Huckabee points to southern strength
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080206/ap_on_el_ge/huckabee_interview;_ylt=AuVesithbYRqVJneZ8Ol8YSs0NUE
Republican presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee said Tuesday he would press on with his White House candidacy, emboldened by wins in the South.
"The one way you can't win a race is to quit it, and until somebody beats me, I'm going to answer the bell for every round of this fight," the former Arkansas governor said in an AP interview from Little Rock.
Huckabee beat rivals John McCain and Mitt Romney in West Virginia, Alabama and his home state, and early returns showed him leading in a few more Super Tuesday states. He said he would emerge from the virtual national primary contests as the alternative to McCain, the Arizona senator and Republican front-runner.
"I've got to say that Mitt Romney was right about one thing — this is a two-man race. He was just wrong about who the other man in the race was. It's me, not him," Huckabee said.
Huckabee suggested that only he and McCain would be left standing after 21 states held primaries and caucuses on Tuesday but stopped short of saying Romney should drop out. However, he said his supporters, many of them fellow Christian evangelicals, sent a strong message to Romney, who has been casting himself as the strongest conservative in the race.
"The conservatives are in the South, and the conservative base of the Republican party, I'm winning it. And there's just no way to argue that," Huckabee said. "Romney had to be able to show that he was really pulling those conservative votes, and he's not."
Preliminary exit polling from 16 states showed that white, born again, evangelical Christians split across the three leading Republican candidates, with one-third supporting Huckabee and the rest evenly divided between McCain and Romney.
Vatican Issues New Prayer for Jews for Good Friday; Jewish Groups Disappointed
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,328649,00.html
The Vatican on Tuesday issued a new version of a Roman Catholic prayer that had long offended Jews, but some said the changes don't go far enough.
Jewish groups said they interpreted the new version of the prayer for Jews as requiring members of their faith — and all of humanity — to convert to Christianity in order to find salvation.
The prayer for Jews is recited during Good Friday services of Easter Week, the most solemn week in the Christian calendar, in which the faithful commemorate the suffering and death of Jesus Christ before his resurrection on Easter.
The prayer is part of the old Latin rite, also known as the Tridentine rite, which was celebrated before the liberalizing reforms of the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s paved the way for the New Mass used widely today in local languages.
Last summer, Pope Benedict XVI allowed wider use of the old Latin rite. That prompted criticism from Jewish groups who had long been offended by the Good Friday prayer and lamented that it might be celebrated more broadly.
To answer their concerns, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, No. 2 at the Vatican, said last summer the issue would be resolved and on Tuesday his office published the new text of the prayer, in Latin, on the front page of the Vatican newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano.
According to an unofficial translation, the prayer now reads:
"Let us pray for the Jews. May the Lord our God illuminate their hearts so that they may recognize Jesus Christ savior of all men. ... Almighty and everlasting God, you who wants all men to be saved and to gain knowledge of the truth, kindly allow that, as all peoples enter into your Church, all of Israel be saved."
The prayer removes key words that Jews had found particularly offensive in the earlier version, including a reference to their "blindness" and the need to "remove the veil from their hearts."
The paper said the new text would be used starting on Good Friday this year, which falls on March 21.
Vatican officials had said previously that the prayer would continue to urge Jews to convert, since Catholics always pray for the conversion of all Christians and non-Christians alike.
Rabbi David Rosen, a key Jewish-Vatican liaison and head of inter-religious relations at the American Jewish Committee, said he was disappointed by the new text.
"It's pretty clear that there's no fullness of salvation outside the Church" under the prayer's language, he said.
Pastors Arrested, Beaten in India
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion06837.shtml
Pastor Yashwant Paul was arrested in the Ghaziabad district of Uttar Pradesh on charges of "fraud" on January 21, according to a January 8 report from the Evangelical Fellowship of India.
The charges were originally brought against him in 2004 by a man who falsely claimed that the pastor and his wife had offered him 20,000 rupees ($508 CAD) and a job to convert to Christianity. Pastor Paul was charged under the Indian Penal Code with "cheating" (Section 420) and "criminal breach of trust" (Section 407) and detained in the local jail. His initial plea for bail was rejected by a magistrate.
Pastor Abraham (70) and several of his family members were beaten by militants while they were preparing for a weekly prayer meeting in the village of Tharamangalam, Tamil Nadu on the morning of January 18. At approximately 10:00 a.m., a group of local Hindus armed with rods and stones barged into Pastor Abraham's house, which is also used as a church building, and beat him, his wife and five children.
When the pastor went to the police station for help, several other Christians arrived at his home to attend the scheduled meeting and were attacked by the militants. Several of the beaten believers were hospitalized with serious injuries.
Pray for healing for those injured in this attack. Pray that Pastor Paul will be released and that the truth will come out in his case. Pray that Christians in India will continue to give themselves fully to the work of the Lord (1 Corinthians 15:50-58).
For more information on the persecution facing Christians in India, go to www.persecution.net/country/india.htm.
Are Revival Fires Burning in France
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion06836.shtml
MARIETTA, GA -- This week, the international prayer coalition, Pray for France, is inviting Christians from around the world to intercede for France from February 6 through March 16.
"Things are happening in France." said David Broussard, president of the Christian Community Foundation of France, one of the coalition partners. "In addition to the recent elections, France will assume the presidency of the European Union in the second half of 2008. Spiritually, there is more unity among Evangelicals, an increasing spirit of collaboration between Protestant and Catholic communities, and a surprising amount of attention from the international Christian community."
France is one of the most strategic countries in the world to spread the Gospel. Geographically, politically, and socially the center of Europe, France has one of the lowest percentage of Evangelical Christians in all of Europe (.8%) and is over 30% atheist. Only 18% of the country's Catholic population believe in a personal God. Every day that goes by sees the continued deterioration of secular humanist philosophies and cheap consumerism that only leaves the French bitter and unfulfilled.
This year's prayer campaign is encouraging France's Christian population to reclaim the authority they have in Christ to live out and make known the Kingdom of God within their communities. The theme for 2008 is "Because He Reigns, Let Us Take a Stand."
This year marks the seventh year of the prayer campaign's existence which began in France through the efforts of the French organization Objectif France.
Objectif France mobilizes Christians to pray for France during these 40 days through a comprehensive prayer guide. The guide, drafted each year after collaborating and praying with a committee of key people in France, is now available in the United States through Pray for France.
Pray for France is a coalition of four non-profit organizations in three countries - Objectif France (FR), United Prayer for France (SA), Sentinelle de Prière (FR) and the Christian Community Foundation of France (US) - that are dedicated to mobilizing prayer for France.
Noise Ordinance Charge Dropped - Trial Scheduled for March 10, 2008 on 'Disorderly Conduct' Charge In Arrest for Public Preaching in Salem, Mass.
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion06835.shtml
The Foundation for Moral Law, a religious- liberties legal organization led by Judge Roy Moore, announced today that the Essex County District Attorney's office has agreed to drop the noise ordinance violation charge against Michael Marcavage of Repent America for preaching to Halloween revelers in Salem, Massachusetts last Halloween night. However, a trial has been scheduled for March 10, 2008, on the alleged "disorderly conduct" charge arising from Mr. Marcavage's Halloween preaching.
Even though Salem's laws allow the use of speech amplification until 10:00 p.m., Salem police officers on October 31, 2007, confiscated Mr. Marcavage's megaphone at 8:30 p.m., threw him to the ground, and arrested him on charges of allegedly violating the noise ordinance and "disorderly conduct"-all for calmly preaching the gospel on a public sidewalk. See the video of Mr. Marcavage's arrest here.
If the prosecution in this case does not agree to drop all charges against Mr. Marcavage, the Foundation will defend Mr. Marcavage's right to preach the gospel on the public streets of Salem at the March 10 trial. Despite the fact that the city of Salem may not like Mr. Marcavage's message of repentance and salvation in Jesus Christ, there is nothing illegal or "disorderly" about preaching the gospel on the public streets and squares of America.
The Foundation for Moral Law, a national non-profit legal organization, is located in Montgomery, Alabama, and is dedicated to restoring the knowledge of God in law and government through litigation relating to moral issues and religious liberty, as well as education consisting of forums for pastors, judges, and the general public.
For more information about the Foundation for Moral Law, please visit www.morallaw.org.
California Abortion Mill Raids, Arrests Revealed
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion06834.shtml
LOS ANGELES -- It has been learned that five abortion mills were raided on August 1, 2007, by a special unit of the LA Police Department called the Health Authority Law Enforcement Task Force (HALT), which is responsible for investigating crimes that impact public health. At that time two arrests were made on two women without medical backgrounds for practicing medicine without a license. Facts released by the LAPD are as follows:
Bertha Bugarin, 47, is charged in case number BA328497 with five felony counts of practicing medicine without certification and two misdemeanor counts of dispensing medication without a license, Her sister, Raquel Bugarin, 49, of Los Angeles, is charged in the same complaint with five felony counts of aiding or abetting the practice of medicine without certification.
Bertha Bugarin was released on $500,000 bail while Raquel posted bail of $100,000. Both women were ordered to stay away from four LA county abortion mills in the Clinica Medica Para La Mujer De Hoy abortion chain, which is owned by Bertha Bugarin.
However, two months later Bertha Bugarin was photographed at the abortion chain's Chula Vista office in San Diego County wearing a stethoscope around her neck. Since then Bugarin's stay away order has been expanded to include the Chula Vista office and police have asked pro-lifers to notify them immediately if they observe her there again.
The abortion chain was temporarily closed then reopened under the name Clinica Medica Feminina Para La Communidad. Troubled abortionist Nolan Jones now claims to be the new owner.
The Bugarin sisters are scheduled to make a court appearance on March 3, 2008.
"Bugarin has had a heck of a time keeping abortionists over the years. It looks like when she couldn't get one of her quack abortionists in the office, she did the job herself," said Newman. "Bertha is a predator who has a mercenary attitude about abortions. Laws mean nothing to her, as is the case with so many abortionists. She prefers to target Hispanic communities with her mills, presumably since women there may not be in the country legally and will be less likely to report problems. The sooner Bertha and all of her cohorts are convicted and behind bars, the better."
Operation Rescue is one of the leading pro-life Christian activist organizations in the nation. Operation Rescue recently made headlines when it bought and closed an abortion clinic in Wichita, Kansas and has become the voice of the pro-life activist movement in America. Its activities are on the cutting edge of the abortion issue, taking direct action to restore legal personhood to the pre-born and stop abortion in obedience to biblical mandates.
ESPN Executives Will Not Deny Jacobson said 'F--k Jesus' or a Similar Expression
http://news.christiansunite.com/Religion_News/religion06833.shtml
WASHINGTON -- After a lengthy meeting with the Christian Defense Coalition, ESPN executives will not deny that Dana Jacobson said "F--k Jesus" or a similar expression at an ESPN event.
The Coalition continues to call for ESPN to release the video tape from the event or a verbatim transcript of exactly what Jacobson said.
ESPN also confirmed that do not believe that any insensitive or discriminatory religious speech took place and that Ms. Jacobson was suspended for "her behavior" and not for anything that she said.
So, it appears that using the term "F--k Jesus" or a similar expression in the workplace by an ESPN employee does not merit suspension or discipline.
The Christian Defense Coalition met for over an hour with Mike Soltys, Vice- President of Communications for ESPN, and Steve Anderson Executive Vice- President for ESPN, on Friday January 25.
Although the group commends ESPN for the extended dialogue and the professional conduct of their representatives, it still believes that ESPN does not "get it" when it comes to workplace religious discrimination and hateful speech regarding faith.
The Christian Defense Coalition still maintains that if Ms. Jacobson used the term "F--K Jesus" or a similar expression, ESPN must release her.
National Faith and Values leaders are planning another meeting with ESPN executives later this week to see what the next step should be regarding this controversy.
Rev. Patrick J. Mahoney, Director of the Christian Defense Coalition, comments, "After meeting with ESPN officials for over an hour last week, it is clear to me that they are still in the 'dark ages' when it comes to workplace religious discrimination, bigotry and hate speech. There are several reasons why I feel this way. First, ESPN could end this controversy in a minute if they would just release the video tape of what Jacobson said or an exact transcript. Their refusal to do so demonstrates a lack of openness, good faith and candor which is necessary for true dialogue and healing to take place. It is painfully clear that they are more interested in protecting the corporate image of ESPN and avoiding actions taken against them, than they are in having a meaningful exchange on religious discrimination in the workplace.
"Of course the question must be asked; what is ESPN hiding?
"What makes the refusal to release the video tape even more troubling is how ESPN is using it in an attempt to manipulate and influence the truth. On one hand, they are implying that Dana Jacobson did not say what was reported that she said (F--k Jesus). But they refuse to say what Ms. Jacobson did say even they know what her exact words were. They cannot continue to imply that she did not say something like 'F--k Jesus' and suggest the faith community is overreacting and getting upset over nothing without being totally truthful with the public.
"ESPN is also implying that the faith community should not be upset because Ms. Jacobson was suspended for a week showing that the network is treating this episode seriously. However, over and over again in our discussion with them, ESPN made it clear that Ms. Jacobson was not fired for her speech or comments she made. She was disciplined only for her behavior. In other words, ESPN does not believe any offensive or discriminatory religious language took place.
"No wonder they will not release the tape.
"So, at ESPN an employee using the term 'F--k Jesus' or a similar expression in the workplace does not merit discipline or suspension. As we have said all along, if Ms. Jacobson had said 'F--k Mohammed,' or used the 'N' word or the term 'faggot' in the workplace, she would have been fired immediately.
"ESPN would not commit to our suggestion of co- sponsoring an open town hall meeting on religious tolerance in the workplace. To the best of our knowledge, in their 30 year history, ESPN has never sponsored a seminar or dialogue on religious diversity or tolerance. To ESPN; we invite you to come out of the dark ages and into a culture of openness and pluralism concerning faith.
"The ball is now in ESPN's court concerning what the next step will be for the faith community. We hope they choose justice, candor and tolerance."
Hands off Bibles, church body tells Malaysia
http://www.christiantoday.com/article/hands.off.bibles.church.body.tells.malaysia/16670.htm
Malaysia's government should stop harassing Christians by seizing their Bibles especially at entry points, the country's biggest church group said on Tuesday amid a new furore over the imports of the holy book.
The Christian Federation of Malaysia's statement came a day after a Malaysian Christian complained that airport custom officers seized 32 English Bibles on her arrival from Manila.
Federation chairman Bishop Paul Tan Chee Ing said the incident, which happened on January 28, was not an isolated case.
"We have received many complaints from Christians being told to hand over religious books to custom officers at various checkpoints in the country," he said in a statement. "Now they even want our Bibles.
"We will not comply with any directives from the government or its agencies that infringe on our right to use our sacred book and other Christian literature," said Tan, who represents the country's three main church groups.
The Bible seizure is the latest in a series of disputes that are stoking fears of an erosion of non-Muslims' rights ahead of the coming general elections, widely expected within weeks.
Politically dominant Malay Muslims form about 60 per cent of the population of about 26 million, while the ethnic Chinese and Indian minorities include Hindus, Buddhists, Christians and Sikhs.
Malaysian Gov't Wrongly Seized Bibles
http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/316547.aspx
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia - A Malaysian government official said Tuesday that customs officers were wrong to seize 32 Bibles from a Christian traveler, after church groups alleged that it was another sign of religious intolerance in this Muslim-majority country.
Juliana Nicholas, a Malaysian national from whom the Bibles were taken on Jan. 28, has been told she can go and collect the Bibles, said a senior official from the Internal Security Ministry's publications control unit. He declined to be named, citing protocol.
Nicholas was stopped by customs officials at an airport in Kuala Lumpur when she returned from the Philippines. The Bibles were subsequently passed to the Internal Security Ministry.
The ministry official indicated the confiscation was arbitrary and wrong.
The customs officers "shouldn't have detained them. You shouldn't do anything with these religious books," the official told The Associated Press. "They didn't countercheck with us."
By acknowledging its mistake, the government is apparently hoping to placate Christian groups and other minorities who have become increasingly worried that their constitutionally guaranteed right to worship is being gradually eroded in Malaysia.
They cite a string of cases including demolition of Hindu temples, a recent ban on the word Allah from Malay-language Christian literature, and court judgments favoring Muslims in disputes with non-Muslims.
About 60 percent of Malaysia's 27 million people are Muslim Malays. The remaining 40 percent are mainly Christians, Buddhists and Hindus from the minority Chinese, Indian and other communities.
Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi has been criticized for not doing enough to stem the rise of Islamic tendencies in the country, which many blame on overzealous Muslims in positions of authority.
Nicholas, a 44-year-old missionary, confirmed that she had been told she could pick up the Bibles. She said she is willing to forget about the matter.
"I just don't want it to happen again. It's like you've done a criminal offense when they take you and everyone is looking at you," she told the AP.
The Customs Department said Monday that the Bibles were seized to check if they were being imported for commercial purposes.
But Nicholas said the customs officers disregarded a letter by her parish priest stating the Bibles were not for sale but church use.
She said she had brought Bibles from Philippines before because they were cheaper there, and had never been stopped.
"Now they are more fanatic," she said.
‘I will remember the Land’
http://www.stangoodenough.com/?p=101
I will remember My covenant with Jacob, and My covenant with Isaac and My covenant with Abraham I will remember; I will remember the land. (Leviticus 26:42 – Emphasis added.)
But Zion said, “The LORD has forsaken me, and my Lord has forgotten me.” “Can a woman forget her nursing child, and not have compassion on the son of her womb? Surely they may forget, yet I will not forget you. See, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands; your walls are continually before Me… (Isaiah 49:14-16)
All mankind is out to rob the Jewish people of half of what they have of their ancestral homeland, and give it to the Arabs who already have 22 states of their own.
As 2008 began, George W. Bush came to Jerusalem to add his personal weight to the momentum he generated just over a month earlier at the ‘International Conference for the Creation of Palestine’ in Annapolis.
Speaking in Jerusalem, he repeated his full, personal commitment to helping bring this Arab state into being before another 12 months have passed.
The entire international community supports this land theft and is willing to gamble with Israel’s existence by exacting this price from the universally-despised, yet peace seeking, Jewish leadership, instead of demanding payment for peace from the aggressive and antisemitic Arab regimes.
In “Christianity” – Protestant and Catholic – almost every denomination agrees that the land-for-peace process is the right way to go, and exhorts its members to support it and pray to this end.
In Judaism, the majority of Jews are resigned to the “inevitability” of this division of the land of their fathers and the surrender to Islam of the cradle of their nationhood; exhausted, they are ready to sever themselves forever from Shechem, Bethel, Shiloh, Bethlehem, Hebron and half of Jerusalem including its most important site – the Temple Mount.
Even pro-Israel churches and Christian Zionist organizations – virtually all of them - are unwilling to stand effectively against this land-grab for fear of upsetting the government in Jerusalem and/or alienating the millions of Jews who now go along with it.
Is it really so surprising? Common sense and logic certainly leave little doubt that Israel’s case is a lost cause; that those who have remained willing to stand with the Jewish state might as well pack up and go home.
But take a look at the first verse at the top of this article: Leviticus 26:42. It’s amazing!
Three times in a single sentence God spells it out, saying: “I will remember.”
And three times He uses the word “covenant,” emphasizing that He made it with Abraham and with Isaac and with Jacob.
Which covenant will He remember? He will remember the covenant of the Land, and who He gave it to.
No room is left for questioning which line of Abraham’s descendants this covenant was made with. In fact, the way it is written, the Scripture is not merely saying that the covenant was inherited by Isaac and Jacob; it says that God made this covenant – this specific covenant of the Land – individually with each of these three men.
Why is this important? Because there are those who argue that due to the Arabs also being descended from Abraham, they too are entitled to this land. God has surely emphasized this very point for a reason!
But the real point of this article is to highlight God’s promise to never, never, never forget the centrality of the Land of Israel to His covenant with the people of Israel.
Without the Land there is no covenant. The Land has always been at the heart of the matter: It is the stage upon which God’s plan of redemption has been, continues to be, and will ultimately be, played out:
From the institution of the covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; through the forging into a nation of the people of Israel; through the founding in David of the dynasty of the Messiah; through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus; through the millennia-long yearning of the Jews to return home; through their physical restoration over the last 160 years; through the foretold coming alongside Israel of true gentile believers – 10 from each nation taking hold of every Jew; through the alliance of all the nations against the Jews; through the deliverance of Israel and her restoration as a nation to her God; to the establishment of Messiah’s kingdom on earth, in the Holy Land, in Jerusalem: From beginning to end, the little Land of Israel is front and center in the purposes of God.
Sadly – in fact, it’s more than just sad – many Christians who say they want to move with God’s purposes for Israel and to comfort His people seem to have forgotten about the significance of the geographical territory or, at least, to have downgraded the Land’s importance in relation to the commitment they have made to stand with the Jews.
Even one, high-profile believing author who has correctly identified Israel as “the epicenter” of all the things that are coming upon the earth appears confused about how Christians should respond to the international effort to divide up this land, and has advised his audience to pray for progress towards success in the “peace process.”
As Bush flew to Israel on January 8, this brother urged us to “pray faithfully that President Bush’s peace mission to the region is fruitful and effective … that he is able to strengthen the resolve of the Reformers … to become even more unified in fighting the Radicals.”
“Let’s pray that moderate forces within the Palestinian society feel strengthened to find a peaceful coexistence with the Israelis and have the courage to oppose the Hamas extremists…,” he continued.
Completely lacking was the perception that a “fruitful” peace mission for Bush meant increased danger for Israel. And swallowed hook, line and sinker was the State Department’s prescription for peace: strengthening the moderates to withstand the extremists.
The Devil is not confused. For him, the battle lines are clearly drawn and he knows precisely where to direct his forces at this stage in the war. For Satan, the number one issue remains the battle for the land. While he is without doubt continuing his feverish work to spiritually corrupt and consume the people of Israel, the main focus by far of his effort and activity is to secure ownership of the Land away from the Jews.
Listen to the extra-ordinarily loud volume at which the world is sounding its demand for the establishment of a Palestinian state on Israel’s ancient homeland.
Do the math on the enormous amount of political capital being expended by the world to ensure the realization of this goal.
Witness the last-ditch efforts – in 2000 of President Bill Clinton, and today of President George W. Bush – to resolve the Israeli-Arab dispute before they leave office.
For those with eyes to see, Satan’s driven purpose in these days is to reverse or roll back the physical restoration of Israel that has been unfolding over the last 120 years. By doing so he wants to prevent Israel’s spiritual restoration which has been promised by God, but which is predicated upon the Jews first being back inside, and sovereign in, their ancient land.
While enabling the Jews to return to the Land of Israel and there establish their national homeland was historically the first target and a central component of biblical Christian Zionism (or, as it was first known, Restorationism,) and which goal until just a few years ago directed the actions and strategies of many Bible-believing Christians who had been led to embrace Israel, this is in too many instances no longer the case.
Some of the most well-known Christian Zionist organizations and individuals have, in fact, relegated the question of the restoration of the Land to second or even third place – to the point where the only thing they are prepared to do about this question is periodically express their belief that the land belongs to the Jews and will “one day” all be theirs.
In the late 1990s, shortly before the eruption of the “Second Intifada,” the Christian Zionist position that had been held for so long began to unravel.
Up until then, the movement’s mainstream consensus had always been that:
• After thousands of years in exile, the remnant of the Jewish people – those who survived the endless efforts to annihilate them as a race – would return to their land.
• They would come from the four corners of the earth, a once great people sifted like wheat among the nations, decimated by centuries of wandering and persecution, but resolved to bring their ancient country back to life and to once again become a nation with a homeland of their own.
• The majority of these returning Jews would be spiritually dead – claiming belief in no God, an increasing number growing remote from the faith their forefathers had miraculously clung to through the ages, they would strive to rebuild their homeland in their own strength.
• After their return to their land, AND THE RETURN OF THEIR LAND TO THEM, the Jews as a nation would have their hearts restored in relationship with the God of Israel.
• And then the Messiah would come.
Appealing to “solid theology,” or “new factors” which have come into play, a number of Christian Zionist leaders steered their organizations off course, and today their actions suggest that the restoration of the Land of Israel to the Jewish people and its unification under Jewish sovereignty no longer demands our “untiring international effort.”
Some principle figures have actually gone so far as to teach the opposite, aiming to pry the question of solidarity with the Land away from the question of support for the People.
One leader maintains that because so many developments have occurred during the time between Israel’s 1948 rebirth and the present, Christian Zionists need to reassess their stand and no longer “adhere without question to perceptions and programmes which were valid in the past.”
This man, a British Christian, believes that because “Israel has come to a point where there seems no human or political solution to the situation facing her, …there is a growing conviction that God is now not so much concerned to act politically as to act redemptively.”
Another influential leader insists that by focusing attention and action on the Land of Israel, Christians have ignored or overlooked Israel’s spiritual condition. Christians who involve themselves with the question of where Israel’s borders should be are, according to this brother, “political Christian Zionists” instead of “biblical Christian Zionists.”
These prominent men hold that because the battle over the Land of Israel – the battle we read about daily in our newspapers – is being used by God to turn the nation back to Himself, we are getting in God’s way when we fight against the efforts to wrest this land from the Jews; to whit, we are “being unhelpful to the purposes of God.”
According to another veteran in the Christian Zionist movement, the “problem” with Christians believing that the Jews should have control over all their God-given land is that “Israel is largely a secular, unbelieving state.”
It has also been pointed out that, while God’s giving of the Land to the Jews as an eternal inheritance was unconditional, their right to domicile (to live in the land) was conditioned upon their right-standing with the Lord.
The inference is that Israel’s enemies would not be able to take parts of the Land from the Jews if Israel was a nation of saintly, godly people.
But Israel’s spiritual state is no different today than it has been for hundreds of years.
The majority of Jews who first came to settle the land in the late 1800s and early 1900s were socialists. Theodore Herzl was agnostic. David Ben Gurion was an avowed atheist, as were a great many of those men around him when he stood to proclaim Israel an independent state 60 years ago this year. Chaim Weizmann, Golda Meir, Moshe Dayan, Abba Eban, Yitzhak Rabin, Ariel Sharon: almost every one of Israel’s great men and women have been secular Jews.
God was nowhere to be “found” among these people, yet He chose to use specifically this “ungodly” crowd to pave the way for, and make possible, Israel’s rebirth.
Did these Jews’ lack of faith prevent William Hechler, Orde Wingate and other Restorationists/Christian Zionists from whole-heartedly supporting the Zionist movement and applauding the developments that culminated in the establishment of the State of Israel?
Thank God, no!
And in the century before the First World War, did the fact that enormous numbers of the Jews in exile had embraced secular humanism and/or socialism, cause Christians like William Wilberforce, the Earl of Shaftesbury, Lord Palmerston and Arthur Balfour to wonder whether their efforts to facilitate the return of the dispersed Jews to Eretz Yisrael were perhaps “not helpful to the purposes of God?”
Of course not!
What’s more, from a believer’s perspective, those Israelis at the forefront of the effort to get their countrymen to embrace land-for peace represent the most anti-religious elements of Israeli society. The Norwegian and other European politicians such Israelis concocted the Oslo Agreement with were also secular humanists.
By vivid contrast, the Israelis who strive to live according to Torah, who spurn the secular “Tel Aviv” lifestyle, remaining faithful in their marriages and in their service to their families and communities; those who live in the “occupied territories” – enduring the violence of the Arabs and the loathing of the world – precisely because they WANT to obey God’s command to “settle the land:” It is these most God-fearing of Jews – the very ones who seek to abide by God’s conditions for their right of domicile – who are the main immediate victims of the anti-God world’s “peace” efforts.
How can Christian Zionists then “have nothing to say” about the peace process and disengagement which so blatantly operate against the declared purposes of the Almighty and those Jews who want to be aligned with Him?
The biblically foretold “restoration of Israel” has a sequence: The restoration of the Land to the People followed by the restoration of the People to the Land, followed by the return of the light of God’s grace and favor to His people in their Land, followed by the return of the People in the Land to their God.
Israel’s restoration was always destined to be first physical, and then spiritual. Bone first has to come to bone so that the skeletons are fully rebuilt. These in turn have to be covered with sinews, tendons, flesh and skin.
Only then, after their physical reconstitution is complete, is the eternal-life giving Spirit to enter the reconstructed bodies and cause them to stand to their feet as a living, “exceedingly great army.” This is what God told Ezekiel.
Again: First the Land had to be readied for the People. Then the people had to be brought to the Land. In the still ongoing aliyah we see this physical reunification of People and Land. This, as the prophets foretell, will be followed by the People being reunited with their God.
As we move on into this year, which began with President Bush’s visit to Jerusalem where he reiterated his determination to establish Palestine on the Land of Israel before he leaves the White House, surely only those who do not want to see the obvious can still doubt that the question of the Land is as crucial and as central as it has always been.
The battle over the Land is raging more fiercely than ever, and yet for all our pledges and commitments, past statements and vows, only a few Christian Zionists are fighting on this front.
Afraid to oppose the wishes of Israel’s worn down and “tired” (by their own admission) politicians, some Israel-based Christian Zionists say they are “only guests in the land” while those in other lands say it is wrong to take issue with the decisions of a government elected by the Israeli people.
As if standing politely by while the Jews are (again!) threatened with destruction is any way to comfort, support, and stand in solidarity with them!
The enemy is directing a full-scale assault against the Jews’ presence in the heart of their God-given land. Surely we Christian Zionists should be on our faces before God, reminding Him of His promises and giving Him no rest until He routs the Evil One and establishes Jerusalem as His and as Israel’s – a praise in the earth? Surely we should be out in strength in the streets of Washington DC, Ottawa, London, Berlin, Canberra, Wellington, Cape Town and Jerusalem, decrying the bald-faced, bullying effort to steal the Jews’ land and lobbying our leaders with everything we have to oppose the creation of a Palestinian state at Israel’s expense?
Israelis, responding to those who say “but Israel’s leaders themselves support a two-state solution” have told this writer that the reason their prime ministers have finally succumbed is because they have felt unable to stand alone against the world.
Had the millions of Christians who claim to love Israel effectively demanded that their governments stop forcing Jerusalem down this road and instead start pressuring the Arab side to “take risks for peace,” Israel would never have reached this point.
More specifically others have said that, if just 10,000 Christians had come to Israel and made their way to the Gaza Strip in August 2005, there to take up positions between the Israeli security forces and the Jews they were coming to evict, the whole “Disengagement” might never have taken place.
But where were we? We were nowhere to be seen. Afraid or unwilling to put our words into actions, we Christian Zionists failed Israel in Gaza.
Now, in 2008, as the Bush administration, the Quartet, indeed the entire world musters to drive the Jews out of Samaria and Judea, steal that land from them, and give it to a people who have never been a nation there (or anywhere else), so that they can use it as a springboard to destroy what will be left of the Jewish state, are we set to fail them yet again?
God will not fail them. He has not forgotten the covenant He made with Abraham, the word which He commanded for a thousand generations, the oath He made to Isaac and confirmed to Jacob, saying: “To you I will give the land of Canaan as the allotment of your inheritance.” (1 Chronicles 16: 15-18)
“I will bring back the captives of My people Israel;
They shall build the waste cities and inhabit them;
They shall plant vineyards and drink wine from them;
They shall also make gardens and eat fruit from them.
I will plant them in their land,
And no longer shall they be pulled up
From the land I have given them,”
Says the LORD your God. (Amos 9:14-15)
God will not fail them, and we, Christian Zionists, should visibly and in numbers be seen to be standing with God as He fights for them.
The hour is very, very late. Instead of dilly-dallying to try and please all men – even all Israelis – may we steel ourselves, preparing effectively to come to Israel’s defense, to strengthen the Jewish hands that are hanging with exhaustion, in surrender.
And as we proclaim God’s powerful and unchanging Word, may we position ourselves firmly against the forces of this evil world, and unashamedly on the side of this precious nation which the enemy so seeks destroy.
May God help us.
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