This Christian Life

Living Without Despair in the Kingdom of God

The following was taken from Tribe18, the site of a friend of mine. The author of the article, Kent Dobson, is from Grand Rapids, but is now studying in Jerusalem. The letter was too powerful for me not to publish here.

“My Christian upbringing has emphasized the Jewish right to the Holy Land. The historic return of the Jewish people to their spiritual and physical home was seen as a fulfillment of Prophetic significance. I do not know the will of God, or his mysterious workings in history, but the return has been a blessing and a curse.

“The cycle of violence that seems to be without end leaves me longing for the vision of peace that is supposed come with the New Jerusalem. At the same time, I feel a strange sense of guilt about the good intentioned whole sale support of Israel by the American Christian Church. If there is anything we can learn from history, it is that the Kingdom of God will not come by the sword.

“We live numb and cold most of the time. An innocent person dies here or there in an act of terror, or in an act of war and we sort of look at the TV with a blank stare. Every once in a while we shake our heads and say too bad. We are guilty of dehumanizing the suffering and death of others.

“Christians are often so hung up on intellectually justifying the acts of a certain government, or condemning the acts of another, that they fail to speak out against what is obviously against the desire of God. I do not know if ultimately war is justifiable in Iraq, or if the Israelis have the right to target militant leaders, or if the Palestinians have the right to defend their lives with weapons of war. But I am certain that the killing of innocent people is always wrong.

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