The Battle with the Forces of Darkness is Heating Up

The spiritual battle between GOD and the forces of darkness is heating up all over the world.

Check out this story from Christianity Today magazine:

One summer morning in Pakistan, a Christian woman named Asia Bibi took a break from her fieldwork to drink a cup of cold water from a well. Since she was a Christian, the Muslim women there saw her actions as contaminating the water. Angered, the women began to argue with her. Bibi asked them, "I believe in my religion and in Jesus Christ, who died on the cross for the sins of mankind. What did your Prophet Muhammad ever do to save mankind?"

Her question made the women furious. Bibi was beaten by a crowd and thrown into prison, accused of blasphemy and sentenced to death. She has been held since June 2009, and has become an international symbol of the capriciousness and cruelty of the Pakistani blasphemy law. Two Pakistani officials who spoke up for Bibi have been assassinated.

Click here to continue reading in the new edition of CT.

Does Being Pro-Palestinian Equate to Being Anti-Semitic?

Pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel evangelicals (a tribe that, sadly, is growing) chafe at the suggestion that their position may be anti-Semitic. 

After all, the term "anti-Semitic" is one of those emotional hot-button terms that evokes unpleasant images and emotions. Another aspect of the question is: Can you be pro-Palestinian and not be anti-Israel?

I'd say the answer to this question depends on how you define "pro-Palestinian." If you mean pro-Palestinian in the sense that you empathize with the plight of the Palestinian people, including the way they have been treated like lepers by their own Arab kinsmen in the Middle East, and the way they are shamefully exploited by a wealthy and influential Palestinian elite in the territories--then I would say it's very possible to be pro-Palestinian and also be pro-Israel. In fact, many of us would fall into that category.

On the other hand, however, if you take the position that being pro-Palestinian means that you oppose Israeli security policy (the famous wall, the checkpoints, and other restrictions on the movements of Palestinians--particularly those who wish to enter Israel), and you demonize and delegitimize Israel in order to make the Palestinians look like hapless victims, then that's a horse of a different color.

The security measures (a wall, checkpoints, and other restrictions on the movements of Palestinians) have worked--no one can argue with that. These measures are saving lives. Terrorist attacks have declined dramatically since the wall and additional strategic checkpoints were installed.

Some of us remember the good old days when the borders were open. Every morning, throngs of Palestinians crossed the border into Israel to go their places of employment. We met an Israeli man in the 1990s who had a furniture factory in the Gaza Strip. He employed dozens of Palestinians. It was good for him because it kept his labor costs down--and it was good for his workers because they were gainfully employed. But when the Israelis turned Gaza over to the Palestinians, he had to close the factory because the IDF could no longer provide security services. Soon thereafter, Hamas started using Gaza as a base from which to launch terror attacks into Israel--just like Netanyahu had warned would happen if the IDF withdrew from Gaza. So the Israeli businessman had little choice but to close the factory.

The open borders were a blessing not only to the Palestinians, but also to the Israeli business community who benefited from the lower labor costs.

So can we be pro-Palestinian and pro-Israel at the same time? In a certain sense, yes. Several of our workers in Israel have a passion for helping and ministering to Palestinian people. I would say, very definitely, that they are pro-Palestinian. One of our ladies (a full-time staff member whose name I won't mention for security reasons) routinely travels through the checkpoints into the West Bank to visit needy Palestinian families in places like Bethlehem and Ramallah. She's a Jewish grandma and when she's on one of these missions, even the Palestinian police don't mess with her! If they give her any grief, she'll stick a boney finger in their face and say, in near-perfect Arabic, "Young man, would you treat your grandmother like this?" They know her by now, so they give her a wide berth!

However, if by "pro-Palestinian" you mean that you demonize the Israelis and tell them they can't implement self-defensive security measures (like security barriers and checkpoints) without being denounced as an apartheid regime, like some evangelicals today are saying, then I'd say that is indeed a prejudiced, anti-Israel viewpoint. And I don't think it's a stretch at all to attach the term "anti-Semitic" to it.

We were in Israel earlier this year and noticed a group of Arabic-speaking school kids getting off a bus at the beach in Tel Aviv. They were playing with Frisbees, wading in the water, and dancing to music from a nearby cafe. I asked a store owner who they were and he said they were Palestinian students from the West Bank. I must have had a surprised expression on my face because he quickly added, almost nonchalantly, "They're just on a field trip. These school groups come from the West Bank almost every day. Nothing to worry about." I looked around and didn't see any police or soldiers. The children dropped their backpacks in the sand and frolicked around, laughing and giggling, totally unafraid. They knew they were safe. Their chaperones knew they were safe in Israel. They know the Israeli people wish them no harm. But, I wondered, what would happen if a bus of Israeli school children went to visit Ramallah or Gaza City? It would be a very dangerous excursion--a recipe for disaster!

This speaks volumes about the differences between the predominant Palestinian and Israeli cultures! Our fellow evangelicals--especially those who are so critical of the Jewish State--need to wake up and smell the proverbial coffee.

It's like Bibi Netanyahu once said: "If the Palestinians would lay down their weapons tomorrow, there would be no more war. But if the Israelis put down their weapons today, there would be no more Israel."

Making Sense Out of Syria

Some of our readers have been asking about the ongoing situation in Syria. It's very tragic--and tens of thousands of civilians have been killed in the crossfire between the Assad government and rebel forces.

Why is all of this happening? We know the Assad government has been a ruthless dictatorship and a major state sponsor of terrorism over the years, but would a rebel-run government be any better?

More importantly, is there light at the end of the tunnel? In this guest editorial (below), our friends at Israel College of the Bible point us to Isaiah's prophecies and the prophet's vision of a future Day when Syria will be Israel's friend! Now that's a refreshing thought in the midst of the current barrage of bad news from the Middle East.

Enjoy!

Oh, that the salvation of Israel would come out of ZION!    Psalms 14:7

Israel College of the Bible  May 12th, 2013 SHALOM FRIENDS! Wars and rumors of wars are not strange in Israel.  The unrest in the Arab countries all around Israel intensifies.  While Israel has very carefully remained outside these conflicts, the recent Israeli air strike in Syria marks a change.  There is a saying in Hebrew (taken literally from Psalm 69:4) - the water has come up to my throat - meaning: enough is enough! The attached article reviews the rocky history of the Israeli-Syrian relationship from Biblical times until today.  It is worth your read! Thanks for your prayers, and blessings from Israel! In Messiah Yeshua, Erez Soref & the ICB team Israel-Syria Relationship   " In that day Israel will be one of three with Egypt and Assyria-a blessing in the midst of the land..." (Isa. 19:23) Syria has never been Israel's friend. The day Ben Gurion struck the table with his gavel and declared, "The State of Israel has been established", that same day, May 14th 1948, the armies of Syria, Lebanon, Trans-Jordan, Iraq and Egypt swept across the border into tiny Israel.  The 650,000 strong Jewish community managed to field 108,000 fighters, men, women and children. The grueling war that ensued, the War of Independence, ended with Israel expelling Syrian and Lebanese armies from the north and Egyptians from the south. Iraqis and Jordanians left the country themselves.    Since that rocky beginning, a very 'cold war' might express Syria's relationship with Israel until the beginning of the 1960's when tension mounted over Israel's plan to build a national water carrier that would convey Israel's share of the headwaters of the Jordan River to the Negev. [A tentative agreement over fair distribution of the waters of the Jordan had been brokered in 1955 by an American businessman, Eric Johnston, but the Arab states refused to ratify it.] To make use of their allotted share of Jordan's water, Israel started to build a water carrier in the Hula Valley, but Syrian shelling from the Golan Heights put an end to the endeavor.  Israel decided their national water carrier would begin at the Sea of Galilee, which meant pumping the water 212 meters up to sea level. When the work was finally completed in 1964 the Arabs retaliated with a plan to divert the headwaters of the Jordan from Lebanon through Syria to Jordan, leaving Israel high and dry. Prime Minister Golda Meir declared that "water is blood in the Middle East", and ordered the IDF to blow up the Syrian installations for the diversion of the Jordan River. Tensions between Israel and Syria escalated to a new height, and Syrian artillery fired on Israeli settlements in the Hula Valley and the eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee dozens of times each month.   This unbearable provocation sent Israeli fighter planes, April 1967, to bomb targets in Syria. In the ensuing aerial dog fight Israel shot down six Syrian MiGs.  Because Syria and Egypt had an agreement to help each other in the event of an Israeli attack, the Soviet Union began feeding false information to Syria and Egypt, claiming that Israel was about to attack Syria.  These were the rumblings of the June 1967 Six Day War and Jews all over the world were beseeching God for mercy. Egypt began to amass 130,000 troops in the Sinai to attack Israel from the south, but Israel swooped down on Egyptian air bases, destroying 304 of their 419 planes.  In response Syrian, Jordanian and Iraqi planes attacked Israel, mostly missing their targets, and Israel attacked Jordanian and Syrian air bases until it controlled the skies. The Syrians, seeing the way the battle was going, sent four tanks down the slope of the Banias plateau towards the source of the Dan River. One overturned, one fell into the Banias river canyon, and the third caught fire. The fourth decided to withdraw.  Israeli forces then broke through the Syrian defenses on the Golan and took the heights, putting an end to the intolerable shelling of civilian settlements and hastening the end of that Six Day War. The chances of Israel overcoming those five nations a second time were slim when you consider the balance of power. Put together, Syria, Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq held 1,719,000 sq km. of land and over 120,000,000 souls. Israel  19,000 sq. km. of land and about 3,000,000 souls.  But the God of Israel turned back the enemy at the gates and Israel gained a few thousand square kilometers of land in the process.    For Israel's enemies the humiliation of losing not just the war but territory also kept smoldering fires burning on all Israel's borders, not least on the Syrian border.   Yom Kippur, October 5th, 1973, Israel's most solemn day of prayer and fasting when a minimum of regular soldiers were on duty, 45,000 Syrian soldiers with 500 tanks broke through the Israeli lines on the Golan. At the same time Israel was attacked by 100,000 Egyptian troops in the south. Israeli reservists were torn from synagogues and raced to the front lines, but Syrian advance forces had reached the center of the Golan and were ready to break into Israel. All air force protection was first given to the Golan to stop the attack there, and Israel pushed Syria back to the 1967 ceasefire lines before turning to the south.  Though shocked and shaken, Israel held their ground, won the war, and mourned their dead.   By this time the Arabs realized they would not be able to defeat Israel on a conventional battlefield. Egypt signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1979. Jordan signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1994. Syria turned to terrorism. Not overtly, but 'hiding behind the scenes'. The Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank and radical Islamic forces in Lebanon served Syria's purpose well, and 2 intifadas and 2 Lebanese wars followed with Syria, backed by Iran, supplying weapons and missile technology.    Through all this Syria, as the trouble maker, was more or less able to hold a 'Who? Me?' stance until her own civil war broke out in 2011. This bitter war has exposed the Syrian disposition.  When Assad's military forces began to fire on his own people, we well remember their early cry: "Don't fire on us, fire on Israel!"   'Rebel' is no doubt an appropriate term for the forces seeking to topple Assad's government, but their rebellion is obviously against more than their own leader, through their Islamic ideology it is a deep-seated rebellion against God and His purposes, and it is certainly a rebellion against the existence of Israel.  What is even more alarming is that rebels attract rebels, and reports are increasing that Syria's rebels are now being joined by discontents from al-Qaeda and other Jihadi groups.   Helping the 'rebel' side, as NATO did to topple Gaddafi's regime, sounds reasonable when the opposition is a ruthless dictator. But Libya's 'rebels', now in possession of stockpiles of Gaddafi's weapons, have been making them readily available to the terrorist groups of Gaza. No doubt Syria's 'rebels' would be inclined to do the same with the rumored stockpiles of chemical weapons in nobody-knows-quite-whose-hands.  The 'rebels' who ousted Mubarak in Egypt are certainly controlled by the Muslim Brotherhood, if not constituted by them, so Syria's 'rebels' are probably up for grabs too, by whatever well organized group can harnesses their forces first, with the undercover aim of "pushing Israel into the sea".   No doubt this is why Israel cannot tolerate the free movement of weapons from Syria to Hezbollah in Lebanon, weapons flown in from Iran, with-love-from-Russia, to be directed into the hands of Hezbollah...or whoever.  With the free-for-all in Syria at this present time Israel simply wanted those arms removed from the scene, and this month quietly bombed two ammunition depots in Syria, just north of Damascus. This is the second Israeli strike on a Syrian arms target this year. In January Israel bombed a weapons convoy carrying long range missiles to the Lebanese border and warned then that it would not hesitate to act again to prevent the transfer of chemical or any other advanced weaponry from Bashar al-Assad's massive arsenal to terror groups in Lebanon.   While Syria is hardly in a position to fight anyone outside her borders at the moment, with more than 70,000 of their own dead from their own fire in the last two years, since this recent bombing she has taken the time to place missiles towards Israel along her border fences, and the IDF is watching closely, while excusing the few that have come into the Golan in recent days as 'a mistake'.    An editorial in the London based 'Ai-Quds al-Arabi' newspaper has welcomed Syria's statements that it is planning to open up a new front against Israel in the Golan.  "We say that opening this front will push hundreds, if not thousands, of Palestinians and Arabs in Syria, Lebanon and Jordan to take up arms again to face the occupation on any front that is opened for them." Assad has also resorted to threatening Israel by saying Syria is willing to co-operate even more closely with Hezbollah,  "We have decided to give them everything."  In response Hezbollah's leader, Nasrallah, has said his forces would support any Syrian effort to recapture the Golan Heights. Syria could well decide to take advantage of the Israeli airstrikes to shift the focus from her civil war to a conflict with Israel. A common enemy makes friends, and certainly both sides of the Syrian rift share an aversion to Israel!    If this were not a drama of real life we could light heartedly say, 'Wait for the next episode', but for those of us living in Israel 'Waiting on the Lord' is far more appropriate, for God has spoken much about Syria in His Word.   After all, Syria's aversion to Israel goes back further than   modern history! The reason the prophet Jonah was so reluctant to take God's message to Nineveh was that Assyria was a very cruel enemy to Israel. How difficult it was for Jonah to offer God's mercy to a nation that had afflicted Israel for centuries. Yet when Jonah finally obeyed, Nineveh repented.   Syria may not be our friend yet, but then, Israel still has much to learn.  Isaiah the prophet has foretold of the day when Syria will be Israel's friend, together with Egypt.   In that day Israel will be one of three with Egypt and Assyria-a blessing in the midst of the land, whom the Lord of hosts shall bless saying, "Blessed is Egypt My people, and Assyria the work of My hands, and Israel My inheritance."...Isaiah 19:23,24.    Amazing...Syria and Egypt our most troublesome nearby enemies, shall be our friends! Looking back on the brief modern history we have recounted, doesn't it prove that the devil always tries to get in and spoil exactly what God has purposed?   By the way, in Hebrew 'waiting' on the Lord means 'trusting with confidence' that He will deliver, even when there is absolutely no sign of this happening. For this reason so we are VERY grateful when we know your prayers are joining ours for our people and our neighbors!

Just How Trustworthy Are Those "Bible Answer" People?

Can you imagine what it must be like to be the evangelical world's self-proclaimed "Bible Answer Man"?

Quite a billing to live up to, I'd say!

A friend from Ohio just sent us this cover from a past issue of Hank Hanegraaff's Christian Research Journal:

Of course, we all know that Hanegraaff had some nasty things to say about Israel (and also about Tim LaHaye) in his book The Apocalypse Code (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2007). We won't go into detail here because Tommy Ice and I reviewed TAO a few years ago in Messianic Perspectives: click here

Hanegraaff has said that Israel should not be a Jewish state because that constitutes some sort of ill-advised ethnic exclusivity (CRI Position Statement PSN001 at www.equip.org). Never mind that the tiny Jewish state is surrounded by an enormous community of Arab states--it's just wrong to allow the existence of even one Jewish state, according to this dubious line of reasoning.

So Hank and CRI already have a track record. He has been associated with outspoken anti-Zionists like Stephen Sizer and Gary Burge. This, in part, is why no one (at least, none of my acquaintances) was surprised when he showed up at an Occupy Wall Street conference in Tehran, Iran, last year (2012): click here

The magazine cover (above) evidently has some people wondering just how reliable CRI's scholarship is if they don't know the difference between the noun "prophecy" and the verb "prophesy." Our friend in Ohio mused, "These people should learn the correct spelling of 'prophecy' before claiming to be an expert in it."

However, here at CJFM, we're going to give CRI the benefit of the doubt and say it's a simple typo (even though it's in 80 point type!). We'd rather keep the focus where it belongs: that is, on the issues of replacement theology, futuristic eschatology, Israel's right to dwell in the Land (even when she's corporately--but temporarily--in a state of unbelief), and other, substantive matters, rather than typographical errors.

By the way, Bill Koenig has a germane piece in today's edition of his International News. It includes a transcript of an interview in which Hank elaborates in some detail on his partial preterist views: click here

If you don't know what partial preterism is, you'll find helpful info here and here.

Stay strong, friends!

Make Your Own Horseradish for Passover!

Our non-Messianic friend Yaakov Kirschen, whose cartoons from Israel are simply delightful, has a fun video on YouTube demonstrating the correct technique for preparing your own horseradish for Passover this year.

Go ahead and take a gander:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6FRdiGWrLc

Dancing with the Enemy

The headmaster of a Palestinian high school in the West Bank has been reprimanded by the Palestinian Ministry of Education.

What was his offense? During a field trip to Israel, some of his 11th and 12th graders met some Israeli young people on the beach in Jaffa--and a spontaneous party broke out!

Yes, the Israeli young folks and the Palestinian young folks evidently hit it off immediately and before long, they were dancing together--to the beat of an Israeli DJ--right there on the beach. Horror of horrors!

Behaviors for Palestinian young people that are sanctioned by their elders:

• Throwing rocks at Israeli soldiers
• Blowing themselves up at Israeli checkpoints
• Idolizing suicide bombers like they were rock stars
• Believing that Jewish people are sub-human

But dancing with the Israelis? We can't have that, can we?

Someone in the Palestinian entourage didn't like what was happening that day on the beach so they sent a video and still-shots of the goings-on to the Palestinian authorities.

The young principal, Mohammad Abu Samra, was soon thereafter relieved of his duties at the school. His offense was allowing conduct that implied the "normalization of ties with Israel," and exposing young Palestinians to the "illicit" Israeli culture.

This goes to the point that anti-Israelism is so deeply engrained in Palestinian culture, it makes a civil and respectful coexistence virtually impossible. Even when a little sliver of the light of normalization breaks through, the Palestinian "powers that be" move quickly and forcefully to extinguish it.

It's just one more reason why (and forgive me here for sounding like a broken record) the so-called "two-state solution" won't work. "Palestine" and Israel will never be friendly neighbors. As long as the "powers that be" have their way, there will always be antagonism.

The upside to all of this, of course, is that a higher power is on the way. The Apostle John gives us this glimpse of Yeshua the Messiah when He returns to this world in power and glory:

And He has on [His] robe and on His thigh a name written:

KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS (Rev. 19:16).

In the meantime, while we await the arrival of the Messiah, we continue our quest for Mideast peace, which we believe comes one heart and one life at a time. Pray for our personnel in Israel, several of whom minister at times in the Palestinian territories. It's exciting to read their reports describing the reconciliation that's taking place between Arab and Jewish believers in the Land!

This is the ingredient that the Quartet, and everyone else, has missed: peace can only come through the Prince of Peace, Yeshua, who has the power to change the hearts of the inhabitants of the Middle East.

Here's the story from the Feb. 6, 2013 edition of The Times of Israel (www.timesofisrael.com):

A Palestinian principal was punished over a spontaneous beach party that emerged during a field trip in Israel. The school head lost his job, and was reassigned to a different West Bank school.

Mohammad Abu Samra, 33, says he landed in hot water when video and images of his pupils dancing on a beach in Jaffa with bikini-clad women and Israeli beachgoers were sent to the Palestinian Ministry of Education.

The incident took place at the close of the Qalqilya Al Salam Secondary School’s 11th- and 12th-grade field trip to Jaffa beach led by Abu Samra, reportedly the youngest principal in the history of the Palestinian Authority, according to the Dubai-based Al Nisr Gulf News.

According to Abu Samra, an Israeli DJ began setting up on the beach as he attempted to load the buses to leave before their day permits expired.

“My pupils started dancing, and I also joined them at the beginning to let them have fun,” Abu Samra told the news agency.

“Volunteers shot a video and took a couple of still photos and forwarded them to the Palestinian Ministry of Education, with a complaint that the incident would imply that there was normalization of ties with Israel and it exposed the young generation of Palestinians to Israel’s illicit code of conduct,” he added.

Abu Samra was reassigned to a school about 30 miles away. Students reportedly have protested the education ministry’s actions.

Warfare of the Future

Hey, Does This Look Like a Battleground?

Well, It's About Time!

All I can say is, "It's better late than never!"

For years, the silence of the Muslim moderate majority has been deafening.

We've been told for all this time that the vast majority of Muslims in the world do not condone the violent extremism of the militant minority.

But there was little evidence of any majority opposition to horrible acts of Islamic terror. Women supposedly caught in adultery were dragged onto a soccer field at halftime and shot in the head while thousands looked on. An American journalist in the Philippines was beheaded with the camera rolling. Girls who insisted on attending school were considered an embarrassment to their families. They were turned over to the authorities, tortured, and summarily executed. 

Then there was the heart-rending case of a soft-spoken 18-year-old Afghan woman named Aisha that made the cover of Time magazine. Aisha had fled from an abusive family situation. When she was apprehended, a cowardly Taliban commander ordered her nose and ears cut off. Unbelievable. She was horribly disfigured. 

We could go on citing a whole litany of horrible atrocities--all of which took place with no noticeable public outcry from the so-called "Muslim moderate majority."

That is, until now.

Anglican vicars in England have long been outspoken in their criticisms of the State of Israel. But now, guess who is defending Israel in the face of these Anglican attacks? Moderate Muslims in Canada! 

Yes, I'm serious!

Here's the article in today's online edition of the Jewish Tribune: click here

Kudos to Sohail Raza, director of the Council for Muslims Facing Tomorrow in Canada!

It's refreshing to be able to share good news once in awhile!

Thanks to our friends at the Rosh Pina Project (RPP) for alerting us to this noteworthy article.

Pat Condell: Peace in the Middle East

Pat Condell is a retired stand-up comedian from the UK who now spends most of his time cranking out atheist/secularist philosophy and political satire videos on YouTube. He's reputedly a personal favorite of Richard Dawkins, the outspoken British atheist.

We're obviously not sympathetic with Pat's views on religion, but he speaks with brutal candor about the Middle East in this YouTube video (link below).

After all, the truth is the truth, no matter who says it!

Take a look and let us know what you think: click here

Thanks to our longtime Israeli friend David Jacobs for sharing this link with us.

The Great Dilemma: Is Messiah a King or a Servant?

The rabbis have grappled with this problem for centuries. Most of the OT prophecies clearly portray the Messiah as a ruling, reigning King. But others seem to present a more humble Messianic figure. Some, like Isaiah 53, even say that He will die an agonizing and sacrificial death (Isa. 53:3-5; also, see the Talmud in Sukkah 52.a, b).

Hence, the dilemma. How can a royal Figure also be so tragic? Is this a kind of Messianic schizophrenia?

Our friend and colleague Joseph Weissman, a Jewish believer who lives in London, tackles this issue in his current blog entry. He draws some illuminating insights from the story of Jacob and Rachel in the Torah--and then ties it in with the Bethlehem prophecy in Micah 5:2. Check it out and see what you think:

Click here for Joseph's current entry on the Rosh Pina blog.