TO GAZA, WORLD MORE MERCIFUL THAN CHURCH
By Rev. Ted Pike
31 Mar 09
God created ancient Israel to prepare the way for humanity’s
Redeemer, Jesus Christ, according to the Bible. Israel was also created
to be a "light to the Gentiles" -- a standard of righteousness,
justice and mercy in a dark world.
When Christ came, however, He found His nation complacent, self-righteous, and
spiritually cold. Israel had dropped the torch given to her by God. In fact,
the Jews rejected and killed the One who had given them the torch in the first
place! In judgment, God sent disobedient Jews into spiritual blindness
and physical exile, to be "wanderers among the nations." (Hos. 9:17)
Christ expected His followers to take up the role of moral torchbearer where
Judaism failed. Amid first century barbarism and immorality, Christ charged His
followers: "let your light so shine before men that they may see your good
works and glorify your Father who is in heaven." (Matt. 5:16)
Yet, tragically, like the Jews 2000 years ago, many evangelical Christians today
have forsaken such witness. Like corrupt Israel in the Old Testament, they "consent
with a thief," the modern state of Israel in its oppressions of Palestinians.
(Ps. 50:18) During the recent siege in Gaza, not one prominent evangelical
leader criticized Israel for her 22-day bombardment and massacre of helpless
Palestinian families and children.
In my video Making Gaza Simple for Christians here
at www.truthtellers.org, I do not defend Hamas or Islamic terrorism. Rather,
I point out that through more than 60 years of oppression, Israel has driven
Palestinians to acts of self-defeating violence. Terror seems their only way
to gain attention from a largely indifferent world. Of course, any terrorism
is wrong. Yet in the moral and military balance of the recent conflict,
who was doing the real violence? The homemade rockets of Hamas killed 4 Israelis
in the conflict; yet the pounding of Gaza by the most advanced weapons of war
resulted in nearly 1300 dead Palestinians, one third of them children.
Most evangelicals strongly defend Israel as the victim!
World Speaks Truth about Zionism
Jesus said the "children of this generation (the world) are
wiser than the children of light." (Luke 16:8) Today, the
unchurched world can better see behind the smiling mask of Zionist
manipulation than a church which is supposed to house the
wisdom and mercy of God's Holy Spirit! The world is readier to empathize
with the Palestinian victims of Zionism than those who should epitomize
Christ's words, "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain
mercy." (Matt. 5:7)
Despite much censorship by the Zionist-controlled media in America (See, Jews
Confirm Big Media Is Jewish), last week witnessed some highly publicized
outbreaks of truth and conscience from the world.
• Human Rights Watch (HRW) spoke against Israel's
use of white phosphorus bombs in Gaza and was quoted at length by Ha'aretz, Israel's
free-speaking newspaper: "Citing Israel's use of white phosphorus
as evidence of war crimes, the group [HRW] said the army knew the munitions
threatened the civilian population but 'deliberately or recklessly'
continued to use them until the final days of the December 27-January
18 operation 'in violation of the laws of war…' White
phosphorus ignites on contact with oxygen and continues burning at
up to 1500 degrees Fahrenheit…producing extreme burns if it
makes contact with the skin…"
But Ha'aretz quotes HRW as saying, "Israel unlawfully fired them
over populated neighborhoods, killing and wounding civilians and damaging civilian
structures, including a school, a market, a humanitarian aid warehouse and
a hospital."
Fred Abrahams, senior HRW researcher, says Israel "fired white phosphorus
repeatedly over densely populated areas, even when its troops weren't in the
area and safer smoke shells were available. As a result, civilians needlessly
suffered and died." Ha'artez says, "Human Rights Watch
researchers found spent shells, canister liners and dozens of burnt felt wedges
containing white phosphorus on city streets, apartment roofs, residential courtyards,
and at a United Nations school." (Ha'aretz, 3/25/2009)
• In an unprecedented syndicated article
in the Los Angeles Times, "The Root of Israel's Problem: Zionism," novelist
Ben Ehrenreich, grandson of Marxist Jews, says, "Meanwhile, the characterization
of anti-Zionism as an 'epidemic,' more dangerous than anti-Semitism, reveals
only the unsustainability of the position into which Israel's apologists have
been forced. Faced with international condemnation, they seek to limit
the discourse, to erect walls that delineate what can and can't be said. It's
not working. Opposing Zionism is neither anti-Semitic nor particularly
radical. It requires only that we take our own values seriously and no
longer, as the Book of Amos has it, "turn justice into wormwood and hurl
righteousness to the ground."
• Pat Oliphant, acerbic cartoon critic of almost anybody,
last week turned his wit against Israel because of Gaza. The Anti-Defamation
League describes his blast: "The cartoon, a comment on Israel's recent offensive
against Hamas and Gaza, depicts a uniformed figure marching in goosestep, swinging
a sword in one hand and pushing a Star of David on a wheel with the other. The
star is adorned with fangs and chases after a tiny woman carrying a child labeled
'Gaza.'" ( adl.org,
03/26/2009)
• Charles Freeman, hounded from his appointment as chairman
of the National Intelligence Council, writes, "The tactics of the Israel
lobby plumb the depth of dishonor and indecency and include character assassination,
selective misquotation, the willful distortion of the record, the fabrication
of falsehoods, and an utter disregard for the truth. The aim of this Lobby is
control of the policy process through the exercise of a veto over the appointment
of people who dispute the wisdom of its views, the substitution of political
correctness for analysis, and the exclusion of any and all options for decision
by Americans and our government other than those it favors." (The Washington
Times, 03/11/2009)
Even at the local level, the world is wiser to the deceptions and injustices
of Israel than is the church. My niece Verity Grant reported that in a college
classroom discussion of Gaza her entire class, including the liberal
professor, expressed militant disapproval of Israel. Criticism of Israel,
in fact, flourishes on American campuses, evidenced by the ongoing popularity
of "Israel Apartheid" protests from coast to coast.
Moral Taillight of the Nations
On this issue, the world is becoming a moral headlight while the
church’s broken taillight sheds no light at all!
Why? Evangelical Christianity has become Judaized. St. Paul warned the infant
church to never allow pharisaic values, customs and legalism to entice them.
He warned not to "give heed to Jewish fables," just as Jesus said
to "beware of the leaven (teachings) of the Pharisees." (Titus 1:14,
Mark 8:15) Yet, for the past century, the church has ignored these warnings.
Now more than ever, it incorporates Zionist thinking into its mindset and Jewish
holidays and symbols into its worship.
Like a caterpillar injected with an egg by a parasitic wasp, the conscience
of evangelicalism is inhabited by the maggot of Judaic values. The essence
of Talmudic (pharisaic) teaching is Jewish self-adulation: Whatever "God's
chosen people" do, even if evil, they still remain the "apple of
God's eye," above criticism by the lowly goyim. This racist value system,
now accepted by most evangelicals, causes the church "to turn justice
into wormwood and hurl righteousness to the ground." (Amos 5:7) Bidding
Godspeed to evil men, they partake of their evil deeds (II John 1:11). As a
result, most evangelicals have become hard, remote, and contemptuous of Palestinian
misfortune. Their consciences, devoured from within, are incapable of
being morally shaken by any magnitude of atrocity committed by Israel or any
depth of suffering of her victims.
The Bible says that in the last days there will come a great "falling
away" in the church, as "the love of many shall wax cold." (Matt.
24:2) St. Paul also says that, "having itching ears" (possibly
to hear escapist "rapture" theories) they will "heap to themselves
teachers" of false doctrine (like Hagee, La Haye, Lindsey, Van Impe, etc.).
(II Tim. 4:3) The inability of the "Israel first" church to feel
any compassion, except toward Jews and Israel, proves they do not epitomize
the love of Jesus, which like the Good Samaritan, reaches caring hands toward all of
hurting mankind. Surely, if there was ever a people robbed, beaten and
cast into a ditch to die it is the Palestinians of Gaza. Yet "Israel-first" evangelicals
stand afar off.
The message of the Old Testament prophets never placed Jews on a pedestal,
immune to criticism or free from condemnation. Nor did Christ or the
early church. Yet, that's exactly what Judaized evangelicals do.
We may conclude that Christian Zionism is not authentic Christianity. Instead,
being so contrary to both Old and New Testament ethical values, it is one of
the most dangerous and misguided cults of Christianity the church
has ever known.
Watch the dynamic 10-minute educational video How to Kill the
Hate Bills at www.truthtellers.org which
explains how the two hate bills, HR256 and HR262, threaten freedom.
Please tell the offices of members of Congress to watch it! Also
at www.truthtellers.org, watch our gripping 82-minute documentary Hate
Laws: Making Criminals of Christians.
Let the Anti-Defamation League teach you how they have saddled 45 states with
hate laws capable of persecuting Christians, and spearhead attempts to pass the
federal hate crimes bill: http://www.adl.org/99hatecrime/intro.asp.
TALK SHOW HOSTS: Interview Rev. Ted Pike on this subject. Call
(503) 631-3808.
National Prayer Network, P.O. Box 828, Clackamas,
OR 97015
