With the acceleration of end times events we are seeing the emergent church taking a bolder stance. No place can this be seen clearer than support for Israel, God’s chosen people.
Matthew 7:15-17
New American Standard Bible (NASB)
A Tree and Its Fruit
15 “Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. 16 You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes nor figs from thistles, are they? 17 So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit.
We will know them by their fruit!
Maranatha Lord, come quickly!
-myblessedhope
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Nov 19, 2012
Now that the death cult Hamas has decided to go out Bonnie and Clyde-style, word comes that Israel’s leadership is preparing for a two-month engagement. Let us all fervently pray that they completely destroy the terror entity that has plagued the region (including the Palestinians) for a quarter-century.
Others are writing very good reports on the fighting thus far—hundreds of rockets have landed in Israel, including Tel Aviv and Jerusalem! The Hamas stockpiles are such that until the IDF gathers its full strength, some damage will be done. I left one friend’s home in Jerusalem last week to travel to another in Efrat, and I passed the Gush Etzion turn.
At least two rockets landed in Gush Etzion yesterday, with other reports that they landed in Jerusalem as well. You can’t imagine how small the country is if you haven’t been there. Imagine driving from Richardson, Texas, to Plano. Culver City, California, to Glendale. Washington D.C., to Silver Spring, Maryland.
What I want to spotlight this week at “Israel Watch” is the unfolding propaganda war, equally vicious and important. Within 48 hours of the terror war launched against Israeli civilians by Hamas, Israel’s tiny window of goodwill began to predictably shrink. Among those leading the charge—and I find this repulsive and ghastly in the extreme—are religious leaders in the West.
(An aside: as war raged in the Middle East, and much of the world burns, Rick Warren Tweeted more of his PDL pablum: 11/17/12, 5:09 AM
Like a great movie, for the story of your life to be great requires a great #character.)
On Facebook, I urged Christian Palestininiasts Lynne Hybels, Tony Campolo, Sami Awad, Shane Claiborne, Bob Roberts Jr., Joel Hunter, John Ortberg, Gary Burge, Jim Hanon, Bill Oechsler, Todd Deatherage, Jim Wallis, Porter Speakman Jr. to speak out unequivocally about the terror war against Israel. Hybels did on Twitter, after I asked her if she would.
I haven’t checked all those mentioned above, but it highly unlikely they can bring themselves to condemn this barbarism against the Jews, without shoving a word like “occupation” or “settlements” into the statement.
On the contrary, Deatherage and Roberts were quite predictable in their social media comments; the following are via Twitter:
Todd Deatherage (@ToddDeatherage)
11/16/12, 9:33 PM
Over 500 rockets fired at Israel; over 500 airstrikes on Gaza; Israeli cabinet approves calling up 75,000 reservists including Telos friends
Bob Roberts Jr. (@bobrobertsjr)
11/16/12, 10:03 PM
Push our leaders to deal w/crisis in Israel/Palestine – or get ready to send your sons & daughters to a 60 year unresolved conflict
Bob Roberts Jr. (@bobrobertsjr)
11/16/12, 10:00 PM
2 states – Palestine & Israel – Everybody agrees & knows it – Netanyahu / Abbas / Obama do it NOW! delay = death – why wait???? Be LEADERS
Do you see what’s going on here? Deatherage, being the savvy and trained communicator he is, has injected the old tactic of “moral equivalency” into this story.
Deatherage wants you to focus on the fact that the sides are trading equal blows. Another way to put this will be to number the Palestinian deaths vs. the Israeli deaths. Hybels also engaged in a bit of this moral equivalency yesterday, but as I point out in these situations: who is responsible for this carnage? Why have their been hundreds of Israeli airstrikes?
And, please notice this important point: Deatherage does not reveal in his Tweet that Israel is launching surgical strikes against Hamas leadership. No, he would have you believe (as many of his friends and followers do) that both sides are pounding the others’ innocents. Let’s call that what it is: a lie.
Next, we see that Bob Roberts Jr., pastor of the megachurch NorthWood Church in Keller, Texas, evidently graduated from the Barbra Streisand School of International Diplomacy. From time to time, Streisand feels it necessary to call into question the foreign policy moves of various Republican presidents. Never mind the fact that she doesn’t know what she’s talking about.
Roberts, too, is so enamored of his Muslim friends, who feed him generous helpings of their own propaganda, that he advocates policies that are insane and unworkable.
By the way, Roberts is a major figure in evangelical leadership circles in America, which should scare the daylights out of the rest of us. This is leadership in 2012 Christian America?
And what is Sami Awad posting on his Facebook page, as a major regional war started by Palestinians is going on outside his bedroom window?
Well, a few minutes ago, he posted a greeting-card-type affirmation from something called “Gypsy Spirit Wind”:
Laugh your heart out,
dance in the rain,
cherish the moment,
ignore the pain,
live, laugh love,
forgive and forget,
as life is too short
to be living with regrets.
Huh. Well, if one is a Christian Palestinian leader like Awad, one either endangers himself by speaking out against Hamas barbarism, or one keeps his trap shut and lets the propaganda flow. That’s when statements condemning the satanic-level violence of Hamas are never issued and in their place, New Age pablum reigns.
Indeed, the peerless Dexter Van Zile (www.camera.org) Tweeted the following to Awad yesterday:
When will @holylandtrust Protest Hamas rockets in Manger Square? @Sami_Awad
If you hold your breath waiting for Awad or any of his Religious Left friends in America to answer, you’ll be dead within minutes.
The point to all this is, if you are a supporter of Israel, or simply a supporter of basic human rights, you must realize that not only is there a war raging with bullets and bombs, but one for minds and hearts.
Do not be duped by the Left. Speak out for Israel and for our own country, both to date impregnable fortresses for freedom worldwide. With the re-election of an anti-American president, and with jihad spreading around the globe, we are in for the vicious fight of our lives.
And may God continue to bless Israel!
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In Romans 10 Paul lays out how salvation is open to all, Jew and Gentile. He writes:
“For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.” – Romans 10:4-5
What he is saying is now it is not about works or how closely to a “T” you follow the law. But that it is through God’s gift of grace through faith in His Son, Jesus Christ. It is really that simple, and yet a hard step for some of us.
“That if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” – Romans 10:9
Christ is the narrow gate (Matthew 7:13-14), through faith in Him you will be saved. It is the only “works” that God requires for eternal salvation.
myBlessedHope 