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CHRISTIANS
AND ISRAEL
A
problem of conscience is posed to the Christians today
because of the actual State of Israel. Most of them,
feeling a sense of guilt after the so called "Hitlerian
holocaust", hurried to recognize it, while the others
refuse to do so for two reasons:
1 )
Because they are shocked by the injustice done to the
Palestinian people, who have been chassed out from their
Homeland by violence, or crushed in there by the
Israelis.
2)
For reasons related to the Christians' faith in Jesus and
to the testimony due to Him.
The
subject of this study being a delicate one, capable of
suscitating reactions, it must be said beforehand, that
it is not in an antisemitic spirit that the problern is
treated. We feel urged by compassion for social and
religious justice.
We
strive for the religious liberty of everyone and
everywhere, even in Israel where we hope that the
millions of Palestinians - Christians and Moslems - will
be allowed to return back by the Israeli authorities, who
refuse to reintigrate them because they are not
Jews. Is this not a racist attitude?
To
clarify the problem, we must ask ourselves the following
question: For a Christian, what does the recognition of
Israel mean? Is it to recognize the "fait accompli" of
its presence in Palestine, or the legitimacy of this
presence there today?
As
for the "fait accompli", which is a historical fact, one
cannot but notice the presence in Palestine of a
political entity that the United-Nations - since
1948 only - agreed to recognize as the "State of
Israel".
But
what about the legitimacy of this presence on the
Palestinian territory? To be clear: A man detains a
stolen object; we recognize the fact that this object is
in his possession, but can we approve of the fact by
recognizing the legitimacy of this possession, without
committing a serious injustice?
Thus,
the problem of conscience which presents itself to the
Christians today is the following: Can they admit of the
legitimacy of the State of Israel in
Palestine?
When
we speak about the legitimacy of a State, we refer to a
historical right on a given land; in the sole case of
Israel, a Biblical right is evoked. We must therefore
speak of the historical and Biblical legitimacy of
Israel.
I
The historical legitimacy
One
can find no historical argument that is sufficiently
valid to justify an Israeli State in Palestine in the
XXth. century, this land belonging to its Palestinian
citizens as any other country belongs to its own.
Millions of Palestinians claim their legitimate
historical right over the Palestinian soil. These rights
are pre-Biblical, and the Bible mentions Palestine and
the Palestinians. Their wars against the Jewish invadors
are notorious (1 Samuel 28).
Before
Jesus, the Jews often attempted to form an Israeli State
in Palestine to the detriment of the Palestinians. This
State took the shape of a kingdom around 1.000 B.C. But
after less than one century, the kingdom split into two:
the kingdom of the North in Samaria, and the kingdom of
the South in Judea. Both kingdoms disappeared: the first
in 722 B.C, two hundred years after its formation, swept
by the Assyrians, and the second in 586 B.C., about four
hundred years after its formation, when the Babylonian
invasion put an end to it. The Jews were then exiled to
Babylone.
After
five centuries, in 37 B.C, a Jewish kingdom reappeared
with Herod the Great. Again an end was put to it after
only one century, in 70 A.D, by the Roman troops of
Titus. The Jews then escaped from Palestine to the four
quarters of the world, while the original Palestinian
inhabitants remained there.
Two
thousand years later, in 1948, a State of Israel
reappeared in Palestine, claiming rights on the land, to
the detriment of the Palestinians who always had lived
there. The Jews who rushed into the Holy Land from the
four quarters of the earth, chassed out the Palestinians
by military violence. These had to leave their homes in
tragical conditions to be exiled under tents in the
neighbouring Arab countries.
The
great international powers helped the Jewish immigration
in Palestine, while the Palestinians were forced out of
it.
The
Israeli State was finally proclaimed on the 14th of May
1948. A quarter of an hour after its proclamation, it was
recognized by the great powers as if Palestine and the
Palestinians never existed.
Yet
the historical proofs of their existence are obvious and
abundant. (Biblical: Numbers 13, 21-33 etc…, social,
cultural, folkloric, old and contemporary Palestinian
money etc ... ).
We
notice that those who back up Israel feel a certain
guilty conscience towards the Jews; in order to clear
their conscience they voted for a Jewish State in
Palestine. But justice cannot be done by depriving the
Palestinians from their legitimate rights in favour of
others. No one can dispose of what belongs to someone
else. To speak clearly, an American, a British or a
French man for example, does not have the right to
dispose of the Palestinian earth that does not belong to
him.
A
question is asked to those who want to satisfy their
conscience by placing the Jews in a Jewish homeland: Why
not give them a part of their own American or European
land of which they can dispose?
The
usual answer is to evoke a Biblical legitimacy: according
to them, the Israelis have a Biblical right on
Palestine.Thus we are transfered from a historical ground
to a Biblical one, and most of the times by persons who
ignore the Bible.
Therefore,
Christians are asked, as such, to recognize Biblical
rights to the Zionist State on Palestine. Today, the
people of Jesus Christ are urged on to testify in favour
of those who deny that Jesus is the Christ, and expect
another Christ. This is the problem of conscience. This
is the test of the end of times predicted by Jesus
(Revelation 3,10). The Vatican itself failed in this
test! (Please see our text: "The Universal
Trial").
For
Judaism is neither a race nor a geographical land, but a
religion which finds its perfect achievement in Jesus
Christ. From the Christian point of view, to recognize a
Jewish State for Jews, is as absurd as to recognize a
Christian State for the Christians. A Jewish
community is one thing, a Jewish nation is
altogether another thing.
II
The Biblical legitimacy
Many
Christians support Israel because, as strange as it may
seem, they think that they are helping God's chosen
people to return back to their Promised Land. If Jews are
God's chosen people, who are the followers of Jesus?! We
therefore find it important to remind the Christians who
is God's people and what is the Promised Land at the
light of the Gospel.
A)
The Promised Land
Palestine
is not a land promised by God to the Israelis for two
main reasons:
1)
The Promised Land is the symbol of a spiritual, non
geographical reality.
2)
The promise was under condition.
1)
- The Promised Land is spiritual
God
had promised a land to Abraham and his posterity; but
this land, as intended by God, was explained all through
the centuries by the Bible, to appear finally as a
spiritual reality, not a geographical place. In fact, St.
Paul said: "By faith Abraham sejourned in the promised
land as in a strange country, living in tents with
Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise;
for he looked forward for a well founded City whose
builder is God" (Hebr 11,9-10).
The
spirituality of the land has its roots in the Old
Testament. Thus the tribe of Levi was not to have a share
of the Palestinian earth, God being their share: "Unto
the tribe of Levi, Moses gave no inheritance: the Lord
God of Israel was their inheritance" (Josh
13,33).
Again
the Psalm (37,11) says: "the meek and the righteous
inherit the Earth"; we cannot say that all the Israelis
who live today in Palestine are meek and righteous.
Moreover, we can find these vertues anywhere among
non-Jews. Jesus repeated this teaching: "Blessed are the
meek, for they shall inherit the Earth " (Mat 5,5). He
explained this Earth by saying that the Kingdom of God is
not a visible or political entity, but that it dwells
within the believer's heart. Indeed, When
the Pharisees asked him when was the Kingdom of God to
come, He knew that they ment the universal political
Zionist empire. He answered: "The Kingdom of God does not
come in an observable manner: no one can say: 'Look, here
it is!' or 'Look, there it is!' For the Kingdom of God is
within you" (Luke 17,20-21). This confirms
Jeremiah's prophecy about the New Covenant dwelling
within the believers' hearts, as explained
further.
We
find in modern Judaism many rabbis who underlign the
spiritual dimension of the Promised Land. The following
commentary of the great rabbi Jonathan Eybeschutz is
typical: "It is written: 'And you shall live in the land
that I gave to your fathers' (Ezek 36,28). The Lord had
promised Abraham to give him the land of Canaan; but when
Sarah died, he did not possess a land to burry her. How,
then, was the Promise accomplished? There are two lands
which bear the name of Israel: the Land of Israel of
Above, and the land of Israel of below. The Holy Land is
the Heavenly Land, where the Divine Palace is, from which
overflow the springs of Wisdom. It is this spiritual
Land that has been promised and given to our fathers,
and not the geographical earth" ( "Le Royaume de Dieu et
le royaume de César", by the rabbi Emmanuel
Levyne, editions of "Le Reveil", Beyrouth).
As
we shall see further, the seed of Abraham, the heirs of
the Promised Land, are also the members of a spiritual
descendance; they are not established according to a
historical flesh and blood genealogy. This spiritual
legacy is not of the father-son type, but depends upon
the faith in Jesus as the Messiah. St Paul said: "If you
belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs
according to the Promise" (Gal. 3,29).
Thus
for a Christian, the Jews who refuse to recognize that
Jesus is the true Christ, and explicitely await another
Messiah, are not the seed of Abraham, nor the heirs of
the Promised Land, whether it is spiritual or
geographical.
2)
- The promise was under condition
God
desinherited the Jews even before the advent of Jesus
because:
- The
Land had been promised under condition of
faithfulness to the Covenant.
-
- The
conditions have not been fulfilled, and the Covenant
was thus broken by the Jews.
-
- God
then announced the advent of a New Covenant -
established by Jesus - which the Jews still
refuse.
a)
The condition:
Supposing
that the land is geographical, we must not forget that it
has been promised under certain conditions, because Moses
told the Jews:
"If
you do not keep and observe all the words of this Law...
then the Lord will strike you down with monstruous
plagues, you and your descendants… For not
having obeyed to the Voice of your God, the Lord your God
will rejoice in ruining you and destroying you and you
will be plucked off from the land which you
are about to enter…" (Deuteronomy
28,58-64).
The
word "if" obviously reveals the condition, and
that, in case of infidelity, the outcome of the Promise
is totally opposite to the Jews and their descendants:
what was promised were plagues and expulsion from
the land. These were the very words of the
Covenant.
b)
The betrayal: the Covenant broken off:
The
Jews did not "observe all the words of this Law" as Moses
had asked them to do. The Bible explicitly reveals that
they betrayed God by worshipping the idols of the
neighbouring countries. They practiced their paganic
customs and even offered their children in sacrifice to
these idols (1 Kings 16,30-34/ Jeremiah 7,30-32). The
Psalm 106 states the various Israeli infidelities: "They
worshipped a calf in Horeb...They forgot God their
Saviour... They joined themselves unto Baal and imitated
the heathen, and served their idols. They sacrificed
their own sons and daughters to the
devils…".
This
is why the prophets cried out, denounced the betrayal and
declared God's anger against Israel: "Hear this, you
princes of the house of Israel, you who abhor justice and
pervert all equity, who build up Zion with blood, and
Jerusalem with iniquity and say: 'Is not the Lord among
us?' Therefore shall Zion for your sake be plowed as a
field, Jerusalem a heap of rubble and the Temple Mount a
wooded height" (Micah 3, 9-12).
Isaiah
also prophesied against Israel saying, in God's Name: "I
have nourished and brought up children, says the Lord,
and they have rebelled against me. The ox knows its
owner, and the ass its master's crib: but Israel does not
know... Ah! sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity,
a seed of evildoers... they have forsaken the Lord"
(Isaiah 1, 2-4).
c)
Abrogation and New Covenant.
After
having denounced Israel's betrayal, God spoke by Jeremiah
to declare that the Covenant had been abrogated by the
Jews, and to announce the coming of a New Covenant, not
like the abrogated one, since the believer's share will
be God Himself, not a land: "Behold, the days come, says
the Lord, in which I shall make a New Covenant
with the House of Israel, but not like the
Covenant that I made with their fathers… a
Covenant which they broke... But this shall be the
Covenant that I shall make with the House of Israel: I
shall put my Law within them, and write it
in their hearts; Then I shall be their God and
they will be my people" (Jer 31, 31-33).
It
is obvious that this New Covenant differs from the
abrogated one since it will "not be like it". The
difference lies in the fact that the New Covenant is
spiritual, within the hearts of the believers and
it promises no geographical land to the Jews, or to any
other people, but it is God Himself who becomes the share
of any man who believes in Jesus, the Founder of the New
and Universal Covenant.
The
Jews still refuse Jesus Christ's Covenant because it
promises no geographical land, nor does it grant them the
privilege of establishing the worldwide Zionist empire
they wish to have.
B)
The Chosen People
God's
choice never fell upon a Jewish nation as some still
think. In fact, the Bible says that God chose a man,
Abraham, who is Syrian, and not a Jewish people, for
there were no Jews before Abraham. It is therefore wrong
to believe that Judaism is a race; Moses stresses upon
this point by telling the Jews: "You will speak and say
before the Lord your God: 'My father (Abraham) was a
wandering Aramaean (Syrian)' " (Deut. 26, 5).
Whether they admit it or not, the truth is written in the
Bible: The Jews are of Syrian origin.
The
purpose of Abraham's call was not political; God never
intended to found a new nation or set up still another
political State in the world. God's intention was to form
a spiritual community from which He will send the
Messiah, the Saviour of all men. But this community had
changed itself into a political nation and when the
Messiah came they did not have the Spirit to recognize
Him: "He came to his own people and his own people did
not accept Him. But to those who did accept Him, He gave
the power to become the children of God" (John
1,11-12).According to the Bible, therefore, God's people
is international and based on the faith in
Jesus.
Jesus
told the Jews: "If you do not believe that I am He (the
Christ) you will die in your sins… (John
8,24)…If God were your Father, you would love me.You
are from your father, the devil, and you want to do what
your father wants. He is a murderer from the
start…(John 8,42-44)".
What
do the so-called Christians tell them today?…In the
synagogue of Rome, the Pope John-Paul II told them: "You
are our elder brothers". How can a disciple of Jesus be
the benjamin brother of the one who rejects Jesus and
denies that He is the Messiah? St John said: "If anyone
comes to you bringing a different doctrine, you must not
receive him into your house or even give him a greeting.
Whoever greets him takes part in his wicked actions" (2
John 10-11). The mentioned Pope not only greeted him, but
considered him as his "elder brother"!!
According
to the Gospel, the true Jews are the disciples of Jesus.
Does not Christ call the Jews who reject Him "false Jews,
and a synagogue of Satan?" (Rev 2,9/ 3,9).
This
is why St Paul said that Abraham's seed are the disciples
of Jesus Christ: "If you belong to Jesus Christ than you
are of Abraham's descendance and heirs to the
Promise"(Gal 3,29). He therefore invites the Jews "not to
persevere in their unbelief in order to be grafted in
(God's people) by believing in Jesus" (Rom
11,23).
It
is then out of question to reject the Jews as persons,
but Israel as a State. The Jews are, on the contrary,
invited to enter into the flock of Jesus to become part
of the universal people of God. True love forbids us to
drown them into their own errors by encouraging them to
think that they are God's people back to the Promised
Land.
For
we must understand that the Jews, who keep on denying
that Jesus is the Christ, bear the specific
characteristic of the Antichrist announced by St John:
"Who is the liar if not the one who denies that Jesus is
the Christ? He is the Antichrist" (1 John
2,22).
All
Christians and all Moslems recognize that Jesus is the
Christ. We even find followers of Jesus in Buddhism and
Hinduism. Gandhi often spoke of his admiration towards
Him and of his disappointment towards Christians: " Give
me Jesus Christ, and keep the Christians for yourselves",
he said.
John's
prophecy about the Antichrist cannot be applied to those
who believe that Jesus is the Christ, but to those who
refuse to admit that He is the Christ. The Antichrist's
specific characterestic can only be applied to the Jews
who explicitely deny Jesus and expect another Christ.
This is the Antichrist.
We
must not be astonished about this radical change in the
fate of the Jews who refuse Jesus, and let us remember
what Jesus said when a Roman officer expressed his faith
in Him: "In truth I tell you, in no one in Israel have I
found faith as great as this. And I tell you that many
will come from the East and from the West, and sit down
with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob at the feast in the
Kingdom of Heaven. But the children of the kingdom (of
Israel) will be thrown out into the darkness where there
will be weaping and grinding of teeth" (Mat
8,10-12).
The
opposition between the Kingdom of God and the kingdom of
Israel is obvious in Christ's words where He condemns the
sons of the Zionist kingdom to "be thrown out into the
darkness" (Mat 8,11). This opposition between the two
kingdoms is the main conflict between Jesus and the
Jews.
Thus,
with the advent of Jesus, the concept of the "chosen
people" changed from a tribal and fanatic one, into a
spiritual and international reality. In the above text,
Christ condemns the "children of the kingdom" of Israel
because they want to understand Judaism in a political
and racial manner. In fact, Jesus told them "your father
is the devil!" (John 8,44). Those who have the devil as
father cannot be the "elder brothers" of the ones who
have Jesus as Father!
This
is the reason why Jesus refused to be the king of a
political Jewish State: "My Kingdom is not of this
world", He said. (Please refer to our text: "The Tragedy of Jesus")
In
fact, St John tells us that, after the miracle of the
multiplication of the bread, "Jesus, as He realised that
the Jews were about to come and take Him by force
to make Him king, He fled back into the mountain all
alone" (John 6,15).
One
of the aspects of the conflict, is the universality of
the Kingdom of God; for Jesus, the universality means the
introduction into the Kingdom of God of all those who
believe in Him, whatever their race and language. But for
the Zionist Jews, the Kingdom belongs exclusively to the
Jews of the world (international Jews).
Yet
the prophets had already extended the Divine election to
the people of all races. God, speaking by Isaiah VIII
centuries B.C, said: "I will gather all nations and
tongues.... and I shall also take of them for priests and
for Levites" (Isaiah 66, 18-21).
This
choice of religious ministres amongst non Jewish nations
is an undeniable proof of the authenticity of Jesus
Christ's universal priesthood.
What
should we then conclude?.
St
Paul answers: "What then? Israel has not obtained what he
seaks for, but the election has obtained" (Rom
11,7).
The
election being the disciples of Jesus, of all races and
languages.
III
Israel : a sign of the times.
Since
the Jews who are gathered today in Palestine from the
four quarters of the earth are not God's people back to
their promised land, what then is the prophetical meaning
of the return of an Israeli State?
It
is a "sign of times".
In
religious circles, it is often spoken of the "signs of
the times" without precising what are the times ment by
this expression: It means "the sign of the end of
times".
Speaking
of these times, Jesus said: "Jerusalem shall be trodden
down of the Gentiles (pagans), until the times of the
Gentiles be fulfilled" (Luke 21, 24). The times in
question are, therefore, the end of the times of the
Gentiles, or, in other words, the end of the pagans.
Israel is therefore a sign of the end of the time allowed
to the pagans.
After
the advent of Jesus, the pagans become those who deny
that He is the Christ; this denial makes of them the
symbol of paganism in its various aspects: THE Antichrist
by excellence.
When
the Jews ordered the apostles not to speak about Jesus,
the apostles prayed to God saying: "In this city
(Jerusalem), Herod and Pontius Pilate plotted together
with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel
against your holy Servant, Jesus, whom You
anointed…" (Acts 4, 27).
The
word "against" reveals the spirit of the
Anti-Christ that dwells in the people of Israel.
(Please see our text "The Antichrist Yesterday and Today").
The
Jews want us to believe that Israel's return is a great
sign, and an accomplishment of the prophecies of the Old
Testament. But we know that the prophecies that they
evoke speak of the return of the Jews from the Babylonian
exile in the VIth Century B.C. Let us not be
deceived.
For
now is rather the time to understand the prophecies of
the New Testament concerning the end of the
pagans' times, before the return of Jesus. We shall thus
discover who these pagans are. For this is the end of the
Zionist times.
Jesus
said that in these times "the abomination of the
desolation shall be in the Holy Places (Jerusalem)" (Mat
24,15). On the other hand, the book of St John's
Revelation speaks about the reappearance of the
Antichrist (Rev 17,8). This will happen in the "Holy
Places", or the Holy Land, Palestine, and particularly in
the "Beloved City" (Jerusalem), where, according to the
Revelation, it is Satan, not God, who gathers the
subjects of the Antichrist, from the four quarters of the
world for war, not for peace (Rev 20, 7-9). (Please see
our text "The Key of the Apocalypse).
IV
The attitude of a true Christian
Finally,
what must be the attitude of a Christian towards the
actual State of Israel?.
The
moment has come to meditate, in order to put into
practice, these words addressed by the book of Revelation
to those who still want to be witnesses of Jesus: "You
must prophesy AGAIN against many peoples, nations,
languages and kings" (Rev 10,11 ).
If
the Lord, in our Apocalyptical times, has sent an order
to his apostles, asking them to prophesy again
against his enemies, it is because most of the apostles
are deceived by the Antichrist, whom they do not
recognize. Instead of denouncing him, they establish good
relations with him. The book of Revelation, therefore,
reminds them of their duty as apostles and witnesses of
Jesus: after having kept silent, they must now
again bear witness and speak against Christ's
enemy: Israel.
When
the Christ came, He was not received by his own people
(the Jews: John 1,11). His own people (the Christians),
today, welcome the Antichrist…
No
Christian can recognize the legitimacy of an Israeli
State in Palestine without denying himself as a
Christian; for by doing so, he implicitly admits that the
Christians are not the prophetical Israel, and that Jesus
is not the Christ.
Jesus
said:" No man can serve two masters." Nobody can serve
the Kingdom of Jesus Christ and the kingdom of Israel at
the same time. We cannot savegard our testimony to Jesus
Christ's authentic Messianism without denouncing Israel's
false messianism. The Jews know it, but the Christians
are unaware of it.
ln
such an important matter, silence or neutrality are a
sign of treason and of lukewarmness: Jesus said: "I am
aware of your activities :You are neither cold nor hot: I
wish you were cold or hot. But since you are only
lukewarm I shall spit you out of my mouth" (Rev
3,15).
A
choice must, therefore, be made, and we shall be judged
according to our commitment: it is not by recognizing
Israel that a Christian remains faithful to his
testimony, but by inviting the Jews to recognize that
Jesus is the Messiah.
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