MODERN RABBIS, ANCIENT HATRED
By Harmony Grant
17 May 07
Two Jewish brothers, Jonathan and Julian, recently moved from France
to Israel. On Monday the body of an Arab man—a father of five—was
found in Julian’s apartment, stabbed to death. Police believe
Julian set out to find an Arab, any Arab, lured him back to the flat
and murdered him there. During the hearing, Julian showed no remorse,
mugging and smiling for the cameras. (BBC
report) The murder is under
investigation as a hate crime, because one of the suspects admits
he was motivated by nationalism and hatred of Arabs.
American conservatives constantly trumpet the threat of Islamic
fascism and Muslims’ jealous hatred of western liberty. Yet
no mainstream figure will address the hatred nursed by Judeofascists
against Christians and Gentiles; today it is expressed most crudely
by Israelis against Arabs, by Jewish settlers against Palestinians.
But it is no less real in the United States, although more subtle.
Jewish groups remain unashamedly the leaders of the coalition pressing
for hate crime legislation, specifically the federal hate crime bill
H.R. 1592 which has already passed the House. Forward reports Jewish
groups are gearing up to oppose Bush’s threatened veto of this
bill. The Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith, architect
of hate crime legislation worldwide, seeks to criminalize bias not
just against homosexuality but against the vague term “gender
identity.” This legislation is properly opposed now by a broad
spectrum of conservative Christian groups who recognize hate laws
can and will be used to silence expressions of moral opposition to
homosexuality. Soon they may criminalize Christian evangelism altogether.
Unholy Alliance
Jews benefit from their alliance with the pro-Zionist evangelical
right, but they are far more leery of this partnership than the church.
Forward’s Rebecca
Spence reports that most Jewish leaders have
at least honored John Hagee’s Christians United for Israel
(CUFI) with their presence at events. After all, CUFI’s “Night
to Honor Israel” events already raised more than $10 million
for the Jewish state.
But their token presence is dependent on Hagee’s promise
not to be a real Christian—to evangelize at the Holy Spirit’s
leading—at these Israel-honoring dinners. Even despite Hagee’s
conscience-searing promise of sealed lips, American Jews accept the
needed money and support, but the love that evangelicals feel for
Israel is largely not returned. Critics complain, observes Spence, “that
[Hagee’s] conservative domestic agenda — including opposition
to gay marriage, abortion and immigration — is squarely at
odds with the liberal views of most American Jews.”
Why can Jewish liberals recognize the conflict between their agenda
and the political values of practicing Christians—but Christians
are blind to the obvious collision of interests?
Christ said evil Jewish leaders in His time fulfilled an ancient
prophecy, “They hated me without reason.” (John 15:25,
Ps. 35:19; 69:4) He promised His followers would experience the same
virulent hatred from unbelieving Jews “because of my name,
for they do not know the One who sent me.” (John 15:21) "All
this I have told you so that you will not go astray. They will put
you out of the synagogue; in fact, a time is coming when anyone who
kills you will think he is offering a service to God. They will do
such things because they have not known the Father or me.” (John
16:1-3)
Evangelicals fail to honor Christ’s words by remaining alert
to Jewish anti-Christianity. It is as if those verses have been scissored
out of their Bibles! Instead, the American church unconditionally
supports a Jewish state that forbids Christian evangelism; it empowers
and finances the very prisons where Christian Jews like Vanunu and
Palestinians are brutalized!
One Palestinian Christian refugee in Damascus speaks for thousands
when he mourns, “We have received far more support and comfort
from the Hezbollah in Lebanon than from our fellow Christians in
the West. I want to know, why don’t the Christians in the West
do anything to help us? Are the teachings of Jesus nothing but empty
slogans to them?” (American
Conservative, 2004)
It is a great sin that we ignore the words of Christ as they were
recorded by John, whose divine inspiration makes the words of his
gospel almost rise off the page. Jesus explicitly warns of Jewish
anti-Christianity so we “will not go astray.” Yet we
have! We also ignore the personal witness of St. Paul, who says his
Jewish religious zeal was proven by his persecution of the fledgling
Christian church. Paul found new birth into the body of the Lord
and Savior Jesus Christ and became part of the “true circumcision.” Until
his conversion, Paul’s religious sincerity was proven by his
hostility to Jesus! This remains true: Jews who genuinely observe
the Talmud and rabbinic teachings of their religion must oppose Jesus
and His followers—dangerously “deluded” and idolatrous
Christians.
Ancient Hostility Continues
Ultra-orthodox religious leaders in Israel seek to ban proselytism
in Israel with a punishment of imprisonment for a year. Voice of
the Martyr’s Glenn Penner told Mission
Network News that “every
week for the past three years ultra-orthodox Jews have spit on and
insulted members of the Messianic Jewish congregation in Arad. Tomatoes
and eggs frequently are thrown at their houses…A member of
the church was beaten Feb. 25 in the parking lot of his shop, which
was firebombed in 2005 because of his evangelistic work.”
A Palestinian Christian named Abbas, whose family was driven from
Jerusalem by the Zionists in 1948, was interviewed by American
Conservative in 2004. Asked whether the State of Israel fulfilled prophecy and
drew the world closer to Christ’s second coming, Abbas replied, “You’re
kidding, right? You know what they do to our people and our land.
If I thought that was part of God’s plan, I’d be an atheist
in a second.”
Yet Christians in America seem blind to the obvious conflict between
Christianity and Judaism that is so obvious in Israel. They seem
unaware of how their own faith in the risen Messiah is fundamentally
opposed by the beliefs of religious Jews that their messiah is still
to come and that his coming will bring them world dominion over Gentiles
and especially idolaters. Christ demanded obedient repentant trust
in His mercy while Zionist Jews insist on a non-moral unrighteous
covenant with God based on their genetic material; such Jews insist
God must bless them no matter how they reject His laws or mistreat
others. This is not an idea with which Bible-respecting Christians
can agree!
John Hagee’s unbiblical CUFI collected $7 million in one evening in San Antonio. Evangelicals are 75 million strong in the
United States, a powerful political and social force. Yet the church’s
power to resist Zionism and liberal Jewish activism has been leached
out by false doctrine, polluted by the belief that God’s blessings
are not conditioned on obedience. This grave theological error runs
contrary to the entire emphasis of the Bible. To be saved, we each
must trust in Christ and obey Him—no matter what strain of
DNA is running in our veins. Evangelicals who pour blessing on anti-Christian
Jews fail to observe the most basic laws of our own faith. Some claim
Jews don’t even need Christ for salvation but are part of a
separate covenant. Nowhere does the Bible encourage this view.
The corruption of Christian doctrine has been encouraged by American
Jews. In 2006, the executive director of Jews for Jesus, David Brickner,
said there is an “ongoing
agenda” among Jewish leaders
to “undermine Christian evangelism by trying to shape Christian
theology.”
This spring, Christian Zionist Janet
Parshall went home from the
Knesset Christian Allies Caucus when she realized she would not be
allowed to testify for Christ in Israel. Parshall explains, "I
thought, wait a minute: we can’t just blindly support Israel.
We have to be able to tell them, as a friend, [that] you can’t
do that. You can’t silence us." She expresses concern
over error among her fellow Christian Zionists, which she describes
as "blind support that says no matter what Israel does, Israel
can do no wrong." Parshall denies the theological lie which
says Jews can be saved apart from Christ, reminding us that "Scripture
says there's one name under heaven whereby all men will be saved."
We hope and pray our fellow believers will be encouraged by Parshall’s
example to reconsider their support for Israel and their silence
about domestic Jewish activism. The Jewish state patterns the final
aim of hate legislation in the West, which may soon make it illegal
to witness for Christ anywhere. When that day comes, we will have
to spread the good news from prison cells, as Christians have done
for millennia and still do around the world. Here and now, we are
still free to speak. If we fail to do in freedom what others do in
chains, we are truly unworthy to call ourselves Christ’s followers.
Harmony Grant writes and edits for National Prayer Network, a Christian/conservative
watchdog group. Read more of her work at www.hisnamesake.blogspot.com.
Contact her at harmony@truthtellers.org.
Protest the Senate hate bill! Call your senator toll-free at 1-877-851-6437
or toll 202-225-3121. Leave this message: "Please don't vote
for hate crimes bill S.1105. Hate laws have taken away free speech
in Canada and much of Europe. If you do vote for the hate bill, I
and my friends will never vote for you again." Send your senator
and his 8-10 influential aides Rev. Ted Pike's powerful flyer "Anti-Hate
Laws Will Make You a Criminal." This
flyer and names of aides are available here.
Call the White House, and say, "Thank you, Mr. President, for
promising to veto the hate bill. We expect you also to not approve
a modified hate bill."
Come to www.truthtellers.org for the list of the crucial 14 Republicans
who have voted for the hate bill as well as 17 Republicans who are
uncommitted. Call and protest immediately.
Let the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith teach you how they
have saddled 45 states with hate laws capable of persecuting Christians:
http://www.adl.org/99hatecrime/intro.asp.
Learn how ADL took away free speech in Canada and wants to do it
right now in the U.S. Congress. Watch Rev. Ted Pike's Hate
Laws: Making Criminals of Christians at video.google.com. Purchase
this gripping documentary to show at church. Order online at www.truthtellers.org for
$24.90, DVD or VHS, by calling 503-853-3688, or at the address below.
TALK SHOW HOSTS: Interview Harmony Grant on current
threats to our freedom of speech and religion. Call (503) 631-3808.
National Prayer Network, P.O. Box 828, Clackamas,
OR 97015
