Tag Archives: Jew

Messianic Jewish speaker for CATC 2012: “I oppose all forms of anti-Semitism”

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This is hugely significant.

Richard Harvey, a key Messianic Jewish participant in Christ at the Checkpoint 2012, has told the print edition of Israel Today:

My participation doesn’t mean that I agree with all the aims of the conference or the views of the conference organizers. In fact, as I will be saying in my paper, I believe in God’s continuing election of the Jewish people, which includes the Land promises, and oppose all forms of anti-Judaism, anti-Semitism and supersessionism . I am going to meet my Arab brothers and sisters in Christ to talk, listen and pray with them, to seek to model the reconciliation between enemies and the unity that we have in the Gospel.

When the CATC papers are made public following the conference, it will be very straightforward to assess the extent, to which Richard Harvey does assert his opposition to “all forms of anti-Judaism, anti-Semitism and supersessionism.”

It will also be straightforward to see how clear his challenge is, to the Checkpoint 2012 organisers and participants who are responsible for pushing theological antisemitism.

Of course, there are many forms of antisemitism to oppose at Christ at the Checkpoint 2012.

There is Shane Claiborne, who thinks “the cross lost” when Bonhoeffer tried to kill Hitler. CATC 2012 awarded its blogging prize to Keith Giles, who compares Israel with Pharisees who just persecute Christians. CATC 2012 allies with Dr Jim West, who admires Nazi theologian Kittel.

CATC is being organised by Alex Awad, who has previously shared a platform with terrorist reps and a Holocaust denier, and Rev Stephen Sizer, whose writings have recently been scrutinised and critiqued for anti-Jewish racism by Rev Nick Howard in the British magazine Standpoint.

Richard Harvey will have to share a platform with Ben White, who has previously stated:

I do not consider myself an anti-Semite, yet I can also understand why some are.

It seems to me that Richard Harvey has given himself an impossible task – not least because Checkpoint 2012 organiser Sizer appears to see Richard Harvey as a heretic due to his Zionism.

So it is difficult to see how Dr Harvey can oppose “all forms of anti-Semitism” at Checkpoint 2012, without tackling the antisemitism of Christ at the Checkpoint itself.

What is the goal of Christ at the Checkpoint 2012?

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In English:

Create a platform for serious engagement with Christian Zionism and an open forum for ongoing dialogue between all positions within the Evangelical theological spectrum.

In Arabic:

خلق البيئة المناسبة للحوار مع كافة المسيحيين وتقديم بديل من كلمة الله المقدسة يتحدى الفكر الصهيوني المسيحي للفكر الصهيوني المسيحي.

 

To create an environment for dialogue with all Christians and to provide an alternative to the Christian Zionist thought, as the Holy Word of God challenges the Christian Zionist thought.

Are you surprised?

German Christians protest Christ at the Checkpoint speaker’s racist theology

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Mitri Raheb – pushed racist theology at CATC 2010

The Stonegate Institute reports:

Since 1992, the German concern Media Control has awarded an annual prize, known as “Deutscher Medienpreis.” According to the company website, it is given “to a person who had outstanding importance in the media during the past year.” Remarkably, the list of yearly awardees has mostly lived up to that ambitious description, including many illustrious and deserving personalities. Until this year, that is.

Four awardees were named for the 2011 prize in a press announcement on January 13, 2012. While three seem to be meritorious enough, the fourth is a Palestinian pastor who has devoted all his theological energies to delegitimizing the State of Israel. No, he does not just oppose “the occupation.” He maintains that Israel is a foreign European body that lacks his own DNA connection to the people of the Bible. Moreover, Media Control has lined up a former President of Germany, Prof. Roman Herzog, to come and praise him.

Part of the problem may be that for this year, the twentieth anniversary of the prize, Media Control decided to abandon its previous winning formula. According to that press announcement: “For the jubilee of the Media Prize, this tradition is being broken in order to honor personalities who are quiet peacemakers and whose activity takes place without great media attention.” In other words, people whom we do not know much about and who may not have done anything of note recently.

Lutheran Pastor Mitri Raheb of Bethlehem, however, is by no means an unknown character in Germany. He has published books there and he has given countless speeches in churches and church-related institutions. On February 19 next, he is scheduled to preach in the Berliner Dom, the principal Protestant church in Berlin, and to deliver a keynote lecture in the afternoon at another major church, the French Dom. Very handy for the award ceremony of the Media Prize on February 24.

To give a taste of his theology, we shall give an extract from a speech that he held in Bethlehem in March 2010. For nearly two years, anyone in the world with a computer, including the people of Media Control, has been able to read this speech and even to listen to it.

Said Mitri Raheb: “Actually, Israel represents Rome of the Bible, not the people of the land. And this is not only because I’m a Palestinian. 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.”

And he continued in this vein. I have written about Raheb’s speech in another article, which is available in German. The article was even published in Germany last December by the official “Circle of Friends” in Baden that promotes good relations between German Protestants and the Jewish people (Freundeskreis Kirche und Israel in Baden e.V.). Media Control and its prize-awarding jury should have known about this major aspect of Raheb. Yet his citation for the prize, according to the press announcement, is for being a “quiet peacemaker” who “stands for understanding between Christian, Muslims and Jews” and is “the alternative to violence and radicalization.”

Let us paraphrase this citation in words that do not disguise the reality. Raheb is a noisy denier of the very legitimacy of the State of Israel, which he seeks to undermine not by physical violence but by a radical theology that awakes enthusiasm among Christians, Muslims and even a handful of Jews who long to see Israel vanish from the map.

Whereas the Nazis spoke of “race” and “blood,” Raheb is modern enough to speak of “DNA,” but what is the difference? It is not just that for the Nazis Jews did not belong in Germany because their blood was non-Aryan, whereas for Raheb they do not belong anywhere near him because he thinks their DNA is European. The difference is also that Prof. Roman Herzog represents the new Germany that arose from the ruins of Nazism, yet he is slated to come along on February 24 and praise such a person. A former German president will be praising the man who delegitimizes an elected prime minister for having the wrong DNA.

Prof. Herzog has been placed in an embarrassing position by the decision of Media Control’s jury. Since he is doubtless asked to deliver such speeches on many occasions, one cannot expect him personally to research everyone he is supposed to talk about. But the embarrassment goes further. He is also the patron of the Roman Herzog Institute in Munich, created by friends who cherish his ideals. Praise of DNA-theologian Raheb will not bring much honor to that institute nor, for that matter, to Media Control itself.

German-speaking Christians have already begun writing to Prof. Herzog to warn him about what he has got into. We await the response of international Jewish organizations.

Church’s apathy on antisemitism

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Nick Howard writes in the Jewish Chronicle about Christ at the Checkpoint 2012 organiser, Anglican vicar Stephen Sizer:

In the past fortnight the police and the FA have convinced many that they are facing up to racism with the seriousness it deserves. Yet at the same time the Church of England has given the opposite impression.

In October Reverend Stephen Sizer posted a link on his Facebook page to an antisemitic site called “The Ugly Truth” which featured images of blood-sucking Jewish vampires and Nazi-style caricatures of Jewish men. Three months later, Rev Sizer took down the link.

The Diocese of Guildford claimed, on behalf of Bishop Christopher Hill – Rev Sizer’s local bishop – that the reverend withdrew the link “when the nature of other articles on that site was drawn to his attention”. The particular article that he’d recommended hadn’t itself been antisemitic, so a potentially damaging “racist vicar” story became one of a “naïve vicar”. But the bishop’s statement was untrue.

I emailed Bishop Hill on November 16, expressing my concern, and pointing out that in 2010 a bishop was suspended for inappropriate use of Facebook (posting unpleasant remarks about the royal wedding). Bishop Hill replied that week, promising to speak to Rev Sizer “about his use of Facebook”. But six weeks passed before the link was removed. It was only taken down then because the JC was looking into the story.

Sizer has a track record of such behaviour

 

The Church comes out looking blithely unconcerned about racism. Perhaps Bishop Hill forgot to inform Rev Sizer that his Facebook page was a portal to a Jew-hating website, showing how little he cares about antisemitism. Perhaps he did inform Rev Sizer, but was ignored, in which case the reverend would be confirmed as an antisemite and the bishop would again show himself to be apathetic about racism.

Rev Sizer has a long track record of arguably antisemitic behaviour, so the Church could hardly have been encouraged to give him the benefit of the doubt. He’s described IDF members as “Herod’s soldiers operating in Bethlehem today” (King Herod ordered his troops to kill all the baby boys in and around Bethlehem, in the hope of murdering Christ). He’s promoted boycotts of McDonalds, Coca-Cola, L’Oréal and Nestlé on the basis that they “channel their profits to the Zionist agenda”. He has alleged Israeli complicity in 9/11, and argued that Israel’s actions towards the Palestinians mean “the Holocaust has been perpetuated over the past 40 or 50 years”. His associates include Palestinian activist Raed Salah; Zahra Mostafavi, the Ayatollah Khomeini’s daughter; and Israel Shamir, who warns of “Jewish mind control on a world scale”.

The MacPherson report into Stephen Lawrence’s death defined institutional racism as “the collective failure of an organisation” regarding “colour, culture, or ethnic origin”. The Diocese of Guildford has fallen foul of that.

It’s worth noting the Church’s utterly unethical handling of the media. To stifle a negative story, the Diocese of Guildford issued a deliberately misleading statement. Even if the bishop forgot to speak to Rev Sizer in November, he was certainly informed about the matter on December 27, when an article about it was posted on the blog “Harry’s Place”. Yet Sizer only removed the link a week later, under duress. Not only does this episode raise the question of why the Church wants to protect a man like Rev Sizer, it raises the issue of how the Diocese of Guildford can justify intentionally misleading the media.

One would hope that the Church would set a moral example to organisations like the Met and the FA. Sadly, it seems it’s the other way round.

Christ at the Checkpoint 2012, Dr Jim West & pro-Nazi theology

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Meet Dr Jim West, Adjunct Professor of Biblical Studies at the Quartz Hill School of Theology and Pastor of Petros Baptist Church, Petros, Tennessee:

He is supportive of the Christ at the Checkpoint 2012 conference, which is likely to be full of antisemitism, racism and replacement theology. He is also a fan of Stephen Sizer.

Christ at the Checkpoint 2012 will be hosted by Bethlehem Bible College. Raed Salah supporters Stephen Sizer and Ben White are due to speak there. Sizer is listed as an organiser.

Bethlehem Bible College has a worrying track record on antisemitism. They sent lecturer Alex Awad to represent the college, and share a platform with Hitler-admirer and Holocaust denier Frederick Tobin in Indonesia. Stephen Sizer also attended this conference in Indonesia, as did Iranian Holocaust denier and Faurisson admirer Jawad Shabarf.

Christ at the Checkpoint 2012 has a Facebook page and a Twitter page.

Here is what CATC tweeted recently:

A blog post from @drjewest on why he’s supporting the Christ at the Checkpoint 2012 conference http://wp.me/pLvic-a6q

Christ at the Checkpoint 2012 also issues a request for its supporters to follow Dr West on Twitter.

Dr West’s blog post accuses Christian Zionists of being heretics. Dr West has previously written that Jews and Christian Zionists are co-conspiring to produce “the sickest sorts of behaviors” in Israel.On Israel selling arms to Argentina during the Falklands, he wrote:

If hatred of Jews is antisemitism, Jewish hatred of Brits must be antibriticism. I wonder how many antibritites there are in Israel. [...] It’s high time for Jews the world over to denounce antibriticism. That sort of ethnic hatred is intolerable in today’s world. It has no place here among the decent.

You can see already, why Christ at the Checkpoint organisers are interested in his writings. But there’s more. Here is Dr West on Martin Luther. Whilst he appears to denounce the work in his first paragraph, West then reveals his hand:

Luther didn’t hate the Jews- even when he wrote his tirade.  He hated falsehood. And he hated falsehood whether it was found in Rome or Wittenberg. Those poorly informed historical ignoramuses who repeatedly denounce Luther as an anti-semite are simply wrong.  They know nothing of Luther nor anything of the history of the Church.  All they know is their own biases and prejudices.

Here are some excerpts from Luther’s tirade against the Jews, On the Jews and their Lies:

Continue reading →

Simon Wiesenthal Center denounces Christ at the Checkpoint 2012

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The dean and director of interfaith relations at the Simon Wiesenthal Center writes for the Jerusalem Post today:

One of the most troubling purveyors of this stealth theo-terrorism lies within sight of Jerusalem. In 2010, Palestinian Christians convened the Christ at the Checkpoint (CATC) conference under the aegis of the Bethlehem Bible College, aimed specifically at Evangelicals. CATC repudiated Christian Zionism as a false teaching, an erroneous misreading and manipulation of Scripture.

One of the architects was Anglican vicar Stephen Sizer, who denies that he is an anti-Semite but hangs out with Holocaust revisionists and whose trip to Tehran included a defense of Ahmadinejad’s Holocaust denial. Other CATC participants, however, came from churches and schools completely identified with the traditional Evangelical mainstream.

Evangelicals who came with an open-minded commitment to hear both sides heard Mitri Raheb, a pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Christmas Church in Bethlehem deny the connection between modern Jews and those of the Bible.

“I’m sure if we were to do a DNA test between David… and Jesus… 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…. I always loved to say that most probably one of my grand, grand, grand, grandmas used to babysit for Jesus.”

No one stormed out in protest. Rather to the contrary: Some participants, like Lynne Hybels (who is married to the head of the Willow Creek network of 13,000 Evangelical congregations), returned to the US as committed workers for the Palestinian cause.

THE LIST of 2012 CATC conference participants includes names of those who used to be firm and unequivocal supporters of Israel. Among the scheduled speakers is the president of the World Evangelical Alliance, Sang-Bok David Kim. The WEA is the parent group of the National Association of Evangelicals, the largest Evangelical network in the US.

The “affirmations” representing the beliefs of the organizers have already been published. They include the supplanting of Christian Zionism with a supersessionist understanding of Scripture that leaves no room for Jews. In other words, all Scriptural covenants with the Jewish people, as well as its religious dignity, have been replaced and abrogated.

While most Christians have always believed that the New Testament fulfilled the Hebrew Scripture, many Evangelicals found room for a continued relationship between Jews, Divine promises, and even the physical Land of Israel.

With no one apparently noticing, that nuance is being deleted.

Another affirmation deals with Jewish Zionism.

“Modern Zionism is a political movement created to meet the aspirations of Jews around the world who longed for a homeland,” it begins, quickly growing ugly: “It has become ethnocentric, privileging one people at the expense of others.”

So, Zionism wasn’t always equal to racism, but it is today, according to CATC’s organizers. The UN’s debunked “Zionism is Racism” has been reborn in theological garb, absorbed and preached by some who a few years ago were among Israel’s greatest allies.

Read it all.

I should say, pace the writer of this piece, I support “the Palestinian cause” in seeking a homeland with borders, and a national identity – peaceful and side-by-side with Israel.

On the topic of interfaith, I do think the author could have mentioned the fact that,  unfortunately, three leaders from the Messianic movement - Richard Harvey, Evan Thomas andWayne Hilsden - are booked as speakers at Christ at the Checkpoint 2012.

As I wrote in the Huffington Post:

Many Jews who make a personal decision to believe in Christ, also known as Messianic Jews, now feel very vulnerable because of this conference. Indeed, most Messianic Jews are hugely disappointed that the Checkpoint conference will take place with the blessing of the wider church. We feel let down by many institutions within Christianity, and we are sure they can do more to eliminate antisemitism in Christian theology.

Their participation in Checkpoint 2012 is a scandal, and one that deserves exposure before the wider Jewish community.

Jewish Chronicle column calls out Christ at the Checkpoint speaker Ben White on understanding racism

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Adam Levick writes in the Jewish Chronicle:

One of the most prevalent axioms advanced by anti-Zionists is that Jews attempt to stifle criticism of Israel by accusing their opponents of antisemitism.

Indeed, Guardian readers’ editor Chris Elliott wrote last weekend: “The Guardian is seen as… especially critical of the Israeli government”, which “has led to complaints that it is carrying material that… lapses into language resonant of antisemitism or is antisemitic.”

In fact, the pro-Israel community doesn’t argue that disproportionate criticism of Israel is, in itself, evidence of antisemitism.

The most dangerous dynamic at the Guardian is the licensing of commentators with an apparent record of antisemitism, while justifying their politics as merely anti-Zionism or pro-Palestinian.

For instance, Ben White, published regularly at CiF, has explained that he can understand why some people are antisemites, due in part to “widespread…subservience to the Israeli cause in the… media”.

Read the rest here.

Antisemitism and Christ at the Checkpoint 2012

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I have compiled a report, on antisemitism and the Christ at the Checkpoint conference.

You may download this document  here:

Antisemitism and Christ At The Checkpoint 2012.

At the last Checkpoint conference, one speaker – antizionist theologian and admirer of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, Colin Chapman –  argued that:

“[T]he bad experience of Palestinian Muslims with Zionist immigrants after 1880 has reminded them of Muhammad‟s bad experience with the Jews of Medina, encouraging them to apply the harsh verses about Jews in the Qur‟an to Israeli Jews today. It must seem to Palestinian Muslims as if Jews of the modern period were simply repeating the hostile behaviour of Jews many centuries earlier towards the Prophet.”

Thanks Rabbi Kravitz – Don’t be fooled by David Herzog!

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Jewish for Judaism’s Rabbi Kravitz has at least got it right for once in highlighting the unethical tactics of tele-evangelist and fake healer David Herzog.

David Herzog will feature next month on Jonathan Bernis’ Jewish Voice Ministries show. They present him as a Messianic Jew.

Herzog is also featured on Sid Roth’s circus It’s Supernatural show:

His so-called miracles include things such as instant weight loss and teeth fillings turning gold. Sid Roth is a sham and a shame to the Messianic Movement. David Herzog is a shame to the world of Christian mission. Such methodology as used by Herzog is immoral deception, Rabbi Kravitz is right and we welcome his exposing of this charlatan.

Evangelical missionary David Herzog stooped to a new low deceiving the Jewish community with ads which intentionally avoided any mention of their Christian evangelical agenda.

The half-page ads ran for several weeks in the Los Angeles Jewish Journal. They promoted a Beverly Hills event offering “supernatural healings” based on what the ad termed Jewish mysticism.

The ads were devoid of any phone number or website that would have facilitated an easy investigation into the true nature of the program.

It turns out Herzog’s duplicity was intentional. He writes on the “In Jesus” website that “due to the highly sensitive nature of these 100% evangelistic meetings dubbed as lectures to the Jewish community we cannot give out the location or details.”

A number of Jewish students attended the recent event, only to discover they had been duped by the Herzog ads.

As the founder and director of Jews for Judaism, I know this is not the first time a community newspaper has been the target of such duplicity. A number of years ago we alerted the community that ads for the missionary movie “The Rabbi” were surreptitiously placed in dozens of Jewish newspapers across North American.

Once the Jewish Journal realized Herzog’s true intentions, it refused to accept any more of his ads.

Herzog has appeared on many of the growing number of messianic television shows. He is part of a long line of Christian faith healers running revival meetings. However, in his case, Herzog has a Jewish name and he gloats at his success at conducting major “Jewish Outreach” on the East Coast, West Coast and Israel.

“Even the Jewish newspapers are begging us to put our ads in their next Health Issue,” he wrote online.

In a pitch to solicit donations, Herzog claims his historic outreach meetings will be, “packed with unsaved Jewish people wide open to the gospel presented with healings and miracles.”

Speaking of past meetings Herzog claims, “miracles broke out, many were healed, and American and Israeli Jews received salvation after God powerfully healed them.”

Although missionaries are less visible on street corners, the Herzog episode demonstrates that attempts to convert Jews have not diminished.  They have simply implemented new tactics and taken advantage of the Internet to reach unsuspecting students and young adults often within the comfort of their homes and dormitory rooms.

As a community we must remain vigilant and increase our positive educational and spiritual promotion of Judaism. Additionally, missionary claims must be continuously refuted and individuals must be taught to think critically to avoid being fooled and taken advantage of.

Jews for Judaism is already planning a campaign to prepare the community for a Chosen People Ministries crusade scheduled to target the Los Angeles Jewish community in 2012.  This time we have enough notice to plan in advance, and it is imperative that the entire community rally together and join us in presenting a strong front.

Rabbi Bentzion Kravitz is the founder and director of Jews for Judaism. source 

“Jesus, not Israel”

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 Judah Gabriel writes:

How do you feel about the following statement from well-known Protestant preacher John Piper?

image

When I saw this tweet, I was a bit uncomfortable. When I saw that it was retweeted by 97 other Christians, I squirmed. Then when I read the full blog post by Jonathan Parnell, I face-palmed.

Jesus, not Israel? Is that what Christians really believe?

Hail Jesus, King of not-Israel.

Piper links to his church’s blog, where the post by Parnell starts good: citing Romans 9 as an example of the irrevocable nature of God’s election. (Unspoken: God’s election of Israel.)

But he speaks of election only to suggest that God’s choosing of Israel was done in order to elect Yeshua. Thus, Israel’s election is made irrelevant because God’s purposes for Israel are fully carried out in Yeshua. Roll the credits, because in Jesus, it’s Israel: The End.

Though he cited Romans 9, it’s as if he didn’t read it at all.

I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Messiah for the sake of my people, those of my own race, the people of Israel. Theirs is the adoption to sonship; theirs the divine glory, the covenants, the receiving of the law, the temple worship and the promises.

-Romans 9

To Israel belongs these things. Not belonged. Belongs. The promises of God belong to Israel. They didn’t disappear when Jesus showed up.

The problem with the statements from Parnell is not whether the nations are blessed through Yeshua – they positively are. The problem is that these statements imply a kind of subtle replacement theology: because Yeshua came, Israel is no longer relevant, no longer the vehicle of God’s blessing, no longer relevant in God’s plans, and is just another ethnicity, and Judaism just another non-Christian religion.

God’s important people, then, are Yeshua’s followers – the Church – and if they are the important people, Israel is merely an historical vehicle to get us to the Church, and we are left with nothing but a certain replacement theology, where Jesus’ church has replaced God’s Israel.

“Jesus, not Israel” implies Yeshua ended the specialness of Israel. Consider the absurd implications: Yeshua, the King of Israel, Israel’s Messiah, prophesied by Israel’s prophets, the Holy One of Israel and son of Israel’s David, he comes and does his thing, and what’s the end result? Supposedly, the result is Israel becoming irrelevant. Some King of Israel! A King who makes his people irrelevant.

Huh? Is this making sense to anyone, or are we too occupied with retweeting popular pastors to think clearly?

Christians who want to understand why Jesus is an offence to Jews, take note. When you say, “Israel used to be special, but Jesus changed all that, so now instead of being God’s special people, you’re a heathen going to hell! Isn’t that good news?”

Even though it may not have been Piper’s intent, there remains this sense that Christendom still believes that, because of the work of Israel’s Messiah, it has replaced her. Jesus, not Israel.

Fine and chin-rubbing blog readers, am I being too sensitive? What do you think of Piper’s statement, “Jesus, not Israel”?