Interviewed by anti-Zionist vicar Stephen Sizer, Evan Thomas, a Messianic Jewish Congregational leader gushes about Christ at the Checkpoint as he has felt nothing but validated and respected, unlike how he feels about groups like Yad L’Achim treat him. He is obviously overwhelmed.
Nonetheless, the fact that the IDF granted him permission to enter the Palestinian Authority controlled Area says a lot about Israel’s commitment to democracy and free speech.
http://vimeo.com/38434415Here is what Baruch Maoz pioneering Israeli pastor had to say:
The following link will bring you to a lecture/sermon given by Pastor Wayne Hilsden, the senior Canadian Pentecostal Church representative in Israel.
Source MaozNews No. 50, March 2012
Wolves in sheep’s clothing
Some 600 supposed Christians recently gathered in Bethlehem for the “Christ at the Checkpoint Conference.” It focused mainly on two questions: Is the present physical restoration of Israel as a nation part of God’s plan? And are Christian Zionists correct to support it? The conference was organized by the Bethlehem Bible College. Most of the speakers answered these two questions with a definitive, “No!”
The selected speakers strongly supported the anti-Jewish Replacement Theology so rampant in the Christian church today. This faulty theology maintains that Israel was replaced by the Christian Church in the New Testament and that, therefore, the restored, modern-day nation of Israel is not God’s plan for the Jewish people.
The Arab-operated Bethlehem Bible College is known to be strongly pro-Arab and anti-Jewish in its positions and teachings. Yet, like most of the others present, they like to call themselves “Evangelical Christians.” In reality, they are not because, as already stated, Evangelical Christians believe that the entire Bible is the true and inerrant Word of God just as it is written without any man-made alterations, exemptions or additions. That includes all the Biblical prophetic passages that talk about the return of the Jewish people to their ancient homeland and the restoration of their ancient nation of Israel. From my observations, only a few “real” Christians attended the conference.
I want to share with you some of the biased anti-Israel statements made by several of the featured speakers at the conference. One was Professor Gary Burge of Wheaton College in Illinois; a renowned American Evangelical Christian school. Burge reportedly stated, “I am tired of meeting Christians who say that because of who the Jews are, they are entitled to something here in this land.” Remember, Professor Burge is speaking to this gathering of 600 in Bethlehem.
A friend of mine who is a Wheaton graduate and also a retired professor himself, Dr. Al Snyder, reacted by saying he does not know if Burge is a Bible professor, a mathematics professor or a biology professor. Nevertheless, “One way or the other,” Dr. Snyder said, “he should be ashamed and he should be dismissed from his faculty position. Professor Burge does not seem to know the truth of what the Bible teaches about the Jewish people inheriting and possessing the land of Israel as an ‘eternal possession.’”
Read the full post here
The Tablet is catching up with what we’ve been blogging about for the past year, but though they are late, they are welcome.
A vocal majority of evangelical Christians are zealous supporters of Israel. But a growing movement seeks to align them with the Palestinian cause.
For most American Jews and Israelis, evangelical Christians are synonymous with zealous, biblically inspired support of the Jewish state—so zealous, in fact, that it makes some Jews uneasy. But the days when Israel could count on unconditional support from evangelicals may be coming to an end.
Last month, a conference convened in Bethlehem by Palestinian activists and Christian clergy long at odds with the Jewish state managed to bring a number of leading lights from the evangelical community in North America and Europe to the Holy Land. Many of the speeches at the conference touched on themes that one would commonly hear at a BDS teach-in, like blaming the entire Middle East conflict on Israel’s occupation and the settlements.
Indeed, the name of the conference, Christ at the Checkpoint, is indicative of the different direction this segment of the evangelical movement is heading toward. The idea is that evangelicals should rethink their support for a state that occupies another people and oppresses them. Once they get the full story, conference organizers hope, Western evangelicals may find they have more in common with the downtrodden Palestinians than with the Israelis.
To pro-Israel evangelicals and Zionists who were paying attention, Christ at the Checkpoint was a wake-up call. The larger trend, which for want of a better phrase might be called the pro-Palestinian evangelical movement and is indeed spearheaded by Palestinian Christians, is already changing minds.
Read full Tablet article here
Israel National News-Arutz7 ask - Did the “Palestinians” Kill Jesus? The article then claims Jesus was both a Jew and a Christian. This is a category, till now, Arutz7 have refused to accept can exist. Interesting!
Published: Monday, April 16, 2012 10:15 AM
A writer tells the members of Christ at the Checkpoint that they really must be more consistent – and also accept the resulting conclusions.
Dear Committee of “Christ at the Checkpoint” Conference,
I recently read the written materials of your latest conference in March and was thunderstruck with the assumption (or, maybe it is not an assumption any more, but a dogma, in which everyone in your community has to believe) that Jewish people never lived here, and that the whole history of this land is Palestinian history.
Mitri Raheb, in his article, plays with DNA:
“I’m sure if we were to do a DNA test between David, who was a Bethlehemite, and Jesus, born in Bethlehem, and Mitri, born just across the street from where Jesus was born, I’m sure the DNA will show that there is a trace. While, if you put King David, Jesus and Netanyahu, you will get nothing, because Netanyahu comes from an East European tribe who converted to Judaism in the Middle Ages.”
Mr. Raheb didn’t perform an experiment with DNA, but dogmatic faith demands that he would believe in those speculations (without scientific evidence it is just speculation, and nothing else.)
Another member of your committee said that “Jesus established a church among Palestinians.”
So here we have Palestinians around for 3000 years here and no Jew until the last century (except for some vague references in Mr. Raheb’s lecture to the “part of the Jewish people”, who are “the continuation of the peoples of the land,” which were not repeated in his paper again).
Wonderful! And it is not important that the same land was considered to be Jewish for centuries and Europeans told the Jews “It is time for you to recall that your land is Palestine. Get out of our countries!”
There is a Jewish joke: “When my grandfather visited Europe in 1937, there were graffiti everywhere “Jews, go to Palestine!”. When I visit Europe now, there are graffiti everywhere “Jews, get out of Palestine!” Funny people, the Europeans, aren’t they?!”
Joking aside, let’s be serious. I have several questions to ask you:….
…By the way, he [Jesus], as both a Jew and a Christian, he wouldn’t be permitted to pray… do you guess where?.. on the Temple Mount! Muslims won’t allow it.
Programme organiser of the controversial Christ at the Checkpoint conference, and serial anti-Israel activist, Rev Stephen Sizer is at it again.
Not so long ago the Council of Christians and Jews censured Sizer for his dalliance with anti-Semitism, in the guise of posting a link to an anti-Semitic website on his Facebook page whilst claiming he is not an anti-Semite.
The Teflon Vicar is so convince that no charge of anti-Semitism can stick on him because he says he isn’t, can’t seem to resist dipping his toes into anti-Semitic waters whilst claiming plausible deniability. Take for example his recent blog post of a series of photos from East Jerusalem with a link under a photo of roofs with Israeli flags on, which he shockingly titles The Judaization of Jerusalem. However ignoring for a moment the fact of the Nazi language of Judaization, the photo set includes the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem. Are Jews praying at the Western Wall really Judaizing Jerusalem or is it the fact that Jerusalem is the most holy place of Judaism in the land of its birth. The message Sizer seems to be sending is that he would like to de-judaize Jerusalem.
Sizer claims not to be an anti-Semite, yet recommends their web sites, shares platforms at conferences with them, gives radio interviews on their station in America and routinely uses their language adapted for his demonization of Israel.
The Nazis enacted de-Judaization [Entjudung] by forcing racial intermarried couples to separate or the non-Jewish partner would suffer the fate of their Jewish partner, purged Jews from many professions and also the de-judaized the Church. That Sizer feels using such terminology is acceptable for a vicar of the established state religion in Britain, is plain disgusting. It is simply more likely that he thinks he can get away with it, yet again.
Richard Harvey speaking at Christ at the Checkpoint 2012 on Reconciliation from his perspective as a Messianic Jew, oddly claims we need to see Jesus in his Palestinian context, however Jesus was not a Palestinian in today’s understanding of the word!
The rather exaggerated claim that Messianic Jews can have that much of an influence in reconciliation in the Israeli-Arab Palestinian conflict fails to take into sufficient consideration the animosity Messianic Jews face from the wider Jewish community. There is very little in terms of tangible suggestions of what exactly is meant by a Messianic contribution to reconciliation other than infrastructure.
Harvey name checks controversial Israel hate-mongers Sizer and White as Christian anti-Zionist and calls them his friends, asking them for forgiveness that he labels them as Christian anti-Zionists.
Harvey claims the Palestinian narrative is the marginalised narrative so needs to be heard louder than the other. However for most of the world it is the Israeli narrative which is the marginalised one that is never heard.
Harvey is reduced to tears after he ends his presentation, obviously very affected by the whole experience.
What the controversial attendance of a couple of Messianic Jewish speakers at Christ at the Checkpoint 2012 failed to do, Israeli Messianic Jewish lawyer Calev Myers is seeking to do as he wants the EU to make funding of the PA contingent on its human rights record, maybe this will ensure that Palestinian Evangelical Christian churches will finally be recognised by the PA:
Jerusalem attorney Calev Myers on Thursday lobbied the European Union to make continued funding for the PA contingent on improvement in the human rights of Palestinians.
Myers traveled to Brussels to personally hand the EU a 35-page report that his organization, the Jerusalem Institute of Justice, compiled on human rights in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
It urged the EU to hold the PA and Hamas accountable for its human rights obligations under international law, which are only marginally influenced by the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Read full article here
Dexter Van Zile reported this week, that a week after PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad addressed CATC, the PA informed Palestinian church leader Stephen Khoury that his church “lacked the authority to function”, as a religious institution in the PA.
The church can still gather to pray, for now, but the PA’s decision conveyed on Saturday will have a real impact on the members of First Baptist, which endured numerous bomb attacks during the First Intifada.
“They said that our legitimacy as a church from a governmental point of view is not approved,” said Khoury’s son, Steven, who serves as an assistant pastor at First Baptist. “They said they will not recognize any legal paper work from our church. That includes birth certificates, wedding certificates and death certificates. Children are not even considered to be legitimate if they don’t have recognized paperwork.”
The irony, Steven said, is that the PA’s announcement comes right after the Christ at the Checkpoint Conference.
Many people have picked up on this irony, as the PA’s Prime Minister Salam Fayyad himself addressed CATC, just days before this decision came to light. Bear in mind, CATC was organised by Bethlehem Bible College, which is an evangelical Bible college. Indeed, last month Eastern Orthodox Christians on a web forum belittled CATC for being evangelical and not Orthodox, and therefore not truly representing Palestinian Christianity.
In response, CATC organisers Porter Speakman and Munther Isaac have written an article to the concerns raised about CATC and the timing of the decision about Khoury’s church.
Speakman and Isaac write:
Unlike traditional churches like the Greek Orthodox and Catholics, Evangelical churches in the Palestinian Territories are not officially recognized and therefore things like marriage documents are not considered legitimate by government authorities. They have the freedom to worship, but are not “official.”
They continue:
For the last few years, there have been many discussions between Evangelical church leaders, including those who organized and spoke at the Christ at the Checkpoint, and officials from the PA.
If the PA and CATC leadership have been in discussion, it has not born any fruit. The PA does not consider Palestinian evangelical Christians to be legitimate at all.
However, it appears that both parties consciously decided to oppose pro-Zionist theology in public.
This would explain why Salam Fayyad was not publicly challenged at all by anyone at CATC, as he gave his address to the conference.
This is Munther Isaac’s introduction to Fayyad:
“Palestinian Christians have always enjoyed the support of the Palestinian leaders. We worship with freedom and exercise our rights like all Palestinians. To emphasise this, we are deeply honoured to have the support of prime minsiter of the Palestinian Authority, Dr Salam Fayyad. Since 2007, Dr Salam has worked so hard to prepare Palestine for statehood, and his efforts in building the Palestinian economy and institutions have been described as ‘absolutely first-class, professional, courageous and intelligent’. Above all, Dr Fayyad is a man of vision, and his vision is one of prosperity and peace for the Palestinian people. And it is only fitting that his name in Arabic literally means ‘among them peace’. It is my privilege and honour to invite to us here, to the stage to speak to us, Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority, Dr Salam Fayyad.
So Munther Isaac does not mention the PA discrimination against evangelical Christians, despite being a Palestinian evangelical at a Palestinian evangelical conference.
Consequentially, the attitude of the CATC towards Fayyad was deferential:
Speakman and Isaac further write in their article, about Palestinian churches:
The recognition does not depend entirely on the PA, and the input of the churches already recognized is as equally important. In addition, the congregational nature of the Evangelical churches and the absence of a recognized hierarchy complicate things.
This seems odd. If the recognition does not depend entirely on the PA, then who else does it depend on? Surely it does depend on the PA. It appears as if Speakman and Isaac are trying to play down the responsibilty of the PA, in the issue of church recognition. Here is their rationalisation, for inviting Salam Fayyad to CATC:
This is why efforts by Christ at the Checkpoint to highlight the Evangelical Palestinian church are so important. Having Palestinian Prime Minister Dr. Salam Fayyad come for the second time in as many conferences to speak and to see first hand what the Bethlehem Bible College and local churches are doing helps, not hinders, the churches efforts for recognition. In addition, the issue of seeking recognition for Evangelical churches in Palestine and in Israel was openly discussed during the conference.
It ought to say something, though, that Salam Fayyad has already been invited to CATC back in 2010, he then met with CATC organisers and Palestinian evangelicals, and nothing changed regarding recognition of evangelical churches. Two years later, Fayyad again is invited, and no progress has been made on the issue.
One of the stated CATC conference goals in English was to “[e]mpower and encourage the Palestinian church”. In order to do so, CATC will need to speak up for the rights of Palestinian Christians.
If they can link this to criticism of the Israeli government, then they will do so. However, if speaking up for the rights of Palestinian evangelical believers requires open criticism of the PA and of Salam Fayyad’s leadership, then will CATC provide this criticism?
Criticising the PA would be awkward for CATC’s image. Doing so may mean that others will accuse them of being Zionists. Sooner or later, CATC will have to decide which is more important – their anti-Zionist theology and image, or their care for the plight of the Palestinian church.
