Carlson Cruz Interview
As many of you know, because it went viral, Tucker Carlson invited Ted Cruz on his show to discuss Israel and Iran. Carlson went to Cruz’s office apparently to do the interview. I did not watch the one to two hour conversation, but I saw ten to fifteen minutes of it and then its most popular, hotly contested moments in highlights.
Tucker Carlson has a national following bigger than Ted Cruz. Even though Cruz wins elections in Texas, he does not gain a national foothold, I suggest, because his personality and style grate on many of his audience, even those who support his positions. In a sense, Ted Cruz also jumped into the Trump coalition after opposing him in the 2015-16 Republican primary for president. You probably remember that Cruz was one of the last men standing in Trump’s run to win the GOP nomination for president.
Trump
In many assessments of Trump, experts say he is no idealogue. Trump originated MAGA. He started “America First,” as it stands, and also defines it. No one can say he is more MAGA than Trump. It’s like saying you can do Donald Duck better than Donald Duck. No one does a better Donald Duck than Donald Duck. The best you can do is impersonate the animated cartoon character and his original voice.
Ted Cruz talks like he has a foreign policy that just happens to match Donald Trump. He calls it “non-interventionist hawk” and adds that it is the Ronald Reagan language, “peace through strength.” Tucker Carlson also changed his own stance multiple times, recently embracing something of a Trump viewpoint with intense embrace of the non-intervention piece of the policy.
Theological Positions
Carlson has moved even further than non-intervention to oppose Israel’s position against Hamas and its attack of Iran. At one time, it seemed that Carlson would have remained ambivalent to what Israel did to defend itself. I’m not sure what changed him, but I would contend that Cruz and Carlson take different theological positions that abide in the MAGA movement. It’s a reason why I’m writing on this subject.
Cruz outright quoted the Abrahamic Covenant (Genesis 12:1-3) to confess that God would bless the United States if it supported Israel. He’s not saying that the U.S. needs boots on the ground, but that it sides with and endorses Israel. He also seems to approve of limited participation by the United States with the goal of regime change.
“Regime change” is a hot-button issue in the MAGA movement, because it hearkens, I assess, to the “nation building” of the Bush years and the neocon, Trump haters. They spent trillions of dollars in the Middle East and tens of thousands of human lives, which ended with the Taliban in charge in Afghanistan and the accumulation of a massive national debt. It is a philosophy that smacks of the United States as the world’s police.
Carlson Approach
Tucker Carlson looked pathetic with his questions of Cruz — the population of Iran and its ethnic make-up. This was classic left wing gotcha questions in the nature of a propagandist, accompanied by pompous incredulity. Someone referred to these as “clown questions,” and I agree as not a big Cruz supporter. It was the worst I’d ever seen Ted Cruz in a debate situation. Carlson looked worse, but Cruz also did poorly in this exchange.
Carlson brings Christian nationalists on his show and does not push back at all in his lengthy interviews. They make outlandish claims to him and he treats them with total favor. Carlson treated Vladimir Putin better than Ted Cruz. The position that Carlson supports, even though he doesn’t understand it, is postmillennialism or some version of amillennialism, dovetailing the two closely related eschatological positions.
Antisemitism
Cruz implied Carlson was antisemitic. Something more than an antisemitic vein appears in the MAGA movement and theologically it lives in the eschatology of postmillennialism and amillennialism with what looks and sounds like replacement theology. The church replaced Israel. God’s kingdom exists in the church, meaning a universal or catholic, invisible church. You hear these men (and women) call Israel and the MAGA support of it, “Zionism.” Of course, Carlson reacted with huffy-puffy offense at being called “antisemitic.”
The roots of antisemitism in the West rests in three factions. The most fundamental is theological or eschatological with amillennialism and postmillennialism. Jew hatred arose and became welcome from these positions. The other is secular and pseudo-scientific in the master race viewpoint. Someone might ask, “If it is racial, then why do many other races support it?” They see the Jews as the source of many of the problems in the world, as if it is baked in. The third faction, I would call, self-hating Jews. They look to a socialist utopia and not a monoethnic religious state.
Carlson angrily denies antisemitism, but he is very kind to the people who accommodate antisemites. Meanwhile, someone with Cruz’s theological position he treats with harsh rancor. I would accept Carlson’s protestation. Why not? Yet, he walks in the counsel and stands in the way of those who at least feed into the antisemitism. Antisemitism is a real thing. Satan would bruise the heel of her seed. She is in the line of Seth and ultimate Shem. That’s her offspring. The other is the way of Cain and Lamech and that broad road.
Division
Tucker Carlsen, who more than ever calls himself a Christian, says Episcopalian, which is an American Anglican. Anglicans adopt an amillennial view. Carlsen brings postmill and amill advocates to his show. This is the headwaters of a Christian nationalist movement that pummels Zionism.
I’m writing this to explain what seems clear to me in this division. What is Trump going to do to bridge these factions? Trump also wants the support of the Arab world. They are a natural personality and business acquaintance for him. Israel itself also sees, I believe, this as the best possible future to live in peace in the Middle East, especially brokered by the MAGA movement. Trump is playing this perfect so far. Israel did all the bombing. The big question is the bunker buster bombs. Will he relent there?
What Elon Musk did in undermining the big, beautiful bill, Carlson undermines the Trump foreign policy. These two supporters of Trump, who helped him win the election, are both applying pressure for their own self-interest. I don’t think Trump will do something that will bring direct participation of the United States in this conflict. The United States will support Israel. He sees this as consistent with “America First,” because it protects the United States against a nuclear attack.
Outcome
A Moslem religious state is the greatest threat of a nuclear strike. Trump has this right. Not only would they possibly use the weapon, but they would constantly threaten the United States with it.
I think Trump is somewhere in between Cruz and Carlson, actually closer to the Cruz side. He will support Israel as a proxy against Iran. Israel will not require any more participation. Netanyahu put it well. He is the junior partner. Everyone, including Carlson, should rejoice in this. The United States really owes Israel for doing the grunge work that junior partners must do.
Hello Brother Brandenburg,
I might have asked this before. In you opinion, does the Ez. 38-39 war occur before or during the Tribulation period?
I’ve always thought it fits better sometime prior to the trib. All the major players seem very aligned at the present.
Thanks in advance.
Where I’m at right now is that the events described in Ezekiel 38 and 39 will be fulfilled during the tribulation period, specifically leading up to the battle of Armageddon, which precedes the Second Coming of Christ. I think the re-establishment of the nation of Israel in 1948 and the subsequent events as a partial fulfillment of Ezekiel 37 and a precursor to the events in Ezekiel 38-39.
Ezekiel 38 and 39 are situated between Ezekiel 37 (which describes the rebirth of Israel as a nation, partially fulfilled in modern times) and Ezekiel 40-48 (which detail the Millennium). This suggests the battle of Gog and Magog occurs between these two major events. The invasion and defeat described in Ezekiel 38-39 demonstrate God’s power and protection of Israel, a key theme of the Tribulation. Ezekiel 38-39 connect, for instance, with a Daniel 11:40-45, which then links to events within the Tribulation.
I’ve actually changed through the years on the timing of this. It’s not the easiest on the timing.
Thanks for the answer
Right now, there is a lot of online attack on dispensationalism and premillennialism, or a literal, grammatical-historical interpretation of scripture. This is having an effect on people’s view of these events and the relationship of the United States to Israel. It even affects legislation.
I was watching a man, Gavin Ortlund, who essentially podcasts for a living, and he came on to comment on the Cruz-Carlson debate, and said that the foundational aspects of the Cruz position did not arise until the 19th century. This is totally false. He offered no proof for this, just said it. This is the influence of reformed theology and eschatology today and the popularization right now among very vocal people post mill and amill eschatology. This is conforms to a certain segment of MAGA.
Clarence Nash was the original Donald Duck voice, not Blanc. Just FYI
I did not know that. I asked google and it was wrong!! 😀 I left that comment, because as I recall, I asked google the wrong question and so it gave me the right answer to the wrong question.