Lashon Hara: Slander

Ron Cantor of Messiah's Mandate wrote, "Over the past few days, a video in Hebrew has been circulating about the evils of spiritual manifestations in the life of the believers. The video condemns 24-hour prayer movements, as well as much of what we see and read about in the book of Acts. The creator of this video took some of the more bizarre videos out there and made it seems as if those strange manifestations were the norm in charismatic congregations. Any normal charismatic believer would look at a video of a person barking like a dog and think it abnormal. The sad thing is that it is causing division in our small body of believers here in Israel. Please pray over this situation."

Back Story | Here's My 2¢ 

Lashon Hara: Slander 

Isn't it ironic. The Charismatic church for the most part has little interest in what God is doing among the Israeli believers, yet the Israeli ministries who operate in the gifts of the Spirit are under an unprecedented attack for connection to Christian charismatics. And not only that, but they are being slandered by an extremely small ministry in Israel as being related somehow to some of the flakiest of the charismatic flakes we've seen in recent decades. These men under attack in Israel have nothing to do with all that craziness.

It is a disgrace what one self-righteous man has taken upon himself to stir great opposition to a group of Israeli ministries. I stand by his targets 100%. They are producing fruit unto salvation, Michael N. is producing slander and great division among the brethren in Israel with his articles and videos.

I am watching his video production right now and I am appalled that the leaders in the body in Israel have brought my friends up for examination based on these accusations, yet they see no problem with allowing this type of slander and accusation to go unchecked. No repercussions for slandering brothers in the LORD, but doubts from false accusations are free to spew out against my friends.

I ask all my subscribers and followers to bring this injustice before the LORD. That God would arise and show who is right and who is wrong. That no weapon formed against my friends shall prosper.

If anyone needs to be exposed for bad acts within the Israeli ministries, it is those who slander their fellow brethren in the LORD who are ministers of good standing and reputation among the Body of Christ worldwide. The division being brought to the body in Israel is not one lick different than the attacks of the ultra-Orthodox against the faith. This is a stain on the whole body that such accusations are being allowed to stir trouble for going on three years now.

No, I cannot keep silent. May God grant repentance to those involved in this slandering of some of the finest ministers I know in Israel.

I must add that I do not back any of the extremes of charismatic Christian ministry shown as examples in this video. Also I have never seen my Israeli ministry friends participate in such excessive displays either. I have long distanced myself from charismatic excesses believing them to be fleshly. I have seen powerful operation of the Spirit in the meetings of Eitan, Dan, Asher and Ron - but I've never seen excess, fleshly indulgences at all.

IN FACT, let me go further: I BELIEVE that the Israeli charismatic ministries are to bring greater BIBLICAL balance and accountability to bear among international Christian charismatics. I believe this is what the apostolic-prophetic Israeli ministries are meant by God to bring to the table as the unity of Jew and Gentile believers - One New Man - continues to manifest.

The Israeli ministries who are being slandered for their associations with some Christian charismatic leaders do not practice the excesses shown in that video. If anything will bring more balance into the Christian apostolic and prophetic circles, it will be their association with these Jewish brothers that challenges them to greater accountability and much less shows of flesh when the Spirit of God is truly moving among us. 

It is flat out bogus to claim these ministries have anything to do with the excesses portrayed in this video, nor do any of them believe as falsely accused that "It's not obligatory to believe." All of them know and teach that it is necessary to come to faith in Yeshua, no matter who you are. For the accusation that they enter into covenant relationships with Christian ministry leaders is a "covenant with death" as this video producer claims is a twisted misuse of scripture. 

The brethren who have been accused, whom I have known personally for years, I stand by their integrity, moral character and fidelity to the LORD Yeshua without hesitation. 

What is most appalling to me is for Dan, Asher, Eitan & Ron to be under a microscope of inspection by elders because of such false accusations, but lying brothers are free to slander and defame to their heart's content. It is lashon hara: slander.

"There are six things the LORD hates, seven that are detestable to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are quick to rush into evil, a false witness who pours out lies and a person who stirs up conflict in the community."  Proverbs 6:16-19  

My Israeli ministry friends fit in NONE of those categories.

That's my 2¢ -Donna Diorio

Re-Claiming Young Christians for Israel

Worshiping the Lord together in Israel:
Jews, Arabs & Internationals at an Elav conference

How are we ever going to re-claim the younger generations of Christians support of God's ultimate plans for Israel? Is it even possible seeing the overwhelming deceptions in the world?
by Donna Diorio

Many young adult Christians have rejected their Christian parents support of Israel, instead believing the propaganda of their social just peers that Palestinians are a poor people oppressed by the evil might of Israel. It is a false narrative that the world leaders have indulged for decades but it is an especially alarming thing that young adult Christians have also been snared in the deception.

There must be a concerted effort on our part to break this deception off of Christian young people & adults, one by making it a constant priority prayer to God. There are other things, like continually declaring the truth and countering the false narrative.

Over the past week I have had a thought about how such a vast amount of elder Christians who support Israel throw all of the resources and support behind UNSAVED Israel. They give their donations, time and attention to the unsaved rabbis, government leaders and good works organizations and all they give the believers in Jesus in Israel is the cold shoulder.

I have been pondering how the sins of the Christian Israel supporters who do this are being passed down to their sons and daughters who manifest the same sin by backing Palestinian false narratives rather than Israel.

You know that the sins of the fathers get passed down and not every generation manifests it in the same way, but it is the same basic sin. In this case it is the sin of being deceived by false narratives concerning Israel.

For the elder Christians the false narrative is that God wants them to court unsaved Israel and not worry about what is going on in the remnant of faith in Israel. Nothing could be farther from the truth. God's PERFECT plan is for the Christians who support Israel to stand and support the believers in Israel FIRST & FOREMOST. They are the ones who will win Israelis to faith, not you - or at least not you anywhere compared to how effectively they do.

For the younger adult Christians who value the false narrative of Palestinians as David and Israel as Goliath, their generation sin of being deceived by false narratives is also a rebellion from seeing that their Christian parents have veered off the path of God regarding Israel. Maybe they can't put their finger on it exactly, but they know your obsessions with helping to rebuilt the Temple Mount, of funding and following the un-redeemed Israelis only, that these are ALSO not of God.

If the Christian parents repent, will the curse be broken off the young Christian adults who believe the false narratives about Israel? We must find the answers to breaking this curse of Christians following the paths that resist the very work and plan of God in Israel. Christian young adults must be activated to stand with the body of FAITH in JESUS in Israel.

Who knows what could happen if Christians who support Israel but ignore the soul-winning Israeli Messianic ministries, began to speak of spiritual salvation in Israel rather than talking about the latest effort to build the Third Temple, who knows if the younger generation of Christians might find that way more exciting. Rebuilding a stone temple versus a Living Temple. To me it is a no-brainer. 

For the Israeli believer ministries, there is great focus placed on overcoming the political walls with the spiritual bonds of peace that we have only in Jesus. That means the both adult believers and youth believers participate in conferences and worship events for that purpose of making from two, one in the Messiah. Who knows what would happen if Israel supporting elder Christians focused on those things rather than the Israel-issues that they prioritize now.

Every individual is responsible for their own sins, even the generational sins that are passed down because of the sins of the fathers. Another reason I see for the deception among the social justice Christian generation is their departure from God's Word establishing the standard for ALL social justice. Those who dismiss the Old Testament Hebrew scriptures as done away with and irrelevant, will never that a true north on their moral compass. God's Word establishes the parameters of justice according to our Creator. Unfortunately, the strongest feature I see in social justice circles, Christian or non-Christian, is that they have made their own opinions of justice higher than God's. It is a sure-fire path to injustice.

Pray for deception to cease, and speak the truth in love. Some will see and hear. Many will break from the path that resists God's plan for all the nations in Israel.

My 2¢ | Christian Israel-Supporters Treating Israeli Messianic Ministries Lo-Priority

People have always complained that I express myself too strongly, too adamantly.
So in recognition of the need for humility of opinions & interpretations, here's

My  2¢ 

Christian Israel-Supporters Treating Israeli Messianic Ministries as Low-Priority
Christians whose hearts are stirred by God toward Israel can be so vulnerable to be led astray from Jews of faith in Jesus, to Jewish unbelievers who have set leading Christians AWAY from Jews of faith in Jesus, to a simple fascination with Judaism.

Why would I want to sit at the feet of an unbeliever Israeli Jew, even if he were a rabbi? I wouldn't. That person has nothing to offer me but to dazzle me with Jewish lore. I want only what has been given to an Israeli person of faith, downloaded from God in Heaven into the redeemed spirit of a Jewish disciple of Jesus! But some think they are bridging the gap between Jews and Christians. How can that be when they ignore the Messianic Jews of faith and latch on to the hem of the garment of some Israeli Jew who behind their back spits at the name of Jesus?

I know a lot of Christians ignore Jews of faith because they say, 'We don't need to go to them, they've already been saved. We need to make the ones who haven't been saved "jealous" of our faith by befriending them (and showing them how sweet we are).' Uh-no. That is not working for you because they are not going to be impressed with how you are willing to throw Messianic Jews under the bus in order to be friends with them.

Why should they be jealous of the faith of Christians who treat Jews who believe in Jesus as it they are insignificant and less important than the Christian being able to befriend unsaved Jews?

Others seek out unbeliever Jews for teachings. They like to financially support unbeliever Jewish Israel- projects rather financially supporting the Israeli Messianic believers carrying the Gospel in Israel. Why? Why is it so hard to get Israel-supporting Christians to see that supporting the Gospel to Israel is greater than all the other endeavors together? Why do Christians make Israel the ONLY exception to that understanding in a lost world?

I am not against being friendly to unsaved Jews, quite the opposite. But I am not going to financially support ANY projects in Israel that are led by unbeliever Jews, and I am sure not going to go to them for spiritual enlightenment. Wake up. This is so wrong, how can you honestly be fooled by such situations?

It would be the same thing as Christians flocking to the Sanhedrin in the book of Acts, as the Sanhedrin was actively seeking to persecute, jail and put to death the Apostles and the followers of Yeshua in the first century of faith. Absolutely the same thing, same situation today with Christians falling all over themselves to make Israel jealous of our faith when it is the Israeli Messianics who are winning souls and making disciples. 

If you want to make Israel jealous of our faith, you will support Israeli Messianic ministries ONLY. You will get spiritual understanding from those Israeli Jews who are actually filled with the Spirit of Jesus, not from those who are trying to drive all those believer Jews out of Israel. Again, I say: Wake up! It doesn't mean you can't reach out to unsaved Jews, but if you don't have inclination to the Israeli community of faith high in your priorities, I question if you really get God's plan for Israel. 

That's my 2¢ —Donna Diorio

Photo: Ashdod pastor Israel Pochtar standing in front of anti-Messianic posters targeting him and his ministry staff at Voice of Judah.

Son Flowers in God's Garden

A sunflower field in between Tel-Aviv and Jerusalem

Over the past several years we have marked the passing of a great many of the spiritual giants in Messianic faith and in the leadership of the Israeli body of faith specifically, like David Davis, Marc Chopinsky, Eddie Santoro and now Elihu Ben Haim.

In my near two decades of doing Israel prayer summaries I also remember we have buried faithful servants of the Lord like Katya Morrison, Esther Ridings Moore, Tom Bender, Antony Simon and Brookie Escott. Before I started Israel prayer there was the beloved uniter, Ilan Zamir and soon after I began the prayer letter was a pioneer of the faith in Israel, Albert Nessim. The youngest among them was Shai Kushnir a Messianic IDF soldier who lost his life in the 2014 war with Hamas in Gaza.

From the youngest, Shai, to the eldest Albert, we are always shocked when the lives in our community are cut off. Being in the roughly the same age group as the leaders first mentioned, I think we of that age group also probably consider them as lives that have been cut off prematurely. As Jackie Santoro wrote last week, "We are in a great end time battle and sadly as in any battle, there are casualties. But we have confidence that nothing is in vain and we as the Body of Messiah are going forward in greater strength each and every day."

We are like Son flowers in God's garden. I knew from the moment I laid eyes on the Revive Israel picture of the sunflower field that it would be the cover for Arrows this week. I didn't know how, but suddenly as I am writing this opening on Tuesday I see exactly why. I knew it was because even though we have buried many dearly beloved friends, servants of God, we are not like those in the world who have no hope. We know they are at the Father's side, with Yeshua in heavenly places. We also know that they are not the end of what they and we have set ourselves to do in our service to the King of Glory.

Sunflowers thrive in Texas like they do in Israel and one thing I know about sunflowers is they grow very tall and are profuse. When they die having lived out their life under a scorching sun, they leave such an abundance of seeds that are harvested for eating, and with many others falling into the ground and producing a profusion of new plants in the next growing season.

The Son Flowers of God's Garden are like that too. As I was looking through all the ministry letters that have come in over the past week, I was noticing how many new, young faces are represented today in Israel prayer. These are the seeds that have been produced by the leaders who have passed into eternity, and by all of those who remain - whom we pray live long, long lives for years to come.

Yeshua said in John 12:24, "Except a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it abides alone: but if it dies, it brings forth much fruit."

Eddie Santoro had faith for healing - not only his own, but he prayed for everyone he could through the whole time he was being treated and monitored for cancer. That he eventually died does not cause me to doubt that healing is the children's bread. It is for us and it is for us now. There is great spiritual resistance to the signs and wonders of the kingdom manifesting in Israel, and bringing in a harvest of souls just like it does everywhere else in the world when the power of God begins to manifest our inheritance in Yeshua.

This week, Jonathan Moore who is one of the young leaders in Ahavat Yeshua in Jerusalem wrote in Facebook, "Here's my prediction: Within 2 years we will be seeing lots of miraculous healings and salvations...in Jerusalem."

I believe Jonathan is right on the spiritual mark of the scripture I was getting all the past week. For like the natural sunflowers, the deaths of two of the Son's flowers in God's garden in Israel this month, two who were sowing mentoring of young leaders, evangelism, healing, teaching the nations of Israel's destiny, and intercession are sure to reproduce multi-fold even in the coming year.                                                                                                                                     — Donna Diorio 

The Jewish Mystique

This article was originally published in Arrows from Zion 5/29/2019

The Jewish Mystique

by Donna Diorio

When I was about twenty-one I read a book called, The Jewish Mystique. I had a job with a success guru who put on seminars for chiropractors six times as year. It was there I first became fascinated by all the Jews I was meeting, most of them from the East Coast.

Recently I remembered this book so I searched it out online. One review referred to "the Jewish Question" several times and I was almost embarrassed that I had read the book. Then I saw that Dennis Prager names it as one of the books that most influenced him, so I guess I am safe in saying it was the foundation of my first attempts to understand the Jews. It would be another ten years before I began to really being to understand the Jews as the Bible became my sole guide for understanding.

It has taken thirty-six years of going through all the learning curves, and finally being strategically focused in observing the Israeli Messianic Jewish ministries for the past eighteen years, but I am no longer fascinated by all things Jewish. Fascination drew me to discovery of the Messianic movement, but fascination matured into an earnest desire to see God's plan for the Jews and all the nations to be fulfilled. Without the increase of the faith of Yeshua in Israel, God's plan is in a holding pattern.

Just as surely as God puts a stirring in our hearts for the Jewish people, a fascination, if you will, it is a phase that Christians drawn to the Messianic movement need to mature out of. Don't be shocked, but we need to move from our of our fascination with "all things Jewish" and let our hearts be captured by God's ultimate plan in drawing us to them. It is for His return to the Jewish people with salvation through Yeshua - the gospel that is preached by the Israeli Jewish ministries in the way that only they can.

There has always been a remnant of Jewish faith in Yeshua, but today God has begun to restore His Jewish people in Israel, and not just physically, but spiritually. Not just the restoration of their homeland Israel, but to the faith that He promised He would one day open their eyes to. It is a restoration of faith that is going on worldwide, but the restoration of Messianic faith in Israel is God's epicenter of what He is doing in our day.

If we remain fascinated by Jewish things more than by God's plan for faith to arise in Israel, that we will easily downplay or dismiss entirely the great mantle of Israel's salvation that is upon the shoulders of the Israeli believers and the ministries who are leading and discipling them. 

Most often I hear the idea that the Christians from the nations have the mantle from God to win the Jews because they are "to make Israel jealous". If we want to make Israel jealous of our faith, we can't do it by disregarding the Israeli Messianic Jews who are of "like precious faith". Will any unsaved Jew have respect or jealousy for our faith if we are so easily convinced to treat Jews who believe in Jesus as "traitors" to the Jewish people, and to be avoided by any Christian who wants to have a relationship with organizations helping Israelis? Lots of Christians need to think this point through!

To make Jews jealous of our faith, Christians must not only have hearts to help Israelis, but we also have to respect, love and support the Israeli believers who are as "living letters" to their countrymen of the faith in Israel's Messiah. As Isaiah 8:18 declared: "Behold, I and the children whom the LORD has given me are for signs and for wonders in Israel from the LORD of hosts, which dwells in mount Zion."

We will never make Israel jealous with this support become complete. It is time for Israel-supporting Christians to put off the spiritually childish fascination with Jewish things and grew into the mature focus of God's plan for the salvation of "all Israel". The hour has come. 

The Understanding

The Understanding

by Donna Diorio

In 1998, as Benjamin Netanyahu's first term as Israel's Prime Minister was coming to an unplanned end, there was a strong campaign among the religious parties to legislate against the Israeli believers in Yeshua from sharing their faith.  I have always believed that God removed Netanyahu from power because he allowed the religious parties to increase too powerfully and threatening to the Israeli Messianic Jewish believers ability to fulfill their mandate from God. 

With new elections, the liberal party took control and Israel became less safe in national security because of it, but Messianic believer-citizens became more safe. That seems to be the trade-off politically for Israel. My trust is that God will keep both of those needs balanced. That balancing act may be exactly what we are seeing  unfolding again in the chaotic Israeli political situation. While Netanyahu is strong on protecting Israel from international pressures, he is miserably weak in protecting the religious freedoms of Israeli Messianic Jewish believer-citizens. 

Here is another troubling fact: the Israel-supporting Church generally has the exact same strength and weakness as Netanyahu. When Netanyahu failed to adequately speak up for the Israeli believers in 1998, I believe God sovereignly  removed Netanyahu from office.  He moved to limit the damage that the religious parties were set on doing to the Israeli believers sharing their faith. In God's eyes, the believers are every bit as important as the whole nation of Israel because, in fact God's plan to save Israel from annihilation in the end times is inextricably entwined with His plan to bring "all Israel" to faith in Yeshua through the testimony of Israeli Messianic Jews.  

Fast Forward to 2019. Netanyahu's political problems may be of God because once again Israel may be getting a course-correction so that too much power is not given prematurely to religious parties in opposition to the Gospel.  There are again increasing reports of aggressive religious persecution against the Israeli believers.

 Just this morning the Times of Israel tweeted about a meeting where the Israeli  President gave reassurances: "Rivlin to Christian leaders: Israeli sovereignty will never erode religious freedom".  The problem, of course is that this promise is pointless if it does not extend to Israeli Messianic Jews who profess Yeshua. 

And that brings us to the religious riot at a private Messianic worship event in the Clal Bldg Pavillion in Jerusalem last week. It was reported on Facebook the next day by Shelly Greenberg, a law intern and Messianic believer who witnessed the riot. Because of her experience in Messianic events, she also helped to get arriving guests of the event into the facility, past the rioting Lehava organization. 

Shelly Greenberg wrote that "Kids were crying, mothers and old people were terrified. . . . I must say, I've been dealing with those kind of things for years, but I have never seen them so possessed. They were in craze." Even the police & SWAT teams that arrived failed to control the crowd she said.

Inside the concert proceeded but outside, after two hours the riot area was finally pepper sprayed. As far as we know there were no arrests made and we have not been able to find any coverage of the riot in the Israeli newspapers. See coverage in Messianic news here and here. Some videos also captured a small measure of the riots posted on Facebook here and here.

We need to understand that God has placed a mantle of great purpose on the Jewish believers in Israel, and He will defend them waiting for us to step come alongside them 100% as He intends. They are paying the price for our failures to support them in prayer, in finances and in the political influence we hold. 

The religious persecutions of 2019 are a continuation of the opposition to the Gospel we see in the Acts of the Apostles, and which has shown itself time and again since Israel's modern re-birth in 1948. We must know this and not let it deter us from cooperating in the vision God has for the faith of Yeshua to bloom again in Israel. 

"Those that do not learn the lessons of the past are doomed to repeat it." | In 1998 the Zvili bill sought to stop the gospel from going forth in Israel by Israeli Jewish citizens was stopped due to months of tireless efforts by the Messianic Action Committee. Through their informing Christians about the threat they faced a strong worldwide outcry rose among Israel-supporting Christians. Israeli politicians noticed.  But the political realities were that Netanyahu's promises to Christians not to let the bill pass was too much for Netanyahu to uphold. He was under the same pressures to allow the religious parties too much power in order to maintain a coalition government.

Meanwhile Israel-based Christian organizations came up with their own solution to deal with the religious opposition in proposing what was known as "The Understanding".  What they hoped for was their  agreement would ease the religious political resistance to their own presence in Israel. It certainly did not ease the resistance for the Israeli believer-citizens and was viewed by many as a betrayal of them and of the faith, as well.  

Here is some of the wording of The Understanding: 

"We believe that the covenant which God concluded with the people of Israel was never revoked. We deeply respect the Jewish people in their identity and integrity not engage in activities, which have as their intention to alienate them from their tradition and community. Nor will we exploit, for the benefit of our denominational interests, such economic, social or psychological needs as may emerge. 

"We earnestly call upon the government of Israel to maintain its enlightened policy which allows our Christian communities in this country, both native as well as expatriate, to freely follow our vocation, which includes among others, caring for our members; engaging in many social and charitable projects; welcoming and assisting pilgrims and visitors from abroad; and maintaining schools and institutions for teaching and research - to the end, that the Christian communities in the State of Israel may flourish in harmony with those of other faiths."

I am among those that believe what is expressed in The Understanding falls short of what God wants to see from Christians in terms of supporting His plans for Israel. The reason is because it fails to see Israel is coming to faith in Yeshua now and they are coming by the anointing of God on the Israeli Jewish believers to bring them to faith. 

The Understanding ultimately left the Israeli Jewish believers vulnerable to un-protested persecution by the very Israeli religious organizations that "non-proselytizing" Christians have entered into agreement with. It has encouraged the Israeli believing community to suffer in silence. Why talk about what your family doesn't want to hear about of your hardships? We really have to do better, don't we? 

Increasingly Israel-supporting Christians are learning the truth and coming to cooperate with the plans of God for it. We can love our Israeli brothers and sisters in Messiah, and put them in the forefront of our desires to support Israel with the full knowledge that this is what God wants from us. 

Post Script I have sat for over a decade on the article I wrote originally on The Understanding from which this new article has been drawn. For the sake of the Israeli Ministries, I believe it is time to acknowledge the past so we don't repeat it once again in 2019.  Our alliance is to God's plan for Israel. We can't brush the Israeli Ministries aside as inconsequential to Christian ties to Israel.

---

Investing in the Next Generation ...of Israel-Supporting Christians

PHOTO CAPTION: How can I capture an image so you can have a better visualization of the reality of the body of Messiah in Israel? Not just photos of one congregation but the larger picture. How about with this photo I took in 2003 of an annual picnic of the Messianic Jewish and Christian Arab congregations in northern Israel. It is a gathering to cultivate a greater sense of what they all belong to rather than just their own congregations. Even this does not capture how large the crowd was...or what the ever increasing Israeli body of Messiah really looks like as a whole. They are now estimated to be 20,000 strong, and that is just an estimate of the Jewish believers. Does it matter? Yes. For the international Church, the Israeli believers cannot remain hidden and their significance remain unknown forever. We are supposed to be linking together just as this picture shows the Israeli Jewish and Arab believers forging the spiritual family ties. It's a must.  

Countering Rabbi Eckstein's False Claims to Christians

Investing in the Next Generation

 ...of Israel-Supporting Christians

It caught my eye in January when the article notice came from a web alert I have set up. The Jerusalem Post headline read "Investing in the Next Generation" and it was all about the $60 million headquarters that Rabbi Eckstein's International Fellowship of Christian and Jews is building only 1 block away from the new U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem. 

Apparently money is no object in the IFCJ quest to capture the donations of future generations of Christians because four of Israel's most acclaimed architecture firms competed to build the 10,000 sq.meters, 7-floor Jerusalem HQ.

As the JPost article noted, "the warm and inviting structure is the organization’s way of telling the Christian world: come on in, this is your spiritual home."

Rabbi Eckstein's daughter, Yael Eckstein, then the IFCJ Senior VP put it this way: “This center is not a Fellowship museum, but a building for Christians to visit physically and virtually that will help them deepen their spiritual roots in the Holy Land."

The plan is to use this impressive, extravagant HQ to draw in the Christian tourists is so they can "partake in pro-Israel programming" and, Yael Eckstein explained, "since many Christian visitors want to 'give back' to the country and help the people of Israel too, the building will provide volunteer opportunities. For example, visitors will be able to pack food packages for Holocaust survivors, sort clothes to be donated to the needy, and much more."

Of course, all of this is to be completely divorced from having any relationship whatsoever with the Israeli Jewish followers of Jesus who are the sharing their faith and seeing steadily increasing numbers of Jews come to faith in Israel's one true Messiah.

Here's the truth of the matter: Having spent the last two decades focused on Israeli ministries, I knew that IFCJ building would be paid for almost exclusively by Christians donations. Also, that not one Israeli believer ministry comes anywhere near receiving Christian donations equal to the massive amount of money that goes from Christian hands to Eckstein's IFCJ disposal.

That is a tragic on so many levels. One person who gives to IFCJ recently countered that the reason for the troubling fact  must be because IFCJ does a ‘much better job' of blessing Israel with the Christian donations than anyone else. That depends on what you think God wants Christian donations to Israel to do.

Let's review some of the facts.

Here is a quote from the late Rabbi Eckstein himself and expresses the position of IFCJ:

“… Until now,” Eckstein said, evangelicals “have realized that if they want to have relations with the Jewish community and Israel they have to put messianic groups aside because they know people like myself aren’t going to work with them …”

See how that statement separates Christians from their spiritual kin, the Israeli Messianic Jewish community? It also sets up Eckstein like IFCJ the only game in town.

Eckstein has gamed Christian good intentions toward Israel, but IFCJ is not the major artery that God intends for Christians to assist in ministering to the need in Israel. No sir. The major artery of material supply must be fed from within the body of Christ —meaning from the international Christians directly to the Israeli believer ministries for distribution to the needy in their own communities. 

IFCJ are not the only ones ministering to the needy of Israel, what's more, IFCJ are not ministering in the faith of Jesus either. For every type of outreach that IFCJ does, the Israeli Messianic congregations and ministries also do to the same with one big difference: they do it to the glory of Messiah Yeshua! 

Rabbi Eckstein died suddenly just a few weeks after the new HQ announcement was made, but his daughter, Yael, had been groomed for several years to take over. She has "inherited" the billion dollar charity which The Times of Israel noted "raises $130 million a year, mostly from evangelical Christians."

Imagine that amount financial support becoming the lifeblood of the Israeli Messianic congregations doing outreach among their people. The fact that it does not go to the body of Messiah in Israel brings one to consider how similar this is to the original entrance led by Joshua into the Promised Land "little by little".

Joshua, or Yehoshua, in Hebrew, was a forerunner type of Jesus (Yeshua) of the Jewish people entering the "Promised Land" of Israel. That is not the only parallel: Exodus 23:29 and Deuteronomy 7:22 may also give us a window into why more Christians are still not able to see God's intentions and join into the work of the ministry by the Israeli body of believers.

As the forerunner type, God told Moses ahead of Joshua's leading them into what would become Israel, that He was not enabling them to overcome the opposition "all at once" because that would cause "the wild beasts to multiply around you". Wild beasts indeed! Spiritual wild beasts that oppose the kingdom of the Lord coming to Israel!

There were 29 documented Jewish believers in Israel in 1948; 5 took the new Israeli government offer to relocate to other countries and 24 refused. From that humble beginning, in 2019 the numbers of Israeli Jews who believe in Yeshua has swelled to an estimated 20,000.

How is it with that kind of increase they are still such a hidden mystery even to the majority of the international church? Increasing this is changing as more and more in the international church are going to Israel specifically to connect with the believers in Israel. It is happening little by little, but should we not endeavor to help Israel-supporting Christians see how in throwing such heavy support to those who oppose the body of Messiah in Israel, that they are hurting Christ's cause in Israel, not helping it?

The late rabbi Eckstein died suddenly of a heart attack as 67. Just the day before he gave the last interview of his life saying some truly troubling things. The interview was given to The Jerusalem Report. It was only reported in Hebrew and was summarized in the Caspari Media Review of the Hebrew Press. In it Eckstein misrepresented New Covenant scriptures to bolster his own cause.

"Eckstein referred to Romans 9, where Paul wrote that Christians have been grafted into the olive tree of Israel by grace. This passage, said Eckstein, provides impetus for Christians to be involved in work that supports Israel and the Jewish people."

Caspari's summary from the same Hebrew news magazine article noted that "IFCJ has 1.6 million Christian donors, and has raised 1.4 billion dollars, mainly from Christians."

He also he said he had faced opposition both from the Haredi community, as well as Messianic Jews, who feel “they should be the ones to lead this movement of bridging Christians and Jews. And here we are, the largest organization with the biggest budget, and headed by a rabbi, even though most of our donors are Christians and we teach at Christian seminaries all over America.”

That statement is so grievous because it is not about a competition for donors as Eckstein saw it, but it is because it is God's plan to unite the Church with the Jewish believers in Israel.

The unsaved rabbi Eckstein twisted the meaning of the Romans passage. He was quite adept at appropriating New Covenant scriptures to suit his own purposes, but this passage was written by Paul to the believers in Rome. It was about how Christians were being "grafted in" by faith and to the faith of Jews who were the first to believe in Jesus — in great numbers of Jews according to the New Covenant.

Romans 9 was not about how Christians are grafted in to unsaved Israel, Paul laid out in great detail that unsaved Israel were the branches broken off because of their unbelief. Still today Christians are ONLY able to be grafted in to the saved branches of Israel. That is the only spiritual family ties we have in Israel, although our desire and heart is to help Israeli Jewish believers in all their labors to spread the Good News until "all Israel is saved". This is what Romans 9-11 is about, not at all how Rabbi Eckstein stated it.

How it must have grieved God's heart to hear the arrogance in Rabbi Eckstein's statement and even more so that because of how he has stood in opposition to God's stated plan for uniting Jew and Gentile in the Messiah.

The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews has been so successful in isolating Jewish believers in Jesus from the Christians who desire to please God by helping Israel. Why do major Christian organizations still support IFCJ despite this fact?

Over the years as many have tried to speak to Christian donors to the IFCJ and sadly many responded by accusing the Messianic Jews of being jealous of Rabbi Eckstein. Those who have eternal life in Yeshua are jealous of the rabbi who does not?

Reality check: it is not a matter of being jealous over the billions of dollars that have been misdirected from those building the kingdom of God through sharing the gospel with Jews, it is about trying to wake Christians up that they are being led astray by those that are hostile to the Gospel.

The ultra-Orthodox community, or Haredi, are the most zealous persecutors of Israeli Jewish believers in Yeshua, but they were also opposed to Eckstein because they don't want Israel accepting any donations from Christians. They don't want Christians having anything to do with Jews. PERIOD. So, I hope you see that just because Rabbi Eckstein got opposition from Messianic Jews and ultra-Orthodox Jews alike, it doesn't make Christians giving to IFCJ right.

The ultra-Orthodox community, or Haredi, are the most zealous persecutors of Israeli Jewish believers in Yeshua, but they were also opposed to Eckstein because they don't want Israel accepting any donations from Christians. They don't want Christians having anything to do with Jews. PERIOD. So, I hope you see that just because Rabbi Eckstein got opposition from Messianic Jews and ultra-Orthodox Jews alike, it doesn't make Christians giving to IFCJ right. 

IFCJ has been pulling the wool over Christian eyes long enough. Here are some confirmed points to counter the most recent Charisma Standing with Israel article, submitted by The KAIROS Company: "Fellowship of Christians and Jews Calls for Emergency Assistance" 

• Rabbi Eckstein's salary with benefits totaled $1.2 million per year. That is DOUBLE what the president of World Vision—a ministry with a budget 10 times larger—earns.
• For every $1 raised 40¢ goes to fundraising & compensation
• Eckstein's daughter, who inherited IFCJ received a 63% Pay Raise in 4 Years! $206,491.00 to $292,248.00 to $324,500.00

In Eckstein's 1984 book, What Christians Should Know About Jews and Judaism, he mischaracterized Messianic Jews by accusing:

“… By sprinkling their Christian lives of faith with Jewish customs and rituals taken out of their proper, historic context, they pervert Jewish symbols and make a mockery of the Jewish faith … A Jew who accepts Jesus as Lord or Messiah effectively ceases to be a Jew. He is viewed almost treasonously as having abandoned his faith, given up his Jewish heritage, and severed all links with the Jewish peoplehood … More than constituting an imposing threat to Jewish life and survival, Hebrew Christians are the source of much of the Jewish distrust of Evangelicals and the discord in their relations …”

How could he charge Jews who believe in Jesus as "constituting an imposing threat to Jewish life and survival"? Is there anyone ever in history who has been more Jewish than Jesus? Isn't a Jew discovering the Jewishness of Yeshua the best thing that could ever happen to a Jew —or to any person, for that matter?

The real tragedy is that so many Christians have believed every twisted thing that Rabbi Eckstein has told them to put Jews who believe in Jesus in the worst possible light — as if they are enemies of the Jewish people rather than the truth of who are and what they are in the plan of God.

Now IFCJ leadership has set its sights on capturing the hearts and donations of the next generation of Christians too. For as long as they are successful in this mission, they are strangling the lifeblood of Christian financial assistance to the hundreds of congregations and ministries across Israel who are declaring the faith of Yeshua to all Israel. We have to help them. We must. —Donna Diorio

Lest anyone believe this is a personal attack on the late Rabbi Eckstein and his daughter who now heads the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, it is not. IFCJ is not the only organization that is causing a major bypass of Christian donations from reaching those spiritually mandated with reaching all Israel with the gospel, namely the saved Remnant of Israel.
 
As a friend and major leader in the Israeli Messianic leadership asked, "Don’t you think a lot of these Christians think that Jews are almost saved already?" He observed that even pre-Trib Christians "used to believe that if Jews died without Jesus they would go to hell, so what about all the Jews who die before the tribulation?  There is something fishy going on."

Those scales aren't fishy, but serpentine.

Please share this article with your friends and pray for eyes to be opened to the truth of this matter.