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Iran, Nuclear Weapons, the Place of Israel in the Purposes of God

More good news! Iran is threatening to retaliate if they are bombed because of their nuclear potential (see http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10465423). I was watching Triangle a few weeks ago, and a group of American commentators were not speaking about if the US would attack Iran, but when. What a mess the middle east is? Unbelievable.

This brings me to a question that I can't really adequately answer. Why is it that the nations who are angry with Iran are allowed nuclear weapons but Iran is not? I do not want Iran to have nuclear weapons, it could be a disaster. But neither do I want the US, Russia, Israel, France and others to have them either. I don't trust any of them with them!

This also raises another question. It is obvious that the NT teaches that salvation is found in Christ and Christ alone. Israel in terms of salvation is not an issue. Christ is now 'Israel'; salvation-history is centred on him. The land is not a factor in the Christian era in terms of salvation.

However there is still another question i.e. is the land still the locus of eschatological events. That is, will the end of the world culminate around Jerusalem and the nation of Israel? Was the reconstitution of Israel in 1948 and recapture of Jerusalem in 1967 then eschatologically significant?

It is a tough question that requires intense analysis of a huge range of OT prophetic passages and the Olivet Discourse, the Little Apocalypse (Mk 13; Mt 24; Lk 21). I think I better look into this.
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