No, The Texas Floods Are Not Some Mysterious Part Of God’s Plan
Christians are permitted to hate sin and death without explaining how they fit into some inscrutable providence of Almighty God.Christians are permitted to hate sin and death without explaining how they fit into some inscrutable providence of Almighty God.What Does The Bible Really Say About Who The True Israel Is?
Want to stand with Israel? Great, take your stand with Jesus and His church!GOP Senators Present Evidence China Bankrolls Environmentalist Lawsuits To Cripple U.S. Power
If cases targeting American energy continue to prevail, 'it could result in shutting down the oil industry.'Ted Cruz Should Move On From Sunday School Geopolitics
If you're going to let your vague memory of a Sunday school slogan guide your foreign policy aims, make sure what you learned was correct.How Tucker Carlson vs. Ted Cruz exposed a critical biblical question on Israel
Beneath the sparks of Tucker Carlson's debate with Sen. Ted Cruz (R) about a possible war with Iran lies a far more important — and ancient — question.
One of the most revealing moments of the interview came about halfway through, when Cruz explained why he wants to be the "leading defender of Israel."
If we reduce scripture to foreign policy talking points, we risk baptizing political agendas in the name of God while justifying more war.
His reason? "As a Christian, growing up in Sunday school, I was taught from the Bible, 'Those who bless Israel will be blessed, and those who curse Israel will be cursed.'"
When Carlson pressed Cruz on whether that means Christians must support the modern nation-state of Israel, Cruz replied, "Biblically, we are commanded to support Israel."
That response failed to satisfy Carlson.
"But hold on — define Israel," Carlson responded.
More specifically, Carlson asked Cruz if he believes Genesis is referring to the modern nation-state of Israel as it currently exists as a political entity, with its current leadership and borders.
"Yes," Cruz responded.
Carlson's interjection — "define Israel" — gets at the heart of an important question, a theological fault line in American Christianity: What is Israel, and is there a difference between the modern nation-state of Israel and biblical Israel?
The answer is often treated as self-evident. But the assumption that the modern nation-state of Israel is identical to biblical Israel is not just a matter of political opinion. It's a theological claim, and it deserves biblical scrutiny.
What is (biblical) Israel?
The verse that Cruz cites comes from one of the most important passages in the entire Bible. In Genesis 12, God calls Abraham to leave his family and homeland and go to a new land that he will show Abraham.
Then, God tells Abraham (Genesis 12:2-3):
I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.
Notice that God did not say that "Israel will be blessed." Rather, the subject of God's blessing is "you." God tells Abraham that he will be blessed. How will Abraham be blessed? Through his descendants, who will become a "great nation" and a people through whom the entire earth is blessed.
The Hebrew word "Israel," in fact, doesn't appear in the Old Testament until Genesis 32:28. It's first used to explain why Abraham's grandson Jacob is called "Israel." Throughout the rest of the Torah, Israel exclusively refers to a people group: The descendants of Jacob, who are the 12 tribes of Israel.
And Israel, indeed, is unique and set apart.
After God rescues his people from the hand of Pharaoh and brings them to Mount Sinai, God enters into a covenant with Israel and reveals their vocation.
Exodus 19:3-6:
Then Moses went up to God, and the Lord called to him from the mountain and said, “This is what you are to say to the descendants of Jacob and what you are to tell the people of Israel: ‘You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words you are to speak to the Israelites."
Israel is God's "special possession" (if its people obey him and keep God's covenant). But for what purpose? To be a "kingdom of priests" and a "holy nation."
What this means is that God established Israel as a unique and set-apart nation for the purpose of mediating God — which is the job of a priest — to the nations. Israel received special honor not for an ambiguous reason, but because God had enacted a cosmic redemption mission since the fall in Genesis 3. And central to God's redemption plan was a priestly people through whom God could be mediated and, therefore, reconciled to his people.
But as the biblical story unfolds, Israel fails its mission. Israel breaks the covenant, pursues other gods, and becomes like the other nations, ultimately abdicating the priestly vocation. Blessing, the prophets warn, is not tied to ethnicity or geography — but faithfulness to God.
Because of the people's unfaithfulness, curse comes to Israel, and God allows Israel to be exiled. In the 8th century B.C., the Assyrian Empire conquers the Northern Kingdom of Israel and takes the people into exile. Those 10 tribes of Israel are mostly lost to history because of their horrendous failures.
Yet God is faithful. He continues to work through the Southern Kingdom of Judea (comprised of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin), but they, too, fail, and are exiled to Babylon in the 6th century B.C.
Fortunately, the story doesn't end there. God preserves a remnant from the seed of David, and Israel's mission is ultimately fulfilled by a Jewish man from a backwater town in Galilee: Jesus of Nazareth. He is the true and faithful Israelite who perfectly fulfills Israel's vocation and perfectly keeps the covenant. Jesus is the great high priest, the anointed one, and the prophet of prophets.
Through Jesus' life, death, and resurrection, God is mediated to all people. The blessings that God promised Abraham are finally realized.
"If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise," the apostle Paul writes in Galatians 3:29.
In other words, the true Israel — the true children of Abraham — is not defined by ethnicity, politics, or national barriers. It is defined by faith in Jesus. Gentiles are grafted into the family of God through Christ (Romans 9-11).
This is the fulfillment of Israel's mission, the Old Testament promises, and God's redemption plan.
Why this matters
How you define "Israel" carries tremendous theological and political weight. If we conflate the ancient covenant people of God with the modern nation-state, we risk distorting the gospel and global politics.
The modern state of Israel is not the covenant people of God. It is a secular nation with borders, politicians, and politics that serve its interests — just like every other nation. It did not exist until 1948, and, in fact, there was a campaign to name the new nation "Judea," a nod to the fact that Jews were settling there. But David Ben-Gurion chose the name "Israel" for reasons of political, symbolic, and geographic pragmatism.
This doesn't mean that Christians shouldn't care about Israel or support its right to exist. Christians should pray for Israel and for peace in the Holy Land.
But our view of Israel must not be rooted in misreadings and misunderstandings of the Bible. If we reduce scripture to foreign policy talking points, we risk baptizing political agendas in the name of God while justifying more war.
In biblical interpretation, context is king.
The true "Israel of God," according to the apostle Paul, is the church (Galatians 6:16). To "bless Israel," therefore, does not mean offering unconditional support to a foreign country that shares a name with the biblical "Israel." It means honoring the covenant fulfilled in Christ and recognizing that the mission of Israel is being carried forward by faithful Christians, Jew and Gentile alike.
Does the Bible command Christians to support the modern nation-state of Israel? No.
If Christians want to be faithful to God and wise in matters of global affairs, we should begin by answering with biblical clarity the theological question that Carlson implicitly raised: What is (biblical) Israel?
Israel is the people of God, shaped by covenant and defined by hope — and ultimately revealed in Jesus Christ. Those who belong to him are the children of Abraham, heirs according to the promise.
America doesn’t need to copy the Chinese. We need to beat them.
The United States invented GPS. But under Joe Biden, we ceded our leadership in critical technologies to China — and opened the door to disaster. With President Trump back in charge, we have a chance to correct course and secure the future of our economy and national defense.
GPS powers everything. From military operations to farmers in the field, from ATMs to Amazon delivery, satellite-based positioning underpins modern life. But the system has one glaring weakness: no backup. One solar flare, one jammed signal, one cyberattack could knock it out — and take everything with it. Microseconds of disruption could halt supply chains, stall air traffic, and put American lives at risk.
In his first term, Trump leapfrogged China in 5G development. Now we must do it again — with GPS.
The Chinese Communist Party knows it.
While Washington slept, China built a terrestrial backup to GPS — an old-school solution using low-frequency signals and bulky infrastructure, rooted in World War II-era tech. It’s not flashy. But it’s functional. And today, it gives Beijing an edge.
America now faces a choice: Copy China’s playbook — or leap ahead.
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr (R) laid out the stakes in a recent Fox News interview with Maria Bartiromo. “During the Biden years, we fell deeply behind China,” Carr said. “The good news is we have the playbook. President Trump came in his first term and said we must lead the world in 5G. We did exactly that. ... This Trump administration is going to step up again.”
Carr is right. We’ve seen this before. In his first term, Trump leapfrogged China in 5G development. Now we must do it again — with GPS.
That starts with backing a 5G-based backup for GPS. Unlike China’s clunky eLoran system, a 5G-based solution reflects American innovation. It uses ground-based infrastructure and existing networks to deliver a wide-scale, secure, and reliable alternative to GPS — without costing taxpayers a dime. Private industry could roll it out before the end of Trump’s term.
In other words: It’s shovel-ready, future-proof, and 100% Made in America.
Not everyone wants that. Some voices in the policy debate are pushing China’s model instead. And they’re not just misguided — they’re compromised.
As Breitbart recently reported, a coalition of anti-Trump interests and China-linked entities has tried to stall U.S. progress on GPS backup technology. One group, the Resilient Navigation and Timing Foundation, consistently attacks 5G solutions. Unsurprisingly, the group's founding members include UrsaNav — the very firm that helped build China and Russia’s eLoran networks.
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These aren’t just competing policy proposals. They’re coordinated efforts to keep America vulnerable.
We didn’t win the Cold War by patching up the telegraph. We invented the internet. We didn’t defend our skies with rebuilt biplanes. We created stealth bombers and drones. The same principle applies here. This isn’t about replicating China’s last move. It’s about defining what comes next.
And we’ve already started.
Carr and the FCC have launched a formal proceeding to explore “positioning, navigation, and timing” alternatives. That builds on President Trump’s first-term legacy, when he signed bipartisan legislation to strengthen GPS resilience. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) called it “crucial to the national and economic security of the United States.”
That leadership set the standard. Now we must finish the job.
We face a clear choice. One path copies the Chinese Communist Party and locks us into outdated infrastructure. The other unleashes American ingenuity and secures our future through private-sector innovation and Trump-era vision.
Let’s not backtrack. Let’s build forward. Let’s lead again.
Oversight Project over target: Dems seethe as facade of autopen presidency comes crashing down
Democratic lawmakers walked out of a Senate hearing Wednesday on former President Joe Biden's cognitive decline, its cover-up, and its alleged exploitation behind the scenes.
The Republican lawmakers who remained at their posts were rewarded with troubling insights into the fallout of both the cover-up and America's apparent governance in recent years by an unelected cabal of ideologues.
One of the more troubling revelations to come out of the hearing was that in addition to the executive orders, commutations, and pardons issued with Biden's name affixed in recent years, many of the laws passed by Congress may similarly be illegitimate.
The Oversight Project, a government watchdog, revealed in early March that Biden's signature on numerous pardons, commutations, executive orders, and other documents of national consequence was machine-generated.
Biden was not the first president to employ the autopen; however, there is cause to suspect that unelected individuals in Biden's orbit abused the autopen throughout his presidency, particularly toward the end, to advance their radical agendas.
In effect, there appears to have been a shadow presidency — what President Donald Trump suggested to Blaze Media co-founder Glenn Beck in October was a "committee" of unnamed bureaucrats — whose impact has yet to fully be understood.
Multiple investigations have been launched into the alleged autopen abuse in the wake of the Oversight Project's damning discoveries and amid mounting evidence of staffers, family members, and other "gatekeepers" having made decisions on Biden's behalf.
On Wednesday, the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary held a hearing on "how the Biden cover-up endangered America and undermined the Constitution," seeking greater clarity both on how Democrats and the media did their best to conceal Biden's cognitive decline from the public and on how his decline was exploited behind the scenes.
Democratic lawmakers on the committee, some of whom helped gaslight the nation about Biden's mental acuity in recent years, refused to hear testimony from former deputy assistant to President Donald Trump and former Idaho Solicitor General Theodore Wold, former White House press secretary Sean Spicer, and University of Virginia law professor John Harrison — and boycotted the hearing.
'They lied to us for four years, and we know they lied. They know they lied.'
Democratic Sens. Dick Durbin (Ill.) and Peter Welch (Vt.) did, however, show up at the outset to protest their colleagues' closer look into the apparent conspiracy to keep Biden in office and his autopen signature viable.
Before leaving the room, Welch complained that Congress could instead be discussing climate change, health care, the possible war with Iran, and America's debt. He stressed, "What we're doing right now won't help."
Durbin noted on X, "This partisan farce of a hearing is a waste of our time and resources."
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Contrary to the Democrats' suggestion that the hearing was a useless exercise, Mike Howell, president of the Oversight Project, suggested to Blaze News that it is critically important now, even though Biden is no longer president, to seek accountability and answers.
"The autopen administration brought great shame on the United States and was an international embarrassment," said Howell. "The United States must live by the most basic contours of its own Constitution if it is to project power and credibility. If we, as a nation, can't tell the world who was running the White House for four years, then we have more than a 'threat to democracy.'"
After highlighting Democratic denial of Biden's decline over the course of his presidency, Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley (R) pointed to Democratic senators' empty seats and asked, "Where are they now? They don't want to answer for any of those quotes now. They lied to us for four years, and we know they lied. They know they lied. It's why they're not here."
Wold, a board member of the Oversight Project, noted in his testimony that the "U.S. Constitution vests the executive power in a single person: the president" and underscored that despite the overgrowth of the executive branch since the nation's founding, the president remains "the single source of democratic legitimacy."
'Over half — 32 in total — were signed with an autopen.'
"The president takes positive actions and authenticates those actions through his signature. His signature is required for the most significant actions he may undertake: to sign an executive order, to take any action vested in him by the Constitution, as in granting a pardon, and to take the most important action of all: to sign a bill into law," said Wold. "In all these cases, the president's signature is itself the protection of democratic principles. When the president signs, he communicates his assent and endorsement of the action he takes."
Wold suggested that the risk of divorcing the president's signature from his legitimate assent and endorsement was realized during the Biden years, particularly when clemency warrants and executive orders were signed during his physical and apparent mental absences.
"In June 2022, the Biden White House began deploying the autopen to sign clemency warrants, and executive orders in July of 2022. Autopen use skyrocketed from there," said Wold. "We found that of the 51 clemency warrants issued during the Biden presidency, over half — 32 in total — were signed with an autopen."
RELATED: Justice is coming for Biden's 'autopen' pardons — and Trump's DOJ just put everyone on notice
The former Idaho solicitor general noted that among the more controversial acts of possibly illegitimate clemency were the pardons for members of the Biden family, Anthony Fauci, and General Mark Milley.
'We need to get those documents.'
Wold later emphasized that the "president actually has to make the decision — that cannot be delegated to a staffer or an adviser," but there was no indication "that anyone other than staff were making these decisions."
— (@)
While much has been made of the questionable legitimacy of Biden's more controversial pardons, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz (R) cut deeper, asking Wold whether legislation that passed both chambers of Congress but then was signed by a presidential staffer without the president's authorization is law.
"No," said Wold.
— (@)
Hawley noted, "For every time that Biden authorized the autopen, there should be a record of that."
Wold confirmed that "in the policy paper flow to the Oval Office, there should be a record of what documents are presented to the president, when, and when he gave his assent to the actions that are listed in those documents, whether it's a judicial nomination or it's a statutory response to Congress."
"We need to get those documents," responded Hawley.
'Those who received autopen pardons should be charged for the crimes they were pardoned for.'
Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.) — who concluded Biden's was the "autopen presidency, a government run by committee rather than a leader chosen by the American people" — indicated that he will be "pursuing a Special Access Request to obtain Biden's staff secretary's autopen memo and records tracking Biden's authorization of several autopenned documents."
Howell told Blaze News that the Oversight Project has "produced lists of which documents were signed by the autopen. As to 'who' is behind them, we have been communicating our findings to the governmental investigative bodies."
When asked about the Oversight Project's next steps where the autopen saga is concerned, Howell told Blaze News, "We have no steps planned. We have gallops planned. Stay tuned."
In terms of what accountability looks like at this stage — especially after President Donald Trump declared last month on Truth Social that those who exploited Biden's cognitive impairment and allegedly "took over the Autopen" were guilty of "TREASON at the Highest Level" — Wold told Blaze News, "Those who received autopen pardons should be charged for the crimes they were pardoned for. Those who operated the autopen without the direction of the president should be charged with potential crimes ranging from impersonation of an official to forgery."
Wold noted further that when congressional lawmakers meet later this month to discuss the matter further, they should consider "whether the 25th Amendment needs to be updated given the unexpected event of those responsible for invoking it deciding that they preferred an incapacitated president."
Blaze News reached out to the White House for comment but did not immediately receive a response.
Mike Howell is a contributor to Blaze News.
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