Allenby!

On this date, 104 years ago, British General Edmund Allenby walked through Jaffa Gate in Jerusalem.

Only a month before the famous “Balfour Declaration,” Britain’s official consent to begin the process of turning Palestine over to the Jews so that they could reconstitute their ancestral home, was issued. The British in World War 1 were engaged in battle in the Middle East with the Turkish Ottoman Empire, rulers in the area for 400 years.

For us that study Bible prophecy, we can now see the interesting details that went into the drive for statehood, realized of course on May 14, 1948.

In Europe, where Jews had been persecuted for centuries, the publication of a vile book, The Foundations of the Nineteenth Century, by Houston Stewart Chamberlain, further turned Germans against the Jews. Chamberlain, who had married Richard Wagner’s daughter (Wagner or “Vahg-ner” as the Germans pronounced it, was the famous composer. His music was played in the extermination camps during World War 2), was a vile anti-Semite whose views influenced Hitler.

It was time to get out of Europe and Jewish activists like Theodor Herzl used this to their advantage, to try and rouse Jews out of their slumber, and depart for Palestine.

It is interesting to note at this very time, when the Jews were beginning to fulfill epic Bible prophecies for the resettlement of Palestine, the world at large was working overtime to delegitimize the Jews’ rights to the land. Ironically and tragically, much of this emanated from the Church in one way or the other.

Since about 1870, American preachers were becoming more and more enamored of the views of Charles Darwin. This philosophy of naturalism, as it was known, kept at its core a belief that the Bible was myth. Particularly Genesis. And, among other things, the Book of Beginnings traced the history of the Jewish people. By relegating it to legend, fewer people considered that the Jews had a future history.

In 1902, when Herzl was really working to find a national home for the Jews, certain biblical scholars in Germany were also pushing their “Bible as myth” garbage. One of these, Friedrich Delitzsch, delivered a paper entitled “Babylon and the Bible” in 1902 (the Kaiser was in attendance). In this paper, Delitzsch proposed that the Bible had been influenced by Babylonian myth—not the other way around. This was a diabolical but surprisingly effective attack on Scripture. I sat in a lecture in 2002, by Marcus Borg, and the Oregon St. professor outlined the same view.

Remember, if the Bible is myth, then its claims are no more relevant than any other sacred book.

But Allenby’s entrance into Jerusalem a year before World War 1 ended is a marvelous evidence that God was working through history to return His people to their land. As Sir Martin Gilbert wrote in his monumental work, Israel: A History—

“With the British conquest of Jerusalem, the way was clear for the Zionists to work with the British to begin building up the Jewish National Home promised by the Balfour Declaration, and to create the Jewish national institutions through which that home could prosper. One of the earliest steps in this direction was the purchase on 31 January 1918 of the house and property of Sir John Gray Hill on Mount Scopus, on which the Zionists had acquired an option just before the outbreak of the war. For the sum of £6,500, the site was acquired that day for the future Hebrew University.”

Thus was the modern state of Israel on its way. We would do well to remember history and celebrate it, for one reason: God’s sovereignty shines like a beam of light in the darkness.

I’ve walked through Jaffa Gate myself, many times. Not with the fanfare of Allenby! When I do, I am reminded once again that God alone decides History. Only He is in charge, and that goes for our individual lives, too.

Think on that this Christmas season, especially if you are worried about your present or future circumstances.

He is bringing us all home.

Jim1fletcher@yahoo.com

The “Christian” Century

As I’ve stated over the years, one of the best sources for news about Israel—particularly media bias—is the Boston-based CAMERA (Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis). My friends Dexter Van Zile and Tricia Miller there do terrific investigative pieces that won’t be covered by very many journalists.

Dexter recently wrote about the falsehoods peddled by The Christian Century, founded in 1884 and the go-to periodical for many mainline Christians. This outlet has consistently been anti-Israel and in this latest flap, shows that ignoring Palestinian violence is the norm. As Dexter writes:

“All too often, Christian news outlets that have historically downplayed or ignored Palestinian violence against Israel, work assiduously to highlight Israeli and Jewish violence in the Holy Land. One egregious example of this tendency appears in an article about Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett published in the Dec. 1, 2021 issue of Christian Century The article originally appeared on CC’s website on Nov. 15, 2021.”

The Christian Century article he cites makes these outrageous claims:

“One area the prime minister, for all his pragmatism, has failed to address is the settler violence against Palestinians on the West Bank. A relatively small section of settlers harass and attack Palestinians, unprovoked and for no reason, preventing them from shepherding their flocks or tending to their fields. While the settlements exist in defiance of international law, Bennett and others refer to these areas by their biblical names, as a way of claiming them for Israel. And the violence there—which is largely supported by the army and the border police—stands in the way of Israel creating a meaningful political solution to its current crises. Bennett and his coalition partners have yet to even acknowledge this issue.”

The Israelis most certainly have addressed these issues, and recently. One has a hard time believing these anti-Israel editors don’t know that.

Now I want you to notice specifics that Dexter brings up:

“[Mordechai] Beck editorializes by declaring  the attacks were ‘unprovoked’ and took place ‘for no reason.’ How would he know this? After all, he ignores the fact that numerous attacks – including deadly ones—were perpetrated by Palestinians against Israeli settlers over the past few years.”

James M. Wall, longtime editor of The Christian Century, died in March at 92. He was a United Methodist, which explains in part his anti-Israel bias. I corresponded with Wall 20 years ago about Israel, and his responses weren’t encouraging. He knew what he was doing.

In one of Wall’s last articles for the magazine, in 2008, he rejected the reality that Israel is the Jewish state!

“At Annapolis this became obvious when he [George W. Bush] declared that Israel has to be a Jewish state, a position that Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat immediately rejected. Erekat knows that officially declaring Israel a Jewish state when 1.5 million Arab Israelis are within its borders is a contradiction in terms.”

This kind of odious bias reveals much about the man’s heart. Israel has been the Jewish state for 73 years and will remain so. For Wall to deny that is bizarre and deeply disturbing. Tellingly, his views are identical to that of Millennial leaders, including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and her cohorts in Congress.

This you see is the troubling trend going forward. Some pro Israel Christian groups boast large membership numbers. Many are doing good work. But is the tide against us? What will the landscape look like in 20 years?

Whatever it looks like, researchers like Dexter Van Zile will not have to explain to a Higher Authority why they stood down when Israel was attacked.

Can you say the same?

Jim1fletcher@yahoo.com