In case you haven’t heard, Pat Robertson recently made some rather idiotic comments on Ariel Sharon’s recent medical crisis. In a nutshell, Robertson is claiming Sharon’s health problems are God’s punishment for “dividing the land of Israel.”
In answer to Robertson, there’s a well-written and insightful open letter popping up on several of the Evangelical blogs I read. The letter wasn’t written in direct response to Robertson’s recent statement — in fact, it was written in 2002 — but it’s contents are surprisingly relevant. I’ve read it a few times and agree with it whole-heartedly.
It should go without saying that Robertson doesn’t speak for all Christians when he makes these kind of comments, but this letter really explains what the position of Christians should be with regard to events in Israel. It also states clearly why Robertson and those who agree with him are wrong in their thinking and stand in oposition to the clear statements of the Bible with regard to this issue.
[Hat tip to Between Two Worlds and Theologica.]
I think Robertson’s comments are foolish both because of the whole over-zealous support for Israel as well as for another reason. There has been a lot of action-reaction talk from the TV type folks. Sharon did X, therefore Y happened. This isn’t anything new, but it’s exceedingly dangerous… trying to reduce God to formulas.
Using the idiotic X and therefore Y mentality, why did 12 of the 13 miners die in WV? Several of those who died were extremely outspoken Christians. Yet, the one person who has survived (and we pray that he makes a full recovery but we obviously don’t know what the future holds for him) didn’t necessarily seem to fall into that same strong man-of-faith category as some of the others. Why? I’ll tell you why… because we’re not puppets and our ways are not God’s ways. And we should not attempt to reduce God to a formula or speak for Him… thinking we know why certain people have died or why certain cities were flooded (ref. New Orleans) unless God has specifically told us such.
In truth, we’re all sinners. “We all have it coming.” (i.e. we will all die) But God does offer us the opportunity (the grace) to get to heaven by accepting Christ as our Savior. He doesn’t promise that we’ll have an easy life or that we won’t suffer or that he’ll rescue us from collapsed mines or spare us from hurricanes or anything else. He just promises his forgiveness if we accept what Christ has done for us… and He promises us His peace and strength to endure the hardships and trials of this life… with the final trial being death itself.
Good luck to Pat trying to figure out the rest of the world using such simple formulas. It’ll never work.
Yeah, Robertson is…foolish in a lot of his remarks. I personally wish he would go away and never appear in public again, he’s making too many dumb remarks and all it’s doing is putting a black eye on Christians.
Joey, you might interested in further religious discussion at http://www.hannity.com/forum/, in the religious forum.