re: What God says about Israel

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Paul explains that there is no longer any distinction between Greek nor Jew for those who are in Christ

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See, this is the slippery slope of poor Biblical understanding. This statement is true yet cherry-picked to leave out the context of the rest of the Bible. If a Jew gets saved today, yes, they get saved the same as anyone else: through the blood of Jesus Christ. They remain ethnically Jewish, but they are a Christian religiously, just like anyone else - That’s what Paul is talking about. There are reasons he had to make that point that some contextual reading would really help you understand.

It does away with none of the promises of God to the ethnic NATION of Israel.

do you think nation = country?

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I'm sorry your church has a history of being a bunch of homicidal maniacs.

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Except it doesn't. If it weren't for the Catholic Church, Islam would have completely taken over Europe. You're welcome for that too.

the modern nation state of Israel is not the heir of God’s promises to ancient Israel

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the word Catholic is derived from Kataholos which was the universal church

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Nope


The word Catholic is a mistranslation of “catalpa” a worm native to the Levant and used as fish bait


Because so many early Catholics had been fishermen that became fishers of men they named themselves after the bait they were so familiar with

For most of my life I assumed God was saying we have to be on Israel's side. That they were perpetually the good guys.

About ten years ago it occurred to me that he might simply be saying that if you fk with them you're destined to lose. Which isn't exactly the same thing.

That said, I'm usually on Israel's side, although I've grown to hate Khazars with a passion. The Bible had something to say about them, too.

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Catholicism had its competing sects from the very beginning.

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Being as though it was adopted by the Roman’s, it was by far the most influential and fastest spreading.

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Again, they branched off from the universal church at the same time and neither orthodoxy or RCC can be considered Eastern or western. The orthodox branch was in Rome at the same damn time and were influenced by the same damn people.

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The Great Schizm didn’t occur until 1054, and by that point the church was well established. From that you have Eastern Orthodox (eastern empire) and oriental orthodox broke away from the church, Protestant broke away later on, and every other sect that had broken off since.

But either way, you’re missing the point entirely. Just like western civilization was influenced by the Roman Empire culturally and militarily, it was also influenced by the Roman Empire’s religion.

All of those verses are in there. So are these:

Joshua 23:15-16 But just as all the good things the Lord your God has promised you have come to you, so he will bring on you all the evil things he has threatened, until the Lord your God has destroyed you from this good land he has given you. If you violate the covenant of the Lord your God, which he commanded you, and go and serve other gods and bow down to them, the Lord’s anger will burn against you, and you will quickly perish from the good land he has given you.

Judges 2:20-23 Therefore the Lord was very angry with Israel and said, “Because this nation has violated the covenant I ordained for their ancestors and has not listened to me, I will no longer drive out before them any of the nations Joshua left when he died. I will use them to test Israel and see whether they will keep the way of the Lord and walk in it as their ancestors did.” The Lord had allowed those nations to remain; he did not drive them out at once by giving them into the hands of Joshua.

2 Kings 17:18-20 So the Lord was very angry with Israel and removed them from his presence. Only the tribe of Judah was left, and even Judah did not keep the commands of the Lord their God. They followed the practices Israel had introduced. Therefore the Lord rejected all the people of Israel; he afflicted them and gave them into the hands of plunderers, until he thrust them from his presence.

Judges, Kings, and Chronicles are just Israel screwing up, God getting angry with them and allowing them to be defeated and enslaved, so I won't bother quoting them all but there is a lot of "Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord..." and "the Lord's anger burned against them." The prophets were constantly telling Israel to quit screwing up, warning they would face repercussions.

Point being that Israel does not have carte blanche, some sort of God-given "Get out of jail/slavery/destruction free" card. There are MANY biblical examples of Israel being in the wrong and getting punished for it - sometimes by God directly, often times by allowing them to suffer at the hands of others. I think they have a right to exist as a modern nation, they have a right to defend their borders and retaliate against those who attack them. I don't think they are divinely infallible.