Did The Jews Kill Christ or was Jesus a Victim of Identity Theft?

From Randy Weiss of Crosstalk.com, who can be reached at randy@crosstalk.org and
www.ThePasionConspiracy.com

Did The Jews Kill Christ or was Jesus a Victim of Identity Theft?

Consider the facts:

* The Jews did not kill Christ because the Jews could not kill Christ.
They did not have legal authority in matters of capital crimes under
Roman law at that time.

* The Jews were a diverse group of 4,500,000 people spread out over
many nations of the world. They could not collectively make a single
matzah ball or take any solitary decisive action for which all could take
credit or all share blame.

* The Jews did not have power over God. The death of Christ was
according to God’s sovereign will according to the Scriptures.

*The Jews did not have control over a decision that belonged to Jesus.
Jesus laid His life down. Nobody took it from Him. It would be wrong
to depreciate His love by suggesting that the Jewish people, or other
groups of people were responsible for our eternal salvation. After all,
that is what Christ purchased through His death.

It seems to me that the folks who confuse these matters misunderstand
the real character and true identity of Jesus. Actually, many people
reinterpret the life and purpose of Jesus to fit their own agendas.
They recreate Jesus to fit a pattern they prefer. Perhaps that is what
happened in Mr. Gibson’s film.

The producers substituted bread for matzah in the Feast of Unleavened
Bread. Whether intentional or not, this error moved Jesus to a place
outside the flow of Judaism. It is well known that Jews were forbidden
to eat leavened bread during the time of Passover. To ignore this lowest
common denominator that Jesus shared with the Jews of His community
is to ignore that He was a faithful member of the Jewish community.
If He can be extricated from His situation in life as a Jewish man in the
first century, He can be recreated and recast in anyway that anyone
chooses. In essence, He could be molded to fit the need anyone wished
for Jesus to fill. But Jesus does not change at our insistence; we change
at His. God does not change; He is perfect. We must change because
we are imperfect. This may seem like an abstract philosophical concern,
but it is not. It is a fundamental truth and we must let Jesus be Jesus.
If we are permitted to modify Him to suit our fancy then we become God
and He becomes our servant. That is why I refuse to ignore that the Last
Supper was a traditional Jewish Passover. To make it less is to rob Jesus
of His heritage on this earth. Of course that is the pattern for many
Christian traditions. Leonardo Da Vinci had the same problem when he
was commissioned to create The Last Supper for the Convent of Dominican
friars at Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan. If one looks carefully at this
most famous religious painting, the traditional Gentile dinner rolls will
become evident.

Jesus was born into the line of Jewish kings. Christians believe He is King
eternal. Had He been born into a non-Jewish home, He would have been
discredited from inheriting this throne. The prophetic mantle would have
remained unfulfilled. Had He sinned in His dietary regimen eating food
not kosher for Passover, He would have been disqualified as a perfect
sacrifice and the Cross would have been pointless in the Father’s plan of
salvation. If we ignore the small details of the food Jesus ate at His final
Pesach seder, it becomes easier to ignore other details, such as the clothing
Jesus wore.

Consider what the poor woman with the issue of blood would have done
if the wardrobe designer from Mr. Gibson’s film had outfitted our Savior?
She touched the ?hem? of His garment and was healed according to
Matthew 9:20. To the uninitiated reader, it might seem that Jesus wore
Levi Docker slacks and the woman grabbed the neatly turned, starched
hem of His pleated trousers gently draping over His penny loafers.
Of course that would be quite ludicrous to suggest because everyone
knows Jesus did not wear slacks. Would dressing Jesus in slacks be
anymore foolish than presuming He disobeyed the commands of
Numbers 15:38 and disregarded wearing His tallith with the proper
long tsithith?fringes in the corners? According to Jewish practice and
the best scholarship, it is these fringes that the women touched. It was
not the hem of His trousers, it was the borders (corners or wings) where
the tsithith hung.

If we can quietly allow Mr. Gibson to separate Jesus from His Jewish
food and His Jewish dress, we can begin to disentangle Him from His
other Jewish characteristics. That is why the subtitle of this book asks
the question, Did the Jews Kill Christ or Has Someone Stolen His Identity?
The Jews are not to blame for His death. I believe He lives! There is no
body. The accusation of murder is a moot point in light of the Resurrection.
The crime is in how Jesus is usually represented. Many groups have stolen
His identity.

That is how the founder of The Great Passion Play of Eureka Springs,
Arkansas, promoted Jesus. He presented images of a blond-haired,
blue-eyed, WASP Savior. Jesus was the victim of identity theft.
He stole the true identity of Jesus and created a fairy tale Christ invented
in his vain imagination. The Bible commands us not to worship false
gods, yet that is what happens when we worship an idea of God that is a
fabrication. This can happen quite easily if we become distracted from
worshipping the God of the Bible and begin to serve an illusion about God
presented by false teachers.

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Billy Graham Opposed The Evangelization Of Jews!

Wow, it is becoming more and more difficult to defend Billy Graham! On one hand, a great many people have been brought to Christ and inspired to evangelize by his ministry. On the other, his ties to Roman Catholics and corrupt globalist politicians (The New World Order) cannot be denied. And here now, we see Graham opposing what the Bible clearly says regarding evangelism attempts: to the Jew first and then the Gentile. Why? Well start with the fact that the Vatican Council of the 1960s officially endorsed dual covenant theology. Rejecting that doctrine rejects the authority and inerrancy of the the pope, and ecumenical Protestants like Graham try their best to create a form of Christianity that does not directly conflict with or contradict Roman Catholicism. Second, Graham was, let us face it, universally embraced, loved by THE WORLD. The world demands of all Christians first and foremost that we deny that Jesus Christ is the only way to salvation! After we do that, it opens the floodgates to all sorts of things, leading to the very denial of the authority of God and His coming judgment itself. Now of course, all sorts of justifications are given for demanding that Christians not proselytize Jews, and it does include legitimate issues such as past Christian persecution of Jews and their own religious convictions. For that reason, Messianic Jews themselves do a great job of telling us not to be deceptive, coercive, or insensitive and oafish in our attempts to convert Jews. The Bible does say “He that winneth souls is wise (Proverbs 11:30b).” But the Bible is clear on this fact: we have to do it: see Romans 1:16. Anyone who suggests otherwise does not take Christianity seriously, and is demanding that Christians cease to do so as well. And this exposes the hypocrisy: the very same people who use the spiritual beliefs of the Jewish religion as a motive to try to get Christians to stop evangelizing Jews ignore or oppose the fact that our own spiritual beliefs compel us to proselytize Jews and everyone else! Now such people lie and claim that what they are after is universal respect for one another’s religion, which means no one attempting to convert anyone else, and calling that “freedom of religion.” No, freedom of religion means the freedom to practice your religion, and evangelism is an integral part of legitimate Christianity. Second, their own hypocrisy is exposed whenever these same people glorify the conversion of a Christian to Islam (especially if the Christian is black), and furthermore by their own attempts to use the media, popular entertainment, the education system, etc. to convert Christians to secularism and atheism! So it has NOTHING to do with respect for Judaism, and EVERYTHING to do with opposing Jesus Christ. Billy Graham knew this, and the fact that he did not take a stand WITH those people who were trying to spread the gospel and AGAINST those that were hindering the gospel shows which side he was on!

See link: Billy Graham Blasts Brethren

The Jewish Week/January 7, 2000

By Eric J. Greenberg

Rev. Billy Graham has questioned leaders of his own Southern Baptist denomination for targeting Jews and others for conversion.

“I normally defend my denomination. I’m loyal to it. But I have never targeted Muslims. I have never targeted Jews,” he said this week in an interview with Fox News.

The comments from the 80-year-old world-renowned evangelist [are] considered significant as the leadership of the Southern Baptist Convention-the nation’s largest Christian group with 15.8 million member-has recently increased efforts to proselytize Jews, Hindus and others. The move has sparked outrage from Jewish and non-Jewish religious leaders.

“I consider Graham’s comments very important because he is giving a reprimand and a corrective to the religious extremists who have taken control of the Southern Baptist Convention,” said Rabbi James Rudin, director of interreligious affairs for the American Jewish Committee.

Philip Abramowitz, director of the Task Force on Missionaries and Cults for the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York, also welcomed Graham’s remarks. “It’s wonderful that he has made such a statement,” said Abramowitz, whose organization has been locked in a running quarrel with Dr. Paige Patterson, president of the Baptist Convention.

The JCRC charges Patterson with endorsing “deceptive tactics” used by Hebrew Christian groups to entice non-affiliated Jews to accept Jesus as God. In response, Patterson proposed a meeting between his leaders and Hebrew Christians and Jewish leaders. But JCRC rejected that, countering with a proposal for a one-on-one meeting between Patterson and JCRC president Gedale Horowitz.

In the latest development, Patterson rejected the counteroffer and called the matter closed. But the Southern Baptist leadership said it intends to send thousands of missionaries to Chicago next summer to try to convert Jews and Muslims, sparking an outcry from Chicago’s religious leaders.

The Giant Cross In Israel: Why Do We Christians Insist On Persecuting Jews?

News flash: The Jews went to Israel TO GET AWAY FROM US. AND NOT ENTIRELY WITHOUT JUSTIFICATION. So of all places to build the world’s largest cross (and incidentally, does not such a display of excess qualify as a graven image or idol?) why Israel? What is worse: these people are showing NO INTEREST in what is REALLY IMPORTANT, which is winning people with the gospel over there. See, in Israel, it is ILLEGAL to proselytize or evangelize. So, the only way to LEGALLY win converts (and the New Testament does CLEARLY TELL US TO OBEY THE LAW AND RESPECT EARTHLY AUTHORITIES, especially in Acts) is by being loving, kind, and respectful so that you can draw people with your good works. And Christians have been doing exactly that, especially with the Russian and African immigrants. Further, there is also a small but growing Messianic Jewish movement over there, and they are facing ostracism and persecution (Israeli Persecution Of Messianic Jews Has Been Going On For Some Time, Persecution Of Messianic Jews In Israel By Rabbinic Jews!!). Even some Muslims are beginning to get curious about Jesus Christ in that region. And now, a bunch of Christians chasing after mammon – trying to get tourist dollars back into the Christian tourist attractions – are threatening what is really important by trying to erect a giant cross that will serve to only inflame Jews and Muslims. It will be seen as a Christian imperialist/triumphialist move, as well as an act of religious aggression: a desire for Christians to start aggressive full scale open conversion attempts. Result? 1) Violence, first against the Messianic Jews (who have already suffered violence and harrassment at the hands of extreme elements of the Jewish community) and then against the gentile Christians over there. 2) Gentile Christians will have their missions shut down and be expelled from Israel. 3) Israel will pass much tougher evangelism laws than they already have. Right now it is merely illegal to ask someone to convert; they are free to do so of their own accord, and the law is only enforced against people who try to evangelize children (because of the ugly history of state churches and Christian nannies baptizing Jewish children against the will of the parents). But once tensions inflame over this, conversion will be illegal, both accepting or seeking them. 4) Let us not forget the Muslims! You know, the people that we are brutally subjugating in Iraq? Right about now? Muslims see the cross as a sign of military and religious aggression. You know this whole Confederate flag thing that has black folks so upset? Well A) multiply that times 100 and B) put a giant Confederate flag in the middle of Harlem, Watts, Detroit, south side Chicago, Auburn Avenue Atlanta, Anacostia in Washington, D.C., or in Carol City Miami and see what will happen. Can you say INTIFADA? Can you say “Well, since they are going to put up a giant cross in our backyard, we are going to have our Council of American Islamic Relations brothers in America throw bombs into THEIR backyards.” Of course, Christians should be willing to abide no small amount of terror reprisals for spreading the gospel, BUT PUTTING UP A GIANT CROSS TO ATTRACT INTERNATIONAL TOURISTS IS NOT AN EVANGELISTIC ENTERPRISE, IT IS A CAPITALIST ONE! This cross is being put up for MONEY (making it certainly an IDOL) and it would cause all sorts of division, strife, and hindrance of the gospel over MONEY (which idolatry tends to do). We need some Bible – believing Christians (John Hagee, this excludes you) to rise up and let these “Christian businessmen” trying to build this cross what a horrible idea it is. If they want Christian tourists over there so badly, then they need to support the charity and mission works in Israel (you know, do what the Bible actually says? Remember? the Bible?) so they can create their own.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1184489825284&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

Acts 13:48 – Free Will Versus Election And Predestination

Acts 13:48 – And when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad, and glorified the word of the Lord: and as many as were ordained to eternal life believed. Well, that is rather explicit, especially when you consider its context, because this verse concludes a “salvation narrative”, the prior verses of which Paul was preaching the gospel, Acts 13:16-49 “Then Paul stood up, and beckoning with his hand said, Men of Israel, and ye that fear God, give audience. The God of this people of Israel chose our fathers, and exalted the people when they dwelt as strangers in the land of Egypt, and with an high arm brought he them out of it. And about the time of forty years suffered he their manners in the wilderness. And when he had destroyed seven nations in the land of Chanaan, he divided their land to them by lot. And after that he gave unto them judges about the space of four hundred and fifty years, until Samuel the prophet. And afterward they desired a king: and God gave unto them Saul the son of Cis, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, by the space of forty years. And when he had removed him, he raised up unto them David to be their king; to whom also he gave their testimony, and said, I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after mine own heart, which shall fulfil all my will. Of this man’s seed hath God according to his promise raised unto Israel a Saviour, Jesus: When John had first preached before his coming the baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel. And as John fulfilled his course, he said, Whom think ye that I am? I am not he. But, behold, there cometh one after me, whose shoes of his feet I am not worthy to loose. Men and brethren, children of the stock of Abraham, and whosoever among you feareth God, to you is the word of this salvation sent. For they that dwell at Jerusalem, and their rulers, because they knew him not, nor yet the voices of the prophets which are read every sabbath day, they have fulfilled them in condemning him.  And though they found no cause of death in him, yet desired they Pilate that he should be slain. And when they had fulfilled all that was written of him, they took him down from the tree, and laid him in a sepulchre. But God raised him from the dead: And he was seen many days of them which came up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are his witnesses unto the people. And we declare unto you glad tidings, how that the promise which was made unto the fathers, God hath fulfilled the same unto us their children, in that he hath raised up Jesus again; as it is also written in the second psalm, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee. And as concerning that he raised him up from the dead, now no more to return to corruption, he said on this wise, I will give you the sure mercies of David. Wherefore he saith also in another psalm, Thou shalt not suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. For David, after he had served his own generation by the will of God, fell on sleep, and was laid unto his fathers, and saw corruption: But he, whom God raised again, saw no corruption. Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins: And by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses. Beware therefore, lest that come upon you, which is spoken of in the prophets; Behold, ye despisers, and wonder, and perish: for I work a work in your days, a work which ye shall in no wise believe, though a man declare it unto you. And when the Jews were gone out of the synagogue, the Gentiles besought that these words might be preached to them the next sabbath. Now when the congregation was broken up, many of the Jews and religious proselytes followed Paul and Barnabas: who, speaking to them, persuaded them to continue in the grace of God.And the next sabbath day came almost the whole city together to hear the word of God. But when the Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled with envy, and spake against those things which were spoken by Paul, contradicting and blaspheming. Then Paul and Barnabas waxed bold, and said, It was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to you: but seeing ye put it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles. For so hath the Lord commanded us, saying, I have set thee to be a light of the Gentiles, that thou shouldest be for salvation unto the ends of the earth. And when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad, and glorified the word of the Lord: and as many as were ordained to eternal life believed. And the word of the Lord was published throughout all the region.”

Kind of hard for this free will Christian to get around that one, isn’t it? Oh well. I will try. The next time I can find a Bible verse to support it.

A Clear Witness To Israel Part II

by Dr. Randy Weiss of crosstalk.org, who can be reached at DrWeiss@crosstalk.org

Many of you know that I am Jewish and therefore, I am often asked for
advice on how to witness to my people. Sometimes I think they ask me
because they assume it must be some kind of genetic thing. First, I must tell
you that a Jew is saved in the same manner as a Gentile, God does it because
man cannot. The most effective tactic in Jewish evangelism is still fervent
prayer and love. I realize that some of you graciously think that all Messianic
Jews are special. That’s very kind of you, but I fear that this has led to a
problem. Some of us in the Messianic community seem to believe the rhetoric
that we are special by birth, and that is a temptation that can lead to spiritual
arrogance. This can be very dangerous. We are special by birth?but it is
by the ?new birth!? We are all dependent on Jewish blood, but it was not the
blood of our Jewish parents. It was the blood of our Jewish savior–Jesus.
Jewish blood is not distinguishable from Gentile blood beyond the fact that
it is all sin-tainted. Other than that, it is all the same. Paul explained this
very clearly to the Athenians saying that God intended it to all be the same
making us all ?of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face
of the earth? (Acts 17:26). It is only the blood of Jesus that makes a
difference. Those of us who are involved in Jewish evangelism must
remember and important fact. Observant Jews who reject Jesus are not
stupid; they are simply not convinced. I think it is fair to say that most
Jews are not convinced of our evangelical interpretations of their Jewish
Scriptures. Nor do the majority of Jews see the necessity for 25% of the
pages in our Bible titled the New Testament. Therefore, the New Testament
is not generally regarded as grounds for our arguments. I also want to
briefly address certain Messianic traditions and Jewish flavored trends
about our Messiah. By the way, I usually call him Jesus. I love and respect
my peers who religiously call him by His Hebrew name-Yeshua, but reading
Hebrew doesn’t automatically make us more spiritual. Calling Jesus,
Yeshua is very nice, but knowing His name doesn’t insure that we know
or share His character. We might wish to remember that some traditional
Jews find changing the names of the New Testament characters to be an
offensive tactic. To some, changing the names does not protect the innocent,
it convicts the suspicious. To many, calling Jesus, Yeshua is little more
than a subterfuge and they deem it to be improper. Forgive me, but His
name, which was a very common first century Jewish name, is not offensive
in any language. It is not His name, but His claims that enrage unbelievers.
Regardless of what we call the Son of God, He will always be a
stumblingblock to those who don’t believe God wanted or needed a Son.
Personally, I don’t feel that we have any obligation to put Jesus in a more
appealing package or change His name. He is altogether winsome and
perfect without our help.

One misconception that must be addressed is to correct the notion that Jews
are more difficult to save or more valuable than non-Jews after the experience
of salvation. Salvation is not an act of man’s persuasion; it is a miracle
preceded by God’s conviction, followed by God’s grace, and finished by
God’s power to change condemned sinners into redeemed saints. It is
therefore impossible to get anybody saved through our own efforts. It
requires a divine work of God’s grace and the same measure of grace is
needed for people of every race. If you have difficulty witnessing to Jews,
think of it like: ?Its grace not race!? Works for me. Our prior race, color,
or creed is supposed to get lost in the one color that supercedes all others.
Red is the color of the blood of the lamb that washes sins away. Once those
sins are removed, God creates ONE NEW MAN. It is imperative that this
one new man theology becomes a cornerstone in the construction of your faith.
As a Jewish believer in Jesus, I want everyone to know that I see no
hierarchy in God’s love that separates Jew from non-Jews at the throne of
grace, or thereafter. I believe we are jointly called to become one new man
in Him. You should also believe this. Not because I say so, but rather,
because God says so. Referring to the relationship between Jews and
Gentiles within early Jewish Christianity, Paul accurately identified Christ
as our peace. He informs us that Jesus did not want to have two different
classes of saved believers. His revolutionary proclamation was that God
had ?Broken down the middle wall of partition between us? (Eph. 2:14).
He went on to tell us that in the process, he made a new creation. He made
one new class of people. He called us ?one new man? (Eph. 2:15). We are
no longer first or foremost Jews or Gentiles in Christ. We are Christians,
and as such, we are one new man in Him. I am not ashamed of the name
or the proclamation that I am a Christian and Jesus is Lord! That reality
defines my existence. I am not any less Jewish for that confession. I have
an earned graduate degree from a respected Jewish institution. I have
studied with rabbinic teachers. They may reject my Jewishness, but they
cannot change my blood. Likewise, we can change the name of Jesus back
into His original ancient language, but it will never change His character or
purpose, and it will never change the efficacy of His blood. I don’t go out
of the way to call myself a Messianic Jew because I am nothing more than a
Jewish believer in Jesus. That simply makes me a Christian. According to
the Acts of the Apostles, that term was first used in Antioch. I assure you
that historically, the term was applied equally to Jewish and Greek converts
to the faith. Most likely, it was a derogatory term coined by unbelievers.
Unfortunately, it is still, often used in the pejorative sense. Now is not the
time to get quasi-superior because of a Jewish heritage. Here is my point:
I am a Jew, and most of my viewers are non-Jewish. That makes me
different, not better. It is wonderful that a growing number of non-Jewish
believers appreciate the Jewishness of Jesus. Your hunger to find the Jewish
Jesus is real and valid. It will change your understanding of the Scriptures
and deepen your love for the Scriptures. It will seal your commitment to the
God of Israel, and your relationship with the Children of Israel. I congratulate
you on your search to meet my Jewish Savior. If I can help you, please call
me or write to me. My counsel to my Jewish and non-Jewish friends will
always be to search the Scriptures for therein we will find life and safety.
In that regard, I guess, I, too, believe in a form of spiritual exclusivity. But
it is not related to Jews being better equipped to serve God. It is very simple.
The exclusivity to which I stubbornly adhere is simple. I believe the Bible,
exclusively, has the final word on matters of faith and practice. And I believe
that Jesus, exclusively, is the way to salvation. Jesus was a Jew, but that fails
to validate or invalidate the views of other Jews.

Jewish Perspective On The Gaza Crisis: GAZA HERE WE COME!

‘Take Back Gaza Now’ By Michael Freund

Still reeling from the brutal terrorist murder of teenager Helena Rapp of Bat Yam, Israelis went to the polls on June 23, 1992, and voted for Yitzhak Rabin, thanks in large part to his promise to “take Gaza out of Tel Aviv.” Now, just a decade and a half later, Gaza is back, and with a vengeance. For far too long, Israel has been trying to run away from the Gaza problem, and that has gotten us nowhere. The time has come to stop fleeing and to face this threat head-on. Indeed, thanks to the blundering of successive Israeli leaders, what was once just a thorny counterinsurgency problem has now become a full-blown strategic threat, as the rise of Hamastan before our very eyes makes abundantly clear.

The existence of a rogue, Taliban-style terrorist state along Israel’s southern border is a recipe for disaster. If allowed to come to pass, the consequences will be felt far beyond the outskirts of Sderot and Ashkelon. Gaza will serve as a regional launching pad for terrorism, trouble and tribulation, and it will tempt the rest of our neighbors to think that the “liberation of Palestine” is near.  And if Hamas were to extend its rule to Judea and Samaria, it would place all of central Israel within striking distance of Muslim fanatics. It is therefore essential that Hamas’s “experiment in Islamic rule” be shut down as quickly as possible, before the danger becomes even more pressing. So let’s finally shed our delusions that we can “take Gaza out of Tel Aviv,” and let’s just “take Gaza,” once and for all.

Israel should reassert complete control over the area, topple the Palestinian Authority, arrest and try its leadership, and finally declare that this land is rightfully ours and we shall never again abandon it. We should methodically uproot the terrorist infrastructure, and rebuild the rubble of Gush Katif and its once-thriving Jewish communities. In other words, take Gaza back, take all of it back, and don’t ever give it up again.

LET’S BE honest: after 15 years of retreat, it is time to try something else. Those who preached concessions and withdrawal have been proven painfully wrong, again and again, and the people of Israel have suffered terribly for their shortsightedness and frailty. The government needs to stop worrying about how Condoleezza Rice and Javier Solana will react, and start concerning itself a little more with the safety and security of its citizens. Leaving Gaza in the hands of Hamas and its supporters is simply not an option.

“But there is no military solution,” shout the Left and much of the media, as Kassam rockets continue to slam into the Negev. “We must negotiate,” they say, as the terror groups recruit Palestinian mothers with young children to serve as suicide bombers. Pay them no heed. These are the same high priests of appeasement, after all, who got us into this mess in the first place. It was at their behest that Israel pulled out of Gaza nearly two years ago, expelling thousands of Jews from their homes and withdrawing the IDF. To paraphrase Ronald Reagan’s famous 1980 query to Americans, “Are Israelis better off now than they were before the Gaza retreat?” It is evident that the answer is a resounding “no.” At the time, proponents of the move said it would wash Israel’s hands of Gaza, strengthen Palestinian moderates and pull the rug out from under the extremists. They were wrong. Dead wrong. The pullout from Gaza has proven to be a disastrous mistake, one that has claimed numerous Israeli lives – and Palestinian ones, too.

So when the pundits and the talking heads now try to persuade us of the wisdom of supporting Fatah thugs against Hamas terrorists, or of inviting an international force into the area, let’s just remember how effective their previous policy prescriptions turned out to be. After all, it was the opponents of the pullout who have proven to be prescient. They predicted beforehand that an Israeli withdrawal would lead to a Hamas takeover in Gaza. That, of course, is precisely what has occurred. They warned that pulling the IDF out of Gaza would lead to intensified Palestinian rocket attacks on southern Israel, and that, too, has come to pass.

WE NEED not accept the present situation, nor should we. It is not too late to correct the error of withdrawal, and to declare at last an end to the delusions of reaching a false peace with those who seek our demise. So let’s hit the collective rewind button, and take back control over the entire Gaza Strip. Let the Left ridicule the idea of returning to Gaza as much as they please. They were wrong then and they are wrong now, and I’d rather be right and alive, than progressive and on the run.

What about the Palestinian population, you say? Sorry, but the Palestinians had their chance. They blew it. They could have had a state, they could have made a deal with Barak, with Peres, or with Rabin. But instead they chose the path of extremism and bloodshed. They have no one to blame but themselves for the outcome, and there is no reason why innocent Israelis should continue to pay the price for the Palestinians’ ongoing obstructionism. Will there be political and diplomatic fallout from an Israeli move into Gaza? For sure. The Europeans will spill their lattes when they hear the news, and the halls of the United Nations will echo with the drumbeat of outrage as the Jewish state is condemned for defending itself. But as important as diplomacy is, it pales in comparison with protecting the lives of innocent Jewish men, women and children. When it comes to safeguarding the welfare of its citizens, Israel has no choice but to put aside all other considerations and to act to defend itself. For no matter what Israel does, or does not do, the blame is inevitably hurled our way. So we might as well do what we must, and proudly raise the blue and white flag once again over the sand dunes of Gaza.

We should never have left in the first place, and the time has now come to return. Like it or not, the choice between Israel or Hamas ruling over the area really doesn’t leave us with much choice at all. So Gaza, here we come!

Here are two more enlightening articles about the land won by Israel’s defensive efforts in the Six Day War…We Must Combine Activism with Faith:An Interview with MK Benny Elon… Six Days to Remember–AccuratelyBy Jeff Jacoby…

Christians Being Persecuted In Gaza With No Media Coverage Because They Can’t Blame It On The Jews!

Hey, where is the religious left on this one? Jimmy Carter? World Council Of Churches? All of you folks who blame Israel’s security fence for Christians leaving Bethlehem? Where are you? Do you not think that God is going to judge you one day for your dishonest dealings with the children of Abraham and with your own Christian brothers and sisters? Reformed Chicks Blabbing: Christians told to accept Islamic law in Gaza Strip

Reformed Chicks Blabbing: Attacks on Christians in the Gaza Strip

Two Reasons Why Blaming The Jews For Killing Jesus Christ Is Wrong

Christians dealing with the issue of anti – Semitism are often given two false choices: accepting a re – interpretation of scripture that denies its truth, inerrancy, and inspiration that ultimately lead to denying Christ’s deity and/or the true meaning of His death, or adhering to traditional beliefs that are not only unhelpful in dealing with Jews because they are at best chauvinistic, but are also abiblical. But as usual, directly confronting the issue from a direct literal interpretation of scripture liberates Christians from the false choices presented to them by the world.

1. Claiming to be God is the crime of blasphemy according to the Jewish religion and law. Under Torah Judaism, the sentence for blasphemy: death by stoning. Therefore, anyone who rejected Jesus Christ’s claim of being deity would have had to condemn Him of blasphemy and advocate His education. That would have been working righteousness according to the law given to the Jews by God by way of Moses. The problem? The Jews were wrong, of course. Jesus Christ IS God. But the Jews did not know that! So at the very worse, the Jews’ delivering Jesus Christ to the Romans to be crucified was a mistake. A horrible mistake, of course, but a mistake nonetheless. Blaming the Jews for killing God is claiming that they somehow KNEW that He was the Son of God and had Him killed anyway. The problem with that: IT DENIES SCRIPTURE. Nowhere in scripture does it say that ANYONE who participated in the death of Jesus Christ accepted His claim of deity; quite the contrary it says precisely the opposite. (The only exception MIGHT have been Judas Iscariot.) Recall the scene of the crucifixion: people were saying that were Jesus Christ to get off the cross, THEN they would believe His claims. (Why? Because doing so would have been a public demonstration His ability to defeat the Roman Empire.) One would be tempted to claim that their seeking the execution of Jesus Christ was basically no different from any of the other cases when people have been wrongly convicted of and executed for crimes that they did not commit. But even that is not the case here! Because Jesus Christ DID IN FACT proclaim Himself as God! In John 8, the Jews were about to stone Him for it! So, the only crime of the Jews was not accepting Jesus Christ’s deity claim. And that is a spiritual crime for which only God can judge a person, and that judgment will come in the next world, not in this one. No man has the right to punish another for rejecting Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior; the man who does so will be judged Himself. Which, of course, is in the Bible and is the Words of that same Jesus Christ the Savior. And more still: how can we blame people for not believing deity of Christ at that time? After all, what proved and established Jesus Christ’s claims of deity and everything else? THE RESURRECTION. Furthermore, before the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, there was no Holy Spirit indwelling believers to perform the process of opening the eyes of and converting unbelievers. Scripture strongly hints that even some of Jesus Christ’s closest followers did not know of or believe in His deity until He resurrected. But after Christ’s resurrection was occurred and witnessed and the Holy Spirit came into the world, thousands of Jews, including some who participated in and were consenting to His crucifixion, were convicted of their sins and believed through faith after a single brief sermon by Peter. Thus, holding the Jewish nation – or any Jew for that matter – responsible for actions regarding the execution of Jesus Christ before His deity was established would be no different from holding YOU responsible for what YOU did before YOU accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. The Jews of that period were only doing what you did before you were saved and born again: what they believed to be right according to their own abilities without the knowledge of God. For you to judge any Jew living or dead according to the same standard that you yourself are guilty by makes you A) a hypocrite and B) acting in ignorance of or against scripture. Thus, anyone who calls Jews “Christ – killers” need to urgently examine themselves and see whether they truly be in the faith.

2. This is the part that is explicitly given in scripture and has mystified me ever since I first became known of Christian anti – Semitism: only a few Jews participated in sending Jesus Christ to the Romans to be killed. If there was any responsibility to be borne at all, it should have been limited to the few dozen (if that many) long – dead Jews on the Sanhedrin council and similar who convicted Him. Thus, even only a fraction of the Jews’ religious leadership bore any responsibility. As a result, blaming any Jew living or dead for the execution of Jesus Christ is far worse than an Iraqi holding YOU (presuming that you are American or British) PERSONALLY RESPONSIBLE for their 650,000 dead countrymen. Or for a black person like myself to blame any white person living today for enslaving my ancestors. Also, even this is a gross oversimplification: those traditional Christian depictions of a bunch of bloodthirsty Jewish leaders sitting around gleefully plotting the death of Jesus Christ is completely ascriptural. Now though Christ was (by appearances anyway) guilty of the capital crime of blasphemy and this fact was well known, it was obvious that many Jewish religious leaders were unwilling to impose the sentence. Why? The simplest reason was that Jesus Christ was hastily tried (at night during Passover) and they were unable to produce the witnesses that they needed. Therefore, the proceedings under which Jesus Christ was convicted were themselves and illegitimate and illegal as our undeclared wars against Iraq. But there was another, bigger reason: a large percentage of the religious rulers thought that Jesus Christ was stark raving mad; literally insane. Again, read the gospels … it was a common charge levied against Him. Now Christianity has traditionally depicted all of the people who called Jesus Christ crazy as doing so out of the hardness of their evil hearts. Now clearly some of these did so, especially the ones who attributed Christ’s works to His being in league with Satan. But a great many people honestly thought that there was something wrong with the Man. Indeed, scripture suggests that some of Jesus Christ’s own disciples were bewildered at His sayings and doings. There was the amazing scene when Christ made a bold spiritual pronouncement that on its face seemed to be advocating that participating in a known evil pagan ritual (eating His Flesh and drinking His Blood was the way to eternal life … please know that Sun Myung Moon’s followers drink his blood) causing virtually all of His followers to leave. When Jesus Christ asked those who remained “Will ye go also”, they replied to the effect of “We have nowhere else to go! We left our jobs, our families, friends, reputations, everything behind to follow you!” (Please realize that Christians today are also called to get to the point where God is our only option.) So, these religious leaders were confronted by what they thought to be this righteous prophet (none could accuse Him of any sin, and this was well known to them) going around working these great miracles that was absolutely insane. They did not know what to make of Him or what to do with Him. How could an insane man have such spiritual power? Why would God allow a blasphemer to retain that spiritual power? Some of them were probably thinking that Jesus Christ was not responsible for His blasphemy on account of His insanity, and that accounted for God’s power not departing from Him. Others were probably wondering if Jesus Christ’s deity claims were merely more of His incomprehensible parables that most of His own closest followers did not understand. They were no doubt hoping to learn more about Jesus Christ during His trial, but His refusal to speak had to have been a huge frustrating disappointment and convinced some of them of His insanity.

Whatever the case, they were not ready to kill Him, and they CERTAINLY did not want the pagan Romans to kill a Jewish prophet. But they were caught in a tough situation. It was commonly known in Israel, including to the Romans, that this was the time of the Messiah, whom many felt would deliver them from Rome. While the Jewish religious leaders, especially the Sadducees, had shown a degree of loyalty to the Romans and worked to inhibit rebellion (in part by getting the people to wait on the Messiah, and that rebellion apart from the Messiah would be not only doomed to failure but a sin), the Romans knew that at any time a fellow whose Messiah claims the Pharisees and Sadducees accepted could come along, and the Romans would have open rebellion by the entire nation on their hands. Thus, it would have been in the interests of the Romans to replace the Jewish religious leadership with others more pliant, and of course this would have been done in their usual brutal fashion. Also, consider what a fellow going around calling himself the Messiah MEANT to the Romans. Please recall when shortly after Pentecost Peter and the others were brought before the Sanhedrin, and it was being discussed what to do with them, a Sanhedrin elder pointed out that there had been various people “claiming to be somebody”, meaning that they alleged to either be the Messiah, or paving the way for him. Of course, these fellows led insurrections. As usual, this needs context. Again, it was known that the Messiah was to come at this time, so you had a number of people gaining the conviction that all God wanted was for one righteous man to stand up and do God’s Will, and God would use that man to deliver Israel. At the very least, such a person would be used by God to prepare the way for the coming of the Messiah after the manner of John the Baptist. You have to consider that there is not a whole lot wrong with that doctrine on its face (which incidentally is considered true by Christians to this day), especially when one considers the uprising of Judas Maccabeus against the Seleucids as precedent. The only problem was that these people did not know that the Will of God was not for the Messiah to be a political/military leader with an earthly kingdom. So, from Rome’s point of view, they were facing a series of “messiahs” leading rebellions in this place and that place, were none too pleased. Make no mistake, to the Romans, Messiah meant “rebel”, and the next Messiah might be the one to get the Jewish religious leaders behind them.

And this was no ordinary Messiah, either. This was one that had fulfilled messianic prophecies, had a huge band of followers, and whose spiritual power was such that even Roman centurions were coming to Him for help! And more than that, THIS fellow was calling Himself the Son of God, making Him greater than Caesar, who according to the Roman state religion was a “minor god”. So, it is not hard to consider that from the Roman perspective, if ANYONE was a threat to get the Jewish leaders behind Him and lead an all out military rebellion against Rome, the likely candidates weren’t going to be any better than Jesus Christ! So, for the Jewish leaders to have this Fellow in their hands only to let Him go would not have been good for their situation once the Romans heard of it; it could have easily been interpreted that that Jewish leaders had found their Messiah and would shortly start planning and preparing for an intense rebellion by a united nation of religious fanatics. So, yes, the Sanhedrin Council was in a real bind.

And that was when Caiaphas, the high priest, able to step in and exploit the fear and uncertainty of the council, who had to deal with an insane prophet (in their minds), His zealous followers, powerful people angered by Christ’s challenges against them, a whole nation enquiring of them when and in whom the messianic prophecies would be fulfilled, and Rome being not the least bit happy with any of it. Caiaphas presented the same false set of choices that the world presents to Christians in so many situations: either deliver Jesus Christ to be executed or have the Romans destroy Jerusalem and the temple to remove all hope of the Messiah. (The Romans knew the prophecies that the Messiah would rule from Jerusalem and the temple, and that was why both were destroyed in AD 70 when the Romans finally lost patience with the messianic rebellions.) Now for Caiaphas to make this proposal meant little to him; as a Sadducee, he did not believe in the resurrection, so Christ’s death would have been ending the life of another poor laborer who had lived His entire life under Roman oppression; probably better off anyway. As for the Pharisees; well if Christ was a righteous man; He would be fine anyway; with God in the bosom of Abraham. If He WAS a blasphemer; well then He was getting no less than what He deserved.

Even with this, many of the Jewish leaders STILL didn’t want to deliver Him to the Romans, but Caiaphas was the high priest, the supreme authority in Israel on earth according to the law. (People who are in love with or have a high regard for power or people in it should consider what happens when wicked people take power, as in this case.) He did not have absolute authority, but in the midst of all the fear and uncertainty and the absence of a solid alternative, Caiaphas’ manipulation was able to carry the day. Were they responsible for their decisions, even in capitulation? Of course. But to claim that they were all united and zealously seeking the death of Jesus Christ from the beginning is just scripturally false. And again, see point 1: it is not as if they did this knowing that Jesus Christ was God, or even the Messiah.

It is incumbent upon all Christians to not only reject and contend against the lie that Jews are to be held responsible for the death of Jesus Christ, but to know the scriptural basis for doing so. Claiming that Jews bear any collective or current guilt for the death of Jesus Christ simply opposes scripture, which is a sin. However, it is not sufficient for one to reject that claim blindly, even out of a legitimate desire to reject and oppose anti – Semitism and support and defend Israel and the Jewish people. The reason is that as with anything else, doing so without being properly grounded in scripture as a firm basis opens the door to deny scripture itself, especially the claims to the effect of “while the claims in the gospels are accurate, they were written long after the life of Jesus Christ at a time when the church was under extreme persecution by the Romans and great efforts were being made to evangelize Gentiles, including Romans, and they were written for a Gentile audience, so it was in their interests to portray the Jewish leaders in the worst possible light and the Romans in the best light” sort of justifications for “contextual revisionism” that have become fashionable even among fundamentalist and evangelical Christians. None of those things are necessary. When one casts aside the prism of some of these abiblical traditions and instead allows a study of the Bible to be their guide, it reveals to the Christian a New Testament that is neither false NOR anti – Semitic.

Stalin and Hitler: Both Statists (Lessons from the Holocaust)

While not technically from a Christian perspective, I will use this link, because it supports the position of Heal The Land that the state is an enemy of God (along with false religion). After all, who was it that crucified Jesus Christ? Now you must consider the fact that the reason why certain “Christians” later blamed all Jews (rather than a collaboration between the state and a corrupt religious system based on works, rituals, and rules standing in the base of a true spiritual relationship with God) is because, well, these “Christians” would have been blaming themselves. In many of these nations, there was no separation between church and state, so you had all of these “state churches.” Of course, “state churches” tend to institute religion by ritual and oppose true worship of God, exhibited by this notion that all you have to do in order to go to heaven is A) perform some baptism ritual (and even that was “sprinkling in the name of Jesus only” instead of full immersion in the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit), even to infants and B) paying your taxes – excuse me, tithes. So, realize how the “state church” system (which included the Mormonesque pagan religion of the Romans that worshipped Caesar and others as gods) that killed Jesus Christ so easily turned into a “state church” system in Europe that persecuted Jews for centuries and morphed into STATISM, meaning fascism and communism, that killed at least 6 million Jews in the Holocaust and millions more elsewhere. So please read Stalin and Hitler: Both Statists (Lessons from the Holocaust), and if you have not accepted a true relationship of Jesus Christ, please read and follow The Three Step Salvation Plan.

This Is How Blacks Get Treated By Arabs And Muslims Yet Everyone Calls ISRAEL Racist

Where are the civil rights leaders and the rest of the American and world left on inhuman treatment like this? www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1180960634057&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

This Is Why We Must Pray For The Peace Of Jerusalem

As we listen to daily reports of rocket attacks from Gaza into Israel, we are reminded once again that over 8,000 people lost their homes and their jobs, and for nothing!  What was supposed to bring peace to Israel, has resulted in more terrorism than ever before.  This month, we are focusing on the very serious need for all those adults who are still unemployed nearly two years after the disengagement.

The need is great, but we know that our God is greater.  He will supply the need but He uses people like you and I as vessels of His mercy, conduits of financial help so that we can meet a very physical need.

The cost of professional courses to retrain adults for marketable professions is $165,000.  Any money we can send to Israel to help this project will be so appreciated and will help His chosen to be able to get back on their feet.

Shalom and blessings,

Kimberly Troup
Director, North American Headquarters CFOIC

What do the Refugee’s Need?

Thousands of families lost their sole or primary means of support, when their jobs or businesses were destroyed in Gush Katif.  Municipal workers, farmers and those who owned their own businesses were left with nothing.  And most of those affected are no longer young, but over 50, a terrible time in life to have to start over.  Thank God, as a result of the intensive efforts of the Gush Katif Committee, together with both private and public efforts, the unemployment rate has gone down.  However, of the 8,000 people expelled from their homes, 1,300 are still jobless.  It hurts to remember that these people supported themselves honorably and comfortably in Gush Katif.You can help.  No other group of people in Israel was forced into poverty by a political action.  This added sense of betrayal, of despair, has compounded the suffering.  There is no greater need in Israel today.  These people can be taken in hand and reeducated; they can get career training so they can get back in the job market with a fresh start.  We are turning to you to provide vocational courses for 50 people.  On the average the courses cost $3,300 per person.   Everything from their past is gone and they are left helpless but never hopeless.  A new vocation can give them the sense of worth and dignity they so sorely need.
And that sense of dignity and worth is what they are truly missing.  Some people are sitting at home despondent.  They are sifting through musty boxes of paper work from another life, staring blankly at old resumes, now outdated and obsolete.  Some of them haven’t worked in their field for years; some became farmers in Gush Katif and now the thought of getting back into the mainstream workplace would be almost laughable if it wasn’t so sad.  Each day passes unhealthily with inactivity and apathy. 
These people need a sense of normalcy – the ability to return to normal life that only a job can give, even if they are still living in temporary housing.  They need vocational training and, hopefully, one day, they will start working again.

Read More About the Gush Katif Refugees (PDF)…

An ACLU Lawyer Exposes The ACLU’s Embrace Of Political Correctness

See this link. http://opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110010111 While the ACLU has always been evil, they have never been politically correct, willing to defend neo – Nazis marching through Jewish neighborhoods and similar. Of course, their anti – political correctness was never a virtue, just a device that made them even more evil because it was necessary at the time. Now that society has “advanced” to a point that fits the ACLU’s longer agenda (they’ve basically won), it is now expedient for them to join the rest of the left. The sad thing is that the writer of this article was duped into believing that the ACLU ever really cared about freedom. Christians have long said that the ACLU did not truly care about freedom, but was merely pretending to long enough to promote their subversive agenda, and the same goes for Norman Lear’s “liberal anticommunist” group People For The American Way. Now this woman is finding out what Christians have said all along: that one cannot do good by advancing evil. Jews are quite possibly the biggest victims of the ACLU’s evil. Jews formed an alliance with the ACLU decades ago in order to remove Christian prayers from public schools and cease Christian observances in public places. In return, Jews had to join the left and give them a great many accommodations. The ACLU has repaid them first by advocating neo – Nazis/skinheads/KKK types, and now by enabling anti – Jewish and anti – Israel Muslim terrorists. Not to mention my longterm assertion that joining forces with the ACLU to make this country more secular using the judiciary and the media makes it much harder to maintain and increase the numbers of any religion (except strangely enough Islam). Jews who supported the ACLU feeling that the biggest threat to their future and security (and sensitivities) was a mainstream culture that despite all of its problems generally glorified Christianity is now finding out that the biggest threat to God’s chosen people is ALWAYS a culture and nation that exalts itself above and in the place of that same God. Jews outwardly speak of being concerned with creeping secularism, intermarriage, and their kids being ignorant of Jewish culture and values and some even claim that “whatever is bad for fundamentalist and evangelical Christians is good for us”, but deep down they know that something very sinister is afoot, and their betrayal at the hands of not only the ACLU but an increasing number of their old allies is just part of it. Now the anti – Semitic thing to do would be to “blame the Jews for all this mess” and express a perverse sense of ironic joy plus an “I told you so” over their betrayal by the ACLU and the left. I am sorry, but such a thing would just be totally wrong. Instead, we should all be outraged at how the forces of evil tricked, used, and abused the Jewish people by extending one hand claiming friendship while concealing a razor sharp dagger dipped in poison intended for the back in the other. Realize that the writer of this piece has still not faced the truth, claiming in her closing passage that the organization has merely “changed incrementally.” Let us pray that the Jewish people recognize that the ACLU (and similar) are actually revealing more and more of what they have always been: haters of God and as such of God’s people.

The New York Times Hates Christians: Handel’s Messiah Anti-Semitic

See this outrageous link http://www.crosswalk.com/11540805/ and here is the original document appearing in http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/04/24/news/web-0425handelB.php (the International Herald Tribune is owned by the Times). It now appears that one only need to accuse a Christian, living or dead, of anti – Semitism or other form of bigotry, and it is on the onus of the Christian (or other Christians if he is dead) to defend himself, and what is more the Christian must basically apologize for his own religion in the course of doing so. Even this fellow, obviously no fan of Bible – believing Christians, in a letter to the editor questioned the Times’  motivations for running the story. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9803E0D8123FF936A25757C0A9619C8B63

What is most disgusting is that the writer of this piece creates fantastic incredible unsustainable charges of guilt around OTHER PEOPLE, and then tries to make Handel guilty by association with OTHER PEOPLE WHOSE “ANTI – SEMITISM” HAS NOT YET BEEN ESTABLISHED! And the telling quote is here: “What better means to comfort disquieted Christians against the faith-busting wiles of deists and Jews than to draw on the feelings and emotions of art over and above the reasons and revelations of argument?” First off, the writer is being hypocritical, using the emotional charge of anti – Semitism to begin with. Second, it is hilarious: since when were liberals against art? Oh, that is right. Art is only bad when it is done by Christians. Just like science, I suppose. Or didn’t you see the New York Times article advocating keeping Christians out of graduate school? It really does seem as if the writer is upset that Messiah played a role in the triumph of Christianity over deism. Except, of course, it isn’t true. Deism was never a real threat to Christianity. People who claim otherwise are merely revisionists who claim that Christian “fundamentalism” was created in the 1960s as a political response to the civil rights and feminism movements. The threats to Christianity have always been internal: false doctrines and the temptation to mix it with other religions. This fellow is merely trying to prove that Christianity would have been defeated in this time and place were it not for anti – Semitism, and in essence suggesting that anti – Semitism is the whole basis and reason for the religion in the first place. Of course, forget for a second that CHRISTIANITY WAS CREATED BY JEWS. Oh wait: “the Jesus Christ was a Pharisee who never intended to start a religion, and his legacy was stolen by the Romans” thing explains that. Or at least enough for their purposes. This fellow then claims that Christians feel “threatened” and “insecure” by the persistent survival of Judaism; that it makes us feel that our religion (gasp!) may be false. Of course, people who tirelessly link Christianity to anti – Semitism always claim that Christian anti – Semitism is motivated by this secret belief that supposedly lurks in the heart of every Christian that his belief is false, which creates a rage that gets misdirected towards Jews. Do these people ever question whether Jews question their own beliefs? Of course not! That would be, well, ANTI – SEMITISM! Such folks will PRETEND to be defenders of Jews only until all the Bible – believing Christians are gone, and then it will be open – season on Jewish beliefs too. 

The worst part of all this is that we Christians currently lack the mindset to defend ourselves from such an attack. We are so fearful of the anti – Semite label (and some of us have cast aside a comprehensive view of prophecy, scripture, and our humble place in God’s plan that we have joined ourselves to the aggressive “Christian Zionist” agenda which tells us to bring the return of Yeshua HaMashiach by instigating a war with Iran rather than by translating Bibles in the languages of people who have not yet heard the gospel) that we cannot bring ourselves to acknowledge the simple fact that the Jews being God’s chosen people whom we cannot curse lest God curse us and the long history of evil treatment of Jews by Christians does not render moot the fact that Christianity and Judaism are two COMPETING belief systems with two COMPETING interests. For that reason, it is perfectly appropriate for Christians to hold, teach, and advocate beliefs that Jews find offensive, and Christians are well capable of doing so without hating, disrespecting, oppressing, or acting violently against Jews. The ability and willingness of a Christian to believe, practice, and proclaim the Bible in any context or setting should not be hindered by anyone or anything, and that includes God’s chosen people. Let us face it people: anyone who believes that the Bible is true, that Jesus Christ was the Messiah and the Son of God and is God who was crucified for our sins and was raised by God from the dead is considered an anti – Semite by non – Messianic Jews. First of all, those very claims deeply offend and hurt Jews and directly oppose their religious beliefs. Now perhaps Jews could suffer people who choose to believe such a thing were it in a vacuum … they could well say to themselves that “oh well, people can believe whatever they choose.” But the truth is that belief in the gospels is NOT in a vacuum. Rather, the gospels cause everything else in human history before the time of Christ and after the time of Christ to be interpreted in an entirely different manner, including 70 AD and (yes) the Holocaust! It is inevitable that our interpretation of not only world events but even the Old Testament (as Jews read those scriptures through the lens of their tradition that greatly alters the meaning) will cause great offense to the Jewish people. And why should we be surprised? Why does it shock us that non – Christians are going to be offended by Christianity, and therefore tip – toe around to avoid offense? It is time for the Christian leaders of this nation to wake up and start telling the truth. Our beliefs are going to offend people, including God’s chosen people the Jews. Jesus Christ Himself said that He would be rejected, and that we would be also for His sake. It cannot be avoided. Therefore, the only thing that we can do is to adhere to the gospel of Jesus Christ and the truth of the Bible without fail, and to know in advance the cost. The writer of the New York Times is familiar with the gospels. He knows that Yeshua HaMashiach Himself prophesied the events of 70 AD, and stated that God would punish those who rejected Him. He also knows that the epistles give explicit warnings of the time to come when those would reject the deity of Christ. So Christians should realize that the problem that Michael Marissen has is not with people who believe in the Bible (and preach it and make works of art based on it) but rather with the Bible itself. If only Christians were to remember that, we would not be so willing to run away from our beliefs, and from the God who gave them to us and Himself for us.