Thanksgiving: Attitude of Gratitude

This recent exchange with a gentleman at the History Channel forum is just in time for Thanksgiving Day...

The twelve tribes themselves are not European in origin

The Twelve Tribes of Israel - the Anglo-Saxons and white peoples of Northwestern Europe - are Israelite in origin. We're the so-called "Lost Ten Tribes." We we taken captive by the Assyrians and later, as prophesied, migrated north and west into Europe and King David's dynasty continues in the Sceptered Isle.

Of the 12,000 from each tribe to be taken on judgment day, how many do you think will be of mixed blood?

If they're so mixed the Holy Spirit wouldn't have inspired John to write specifically of the unique tribes of Israel. They're obviously not "mixed" enough to disqualify them from being considered, in God's eyes, this or that specific tribe of Israel. Undoubtedly we have married among ourselves, yet still this or that tribe dominates in our ancestry, having sifted through various countries (we can say we're English, Irish, Dutch) but still ISRAELITE.

When Revelations was written the author probably had no idea that the Jews would have dispersed across the globe as they have or intermarried as they have with other peoples

John was a prophet and the Holy Spirit undoubtedly inspired him to know the other prophecies in the Law and the Prophets that clearly foretold the reach and expansion of all Twelve Tribes to the far ends of the Earth - not just the Jews! The Jews are only a small part of the big family of Jacob-Israel.

It's written in Amos that we (the Northern 10-Tribed Kingdom of Israel) would migrate, sift through the nations, and yet not lose our identity (as far as our ethnic make-up is concerned, our basic DNA).

assuming that you are a Gentile

God's mercy extends to all peoples, although His plan calls for the Jew (and Israelites) first and then the Gentiles. God has called our peoples, the Jews and the Joes, Israelites, to ultimately become His Servant Nation to bless all nations.

I am a Joe (descended from Joseph/Anglo-Saxon heritage), as well as a Jew, scions of King David, as our family goes back to the British and Scottish Royal Families. I'm also a descendant of two Mayflower Pilgrims, John and Priscilla Alden, and collateral descendant of three American presidents.

[The Scripture] doesn't apply to America because we were given nothing. We TOOK everything we have from the natives

The United States was given primarily to the descendants of Joseph and the other Northern tribes of Israel, with some Jews living among us (even though God has given them a Jewish Homeland). Just like ancient Israel had to be willing to fight to secure their inheritance, so did we. Sometimes we were more honorable than others, just like Jacob with Esau, but regardless Manifest Destiny was to be and was fulfilled in us. We didn't take from the natives as it wasn't theirs to begin with - it belongs to our Great Creator God and to whomsoever He gives it, as is His divine prerogative.

The various natives took from each other and had a violent history towards different tribes and were carried away with their raw paganism. Some were more advanced than others.

Deuteronomy 6:10-12

10 “So it shall be, when the LORD your God brings you into the land of which He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give you large and beautiful cities which you did not build, 11 houses full of all good things, which you did not fill, hewn-out wells which you did not dig, vineyards and olive trees which you did not plant—when you have eaten and are full— 12 then beware, lest you forget the LORD...

we built the cities, invented our gadgets and things, built a gargantuan economy, paved the roads, assembled a massive military, etc. all by ourselves. God had nothing to do with these things

God works in and through and for people at the same time. He warned us not to develop such an unhealthy and pompous attitude of vainly imagining we did all these things without His help and inspiration, even giving us the health to accomplish great things. God has blessed our efforts. It's true that God helps those who help themselves. The "Protestant work ethic" is a biblical work ethic.

Deuteronomy 8:9-20

9 a land in which you will eat bread without scarcity, in which you will lack nothing; a land whose stones are iron and out of whose hills you can dig copper. 10 When you have eaten and are full, then you shall bless the LORD your God for the good land which He has given you. 11 "Beware that you do not forget the LORD your God by not keeping His commandments, His judgments, and His statutes which I command you today, 12 lest—when you have eaten and are full, and have built beautiful houses and dwell in them; 13 and when your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and your gold are multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied; 14 when your heart is lifted up, and you forget the LORD your God...17 then you say in your heart, 'My power and the might of my hand have gained me this wealth.'

18 "And you shall remember the LORD your God, for it is He who gives you power to get wealth, that He may establish His covenant which He swore to your fathers, as it is this day. 19 Then it shall be, if you by any means forget the LORD your God, and follow other gods, and serve them and worship them, I testify against you this day that you shall surely perish. 20 As the nations which the LORD destroys before you, so you shall perish, because you would not be obedient to the voice of the LORD your God.

As Abraham Lincoln warned, he said we had forgotten our Great God and encouraged all to repent and pray that God might save our nation. We were spared that God might fulfill His many prophecies, His wonderful promises to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob about the peace and prosperity of their descendants because of ABRAHAM'S OBEDIENCE. But God has given us these many things and wonderful years and we have forgotten him as self-made men and women who vainly imagine we don't need God and this is all our doing, the work of our hands, so God - who controls the weather - will strip these things out of our hands and show us how we're at His mercy to humble us and bring us back to Him and remind us to keep His commandments, His holy Sabbath and biblical festivals, the "Jewish holidays," and reject the replacement theology and pagan holidays of bloody Rome!

If we have god to thank for the invention of the airplane then we have him to thank for 9/11.

That's just plain ridiculous. What we do with a gift is our responsibility. Everything has the potential to be a blessing or a curse. God gives us free moral agency to determine what we will for ourselves, what we will do with what we've been given: whether we'll squander our inheritance or use it wisely, with an attitude of gratitude and loving obedience.

I see you conveniently did not address the other verse I quoted, verse 24 which says:

1. Behold, the LORD makes the earth empty, He makes it waste, and turns it upside down, and scatters abroad its inhabitants.

2. And it shall be, that as it is with the people, so with the priest; as it is with the servant, so with his master; as it is with the maid, so with her mistress; as it is with the buyer, so with the seller; as it is with the lender, so with the borrower; as it is with the taker of usury, so with the payer of usury to him.

3. The land shall be utterly emptied, and utterly spoiled: for the LORD has spoken this word. 4 The earth mourns and fades away, the world languishes and fades away, the haughty people of the earth languish.

13. When this happens: in the midst of the land among the people, it shall be as the shaking of an olive tree, and like the gleaning grapes when the vintage is done. 14 They shall lift up their voice, they shall sing for the majesty of the LORD, they shall cry aloud from the sea. 15 Wherefore glorify you the LORD in the fires, even the name of the LORD God of Israel in the isles of the sea. 16. From the furthermost part of the earth have we heard songs, even glory to the righteous. But I said, My leanness, my leanness, woe to me! the treacherous dealers have dealt treacherously; yes, the treacherous dealers have dealt very treacherously. 17 Fear, and the pit, and the snare, are upon you, O inhabitant of the earth. 18 And it shall be, that he who flees from the noise of the fear shall fall into the pit; and he who comes up out of the midst of the pit shall be caught in the snare: for the windows from on high are open, and the foundations of the earth shake. 19 The earth is completely broken down, the earth is fully dissolved, the earth is exceedingly moved. 20 The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, and shall be removed like a cottage; and its transgression shall be heavy upon it; and it shall fall, and not rise again.

These verses prophesy destruction of everything and everybody which does not jibe with what you're telling me.

I did not ignore it and I did address it. Mankind will get to the point of no return: except for divine intervention no flesh would be saved alive, no human being would remain, just as Yeshua and the Prophets foretold. Within that Scripture it reveals survivors who are praising God, which I have highlighted.

Matthew 24:21-22

21 For then there will be great tribulation [Time of Jacob's Trouble], such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be. 22 And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect’s sake [the physical descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob] those days will be shortened.

Isaiah 1:9
9 Unless the LORD of hosts
Had left to us a very small remnant,
We would have become like Sodom,
We would have been made like Gomorrah.

Isaiah 43:1-3
1 But now, thus says the LORD, who created you, O Jacob,
And He who formed you, O Israel:

"Fear not, for I have redeemed you;
I have called you by your name;
You are Mine.

2 When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;
And through the rivers, they shall not overflow you.
When you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned,
Nor shall the flame scorch you.

3 For I am the LORD your God,
The Holy One of Israel, your Savior;
I gave Egypt for your ransom,
Ethiopia and Seba in your place."

God always saves a remnant to keep His promise alive to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob that He would be their God and the God of their descendants (which means they must always have some descendants). This GOOD NEWS is why the first chapter of Beyond Babylon: Europe's Rise and Fall: is appropriately called, "Survival Guaranteed!"

David Ben-Ariel is a Christian-Zionist writer and author of Beyond Babylon: Europe's Rise and Fall. With a focus on the Middle East and Jerusalem, his analytical articles help others improve their understanding of that troubled region. Check out the Beyond Babylon blog.