The Land and the Word
By Tom Gilbreath
In Genesis 17:8, God solemnly promised to Abraham, “I give to you and your descendants after you the land in which you are a stranger, all the land of Canaan.” Before that, in Genesis 13:14-15, the Lord told him, “Lift your eyes now and look from the place where you are — northward, southward, eastward, and westward; for all the land which you see I give to you and your descendants forever.”
God told Abraham to look around with his physical eyes at the actual land surrounding him. The wording is unmistakable. God wasn’t just going to give the land to Abraham’s physical descendants forever, but He had already done so. In fact, it is one of the Bible’s recurring themes: “I give to you and your descendants” — present tense. Done deal. God didn’t suggest it. He declared it.
That brings us to February of this year, and a woman named Carrie Prejean Boller. She was fired from her position on the Trump Administration’s Religious Liberty Commission. During a hearing on antisemitism, Boller seemed to harass victims of campus antisemitic attacks, often asking, “Are you willing to condemn what Israel has done in Gaza?” She says they fired her for taking the Catholic position on Israel. However, fellow Catholic commission members Cardinal Timothy Dolan and Bishop Robert Barron released a statement disagreeing with her. The bishop called her claims “absurd.”
Boller defends Candace Owens despite Owens’ open prejudice against both Israel and Jews. Boller has become a hero to the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and other radical Muslim organizations. And she now reposts comments by extreme left-wing groups such as the Democratic Underground. The former conservative firebrand seems eager to join forces with anyone attacking Israel.
It’s no surprise that she landed a friendly interview on Tucker Carlson’s show. She took it on herself to speak for the entire Catholic Church, which she became a part of at Easter last year. She said, “We are the new Israel. That’s what the Church teaches. We are the fulfillment of the old Israel… The land means nothing anymore.”
I disagree with Catholicism on many things, but we agree that “replacement theology” is an error. The Vatican II document, Nostra Aetate, issued by Pope Paul VI, said, “God holds the Jews most dear for the sake of their Fathers; He does not repent of the gifts He makes or of the calls He issues.”
That statement reflects Romans 11:29, a passage about Israel and the Jews: “For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.” That’s the same chapter that says in verse 1, “Has God cast away His people? Certainly not!” Then it makes clear that “His people” in this verse refers to the physical descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
Boller often quotes the Bible and seems to have some knowledge of its teachings. That’s why it seems so strange for her to declare, “The land means nothing anymore.” That’s not just an attack on Jews. It’s an attack on the character of God. If the land means nothing, then God’s Word means nothing. We call it the Promised Land because He promised it to Abraham’s descendants forever. He placed no conditions on that promise. In Ezekiel 36:22, He said He would keep His promise, not because the house of Israel deserves it, but “for My holy name’s sake.”
God keeps His promises. And at this moment, the whole world can see the miracle of the Jews and their return to the Holy Land. Boller and others have equated belief that God will keep His word to Abraham with “worshiping Israel.” What it really means is that you know you can trust God’s perfect character and His complete honesty — always.
