{"id":177,"date":"2011-07-30T08:17:50","date_gmt":"2011-07-30T12:17:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/isittheendoftheworld\/?p=177"},"modified":"2011-07-30T08:17:50","modified_gmt":"2011-07-30T12:17:50","slug":"blessing-and-curses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/2011\/07\/blessing-and-curses.html","title":{"rendered":"Blessing and Curses"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>And I bless those blessing thee, and him who is disesteeming thee I curse, and blessed in thee have been all families of the ground. (Genesis 12:3)<\/p>\n<p>When one looks at Scripture, then looks at world history, the Bible makes a lot of sense. So does our world.<\/p>\n<p>Genesis 12:3 is one of the most beloved passages for what I call Bible-believing Christians. Pro Israel Christians recognize that the verse reflects reality.<\/p>\n<p>From the Babylonians to Hitler, we see the downside to this verse, this promise. It is pure prophecy. Conversely, the few nations (and many individuals) who have respected the Jews and Israel have prospered. Prospered&#8230;the word fits.<\/p>\n<p>Babylon invaded and conquered Israel in the sixth-century B.C. Her kings went mad. Today, the nation is literally buried in its grave. All the ancient powers which followed and persecuted the Jews are visibly gone, if I may say it that way. And we know of course the modern examples: Stalin and Hitler, both of whom loathed the Jews, shoved their own people into the meat-grinder of Stalingrad. Both nations have suffered terribly for their murder of Jews.<\/p>\n<p>A lot of commentators like to say that passages like Genesis 12:3 are coincidental, or misinterpreted. How comical. Tell that to Antiochus Epiphanes, who desecrated the Temple, then lost huge to the Maccabees. As his diseased body rotted and he lay dying, Antiochus knew exactly what he was paying for.<\/p>\n<p>Egypt&#8217;s General Nasser sounded like today&#8217;s Iranians, 40 years ago. He was going to push Israel into the sea. An epic defeat on the battlefield and a fatal heart attack squashed those plans.<\/p>\n<p>And so it goes as history rolls on.<\/p>\n<p>The United States once officially was for Israel. And the nation was blessed.<\/p>\n<p>That is changing. By the day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>And I bless those blessing thee, and him who is disesteeming thee I curse, and blessed in thee have been all families of the ground. (Genesis 12:3) When one looks at Scripture, then looks at world history, the Bible makes a lot of sense. So does our world. Genesis 12:3 is one of the most&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":392,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-177","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Blessing and Curses - Is it the End of the World?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/2011\/07\/blessing-and-curses.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Blessing and Curses - Is it the End of the World?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"And I bless those blessing thee, and him who is disesteeming thee I curse, and blessed in thee have been all families of the ground. (Genesis 12:3) When one looks at Scripture, then looks at world history, the Bible makes a lot of sense. So does our world. Genesis 12:3 is one of the most&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/2011\/07\/blessing-and-curses.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Is it the End of the World?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-07-30T12:17:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jim Fletcher\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Blessing and Curses - Is it the End of the World?","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/2011\/07\/blessing-and-curses.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Blessing and Curses - Is it the End of the World?","og_description":"And I bless those blessing thee, and him who is disesteeming thee I curse, and blessed in thee have been all families of the ground. (Genesis 12:3) When one looks at Scripture, then looks at world history, the Bible makes a lot of sense. So does our world. 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