The Leftist World Council of Churches and the Jews
Get used to it my fellow Jews, the World Council of Churches hate you. These empty-church clergy with their theology that turns Jesus into a mere symbol, they hate you. Even though they have rewritten Jesus as symbol and transformed the Bible to metaphor, your existence is the greatest obstacle to their newest version of replacement theology.
Why are you still here among them?
This is why the World Council of Churches (the “Bern Perspective“) in 2008 translated even your history into a metaphor. The World Council of Churches now says that references to the Israelites of the Bible are only metaphoric references.
No Israelites, no Jesus, no temple, no wailing wall, no relationship between you and the land of your ancestors. Unable to exterminate you, they now have declared you a bastardized people, a people without lineage, without ancestors. You are no longer the people of the Bible. You are the people who have stolen the metaphoric and ethereal references of the newly interpreted book of allegories.
Every time you dig in Jerusalem and find an aquifer where the Bible says it should be, you stand in the way of their New Age enlightenment. Every time you make a reference to something in the Bible that is still there, you interfere with their transformation of God into … what? “The Force?”
How else can you explain their continuing obsession with you? Of all the problems in the world, of all the conflicts between people, your presence on a tiny plot of land no bigger than the Chicago metropolitan area is their primary obsession. Even though you are surrounded by hundreds of millions of Arabs and Muslims committed to wiping you off the face of the planet, anything you do to defend yourself these clergy denounce as “excessive.”
Of what little you have, you have offered sizable portions of land for peace. And it is never enough. At Camp David and again at Taba, you offered your own security for peace. And it was rejected, thank God. But you get no recognition from the World Council of Churches for such sacrifices for peace. You will always be the obstacle.
Whatever you offer will not be enough unless you offer yourself up for extinction. This is why the World Council of Churches obsesses about the return of millions of so-called Palestinian “refugees” — refugees who have never lived in your land. For the first time in the history of humanity, refugees are now defined by the third and fourth generation. Why? So they can enter your gates and use your democracy or their suicide bombers to destroy you.
You, of course, remember how active these clergy were in your defense when nearly a million of you, whose families had lived in the Muslim world before Mohammed, were kicked out in virtually a single night. You remember how they decried your dispossession, ran to their congregations seeking alms for your survival, and issued reports demanding justice for you. When Israel took you in at a time when there was not sufficient food in the country, they immediately created aid flotillas to prevent you from starving. You remember, don’t you?
Oh, you don’t remember that? You don’t because it didn’t happen.
“…there was significant consensus in the conference that the Bible must not be utilized to justify oppression or supply simplistic commentary on contemporary events, thus sacralizing the conflict and ignoring its socio-political, economic and historical dimensions. We are called not only to expose manipulations of Scripture that ignore context and complexity, but to offer readings of the text that promote the values of God’s kingdom: justice, peace, reconciliation, and forgiveness.
How can that statement opine that the Bible must NOT be utilized to justify oppression when the statement’s whole point IS to justify oppression – i.e., that of the Israelis? Obviously the World Council of Churches views Israelis and Palestinians like the inhabitants of “Animal Farm”: some are more equal than others. That’s a h*ll of a way to interpret “justice, peace, reconciliation and forgiveness.”.
Christianity — and that is its greatest merit — has somewhat mitigated that brutal German love of war, but it could not destroy it. Should that subduing talisman, the cross, be shattered, the frenzied madness of the ancient warriors, that insane Berserk rage of which Nordic bards have spoken and sung so often, will once more burst into flame. …
The old stone gods will then rise from long ruins and rub the dust of a thousand years from their eyes, and Thor will leap to life with his giant hammer and smash the Gothic cathedrals. …
… Do not smile at my advice — the advice of a dreamer who warns you against Kantians, Fichteans, and philosophers of nature. Do not smile at the visionary who anticipates the same revolution in the realm of the visible as has taken place in the spiritual. Thought precedes action as lightning precedes thunder. German thunder … comes rolling somewhat slowly, but … its crash … will be unlike anything before in the history of the world. …
At that uproar the eagles of the air will drop dead, and lions in farthest Africa will draw in their tails and slink away. … A play will be performed in Germany which will make the French Revolution look like an innocent idyll.
— Heinrich Heine (1832)
Never heard about the World Council of Churches, but if the facts are correct you have got roughly 1/4 of church-going Christians declaring themselves as anti-Semites.
Now, who is the first to declare that all Christians are anti-Semites?
What do you say about those 78% of socialists / Marxists Jews who voted for the Marxist Anointed One?
How can Israel ever survive this madness, this schizophrenia of the Marxist left and the ultra-far right? May the God bless Israel during this Christmas season and forever.
If you haven’t heard of the World Council of Churches, you should do some research on them. While officially they represent large swaths of the american Protestant movement, in reality they have taken up a whole swath of extremist left-wing causes. Every few years, a large number of churches de-affiliates, or there is a grass-roots movement that ousts the nut cases– but when the dust settles, they always creep back in.
After the end of the Cold War, KGB defector Vasili Mitrokhin made off with thousands of pages of notes taken from the KGB archive. Some of the documents from the Mitrokhin Archive claim that the WCC had been infiltrated by the KGB for use as a source of propaganda. Whatever the truth, they have often ended up supporting the radical left, and claiming that they represent mainstream Protestantism. Many active Christians (not just the social conservatives, but many moderates and liberals as well) have complained about the WCC’s fringe politics.
They are actually one of the classic illustrations of Robert Conquest’s Second Law.
I’d actually compare them to the modern incarnations of the labor movement, NOW, the NAACP, la Raza, CAIR, and other such groups. They don’t so much represent their constituents in politics as they represent the Left to their constituents. The WCC is an extreme example of a tendency that is increasingly common in politics.
Pray tell, just what is Richard Conquest’s 2nd Law? Bing’ed it but couldn’t find.
That’s Robert Conquest, who wrote the book, “The Great Terror”…
Conquest’s 1st Law: Everybody is reactionary on subjects he knows about.
Conquest’s 2nd Law: Every organization appears to be headed by secret agents of its opponents.
Thanks for the explanation.
I’m a Lutheran, and I’ve been unable to find church to my liking. The last time I attended a real Lutheran church was while living abroad.
I have known about the WCofC for more than 35 years, and its sister group, the National Council of Churches. They are liberal, theologically, to the core, and if anything, they are heretical. They are representatives of so-called mainline churches that have abandoned orthodoxy and are nothing more than anti-Christian cults all dressed up in the language of Christianity but without its true substance.
It is little wonder and no surprise that in addition to their theological liberalism they would also be politically liberal.
The National Council of Churches had a hand in the kidnapping of Elian Gonzalez from his uncle in Florida. They did a lot of the P/R for the Clinton administration at the time.
LINK
Tim wrote:
“Never heard about the World Council of Churches, but if the facts are correct you have got roughly 1/4 of church-going Christians declaring themselves as anti-Semites.
Now, who is the first to declare that all Christians are anti-Semites?”
???? How does your question follow from your first statement?
Logic (more correctly, ILlogic) aside, the facts are quite otherwise. Jews have no better friends in the world than evangelical Christians. They give money, time, and political clout to supporting Israel.
Remove them from the equation, and America will sell Israel down the river immediately. It is only because of them that leftists have been forced to go slowly in dismantling America’s support of Israel.
That’s one of the reasons that merely religious people (like Pat Buchanan) and atheists (like most libertarians) hate evangelicals.
Well-informed Jews know this.
I am not Protestant, but it seems to me that the “Bern perspective” text seems to be less anti-Jewish than yet another instance of vacuous boilerplate gobbledygook, with lots of high-sounding words. Typical committee-speak.
Excellent essay Mr. Miller and your first paragraph tells the whole story of what has happened to those churches that maintain membership in the so called “World Council”. They have become empty shells but unfortunately well endowed empty shells. We hope that Jews everywhere will take to heart what you have said but I fear that it is a commonality of belief that unites the World Council types and the left wing Jews and that belief is Marxism. Marxism and New Age thought have become the common religion of both and their alliance with radical Islam is, to me, astounding.
Yes, Mike2, astounding AND dangerous.
Then the LORD said unto me, The prophets prophesy lies in my name: I sent them not, neither have I commanded them, neither spake unto them: they prophesy unto you a false vision and divination, and a thing of nought, and the deceit of their heart.
–Jer 14:14
That’s about it. The first thing Satan tries to do is to infiltrate and corrupt the church. What’s really amazing is how many churches that proclaim themselves as “Christian” go totally against what He really taught.
amen sabina,they r out there to spread nothing but lies,search the scriptures for yourself,i am a jew who loves YAH with all her heart!!!!!!! shalom my friend.
You are mistaken, Mr. Miller. The World Council of Churches does not hate Jews. On the contrary, it loves Jews…certain Jews.
Jews as violinists, comedians, scientists, and pre-eminently Jews as victims–those Jews it loves beyond words. These are the good Jews, the Jews who are a blessing to civilization. Secondarily, the WCC loves Jews who are able to rise above their narrow, their parochial, well, their Jewish concerns and show that they, too, can transcend the pinched confines that trammel so many Jews.
But Jews as fighter pilots, tank commanders, and especially Jews who when faced with violence fight back (and moreover, do so effectively), those Jews it has no use for. As you point out, metaphoric Jews are preferred as opposed to actual ones. For that matter, they can deal with the metaphoric Israel; it’s the actual Israel that is problematic.
As to why defenders of gay rights support Arabs over Israel, feminists cast their lot with Muslims as opposed to Israel, well, perhaps this is one of those mysteries that will be sorted out at the end of days.
“pre-eminently Jews as victims”
au contraire – it is entirely contingent upon *who* the victimizer was. If it’s the Nazi’s, oh, yeah, horrible, horrible nazi’s and poor, poor, jews. If it’s an palestinian freedom fighter (re: terrorist) blowing himself up outside a nursery school full of israeli babies – it’s the jew’s fault.
You are on to something here. The following is an actual example of the World Council of Churches’ anti-Semitic evil. When the old Soviet Union essentially conducted pogroms against Jewish Russians, the WCC stood mute unless the United States and Canada (long time ago, folks!) would threaten to sanction the USSR. The WCC would then attack the West.
But after the Berlin Wall fell and anti-Semitic nationalists made gains in the old Soviet Empire, the WCC suddenly was against oppression.
Frankly, if the Molotov-Ribbentropp Pact had held, most leftists including the WCC would have defended the Holocaust. The scary part is that the WCC is no longer an extreme example of left-wing thought but emblematic of it.
Israel has every right to be afraid, very afraid, and shouldn’t count on American Jewry for much support in the future. Lest we forget, many American communists and fellow travelers who were Jewish supported the Hitler-Stalin Pact. Darkness has fallen on the West, again, and this time the shadow envelopes North America as well as Europe.
The Christian Church does not even preach what their Messiah taught. What they tech today is nothing more than paganism using the name of Christ to justify its actions. In fact, today’s Jews have lost sight of their covenant with God, because they, too, have had their religion paganized during the diaspora. Stan is alive and well and is using the old method of “divide and conquer.”
Please be specific here. Most of the Christian Church does actually teach “Christ, and Him Crucified.” Unfortunately, there are a significant number of false prophets out there.
Yes, Paul of Alexandria. There are pockets of orthodoxy out here; pray that God leads you to them, if you do not as yet know them.
Jesus taught that we must obey Him to be saved, Mt.7.21; IPet.4.17, Jn.12.48 et sim. No protestant church so teaches.
Any thinking person sees what these guys are up to and why.
I’m a word of faith Christian.
They hate us, too.
But us word of faith Christians are on Israel’s side.
The word will prevail.
Don’t worry.
“The empty church clergy” is an extraordinary reference to the World Council of Churches. Just remember they also hate Christians; that is Chrdistians who believe in Jesus Christ and the resurrection. To them their Churches are here to preach world socialism and demcoratic mindsets. They are an empty people wrapped up in their own narcissism and now they have a god president of the USA to put up to worship like the golden calf presented to Moses’ people.
Things like this, and the ELCA’s stance on Israel, are why I call myself a Lutheran Heretic.
Aren’t the Missouri Synod Lutherans more conservative and not so pro-Arab?
The Lutheran Church of the Missouri Synod is a mixed bag. Since the synod does not have a proper doctrine of ministry, it happens on occasion that some church pastors go awol, theologically, and there is no mechanism in place to bring discipline. It also experienced what is known as the seminex, seminary in exile, back in the 60′s when the liberal professors walked out and some joined the ELCA. These liberal profs left behind, unhappily, a great majority of students whom they had trained and whom later became pastors and teachers. The ELCA, meanwhile, is nothing more than an anti-Christian cult, IMHO.
The most theologically orthodox of the Lutheran churches — with consistent preaching heard from one pulpit to the next — is the Wisconsin Lutheran Synod (WELS). One prominent WELS member you might know is Michele Bachmann.
There is zero orthodoxy in the false doctrine of salvation by faith alone, Luther’s principal tenet, which permeates all Lutheran groups.
And now we see why the 17th century experienced the Thirty Years War.
I take it you’re a Catholic, white tiger.
I disagree with you, utterly and completely.
Works without faith is vanity, but faith without works is dead. Salvation is by the grace of God, which is God’s response to our faith, but any “faith” that does not affect one’s actions is no faith at all.
Your self imposed title is redundant.
Imagine a vegetarian society. Now imagine a vegetarian society that permits meat-eating. It also bans people from eating plant life. But it’s still a vegetarian society…apparently.
Yeah, now you’re getting close to the absurdity of the WCC – atheist “Christians” anybody? Ironic too, given that we now know more about both the historical Israel and the historical Jesus than ever before. Even most radical, left-wing scholars will easily grant the existence of both as real entities. The hyper-critical German “higher-criticism” is largely defunct in academic circles, and no-one seems to have told the WCC.
I just hope people can spot an oxymoron when they see it. The real Christians aren’t in the WCC, neither are they usually in most institutional Churches. They certainly aren’t on American TV trying to get you to tithe, or scam you into a healing miracle. The real Christians are largely unseen by the world, quietly working in soup kitchens, or digging wells for clean water in Africa, or being persecuted in China or the Sudan. Anyone can profess to be Christian, but only those who follow Jesus in thought, word and deed, actually are.
Jesus went about
a teaching
b preaching
c healing
if you rule these out, and think that baking cookies for a neighbor is the real Christianity, well………
think again
The World Council of Churches does not speak for me or even for Christianty. They have corrupted the Scripture and become apostates. As a Christian I stand with the Jews and against any attempt to demean the Word of God.
The underlining issue is the influence Liberalism is having in these churches. It not only poses a threat to Israel and Jews everywhere, but also to Christians.
http://www.bluecollarphilosophy.com/2010/12/taking-on-religious-and-political-liberalism.html
Liberal minded religious leaders are intolerant of biblical truth, any truth claim that is not subjective in nature and that has universal moral application. They are also usually the greatest persecutors of those who dare disagree with them.
I have one disagreement with this article. We could only hope these are ‘empty churches’. Unfortunately, they are not necessarily.
Empty church is right- this doesn’t even qualify as replacement theology. Rather, this is the dead church of Sardis, whom Jesus had nothing good to say about.
Then there’s the Jew-hating Jewish Marxists who support the Muslims . . . it’s getting so that we can’t tell right from left any more. If the Jews can’t keep themselves on message, how are the rest of us to know which way to lean?
“National Socialism” Isn’t that what Hitler’s party was all about?
For the last 60 years or so, the church has been a prime target for the Left. One reason is that the traditional Church is inimical to marxism; in order for the revolution to take place, its enemies must first be disempowered. The other big reason is that it is easy for marxists to craft their rhetoric so that it resembles Christianity. To incurious minds, the aspirations of marxim strongly resemble those of the Church: equality, fairness, brotherhood, peace, etc. No matter that the ends are light years away and that the means are murderous and immoral. The Left is actively undermining the church from within, and many Christians are oblivious to this alarming fact.
So please do not condemn all Christians for the failings of organizations like the World Cesspool. Most of us are on the side of the angels.
As an Orthodox Christian, I stand firmly with Israel and with my Jewish brothers.
ABSOLUTELY! Discerning many are not. I agree this infiltration has occurred, that is why so many have left mainstream churches, and have become part of Evangelical or Non-Denominational churches. I myself left the Presbyterian Church USA when I was 16, as I could not support the Presbytery which was anti-Israel, pro-choice- anti-Christian really! I sometimes wonder if I should have gone back to try to make a difference- I am an ordained minister. I guess I sense “the gangrene” is so systemic that they will reap what they have sown, and the Lion of the Tribe of Judah will come, soon enough, to settle the account.
I am not a religious man, but I do know that Bible without any hesitation explictly prohibits what these guys are doing against Israel and the Jews.
‘I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.’
Genesis 12:3
‘May those who bless you be blessed and those who curse you be cursed!’
Numbers 24:9
God Himself also sternly warns the nations about their attitude towards his people, Israel:
‘…For whoever touches you (Israel) touches the apple of his eye’
amen my brother,ISRAEL is the only promised holy land,and the jews r the apple of his eye,i am a TORAH ,SHABBAT,believeing jew,and i know we will be ever so more persecuted as the day’s of our MESSIAH YESHUA HA MASHIACK IS RETURNING REAL SOON, that is why there is so much comotion now ,satin has but a little while to do his dirty wrk,shalom ,try looking at this site http://www.wildbranchministries.com. and let the holy spirit guide you, shalom in ‘YAH’
amen my brother,ISRAEL is the only promised holy land,and the jews r the apple of his eye,i am a TORAH ,SHABBAT,believeing jew,and i know we will be ever so more persecuted as the day’s of our MESSIAH YESHUA HA MASHIACK IS RETURNING REAL SOON, that is why there is so much comotion now ,satin has but a little while to do his dirty wrk,shalom ,try looking at this site http://www.wildbranchministries.com. and let the holy spirit guide you, shalom in ‘YAH’
If I could recite all of this in Hebrew, I would: Blessed be the Name of the Lord and Blessed is the One who comes in the Name of the Lord!
Aren’t most of these churches collapsing rapidly in membership, between the fact that (a) the rank and file are leaving and creating their own separate churches to get away from these Commie Clowns, and (b) they predominate in liberal/left areas where their loyal congregants have a negative population demographic?
“Aren’t most of these churches collapsing rapidly in membership”
In my experience most of them are. A lot of the believing Christians have left them for other churches, according to a recent survey many of their pastors are agnostics, they have watered down the orthodox doctrines of the Bible to the point that they have become social clubs and their membership tends to not reproduce well and many are attracted to New Age spirituality. I still remember a friend that described the liberal church of his youth as the First Church of the Reader’s Digest because that’s where the pastor got his sermons from. I’m not slamming the Reader’s Digest because I like it but the Holy Scriptures it is not. I laughed at the time but indeed what a sad commentary. Many of these churches are anti Israel to the core. One hopes God will open their eyes.
ABSOLUTELY! I am a former Prebyterian (USA), and an ordained minister in an Evangelical denomination. My home church has grown immensely, most of that growth not from evangelism, but people from such “churches”. My wife is an Evangelical raised in a very progressive home in Maryland- her dad is an ordained Lutheran minister/Psychologist, and he himself was an agnostic for 10 years- not now though. I think they look at my wife and I as redneck yahoos who believe in biblical Creation, support Israel, believe life starts at conception, etc. I am also as pro-2nd Ammendment as they come, as that REALLY grates on them! They look as evangelicals as less intellectual, backward, etc. I qualify for MENSA membership unbeknownst to them, but there is no convincing arrogance.
A former ELCA Lutheran because of its affiliation with WCC, which I call the “Devil’s Advocate”.I always stand with Israel.
Clever LOGO, that of the WC council of stalinist churches; It’s really a cleverly disguised hammer and sickle.
We will have to face the judgment and bow. Copping out and using the world council of Churches will not work on judgement day.
All this junk started when the evolutionists said the creation story was methaphor in Genesis 1. Then the Flood was false and the rest was easy to call out as nice information but historically incorrect.
The World Council of Churches are savage wolves possessed with an all-consuming hate for G-D and the Bible. Churches who have used the name of Jesus the Jew, to amass incredible riches.
The World Council of Churches are cognizant that if Jesus had been born in this time period, from the time Jesus was carried in his mother’s womb, Jesus would have been targeted for murder by the Islamics for being a Jew living in his Biblical homeland of Israel.
The Palestinian Authority hailed as heroes the terrorists who brutally murdered defenseless 8 months pregnant Jewish mother, Tali Hatuel, and 4 little daughters in Gush Katif in May 2004.
In a massive victory for Islam, against their will, Arab Christians were cruelly placed under brutal occupation of PLO/Palestinian Authority. In the filthy Islamic Invasion of Church of Nativity in Bethlehem, Judea, Muslims tore up Bibles for toilet paper. Christian majority towns, Bethlehem & Nazareth are now majority Muslim – terrified Christians were driven out by cruel Islamic persecution. Many Bethlehem Christians’ homes and land were stolen by Muslims. The Christians who remain, live in constant fear. Of course, the World Council of Churches does NOT protest.
The World Council of Churches take the side of cruel Muslim terrorists. The WCC are a danger to all innocents.
“empty-church clergy”
16. myth buster, Word.
Every time I see the POPE, I think of the phrase,”do not worship false images”. There are more,and its been a long time since church but I think the “church” ,in general, has set itself up for the good of itself.NOT for the people.If it were for the people then the Pope would not HIDE the offending clergy.(Gee,I hate using the word ‘clergy’ when describing paedophiles).They are very well paid andlive a life of luxury. When I travelled Europe,and saw the great treasures of the Vatican,I WAS APPALLED, at the wealth that has been set up in the name of God. Surely this is not what God had wanted.I still go to a rural little church ,with a congregation of about 20 each other Sunday.I worship God,NOT the church.We don’t have a minister because we cannot afford one.We don’t miss it,we listen to guests and lay persons, that do a great job.Our last Minister was a rather large female who always put her ex husband into the sermon somewhere,and not in a good light.THAT is when I left,and have only returned 6months ago.A small church has a real message that everyone should try.God Bless Everyone,plus the Jews(twice).
Railing against Popery is all well and good, if that’s your pleasure, but it would seem to be entirely off the subject of this thread. The Roman Catholic Church is NOT a member of the World Council of Churches.
Hate to tell ya this, but Catholics don’t worship the pope. They worship God and Jesus Christ His Son. Period. The treasures you speak of are gifts from talented people of millennia who have expressed their belief in art, just like the gospel choir expresses its belief in song. The Catholic church is the largest charitable organization in the world, with the largest number of schools, hospitals, and social service providers worldwide–and they serve all who are in need, not just members of the church. Those treasures are collateral for financing such charity. If that isn’t putting one’s earthly treasure to the service of God, I don’t know what is.
This is from my conversation with Jesus:
Andy………..Are you real? I know you did live and all that. But, I’m asking are you real?
Jesus……..I’m as real as you want me to be. You know how it is, do a few miracles, say a few nice things and they make a G-D out of you.
Andy………But, you know a lot of people believe in you.
Jesus……….I know, I know. It’s a good thing. Look at how many really good people believe in me. The world would be a much nicer place if a few more would also believe in me.
Andy……….I have to agree with you on this. So what do you think about all this?
Jesus………..I think its mishegas. I can’t believe that these people would distort my beliefs as they do. Let me set one thing straight, I’m still Jewish and proud of it. As a Jew, I died for my beliefs. These mishegenas would like to kill a few more Jews, my own people. They want to do it in the name of G-D.
Andy……….But, they aren’t the only ones.
Jesus………..I know, I know. There are Moslems, Communists, Nazis, but the worst are the intellectuals and a lot of them are Jews. What can I do? I can only show them a way. They have to choose to take it. I can’t force them.
Andy………..So what’s a guy to do?
Jesus……….. Fight the good fight. Do the right thing. Help your brother when he needs it. And, most important, believe in G-D.
Andy……….It does make me feel better.
Jesus………..You see I can help!
Andy………..Wow, I better go now. G-D bless you.
Jesus…………And, bless you.
I understand that the watchman must cry out his warning … even though his people will not listen. I on the other hand no longer worry about Jews and Israel. They do not deserve my concern. American Jews would support Hitler himself if he came back and promised to vote democrat. Israelis ( I spent three weeks there a couple years ago. ) are nuts. They haven’t the sense any more to even protect themselves. The only country I know of that is more confused and screwed up than this one.
You must have visited a Hollywood set. That’s not the Israel I’ve been to.
I left a United Methodist church two years ago, when our minister gave a speech, (I wouldn’t call it a sermon) talking about how he wept with joy when Obama was elected president. I wept too but for a very different reason. I had been growing disenchanted with this church for preaching the liberal gospel in many previous sermons, but this went too far for me.
Now we have settled happily into a new evangelical mega-church in our area, and I see many former members of my old church attending the new church with me. I totally believe that the WCC had a lot to do with the Methodist Minister’s leftist leanings and preaching.
On a similar thread recently, I posted how (as a Jew) the approbation of Christians was a mixed bag for me. This article goes a long way to explaining my ambivalence.
As a staunch American, I am grateful and happy to share the support of patriotic evangelicals. I think they are largely good for America in most ways, though I differ with them on certain social issues. As a Jew, it is and always will be an uneasy alliance. Of course, I don’t want to debate differences of religious belief (this forum certainly isn’t the place for such), but I DO wish more Christians would make a better effort to gain a complete understanding of what Jews believe and why. It wasn’t very long ago that most fundamentalist Christians were teaching that Jews were evil Christ-killers. Their new-found fondness for us as some sort of prophetical fulfillment is thus VERY suspect – inasmuch as that hasn’t been our experience with them for about 2,000 years now.
My point? I am grateful for your support, but you will please excuse me (us) if any real trust is delayed for a generation or three. Y’all make us a bit nervous.
It took a while, but Christians realized God meant what He said, that messing with His people would get you on His wrong side. Good Christians want to obey God, so they are making what I think is an honest effort. But why many Jews distrust Christians but trust socialists and communists–two groups that are virulently anti-religion–is puzzling.
Well, the Jews did say, “His blood be upon us and our descendants.” However, God has a huge sense of irony: To those that have been blessed, but who forsake His ways and do evil, their very blessings shall become curses. Conversely, to the faithful who have been cursed, the curse itself becomes a blessing. The day is coming when, “His blood be upon us,” no longer refers to the crime of deicide, but rather to Israel’s sins being canceled by the Messiah’s blood.
Some “fundamentalists” may have spewed such stench, but the evangelical community, though diverse, would never tolerate or subscribe to something so antithetical to the Word. I do not blame you for being suspect. While at the Shoah museum in D.C. there were quotes from Luther quite antisemitic. A whole denomination, the entire schism in the Church, began with him, yet he held such ideas. That should have been a non-starter right there in terms of people following him. As I said below, much has been done in the name of Jesus that He has nothing to do with. Actual “disciples” have always been in the minority within the Church- most want a religious aspect to their lives, but don’t want it to be their life. Fortunately, we evangelicals are not pacifists and support Israel 100%. I would think the billions of dollars in aid, arms, etc. would be evidence of our support- but given recent history, I do not blame you. I pray for the peace of Jerusalem (undivided!).
Your mistrust is understandable. It will help you greatly if you realize that the label of “Christian” covers a wide variety of beliefs. Satan has done a great job of infiltrating and corrupting the Christian church, so that there are MANY pretenders. I am not hesitant to say that the vast majority of those who call themselves, “Christian”, are not. There is also the sad fact that anti-Semetism got an early toehold in the church, and later was greatly “helped” by Martin Luther. It’s a sad mess. But please believe me, some of use are your REAL friends, the kind that will stand with you against the firing squad wall. Remember Corie Ten Boom. Her kind still live.
Liberal politicians don’t take the Constitution literally, restricting people rather than government and liberal theologians who don’t take the Bible at its Word also pervert its meaning.
For example, to treat Isaiah 66:8 (http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Isaiah+66:8&version=NIV) as a metaphor is to deny its plain meaning.
The obsession with Israel and the alignment of world governments against the Jewish State are all signs that have been foretold and long awaited. The Land is giving Her fruit to her Children. Young Jews laugh and sing in the streets of Yerushalayim. Jews from all over the world are coming home.
The footsteps of Moshiach drown out the cackling of the idol worshippers.
Let them spit forth their venom.
The breath of the Almighty will drive it back in their own faces.
The World Council of Churches? How interesting. That must be something like the palestinian right of return. Both figiments of the imagination.
Today one can stick a sign on a post, gather five or ten friends and instantly become a ‘organization’ to our lefty media.
So who is funding the empty pews of these churches?
One important reason why bibically literate Christians are stong supporters of Israel and the Jewish people is this: after the start of the Reformation, with its emphasis on “sola Scriptura”, serious scholarship was begun on the Old Testament. Up until this time, little was taught or known of it outside of a handful of scholars. We Christians started reading the Old Testament, and to our surprise discovered Jews in it. All over the place. Called by God as “His people”. And then we discovered promises, both in the Old Testament and the Neew, that contexually fit only the Jews, that haven’t been fulfilled yet, about their return to their homeland and the reign of their Messiah, and what happens to those who oppose them.
D Peterson wrote:
“We Christians started reading the Old Testament, and to our surprise discovered Jews in it. All over the place.”
Well said!
Very good article, and as a former Presbyterian (USA), I can say, accurate. That is why, at 16, I left that denomination- their stance on Israel, Life, etc. I am an Evangelical of some Jewish descent, and I can tell you the Evangelical Community is as pro-Israel as they come. Many in the “grassroots” churches-Presbyterian, Methodist, etc.- do not subscribe to the very nonsense those in “leadership” propagate. The Presbyteries, the General Conferences of the UMC, have been taken over by Leftist radicals. We must remember that the Communist subversion even now has infiltrated academia, media, government, the intell community, and these “churches”. Please remember that much is done in the Name of Jesus that He has NOTHING to do with. Many countries have been “Christianized” to some degree, but nations are not Christian- the stats for abortion, pornography, drug/alcohol abuse, etc. are the same in the American “Church” as the culture as a whole. “The
World”, “Evil”, “Progressivism”, etc. have infiltrated the church. There is always a remnant. I am an optimist by nature, but a realist, and I am not optimistic about the future re: Israel, Christians, etc. But stand we must.
Leftist pseudo churches are a joke – spending time blessing bicycles and poodles, parying to a nebulous deity. Though I am an atheist, I will gladly say that at least (most) denominations don’t waffle on their belief system.