This article makes some vital points. Ive summarised what I think are the main ones here: During the last few decades the term Palestine has been adopted by Arabs living in Israel in the area west of the Jordan River. It is specifically employed to avoid the use of the name Israel, and must be considered an anti-Israel term, used by those who want to deny the legitimate existence of Israel as a genuine nation among the family of nations. Palestine, therefore, must now be considered a political propaganda term with massive anti-Israel implications. The world press uses the term to question the legitimacy of modern Israel. The term Palestine is rarely used in the Old Testament, and when it is, it refers specifically to the southwestern coastal area of Israel occupied by the Philistines, while the central highlands were called Canaan. Both the Canaanites and the Philistines had disappeared as distinct peoples at least by the time of the Babylonian Captivity of Judea (586 B.C.), and they no longer exist. So how did the world and the church get into the habit of calling the land of Israel “Palestine”? It was not until the Romans crushed the second Jewish revolt against Rome in 135 A.D. that Emperor Hadrian applied the term Palestine to the Land of Israel. Hadrian realized the propaganda power of terms and symbols. He replaced the shrines of the Jewish Temple and the Sepulchre of Christ in Jerusalem with temples to pagan deities. He changed the name of Israel and Judea to Palestine, taking the name of the ancient enemies of Israel, the Philistines, hoping to erase the name Israel from all memory. The original Philistines were not Middle Eastern at all. They were European peoples from the Adriatic Sea next to Greece. The original “Palestinians” had nothing to do, whatsoever, with any Arabs. One of the first Christian uses of the term Palestine was by the Church historian Eusebius, who used Hadrian’s term Palestine, thus incorporating the anti-Israel, anti-Christian name of Palestine into the Church’s vocabulary. When the British received the mandate after World War I they called the land on both sides of the Jordan River, Palestine. This became the accepted geo-political term for several decades, and those who lived in the land were called Palestinians, whether they were Jews, Arabs or Europeans. Bible-believing Christians have either knowingly or unwittingly followed the world, pagans and haters of Israel in calling Israel by the anti-Israel term Palestine. It is found throughout Bible maps, Bible commentaries and textbooks. The use of the term Palestine is not just biblically inaccurate, but devastating in our time, where it is the cornerstone of the propaganda war against Israel and the Jewish people. Do we want to use terms invented by those who hate Christ, the Bible and Israel and who desire nothing less than the destruction of the Jewish people? Christians should use the terminology of the Bible wherever possible. Why not go back to the terms used in the New Testament? The Gospel writers used the term Israel to refer to the Land. Why should we use any other term when referring to the Land, especially now that the Jews are back in the Land and have re-established the nation of Israel among the family of nations? The only term we should use for the Land is Israel, or its subdivisions of Judea, Samaria, and Galilee. We should make every effort to remove the term Palestine from our Bible maps and textbooks, and use only biblical terms with reference to the Holy Land of Israel.
Posted on: Sun, 20 Oct 2013 01:06:45 +0000
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