Churches for Israel?

I am very curious lately about the profile of a pro Israel Christian. You also are aware that I’ve ranted in this space about slipping support for Israel. We’ve discussed the reasons many times, chief of which is the de-emphasis on Israel by today’s evangelical “leaders.”

I don’t look for that to change any time soon, but I do think there are still thousands of churches out there that would identify as pro Israel. Obviously, that would almost require a pro Israel pastor (since they are the gatekeepers for better or worse), but some might consider themselves pro Israel even if the pastor isn’t necessarily on fire for Zion.

There are some good organizations that support Israel, but I’m not really aware of any entity that is exclusively dedicated to networking among churches.

I’ve heard from speakers that in each congregation, about 10 percent of the members are really engaged with Israel. Some will listen politely, some will be angry, and some will find their hearts moved toward the Jewish people.  The latter is the end-goal.

So, if a congregation of 500 hears a pro Israel/Bible prophecy speaker, about 50 will be real allies. Wish it were more, but that’s a good and precious start. Those 50 are very important to the cause. Things are helped immeasurably if the pastor is engaged.

Of the, say, 4.1 million members of CUFI, how many are from pro Israel churches? Are the majority individuals who love Israel and the Jews? I don’t know, but it’s an interesting question.

The churches are the funnels for all sorts of information going to the public, to the evangelical community specifically. For at least 15 years, much of that information has been toxic. By that I mean Rick Warren’s man-centered wisdom, Andy Stanley’s assaults on the integrity of Scripture, Stephen Furtick’s me-centered theology, etc.

I simply wish there were more pro Israel churches networking together, and I’d like to help do that.

If you belong to a pro Israel church, anywhere, please email me and I’ll enter that into a database. I don’t want anything from you, other than to compile a database. It would be fascinating to know just how many of you there are out there.

Let’s keep this going; send to your lists and help compile the premier pro Israel church database!

Jim1fletcher@yahoo.com

Living in Unreality

I live near Branson, Missouri, where the tourist boat capsized last week. I’ve heard the most bizarre responses to the question of “why God would allow this.” Most of the weirdest responses have come from Christians, who tend to distort God’s character. This in turn leaves skeptics and other non-believers more confused as they try and sort out such a ghastly event. Some have even blamed God for the loss of life in the tourist town.

A recent response from the Muslim mayor of London reminded me of this a few days later. The group Israel Advocacy posted this on Facebook:

“The Mayor of London claims it is a safe place.

“The glib response would be, ‘Just like Islam is the religion of peace.’

“The more thorough response is that politicians and media, leaders and the entire Left have stolen any narrative which speaks to facts and have replaced truth with bastardized definitions and lies which must be accepted or consequences, social, financial, and to personal safety, are promised.”

This last paragraph is one of the most lucid, discerning things I’ve read in some time. It is saying that political correctness forces us to live in unreality, an alternate universe. In this place, immediate danger is redefined as something good. This is the core—biblically speaking, I think—of how evil operates.

Good is evil, and evil is good.

Israel is dealing with a demonic presence in Gaza. Weaponized balloons and kites are sent over to damage crops and, Hamas hopes, kill Jews. Israel’s restraint is predictable, given their desire to maintain at least a semblance of normal relations with the international community. I think they should eliminate every last member of Hamas, but it’s easy for me to sit in safe America and “second-guess” Netanyahu and his cabinet and advisors.

However, the larger question remains: how do we get people to accept reality, that Islam itself is the problem? Radical Islam is not the primary problem, in the sense that it is the religion itself that is wholly evil and operates as a philosophy of conquest and domination and cruelty. Until more people accept this reality, our world will continue to live in unreality.

In a sane world, Israel would send the IDF in to eliminate the terrorism on its southern border, and the international community would applaud Israel for its sanity and commitment to its citizens’ safety.

But in the real world we live in, that is considered brutal and unacceptable. In other words, the victim is now the villain.

I’m sure many of you readers deal with this on a smaller scale. Someone in your life—probably a family member or even friend—is a master manipulator and will eventually seek to harm you, for whatever reason. They will do something hurtful, but if you respond at all, they will cleverly paint themselves as the victim.

This is what the leadership of Islam does today. Thousands of people the world over have been murdered by Islam in the last 40 years, but Islam is the victim.

Useful idiots in the West contribute to this problem; Islam will use any advantage to advance its cause, which is world domination. Remember when ABC’s Peter Jennings held a town hall meeting about Islam just days after 9/11? He whitewashed it by bringing in imams who lied to the viewing audience.

London’s mayor, Sadiq Khan is one of the master manipulators. He practices taqiyya, the art of lying to achieve your goals in Islam. Yasser Arafat made it an art form.

I am confident Israel will deal with the problem effectively, eventually. And I understand I think their strategy. These attacks are not considered to be large-scale enough to warrant a full-scale invasion of the Gaza Strip.

But the rest of us (at least Israel is acutely aware of the core of the conflict) seem to be in a fog. The mayor of London says London is safe, but he knows it is not. Further, he knows why it is not safe.

The same thing is going on here in this country. We are told this and that by the media and political leaders. But remember, Barack Obama and Anderson Cooper and the like do not live like you live. They are not physically vulnerable to terrorism, so they don’t care about you. They lie to you.

My message is, prepare physically and spiritually. Be aware of the threat. Live in reality.

When it comes to your doorstep, you’ll be glad you did not take Sadiq Khan’s word for it.

Jim1fletcher@yahoo.com