The expectation of imminent intervention by God and Jesus leads to short term thinking and disregard for other countries' views. The case of the USS liberty shows high level US officers or politicians willing to sacrifice a US ship and countrymen for Israel.  This attitude can arise from exceptionalism or an interpretation of the Canaanite woman Rahab's actions, considered in the discussion.

The Hypothesis

There is good reason to believe that large numbers of American, British and European Union Christians and their elites believe that the Jews are God's Chosen People whom he loves and for whom he has special plans.  They believe that Jesus' will return imminently in the flesh in the Nation of Israel.  Jesus will effect rapture of the faithful and an apocalypse followed by the Kingdom of God. These elites believe that they are working in accordance with God's will by protecting Israel.  

The hypothesis here is that in protecting Israel, USA and European elites believe that they partake of God's love for His Chosen People and receive His dispensation of exceptionalism in order to make the world safe for the Nation of Israel.  His dispensation extends to destroying Israel's enemies and the USA achieving the position of sole world superpower for this purpose. 

 
Discussion

George W Bush, a committed Christian, reportedly said that he had prayed to God and God told him to invade Iraq (para 10 of the linked BBC article).   Iraq was to be made a beacon of democracy in the Middle East.  It’s now well known that this was a war based on lies that created enormous destruction and suffering.  It has no relationship to Jesus’ teaching.  Bush told US troops in Somalia that they're doing God's work.  It’s Christianity but not according to Jesus.  It's also the President getting political instructions from God.

A former Indian ambassador comments on other countries’ views of the USA’s behaviour based on its manifest destiny, exceptionalism and reliance on military force rather than morality and diplomacy.  Due to this behaviour the BRICS countries are creating a new international structure to avoid dealing with the USA and possibly Europe..

The USA was pre-disposed to develop the doctrine of its exceptionalism from its founders’ 17th century English culture and history as well as its independent history.  Its right that is, its claimed authority as well as its militarism comes from the Bible. 

American History

Let’s look at some American history that starts in England a thousand years ago.

In 1066 when William of Normandy conquered England he annexed the entire country as his personal property and recorded all his assets - people, land, buildings and livestock - in the Domesday Book.  He claimed no particular right to do this more than the divine right of Kings to do whatever they wish.  For administrative purposes he made grants of most of the country to his barons and to the Church.  He also brought the language and aristocratic culture of Normandy with him.  There was a sharp demarcation of language, culture and class between the ruling Normans and the Anglo-Saxons that took many years to merge and has never fully disappeared. 

This class duality exists at the present time in England’s monarchy and aristocratic elites.  We have two areas of law and two houses of Parliament both derived from the Norman conquest.  This socio-legal structure is supported by the Anglican Church as demonstrated by the Church’s coronation of Charles III, an event to confirm the UK elites’ status at which the aristocracy, traditional and modern, were prominent.  To this day the Monarchy retains the motto Dieu et mon droit (God and my right) that is, the right from God to rule.

The Mayflower and the Pilgrim Fathers

By 1620 the power of the King, Charles I and aristocracy had been reduced and a parliament existed but power was still based on wealth from the land distribution of 1066.  In support of Monarchy, the aristocracy and state, the Church required strict observance to its doctrines and practices and persecuted those protesters who wanted to further purify Church practices from those of Roman Catholicism (thus Protestants and Puritans.)

In 1620 some of these protestants who sought religious freedom, embarked on the ship Mayflower for the new British settlements of North America.  A majority of these had been refugees from English persecution, living in Holland.  They became the legendary Pilgrim Fathers. 

The Pilgrim Fathers were devout and strict fundamentalist believers in God, Christianity and Church, that is, they believed that every word of the entire Bible, both old and new testaments, was the sacred Word of God.  They had the 17th century belief that He intervenes directly in the world and that their prayers had brought the survivors of the voyage to safety and the New World.  They were a cultural example to the 13 original settlements that became the United States and continue to be so.

Although far from being aristocrats in England, the settlers found themselves to be aristocrats to the native Americans.  They did not treat the native Americans as equals or according to their own laws.  They treated them as the Normans had treated the English in 1066.  In fact, worse.  As well as 17th century Christianity the Founding Fathers and other less devout colonists also brought with them the social relations and religious prejudices of 17th Century England as William of Normandy had brought his to England in 1066.  They assumed themselves to be in culture and religion superior to the native heathens, ie non-Christians, with rights that the natives did not have and considered that native laws and customs did not apply to them. 

With superior technology and weapons, the settlers confiscated tribal lands at will, responded to resistance with deadly force, made and broke numerous treaties and attempted to exterminate the native Americans and drive them from the land.   Those native Americans who resisted were considered to be bloodthirsty savages.  The immigrants were not landowners in Europe where land was wealth so they seized as much as possible.

The USA's Achievement of Freedom and Democracy

In 1775 the initial 13 colonies commenced their revolutionary war which freed them from British rule.  This war and the 1776 Declaration of Independence are major elements of the USA’s identity.  ‘Freedom’ to Americans has profound religious and political resonances.   The USA’s wars on other countries are always justified to the American people as freeing oppressed people from tyrants rather than to steal their oil, other resources or to protect American business interests.  Operation 'Iraqi Freedom' was to get revenge for Saddam Hussein's scud missile attacks on the Israelis as Bush promised them and to steal their oil. They removed the meters on oilfields, refineries and port terminals and exported all Iraq's oil production for over five years unrecorded.  Who got the proceeds?  The UN urged them for five years to restore the meters until its mandate expired.  I blogged about it at the time. 

Freedom to the new United States meant not only religious and political freedom.  It meant freedom from the British Monarchy and top-down power gifted from the Monarch.  Along with freedom, democracy also has a profound and emotive meaning to Americans because they seized both with an effort of will, risk and with bloodshed.  Bringing democracy in American interests to others by war and political intervention, ie revolution, also resonates well with the American public.

Please note that American democracy did not include voting rights for native Americans or slaves.  Indeed, apartheid as racial separation and absence of civil rights existed in the United States from this time until the 1970s and informally still does.  The Washington post suggests that the second amendment to the Constitution, the right to bear arms, had a number of intentions including avoiding a standing army, which has been unsuccessful, but was also to arm whites since at the time, blacks were not permitted to possess arms.  The article suggests that it is still administered with that objective.

I suggest that this distinction in status was not only due to a difference in power and the hierarchical social model of 17th century England.  It also had a religious basis in the ‘heathen’ ie non-Christian condition of the native Americans, African slaves and their descendants that mirrored the common 17th century European view of non-Christians and conceivably non-whites.

This period of American racial discrimination overlapped the South African apartheid period of 1948 - 1991 which appears to have the same origin in time, place and religion.  The Afrikaaners of South Africa were protestants of the Dutch Reformed Church who arrived at the Cape of Good Hope in 1652 from Holland, only 32 years after the Mayflower sailed.  The Mayflower pilgrims had been living in exile in Holland, will have had similar religious views and might well have collaborated in planning new settlements according to their ideals. 

When I worked in Johannesburg in 1965 I asked an Afrikaaner colleague how apartheid was justified.  He said that the Church taught that the Africans were the ‘hewers of wood and drawers of water’ to Christians as God made other nations to Israel in the bible, an inaccurate reference to biblical Joshua and the Hivites.  He also related it to Ishmael, Abraham’s illegitimate son by the Egyptian Hagar who he said had dark skin and did not share in the Abrahamic Promise due to his illegitimacy.  It was clear that the Afrikaaners identified themselves with biblical Israel of the Old Testament as God’s people.  Many Christian groups have styled themselves as direct inheritors of God’s relationship with Israel.  I was raised within such an American group myself so am familiar with the weltanschauung.  Since Israel had disappeared two thousand years previously there was no problem for Christians in believing this.  

The USA’s revolution of 1775 defines its people’s primary view of themselves, shown in their national anthem, as a free, brave people, victorious in armed revolution against a foreign power, trusting in God. Video sung here.

For context, let’s look at how three other relevant countries see themselves. 

The French also had a revolution in 1789, fourteen years after America.  The Marseillaise was the revolutionaries’ marching song at commencement of their internal revolution.  They gifted the USA with the Statue of Liberty in celebration of the American revolution, probably because it was the inspiration for their own.  This would have reinforced the Americans’ heroic military self-image and is a constant reminder of it.  Video sung here.

The UK’s national anthem entreats God to grant the noble Monarch happiness, victory, glory and a long reign.  It’s a preservation of top-down class authority as might have been sung in 1066 for William of Normandy.  Video sung here.

The Russian national anthem adopted by Vladimir Putin celebrates the Russian people’s love of their land. Video sung here.

Please consider that every time a citizen sings his national anthem he accepts the implied culture.  That's its purpose.  Why not interpret them yourself?

As it developed, the USA became powerful enough to ignore other countries’ views and to intervene  elsewhere, particularly in South America.  It justified its interventions by claiming to bring freedom and democracy.   The American people see their interventions and revolutions as legitimized by good intentions even if they are blood drenched disasters.  Their national anthem advertises them, one might say, as experts at revolutions with happy outcomes.

The USA’s Manifest Destiny

In migrating westward the English-speaking Americans fought with or were joined by other European colonists from France, Spain and Germany resulting in the geographical expansion of the United States.  In doing so a belief developed in its ‘divine manifest destiny’ to occupy the land of North America, the foundation of a new, free, wealthy country.  This mystical belief apparently gave justification for the USA’s annexation of Texas from Mexico.  The 1898 Spanish-American war won the USA further territories from Spain.  The USA’s territory was almost all acquired by wars and conflict with other colonial countries and the native people.  

This notion of manifest destiny originally related to the the USA’s destiny to expand its territory but it also carries a meaning that the expansion of its territories is part of a greater or higher destiny.  Alexander Lang, a pastor in Chicago has some interesting things to say from within US culture about the USA's world mission, how exceptionalism develops from manifest destiny and the religion of Christian nationalism.  This article is a must-read by a Christian of good-will.  The idea that some people think that Christian nationalism defines the USA is intriguing because Christianity has in practice very little to do with Jesus and much more with bronze age Yahweh and human sacrifice in Jesus death among other deficiencies.

For all its folklore and history, the USA behaved like any other powerful country that acted as it wished because it had the power to do so.   This changed after WWII.
The Reappearance of the State of Israel

On May 14 1948 the State of Israel was established and recognized by most Christian countries.

This had a profound impact on Christian religious and political thought.  The nation of Israel had disappeared from existence 2000 years previously following the Roman destruction of Jerusalem.  Suddenly and unexpectedly, Israel reappeared as a nation that was no longer a legend from the Bible -  it was active in the world in the present.  This was to fundamentalist Christians a Sign of God’s direct intervention in the world.  More than that, it was a Sign that Jesus’ return was imminent with an accompanying apocalypse, the establishment of the Kingdom of God, resurrection of the dead, the ‘rapture’ ascent of the faithful to God, the end of time and related biblical events.

The religious impact of Israel’s founding was particularly great on Christians of the USA.  As above, they appear to have been pre-disposed to believe that God was guiding them in view of their achievements of religious and political freedom and successful land acquisition.  There was the myth of Manifest Destiny.  They had a 17th century fundamentalist view of every word in the Bible as God’s Word including Israel’s role in it as God’s Chosen People.  They believed also that they had won the Cold War with the Soviet Union and its atheistic communists as evidence that God was with them.

Now Israel had returned and Jesus would also return.  For these reasons I suggest that there was a stronger change in Christian thinking for Americans than for people in other countries. 

The Israelites were the Chosen People of their God Yaweh in the Old Testament for about 1,300 years after Moses.  Christians world-wide are accustomed to the bible account of God’s support of the Israelites as the heroes of the Bible Story - which was written by the scribes of Israel itself.    Israel’s re-birth and Christianity’s lack of distinction between Old and New Testaments meant to many Christians and particularly Americans that God was again acting in the material world through Israel as He had to the point of Jesus' appearance.

In my personal experience, about fifty years ago a protestant priest in the UK told me that Jesus will come again when the Jews re-build the temple in Jerusalem and offer burnt sacrifices there.  At the time I was sceptical of religion and asked, “Do you mean physically, in the flesh?”  He replied earnestly, “Yes”.  I thought it an extreme but harmless belief.  More recently I began to take it more seriously.  A few years ago I asked an Anglican priest who taught at a theological college whether the Jews are God’s Chosen People.  He went through long verbal contortions to avoid the question, but I pressed it and eventually he said unhappily, “I don’t know.” 

There is a large number of Old Testament references to say that the Jews are God’s Chosen People, that they are exclusive to Him or that He is their God.  That is not in question.  What is in question is the role of Yahweh, Moses' God, following Jesus' appearance with his new conception of God as loving humanity, forgiving and intending to bring the Kingdom of God.  This is now important with the reappearance of Israel and Christian expectations arising from it.

I recently had a conversation about Israel with another Anglican priest who wanted me to sign a pledge  against anti-Semitism that was really against criticism of Israel.  I asked him, “Do you believe that Jesus will return in Israel?  He replied, “Well, he has to return somewhere.”  He avoided the direct question as his colleague did.  I have asked a number of Anglicans, including a quick survey of three friends a week ago, whether the Jews are God’s chosen people at the present time.  They all said “Yes,” because it’s in the bible.  It’s not clear what the full extent of this belief is in the Christian countries, but this is what mainstream Christianity teaches in an unquestioning and therefore inferential, subliminal way, as if there is no difference between Moses' and Jesus' teaching.  I am only now discovering how widespread it seems to be. 
 
In early March 2020 I had a conversation with a parish priest about the possibility of nuclear war emerging from the Ukraine civil war as it was then and what, as Christians, we might do about it.  He was completely unconcerned about nuclear war.  He waved a hand and said, “Well, all this (ie the general world state of affairs) has to be swept away anyway.  And we’ll ...(long pause then different tone of voice) ...we can’t do anything about it,” but he was going to say “We’ll be taken to Heaven.”   There is doubtless a variety of similar beliefs held by Christians about the imminence of God’s intervention in the world, including among USA and UK elites.

There are two dangers in Christians believing in Jesus’ imminent return in Israel, which has no biblical foundation nor any material-world evidence:

1) Since Jesus' Kingdom will soon remedy all our major problems, they can be ignored.  We don’t need to understand them and attempt to solve them.  God and Jesus will fix everything.  It's a passive response.

2) This belief can influence active behaviour in problematic ways because it’s a belief without real-world verifiability.  An example would be to destroy Israel's enemies to make Israel safe for Jesus' return .




The Friends of Israel Gospel Ministry

The Friends of Israel Gospel Ministry was founded in 1938 to assist refugees from the Holocaust.   It has branches in eleven countries, mainly in Europe.  Subsequently it has changed its focus from secular welfare to concentrate on a religious vision of Christians' relationship to Jews and the Nation of Israel.

This is an introductory statement of belief by a UK organizer and his wife on the 7 September 2023 opening page of the Friends of Israel’s UK website:

"We believe it is vital for Christians to love and support the Jewish people. God still loves his chosen people and has incredible plans for them. That’s what drives FOI’s ministry in the UK."  (My emphasis)

A copy of what the Friends of Israel believe, from their  UK website, is included as an appendix below.  The main points of belief relevant here are that:

Every part of the bible is God's inspired word
Israel is God’s chosen national people
Israel has a right to the land of Palestine
Christ’s return is imminent and can happen at any moment
The 'lost' will be punished eternally; the 'redeemed' will have eternal bliss.

Most Members of the UK's Parliament (MPs) are members of the Friends of Israel and one may assume that they are believers in that organization's stated tenets.

Full details aren’t available, but some are:

Conservative Party Friends of Israel gives the figure as 80% of its MPs, ie 281 of a total 352 MPs.
Labour Party Friends of Israel does not give a figure but Wikipedia lists 55 known out of a total 196 MPs. 
Liberal Party Friends of Israel gives no details.

The combined 281 conservative plus 55 known Labour members of the Friends of Israel Gospel Ministry total 336 which is a majority of the 650 members of the House of Commons, giving absolute control of British Government policy.  In practice, more than 80% of Conservatives normally vote for their Party's policies and there are doubtless more than 55 Labour Friends of Israel so that the present government's support for Israel on the basis of its MPs' religious beliefs is certain.

The Friends of Israel Initiative

In 2010 the Friends of Israel Initiative was launched at the UK Parliament's House of Commons.  It is a political organization  intended to protect Israel and its legitimacy - which cannot be questioned.  It is clearly the political or action arm of the Friends of Israel Gospel Ministry.

The Friends of Israel Initiative has a slogan:   Stand for Israel, Stand for the West.  An article published in the Times by Hose Maria Aznar, ex-Prime Minister of Spain and said to be the driving force behind the Initiative, has it that If Israel goes down we all go down.  (Appendix 2 for text) That was his message at the foundation of the Initiative with the view that any attack on Israel's legitimacy is nothing less than an attack on Western Civilization and the values it embodies.

That is plainly nonsense as it stands.  Western civilization developed without the nation of Israel's presence and would go on without it if it were to 'go down' unless the Friends Of Israel have information that they have not made public.   The development of Western civilization has in fact been retarded by the attachment of the savage values of the bronze age Old Testament God Yahweh onto the New Testament and Jesus message by the Council of Nicea in AD 325.  It is Yahweh that has enabled Christian warfare since then.  So what does Aznar mean?  This isn't theology or theory.  The Friends of Israel Initiative are concerned with practical politics which is why they're separate from the Ministry.

The Friends of Israel Initiative makes specific connections between the bible's Old Testament, Israel as God's Chosen Nation, the British Parliament and political action.  It is clear that the British Parliament and Government are making policy, purportedly with God's purposes, to support Israel.

It’s noteworthy that this slogan 'Stand for Israel, Stand for the West' excludes Russia as not a Western country, although it is Christian.  We can infer a connection to the Ukraine war and a view that Russia is a barbarian attacker on Western civilization.  Russia isn't Israel's enemy as far as I know although it supports Syria and Iran for pragmatic reasons. The reason the Russians went communist in the first place was due to Marx who was Jewish and wanted a secular Kingdom of God as the 'dictatorship of the proletariat', although that term might have been Lenin's.

It is clear is that the Friends of Israel Initiative is a political forum where cross-party British Government policy to support Israel and Christians’ expectations of Jesus’ return there can be discussed.  It enables the formation of religious-based policy supportive of Israel outside Parliament and hidden from the view of the British People.  This appears to be its primary purpose in view of the number of Members of Parliament who are Friends of Israel . 

Effectively the British Government and Parliament believes that the Jews are God's Chosen People.  That is what a majority of its legislators who are members of the Friends of Israel Gospel Ministry means.  Further, in supporting the Friends of Israel Initiative, the British Government effectively makes policy on the basis that Israel is God's chosen nation where Jesus will return to bring about, broadly, the biblical  End Times events.   These appear to be the religious motivations underlying all the known UK lies and propaganda for the wars on Iraq, Libya, Syria, current hostility to Iran and as will be discussed below, the Ukraine proxy war against Russia.  The USA leads the UK in supporting Israel with weapons and militarily, so given the UK's political subservience to the USA we can reasonably assume that the beliefs and motivation of its elites are the same.

There are Friends of Israel Gospel Ministry websites in many countries such as the USA, Canada, France, Germany and Australia.  The objective of this group’s ministry is to link Christianity with political support for Israel.  This is only possible if one believes that Christianity accepts Yaweh of the Old Testament as Jesus’ God.  Western foreign policy is being made on a religious basis and a mistaken one at that.    The Church created this irrational fusion of Yaweh and Jesus’ God for its own benefit in AD 325 at the Council of Nicea to give Christian authority for Constantine’s wars.  It is now showing its destructive nature and origin based on Yahweh, not Jesus.

John Bolton, an eminent US government official, was a founder member of the Friends of Israel Initiative. Bolton avoided being drafted to fight in Vietnam by joining the National Guard which kept him safe at home.  Nevertheless, he is perhaps the most enthusiastic supporter that the US has of war as the solution for all problems.  Perhaps he's a genuine believer in Jesus' imminent return in Israel but it's not clear how he can be as his enthusiasm for warfare can only be theologically based on Yahweh and is not remotely related to Jesus' teaching.. His role as a founding member nevertheless indicates US government support for this group.  This illustrates the fundamental contradiction in orthodox Christian theology.

The belief that in the 21st century the Creator Of The Universe considers the Jews and Israel to be His Chosen People and Nation to which is son Jesus will return imminently and take those of Faith to Heaven is not credible.   It was Yaweh of 3,500 years ago in the late Bronze Age who had Israel as his chosen people, a God who wanted burnt sacrifice, sometimes tolerating human sacrifice, of stoning to death even at Jesus’ time and of warfare and slaughter.  Yaweh rewarded and punished; he brought good harvests but also famine and pestilence.  This is not Jesus’ conception of God.  God(s) are perceptions conceptions, hypotheses, but real to our mental organization and behaviour.  I will tell you what I know about this in another article. 

American Exceptionalism and World Hegemony To Protect Israel

We’ve seen that most British politicians are Friends of Israel and the British Parliament has a Friends of Israel Initiative to protect Israel because Israel is still God’s Chosen Nation.  No-one seems to think that this is remarkable.  This is because Christianity teaches that Yaweh of the Old Testament and Jesus’ God of love are the same God.  They’re not.  Yaweh was a savage bronze age god of his time and Jesus’ God of love and forgiveness superseded him.

You might wonder why American, British and other European politicians have adopted the view that Jesus will return to solve all their problems.  God as taught by the church both approves wars as Yahweh of the Old Testament and is also Jesus' God of love and peace who brings His Kingdom to humankind.  This was an expedient basis for the deal that the Church made with Emperor Constantine in  AD325. It's still taught because it's still expedient, because for a thousand years the Church killed anyone who said differently and because it's traditional.The solution therefore is to look to Jesus and his promise to return as the answer.  It's religious group-thinking and very difficult to combat.  People can't stand uncertainty and faith in Jesus' return immediately relieves uncertainty.  It becomes someone else's problem.   Roughly put, one can carry on doing what one wants to do and Jesus will sort it out.  With warfare in the 21st century it's a very dangerous attitude.

The real solution to Jesus and his return is in the bible but being misinterpreted but as I've said, the practical solution is as he told us, "The Kingdom of God is within you".  It's a psychological development in individuals and culture based on following what he told us to do.  Who Jesus was is more complex but like Moses he definitely had an experience of God.  God doesn't write on tablets of stone or gold with his finger.  He speaks through men. 

The religious motive driving the wars promoted by the USA, UK and EU are based on Yahweh's nature rather than Jesus' instructions.  The best means of combatting this is to simply publicise what these people believe and how it's taken a dangerous political form.  There's no basis whatever for thinking that Jesus will return in Israel or any time soon.  The challenge to supply one will hopefully tend to restore sane thinking.   The answer to these wars isn't in fighting or even diplomatic compromises.  It's the way in which we think about each other.  Yahweh has to be left in the bronze age.  He died with Jesus who was the final sacrifice to Yahweh.   It's Jesus' conception of God that's taking us forward and the Church needs to move on from its preoccupation with the sacrifice of Jesus to a bronze age God.

Annexing Canaan and annexing Russia

Let’s consider Yahweh’s nature in the bible account of the Israelites annexing the land of Canaan.  The Israelites were told to destroy totally every nation already there and show them no mercy.  Nor should they marry any of their people.  These are examples of ethnic cleansing and genocide which is how Israel acquired its land and title to it:

King Sihon of whose people they killed men, women and children with no survivors;

Og of Bashan in whose sixty walled cities and many villages they killed the men, women and children;

The city of Jericho where they killed every living thing -  men, women, young and old, cattle, sheep and donkeys although they saved Rahab the prostitute who had betrayed her people, together with her family;

If an Israelite town should have worshippers of other gods, everyone must be killed and everything in the town burned as an offering (sacrifice) to Yahweh.

Christians approve of all this in Church without a second thought because God ordered it.  It’s in the bible, the Israelites are his Chosen People and that’s what the Church teaches.  There are even fun songs for Christian children about the destruction of Jericho here and here.  This is the discontinuity between the conceptions of Yaweh and Jesus’ God.  Yaweh was an horrific god by Jesus standards or any standards but we're seeing his influence on the killing fields of Ukraine in the 21st Century in a Culture that purports to follow Jesus..  These passages of Israel's actions guided by Yahweh and many like them are regularly read approvingly in Christian churches. 

The Israelites were righteous in their ethnic cleansing/genocide in following Yahweh’s decree to kill all the existing inhabitants of their Promised Land, Canaan, now Palestine.  That is also the word that US General Mike Miley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs used  (Miley's comment at video point 41:30) to exonerate from blame a drone strike that killed an aid worker seven children and two other adults in Kabul, Afghanistan. There is no doubt about it. ‘Righteous’ is firmly in the area of religion.  General Miley is one of the US Military’s most senior officers who is speaking for the US military.  From his previous explanation a word like ‘justified’ would be appropriate but he’s using a word that’s not only ethical but is really from a religious vocabulary.  I’ve seen videos of army padres exhorting groups of soldiers going out on patrol to “Go out and do God’s work!” It fits in with the idea of American exceptionalism. 

The basis of America’s avowed unwavering support for Israel is that elites, politicians, military and population believe that God has re-established Israel for his Chosen People and for Jesus’ return.   Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said  that the deaths of 500,000 Iraqi children due to US sanctions were ‘worth it’ from its sanctions against Syria and Saddam Hussein.  Obama awarded her the Presidential Medal Of Freedom, reflecting the views of America’s elites.  Watch Albright here then ask yourself where that attitude came from.  Albright’s interviewer shows clear bafflement at how Albright might hold her view and wants confirmation that that she does hold it.  It’s not from Jesus.  It’s the view that Old Testament Israel had of other nations - a view from over three thousand years ago.

Yaweh differed very little from the Gods of the nations surrounding Israel.  He wanted burnt sacrificial offerings and from time to time human sacrifice was practised by the Israelites or imported into Yaweh-worship as the case of Jephthah shows. Jephthah sacrificed his adult daughter to Yahweh and was subsequently one of the Judges of Israel for six years.  These are only a few of the recorded examples of human sacrifice in Israel over a period of about 800 years until the restoration of the Temple at Jerusalem by Cyrus.  It cannot be assumed that Yahweh did not demand such sacrifice over such a long period. 

The Romans finally finished Jewish rebellions in AD70 with the end of the Jewish nation.    If his people had followed Jesus’ advice and had, if not loved the Romans at least tolerated them, their history since then would have been very different.  There’s an obvious lesson here.  European Elites are well aware that the Ukraine war is based on lies and propaganda.  They’re also well aware that the Americans are fanatical about defeating Russia (I use the word advisedly) and a NATO and/or nuclear war is becoming increasingly probable. 

I hope that the Europeans are not depending on God’s help and protection in that event.  It won’t happen so they should start thinking about what material reality means.

The situation is clear - NATO is the USA’s proxy in a foreseeable escalation from Ukraine as its present proxy.  Europe is in serious trouble, not only economically but with the high probability of a NATO-Russian war.  The Ukraine war needs to be stopped and the simplest means of doing it is to stop supplying weapons.  That decision should be taken in Europe while it's still possible in view of the USA’s withdrawal from the Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces Treaty,  the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty and medium range missiles now being supplied to Ukraine.  Scott Ritter is a former US weapons inspector who has worked on inspections within Russia.  He has important things to say about these missile treaties and their effects as well as the situation in Ukraine. Ritter says, in short, that the USA lied about Russia breaching the treaties.  It was the USA that was breaching them. As a weapons inspector Ritter should know and as a loyal American accuses his government of wrong-doing because of that.

It’s the USA that’s running the Ukraine war but if Europe were to cease its involvement it would be a major step toward stopping it.  European elites need to act independently of the USA or the future of Europe will be nothing like its present state.  Neither the USA nor Europe keep their agreements so something major and material has to be done as they have a vast credibility problem with Russia.  There’s no recovery to the Minsk 2 position.  It’s a matter of cutting losses in Ukraine and avoiding disaster to Europe itself at this point.

If the EU and UK stop supplying weapons there's a chance that we can get back to tolerance on the Russian side and trading in time.  At least we lessen our chances of being trashed like Ukraine with about 4-500,000 dead so far, which would be a good start.  The Russians have also lost about 50,000 dead and they're very angry about it, so proceeding as we are is extremely unwise, especially for the UK.  The USA won't like it, but are we going to commit suicide to please them as Boris Johnson persuaded the Ukrainians to do?  It's a truly insane idea.  As for Angela Merkle and Francois Holland lying to the Russians about Minsk 2, they and European elites weren't thinking straight.  Really.  Do they genuinely think that God is helping them?  That God will protect them?

You might wish to listen to Jeffrey Sachs from Columbia University who worked with senior Russian politicians and officials on the economy following the dissolution of the Soviet Union.  I went to one of his economics lectures relating to Russia.  It's Sachs' view that the Europeans need to break free of the USA and act in European interests.  Sachs is surprised and puzzled by European behaviour in following the USA to war with profound damage to Europe itself.  I am too, which is why I'm exploring it here.

The Annexation of Hawaii

On 21st August 1959 the USA made Hawaii a sovereign US possession as its 50th state.    This is exactly the process by which the USA expanded to the detriment of the native people of North America - by armed force, imposition of foreign laws on a weaker people and immigration to outnumber them.  Similarly the original inhabitants of these islands have been made second class citizens in an overwhelming military-globalist culture operated by the rich elites. 

This is the annexation policy that the USA and UK elites in particular are supporting in supporting Israel.  I have suggested that the eastward movement of NATO, and the proxy Ukraine war on Russia are aimed at annexing Russia's territory partly because that is consistent with the USA's history.  This plan was probably conceived on the dissolution of the Soviet Union when Russia was in fact very weak.  It is now of very doubtful feasibility.  Nevertheless it appears to be currently pursued by elites of the USA, UK and Europe  for geopolitical reasons supported by a mistaken  and dangerous Christian ideology.  Individuals' motivations obviously differ, but the general populations of the USA, UK and Europe would not support this if they were not fed a constant stream of propaganda.  There are very few elites, all extremely wealthy who are manipulating 'The West' by taking advantage of flaws in Christianity itself.

The I
The Iraq war and Death of Dr David Kelly

The Bush / Blair invasion of Iraq commenced on 19 March 2003 on the allegation that Iraq possessed chemical and biological weapons of mass destruction (WMD) as well as a nuclear weapons programme.  The truth of this and the  legality of invasion had been argued heatedly and at length in the United Nations, with the Americans taking extreme measures to coerce support for the war and to spy on UN diplomats.  Secretary of State Colin Powell made false allegations with the aid of a vial of white powder purporting to model anthrax produced by Saddam Hussein and talk of mushroom clouds over the USA.  These  many allegations are now known to be fabrications and lies by UK and US politicians.  The UN weapons inspector Hans Blix said that no WMD had been found.  The organizers of a London march against the war, in which I participated, claimed one million marchers.  The British Government took no notice of public opinion which was against the war and despite the lies and murder of this aggressive war, no-one has been held to account.

On 22 May 2003 Dr David Kelly gave a BBC radio interview in which he said that a dossier published by Tony Blair to support the invasion had been 'sexed up'.  Dr Kelly was a government scientist and Chief weapons inspector of impeccable credentials with experience of weapons inspection in Iraq from 1991 to 1998.  He was in a position to pull down the entire war effort and reveal its lies at its very beginning when Bush and Blair were celebrating victory.  Dr Kelly had been an anonymous BBC 'intelligence source' for about two months.  When his identity was known he came under intense government and parliamentary pressure together with frenzied media attention. 

On 18 July 2003 Dr Kelly was found dead in a wood near his home, with his wrists cut and a quantity of an analgesic in his stomach. His death was immediately assumed to be a suicide by the police and media.  The Blair cabal removed the inquiry into his death from the independent coroner's court which had jurisdiction, to its own government inquiry by their appointee Lord Hutton.  Hutton failed to carry out a forensic inquiry, pronounced Dr Kelly's death to be suicide and 'out of consideration for his family' sealed the inquiry papers for 70 years.

Three physicians, two of whom were well experienced surgeons publicly said that it was impossible for Dr Kelly to die of the injuries to his wrists and called for a proper inquest and release of the post mortem results.  I was blogging about this at the time.  I met one of the surgeons on two occasions, spoke to the other by phone and met him to discuss the affair some time later. I wanted to know them and their views in detail.  They said that there was no chance whatever that Dr Kelly could die by the means described. 

They were not the only dissidents from the government's story.  A Member of Parliament, Norman Baker personally carried out a detailed investigation into Dr Kelly's death published as The Strange Death Of David Kelly.  Norman Baker details many inconsistencies and irregularities in the police investigation and the government's inquiry.  He does not believe that Dr Kelly died of suicide, that is, he was murdered. 

There are three governments that wanted the Iraq war at all costs: the Israelis, Americans and British.  I had them in that order as candidates for murdering Dr Kelly.  At that time the only reason for the UK wanting the war seemed to be that Tony Blair wanted to ingratiate himself with George Bush for financial gain - which did pay off handsomely  for him. Now I find that he was also a member of the Friends of Israel.  That is much more interesting and motivational, as it provides a route to murder for righteous purposes with God's blessing. 

I recall the circumstances of Dr Kelly's death because I was blogging about it and there was too much secrecy.  The Blair government was in panic at the possibility that he would speak out publicly, which he had been forbidden to do. It was unlikely that they could control him.   It was all too convenient to the government to be rid of him.  Having discussed the medical possibilities with Drs. Chris Burns-Cox (now deceased) and David Halpin, together with reading Norman Baker's book, it is my belief that Dr Kelly was murdered.  The Rahab interpretation provides righteous justification if one is required.   Blair abandoned Anglicanism for Roman Catholicism where forgiveness might appear to be more available.  Like Angela Merkle, Blair is unsure of his chances of heaven and with good reason.

Let me be clear.  Everyone is entitled to whatever religious beliefs they wish, however, when religious belief prompts actions that harm others it becomes a matter of public concern.

The Rahab Interpretation

On 30 January 2023 the BBC showed a propaganda documentary Putin vs The West (now on BBC Select) that was intended to deceive the British public into believing that Putin was an evil irrational warmonger.  It was a fast response to Angela Merkle's confession on 7 December 2022  that she and Francois Holland had lied to Putin about implementing the Minsk Agreement.  Her unambiguous confession confirmed that it was the EU, UK and US elites who wanted the Ukraine war, not Putin. This was proven by Boris Johnson's visit to Kiev to persuade Zelinsky not to make agreement with Putin when an Agreement to cease hostilities had been drafted and initialled at the Istanbul negotiations. 

The BBC documentary was a nonsense of anecdotes, innuendo and accusations out of context about Putin.  Included was Boris Johnson's idiotic claim  that Putin threatened him with a missile - from the man who persuaded Zelensky that it was better to have a war with Russia than make a peace agreement and was paid for doing so.

I liked Jose Manuel Barroso's description of Putin as very emotional in a discussion they'd had a few days before he ordered the 'special operation' into Ukraine.  It indicated that Putin was extremely reluctant to order it and was well aware of its seriousness.  He had been relying on the Minsk Agreement to that point and it wasn't being implemented.  It occurred to me that Putin was tired of the nonsense coming from the EU representatives such as Barroso, that Barroso had made some wrong responses at a time of decision and had himself triggered the special operation.  Barroso would have known about the Minsk deception, was deceiving Putin and Putin probably detected it. There was an interesting exchange in the documentary when Merkle accused Putin of having Russian soldiers in the Donbass. Putin said that they had lost their way or were on holiday and Merkle snapped at him, "Don't be stupid."  He was obviously tired of getting stupid responses from her and the other EU liars who were playing with the lives of millions of Ukrainians and EU citizens. 

In any event, Merkle's confession and Boris Johnson's intervention in the Istanbul negotiations were decisive and showed the truth.  That these weren't in the documentary and Putin was blamed for everything shows that an incredible, irrational deception is taking place.  Clips of Merkle and Hollande, both at that time known liars who used the Minsk Agreement to arm Ukraine for war, were in this documentary blaming Putin for aggression.  It's beyond cynicism.   We're witnessing the collapse of Europe and what is called 'The West'.  It's also the collapse of Christian culture.

The risks of their present course are enormous and they're still increasing them by sending more powerful weapons to Ukraine and now, I understand, British 'trainer' troops and UK special forces are already there.  It's irrational.  Our elites want a NATO war against Russia and are lying to the public to get it. They persist with escalation when perhaps 500,000 young Ukrainians are dead due to their 'help' and they know that the war they're planning will destroy Europe.  The irrationalities have their own logic however.   It's a religious war outside material rationality.

In the BBC documentary, there was a clip showing the EU politicians exiting the building immediately after pressuring Viktor Yanukovych, the Ukrainian President to renege on his economic deal with Putin and sign the EU's deal. Radek Sikorsky, the Polish Minister for Foreign Affairs remarked to the others, "We entered the building to sounds of gunfire - now it's quiet, which shows that God is looking with favour on this  Agreement."  But Sikorsky was wrong.  That night Yanukovych fled to Crimea for Russian protection.  He probably knew that Turchenov, his Head of Security, who spoke in the documentary, would probably have had him killed if he didn't sign and might have done it anyway.  See the video and judge for yourself.  It was clear to Putin that the scenario was Georgia again and war was coming, so he seized Crimea.  God wasn't with the EU politicians then and He plainly isn't now.  . 

There's something wrong with their minds, but even so, there's always a reason, a justification.  There's a biblical interpretation, the Rahab Example that is as incredible as the idea that Jesus' return in Israel is imminent. Let's look at another detail that is probably part of their thinking.  I've come across it as Christian doctrine previously.

Above in the instance of the Israelites' slaughter of every living thing in Jericho, the prostitute Rahab was alone spared.  Rahab hid two Israelite spies, lied to Jericho's men, ie her own people, who were looking for the spies and betrayed her city to save herself and her family.  Her simple strategy was to survive whether the Israelites or her own people won the coming battle.

In the New Testament (NT), Paul writing to the Hebrews says, "By faith the prostitute Rahab, because she welcomed the spies, was not killed..."  He doesn't call Rahab a traitress who saved herself while assisting her people's annihilation.  Paul transforms her into a woman of faith for hiding the spies.  In another NT letter James deems her righteous.   An Anglican view of her is consistent with this: she's an example of a righteous woman of faith.

The two New Testament passages at Hebrews and James appear to be biblical authorization of exceptionalism for those of faith who discern and comply with God's will.

In practice this means that if you discern the 'true faith' or 'God's will', let us say, you may lie, deceive, cause the deaths of others, betray your own people or country and you will be deemed righteous and rewarded.  For example, if you believe the Truth  that God has restored Israel for its role in Jesus' imminent return you may do these things as Rahab did because the lives of non-believers or those that do not discern the Truth, as you do, have no value.  They'll be destroyed in the apocalypse and/or spend eternity in suffering in any case.

In 1958 the UK's Atomic Energy Authority sold 20 tons of deuterium or heavy water to Israel which the Israelis used in the Dimona reactor to make plutonium and their present arsenal of nuclear weapons which they deny having.  The deuterium originated from Norway and the sale was structured as a re-sale to Norway as a concealment.  This was apparently done by government officers rather than at political level.  It was concealed from the Americans with whom the UK has a 'special relationship' relating to nuclear weapons and probably defence that was agreed during WWII when UK scientists had knowledge and expertise essential to developing the atomic bomb.  This sale and its concealment from the Americans, despite their nuclear Agreement, would only be done by those who believed that Israel is God's Chosen Nation, that Israel's interests had priority over all others and who believed that Israel's interests superseded both the laws of their own government and the dangers of transferring nuclear weapons capability to the Middle East.  This probably triggered nuclear proliferation to India, Pakistan, Libya and Iran - which the USA and UK decry as if they had nothing to do with it.

As I've mentioned above, this was a traitorous transaction that appears to have been concealed from President Eisenhower and Prime Minister Macmillan at the time because it was known that they would not agree it.  It is noteworthy that this transaction must have had elite backing because no disciplinary action much less charges of treason have ever been brought against anyone. 

This is the attitude that the Globalist Elites have in carrying out their wars.  According to the Friends of Israel Gospel Mission there are two classes of people - those of faith who are saved and all others whose lives have no value who go into the lake of fire. The US, EU and UK Believers, those of faith, have thrown away millions of lives as of no value in pursuing their fantasies - perhaps over 500,000 in the Ukraine war alone in less than two years. In religious terms, these are lives that belong to God. It is for Him to judge who is of value.  In the meantime, we may understand these people by what they do.  Jesus said that you will know them by their actions.

In this context we should recall the incident of the USS Liberty when the USA planned to sacrifice its own ship and crew of 294 men during the 1967 Arab-Israeli six day war.  The Israelis were to sink the ship, following which the USA would blame Egypt and enter the war on Israel's side.  The attack killed 34 crew members and wounded 171 but the ship survived.  This extraordinary incident can be explained by US officials having the same religious beliefs as the Friends of Israel Gospel Ministry.  It was evidently considered at high level that a US ship and all aboard it were less valuable and could be sacrificed to save Jewish lives and Israel.  The instance of Rahab who betrayed her own people to destruction by the Israelites supports this view.  Rahab is considered righteous from Paul the Apostle and James to present day Christians. I disagree.

Paul and James do not quote Jesus'' words and what they say is not consistent with his teaching.  They are attempts by his followers to find instances of faith in Jewish history, make them consistent with Jesus' new teaching of love and forgiveness and use them as examples.  They applied faith in the God of Israel at that time, Yahweh who supported massacres, to faith in Jesus' new conception of God.  They did not have the knowledge, time and context to fully understand Jesus' intervention.   A present common sense view of Rahab's behaviour and words is that she was ensuring her survival whichever side won the coming war on her city. Her profession of faith for Israel's God was entirely pragmatic.

It is probable that the political and other elites of the USA, UK and Europe have adopted a view of this nature in their Initiative for pro-Israel policies, supported by these biblical texts.  It would be self-exoneration from killing fellow Christians in both Ukraine and Russia, to say nothing of expending Islamic lives carelessly.

Conclusions

The West's elites are fighting a religious war for Israel, evidently with total disregard for the lives of everyone who does not share their religious beliefs.  We have some major points of information:

General Wesley Clark tells us that there was a policy coup in Washington after 9/11 to carry out a plan to destroy Iraq and six other countries, most of which happen to threaten Israel.  The organizers of this coup will be a much larger group than the individuals that Clark identifies.  I suggest that it is these who are directing the war against Russia.  It is not that Russia wishes to destroy Israel.  As far as I can tell, Russia is neutral on the Issue of Palestine and has no major issues with Israel.  It supports Syria for the advantages of its military base rather than to threaten Israel. If it sells weapons in the region it is for profit or influence rather than hostility to Israel.

Nevertheless, these are not the higher Godly motivations of those who sent deuterium to Israel, destroyed its enemies in four countries, damaged Iran by proxy and has it under severe sanctions. The elites who run the West's politicians and manipulate misguided Christian beliefs regard Russia as a country of no value except for its resources and as a means of increasing their power.  Russian (and European) lives are expendable for their purposes.  That's what we see.  Remember Yahweh's commands through Moses at the threshold of the Promised Land that they intended to seize:   "...you must destroy them totally.  Make no treaty with them, and show them no mercy." [Note: The Hebrew word here, Strong's H2763: translated as 'destroy' can carry meanings of 'accursed, consecrated, given over to God'.  Think like the Israelites. This appears to be a distinction between the sacred In killing on God's instructions and killing for secular reasons, eg execution for murder or transgression of secular laws.]  This isn't the jumbled visions of Revelation.  These are accounts of real massacres from the bible of 3,500 years ago now brought into the 21st century by the same attitude of mind - how Yahweh values His people and those who help them and discards all others as of no value.

The Friends of Israel Initiative's members are Israel's Christian political protectors who appear to be a majority in the UK Parliament.  I suggest that they are also a majority in the USA's legislature since the US is Israel's avowed supporter.  The Friends of Israel Initiative makes sweeping claims: 'Support Israel - support The West' and 'Stand for Israel; stand for The West', conflating The West's best interest with those of Israel.  This certainly looks like General Clark's policy takeover given the military and other support for Israel that has always been given by The West.

Then there's American exceptionalism and the entire Ukraine war process with the EU elites supporting a coup, the Minsk Agreement deception, lying to Putin, lying to the UK public in the BBC propaganda piece 'Putin vs The West'.  There's this military bloc 'The West' again with EU representatives lying to present Putin as militaristic when Angela Merkle's deceptions and lies and Boris Johnson's Istanbul intervention prove conclusively that it's the USA, UK and EU that want war against Russia.  This is the same West that the Friends of Israel Initiative refers to.  The astonishing fact is that the UK and EU can gain nothing from this war unless either they succeed in annexing Russia to assist the USA's hegemonic ambitions or Jesus returns and rewards them.  Both are unacceptably uncertain and high risk by rational evaluation - but our elites are not rational.

Jesus' return in the flesh isn't going to happen.  What is happening before our eyes is the collapse of The West. The simple reason is because The West has chosen war rather than peace, so where did that idea come from?

It's a religious military conspiracy with the same motivation as the crusades - to have physical contact with the Divine, with God or Jesus out of despair, loneliness, uncertainty.  It's why the British want the Church to bless and crown their King - to have a fragment of the divine in the flesh among them.  Why else have a king?  Why have him crowned with Gods blessing?  We attempt to create certainty in an uncertain world, but it's obvious that warfare is not the way to do it.  When we see our leaders lying to us to take us to war - and that is certain - we must know what is in their minds, what models of society, of humanity, of reality they are using and where they see themselves in them.  Otherwise we are only responding to behaviour, not underlying motivation.

John Meerscheimer, Douglas Macgregor, Scott Ritter and others have given excellent rational explanations for how the USA’s ambition of world hegemony developed following the dissolution of the Soviet Union.  Rational explanations fade to insignificance however compared with the opportunity to participate with God in His plans for the world by making alliance with and supporting His Chosen People and Nation.  This doubtless gives the USA its exceptionalism to act for and with God.

It apparently seemed evident to the USA that in order to protect Israel it was necessary for it to become the World Hegemon and conceivably act as the instrument that God and Jesus will use to bring about the Kingdom of God on earth.  As I've said, the Communists had a similar ambition.

Once one accepts that the Jews are God’s Chosen People - and the Bible’s Old Testament says so - a link has been created to God through Israel as a material holy entity.   Prayer as a link to God may be considered to be uncertain or unreliable.  At a time of uncertainty a material link is very attractive.  Such a link is nevertheless still in one’s mind since it is a matter of belief.   The USA’s claimed exceptionalism appears to be an attempt by American Christians to use a link to God through Israel for wider political purposes.  UK politicians and elites are clearly following them and doubtless European elites as well.  

Real-world experience and biblical evidence of Yaweh’s nature show that such a link to Jesus’ God does not exist.  The USA intervened in Iraq and other countries in support of Israel and caused death, destruction and suffering on a scale far greater than Biblical Israel ever achieved.  It was from the same motivation from Yahweh as in ancient Israel and with the same slaughter of people of other countries.  Similarly with its insistence that Ukraine can defeat Russia despite a huge disparity in power.  It may be that the Americans expect God to perform a miracle to bring this about as He is said to have done on occasion for Israel.  When thinking leaves material reality and expects miracles such as Jesus’ material return, anything might seem possible.  

US elites’ belief they can win a nuclear war shows at the level of common sense that they have definitely left reality. 

John Meerscheimer says (video point 30) that there's no sense on the part of the Americans of the limits of power; no good sense of balance of power politics.  He seems to be frustrated in not understanding it.  This would to be because America is not operating in the region of realism and great power politics which is his basic theory, but from religious power authorised by God.

The bronze-age God Yaweh has been let loose in the world, not by the Jews or Israelis but by Christians who are superimposing their hopes and expectations onto Israel .  Some are lost in fantasies of Jesus of their own devising because of the magnitude and complexity of our problems. They are problems arising from the nature of life itself - living and dying, but also of misinformation from manipulators who use Jesus for their own advantage.  Jesus himself makes it simple.  We've been given the gift of life and he has told us how to live it.  Love your neighbour as yourself and love your enemies.  Why not do this rather than listen to others' fantasies.    

In less than two years we have had more than 500,000 Russians and Ukrainians killed in a war  driven by the USA with cooperation of the UK and EU, obviously against the interests of their own countries. UK and European elites repeat American lies about the reasons for this war although they know the truth.   I suggest that the real reason is outlined here. The anomalies of this conflict can only be explained by the fantasies of the perpetrators, those who lie knowingly to have war rather than peace.  Everyone who took part in the BBC documentary Putin Vs The West for example, and those who organized it - to say nothing of our UK Members of Parliament.  These apparently sane people have minds in chaos.

The elites who are organizing this war aren't only our politicians.  They're primarily the politicians' paymasters such as Bill Gates, George Soros and Rupert Murdoch.  It's the Western Oligarchs, central bankers, hedge funds managers, World Economic Forum participants, Bilderbergers and the Military-Globalist complex. 

Europe has no reason to be at war with Russia. Rather, in 2008 there were plans to integrate their economies.   It is necessary for the EU and UK politicians to lie to their people to have them support a war with Russia.  This means that Europe and Russia have a common enemy that is manipulating both.  It is clearly a concealed enemy because the populations of the USA , UK and EU want peace.  As General Wesley Clark says, no-one asked the People of the USA, UK and EU whether they wanted this war.  The way to stop the war is to identify the enemy and its interests.

As I write, NATO has published an article by the American Gregory Weaver who urges, essentially, more nuclear weapons for Europe. This is the USA's plan for Europe to be its proxy in eliminating Russia by nuclear means if necessary.  Why, one must ask, is the USA not seeking peace?  Why are Europe's elites willing to go along with this?  Why was Ukraine not encouraged to adopt the 'milking two cows' option mentioned by Simon Smith the British diplomat in the BBC's propaganda documentary of 30 January 2023 discussed above.  This would have had Ukraine politically neutral in a 'best of both worlds' relationship with both the EU and Russia.  The USA chose war and the EU complied. 

This is not really about NATO/Russia or US/China war.  It's clear that our elites want world nuclear war.  They are either insane materialists who believe that they can survive such a war in the underground towns they have constructed or they are of mistaken faith in expecting Jesus to return. They appear to imagine having a role in cleansing the world by fire for this event.  It will not happen no matter how much faith they have in it.

Psychologically, two organizing principles of our minds and culture are in conflict.  In religious terms, a battle of Gods is taking place within our minds. It is shaping our material world at this moment and destroying Europe. 


(End of document)

A post-script note:  As I'm about to post this article an appalling conflict between the Cousins, that is, of Israel and Palestine, has commenced.  Dear friends, recall that Jesus came from God to warn Israel of danger.  Recall Flavius Josephus' account of the Jews themselves firing the Temple buildings and of Massada when it was believed that God had abandoned Israel.  I have explained how Christianity has brought both Roman and Yahweh's violence into the 21st Century. What will the Friends of Israel do when their expectations are disappointed?  Nor did the Holocaust come from thin air.  Consider Hitler, resentful and brooding in his prison cell, dreaming of power and reading in his bible the history of Israel and its God of Power.  The Jews have prospered in our confused Christian culture.   They will be safe with Jesus and an example to Christianity if they make peace with their Cousins.  This is their incredible opportunity to take Humanity forward which was not previously understood.   Israel is on the path to repeating a great mistake.  Follow Jesus and share the land in equality and peace.

I have discussed the Prophet Muhammed (peace be upon him) with an Imam, a Hafiz of goodwill. The Prophet calls Jesus the Messenger of God but does not mention his message.  It was at that point not the right time.  The time is now and the message is to love God, love your neighbour as yourself, love your enemies and preach the Kingdom of God.
Appendix 1: Mission and beliefs of the Friends of Israel Gospel Ministry

https://www.friendsofisrael.uk/foi-international

Text from this website 8 September 2023.
THE
Friends of Israel
Gospel Ministry United Kingdom

Our mission is focused.
We are a worldwide evangelical ministry proclaiming biblical truth about Israel and the Messiah, while bringing physical and spiritual comfort to the Jewish people.
How We Began…
In 1938, the Friends of Israel Gospel Ministry was founded as a compassionate effort to meet the spiritual and physical needs of Jewish people whose lives were displaced and tragically affected by the Holocaust.
Since its inception, we continue to stand against every form of antisemitism and support the right of the Jewish people to live in their ancient homeland, Israel.

Additionally, FOI actively invests in the edification of Christians by teaching Scripture that exemplifies why loving the Jewish people and supporting Israel is integral to the Christian faith. Today, FOI’s presence spans the globe with ministry workers serving Jewish people worldwide.

Extract from home page 8 September 2023 apparently attributed to two members, Trevor and Maggie Stewart-Sweet:

We believe it is vital for Christians to love and support the Jewish people. God still loves his chosen people and has incredible plans for them. That’s what drives FOI’s ministry in the UK.

This statement is accompanied by a photo of a couple aged perhaps 25-30.  The US website identifies them as the FOI’s field representatives for Chesham, UK.


Our Values:

➊ Loving God, His Word, and the Jewish people.
➋ Sharing our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
➌ Supporting Israel’s right to the Land and opposing antisemitism.
➍ Living a life of humility, integrity, and respect for others.

What We Believe About…
The Bible

We believe that the Bible, consisting of sixty-six books, is the inspired Word of God; that every part is fully and equally inspired; and that every single word of Scripture was produced under the control of the Holy Spirit (HYPERLINK "https://bible.faithlife.com/bible/nkjv/2 Tim. 3.16"2 Tim. 3:16; HYPERLINK "https://bible.faithlife.com/bible/nkjv/2 Pet. 1.21"2 Pet. 1:21).
We also accept the Scriptures in their entirety as being inerrant (in the original writings) and infallible. For this reason we are committed to the Bible as our final authority in all matters of doctrine, faith, and practice (HYPERLINK "https://bible.faithlife.com/bible/nkjv/Matt. 5.17"Mt. 5:17; HYPERLINK "https://bible.faithlife.com/bible/nkjv/John. 17.17"Jn. 17:17).
God

We believe that there is only one true, eternal, living God, who is sovereign over all things. God can be known through the many absolute and relative attributes revealed in the Scriptures (HYPERLINK "https://bible.faithlife.com/bible/nkjv/Exod. 3.14"Ex. 3:14; HYPERLINK "https://bible.faithlife.com/bible/nkjv/Deut. 6.4"Dt. 6:4; HYPERLINK "https://bible.faithlife.com/bible/nkjv/Col. 1.15-17"Col. 1:15-17).
God is the source and sustainer of life. He, according to the counsel of His own will, decreed whatsoever comes to pass, including both His permissive will and His causal will (HYPERLINK "https://bible.faithlife.com/bible/nkjv/Isa. 14.24"Isa. 14:24, HYPERLINK "https://bible.faithlife.com/bible/nkjv/Isa 14.26-27"26-27; HYPERLINK "https://bible.faithlife.com/bible/nkjv/Eph. 1"Eph. 1)

The Trinity
We believe, although there is only one true God, that God consists of three distinct persons, each of whom is coeternal and coequal.
We believe that the Father is God, that the Son (Jesus, the Christ-Messiah) is God, and that the Holy Spirit is God (HYPERLINK "https://bible.faithlife.com/bible/nkjv/Deut. 6.4"Dt. 6:4; HYPERLINK "https://bible.faithlife.com/bible/nkjv/John. 1.1"Jn. 1:1; HYPERLINK "https://bible.faithlife.com/bible/nkjv/Jn 1.14"14; HYPERLINK "https://bible.faithlife.com/bible/nkjv/Jn 6.27"6:27; HYPERLINK "https://bible.faithlife.com/bible/nkjv/Acts 5.3-4"Acts 5:3-4).

Jesus Christ
We believe the Lord Jesus Christ to be absolute Deity, the eternal Son of God, who became man without ceasing to be God. In the incarnation, He was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary (HYPERLINK "https://bible.faithlife.com/bible/nkjv/Isa. 9.6-7"Isa. 9:6-7; HYPERLINK "https://bible.faithlife.com/bible/nkjv/Matt. 1.18-25"Mt. 1:18-25; HYPERLINK "https://bible.faithlife.com/bible/nkjv/John. 3.16"Jn. 3:16; HYPERLINK "https://bible.faithlife.com/bible/nkjv/Heb. 1.8"Heb. 1:8).
We believe that Jesus Christ was both fully God and fully man at the same time (HYPERLINK "https://bible.faithlife.com/bible/nkjv/Phil. 2.5-8"Phil. 2:5-8).
We believe that He was totally holy by virtue of His miraculous birth and sinless life (HYPERLINK "https://bible.faithlife.com/bible/nkjv/2 Cor. 5.21"2 Cor. 5:21; HYPERLINK "https://bible.faithlife.com/bible/nkjv/Heb. 4.15"Heb. 4:15)
We believe that Jesus Christ voluntarily laid down His life, the just dying for the unjust, making it possible for man to be saved (HYPERLINK "https://bible.faithlife.com/bible/nkjv/John. 10.17"Jn. 10:17; HYPERLINK "https://bible.faithlife.com/bible/nkjv/Heb. 9.14"Heb. 9:14, HYPERLINK "https://bible.faithlife.com/bible/nkjv/Heb 9.28"28; HYPERLINK "https://bible.faithlife.com/bible/nkjv/1 Pet. 3.18"1 Pet. 3:18).
We believe that He rose bodily from the dead on the third day after death, and that He ascended into heaven to the right hand of the Father (HYPERLINK "https://bible.faithlife.com/bible/nkjv/John. 2.19-22"Jn. 2:19-22; HYPERLINK "https://bible.faithlife.com/bible/nkjv/Acts 1.9-11"Acts 1:9-11; HYPERLINK "https://bible.faithlife.com/bible/nkjv/Heb. 1.3"Heb. 1:3).
We believe that, presently, He is our Intercessor and Advocate, the only true Mediator between God and man (HYPERLINK "https://bible.faithlife.com/bible/nkjv/1 Tim. 2.5"1 Tim. 2:5; HYPERLINK "https://bible.faithlife.com/bible/nkjv/Heb. 4.14"Heb. 4:14; HYPERLINK "https://bible.faithlife.com/bible/nkjv/Heb 7.25"7:25; HYPERLINK "https://bible.faithlife.com/bible/nkjv/1 John. 2.1"1 Jn. 2:1)

The Holy Spirit

We believe that the Holy Spirit is Deity, a divine person of the Godhead. He is not a force, but is truly a person and is equal with the Father and the Son (HYPERLINK "https://bible.faithlife.com/bible/nkjv/Acts 5.3-4"Acts 5:3-4).
We believe that the Holy Spirit gives spiritual gifts to all believers at the moment they are regenerated, and that these gifts are to be used for the edification and perfecting of the believers in the Church. We believe that the miraculous and sign gifts were given for a unique purpose to the first-century Church, but that they ceased at the end of that century (-Rom. 12:38 <https://bible.faithlife.com/bible/nkjv/Rom. 12.38>; HYPERLINK "https://bible.faithlife.com/bible/nkjv/1 Cor. 12-14"1 Cor. 12-14; HYPERLINK "https://bible.faithlife.com/bible/nkjv/Eph. 4.7-16"Eph. 4:7-16; HYPERLINK "https://bible.faithlife.com/bible/nkjv/Heb. 2.3-4"Heb. 2:3-4).

Man

We believe that God created man directly and instantaneously from the dust of the ground. Man was created in the image of God and was able to have intimate fellowship with God (HYPERLINK "https://bible.faithlife.com/bible/nkjv/Gen. 1.26-27"Gen. 1:26-27; HYPERLINK "https://bible.faithlife.com/bible/nkjv/Gen 2.7"2:7).
We believe that marriage is a gift and act of God, joining two people together to make one flesh. God designed marriage to be an exclusive covenant between one biologically-born man and one biologically-born woman for life and that sexual relations are permissible only within the bonds of marriage (HYPERLINK "https://bible.faithlife.com/bible/nkjv/Gen. 2.24"Gen. 2:24; HYPERLINK "https://bible.faithlife.com/bible/nkjv/Matt. 19.4-6"Matt. 19:4-6; HYPERLINK "https://bible.faithlife.com/bible/nkjv/Heb. 13.4"Heb. 13:4).
We believe that all of humanity fell away from God when Adam first sinned, and that the fall resulted in both physical and spiritual death for man. In this fallen condition, man was left totally depraved and unable to remedy his own situation (https://bible.faithlife.com/bible/nkjv/Gen. 3.6-13Gen. 3:6-13; HYPERLINK "https://bible.faithlife.com/bible/nkjv/Rom. 5.12-21"Rom. 5:12-21; HYPERLINK "https://bible.faithlife.com/bible/nkjv/1 Cor. 15.21-22"1 Cor. 15:21-22; HYPERLINK "https://bible.faithlife.com/bible/nkjv/Eph. 2"Eph. 2).

Sin

We believe that sin is anything that does not conform to the character and nature of God (HYPERLINK "https://bible.faithlife.com/bible/nkjv/1 John. 3.4"1 Jn. 3:4).
We believe that all mankind sinned in Adam, the head of the human race, and that each human being has a sin nature, and also has committed personal sin (HYPERLINK "https://bible.faithlife.com/bible/nkjv/Rom. 1.18"Rom. 1:18; HYPERLINK "https://bible.faithlife.com/bible/nkjv/Rom 3.23"3:23; HYPERLINK "https://bible.faithlife.com/bible/nkjv/Rom 5.12"5:12; HYPERLINK "https://bible.faithlife.com/bible/nkjv/1 John. 1.8-10"1 Jn. 1:8-10).

Salvation
We believe that salvation is the act of God whereby man is brought into a proper relationship with God. It is that act where spiritually dead man is made spiritually alive (HYPERLINK "https://bible.faithlife.com/bible/nkjv/Ps. 3.8"Ps. 3:8; HYPERLINK "https://bible.faithlife.com/bible/nkjv/Jonah. 2.9"Jon. 2:9; HYPERLINK "https://bible.faithlife.com/bible/nkjv/Eph. 2.1-2"Eph. 2:1-2).
We believe that this is accomplished by the grace of God through man’s faith in the death (shed blood), burial, and bodily resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ (HYPERLINK "https://bible.faithlife.com/bible/nkjv/1 Cor. 15.1-4"1 Cor. 15:1-4; HYPERLINK "https://bible.faithlife.com/bible/nkjv/Eph. 2.8-10"Eph. 2:8-10).
We believe that salvation involves three things for the believer: deliverance from the penalty of sin at the moment of regeneration; victory over the power of sin during the Christian life; and deliverance from the presence of sin at glorification.
We believe that salvation positionally sanctifies the believer, but that the believer needs to experience, in his daily life, progressive sanctification (HYPERLINK "https://bible.faithlife.com/bible/nkjv/Rom. 6.14"Rom. 6:14; HYPERLINK "https://bible.faithlife.com/bible/nkjv/2 Cor. 5.21"2 Cor. 5:21; HYPERLINK "https://bible.faithlife.com/bible/nkjv/Phil. 3.20-21"Phil. 3:20-21).

Satan and Angels

We believe in the existence of the person of Satan. He was created by God as the greatest of angels, but later rebelled against God. After he fell, he organized his own kingdom, which consists of both evil angels and unregenerate man. He is currently the ruler-god of this age. Satan’s ultimate goal is to overthrow God. He seeks to keep the unsaved from becoming saved. He seeks to hinder and destroy the Christian’s testimony and ministry for God.
We believe that both Satan and his evil angels will be consigned to the eternal Lake of Fire after the Millennium (HYPERLINK "https://bible.faithlife.com/bible/nkjv/Isa. 14.12-17"Isa. 14:12-17; HYPERLINK "https://bible.faithlife.com/bible/nkjv/Ezek. 28.11-19"Ezek. 28:11-19; HYPERLINK "https://bible.faithlife.com/bible/nkjv/Matt. 25.41"Mt. 25:41; HYPERLINK "https://bible.faithlife.com/bible/nkjv/John. 8.44"Jn. 8:44; HYPERLINK "https://bible.faithlife.com/bible/nkjv/Rev. 20.7-10"Rev. 20:7-10).
We believe that there is an innumerable host of angels who remained faithful and true to God. They are servants to the Most High God and are ministering spirits to those who are heirs of salvation (HYPERLINK "https://bible.faithlife.com/bible/nkjv/Ps. 91.11-12"Ps. 91:11-12; HYPERLINK "https://bible.faithlife.com/bible/nkjv/Matt. 4.6"Mt. 4:6; HYPERLINK "https://bible.faithlife.com/bible/nkjv/Acts 12.7-10"Acts 12:7-10; HYPERLINK "https://bible.faithlife.com/bible/nkjv/Rev. 7.11"Rev. 7:11).

The Church

We believe that the true Church is a universal, invisible, living organism and that it is the “body of Christ” who is Himself the head of this body. The universal Church is made up of regenerate, redeemed believers only (HYPERLINK "https://bible.faithlife.com/bible/nkjv/1 Cor. 12.13"1 Cor. 12:13; HYPERLINK "https://bible.faithlife.com/bible/nkjv/Eph. 1.22-23"Eph. 1:22-23; HYPERLINK "https://bible.faithlife.com/bible/nkjv/Eph 5.23"5:23; HYPERLINK "https://bible.faithlife.com/bible/nkjv/Col. 1.18"Col. 1:18).
We believe that the Church began on the day of Pentecost; that every believer was indwelt/baptized by the Holy Spirit into the one body of Christ, which is the Universal Church (HYPERLINK "https://bible.faithlife.com/bible/nkjv/John. 14.16-17"Jn. 14:16-17; HYPERLINK "https://bible.faithlife.com/bible/nkjv/Acts 1.4-5"Acts 1:4-5; HYPERLINK "https://bible.faithlife.com/bible/nkjv/Acts 2.1-4"2:1-4; HYPERLINK "https://bible.faithlife.com/bible/nkjv/1 Cor. 12.13"1 Cor. 12:13).
We believe that the Scriptures teach that there are to be local churches. These churches are to be the visible representation of the body of Christ in the local community. Local churches are to observe the ordinances of Christ and seek to do the will of God (HYPERLINK "https://bible.faithlife.com/bible/nkjv/Matt. 28.19-20"Mt. 28:19-20; HYPERLINK "https://bible.faithlife.com/bible/nkjv/Acts 20.28"Acts 20:28; HYPERLINK "https://bible.faithlife.com/bible/nkjv/1 Cor. 1.2"1 Cor. 1:2; HYPERLINK "https://bible.faithlife.com/bible/nkjv/1 Cor 11.23-28"11:23-28).
We believe that the local church should be totally committed to the edifying (developing to maturity) of the believers and also should have an active outreach in evangelism (HYPERLINK "https://bible.faithlife.com/bible/nkjv/1 Cor. 14"1 Cor. 14; HYPERLINK "https://bible.faithlife.com/bible/nkjv/Eph. 4.11-16"Eph. 4:11-16).

Israel
We believe that Israel is God’s chosen national people (HYPERLINK "https://bible.faithlife.com/bible/nkjv/Gen. 28.13"Gen. 28:13). In God’s sovereign will, Israel serves as a channel of His blessing to the entire world (HYPERLINK "https://bible.faithlife.com/bible/nkjv/Gen. 12.3"Gen. 12:3) for His glory (HYPERLINK "https://bible.faithlife.com/bible/nkjv/Isa. 43.7"Isa. 43:7), and His witness to the nations (Isa. 43:10 <https://bible.faithlife.com/bible/nkjv/Isa. 43.10>). God’s election of Israel for this unique relationship is irrevocable (HYPERLINK "https://bible.faithlife.com/bible/nkjv/Rom. 11.28-29"Ro. 11:28-29).
We believe Israel is distinct from the church and central to God’s plan, past, present, and future. The unfulfilled prophecies given to Israel in the Old Testament will find their literal fulfillment in Israel at a future time (HYPERLINK "https://bible.faithlife.com/bible/nkjv/Ps. 105.6-10"Ps. 105:6-10).

Eschatology

We believe in the premillennial and pretribulational return of Jesus Christ. This means that Christ’s return for His Bride (the Church) is imminent and therefore can happen at any moment 1 Thess. 4.13-171 Th. 4:13-17; HYPERLINK "https://bible.faithlife.com/bible/nkjv/1 Th 5.6"5:6).
We believe that, following the Rapture of the Church; the seven-year Tribulation Period (Daniel’s 70th week, or the Time of Jacob’s Trouble) will take place (HYPERLINK "https://bible.faithlife.com/bible/nkjv/Dan. 9.24-27"Dan. 9:24-27; HYPERLINK "https://bible.faithlife.com/bible/nkjv/2 Thess. 2.3-4"2 Th. 2:3-4).
We believe that following the Tribulation, the Millennium will begin. It will be brought about by the literal, physical, visible, bodily return of the Lord Jesus Christ to the earth to rule and to reign for one thousand years (HYPERLINK "https://bible.faithlife.com/bible/nkjv/Zech. 14.1-4"Zech. 14:1-4; HYPERLINK "https://bible.faithlife.com/bible/nkjv/Rev. 19.20"Rev. 19:20).

The Eternal State

We believe in the eternal punishment of the lost and the eternal bliss of the redeemed (HYPERLINK "https://bible.faithlife.com/bible/nkjv/John. 3.16"Jn. 3:16; HYPERLINK "https://bible.faithlife.com/bible/nkjv/Rev. 20.11-15"Rev. 20:11-15).

Why We Exist
Now the Lord had said to Abram:
"Get out of your country, From your family And from your father’s house, To a land that I will show you. I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”
-HYPERLINK "https://bible.faithlife.com/bible/nkjv/Gen 12.1-3"Genesis 12:1-3

Appendix 2: Opinion statement by the former Prime Minister of Spain.

(This is the text of a speech given by José María Aznar at the launch event of the Friends of Israel Initiative held in the House of Commons, the British Parliament.)


http://www.friendsofisraelinitiative.org/opinion-articles/if-israel-goes-down-we-all-go-down

Friends of Israel Initiative
As long as any entity denies the right of Israel to exist we will be at Israel's side
- Luis Alberto Lacalle
OPINION ARTICLES <http://www.friendsofisraelinitiative.org/opinion-articles>
Support Israel
If Israel Goes Down, We All Go Down
Anger over Gaza is a distraction. We cannot forget that Israel is the West?s best ally in a turbulent region.
2010-06-17 by José María Aznar
Published in The Times, June 17th 2010
For far too long now it has been unfashionable in Europe to speak up for Israel. In
the wake of the recent incident on board a ship full of anti-Israeli activists in the
Mediterranean, it is hard to think of a more unpopular cause to champion.

In an ideal world, the assault by Israeli commandos on the Mavi Marmara would
not have ended up with nine dead and a score wounded. In an ideal world, the
soldiers would have been peacefully welcomed on to the ship. In an ideal world, no
state, let alone a recent ally of Israel such as Turkey, would have sponsored and
organised a flotilla whose sole purpose was to create an impossible situation for
Israel: making it choose between giving up its security policy and the naval
blockade, or risking the wrath of the world.

In our dealings with Israel, we must blow away the red mists of anger that too
often cloud our judgment. A reasonable and balanced approach should
encapsulate the following realities: first, the state of Israel was created by a
decision of the UN. Its legitimacy, therefore, should not be in question. Israel is a
nation with deeply rooted democratic institutions. It is a dynamic and open society
that has repeatedly excelled in culture, science and technology.

Second, owing to its roots, history, and values, Israel is a fully fledged Western
nation. Indeed, it is a normal Western nation, but one confronted by abnormal
circumstances.

Uniquely in the West, it is the only democracy whose very existence has been
questioned since its inception. In the first instance, it was attacked by its
neighbours using the conventional weapons of war. Then it faced terrorism
culminating in wave after wave of suicide attacks. Now, at the behest of radical
Islamists and their sympathisers, it faces a campaignof delegitimisation through
international law and diplomacy.

Sixty-two years after its creation, Israel is still fighting for its very survival.
Punished with missiles raining from north and south, threatened with destruction
by an Iran aiming to acquire nuclear weapons and pressed upon by friend and foe,
Israel, it seems, is never to have a moment’s peace.

For years, the focus of Western attention has understandably been on the peace
process between Israelis and Palestinians. But if Israel is in danger today and the
whole region is slipping towards a worryingly problematic future, it is not due to
the lack of understanding between the parties on how to solve this conflict. The
parameters of any prospective peace agreement are clear, however difficult it may
seem for the two sides to make the final push for a settlement.

The real threats to regional stability, however, are to be found in the rise of a
radical Islamism which sees Israel’s destruction as the fulfilment of its religious
destiny and, simultaneously in the case of Iran, as an expression of its ambitions
for regional hegemony. Both phenomena are threats that affect not only Israel, but
also the wider West and the world at large.

The core of the problem lies in the ambiguous and often erroneous manner in
which too many Western countries are now reacting to this situation. It is easy to
blame Israel for all the evils in the Middle East. Some even act and talk as if a new
understanding with the Muslim world could be achieved if only we were prepared
to sacrifice the Jewish state on the altar. This would be folly.

Israel is our first line of defence in a turbulent region that is constantly at risk of
descending into chaos; a region vital to our energy security owing to our
overdependence on Middle Eastern oil; a region that forms the front line in the
fight against extremism. If Israel goes down, we all go down.

To defend Israel’s right to exist in peace, within secure borders, requires a degree
of moral and strategic clarity that too often seems to have disappeared in Europe.
The United States shows worrying signs of heading in the same direction.
The West is going through a period of confusion over the shape of the world’s
future. To a great extent, this confusion is caused by a kind of masochistic selfdoubt
over our own identity; by the rule of political correctness; by a multiculturalism that forces us to our knees before others; and by a secularism which, irony of ironies, blinds us even when we are confronted by jihadism promoting the most fanatical incarnation of their faith. To abandon Israel to its fate, at this moment of all moments, would merely serve to illustrate how far we have sunk and how inexorable our decline now appears.

This cannot be allowed to happen. Motivated by the need to rebuild our own
Western values, expressing deep concern about the wave of aggression against
Israel, and mindful that Israel’s strength is our strength and Israel’s weakness is
our weakness, I have decided to promote a new Friends of Israel initiative with the
help of some prominent people, including David Trimble, Andrew Roberts, John Bolton, Alejandro Toledo (the former President of Peru), Marcello Pera
(philosopher and former President of the Italian Senate), Fiamma Nirenstein (the
Italian author and politician), the financier Robert Agostinelli and the Catholic
intellectual George Weigel.

It is not our intention to defend any specific policy or any particular Israeli government. The sponsors of this initiative are certain to disagree at times with decisions taken by Jerusalem. We are democrats, and we believe in diversity. What binds us, however, is our unyielding support for Israel’s right to exist and to defend itself. For Western countries to side with those who question Israel’s legitimacy, for them to play games in international bodies with Israel’s vital security issues, for them to appease those who oppose Western values rather than robustly to stand up in defence of those values, is not only a grave moral mistake, but a strategic error of the first magnitude.

Israel is a fundamental part of the West. The West is what it is thanks to its Judeo-
Christian roots. If the Jewish element of those roots is upturned and Israel is lost,
then we are lost too. Whether we like it or not, our fate is inextricably intertwined.

José María Aznar was Prime Minister of Spain, 1996-2004

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