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Archive for the ‘God’ Category

Counterpoint: Christian Zionists Are a Threat | JewishPress

www.jewishpress.com12/27/11

It is both naïve and misleading to deny the serious costs involved in Israel's unregulated relationship with impassioned evangelical Christians. … David Ha'ivri's appearance two weeks ago with Tommy Waller on the missionary God's Learning Channel (GLC) TV network, which strives to “help you see Yeshua (Jesus) in the Torah”, pushed the envelope into forbidden territory. Mr. Ha'ivri is a committed Jew and Zionist who works tirelessly for his land and people. …

MidEastTruth :: View topic – UK Churches are Anti-Israel

mideasttruth.com11/24/11

A survey of several major churches in the UK reveals that Christian Aid, an aid organization of the World Council of Churches (WCC) that propagates far-left anti-Israel views and supports groups that promote the boycott, …

Should Israel Accept Or Refuse Christian Aid?

This is a very serious and complicated dilemma because:

Devout Protestants were advocating the restoration of a Jewish State with Jerusalem as its capital long before Theodor Herzl.

And Anglicans of the 19th Century played a central role in the process that led to the State of Israel’s establishment.

So How Should Israel Respond To Christian Support?

The question about pro-Israel Christian activism cyclically surfaces in Israel and in the US public debate.

And right now the focus is on;

Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney because:

His Mormon Church is charged with baptizing dead Jews, a rite that has been a Mormon practice for more than a century.

And the latest Simon Wiesenthal Center’s top 10 anti-Semitic slurs list features two Christian priests from Syria and the US.

How Do Different Christian Groups View Israel?

The Negative Ones

The United Church of Christ attended by US President Obama which is prominently anti-Israel.

The Vatican, which recently embraced a new aggressiveness towards Israel.

The Pro-Israel Ones

The US Evangelicals, which are the most pro-Israel, and some independent Protestant groups, like the Christians for Israel.

How Much Money Do Evangelicals And Others Donate To Israel?

In the last decade, US Christians donated tens and most likely hundreds of millions of dollars for school equipment, playgrounds, medical supplies and bulletproof buses to protect the Jews in Judea and Samaria, while other groups, such as Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein’s International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, raised money to protect Sderot’s residents from Hamas’ rockets.

So What’s The Problem With Evangelical Support?

Anti-Defamation League Director Abraham Foxman, is openly contemptuous of Evangelical support, stating that it’s members are motivated by the doctrine that sees Israel as having a special role in the final earthly battle in the "End of Days" during which most Jews are wiped out and the rest embrace Jesus.

It needs to be said however that most Evangelical leaders reject this theology, and a good many Evangelicals have curtailed their missionary activities among Israeli Jews, and the vast majority simply wants to bless Israel because that is what they believe they are called upon to do.

* The origins of Christian support can be traced back to the Gutenberg press (1456), which popularized ideas of "The Promised Land” and "The Chosen People".

Which Christians Are Most Dangerous To Israel?

The hostility toward Israel is actively encouraged by liberal Christians, such as the World Council of Churches and the Vatican, and they pose a much greater near-term threat to Jews than anything the evangelicals might believe or espouse.

Just last week, the head of the Catholic Church in England and Wales offered the Palestinians a powerful tool of propaganda.

"The comparison with Jesus’ passion!"

Archbishop Vincent Nichols said during his Christmas Mass sermon at Westminster Cathedral.

"We are to be freshly attentive to the needs of those who, like Jesus himself, are displaced and in discomfort, a shadow falls particularly heavily on the town of Bethlehem tonight".

What Should Israel’s Leaders Do?

Many Jews believe that Israel’s leaders need to counter the "Judeo-Christian” blend, which theologically fuses Jews and Christians together without protecting the Jewish faith and maintaining Israel as an independent single-faith Jewish community.

But the Bible teaches quite clearly that,

"If there is the "gentile” who is jealous and aggressive (Amalek), there is also a "Righteous gentile” who is admiring and willing to help (Jethro.)

Obama approves secret sale of 'bunker buster' bombs to Israel

Eli Lake has a scoop for Newsweek outlining President Obama's secret approval of bunker busting bombs to Israel, which could presumably be used in an attack on Iran. The deal was cut early in the Obama administration. …

Publish Date: 09/24/2011 15:47

http://mondoweiss.net/2011/09/obama-approves-secret-sale-of-bunker-buster-bombs-to-israel.html

US sold bunker-busting bombs to Israel: report

Washington (AFP) Sept 23, 2011 – President Barack Obama secretly authorized the sale of 55 powerful bunker-busting bombs to Israel, Newsweek magazine reported Friday.

Publish Date: 09/25/2011 1:08

http://www.spacewar.com/reports/US_sold_bunker-busting_bombs_to_Israel_report_999.html

A New Feud Between Turkey And Iran

What Iran Is Saying

A key aide to Iran’s supreme leader said on Saturday that,

"Turkey must radically rethink its policies on Syria, the NATO missile shield and promoting Muslim secularism in the Arab world, or face trouble from its own people and neighbours".

And in an interview with the semi-official Mehr news agency, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s military adviser described Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan’s invitation to Arab countries to adopt Turkish-style democracy as,

"Uunexpected and unimaginable".

Following The Summer Of Discontent

Turkey and Iran, the Middle East’s two major non-Arab Muslim states, are now vying for influence in the Arab world as it goes through the biggest shake-up since the Ottoman Empire fell, and it’s a rivalry that is seriously straining their previously close relations.

Although cheering crowds greeted Erdogan on his recent tour of North Africa, Tehran accused Erdogan of bowing to U.S. interests by opposing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s crackdown on street protests, and by agreeing to NATO’s missile defence.

Major-General Yahya Rahim-Safavi said via the Mehr news agency:

"The behaviour of Turkish statesmen towards Syria and Iran is wrong and, I believe, they are acting in line with the goals of America".

"If Turkey does not distance itself from this unconventional political behaviour it will have both the Turkish people turning away from it domestically and the neighbouring countries of Syria, Iraq and Iran reassessing their political ties".

The Islamic Awakening?

Khamenei has dubbed the Arab uprisings an "Islamic awakening", and predicts that peoples in the Middle East that have overthrown dictatorial, Western-backed regimes will follow the path Iran took after its 1979 Islamic revolution.

Many analysts say however that the uprisings have for the most part been secular in nature.

The Gap Between Turkey And Iran

Erdogan’s advocacy of secular Muslim democracy, which is something that he extolled during his tour of Egypt, Tunisia and Libya last month, is far from the message that the Islamic Republic of Iran wants to spread throughout the region and Iran’s Rahim-Safavi said:

"I think the Turks are treading a wrong path. It might very well be that the path was set for them by the Americans".

"The Turks have so far committed a few strategic wrongs. One was Erdogan’s trip to Egypt and his presentation of the secular model there. This fact was unexpected and unimaginable since the Egyptian people are Muslims".

While Tehran has publicly urged its close ally Syria to listen to people’s legitimate demands, Erdogan has predicted Assad will be ousted "sooner or later" and is set to impose sanctions on Damascus despite a veto on U.N. action by Russia and China.

Turkey, Iran And The Missiles

It’s likely that Turkey’s decision to deploy a NATO missile early warning system angered Tehran the most, since it’s views the deployment as a U.S. ploy to protect Israel from any counter-attack, should the Jewish state target Iran’s nuclear facilities.

And it should perhaps be noted that the US supplied Israel with bunker-busting bombs in 2009.

Turkey, Iran And Israel

Rahim-Safavi said,

"Trade ties with Turkey, which is an importer of Iranian gas and exporter of an array of manufactured goods would be in jeopardy if Ankara does not change tack".

"If Turkish political leaders fail to make their foreign policy and ties with Iran clear, they will run into problems".

"And if, as they claim, they intend to raise the volume of contracts with Iran to the $20 billion mark, they will ultimately have to accommodate Iran".

And all this at a time when many were concerned that the whole Islamic middle east would line up against Israel.

Have you noticed that every time it appears that Israel will fight a deadly enemy that the enemies end up fighting each other?

Maybe Read This?

2 Chr. Chapter 20

The Ammonites and others attack Judah—Jehoshaphat and all the people fast and pray—Jahaziel prophesies the deliverance of Judah—Judah’s attackers war among and destroy themselves.

1 It came to pass after this also, that the children of Moab, and the children of Ammon, and with them other beside the Ammonites, came against Jehoshaphat to battle.

2 Then there came some that told Jehoshaphat, saying, There cometh a great multitude against thee from beyond the sea on this side Syria; and, behold, they be in Hazazon-tamar, which is En-gedi.

3 And Jehoshaphat feared, and set himself to seek the Lord, and proclaimed a afast throughout all Judah.

4 And Judah gathered themselves together, to ask help of the Lord: even out of all the cities of Judah they came to seek the Lord.

5 And Jehoshaphat stood in the congregation of Judah and Jerusalem, in the house of the Lord, before the new court,

6 And said, O Lord God of our fathers, art not thou God in heaven? and rulest not thou over all the kingdoms of the heathen? and in thine hand is there not power and might, so that none is able to withstand thee?

7 Art not thou our God, who didst drive out the inhabitants of this land before thy people Israel, and gavest it to the aseed of Abraham thy friend for ever?

8 And they dwelt therein, and have built thee a sanctuary therein for thy name, saying,

9 If, when evil cometh upon us, as the sword, judgment, or pestilence, or famine, we stand before this house, and in thy presence, (for thy name is in this house,) and cry unto thee in our aaffliction, then thou wilt hear and help.

10 And now, behold, the children of Ammon and Moab and mount Seir, whom thou wouldest not let Israel invade, when they came out of the land of Egypt, but they turned from them, and destroyed them not;

11 Behold, I say, how they reward us, to come to cast us out of thy possession, which thou hast given us to inherit.

12 O our God, wilt thou not judge them? for we have no might against this great company that cometh against us; neither aknow we what to do: but our eyes are upon thee.

13 And all Judah stood before the Lord, with their little ones, their wives, and their children.

14 Then upon Jahaziel the son of Zechariah, the son of Benaiah, the son of Jeiel, the son of Mattaniah, a Levite of the sons of Asaph, came the Spirit of the Lord in the midst of the congregation;

15 And he said, Hearken ye, all Judah, and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem, and thou king Jehoshaphat, Thus saith the Lord unto you, Be not afraid nor dismayed by reason of this great multitude; for the abattle is not yours, but God’s.

16 To morrow go ye down against them: behold, they come up by the acliff of Ziz; and ye shall find them at the end of the bbrook, cbefore the wilderness of Jeruel.

17 Ye shall not need to fight in this battle: set yourselves, stand ye still, and see the asalvation of the Lord with you, O Judah and Jerusalem: fear not, nor be dismayed; to morrow go out against them: for the Lord will be with you.

18 And Jehoshaphat bowed his head with his face to the ground: and all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem fell before the Lord, worshipping the Lord.

19 And the Levites, of the children of the Kohathites, and of the children of the Korhites, stood up to praise the Lord God of Israel with a loud voice on high.

20 And they rose early in the morning, and went forth into the wilderness of Tekoa: and as they went forth, Jehoshaphat stood and said, Hear me, O Judah, and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem; aBelieve in the Lord your God, so shall ye be established; bbelieve his prophets, so shall ye cprosper.

21 And when he had consulted with the people, he appointed singers unto the Lord, and that should praise the beauty of holiness, as they went out before the army, and to say, Praise the Lord; for his mercy endureth for ever.

22 And when they began to sing and to praise, the Lord set ambushments against the children of Ammon, Moab, and mount Seir, which were come against Judah; and they awere smitten.

23 For the children of Ammon and Moab stood up against the inhabitants of mount Seir, utterly to slay and destroy them: and when they had made an end of the inhabitants of Seir, every one helped to destroy aanother.

24 And when Judah came toward the watch tower in the wilderness, they looked unto the multitude, and, behold, they were dead bodies fallen to the earth, and none escaped.

Whether you’re religious or not, the above perhaps bears thinking about?