Israel is the key to all end-time prophecy.

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Mar 17

Dateline Jerusalem - Jim Fletcher

“A Burdensome Stone”

There is a tightening of pressure on Israel. We all know this. Sadly, some of the worst offenders come from within the Christian community.

Several years ago, I corresponded with a journalist from a mainline denomination. She had written that she was a member of a delegation that met with then-Palestinian warlord Yasser Arafat, in Washington. During the meeting, the master terrorist lamented that Israel restricted worship at holy places.

Really?

I wrote to her and told her that I had just come from Israel and was denied access to the Temple Mount, simply because I wasn’t Muslim. It was the Palestinian Wakf that denied me access to a place central to my faith. I described in detail the gate guarded by police, the Palestinians roaming freely on the Temple Mount, and my efforts to try again later. This attempt also failed.

In contrast, Israeli authorities grant access to holy sites anywhere in the country, unless there is threat of violence from terrorists. This is as obvious as the sun shining to anyone visiting the country.

I told this journalist that her report was not only inaccurate, but bias based on the propaganda of a terror mastermind. Arafat had been schooled long ago in Marxist propaganda efforts, and he put those skills to good use in dealing with gullible Westerners. This kind of lying really hardens Western opinions of Israel. We somehow think that we can believe whatever someone tells us.

Typically, the reaction of this journalist was one of indignation; she wouldn’t have admitted the validity of my documentation if you’d put her hands in fire (which, for example, Hamas would do to her). But a curious thing also developed: I could tell she was taken aback that anyone would have the facts to refute her. She backpedaled. She knew she was caught.

That experience taught me a lesson. It told me that pro Israel Christians can stand up for the Jewish state, armed with facts and resolve.

A few years before this encounter, I read a syndicated column in which the writer compared then-President Bill Clinton with his Israeli counterpart, Benjamin Netanyahu. The writer listed some obvious similarities between the heads of state: charisma, age, etc. But then she said “in neither does one find experience in their respective armies.”

What?

Certainly that old Arkansas polecat Bill Clinton never got near military service. But Netanyahu? Bibi was a decorated officer in the Sayeret Matkal, the Israel Defense Forces’ elite commando unit. He fought in the Yom Kippur War, and took part in hijacking rescues, once being wounded. His two brothers also had seen combat; one was killed.

Yes, Bibi Netanyahu has experience in the Israeli army.

But do you know what was chilling about this column? The writer (I spoke with her by phone) evaded the facts, yet her three decades of covering the Middle East would easily make her aware that all able-bodied Israelis serve a stint in the military. She claimed not to know this.

I will tell you very frankly that I believe she was lying. She’s too smart, too connected.

You see, she wanted to plant the idea that Netanyahu was an empty suit: a political lightweight who had no experience in the matters he was dealing with. This was the height of the Oslo Years, when Clinton tried to make the Israelis cry “Uncle!” while negotiating with the PLO.

I believe she basically succeeded in her efforts. There was no retraction, and the piece will swirl around cyber space for quite some time, if the Lord tarries. This was also during the period of time called “The Year of Hating Bibi,” the title of a column by a principled member of the Left, who admitted that his colleagues hated Netanyahu because the prime minister insisted on tough measures with the Palestinians. He was maligned constantly while in office.

In my conversation with this journalist, I asked her where she heard that Netanyahu didn’t have military experience. She said she heard it from someone. I asked about her source. She claimed she had heard it at a dinner party at the home of U.S. Ambassador to Israel, Sam Lewis. I asked if I could quote her.

“I’d rather you didn’t,” she said meekly.

She was caught. And yet, her arrogance would not allow her to print a retraction. That would damage her agenda, which was to push the Leftist view of the peace process.

Only today, in an online piece describing the horror in Gaza, a Christianity Today writer — while briefly acknowledging that Hamas has taken over Gaza — went into some detail about Israel security measures stifling the freedom and even well-being of Palestinian evangelical Christians in that area.

CT can always be counted on to subtly or openly criticize Israel. The magazine has changed greatly over the years, as what I would call a centrist editorial staff has taken the reigns. An infamous 1998 cover story portrayed dispensationalists as an ignorant fringe. Like-minded scholars like Mark Noll (previously of Wheaton College and now at Notre Dame) ridicule folks who believe in Bible prophecy.

This kind of bias against Israel has been going on for quite a number of years, first in the mainline denominations and seminaries, and now openly spilling over into the evangelical community. It is no coincidence that the Emergent movement also dismisses Bible prophecy. Many of us — yours truly included — have been caught off-guard by the seeming suddenness with which this thinking has been brought to Christianity.

My great hero, the Princeton scholar Robert Dick Wilson, wrote almost 100 years ago:

“Attacks upon Isaiah, Daniel, and other books, because they abound in wonderful predictions, will have weight only with those who deny the fundamentals of Christianity.”

Wilson discerned the times.

Mark Burns, who is a supporter of Israel and brings tour groups to the country every year, also has some wisdom in our time:

 "Christians who read the Hebrew Scriptures know God made a promise with Israel," he said. "People who are clueless about the Old Testament can be persuaded to support the other side."   

 There you have it. The moving away from really teaching the Old Testament in our church culture has brought us to this point. Things that should be obvious to people, regarding Israel, are not obvious but hidden. A veil is over their eyes.

 This, as I mention repeatedly, is the deadly teaching that undermines Israel every day. We can’t teach the Bible as myth, legend, and metaphor without seeing an erosion in rock-solid belief. The Emergent spokesmen essentially teach that we can’t be rock-solid sure about anything.

 What then are we left with? Go embrace Buddhism. Try the New Age. Because if you don’t believe the Bible is what it clearly claims to be, then all roads can lead to God. Or nowhere.

 Truly, Israel is becoming that burdensome stone spoken of by the prophet. Once friendly nations are now behaving like rabid dogs when they look to Jerusalem. The irony is, all this gathering danger is “playing into” God’s hands.

 A dear Christian gentleman once told me that Satan is certainly super-intelligent. But in a crazy sort of way. He used the example of Hitler allowing hundreds of thousands of Allied troops to be evacuated from Dunkirk, to fight another day. His own troops watched from the cliffs above, as British military and civilian craft plucked the stranded troops off the beach. This was one of a half-dozen huge blunders that lost the war for the Nazis.

“Satan is the same way,” my friend said. “He certainly causes a lot of havoc and destruction, and sometimes it even looks like he’s winning. But he’s insane, and his insanity will always cause him to make a mistake.”

Remember this when the nations attack Israel. Let us stand with Israel in prayer and deeds, and resolve to support her for the duration.

Be informed. Be vigilant. Be outspoken.

Creator, give us courage to stand for the Jews. We beseech you to continue sheltering your people, in their own land, until such time as you enter our world again. Amen.