"Never Again" really is NOW

 

A majority of at least 15 out of 17 judges voted in favor of imposing the so-called provisional measures, including the court's president, Joan Donoghue of the United States. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) ordered Israel on Friday to take action to prevent acts of genocide as it wages war against Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip but stopped short of calling for an immediate ceasefire.
Five days later the full impact has hit me that “Never Again” really is NOW.

“Never Again” really is NOW
by Donna Diorio

I found I cannot walk together with people who do not embrace Israel. When I left the Messianic congregation I was a member of for many years, my full intention was to go to D/FW churches to bring in awareness of God's intentions for the restoration of Israel. I realize this doesn't speak very well of me, but I found I could not exist among a people who could not grasp the intentions of God's heart toward Israel. 

     They made me too mad teaching the whole book of Romans and just skipping over Romans 9, 10 & 11 like those chapters held no relevance to the church. Or hearing a famous healing minister take the pulpit of that same church to say he didn't get Mike Bickle's ‘Israel deal.’ Things like that ended up making me flee. Even in the beginning of my discovery of the Messianic movement, hearing a major prophet preaching from a replacement perspective one night rolled off the platform and hit me like a physical gut punch. When I took the issue to discuss with the pastor later, he denied there was any prejudice in himself or the prophet. But what else explains a theological conviction that in God's eyes there is no more place was found for Israel, but the Church has replaced them as God's chosen people? How does anyone erase the reality of Israel in the whole Bible? How do we get so blinded we "appropriate" God's promises to Israel for ourselves and leave all the punishments to Israel alone?

     Believe me, I tried to stick it out among people who don't believe God's everlasting intentions for Israel, but the spiritual warfare swirled around me so much I could not stay in those places. There are those who obviously must be far more mature spiritually than I am, who can just sit there and intercede for them, but I couldn't. I had to run away—far, far away. My place is where believers understand that Israel is God's and He will give them sight to see Yeshua is their Messiah.

     The Israeli ministries having been saying for a while now, "Never Again is Now." Not until just this minute had that statement hit me full force that it really is now. In my mind I had set that time farther out in the future—the things I studied in the 1990's about the Holocaust, Dietrich Bonhoeffer's life, about how eventually we will all be "counting the cost" in hostile, anti-Semitic times. It was my great desire not to fail to stand with the Jews if I was ever in the place where it would cost dearly to cast my lot with God's plans for the restoration of Israel. Now I can't keep the tears from flowing realizing just how now 'Never Again' really is. 

     This is the place where the devil begins peeling away in earnest all those who didn't realize it was going to cost them something to stand with Israel. It does cost something, but not making the choice to stand will cost more in the end.