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Eschatology Is Affecting the Foreign Policy of the United States
Premillennialism and Foreign Policy
A large percentage, I would say 35% of the population, of Americans is premillennial. Almost 100 percent of those were Trump voters in the 2024 election. Premillennialism takes literally the Old and New Testament promises to Israel. Amillennialism and postmillennialism are growing in the United States, but it is still a small, albeit loud, percentage of professing Christians.
Premillennialism takes what is called an Old Testament priority. The characters of the Old Testament, as God revealed His Word to them, understood what they heard. For instance, the promises concerning the Messiah were literal and fulfilled that way in the first coming of Jesus Christ. A very low percentage of Jews believed that, but Christians did and do.
Abrahamic Covenant
I point to the Abrahamic Covenant of Genesis, which repeats itself multiple times in the book, starting with Genesis 12:1-3, but with an allusion in Genesis 3:15 and the seed of the woman. God promised a seed, a land, and a blessing. It was a unilateral, unconditional, and irrevocable covenant with an ethnic people. You can add to that the Mosaic, Davidic, and New Covenants by God that apply to Israel.
In the present war in the Middle East, a large part of the support of the Israel comes from premillennialists. You can add to that especially the orthodox Jews and then the Messianic Jews. If you went to an orthodox synagogue in Florida, almost 100 percent would have supported Donald Trump. The two ideas coincide. The Messiah is Jesus Christ, even if the orthodox Jews deny that. However, they both look for a Messiah, who will set up a kingdom.
A Division
How are the eschatological positions applying to foreign policy right now? A division exists in the Republican foreign policy. The neo-conservatives are a very small minority now in the Republican Party. Many went Independent or Democrat.
When I talk about the small minority, I’m saying The Lincoln Project, The Bulwark, the Bush/Rove/Cheney/Condoleezza Rice Faction, and the Romney/Murkowski/Collins/Nikki Haley/Mitch McConnell/(now) Mike Pence contingent. Some still hang with the Republicans because they support more Trump ideas than the new Democrat Party. Much of this side on foreign policy wants to keep sending billions or a trillion more to Ukraine and try to defeat Russia and Putin in a proxy war.
The same conflagration of new-conservative types support Israel in the Middle East, but they want a new world order with a muscular U. S. intervention overseas. They still support the idea of nation building, perhaps going to back to an old NATO philosophy after World War II. These are typically the classic free-traders and dollar diplomacy to force the spread of capitalism and democracy across the world.
MAGA and Historical Republicanism
The MAGA, American First foreign policy, as I see it, is split, but an avenue of cohesion exists. The biggest group would take the following position and this fits Premillennial eschatology. I would be in that thinking. First, they reject the war in the Ukraine. They want a diplomatic end to that war with the hope of better relations with Russia. This includes ending NATO expansion into Eastern Europe, threatening Russian sovereignty. This is not support of Putin.
The historical Republican foreign policy prioritizes America. It secures the borders of the nation and strengthens the national economy. Included in this is greater fairness in trade in combination with freeness and a return of strong American industrialization and business. China makes less of the stuff America needs for a secure future. This means less foreign intervention more in the spirit of George Washington in his Farewell Address.
Israel
A second aspect of the MAGA foreign policy relates to Israel. The split exists here, because there is an anti-Israel faction in MAGA. It’s also antisemitic. You can find this also in the Christian nationalism movement. It is not so totally innocent. The amillennialists and postmillennialists abide here, a few premillennialists too, but with what I’ve read as a very odd sort of premillennialism. The latter says that future support of Israel and trust in the promises of God do not necessitate, and could even preclude, present support of apostate Israel.
The premillennialist branch, the bigger one, of MAGA foreign policy can work with the smaller faction, which I believe includes now a name such as Tucker Carlson. They might agree that the United States should allow Israel freedom to win in the Middle East. The United States will continue as a supportive ally without its own military involvement, no more boots on the ground.
Premillennialists like myself would support a one state solution in Israel and an expansion of Israel territory. This mirrors a belief that the Palestinians are in practice something like the Canaanites of the Old Testament. They have no interest in cohabitation or peace with Israel in the land. Israel can’t continue to live like this. A one state solution is the most popular one in Israel today. I think Israel should be allowed to form one state with the integration of like-minded Palestinians.
Conclusion
Peace in the foreign policy of the American First Movement revolves around an anti-interventionist approach. The United States does not force its own foreign policy on Israel. It supports an Israel First Movement in Israel. At the same time, it neither sends financial aid to either Israel, Palestine, or any other Middle Eastern country. These countries can trade freely and fairly with no advantage to either side.
What I’m writing fits a premillennialist approach and, I believe, it represents the present foreign policy in the United States. It occurs in the most major way because of a belief in the promises of God to Israel. It is also optimistic. With the United States advocating for a literal approach to scripture even in its foreign policy toward Israel, it gives a greater opportunity for blessing on the country.
You’ve heard the mission credo, the church whose light shines the furthest shines the brightest at home. I agree with the same credo for the United States. Let’s stop intervening everywhere and get our own house in order. We are not ready to spread a corrupt Americanism. Only intervene against a direct threat to the security of the United States. If an African country wants to outlaw homosexuality, the United States should not punish that country, but respect its sovereignty. This will have a greater long term affect on the rest of the world, just being that original idea of a bright light shining on a hill.
Messianic Israel / Jew Evangelistic T-Shirt: Shema & Isa 53
God loves Israel! He loves Israel far more than did the Apostle Paul, who wrote under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit:
1 I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost, 2 That I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart. 3 For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh: 4 Who are Israelites; to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises; 5 Whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen. … 1 What advantage then hath the Jew? or what profit is there of circumcision? 2 Much every way: chiefly, because that unto them were committed the oracles of God. (Romans 9:1-5; 3:1-2)
What does God say to those who harm Israel? “He that toucheth you toucheth the apple of his eye” (Zechariah 2:8). As with the rest of mankind, Jews who do not believe the gospel will be eternally lost (Romans 11:28a), but nonetheless “as touching the election, they are beloved for the fathers’ sakes. For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.” (Romans 11:28b-11:29).
What is the greatest blessing Jehovah has ever given Israel? The Messiah, the Savior of the world, God blessed for ever, Jesus! To that end, we have designed the T-shirts pictured below, which have been added to the collection of evangelistic T-shirts and other materials I posted about some time ago. Both sides of the T-shirt reference the evangelistic pamphlet Truth From the Torah, Nevi’im, and Kethuvim (the Law, Prophets, and Writings) for Jews who Reverence the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, which is online at https://faithsaves.net/Messiah/. The front has this evangelistic website as well as the text of the Shema, Deuteronomy 6:4:
שְׁמַע יִשְׂרָאֵל יְהוָֹה אֱלֹהֵינוּ יְהוָֹה אֶחָד׃
Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD:
While the back has the evangelistic website and Isaiah 53:8b: “For he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken.”
along with, on both sides, the flag of Israel. (We did not see a way to design the shirt so that the vowels and accents could be included, although we recognize the Biblical and historical case for their inspiration and preservation.)
We believe that these shirts can be blessed by the God of Israel for Jews to embrace their crucified and risen Messiah, Jesus, as well as to help Gentiles come to repentance and faith in Him. If you get to evangelize Muslims because of this shirt, Isaiah 53 is good for them also, since Muslims deny the Lord Jesus died on the cross, claiming the Gospel accounts are fabrications. But Isaiah 53, which clearly predicts His death by crucifixion and resurrection, and which we have physical, pre-Christian evidence for in the Dead Sea Scrolls, cannot be so explained away by Muslims. This T-shirt can also help you explain the powerful evidence for the Bible from prophecy for agnostics and atheists and the powerful impact of Isaiah 53 to both Jews and Muslims. Furthermore, God promises to bless those who bless Israel and curse those who curse Israel (Genesis 12:1-3). Do you want to be blessed by the living God? Bless Israel!
The immediate motivation for our making these shirts was a pro-Hamas, anti-Jewish rally we saw in Los Angeles. Jew haters there held signs such as “Resistance is not terrorism,” glorifying the murder of 1,200 Jews on October 7, 2023, the largest single-day slaughter of Jews since the Holocaust:
They also promoted “from the river to the sea,” advocating the destruction of the Jewish state and the murder of the Jews:
The protesters were part of the anti-Israel hate group, the A. N. S. W. E. R. coalition, who argue that to say “Hamas is a terrorist organization” is a “lie.” (By the way, if you need more reasons to stop using Google as a search engine, note the pro-terrorism, anti-Israel search results that come up first if you search for “answercoalition.org Hamas terrorism”; compare those results with what you get on Duck Duck Go, where the top result [as of the time I am writing this] is the Anti-Defamation League explaining why Hamas is a bloodthirsty terrorist organization that calls for the eradication of Israel.) The protestors also reproduced lies pumped out by Hamas about civilian deaths in Gaza, while saying nothing about the fact that Hamas wants civilians in Gaza to die and Israel does not. Of course, Islam allows Muslims to lie–after all, Allah is the best of deceivers.
They were blocking the street so that we could not keep going on the bus we were on in Los Angeles. Our destination was not far away–a museum in LA. We decided to get off the bus and walk there. A few blocks away we saw an orthodox Jewish man walking in the direction of the advocates of terrorism. We told him about the protest; he thanked us, and re-routed. After we got home from the museum we designed the T-shirts. It is right to stand against terrorism and for the Jewish people. It is especially right to stand for the greatest Jew of all, the resurrected Lord, Jesus.
We saw posters like the following a few blocks away. The anti-Jewish, pro-Hamas protestors did not say anything about these people.
They also said nothing about United States citizens killed by or held hostage by Hamas. They are also not important, it seems. (Let me add that the large majority of inhabitants in Gaza and the West Bank support Hamas’ murder of Jewish civilians–the large majority “extremely support” terrorism, while in a recent survey only 7.3% of survey participants were “extremely against” such terrorism, combined with 5.4% who are “somewhat against” it, for a total of only 12.7% of the population who are against terrorism; it is certainly possible survey results reflect some bias, but the overall picture is likely to be accurate.)
What about here in the USA? When asked if they support Israel or Hamas, 95% of those over 65 support Israel. The percentages get progressively lower the younger people are. Among 18-24 year olds, only 55% support Israel, while 45% support Hamas. This is a terrible trend, and awful evidence of the anti-God garbage taught in the public school and university systems. Maybe consider getting some of these T-shirts for yourself or as presents for others. Perhaps you are afraid of Muslim violence or anti-Jewish violence if you wear one, since true Islam in America–like all true Islam–is violent and bloodthirsty, not peaceful. Perhaps if you are living in Saudi Arabia or Iran it would be unwise to wear one of these shirts; but if you live in the United States of America, and you will allow threats of Muslim violence to curtail your free speech, something is very wrong. Obviously Christians have liberty to wear or not wear a T-shirt like this, and it is perfectly fine not to wear one, but our decisions must be made out of Biblical principle and for the glory of God, not out of fear. If you say you would have protected Jews in the Holocaust, but are afraid to stand for them and against their murderers now, why should we believe you would have stood were you in Hitler’s Germany? There are Biblical principles here. God’s love for Israel is not saying God loves everything the modern state of Israel does–but God still loves Israel, and Scripture still says to bless Israel. (By the way, if you are born again, God loves you with an infinite and special love, but He still does not love everything you do–He does not love your sin, nor does He love Israel’s sin.) Be salt and light: stand up for righteousness. Do not let the wicked pro-terrorist people be the only ones who are making their voices known. Stand for the God of Israel, for the Messiah of Israel, and for the nation of Israel.
Postscriptum:
As FLAME: Facts and Logic About the Middle East points out concerning anti-Israel, pro-Hamas bias in media reports about Gaza civilian casualties:
[T]he media insist on treating Hamas’s notoriously unreliable information feed as fact. Conversely, they refuse to give precedence to proven, reliable sources of information, such as the Israeli or U.S. governments, the latter of which confirmed Al-Shifa’s use as a Hamas headquarters. Israel presents photographs of Hamas blocking exit highways, so Gazans cannot leave the war zone . . . but Hamas denies it, says NPR. Such is the inane, “he-said, she said” pablum we are fed by the media.
The media also steadfastly refuse to ask the questions demanded by the story—and by any curious reader, listener, or viewer. When reporters interview Palestinians on the street or doctors in hospitals, the viewer cries to know: “Do you ever see any Hamas guys around here? Have you seen any tunnels?” But never does the reporter ask this, let alone questions like, “Do you support Hamas? Do you think there should be a Palestine next to Israel? What do you think about the October 7th attack on Israel?” These are obvious queries that responsible, curious, fact-hungry journalists would and should normally ask their sources. But they never do. Why?
The short answer is that if they asked these questions, the stories they tell wouldn’t fit the narrative they are trying to sell—the narrative in which the Palestinians are an oppressed people, Israel is an evil, colonial aggressor, and Hamas is a product of legitimate Palestinian resistance.
To sell their perverse narrative, international media swallow the wildly inflated death-toll numbers cranked out by the Gaza Health Ministry. For this reason, the media simply repeat the daily growing casualty figures Hamas gives them.
Reuters reports, for example, that as of November 22nd, Gaza’s Hamas-run government says at least 13,300 Palestinians have been confirmed killed, including at least 5,600 children. But Luke Baker, a former Reuters bureau chief who led the organization’s coverage of Israel and the disputed territories from 2014 to 2017, said on X (formerly Twitter), “Hamas has a clear propaganda incentive to inflate civilian casualties as much as possible.”
Moreover, the media almost never give a breakdown of the casualties. They don’t say how many were Hamas terrorists or how many were human shields, killed in residences schools or hospitals where Hamas were hiding. They never tell how many were killed—not by Israeli forces, but by Hamas and other terrorist groups—because of misfired rockets, or by Hamas shooting at Palestinian civilians heeding Israeli orders to evacuate.
In addition, it’s probable that a significant number of the “children” reported killed or wounded by Hamas are youths aged 13 to 18, who were located in Hamas facilities or even took an active part in the fighting.
If you are not aware of the connection between Soviet communist propaganda and modern anti-Zionist lies about Israel as a colonialist oppressor, please read the article here.
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