Romans was written for exactly this moment. And most of the people shouting the loudest right now have clearly never read it.
That is not an insult. It is an observation. Because when you read Romans really read it, in order, slowly, with the willingness to be corrected by it you cannot come away saying what a lot of people are saying right now. The text will not let you.
You cannot read Romans 11 and conclude that God is finished with Israel. Paul asks that question directly in verse one. Has God rejected his people? And then he answers it himself. By no means. He spends three entire chapters making the case and then lands on a word in verse 29 that closes the argument permanently. Irrevocable. The gifts and calling of God are irrevocable.
That is not a complicated word. It does not require a theologian to explain it. It means what it says.
But here is the problem. Most of what passes for biblical teaching right now is not people opening the text and following where it leads.
Instead it is people arriving at a conclusion and then finding the verse that sounds like it supports it.
And the tragedy is that millions of Christians cannot tell the difference because they have never read the book carefully enough to know when someone is handling it honestly and when someone is using it as a weapon.
This is why it matters who you follow. Not in a tribal sense. Not in a this-pastor-is-on-my-team sense. In the most basic sense. Does the person teaching you actually open the text? Do they follow the argument where it goes even when it is inconvenient? Do they let Paul interpret Paul? Do they read Galatians in light of Romans or do they use Galatians to avoid Romans? Do they tell you what the Bible says or do they tell you what they need you to believe and then find the Bible verse that sounds close enough?
Romans will teach you how to answer those questions yourself. That is the gift of it. You do not need a mediator between you and that text.
You need to read it. All of it. In order. Because a Christian who knows Romans is very difficult to manipulate.
They have already heard the strongest possible version of the truth stated plainly by the man who understood it better than anyone.
And once you have that in you, the difference between someone handling scripture honestly and someone using it as a tool becomes obvious almost immediately.
The world is loud right now. Everyone has a take. Everyone has a verse. Everyone is telling you what God thinks about the war and the land and the covenant and the government and who the enemy is.
Go read Romans. Let Paul tell you instead.
@obdDamian Ridiculous
The reformation was an absolutely necessary correction, the church was selling get out of sin free passes to raise money for construction! Talk about arrogance.
@JustinPetersMin You are presuming they aren’t inter-dimensional beings and yet so much evidence shows they are.
They don’t have to travel that far, they just shift from the spiritual plane to our physical plane. Christians limited paradigms are a problem for dealing with the coming deception.
You remember the revival that was beginning when Charlie died? I remember seeing videos and hearing stories of people sitting in their cars waiting to turn in the church parking lot because there was a line for the first time ever! Churches were standing room only! People were coming to Christ at vigils. Charlie’s memorial service was a huge worship service broadcast around the world. God was being celebrated in Charlie’s memory, and it was beautiful. His work, his dedication to God his legacy was leading people to Christ. But you know what? it seems like it came to a screeching halt. Right around the time Candace started getting louder and louder and attacking TPUSA. And then she started attacking Charlie’s life. And then she started telling stories about Charlie, trying to convince the world that he was not the person everyone thought he was. She said He thought he was a time traveler. That He wasn’t stupid enough to be an evangelical. (I was shocked when I heard those words!) He was really a Catholic supposedly, but hiding it. Making it sound like Charlie Kirk is not a real person but a character he was playing. The devil used her to bring that revival to a halt. The left tried really hard to do it, they screamed and yelled about him being racist and made fun of him and all they did was make his supporters more angry. People don’t righteous anger, hearing those things and defended him passionately! But when Candace started attacking Charlie Kirk, but doing it supposedly in the name of trying to defend him and protect him and because of how much she loved him, calling them best friends… Well, that did the trick. She talked about how much she loved him and in the same breath, insulted and criticized everything he loved and everything he built. She devoted her life to destroying his dream. To trying to stop his work from continuing now that he’s gone… while crying “justice for Charlie Kirk!” Sadly That made it possible for Charlie’s reputation and that of his friends and his business and his legacy and even his beloved widow to be completely destroyed. The devil is wicked, he’s sneaky. He out smarts us humans at every turn. And I believe wholeheartedly that’s what he did here. And she seems to have enjoyed every minute of it. She sold her soul in exchange for becoming the number one podcast and having a whole league of supporters online attacking anyone that dares disagree with her. They worship her. They believe every word she says, and anyone that disagrees is accused of all kinds of things. It’s very scary. And it makes me very sad.
Sometimes I imagine if Irenaeus had an X account and posted things like this:
"But when this Antichrist shall have devastated all things in this world… then the Lord will come from heaven… bringing in for the righteous the times of the kingdom."—Against Heresies 5.30.4
Instantly, the replies would roll in:
"LOL dispensationalist"
"Nice Darby theology"
"Study Church History"
Irenaeus would reply:
"Τί ἐστιν Διασπενσατιοναλισμός"
And log off.
This entire obsession with labeling people “Christian Zionists” is deliberate.
It is not about theology. It is not about Scripture. It is a political tactic designed to single out evangelicals specifically and pro-Israel Christians in general in America as a voting bloc and turn them into a scapegoat.
It is a form of othering. It works because the people pushing it are using a term they know full well does not mean what they are pretending it means, and they are doing it on purpose.
They redefine the word, attach it to government policy, then use that distortion to shame, isolate, and attack conservative American Christians politically. It is manipulation, not honest debate, and it is bs.
Supporting the right of Israel to exist is not a political position. It is a biblical one. And they know it.