Psalm 129:5
Let all those who hate Zion
be put to shame and turned back!
Let all those who hate Zion
be put to shame and turned back!
Contrary to what some believe, Zionism is NOT extremism! God speaks continually in the scriptures about Zion because it is the spiritual kingdom that is relationship with Him both Jew and all the Gentiles (the nations). God's commitment to Israel and the Jewish people is not superficial, and the Israelis and Jews who can be called Zionists in this spiritual sense - as well as citizens of "the commonwealth of Israel" like me, a gentile Christian - are not extremists either!
Hamas is a terrorist organization that has indoctrinated almost the whole population of Gaza with Islamic fundamentalist terroristic propaganda with murderous hatred for Israel and for Jews. That is a vastly different heart and motive than Zionism. Are there radical Jewish nationalists who also act in hatred toward Arabs? YES. Far fewer in number, unacceptable to most Israelis and they not just given free rein to do evil against their Arab neighbors. When they do evil, Israeli authorities step in to stop them. In Gaza the reverse is true. Mothers birth sons in order that they may become "shahid," a martyr in Islam killing Jews.
What some people think they know about Zionism is WRONG. And I boldly ask the LORD to drop their hate-filled words of condemning Zionism to the ground and render them useless! Don't play a dirge over Zionism because you don't know the truth about what it means. It is not extremist religion, but it is HaTivah, The Hope of God's restoration of Israel alive and burning in the hearts of those who walk by faith in Yeshua, Israel's Messiah with understanding of what God is doing to make us "one new man" in Him.
I wrote this after hearing someone yesterday pray their "last prayer" on the IHOPKC platform before leaving. I am beginning to hear greater understanding of God's plans for Israel in the prayers that are being made here, but of course in a youthful crowd of Christians, there is a lot of room for those that have been led astray in what they have been taught about modern Israel from the perspective of their faith.
When I say younger generations, I am really talking about the generations that have come after the Baby Boomer generation. It is typical in those generations have rejected what they have collectively deemed as bad interpretation of the Bible by their parents and grandparents who support Israel. They thing we are morally-ethically challenged in our misinterpretation of scripture regarding Israel. I have seen this much in the past and it deserves to be addressed because in how they have been indoctrinated, they believe their view of modern Israel as irrelevant to be superior morally and ethically. However, their sense of justice is not aligned with God's heart or Word. To miss God's heart on Israel is an error that will lead to more and more spiritual deception forming in their thinking.
Of course it is not only young people who do not get the truth about God's heart for Israel, many older Christians do not either, and even Christians who have supported Israel for decades, do it with zeal, but not with an understanding of how God desires they express it. He is all about restoring Israel not just as a physical nation, but as a spiritual nation walking in the faith of Yeshua, Jesus, His Son. There are a lot of ideas among Christians about how that is going to unfold, but I tell, it is already unfolding and in Israel, Jews are coming to faith in Yeshua by the witness of Israeli Jews who are a growing bright light in a dark place. That dark place is also growing in this season as Israeli Jews who have returned to the Promised Land over decades, are reeling from the shock, pain and grief of murderous attacks on them and growing hatred of Jews all over the world. This is where the Light of Yeshua is shining brighter and brighter with each passing day from the Remnant in Israel.
So why in the face of that do we see young people gathering with Islamic fundamentalists chanting genocide Hamas threats against Israel on our college campuses and in our streets? Why are Christians there? And if they aren't there, why do they still condemn "Zionists" as if it were and extremist terror group as Hamas factually is? Why is any Christian hanging on to the idea that the Palestinian cause against Israel is "just" and moral equivalence given to both sides? Because they are indoctrinated by false narratives, that's why.
Hamas is a terrorist organization that has indoctrinated almost the whole population of Gaza with Islamic fundamentalist terroristic propaganda with murderous hatred for Israel and for Jews. That is a vastly different heart and motive than Zionism. Are there radical Jewish nationalists who also act in hatred toward Arabs? YES. Far fewer in number, unacceptable to most Israelis and they not just given free rein to do evil against their Arab neighbors. When they do evil, Israeli authorities step in to stop them. In Gaza the reverse is true. Mothers birth sons in order that they may become "shahid," a martyr in Islam killing Jews.
What some people think they know about Zionism is WRONG. And I boldly ask the LORD to drop their hate-filled words of condemning Zionism to the ground and render them useless! Don't play a dirge over Zionism because you don't know the truth about what it means. It is not extremist religion, but it is HaTivah, The Hope of God's restoration of Israel alive and burning in the hearts of those who walk by faith in Yeshua, Israel's Messiah with understanding of what God is doing to make us "one new man" in Him.
I wrote this after hearing someone yesterday pray their "last prayer" on the IHOPKC platform before leaving. I am beginning to hear greater understanding of God's plans for Israel in the prayers that are being made here, but of course in a youthful crowd of Christians, there is a lot of room for those that have been led astray in what they have been taught about modern Israel from the perspective of their faith.
When I say younger generations, I am really talking about the generations that have come after the Baby Boomer generation. It is typical in those generations have rejected what they have collectively deemed as bad interpretation of the Bible by their parents and grandparents who support Israel. They thing we are morally-ethically challenged in our misinterpretation of scripture regarding Israel. I have seen this much in the past and it deserves to be addressed because in how they have been indoctrinated, they believe their view of modern Israel as irrelevant to be superior morally and ethically. However, their sense of justice is not aligned with God's heart or Word. To miss God's heart on Israel is an error that will lead to more and more spiritual deception forming in their thinking.
Of course it is not only young people who do not get the truth about God's heart for Israel, many older Christians do not either, and even Christians who have supported Israel for decades, do it with zeal, but not with an understanding of how God desires they express it. He is all about restoring Israel not just as a physical nation, but as a spiritual nation walking in the faith of Yeshua, Jesus, His Son. There are a lot of ideas among Christians about how that is going to unfold, but I tell, it is already unfolding and in Israel, Jews are coming to faith in Yeshua by the witness of Israeli Jews who are a growing bright light in a dark place. That dark place is also growing in this season as Israeli Jews who have returned to the Promised Land over decades, are reeling from the shock, pain and grief of murderous attacks on them and growing hatred of Jews all over the world. This is where the Light of Yeshua is shining brighter and brighter with each passing day from the Remnant in Israel.
So why in the face of that do we see young people gathering with Islamic fundamentalists chanting genocide Hamas threats against Israel on our college campuses and in our streets? Why are Christians there? And if they aren't there, why do they still condemn "Zionists" as if it were and extremist terror group as Hamas factually is? Why is any Christian hanging on to the idea that the Palestinian cause against Israel is "just" and moral equivalence given to both sides? Because they are indoctrinated by false narratives, that's why.
Early indications to me of this problem of the false Palestinian narrative showed up in Relevant Magazine. That is the new generation's Charisma Magazine started by the son of the Charisma publisher Steven Strang. Now Charisma is a publication known to support Israel, but not in the pro-active support of the Messianic body of Messiah in Israel. That may have been what put off Cameron Strang when he started his own magazine, Relevant at the age of 24, because there was a distinct departure from the type of Israel-support Charisma promotes.
Granted the kind of support Charisma promotes leans to Christian leaders connecting only with unsaved Jewish politicians, rabbis and humanitarian organizations. There is nothing wrong with doing that as long as it does not pointedly exclude all contact with the 18 to 20,000 Israeli Messianic Jews who bring the Gospel to their own people. There was a time for this type of support for Israel, but that season has moved into the necessity of Christians coming alongside the Israeli Messianic Jews, in support of their ministries in outreach from their congregations and ministries throughout the Land. They are not just providing practical humanitarian aid, they are bringing the witness of salvation to an Israeli population desperate for answers.
There is major pressure put on Christian ministries, and I daresay on Christian publications like Charisma, not to upset the Jewish people through open support of Israeli Messianic ministries. But I would rather do what God wants than do what those who are opposed to the Gospel want. Yeshua is Israel's Hope! Let the apple carts be upset: do what God calls us to do!
The traditional Christian approach to Israel is major finances into Israel to the projects of unsaved Israelis. This is an attempt to try to make Israel jealous of Christian faith by our generous giving. Meanwhile these same Christian completely ignore the Israeli Jews who believe in Yeshua Jesus and are doing all the work of the ministry on insufficient funds. It is spiritually anemic vision on the part of Christians in attempting to fulfill God's heart for supporting Israel. It stinks, if I'm honest, but WHOA! That doesn't mean younger generations should not reject Israel. The older Christian Israel-supporters have not awakened to the actual call God has made on us in coming into full support of Israel, but going the opposite direction buying into the LIES of false Palestinian narratives is not the answer either! There are real FACTs involved in Israel's existential battle to survive the Islamic fundamentalist terrorists and nations surrounding them. This is not the David and Goliath story line you have been sold by terrorists and their sympathizers!
Another influence I've seen on younger Christian generations came in the form of some young leaders aligning with the Palestinian Christians who put on "Christ at the Crossroads" who are not reconciled in the least with their Messianic Jewish Israeli brothers. They hold to the 'Victim Theology' that Israel today is 'nothing' to God. This is the same thinking that many Christians have, and the vast number of scriptures that say that is not how God views the Jewish people seems to make any impression on that thinking. It is because it is not only stinking thinking, it is also a hardened heart. Yes, Christians can have hardened hearts too.
The Palestinians who put on the Christ at the Crossroads conferences believe Jews have no right to be in the place where many Arabs settled while Jews were in exile for the last almost 2,000 years. They give no legitimacy to all the scriptures that tell God would restore the Jews back to the Promised Land and re-establish the modern state of Israel. Human beings just naturally turn a blind eye to anything they don't like and we see that through history as it relates to God's Word. If God does not give us eyes to see, we choose not to see.
But what ideas do the Christ at the Crossroads Palestinian Christians align themselves with? Foremost it is the nationalistic agenda of Palestinian Islamic fundamentalist terrorists. Even so, several Israeli Messianic Jewish ministry leaders have made great efforts over the years to bridge the gap with the Crossroads Arab Christians, even participating on the Crossroads panels some years, but the efforts have not yielded much.
Why is it that young American Christian leaders who support the Crossroads explanation of being victims of Israel, cannot breakthrough to the facts? Why are so many addicted to the false narrative instead of the facts? This is why I call it 'Victim Theology' because any way of analyzing the facts of a matter gets blown away by claims of victimization. How did we become a people who exalted those with victim mentality over the facts before us? How did we become so blind to the truth?
Certainly the indoctrination has come in a major way on college campuses. The intersecting alignments of various groups who carry victim mentality - including the fundamentalist Islamist determined strategy for overthrowing American support for Israel - has had a great impact on generations. The Baby Boomer radicals of the 1960's and 1970's became teachers and professors and they have infected the minds of generations ever since.
As for the rejection that Christian young people have toward support of Israel, it is also their rebellion against their parents who support Israel in every decision "right or wrong." We can be against wrong Israeli decisions without losing sight of our part in supporting God's grand plan for the spiritual restoration of Israel. Many evangelical Christians got stuck on the political advocacy support of Israel, and never considered that God's priority is to bring Israelis into a place where they can see Yeshua for who He is to THEM and be saved. "To everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under Heaven."
In this critical season we have a a generation who backs Hamas terrorists in the streets of our cities. It truly is sympathy for the devil. We have them making prayers saying Zionists as extremists like Hamas. That is a wholly distorted view of reality!
It is both idealism and the arrogance of youth to reject and rebel from the paths their parents and grandparents. We Baby Boomers certainly did that too and in the process we advancing many of great ills (sins) we see in our society today. At the time we dismissed sin as being irrelevant to us, and now our hearts break to see how the sins have morphed into our worst nightmare for our children, our gandchilden and even our great grandchildren. The generations that followed after us have done the same thing in rebellion and rejection of what we stand for...only now we are standing in a climatic season God spoke through all the prophets of Genesis to Revelation. The stakes for the lives of Christians are much higher now. Do they really have decades to return to the integrity of God's Word and the paths of righteousness?
God says that He is going to bring the prophetic spirit of Elijah in the last days. Malachi 4:5-6 "Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and awesome Day of the LORD. And he will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers. Otherwise, I will come and strike the land with a curse.”
So the answer is that the fathers, those who know God's heart for Israel to be spiritually restored, begin to turn their heart toward their children praying for the generations behind us that are flailing around in false narratives that break God's heart.
You may think it is wrong to put Israel at the the top of the list to pray for younger people to come to the knowledge of the truth about, BUT IF THEY GET THEY HEART OF GOD WRONG ABOUT ISRAEL THEN MANY OTHER GRAVE ERRORS WILL ATTACH TO THEM AS WELL. It is a spiritual vulnerability that attracts other evils. This is especially true in the current season.
You may think it is wrong to put Israel at the the top of the list to pray for younger people to come to the knowledge of the truth about, BUT IF THEY GET THEY HEART OF GOD WRONG ABOUT ISRAEL THEN MANY OTHER GRAVE ERRORS WILL ATTACH TO THEM AS WELL. It is a spiritual vulnerability that attracts other evils. This is especially true in the current season.
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