Israelis should embrace Christian supporters instead of shunning them
Elyakim Haetzni
This year 7,000 Zionist Christians from all over the world will once again march in Jerusalem to fulfill that which is written in the Book of Zechariah, whereby all nations will make pilgrimage to Jerusalem in the messianic era to celebrate Sukkot.
Their parade is the highlight of an ongoing effort to stand by our side for better or for worse, unconditionally and without receiving anything in return. On the contrary, they are grateful that we accept their outstretched hands. In the US, their ranks comprise tens of millions who are well organized and who have substantial political clout.
Their belief in the Bible is the key to this rare phenomenon of Christian love towards Israel, which is not anything new. Christian Zionism emerged in England 32 years prior to the “harbinger of Zionism” Moses Hess (author of Rome and Jerusalem.) The Earl of Shaftsbury (1853) saw “a land without a people,” which God allocated to the “people without a land.”
His contemporary, British Prime Minister Palmerston pressed the Turkish Sultan to encourage European Jewry to return to the Land of Israel. Author George Eliot called for the revival of the organic center of Jewish existence in the Land of Israel (in her novel Daniel Deronda) 20 years prior to the publication of the “Jewish Homeland.”
Herzl’s loyal follower, Reverend William Henry Hechler, partook in the Zionist congresses. Even Lord Balfour and his Prime Minister Lloyd George had religious motives. The latter said: I was taught a lot more about Jewish history than the history of my own people. Wingate (the “friend”) didn’t go anywhere without the Bible.
Yet despite this, the evangelist Christians are rejected by liberal Jews in the United States and by leftists in Israel who label them “rightists” and proponents of the notion of Greater Israel. Their Zionism is rejected with the hollow argument that it is premised on their faith that Jesus will only return after the Jewish people return to the Land of Israel.
This year, the Zionist Christians have also encountered opposition from the Chief Rabbinate, which banned Jews from participating in the convention and in their parade. The reasons: They lend the Jewish holiday of Sukkot a Christian character, and among the participants there are those suspected of engaging in missionary work.
Non-Jews wearing Star of David
Let’s think about this for a moment before we turn a supporter into an enemy, something we tend to excel at: The International Christian Embassy in Jerusalem that organizes the Sukkot events was founded in response to the international diplomatic boycott of Jerusalem and as a gesture of solidarity, not because of missionary work. Even the Rabbinate doesn’t maintain that the evangelist support is missionary in essence. And if there are those among them who exploit it, does that mean an entire movement should be rejected?
Indeed, they instill their own content into the Sukkot holiday. What is it that we are after? Shouldn’t Christians be Christians? Jews are not invited to their ceremonies, but only to the parade and the events at the Jerusalem International Convention Center where they are careful not to include any Christian ritual. What more could we ask for?
The contact with Christian Zionists is creating a reverse phenomenon: Churches in the American Midwest are waving the Israeli flag, non-Jews are wearing the Star of David, they are opening up to Jewish music and other Jewish symbols. The Bible is what creates the encounter between us, and according to Reverend John C. Hagee, they support Israel because it is a fundamental value of Christianity, see the Book of Genesis: “And I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.”
After 60 years of independence in our land, it’s time for a little more self confidence and fewer ghetto-like complexes. In an alienated world, with antisemitism rearing its head, how can we reject those who honestly seek our company, the sons of a movement that heralded our revival?
Welcome to our Sukkot, dear friends, may there be many more like you.
To 10
Hi “South”
You wrote
I agree with you that King Cyrus is very related to our subject.
The armies of Medes under Darius and the armies of Persia under Cyrus march into Babylon and conquer it. The Babylonian Empire ceases to exist and it is now absorbed by the new Persian Empire.
(NOTE: Just as Assyria and then Babylon — they were all great Mesopotamian empires, all interacting with the Jewish people — disappeared, so will later Persia disappear, too, and the Jews still remain, and for ever.)
In 370 BCE Cyrus issues a decree allowing all the indigenous peoples that had been exiled by the now-defunct Babylonian empire to go back to their homeland, including the Jews.
You would think that the Jews would jump up, pack up and go. But that’s not what happens. Of what is probably a million Jews living in the empire, only 42,000 go back – only about 5% of those that went into exile 70 years earlier go back and the remaining 95% stays put.
The same thing happened in 1948 when the state of Israel was declared. There were about 12 million Jews in the world at that time and only 600,000 or 5% settled the land. The rest 95% preferred to stay in exile.
Why?
The answer is the same for 370 BCE, as it is for 1948, as it is for today. The Diaspora is nice. It’s more comfortable to live in Brooklyn or Los Angeles or Toronto than in Israel. Why move if you have a nice big house in America and a nice standard of living and two cars, and you have nice day schools.
This attitude is repeated in Jewish history, and it is a problem. Because G”d might give the Jews a little breathing space in Diaspora from time to time, but in the long run, He’s not going to allow them to stay there.
One of the great patterns we’re going to see over and over again is the higher the Jews rise in the Diaspora, the lower they fall. The nicer the Diaspora seems to be at first, the worse the subsequent reaction against the Jews. We see it in Egypt. Jews are invited in, they do well and prosper, and look what happens – they end up slaves. We see this in Spain. We see this in Germany. And next: the US ! All the places that once loved and welcomed the Jews eventually turn on them. Therefore, Jews make a mistake if they ever think that the Diaspora is home. It never works for long. Israel is the only home for the Jews.
The 42,000 Jews that go back in 370 BCE immediately start rebuilding Jerusalem, and, of course, the first thing in Jerusalem that they want to rebuild is the Temple, because a Jew can’t live a complete Jewish life without a Temple.
The Samaritans, who never liked the Jews and who hate this new influx, immediately send a message to Persia demanding that the Jews be forbidden to continue building. They say that if the Jews are allowed to rebuild the Temple, they’re going to rebel.
And, as a result of their threats, this same Cyrus freezes the building permit. For 18 years no construction is allowed. And it is during this period that the Purim story, related in the Book of Esther, takes place.
Back in Persia, a new king has replaced Cyrus. His name is Achashverosh, and he is married to Vashti, the sole survivor of the blood-bath in the royal palace of Belshazzar during the Persian invasion.
Achashverosh throws a party reminiscent of the one that Belshazzar had thrown some years before. He, too, has been calculating and he has decided that the 70 years allotted in Jeremiah’s prophecy for the Jews to regain the land of Israel is up.
To this feast, Achashverosh invites the Jews and, unbelievably, they come – to “celebrate” their own end. This gives you an idea how far gone were the Jews who opted to stay in the comfort of the Persian Diaspora.
(CF.: the behaviour of assimilated American Jews towards Evangelical Christians who openly await the End of Time and with it the end of the historic role of the Jews… meaning: conversion of the “good” Jews, death of the “defiant” Jews, cf. VIDEO above !!!)
Though years before they had “sat by the rivers of Babylon and wept,” they had gradually adapted to the comforts of exile to the point that they gradually developed into a positive enjoyment of the pagan way of life and its pleasures. So deep was their desire to fit in that these Jews could actually toast their own public humiliation.
Achashverosh’s top minister is a man named Haman HaAgagi. If that rings a bell, it should. Agag was the king of the nation of Amalek whom King Saul neglected to kill as commanded. Haman is an Amalekite, and he harbors a pathological hatred of the Jewish people.
And so it comes to pass that Haman gets the king to agree to issue a secret decree to annihilate the Jews of Persia on the 13th day of the Hebrew month of Adar. And how he decides on the best date for genocide is very interesting.
Haman throws lots – called “purim.”
Why?
It is part of Amalekite ideology that everything is a random occurrence – everything happens by chance. There is no G”d running the show. It’s the ultimate denial of reality.
Expecting honors from the king, Haman finds himself forced to bestow these honors on his arch-enemy Mordechai. Invited along with the king to the queen’s feast, Haman is preening with pride, only to discover that the queen is Jewish. And that now he is accused of plotting to murder her along with her people. Begging for mercy, he throws himself onto the queen’s bed only to be caught by the king in this precarious position and accused of attempted rape.
Things couldn’t possibly look worse for Haman and then comes the clincher. Having erected a gallows for Mordechai, he finds them put to an unexpected use when he himself is sentenced to death. And the Jews, whom he had wanted to wipe off the face earth, rather than being annihilated are given the king’s permission to annihilate their enemies.
The most fascinating thing about the Book of Esther, which relates this incredible story, is that in the entire text the name of G”d is never mentioned. We learn from this that after the destruction of the Temple the presence of G”d was concealed in the world, but that we could still see G”d acting through history – delivering one hidden miracle after another to help the Jews survive, keeping his promise that Israel would remain an “eternal nation.”
Just as in the story of Purim when it’s over we look back and we see how everything fits into place. Nothing is by chance. Everything has a reason and G”d will make sure that even in the worst circumstances the Jews are always going to have a way out, so that they can accomplish their mission in this world.
The next part of the Jewish mission means rebuilding the Temple. Darius II succeeds Achashverosh as King of Persia. He is believed to be Esther’s son and he allows the Jews to finish the job they had started under Cyrus.
What seems to be the hand of men (enemies or “friends” of the Jews), is the Hand of G”d. King David already said: Do not rely on men but on G”d only, since men return to dust and so thus the trust in them. But the alliance with G”d is eternal.
Tar Dog
You are new to Israpundit and you are welcomed.
But I must disagree with you perspective on Evangelicals. Let us assume that they want to convert us as a general religious conviction and perhaps a duty. Many of us have made it clear that we consider missionizing as a act of disrespect. Most evangelicals understand this and refrain from doing so. They support Israel because they believe God blesses those that bless Israel. But they also support Israel for other reasons as well.
We must recognize that everyone and every country has interests which may not align with our own. We recognize that but still enter into relationships with those of divergent interests. We do so because it serves our interests. Accordingly we have a relationship with the US who wants to shrink us. We also have a relationship with evangelicals who ultimately want us to recognize Jesus as the Messiah.
I can live with that in both cases.
What’s your problem?
to 9
A missionary would never say what he intends. But Ann Coulter was naive and stupid enough to say what you think. By the way, watch the vedeo above… and give me your comment.
The x-tian scriptures refute what you pretend (cf. citations). All the more as assimilated Jews NEED x-tian recognitation in order to fill the lack of a proper Jewish identity. And remark also that you are only saying “NO” without any proof or logial argument.
Only assimilated Jews (ignoring both Judaism and your scriptures) are supposed to believe what ever you sell them since they are unable to verify.
But I cannot say that you are wasting time, since you and your friends succeed to influence and manipulate a growing number of innocent Jews who left authentic Judaism already some generations ago.
This is very sad. However, Lies soon catch up with one.
Tar Yag,
Speaking for myself as an evangelical,
No, Ann Coulter’s words most certainly do not express what most Christians believe, not that even what she meant by her words is all that clear anyway.
No, it’s absolutely *not* true Evangelicals want to convert a single person, Jew or Gentile, because the scriptures are clear it is not possible whatsoever for a human to convert a human.
Yes, it *is* true Evangelicals *do* want people to be converted, both Jew and Gentile, by God moving their heart to respond to the gospel message.
No, it is *not* true Evangelicals who are Christian Zionists have conversion as an ulterior motive, that just makes no sense, how support for a political position (right of Jews to a nation-state in Zion) is related to a spiritual desire is even related is beyond me. This is a myth with no basis either in scripture or in observation, only anti-Christian Zionists repeat this, but you will not hear such linkage from Evangelical Christian Zionists.
I support Zionism. I support evangelism. But the 2 do not mix.
Shalom Tar Yag,
Are you asking for help to end your confusion? or to offer a bible lesson ?
Much of what you wrote is not correct.
“Evangelical” does not only mean “missionary”. There are other definitions.
The entire Jewish community is not up in arms in re Ann Coulter. I don’t even listen to her.
Every Evangelical doesn’t say those things. All Evangelicals are NOT missionaries.
I know many Evangelicals who do not accept the OT/NT literally. I know many not believing in a hell.
Your bible lesson is dated.
Like many post emancipation Jews, some Evangelicals use their religion for life cycle events and a basic moral code. It then stops. Rest assured adultry is practiced by some.
Many Evangelicals are nominal or secular less the cultural aspects of their heritage or their newly acquired religious club.
Regardless, accepting your position as 100% correct, it is still not germane. Jews are governed by the doctrine – Pikuach nefesh – the protection of life. It is better to have Pat Robertson’s Bible Theme Park in Israel than the Arab barbarians’ battery of rocket launchers creating more Jewish deaths.
I urge you to refocus your emphasis and strive for more penetrating reflections in your analysis of the Evangelicals. The last paragraph of the Tenakh refers to King Cyrus of Persia, hardly Jewish. There’s a message on our relations with non-Jews.
Please consider that your argumentative colleagues just might be correct.
Kol tuv,
Here we go again. Yes, the Evangelicals DO want to convert all Jews to Christianity. Big surprise!
War does make strange bed-fellows, and the Evangelicals are not that strange. In a world without friends, I welcome the Eangelicals on my side. I say to them: “Thank you for your invaluable support. I welcome it and am moved to tears by your friendship. But , I also say no thanks to your invitation for me to join you in your church’s pews.
This whole “controversy” reminds me of a remark made by a Toronto rabbi regarding the lines that separate us and our discomfort with too much Judeo-Christian closeness. “I want the Gentile to be my brother, not my brother-in-law.”
Evangelical MEANS “missionary”
Help me out here, I’m a little confused. The entire Jewish world is up in arms about what Ann Coulter said during an interview with CNBC host Donny Deutsch. But why? Ann was caught saying out loud what every Evangelical Christian has been saying behind our back (and not behind our back) for two thousand years.
What gets me isn’t that Ms. Coulter thinks that all Jews need to be Christians – I could have told you that. What gets me is that the Jewish world has convinced itself that the Evangelical Christian Right doesn’t really want us all to convert to Christianity. Hello? Is anyone home out there?
“Evangelical” means “missionary.” That’s what it means. And the Jewish world, Israel in particular, so much wants the friendship and financial support of the Christian world that they’ve convinced themselves that Evangelicals are not missionaries, that they don’t want to convert us.
Let me give you a little Bible lesson here. Evangelical Christians who are calling themselves Zionists and who give moral and financial support to Israel do so because they believe with every fiber of their beings that the Christian Bible – what they call the Old and New Testaments – are the word of God. They believe every word of it, literally. That’s why they are generally very good, moral people and that is also why they believe, in no uncertain terms, that anyone who does not believe in Jesus will go to Hell. That includes the Jews.
I have had people argue this point with me up down and sideways, but you can’t get away from the fact that if a Christian believes his or her own scriptures, then they must also believe that those who don’t believe in Jesus are going to Hell, because it’s in there. Don’t believe me? How about these verses, for a start:
John 3:17-18 – “For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”
John 3:36 – “He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.”
John 5:24 – “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.”
John 6:40 – “For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day.”
John 6:54-56 – “He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For My flesh is true food, and My blood is true drink. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him.”
John 17:3 – “This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.”
Acts 13:46 – “Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly and said, ‘It was necessary that the word of God be spoken to you first; since you repudiate it and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we are turning to the Gentiles.'”
Acts 4:12 – “And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved.”
Romans 6:23 – “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
2 Thessalonians 1:8-10 – “…dealing out retribution to those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. These will pay the penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power, when He comes to be glorified in His saints on that day, and to be marveled at among all who have believed, for our testimony to you was believed.”
1 John 5:11-12 – “And the testimony is this, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life.”
And regarding the Christian understanding that they are considered “Jews” by God, we have the following verses:
Romans 2:29 – “But he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that which is of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter; and his praise is not from men, but from God.”
So I would like to say one thing to Ann Coulter: Thank you! Thank you for saying out loud what some of us have known all along, but many of us were afraid to accept. Thank you for getting the Jewish community upset about something that it should be upset about and for speaking the truth, even if it came out by accident.
well, look at this
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7335500121260885880&q=hageewashingtondelay&total=3&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=0
I certainly welcome the friendship of the Evangelicals.
For centuries Western civilization was under the fist of Rome which from the beginning was the antithesis of Jerusalem. The Romans themselves were the antithesis of the Hebrews. Rome was an author of both collectivism and fascism. On the other hand, the Hebrews authored individual rights, liberty, freedom, and justice for all. This puts these two foundations of belief in direct opposition.
America was established to some extent on both the Jewish and Roman models, but in the beginning there was much more emphasis on the Hebrew model than there is today.
American Founders also attested to the Hebrew roots of liberty and justice, for example:
It was John Adams also along with Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson who recommended the first design for the official seal of the United States which depicted the Israelites crossing the Red Sea with the motto: “Resistance to Tyrants is Obedience to God.”
This line of thought was common in America before and during that era, and in fact, the influence of the ancient Israelites was so great at the time that there were discussions in Congress on replacing English with Hebrew as the language of the United States to ensure severance from England.
In Washington D.C. you can find the evidence of influences of both the ancient Romans and ancient Hebrews; however, today the US is becoming much more “Romanistic” and eliminating biblical influences and references in government.
As ancient Rome is an icon of collective power under human authority, Jerusalem is the icon of freedom and liberty under God. That was the conflict then between the Jews and Romans when Judea was under Roman authority, and it is fundamental in the conflict we see in the world today. The whole world is presently in turmoil in the continuing ideological struggle between the Jewish model and the Roman/Babylonian model of thought.
Having been dispersed abroad for the last 2000 years many Jewish people, like the Gentiles they live among have come to embrace and cleave to the Roman model of thought. They are willing to entrust complete power in the hands of politicians to control our destiny and solve all of the world’s problems. This is what the far “Left” is based upon.
There also exists two separate veins of “Christianity” today (athough some Christians are influenced by both to varying degrees.) One vein stems from the roots of Rome, the Church or a man is the authority. This is the basis of the large mainstream churches and from this vein antiSemitism flows. The other vein is based on the belief that God is judge and ruler of all men as recorded by the Hebrews. He is the author of rights and liberty, and foremost we only need be concerned with answering to him; scripture reigns supreme above Church or government.
Christianity spread through Europe based on Roman philosophies after having been adopted by the Roman Emperor (Constantine) who made it the official religion of Rome and used it to enhance political power. Rome was still Rome remaining and ruling an oppressive collectivist civilization, but now with dimensions of both political and religious power.
When biblical scripture started to become available to the common people (many were executed for this) they began to embraced it above the Church and the reformation began to break the bonds of the Roman model. It would be a slow process but many Europeans came to embrace the foundation laid by the Hebrew writers of scripture. The collective power of the Church began to be broken and the individual began to gain freedom and power through the belief that these were inalienable gifts endowed upon man by the Creator. The response from the Roman Church was the Inquisitions. Since that time there has been a schism in Christianity and as you see today, the liberal churches and secularist (both systems based on the Roman model) as they did then, diametrically oppose the pro-Israel Evangelical Christians who are drawn to the Jewish people and their original Hebrew roots of belief. Many Gentile believers are drawn to the Jerusalem model of thought because it existed centuries before the Church of Rome and is the original source of their faith. Thus, many Jews and Gentiles are meeting on a foundation of common principles and values, even if beliefs of faith differ.
However, Western civilization has been a mix of the two ideologies (Hebrew and Roman) and has never come to fully understand or fully embrace the Jewish model completely – but to the extent it has and to the extent some Christians have, history shows they have prospered. Nonetheless, what we see now as Europeans go secular their society goes down and they become more anti-Semitic.
As more Jewish people come to this knowledge and understand that all Christianity does not go in one box, and as Christians come to a more perfect understanding of their history and of the Hebrews, they will together become a force that the totalitarians and antiSemites of this world will not prevail against.
To modify and control political dynamics, requires a modern political organization. In Israel, this is probably out of the question. The rulers will not tolerate a potential challenge. Only in the US can this be accomplished.
The days of Ortega y Gasset’s REVOLT OF THE MASSES is over. Now, the masses do little and finely tailored groups properly perform. Ever see how the overseas Chinese do this? Or the ethnic Japanese in the States ? They practive Yiddishkeit.
Inherent to embracing Christian supporters requires a proper identification. America’s Jews are identified with Abraham Foxman, Senator Barbara Boxer, the late Jewish philosopher Susan Sontag (“The white race is the cancer of human history.”),Alan Dershowitz (performed some appealate work for one of the Pan Am Lockerie bombers [brought to my attention by a Christian Zionist]), and the other prominent personalities. Might as well mention the American Jewish Congress, American Jewish Committee and ADL opposed “under God” in the US Pledge of Allegiance.
A state-of-the art organization precludes many of the preventable “scandals” tarnishing Jews. No more Joseph Trumpeldors around who can unify and organize ?
Next month at Annapolis, guess the results.
“I have thought it my duty to exhibit things as they are and not as they ought to be.”
Alexander Hamilton
Kol tuv,
Both “sides” have to understand, as far as it can be understood, the very nature of Jesus, before there will be trust and brotherhood.
This implies that the Christians have to return to the way things were when Jesus was alive… In other words, Christians have to undo what Constantine and the founders of the Catholic Church did by way of deliberately turning the Hebrew religion upside-down in a (successful) effort to create a “them and us” situation. Things such as the Sabbath have to become what they were to Jesus himself rather than a weapon to fight his origins.
The original Christians were Jews who believed “something” about Jesus. We don’t know (or I don’t know) exactly what they believed, but they were still very fundamentally Jews (I prefer the word Hebrews), and their’s was a Jewish world; there was no question of deliberately turning it upside down. In this respect there was little or no difference between the early “Christians” and the many other Jewish sects that abounded in the Holy Land.
At present we are committed to a belief system founded on Eastern European Talmud-based Judaism, and this is held to be the norm. But this isn’t necessarily so. If the central focus of Judaism (as it was when Abraham was alive) was the One God, then there is the possibility of many “flavours” or Judaism, as there always has been. Add the Torah to this focus and you have a somewhat different structure, but still highly malleable.
But aside from the One God ideal, all the rest is window-dressing. Christians and Jews alike should realize this.