State of Israel 63 years

Congratulations to 63 years old State of Israel!

In Finland we do know the location of the State of Israel in geographic maps. It is in Near East on the shores of Eastern Mediterranean and has Egypt as its Southern neighbor, Jordan in the East, Syria and Lebanon in the North.

But it is less clear how the modern State of Israel is located in our spiritual maps that Christians carry in their minds and hearts. Since Israel is one of the most central themes of the Bible and the entire future of the world and the eternal fate of every human being depend on the King of Israel, this is not a minor one.

In this blog I try to sketch in simple lines three basic mappings that I have noticed while looking at life in Christendom, past and present.


Let us first take a look at some Geographic and Demographic facts about the country.
Within the 1967 borders the size of Israel is 20,700 square kilometers. It is 424 km long and at broadest 114 km, at narrowest 15 km. The western border is 270 km of Mediterranean shoreline. Modern Israel is separate from the small Gaza strip and it is actively settling the West Bank of Jordan which has total area of 5,879 km2.

However, it is very important to notice that a large part of Israel - 12.000 km2 - consists of the southern desert, Negev, which in large parts is not habitable. Accordingly, the area that is fertile and good for living is only about 8.000 km2 and from this should be reduced the inland water areas, Lake Kinneret and Dead Sea 445 km2.

Central Bureau of Statistics tells that 63 old Israel has a population of 7,746,000 people. Of them 5,837,000 (75.3%) are Jewish, 1,587,000 (20.5%) Israeli Arabs and other people, Druze, Circassian and others are 322,000 (4.2%).

When State of Israel was established May 14 1948 (5 Iyar 5708) there were 806.000 Jews. The number of inhabitants reached one million in 1949 and two million about ten years later, in 1958.

These statistics make more sense when we compare the fertile area of Israel with the majority of the inhabitants with our own Finnish numbers.

wikipedia tells:
Uusimaa area is 9 096,50 km2 (3,0 % of entire Finland). Sweet waters cover 471,40 km2 (1,4 % of Finnish sweat waters) and sea water6 489,99 km² (12,4 % of entire Finland).

Inland waters without sea is 5,2 % that is about half of Finnish average values.

Uusimaa is by far the most densely populated area of Finland with 1 533 639 people.
About 30 % of all Finns lives in Uusimaa and density is about ten times higher than the average in Finland.
------

So the surface of Uusimaa is about 9000 km2 as the most dense area of Filand with about 1.5 million people.

The fertile area of Israel within 1967 borders is 7500 km2 with over 7 million people.

Smaller area than one tiny part of Finland, Uusimaa, and almost four times more people, with three quarters Jews and one quarter mostly Muslim Sunni Arabs.

Great majority of the inhabitants of Uusimaa are Evangelic-Lutheran Christians. The number of Jews and Muslims living in Finland is marginally small.



1.Map: Total break between Biblical and Modern Israel

Secular world deals with the State of Israel that was established by a by United Nations vote as one state among others, an ally of United States in the Near East.

Israel is one of the many states with which Finland has normal diplomatic relations and Finnish men and women have served in Peacekeeper troops on her borders in Sinai, Golan Heights and Lebanon.

There is normal commerce, tourism from Finland to Israel is active, there is cooperation in the realms of Science and Technology and other things, and in UN votes Finland follows usually the line of European Union.

Finnish politicians follow actively and support attempts to create a lasting peace between Israel and her Arab neighbors. Experts are interested in the internal battle between democracy and theocracy and the treatment of minorities living in Israel.

This mapping where Biblical and Modern Israel are sharply kept separate from each other takes different shapes among the Christians.

The Catholic Church has been the leading force in this mapping. The Old Covenant between God and the people of Israel has been replaced by the New Covenant. Instead of the Temple of Jerusalem and the animal sacrifices there is the single sacrifice of the Lamb of God.

By this the Jewish people have lost their status as Firstborn and is no more the chosen people and a Jew is not in the Kingdom of Heaven and has no eternal life there. Christians are circumcised in heart and are now the real Jews and the chosen people of God. Greeks and Jews and all people are similarly saved by faith in Christ with no difference between slave or free, man or woman, Jew or goi.

Church of Christ is the kingdom that Messiah King rules and not the secular modern State of Israel that has no connection at all to the salvation of mankind.



2. Map: Modern Israel is the sign of end of days

Secular world does not recognize such mapping and does not use essentially Biblical and Theological terms when considering State of Israel.

Christians who adhere to this view see the rebirth of Israel as a sign of cosmic significance. The prophecies are coming true and the watches began to count the final time for the world in 1948.

Such ideas have strong roots among the Christians in United States of America, especially among Pentecostals and Baptists. From there they have spread with books and movies and other media to the rest of the Christian world.

Those US Christians who think along these lines have very fundamental ideas about the role and position of Israel in God's plans for this world and its end and the new creation. It is an essential ingredient in their faith and they follow carefully their own congressmen and senators and leading politicians and their statements and actions concerning the State of Israel and especially its security. Many Israeli politicians are welcome to the Christian meetings to talk about current issues and to TV programs and press interviews.

In the elections of the most powerful ruler of current world, the President of the United States, the position of a candidate towards Israel is important to these Christians. Interestingly, while many American Jews vote traditionally for Democrats, Christans often support the Republicans.

In addition to political support, these Christians are actively collecting money and supporting all kinds of projects to help Israel in the difficulties of modern times. This way they not only give humanitarian help but feel participating in the great events in the plans of the God of Israel for the good of the mankind.

Also Finnish Christians have been active in political life in these matters especially during the Cold War when Soviet Union was the strong supporter of Arab-Socialist countries in the Arab Israeli conflict and distributed also to the Finnish people propaganda on the matter aimed mostly at the secular population.

During the time of President Urho Kekkonen Israel became part of inner politics also in Finland, not to the extent of USA of course, and modern political leadership of Finland carry with them various influences from their youth in the Finland of Kekkonen.

The chairperson of the recently chosen parliament is strongly Finnish despite of his definitely non-Finnish name Ben Zyskowicz. Also Max Jacobsen was decidely Finnish: he was almost elected as United Nations Secretary General.

This cultural and political undercurrent obviously affects also Finnish theologians and common Christians and their opinions about modern Israel. In Theology it is a a question of the relationship between Old and New Testaments.

Professor Risto Lauha declared to his students with strong emphasis during a lecture on Exegetics that Old and New Testament have absolutely nothing to do with each other. He probably presented the views of many scholars in Helsinki University Faculty of Theology - but not of all of them.

So if there is such a total break between OT and NT so modern Israel has absolutely nothing to do with Theology. Christian fans of Israel represent to them politically motivated groups of ignorant citizens.

Also in Finland there are many Christians who do not really connect Bible with the hard realities of modern times. Since in general faith has little to do with reality and is a private matter taken care on Sundays, modern Israel is understood in secular terms with no theological significance. These Christians do not expect the end of the world anytime soon. They do not really know the Bible and have only a superficial knowledge of Judaism.


3. Map: Jewish view of the modern State of Israel

Among various groups of Christians there are also those who have studied the Bible and understand Covenant Theology more deeply and are familiar with Judaism and also know more accurately what Jesus and Paul have said about the people of Israel. (Both Jesus and Paul are genuine Jews, children of Abraham).

Third mapping helps Christians to look at modern Israel through the point of view of Jews themselves, on the foundations of Tanakh, Talmud-Judaism totally rejecting Jesus and New Testament Judaism totally accepting Jesus and leading to Christianity.

In my opinion this way is a genuine and fruitful spiritual way of looking at modern Israel and takes into account Bible, wants to learn to know better the Word of God, to learn about the past and present Messianic expectations of Jewish people, the happy and sad moments in the history of God's people, disappointments and hopes and also tries to evaluate the actions of modern Israel from the world of values of Jewish religion today.

......
Personally I think that the Third mapping would be the best road for Palestinian Arabs in their search for a way to live with the Jewish people in the Near East. They abhor the politically active US Christians who are sometimes quite fanatic in their views of modern Israel and divine rights to Reconquista of the Land and hostility towards Palestinians. (I must add that some actions by the Palestinians or on their behalf have greatly contributed to this hostility also among non-religious Christians.)

It is easily considered "pro-Israel" to know something about the Jewish people and their religion. Almost total ignorance about Judaism and its world causes many problems in attempts to discuss life in the Promised Land and has been quite costly to the Palestinians in the past decades.

Also for Finnish politicians dealing with issues of peace and stability in the Near East it might be a good idea to learn to know the aspirations of the Jewish people more closely and to understand their history more deeply than at the level of knowing what New York Times writes today.