Steven Collins
October 6, 2008
The Council of Foreign Relations (CFR) is a global entity representing world leaders from both the private and public sectors. The CFR represents the elites of the world, and the more conspiratorially-minded regard the CFR as part of a hidden world government. I subscribe to their flagship publication, Foreign Affairs, and find that it provides excellent insights into the thinking of the global elites and policy-makers on many subjects. The CFR has a very globalist perspective and agenda, but its articles in Foreign Affairs provide a forum for some of the brightest minds in global geopolitics and they can be very informative.
The July-August issue of Foreign Affairs had an article entitled “The New Israel and the Old,” by Walter Russell Mead, a Henry Kissinger Senior Fellow for US Foreign Policy at the CFR. It addresses the subject of the longstanding pro-Israeli sentiment in the USA, and especially the biblically-based beliefs of Christians which lead them to have pro-Israeli attitudes. The article, of course, addresses the subject more as a problem for globalists to deal with instead of a subject to seriously consider. Nevertheless, the article was fairly candid and accurate. You may read it in its entirety at the link below, but I will summarize its points in this blog.
It begins by citing a conversation in the White House between Clark Clifford and President Harry Truman in 1948 re: whether the USA should recognize the fledgling Jewish state in the Mideast. Clark Clifford favored doing so and read a scripture from the book of Deuteronomy to President Truman. In spite of the strong opposition of then-Secretary of State George Marshall, President Truman decided to order the US Government to recognize Israel as a nation. Although the article later cites the “Arabist contingent in the State Department,” it dwells on the biblical beliefs which cause most Americans to be pro-Israeli.
Newsweek magazine’s May 14,2007 issue also discussed this same White House discussion (“A Case of Courage”) in which President Truman overruled virtually his entire foreign-policy staff to recognize Israel’s independence in 1948. It also relates a critically-important aspect of that time which Foreign Affairs does not mention. Newsweek reported that both President Truman and Clark Clifford were surprised when the new Jewish state named itself “Israel,” as they had expected it to be named “Judea.” It would have eliminated massive current confusion about prophetic destinies if the Jewish state had named itself Judea (after the Jewish people) instead of Israel (after the ancient name of the land itself). The modern Jewish state is named “Israel” even though the Jews are not descended from the ancient biblical kingdom of Israel, but rather from the ancient biblical kingdom of Judah. If the modern Jewish state was named Judea today (as President Truman expected), modern Christians would not be confused about who “Israel” is when that term is mentioned in biblical prophecies about the latter days of this age. The modern nations of “Israel” are the ones descended from the ten tribes of Israel, and the term “Israel” in biblical prophecy does not mean the Jews or the Jewish nation in the Mideast, as we will clearly see.
The Foreign Affairs article observes that the pro-Israeli sentiment in the USA “represents the power of public opinion to shape foreign policy in the face of concerns by foreign policy professionals.” This is a revealing statement, as it confirms that the “foreign policy professionals” would prefer a more pro-Arab policy by the USA but cannot implement such a position due to American popular opinion.
The article states that President John Adams explicitly supported the right of Jews to have an independent nation in the old Promised Land, saying: “I really wish the Jews again in Judea an independent nation (emphasis added).” Presidents Adams and Truman both understood that the Jews constituted Judea (i.e. the tribe of Judah), not “Israel.” The article correctly notes that Christian “prophetic Zionists…saw the return of the Jews to the Promised Land as the realization of a literal interpretation of biblical prophecy, often connected to the return of Christ and the end of the world.” Indeed, it was a literal fulfillment of biblical prophecy! Zephaniah 2:1-7 foretold that in the latter days, the people of Judah [notice the Bible uses the term “Judah” to reference the Jews in the latter days, not the term ‘”Israel”) would establish a new nation in the seacoast region of the Promised Land and that the Jewish state would include the city of Ashkelon. This is exactly what happened in 1948 as the UN partition established a Jewish nation mostly concentrated on the seacoast region of the Promised Land while the Arab section was mostly in the inland portion. The city of Ashkelon is in the Jewish nation, just as prophesied. These events confirm that the God of the Bible is fulfilling biblical prophecy quite literally, but the CFR seems to gloss over this fact.
Proverbs 21:1 states; “The king’s heart is in the hand of the Lord…he turns it whithersoever he will.” This passage affirms that when God chooses to have the nations act something out on his prearranged prophetic script, he will move the hearts of rulers to do exactly what God wants them to do. This happened in 1948 when President Truman overruled his staff and cabinet to recognize the new Jewish state. God moved President Truman to “do what had to be done” to fulfill biblical prophecy at the time God wanted it done. This is a critically important point to consider because Ezekiel 38:10 prophesies that God will also put the thought into the ruler of a Russian-Chinese-Iranian alliance in the latter days to launch a military attack against the latter-day nations of “Israel” (this refers to modern nations descended from the ten tribes of Israel, not the Jewish nation the Bible calls “Judah” even though maps calls it “Israel.”).
The Foreign Affairs article cites Protestant, Presbyterian, Mormon and modern Evangelical Christians as being pro-Israeli due to their biblical beliefs. Former President, Theodore Roosevelt, is quoted as saying in 1918: “It seems to me entirely proper to start a Zionist State around Jerusalem.” FDR was cited as a “Christian Zionist.” It also notes that Americans in the past “…often considered themselves God’s New Israel.” The American author, Herman Melville, is cited as stating: “We Americans are the peculiar, chosen people–the Israel of our time; we bear the ark of the liberties of the world” (emphasis added). The article further notes that “Americans have believed that God…has brought them into a new land and…their continued prosperity depends on fulfilling their obligations toward God…Ignore these principles–turn toward the golden calf–and the scourge will come.” The article also notes that after the Civil War, Christian expectations of a “restored Jewish state” figured into the concept of the eventual biblical apocalypse. It observes: “Books and pamphlets highlighting the predicted restoration of the Jews and speculating on the identity and the return of the “lost tribes” of the ancient Hebrews were perennial bestsellers.”
How true! America used to have a general concept of biblical prophecies in its common culture. What happened? Charles Darwin wrote his musings about how the creation could have begun without a Creator, and the academic elites gradually transformed the “theory of evolution” into the “dogma of evolution,” and force-fed several generations this spurious and unscientific fable. American common culture generally does not understand biblical prophecy any more, even though its validity is practically being “screamed” in modern headlines. However, as recent as President Truman’s term, the Bible was still considered as a worthy guide to foreign policy decisions and America’s President understood that the Jews were “Judea” or “Judah,” not “Israel.” It was after the Jewish state took the name “Israel” that modern Christians developed a deep confusion about the terms ‘”Israel” and “Judah.” Although the Bible defines them as different terms for different peoples, Christians have mistakenly assumed the terms are synonyms when applied to latter day prophecies due to the existence of the Jewish state named “Israel.” If the Jews had named their nation after their ethnic origins (“Judah” or “Judea”), there would be vastly less confusion about what these terms actually mean.
In Biblical prophecies about the latter days, the term “Judah” identifies the Jews and the Jewish nation in the Mideast. The term “Israel” means the modern nations descended from the ancient ten tribes of Israel who were prophesied to become many nations (Genesis 48:14-20), and the Bible gives clues about their latter-day identities in Genesis 49. Christians overlook the fact that God prophesied the ten tribes would vastly increase their populations after they went into exile from the Promised Land (Hosea 1:10). Ezekiel 38-39 prophesy that the nations of the ten tribes of Israel in the latter days would be the main antagonists of the alliance of nations led by Russia, China and Iran. Christians (and everyone else) mistakenly assume that God abandoned the ten tribes or meant for them to “die out,” concepts the Bible categorically refutes in Jeremiah 3:12 and 51:5. In order to locate the modern nations of the ten tribes, one must use the “maximalist” clues contained in the Bible; the “minimalist” viewpoint is doomed to failure because it is based on false concepts about what the Bible actually says. Indeed, when one combines biblical prophecies with secular evidence (as my books do), it is clear that the modern nations of the ten tribes of Israel can easily be found and identified among the western Democracies of the NATO alliance.
People are familiar with the Diaspora of the Jews, but ignorant that the ten tribes had their own global Diaspora as well (Daniel 9:7). Those who wish to examine the migrations of the ten tribes of Israel from the time of their exile until current times are invited to read the detailed information contained in my books on this subject (see book links at this website, www.strevenmcollins.com or the publisher’s website at www.bibleblessings.net).
When the Foreign Affairs article noted that “Americans…have often considered themselves God’s new Israel,” it did not realize how close to biblical truth it had come! It further noted that the American support for the Jewish nation was based on the view that “it was both right and proper for one chosen people to support another.” Again, Foreign Affairs didn’t realize how right that observation really is! I urge you to read the entire CFR article…and then read my books if you want extensive “hard evidence” about the whereabouts of the ten tribes throughout history and in the modern world.
http://www.foreignaffairs.org/20080701faessay87402/walter-russell-mead/the-new-israel-and-the-old.html
