Dear Friend,
A pervasive narrative about malicious Jewish scoundrels encroaching upon sacred Arabic soil has been making headway for years. It claims that with help from the United Nations, Israel is stealthily making off with an important swatch of the Arab heartland. The notion that the Jews stole “Palestine” has been repeated so often, by so many, and in so many contexts that it is becoming the accepted version in modern history.
People don’t seem to mind that there never was any Palestinian charter, coinage, flag, or even the vestige of a Palestinian, Arab state. There was nothing! Providentially, Jews returned to the ancestral God-given homeland and purchased swatches of land. These parcels were then settled and cultivated successfully. People in the surrounding areas began crying “foul” when Jews began prospering materially.
The history of modern Israel comes replete with many stories of frenzied mobs attacking Jewish settlements. When Israel legitimately became a modern nation, nation-states round about swiftly marshaled forces and invested energies in the new state’s demise. It was to no avail: the people of Israel live!
After a succession of military failures, Israel’s neighbors lost their verve and retreated to the backwaters. However, they continued to cultivate their degenerative angst and the Arab states refused to absorb their displaced Arab cousins who were caught in the crossfire of the wars they’d started. Grudges festered in refugee camps where a disconcerted generation of miserable Arab youth grew up with a complete and utter disdain for the Jews.
They heard and accepted the narrative that “the Jews did it!” Young men wanting to fight for their families’ honor and for the right to be perceived as heroic by the young girls needed a means to express themselves. They found it. Into this social and political quagmire came a religious ingredient. The spiritual component was handily added and the rest is history—modern history.
Arab youth found an outlet for their anger through their religion. They found not only a justification for venting their pent-up fury, but also a way to sanctify it: in their minds’ eyes they became reinvigorated warriors, saints on a spiritual quest to recover lands for Allah! Being driven by religious zest energizes them in ways that are hard for Americans to imagine and difficult for Israelis to combat.
Tiring of it all, Israel has tried the route of appeasement. To date, this hasn’t worked. So what’s the answer? More appeasement—evidenced by Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s interest in giving away more land.
Olmert’s supporters laud his land giveaway as an overdue gesture of goodwill and evidence that the Israeli “occupiers” are willing to make way for more of their disconcerted “occupants”—in this case, Arabs displaced by what they allege is Israeli aggression. Bible readers, by contrast, aren’t nearly as optimistic. We construe Olmert’s willingness to carve up Israel and parcel away parts of Jerusalem, the current and ancestral capital, as a portent of bad things to come.
If the price of peace is giving away pieces, “let’s try it,” say some. At face value, it’s a reasonable strategy, not to mention a decent goodwill gesture. But while considering it, we should view it in context. For example,let’s ask: What benefits have accrued to Israel since it vacated previous settlements and gave away the Gaza Strip? America celebrates the spirit of independence with a song about rockets red glare and bombs bursting in air; the Arabs in Gaza thank Israel for giving them independence by using their newly-deeded real estate to launch thousands of Kassam rockets into Sderot, Israel, against unarmed civilians. No wonder Israel is edgy about peace deals with these folk. Wouldn’t you be?
Recently, the five million-member Evangelical Lutheran Church in America considered boycotting products manufactured in Israeli settlements and stepping up investments in the Palestinian Authority. Happily, the ELCA opted not to divest from companies doing business with Israel, joining the ranks, along with elements of the United Methodist Church and the Presbyterian Church in America, of those who have been contemplating the abandonment proposal.
The mainline-Christian abandonment of the Jews is less disturbing than the coolness with which Zionism is received in some of the old tried-and-true Christian support bases. Zola took issue with Moody Bible Institute and Dallas Theological Seminary because, by embracing or even tolerating a doctrine called “Progressive Dispensationalism,” they give tacit credibility to Christians stepping away from supporting Israel. They say, in effect: “Ah yes, God has a future plan for Israel, to which He will one-day return. This current nation-state, however, might not be what God has in mind.” Therefore, Christians aren’t perceived as being duty-bound to support the current nation-state. By means of this, the mainline churches’ abandonment infects the more conservative evangelical sectors of the Church.
Charismatic and Pentecostal support for Israel has been based less on theology and more on phenomenology (the study and analysis of divine “signs”). With the movements’ premium on “signs and wonders,” the miracle of Israel’s emergence, alongside that of the Charismatics’ renewal, was perceived a “sign” from God, as a “proof” of His existence, and as a “demonstration” of His “miracle power,” with the Jewish miracle in the desert likened to a cancer miracle or the raising of a paralytic. That vanquished Jews could emerge from the Holocaust and make such a strong go of it in Israel gives credence to God’s miracle power and His saving power. Having gotten a considerable amount of preaching and teaching mileage out of Israel already, and considering the incessant punishment that Israel gets in the press, many pastors and church leaders apparently don’t see an advantage in supporting Jews as they did in days past. The net result, unfortunately, appears to be a diminished enthusiasm and a slow withdrawal of support.
Let’s pray against this! Let’s stand together!
Personally, I have been to Israel and have seen firsthand what the devastation looks like. I just finished filming the television series A Bad Moon Rising that considers the Islamic threat against the Jews and the West, particularly Israel.
A good way to support Israel and your own spiritual health is a visit to the Land where Jesus walked and taught. Our Spring Tour offers 11-, 12-, and 20-day itineraries. The portion during which we follow in the Footsteps of Paul (March 14–25) tours Greece and includes a 3-day Greek Isles Cruise. Our Deluxe Tour of Israel is March 23–April 2. Our Grand Tour (March 14–April 2) includes both tours. Comparison shoppers should note our superior hotels and abundant excursions. Please contact Tony in our office at (214) 696-9760 during business hours (CT) or call (800) 966-3377 (1-800-WONDERS) anytime.
I presently travel across America speaking in churches, telling a Bible story that offers a counterbalance to the modern, secular news. I’m serving as a representative for the numerous Bible-believing, Jewish-loving Christians—your representative, in fact. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to do this.
Yours with thanks,
Jeff
P.S. Please pray that I can speak forcefully and clearly, and that I can reflect the light of Jesus into a darkened world. If you’re able and willing, please add this ministry to your care list as well as your prayer list, and send an offering to help with our growing broadcast expenses, as we now broadcast God’s will and ways the world over.
Dear Jeff,
Bible readers see Olmert’s willingness to carve up Israel and give away parts of Jerusalem as a portent of apocalyptic fulfillment of prophecy.
“Here’s my gift for October. Please continue encouraging Believers, including church leaders to pray for the peace, not division, of Jerusalem.”
Zola’s Ultimate Hebrew Primer teaches both print and script, so you will be ready to read, speak, and write Hebrew in Israel and in Heaven. Assumes no prior knowledge and progresses gradually, so even the fainthearted will find immediate value.
To learn the truth about Jerusalem and Middle East tensions, read the essays by the late David Bar-Illan, former editor of The Jerusalem Post and advisor to former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Includes post-9/11 commentary from the author plus Zola’s perspective on Israel since terrorism visited America.
