tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-88460314550804820872024-03-16T11:52:59.748-07:00Mike's MusingsMike Moorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02475677258430349492noreply@blogger.comBlogger252125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8846031455080482087.post-80516372042452161322014-06-13T09:57:00.000-07:002014-06-13T09:57:08.376-07:00The Outro and the Intro<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 125%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">
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<span style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 125%;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">On 1 July, my role with Christian Witness to Israel will change after more than 11 years in the post of General Secretary. I'm not retiring. Far from it. In fact, I'm set to be as busy as ever, if not more so, but not as Gen Sec. From 1 July I will be 'General Secretary Emeritus'. I'm sorry if the title appears grandiose but it wasn't my idea.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 125%;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">As I step aside from leadership of the Society, the big news is that on 1 July Joseph Steinberg will join CWI as Chief Executive
Officer! I’ve known Joseph as a friend for more than 25 years and I’m delighted
at the prospect of working with him.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 125%;">Joseph grew
up in a Jewish home in the United States and as a teenager, after searching the
Old Testament scriptures, became convinced that Jesus was the promised Messiah.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 125%;">He
comes to CWI with an impressive track record. </span><span style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 125%;">At the age of 18 Joseph became a missionary to his own
people and for two years travelled the world and 48 of the 50 US states performing
in evangelistic concerts with <i><a href="http://www.jewsforjesus.org/for-congregations/liberated-wailing-wall" target="_blank">The Liberated Wailing Wall.</a><o:p></o:p></i></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 125%;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">After
graduating from the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moody_Bible_Institute" target="_blank">Moody Bible Institute</a>’s School of World Missions in Chicago
with a Jewish Studies Diploma in 1988, Joseph joined Christian Witness to
Israel as a field-worker with our London team. From 1991 Joseph trained for the
Anglican ministry at <a href="http://www.trinity-bris.ac.uk/" target="_blank">Trinity College, Bristol</a> before being ordained in the
Church of England. While serving as an Anglican minister in Chigwell, Essex he
co-authored ‘<a href="http://www.ycourse.com/" target="_blank">The Y Course</a>’ – an excellent evangelistic resource that was used
by over 6,000 churches in the UK – and its companion book, <i><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Book-Life-Universe-Elephant-Course/dp/190763634X/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1402678407&sr=1-4&keywords=joseph+steinberg" target="_blank">The Book of Y</a></i>. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 125%;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Joseph
has taught on the books of <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Exodus-Book-book-Joseph-Steinberg/dp/185078504X/ref=sr_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1402678407&sr=1-5&keywords=joseph+steinberg" target="_blank">Exodus </a>and Leviticus in the All Souls video series <i>Book by Book</i> with Richard Bewes and Paul
Blackham. He has also written the Spring Harvest booklet <i><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Psalms-Cries-Heart-Interactive-Studies/dp/1850786895/ref=la_B0034PBTPI_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1402678346&sr=1-1" target="_blank">Psalms: Cries from the Heart</a></i>.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 125%;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Joseph
is a gifted and inspirational communicator and has preached extensively in the
UK and globally. He has been a speaker at Spring Harvest, Easter People, the
Christian Resources Exhibition and the Oxford and Cambridge Inter-Collegiate
Christian Unions as well as at hundreds of churches.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 125%;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">All of
us at CWI are thrilled to have Joseph as our new leader and we are looking forward
to working with him to make the good news of Messiah known to the Jewish people
both in the UK and around the world.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 125%;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">As for
me, on 1 July I will become ‘General Secretary Emeritus’, a role in which I
will serve as a consultant to Joseph and a coach to our Communications
Department. God willing, I will continue to speak at churches and conferences but
will also be devoting more time to writing. My first major project will be<i> First Things First</i>, a book on ‘the Jew
first’ principle in the Bible from Genesis to Revelation. I hope to have the
final draft completed by the end of the year.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 125%;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Please
remember Joseph
and me in your prayers. Pray that God will grant us wisdom, grace and strength to work together
with a single mind and heart for the glory of God and the extension of his
kingdom. </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
Mike Moorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02475677258430349492noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8846031455080482087.post-72463387389100159072014-05-05T11:23:00.003-07:002014-05-05T11:23:53.390-07:00Happy Birthday Israel<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.5em; padding: 0px;">
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Yom HaZikaron, Israel Independence Day, begins at sunset tonight. I came across the following essay by <span style="line-height: 15px;">David A. Harris, the Executive Director of the American Jewish Committee and I agree with every point. Happy Birthday Israel, and many happy returns.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.5em;">First, the Jewish people's identity is built on three legs -- a faith, a people, and a land.</span></div>
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The land is inextricable to the equation. Even when Jews were forcibly removed from the land, as they were more than once, they never, not for a single moment, lost the connection. It was core to their prayers and their belief systems. Jerusalem, physically and metaphysically, is at the center of Jewish existence. The determination of Jews to reaffirm that link, over literally thousands of years, is awe-inspiring.</div>
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Second, those who lived in or returned to the land before the rebirth of the state in 1948 faced indescribable challenges.</div>
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Those challenges could easily have defeated less determined people. The terrain itself was harsh and unyielding. The swamps were disease-infested. Water was scarce. Marauding Arab bands put them at risk. But they persisted.</div>
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Third, these pioneers, against all the odds, gave birth to field after field, tree after tree, job after job (for Jews and Arabs alike), and neighborhood after neighborhood.</div>
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And, equally, they gave birth to Modern Hebrew. They took an ancient language and rendered it contemporary, which in turn became the lingua franca of the new state.</div>
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Fourth, the politics of statehood were not uncomplicated.</div>
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It took 50 years from Theodore Herzl's vision of a reborn Jewish nation to the UN Partition Plan of 1947, which called for Jewish and Arab states to emerge from British-ruled Mandatory Palestine. During those five decades -- and all the global ups and downs, governments' sleights-of-hand, and power politics -- Jewish leadership in the land persevered. They were undeterred.</div>
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Fifth, that same Jewish leadership understood that half a loaf was better than none. While the Jews would have wished for a bigger state, and believed the historical facts warranted it, pragmatism prevailed over maximalism. And therein lies the fundamental difference between Jewish and Arab leadership at the time, and since.</div>
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The 1947 Partition Plan could have solved the national aspirations of Jews and Arabs alike (i.e., Palestinians, though the term was not then used by the UN). There would have been two states for two peoples, living, ideally, side by side in peace and cooperation. But the Arab insistence on the whole loaf triggered war. The war in turn created a refugee problem, and that dream of the whole loaf continues to be nurtured by too many Palestinian leaders.</div>
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Sixth, the 1948 war to annihilate the new state might have been Israel's first and, yes, last war, but it wasn't.</div>
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Vastly outnumbered and outarmed, the 650,000 Jews could have been vanquished by the five attacking Arab armies, including the British-trained Jordanians. But they dug in, fought on with often hard-to-acquire weapons, and eventually won, while losing one percent of their entire population -- the first of several wars Israel was to win to defend its very right to exist.</div>
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Seventh, Israel's ability to defend itself is nothing short of extraordinary. A country the size of New Jersey, and without a favorable military topography, has withstood repeated assaults of every kind -- wars, missile barrages, suicide bombings, kidnappings, lawfare, and modern-day blood libels.</div>
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The morale and commitment of Israelis to fulfill their national obligations -- when, no doubt, they'd much rather be studying, socializing, and traveling -- is remarkable. Alone, having never asked for the help of other nations' troops, they defend the state. And Israel's technical ingenuity in meeting each new challenge head-on has served as an object lesson for other countries. From Entebbe to Iron Dome, from Osirak to the Syrian nuclear plant, Israel has come up with viable answers to seemingly insurmountable threats.</div>
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Eighth, Israel has forged a far more cohesive, vibrant society than many predicted.</div>
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How, the skeptics asked, could Israel absorb Jews from scores of countries with different languages, political traditions, cultural norms, and religious practices? How could Israel forge a democratic state when so many refugees came from non-democratic Arab lands and communist societies -- and in a region, the Middle East, where there was absolutely no tradition of free, open societies? How could religious and secular Jews coexist? How could Israel absorb over 100,000 Ethiopian Jews, who hailed from villages that had no electricity or other modern accoutrements? And how would non-Jews, especially a large Arab community, fare as citizens of the State of Israel?</div>
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These are all works in progress, but, 64 years after the rebirth of Israel, it can be said that the centripetal forces binding the state together far outweigh the centrifugal forces at work -- and that's no mean feat, given the magnitude of each of the challenges.</div>
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Ninth, in the face of unrelenting threats and dangers, Israel could have turned inward, abandoned hope, and given up on peace, but it most assuredly has not.</div>
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Instead, Israel has embraced the world, sharing its vast know-how with developing countries and often being among the first on the scene when disaster strikes. It has affirmed life in a way that outsiders can hardly imagine. And, despite one spurned peace effort after another since the landmark treaties with Egypt (1979) and Jordan (1994) -- not to mention the experiences of withdrawal from southern Lebanon only to have Iranian-backed Hezbollah step in, or from Gaza only to have Hamas, whose charter calls for Israel's destruction, take control -- Israel still clings to the belief that peace, based on major territorial compromise and a two-state solution, is possible.</div>
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And tenth is what travelers see for themselves when they come to Israel.</div>
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As many first-time visitors have commented, they had no idea that Israel was so small or its security challenges so complex.</div>
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They had no clue that Arabic was an official language and Israeli Arabs, even those opposed to the state's very existence, have been elected to the Israeli parliament.</div>
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They were unaware that churches and mosques are found everywhere, with full freedom of worship protected.</div>
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They had no sense of how ancient and modern, at one and the same time, the country is.</div>
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<span style="line-height: 1.5em;">They had no understanding of what a full-throttled democracy Israel is, including a feisty press, an independent judiciary, an array of active NGOs, political parties galore, and an argumentative, self-critical culture.</span></div>
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And they had no hint how proud of their country -- and optimistic about the future -- are the vast majority of Israelis.</div>
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For nearly 2,000 years, Jews could only dream of, and pray for, the rebirth of Israel. Today, it is a living, breathing, and pulsating reality. And I count myself among the lucky ones to see it unfold before my very eyes.</div>
Mike Moorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02475677258430349492noreply@blogger.com202tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8846031455080482087.post-27462493517055678922014-02-12T17:29:00.000-08:002014-02-12T17:29:08.696-08:00Yasmine Perni Cries Out<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<img height="249" src="http://www.indiewire.com/static/dims4/INDIEWIRE/eac984e/2147483647/thumbnail/325x227%3E/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fd1oi7t5trwfj5d.cloudfront.net%2Fd0%2F80%2F4b17218942d5ab0d14bda8f5a143%2Fthe-stones-cry-out.jpg" width="400" /></div>
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I’ve just come back from a screening of Yasmine Perni’s film
<i>The Stones Cry Out</i>. I didn’t actually
see the film on account of the fact that, because of adverse weather conditions,
it took me five hours to drive from Nottingham to Tunbridge Wells. The film
started at 7.30pm and I arrived an hour late in a very spaced-out condition.
But I was in time for the Question and Answer session. </div>
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I bought a DVD of the film afterwards and will post a review
after I’ve found the time to watch it. But what follows are my comments on the <span lang="FR">après</span>-film session.</div>
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First of all, although the views of Ms Perni on the Israeli-Palestinian
problem are poles apart, I was impressed by her evident sincerity and concern
for the plight of Palestinian Christians. Most pro-Palestinians I encounter (particularly
those of the female persuasion) tend to be loud, aggressive and a little too
fond of the F-word for my delicate taste. But not Ms Perni. </div>
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She defines herself as a Christian who believes the Bible ‘one
hundred percent.’ She is gently spoken, highly articulate and, it seems to me,
passionately and genuinely concerned about the Palestinian people, particularly
Christians.</div>
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The audience, as you would expect in Tunbridge Wells, was predominantly
white, middle class, civilized and well educated. And the questions and comments
were the kind you would expect from such an audience. Israel’s treatment of Palestinians
in the film had reminded one urbane gentleman of the way Nazi Germany treated
the Jews and, in his considered opinion, no peace would come in the Middle East
until America ‘shed the shackles of the Jewish Lobby.’ To her credit, although
Ms Perni thinks Israel is ‘torturing’ Palestinians, what the Palestinians are
enduring is not as bad as the suffering of the Jews in the Holocaust.</div>
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A lady who, by her own confession, had never been to Israel or
‘Palestine’ was nevertheless of the opinion that Bethlehem was becoming a
ghetto and unctiously likened the barbed wire on the Security Wall to the crown
of thorns on the head of Christ. Another lady likened Israel’s Security Fence
to the Berlin Wall and wondered how long it will take to bring it down. It was
also clearly implied that Israel is an apartheid regime. The willingness of
otherwise intelligent people to publicly trot out these trite clichés and pious
platitudes was frankly depressing. </div>
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There can be no doubt that in 1948, for the thousands of Arabs
who obeyed their leaders and fled the country, the founding of the Jewish state
was a Nakba, a disaster. According to Arab pastor Shmuel Aweida, however, for
him and his family, and for all Arabs who remained in the land, the founding of
the state of Israel was the best thing that could have happened to them because
they found themselves for the first time living in a democracy. They’d never
had it so good. Which is why today Israeli Arabs, although they might complain
about the government (and who doesn’t?) would rather live in Israel than in
Gaza or the Palestinian Authority.</div>
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When I pointed out in the question time that Israel is the
only place in the Middle East where the church is growing, Ms Perni informed me
that in Israel it is illegal to convert to Christianity. It’s amazing how many
people believe this enduring urban myth. In Muslim countries, of course, you
can be killed for converting but in Israel freedom of religion is written into
the constitution. </div>
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Yasmine Perni told me after the meeting she believes the Palestinian
people want peace. But why would a people that wants peace name their streets
after suicide bombers? Why would a people that want peace display pictures of
terrorists on the walls of school classrooms in the same way that our school
classrooms display pictures of the Periodic Table? Why would a people who want
peace publicly welcome hundreds of murderous thugs released from Israeli jails
as though they were heroes? Why would people who want peace send their children
to summer camps where they can be trained to shoot automatic weapons and to
blow themselves to smithereens? Why would a people who want peace teach their children
in school and on TV shows that the Jews are apes and pigs?</div>
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If the Palestinians want peace, why doesn’t PA President Mahmoud
Abbas accept Israel as a Jewish state? And why does he continue to say that a
future Palestinian state will be Jew-free while insisting Israel will have to open
its gates to hundreds of thousands of Palestinians?</div>
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Yasmine Perni also supports the Palestine Solidarity
Campaign (PSC) and the Boycott, Disinvestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, believing
BDS to be a ‘peaceful and non-violent’ to force Israel to less inconsiderate to
the Palestinians. I’m sure she genuinely believes that but from my experience of
the PSC and BDS movement I’m not so sanguine. I know a Jewish man who had his
nose broken by a female BDSer he was shadowing in a supermarket. She and her
comrades regularly loaded shopping trolleys with Israeli products before
dumping them in the store car park, and he was going to prevent her from doing
so. She turned suddenly, uttered some very naughty words and drove her delicate
little fist into the centre of his face. I’ve stood with pro-Israel demonstrators
singing <i>Am Yisrael Chai</i> and <i>Hava Nagila</i> while just yards away pro-Palestinians
demonstrators were angrily chanting anti-Israel slogans. </div>
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I was concerned at the Palestinianisation of Christianity. We were informed that Christianity was born in Palestine and that Jesus was born in 'Palestine' and that the first Christians were Palestinians. According to Matthew 2:20-21, Jesus was born in 'the land of Israel,' not the land of Palestine.</div>
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I was also bemused at Ms Perni’s objection to Israeli
companies operating in the Palestinian Authority, even when they are helping
Palestinian farmers and providing gainful employment to other Palestinians. It’s
true, for example, that SodaStream is defying international law by setting up
shop in the Palestinians Authority to provide well-paid work for over 500
Palestinians. But give me a break! If international law supposes it’s better
for Palestinians to be out of work than earning good wages in a Jewish factory built
on the West Bank then international law is a ass!</div>
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The meeting was not helpful. It reinforced the myth that Israel is the obstacle to peace in the Middle East and it was clear that at least some in the audience see Israel as a Nazi state and an apartheid state that must be brought to its knees if there is to be peace in the Middle East.The most depressing aspect of the evening was that at the screening of a film by a professed Christian film-maker, chaired by an Anglican clergyman, with a panel that included a bishop, no mention was made of the gospel as the solution to the problems of the Middle East.</div>
Mike Moorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02475677258430349492noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8846031455080482087.post-74349536129889234802014-01-20T10:28:00.000-08:002014-01-20T10:32:34.916-08:00Blood Moon Rising<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
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<img src="http://www.sacornerstone.org/sites/default/files/thecomingoffourbloodmoons.png" height="222" width="400" /></div>
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<i>The sun shall be turned into darkness,
and the moon into blood, before the coming of the great and awesome day of the
L</i><i><span style="color: windowtext; line-height: 125%;">ORD</span><span style="color: windowtext;">. (Joel 2:31)<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="color: windowtext;"><br /></span></i></div>
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<span style="color: windowtext;">As a rule, I don't do
prophecy but in the last few months I’ve been told about, or asked about, four ‘blood
moons’ that are going to appear over Israel during the next two years. The
excitement began to mount last year after the publication of John Hagee’s <i>Four Blood Moons: Something Is About To
Change</i>. Hagee – the founder and senior pastor of Cornerstone Church, a Texas
megachurch that boasts more than 20,000 ‘active members’ – was turned onto the blood
moon teaching by Mark Biltz of El Shaddai Ministries, who challenged Hagee to
study ‘the sun, moon, and stars as a source of prophetic revelation.’<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: windowtext;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: windowtext;">Hagee writes that during the
years 1493/94, 1949/50 and 1967/68, at the festivals of Passover and Tabernacles,
a series of ‘tetrads’ – four consecutive total lunar eclipses – took place. Close
to the time of each of the tetrads, momentous events occurred in connection
with the Jewish people. In 1492, a year before the first of the listed tetrads
occurred, the Jews were expelled from Spain. In 1948, a year before another
tetrad took place, the modern state of Israel was founded, and in June 1967,
between the first and second lunar eclipses of a tetrad, the Six Day War occurred
in which the Israelis, for the first time in 2,500 years, gained sovereignty
over Jerusalem. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: windowtext;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: windowtext; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">In any given century a tetrad
consisting of four consecutive total lunar eclipses, spaced six months
apart may happen fairly frequently or not at all. </span><span style="color: windowtext;">In this century, we are set to experience a total of
eight tetrads but a growing number of Bible teachers believe the upcoming sequence
of lunar eclipses to be particularly significant because the eclipses coincide
with Passover and Tabernacles. The first total lunar eclipse will take place this
year on 15 April at Passover, and the second at the Feast of Tabernacles on 8
October. Next year, full lunar eclipses will occur at Passover on 4 April and
at Tabernacles on 28 September. John Hagee believes that during the tetrad the
moon will be ‘turned to blood,’ thus fulfilling Joel 2:31; therefore the next
two years will herald a time of change for Israel. However, John Hagee
circumspectly steers clear of predicting the kind of ‘change’ we ought to
expect, except that the blood moons confirm that Jesus is coming again and we’d
all better be ready.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: windowtext;">Not every tetrad watcher is as coy as Hagee about the significance of
the coming series of lunar eclipses. Some have gone so far as to state that a third
temple will be constructed in the next couple of years!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: windowtext;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: windowtext; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 125%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">By the light of the not-so-silvery moon<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: windowtext;">Because speculation about the
events of the next couple of years is growing, and because I’ve been asked what
I think about the teaching, and because there will be fallout from the failure
of the growing speculative prognostications, I’ve decided to throw my hat into
the ring. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: windowtext;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: windowtext;">First of all, the epithet ‘blood moon’
is not a term used by astronomers. The red moons that are frequently observed at
the vernal (spring) and autumnal equinoxes are known by astronomers as the ‘hunter’s
moon,’ and the ‘harvest moon.’ </span><span style="color: windowtext; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">There is no obvious reason
why the term ‘blood moon’ should be associated with the tetrads because it is
far from certain that the moon will actually turn red at the four lunar
eclipses. Ecliptic moons turn blood red only sporadically. Instead, they range
in colour from dark brown and red to bright orange and, sometimes, yellow. Just
how red a moon in eclipse appears depends on the atmospheric conditions at the
time. If there is a lot of dust and ash from a volcanic eruption, for instance,
the moon may turn dark brown but if the atmosphere is clear the lunar surface may
indeed turn blood red. But it’s far from easy to predict how the moon will look
during a total eclipse. The term ‘blood moon’ appears </span><span style="color: windowtext;">to have been coined by John Hagee for dramatic effect.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: windowtext;">Second, contrary to what some of the
blood moon alarmists are predicting, none of the moons in the upcoming tetrad
will appear ‘over’ Jerusalem or Israel. According to the NASA web site
(http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov), the total eclipse of the moon on 15 April will
be visible only in North America and parts of South America, and you will be
able to see the Feast of Tabernacles eclipse on 8 October only if you are on a
ship in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Next year, the total eclipse of the
moon that occurs at Passover will be visible only in Australia, New Zealand,
Eastern Russia and Alaska. The only eclipse of the tetrad visible in Israel
will be the last in the series. It will take place at the Feast of Tabernacles
on 28 September 2015 but when it is visible it will have almost set on the
horizon and will be over in a matter of minutes. If you’re in Israel and you
blink, you’ll miss it!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 18.0pt;">
<span style="color: windowtext; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 125%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Bad moons rising?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: windowtext;">Third, the astronomical phenomenon of
‘blood moons’ has been occurring throughout human history and although in the
last 500 years tetrads occurred at or close to significant events in Jewish
history there was absolutely no consistency about them. The series of total
lunar eclipses that occurred at Passover and Tabernacles in 1493/94 took place <i>after</i> the Jews had been expelled from
Spain, a terrible event. The tetrad of 1949/50, however, took place after <i>a good event</i>: the rebirth of the Jewish
state. When the sequence of four lunar eclipses took place at Passover and
Tabernacles in 1967/68, the Six Day War during which the Israeli Defence Forces
recaptured Jerusalem, occurred <i>between</i>
the first and second ‘blood moons.’ <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: windowtext;">Depending on whether you are reading
Joel or Matthew and Mark, none of the tetrads proved to be harbingers of the
Day of the Lord in the sense John Hagee understands the Day of the Lord, nor
did any of them occur immediately after the great tribulation!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: windowtext;">Although Hagee, Blintz and others are
warning of dramatic changes relating to Israel and the Jewish people, some of
the most momentous events in Jewish history have occurred when no tetrads took
place. No tetrads occurred, for example, at the time of the Exodus, or the destruction
of Jerusalem and the temple by the Babylonians in 587BC, or the crucifixion
(the most momentous event in Jewish history), or the fall of Jerusalem in 70AD
and the exile that followed, or the last stand of the Jewish rebels at Masada, or
close to the Holocaust. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: windowtext; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Furthermore, tetrads occurred during Passover and Tabernacles in 162/63AD,
795/96AD, 842/43AD and 860/61AD, during which nothing of significance relating
to the Jewish nation occurred. It is only during the last 500 years that
significant events of Jewish history occurred close to lunar tetrads, which is
no doubt why Hagee and Blintz highlight them.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: windowtext;">Fourth, according to Joel
2:31 – the key text of tetrad enthusiasts – not only will the moon be turned
into blood before the coming of the day of the Lord, but also the sun will be
turned into darkness. Tetrad watchers appear to be ignoring that equally
significant celestial phenomenon. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: windowtext;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: windowtext;">Fifth, in Matthew 24:29, Jesus
informed his disciples that the sun would be darkened, and the moon would fail
to give its light ‘<i>immediately</i> after
the tribulation of those days.’ The tribulation of which Jesus spoke was ‘the
great tribulation’ (Mt 24:21), therefore since the first total lunar eclipse of
the tetrad will take place at Passover on 14 April, and since the moon is to
turn to blood after ‘immediately after,’ are we to expect the great tribulation
to start and finish sometime in the next six weeks?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: windowtext;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: windowtext;">As we try to get our heads
round the prophecies of the moon turning to blood it is crucial to bear in mind
that the language of the Olivet discourse in Matthew 24 is symbolic. If that
sounds like theological liberalism, remember that the most die-hard literalists
interpret the terminology of the moon turning to blood and the sun being turned
to sackcloth and the stars falling from heaven. No one actually believes the
moon will literally turn to blood, or that the sun will literally turn into
sackcloth or that stars will literally fall from the sky.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 18.0pt;">
<span style="color: windowtext; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 125%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">‘Let the reader understand’<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: windowtext;">It is said with monotonous
frequency that the prophetic scriptures should be read with the Bible in one
hand and a daily newspaper in the other but it is worth asking how the Bible
understands its own terminology. Each of the synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark
and Luke) record the Lord’s teaching on the Mount of Olives in significantly
different ways. John, who, records more of the Lord’s discourses than the other
three, interestingly records no Olivet discourse. Instead, the events foretold
by Jesus on the Mount of Olives, appear in a greatly expanded form in the book
of Revelation.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: windowtext;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: windowtext;">It is interesting to compare
Luke’s account of the Lord’s teaching on the Mount of Olives with those of
Matthew and Mark. Where the first two Evangelists record the Hebraic symbolism in
the words of Jesus, Luke interprets the colourful imagery for his readers. Where
Matthew and Mark, for example, speak of Daniel’s ‘abomination of desolation,’
and add, ‘Whoever reads, let him understand’ (Mt 24:15; Mk 13:14), Luke 21:20 helpfully
interprets Jesus’ apocalyptic terminology for us: ‘But <i>when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies</i>, then know that its
desolation is near.’<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: windowtext;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: windowtext;">Jewish readers familiar with
the apocalyptic language of the fall of Babylon in Isaiah 13:10 – ‘For the
stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light: the
sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her
light to shine’ – would hardly be likely to interpret Jesus words in Matthew
24:29 and Mark 13:24-25 as simply a prediction of astronomical phenomena that occur
frequently so that, in effect, the Lord was saying no more than: ‘Immediately
after the tribulation of those days there will be a solar eclipse, a lunar
eclipse and a shower of meteors.’<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: windowtext;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: windowtext;">In chapter 21 of his Gospel, Luke
explains the references of Jesus to the sun, moon and stars for those who might
be confused about biblical symbolism: ‘For there will be great distress in the
land and wrath upon this people. And they will fall by the edge of the sword,
and be led away captive into all nations. And Jerusalem will be trampled by
Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled’ (Lk 21:23-24).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: windowtext;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: windowtext;">Taking Matthew, Mark and Luke
together, the sun failing to give its light, the moon turning to blood and the
stars falling from heaven dramatically and powerfully foretell the fall of
Jerusalem. The fate of Jerusalem, ironically, will be that of Israel’s
archetypical ancient foe Babylon. There was a time when pop songs used to
describe the break-up of romances in apocalyptic terms </span><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">–</span><span style="color: windowtext;"> <i>The Sun Ain’t
Gonna Shine Anymore</i>; <i>Don’t Let The
Sun Go Down On Me</i>; <i>The End of the
World</i> </span><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">–</span><span style="color: windowtext;"> and the public bought those songs not only because
they liked the tunes but also because they identified with the lyrics. If
losing your ‘baby’ is the end of the world, what must it have been for the
people of God to lose Jerusalem and the Temple and be ‘led away captive into
all nations’? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 18.0pt;">
<span style="color: windowtext; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 125%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Moonstruck<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: windowtext; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Whatever their prophetic understanding, most Christians would say we are
in the ‘Last Days’ but when Peter addressed the crowds in Jerusalem on the day
of Pentecost, he stated that the fulfilment of Joel’s prophecy of all God’s
people prophesying was proof that the ‘Last Days’ had arrived. But by the time
John wrote his first letter over thirty years later, it was the ‘last hour’ (1
Jn 2:18)! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: windowtext; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">One of the great New Testament Scholars of the twentieth century, F. F.
Bruce, wrote in his commentary on Acts, ‘The “Last Days” began with Christ’s
appearance on earth and will be consummated by his reappearance; they are the
days during which the age to come overlays the present age. Hence the assurance
with which Peter could quote the prophet’s words and declare “This is it.”’<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: windowtext; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Bruce specifically refers to Acts 2:19-21: ‘I will show wonders in the
heaven above and in the earth below. . . the sun will be turned to darkness and
the moon to blood.’ He writes, ‘The wonders and signs to be revealed in the
world of nature may have more relevance in their immediate setting than is
sometimes realised More particularly, little more than seven weeks earlier the
people of Jerusalem had indeed seen the darkening of the sun, during the early afternoon
of Good Friday, and later that same paschal afternoon the paschal full moon may
well have risen blood red in the sky in consequence of that preternatural
gloom. These phenomenal are now interpreted as harbingers of the day of the
Lord – a day of judgement, to be sure, but more immediately the day of God’s
salvation to all who invoked his name.’ (F. F. Bruce <i>The Book of Acts</i>, pp.61-62).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: windowtext; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">On the day Jesus died, the sun was almost literally turned to darkness
but Colin Humphreys points out that a solar eclipse does not last for hours and
suggests that the darkening of the sun can be attributed to a <i>khamsin </i>or<i> sirocco</i>, one of the frequent sandstorms or dust storms that occur
in the Middle East in the spring. The dust in the atmosphere may well have
turned the full moon that night blood red and Humphreys cites Cyril the Bishop
of Alexandria who lived in the late fourth and early fifth centuries who
recorded that on the day of the crucifixion, the moon ‘seemed to be turned to
blood’ (Colin J. Humphreys, <i>The Mystery
of the Last Supper </i>pp.86).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 18.0pt;">
<span style="color: windowtext; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 125%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Moonshadow<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: windowtext; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Last of all, although in one sense I’m reluctant
to be hard on ‘tetrad watchers’ because they take the Bible seriously (whether
they interpret it correctly is correct is another matter, of course) but I find
it deeply disconcerting that </span><span style="color: windowtext;">Mark Biltz
should encourage John Hagee and others to study ‘the sun, moon, and stars <i>as a source of prophetic revelation</i>.’ <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: windowtext;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: windowtext; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Biltz and Hagee quote Genesis 1:14 as a their
authority for looking to the heavens as a source of revelation: ‘Let there be
lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night; and
let them be for signs and seasons, and for days and years,’ which the ancient Targum
of Jonathan paraphrases: ‘. . .let them be for signs and the times of the
feasts, and to reckon with them the number of days, and, sanctify the
beginnings of the months, and the beginnings of the years, and the
intercalations of months and years, the revolutions of the sun, and the new
moons, and cycles.’ The ancient Jewish sages did not see the heavenly bodies as
a source of prophetic understanding so, it’s little wonder that God warned his
people in Jeremiah 10:2: ‘Do not learn the way of the Gentiles; do not be
dismayed at the signs of heaven, for the Gentiles are dismayed at them.’ <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: windowtext; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: windowtext; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">The bottom line of John Hagee’s <i>Four Blood Moons</i> is that Jesus is
coming; with that much we can agree. But is it necessary to sensationalise
fairly common events such as lunar eclipses in order to press home that truth? An
article once appeared in the magazine of the denomination in which I served as
a pastor in which the writer bemoaned a waning interest within the denomination
in the Second Advent. In the next issue a reader someone suggested that the
lack of interest in the End Times was a reaction to repeated dogmatic
statements from the pulpits that every crisis in world events indicated that
the Lord’s return was just around the corner. Human-kind cannot bear too much
unreality and instead of a state of perpetual excitement, a state of apathy had
set in.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: windowtext; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: windowtext; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">In October 1973, when the Yom Kippur War broke
out, a pastor I knew told his congregation that the Lord ‘could be here by
Christmas.’ The following year, prophecy experts predicted the imminent return
of the Lord following the publication of John Gribbin and Stephen Plageman’s
best-seller <i>The Jupiter Effect</i>. After
reading Gribbin and Plageman, another pastor terrified his congregation week
after week over a three-month period with a series of homilies – illustrated in
vivid detail on a vast wall chart – in which he described in graphic detail the
horrors that were about to be unleashed on the world through the coming alignment
of the planets of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_system" title="Solar system"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">solar system</span></a>. Around the same time, a rumour
began to spread that in Frankfurt or some other German city there was a super
computer called ‘The Beast’ that occupied the whole of a large office block. In
‘The Beast,’ it was said, were the personal details of every single person in
the world and everyone had been allocated a number and each number was a
variable of 666. Or something like that; I forget the precise details. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: windowtext; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">At the same time, Hal Lindsey, Barry Smith and
other prophecy buffs were confidently predicting that Jesus would return by
1988, the final year of the ‘generation’ that saw Israel reborn. Lindsey was so
confident of the truth of his position that in 1980 he wrote <i>The 1980s: Countdown to Armageddon</i>. By
the mid eighties, however, it was getting dangerously close to the deadline the
prophetic pundits had set for the Lord’s return and some of them, notably Barry
Smith, began pushing forward the date from 1988 to 1998. Smith even claimed
that ‘the rabbis in Jerusalem’ had announced that their Messiah was going to
‘return’ in 1998!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 18.0pt;">
<span style="color: windowtext; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 125%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Nothing new under the moon<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: windowtext; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">History is littered with failed predictions of
the Second Advent and Armageddon. And it’s not only the Jehovah’s Witnesses,
Seventh Day Adventists and the Worldwide Church of God who are culpable in this
respect; a number of Fundamentalist writers have done the same. In 2011,
so-called Bible teacher Harold Camping gained notoriety with his widely
publicised prediction that the </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rapture" title="Rapture"><span style="color: windowtext; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Rapture</span></a><span style="color: windowtext; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"> would take place on 21 May
and, after he and millions failed to fly away, he rescheduled the momentous
event for 21 October. </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atheist" title="Atheist"><span style="color: windowtext; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Atheist</span></a><span style="color: windowtext; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"> and </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skeptic" title="Skeptic"><span style="color: windowtext; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">sceptic</span></a><span style="color: windowtext; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"> groups across </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Atheists" title="American Atheists"><span style="color: windowtext; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">America</span></a><span style="color: windowtext; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"> ridiculed not only Camping
but also the Bible. ‘The issue is the Bible is mythology,’ stated Larry Hicok
of American Atheists, and </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_(magazine)" title="Time (magazine)"><span style="color: windowtext; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Time</span></a><span style="color: windowtext; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"> magazine's website listed
Camping's End Times prognostication as one its ‘Top 10 Failed Predictions.’<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: windowtext; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: windowtext; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Some years ago a certain publication justified
its repeated false predictions of the Lord’s imminent coming on the basis that
people needed to be kept on their toes. Apart from being a form of false
prophecy a steady diet of sensationalist claims that fail to deliver tends to engender
cynicism, apathy or gullibility, all of which are corrosive of true faith. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: windowtext; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: windowtext; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">On the night of 15 April this year, hundreds of
thousands of tetrad watchers will wait for the spring full moon to turn blood
red and will be disappointed. There is no guarantee that even in America, where
the lunar eclipse will be visible, that it will be red. Many disappointed moon
gazers will comfort themselves in the knowledge that three more full lunar eclipses
will take place in the following eighteen months but none of them will be visible
in Europe and it is more than likely that none will feature a blood red moon. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: windowtext; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: windowtext; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">John Hagee’s reluctance to specify the kind of
changes we should look for will be his ministry-saver. In the next three or
four years tetrad enthusiasts will follow the news intently for announcements
of ‘changes’ relating to Israel. And find them they will, for when is Israel
ever <i>out</i> of the news! It might be a
peace deal with the Palestinians; it might be a worsening of the situation
between Israel and its neighbours; it might be a breakdown in relations between
Israel and the US or a strengthening of ties with a post Obama administration;
Israel might strike at Iran or Iran might step up its nuclear enrichment
programme. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br />
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<span style="color: windowtext; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">I’m neither a prophet nor the son of a prophet but,
as the Jewish wise man Bob Dylan once said, ‘You don’t need a weatherman to
know which way the wind blows.’ So here’s my forecast for the next couple of
years. Changes will occur in the Jewish world and when they do tetrad watchers of
the world will unite to say, ‘See. We told you so!’<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Mike Moorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02475677258430349492noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8846031455080482087.post-66358668033485416532013-12-10T22:51:00.003-08:002013-12-10T22:51:51.708-08:00First we take Syria, then we take 'Palestine'<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There's no denying that some Christian Zionists come over as extreme and, not to put too fine a point on it, as nut cases. But to claim as some do that they are to blame for the troubles in the Middle East is crazy.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Watch this clip from <a href="http://www.memritv.org/clip/en/4061.htm" target="_blank">Memri </a>of a Saudi Jihadi Leader tearfully but creepily pray to his god for martyrdom
and slaughter. His only reasons for living are to take Syria, shoot Jews in the head and to behead unbelievers.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I've yet to see John Hagee or any Israeli settler preach the beheading of Arabs while waving knives.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><iframe frameborder="0" height="356" src="http://www.memritv.org/embedded_player/index.php?clip_id=4061" width="404"></iframe></span><br />
<div>
<br /></div>
Mike Moorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02475677258430349492noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8846031455080482087.post-67384186213334900562013-12-02T01:21:00.001-08:002013-12-02T03:20:25.589-08:00Palestinian Child Sacrifice<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">During the Cold War, Sting hoped 'the Russians loved their children too.' Sadly, </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">if</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Australian Darly Johns is right, </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Israel cannot entertain the same hope about their Palestinian neighbours </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Johns was so affected by media pictures of dead and wounded Palestinian children, allegedly the victims of Israeli aggression that she decided to do something about it. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">She went as a volunteer peace activist in the Palestinian Authority but when she arrived she was greeted by a far different reality. Johns discovered to her horror that Arab
children are actually the victims of child abuse from their own society.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The following video is one of the most moving and disturbing I have ever seen. In it, Johns tearfully recounts how she came to realise that
many of the children whose pictures she had been presented as evidence of
Israel's cruelty had in fact died while attacking Jewish men, women and children
at the behest of their elders.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The video includes clips of Palestinian children reciting hatred for the Jews and expressing a deep desire not for peace, but for war and
Israel's demise.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/XHkmCKMvnCY" width="420"></iframe></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Subtitles are all in French and Hebrew, but the following is a translation
of most of the statements by the Arab children and where they can be found on the six-minute film:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<em><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1:38 - [Announcer] Her uncle was a martyr and went to Paradise.
He's now in heaven! [To the young girl] Your uncle?</span></em><br />
<em><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></em>
<em><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1:45 - [Girl] He's in Paradise.</span></em><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<em><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">2:42 - [Boy] We should show how our fighters resist. Like the young
engineers Mohammed Sawimih and Abu Gnadl.</span></em><br />
<em><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></em>
<em><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">2:50 - [Interviewer] What did they do?</span></em><br />
<em><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></em>
<em><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">2:53 - [Boy] They are young engineers who set death traps. They blew up
tanks of the Jews.</span></em><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<em><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">3:03 - They threw stones on the tanks. We went to see when they buried
the martyrs. And a tank arrived and we threw stones at it, and the soldiers
fled.</span></em><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<em><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">3:22 - It's true that we are a small country, but we have young engineers
who can make grenades and bombs to blow up the tanks and cause the [Israeli]
soldiers to flee.</span></em><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<em><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">3:37 - [Boy] We don't want peace!! We don't want peace!! We want war! We
don't want peace. We want to die like all the martyrs in Jenin.</span></em><br />
<em><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></em>
<em><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">3:51 - [Interviewer] What chance is there for peace, if the children are
educated to die? The youth do not forget those who died as martyrs?</span></em><br />
<em><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></em>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><em>3:54 - [Boy] How can we forget them? We do not forget them. We do not
forget the blood of the martyrs. It is a </em><em>martyr</em><em>, he is with Allah. We do not
forget him. We fight until we [also] die as </em><em>martyrs</em><em>.</em></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<em><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">4:44 - [Boy] Allah willing we will have a future, and I will be just like
Sheikh Mahmud. That is my future.</span></em><br />
<em><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></em>
<em><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">4:52 - [Interviewer] Who is this Sheikh Mahmud who you want to be
like?</span></em><br />
<em><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></em>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><em>4:55 - [Boy] He was an engineer of planes and everything. He built bombs
and sent </em><em>martyrs </em><em>to blow up everything, buses and everything.</em></span><br />
<em><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></em>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><em>5:03 - [Interviewer] Do you see your future as a </em><em>martyr</em><em>?</em></span><br />
<em><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></em>
<em><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">5:06 - [Boy] No, that's not my future... [Interviewer] Then what is your
future?</span></em><br />
<em><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></em>
<em><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">5:09 - Our future is for Israel to disappear. That is our future. That
Israel will disappear, Allah willing.</span></em><br />
<em><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></em>
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In the interview Johns expresses her opinion that the willingness of Palestinian parents to encourage their people to die is like the ancient pagan practice of sacrificing virgins. She concludes the interview with the observation that the
Palestinians 'never had any other intention except to eliminate Israel.'</span>Mike Moorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02475677258430349492noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8846031455080482087.post-85881350579010065792013-11-08T08:06:00.000-08:002013-11-08T08:06:34.463-08:00Clash of the Titans<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1Kg-Yn5PEIhe-au5Z4ouwKQuk0XxHeyAATJ-YoQU-0_3fR-9om8My5qxHaHlwoDxaGAFxxjAu56MA5P1m722o3QFu8JI7JEclfFxcxHsDMfPBWY77ZRlt4TPIQHAtGkb5m4fH22asgwzU/s1600/sizer+brown.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="224" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1Kg-Yn5PEIhe-au5Z4ouwKQuk0XxHeyAATJ-YoQU-0_3fR-9om8My5qxHaHlwoDxaGAFxxjAu56MA5P1m722o3QFu8JI7JEclfFxcxHsDMfPBWY77ZRlt4TPIQHAtGkb5m4fH22asgwzU/s400/sizer+brown.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">On Saturday 9 November (tomorrow), at 9:00am EST
(3.00pm GMT) Michael Brown will be debating Stephen Sizer on the subject of ‘How
Christian Is Christian Zionism?’ <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Stephen Sizer is the leading UK evangelical
opponent of Christian Zionism and Israel, and Michael Brown has wanted to
engage him in debate for some time.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">For listening information, click <a href="http://www.moodyradio.org/brd_programupcoming.aspx?id=86370" target="_blank">here</a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Mike Moorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02475677258430349492noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8846031455080482087.post-91387218650707459402013-11-05T01:52:00.000-08:002013-11-05T01:52:10.904-08:00Remembering Raymond Loewy<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<img height="220" src="http://www.giga.de/wp-content/gallery/google-doodle-fur-raymond-loewy/loewy-3.jpg" width="400" /></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f9f9f9; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; line-height: 125%;">Today, in a Google Doodle, Google
commemorates the 120th birthday of Raymond Loewy, the Jewish designer </span><span style="background: #F9F9F9; line-height: 125%; mso-bidi-font-size: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; line-height: 125%;">who
achieved fame for the magnitude of his design efforts across a variety of
industries. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background: #F9F9F9; line-height: 125%; mso-bidi-font-size: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; line-height: 125%;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="background: #F9F9F9; line-height: 125%; mso-bidi-font-size: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; line-height: 125%;">He was featured on the cover of Time </span><span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; line-height: 125%;"><span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; line-height: 125%;">magazine
on 31 October 1949 and, amongst other things, designed the iconic Coca-Cola
bottle, the streamlined Greyhound bus, the John F. Kennedy postage stamp, steam
trains for the Pennsylvania Railroad, the interiors of NASA's Saturn I, Saturn
V, and Skylab, Schick electric razors, several models of Studebaker cars, and
the logos of Exxon oil, Greyhound, Nabisco, Shell and the United States Postal
Service</span>.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background: #F9F9F9; line-height: 125%; mso-bidi-font-size: 7.5pt;"><span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; line-height: 125%;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f9f9f9; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; line-height: 125%;">I confess that I
knew nothing about Loewy until today but the scale and scope of his design work
is staggering. A true genius.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: #f9f9f9; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; line-height: 125%;">Visit his website
<a href="http://www.raymondloewy.com/" target="_blank">here</a>.</span></div>
Mike Moorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02475677258430349492noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8846031455080482087.post-62661464169456125452013-10-30T06:40:00.005-07:002013-10-30T10:43:15.606-07:00Stephen and me<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 125%; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: center;">
<span class="apple-style-span"><img height="267" src="http://frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/picture2life_71453_original.gif" width="400" /></span></div>
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<span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%;"><b><br /></b></span></span></div>
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<b style="color: windowtext; font-size: 15px; line-height: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">I</span></b><b style="color: windowtext; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 125%;">n 2009 </b><b style="color: windowtext; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 20px;">Rev Stephen Sizer</b><b style="color: windowtext; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 125%;"> likened me to a Holocaust denier. This is what he
wrote.</b></div>
<span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br /></span></span>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 125%;"><span style="font-size: large;">Holocaust Denial?</span></span></span></div>
<span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 125%;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></span>
<br />
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<span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%;">I was saddened but not surprised to read Mike
Moore cynical ‘review’ of Professor Ilan Pappe’s ‘The Ethnic Cleansing of
Palestine’ in last month’s <a href="http://www.e-n.org.uk/p-4679-The-ethnic-cleansing-of-Palestine.htm" target="_blank">Evangelicals Now</a>. </span></span></div>
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<span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%;">Don’t get me wrong. EN is a fine newspaper. I
subscribe, as does our church. I read it avidly. I even contribute occasionally
when asked. I just find it a little strange to read such a one sided and wholly
negative ‘review’ of a book by a Jewish author about the Palestinian Nakba
reviewed by a pro-Zionist Christian in an evangelical paper. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%;">Thankfully it is a crime in some countries to
deny the Holocaust. It is a shame that it is not yet a crime to deny the
Palestinian Nakba, as Moore does.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%;">The simple fact is that one in four refugees
in the world today, according to the <a href="http://www.un.org/unrwa/"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">United
Nations</span></a>, is a Palestinian. Where did they come from? Over 500 towns
and villages erased from the map of Palestine in 1948-1949.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%;">Far from ‘leaving no trace’ as Moore
suggests, there are over 5 million Palestinian refugees registered with the UN
today who still have the keys and title deeds to their homes in what is now
Israel. (see <a href="http://prrn.mcgill.ca/" target="_blank">here </a>and <a href="http://www.badil.org/Refugees/refugees.htm" target="_blank">here </a>for more information)<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%;">I took the liberty of asking Professor Pappe
to respond to the specific criticisms which Moore makes. He replied:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%;">1. The interview in Germany. I gave a press
conference that was published also in that newspaper. On the day the interview
appeared there I published a special note to all the German press that I
deplore and rebuke the positions of this newspaper and have nothing in common
with its agenda and views.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 125%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">
<span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%;">2. I did not say that I am using oral
histories instead of military archives, half of the book is based on the
latter!, I am using them in conjunction. I do have my doubts on the reports of
the IDF, as one would and should have about them today.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 125%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">
<span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%;">3. The basis for the allegation of expulsion
in the first five chapters of the book are based on the Israeli military
archives not on a post modernist notions. I never declared myself to be a post
modernist and I am not a post modernist scholar.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 125%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">
<span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%;">4. Katz’s thesis is reliable but in any case
it is not the basis for the Tantura affair, which is only two pages in the
book, but my own research into the archives and oral history.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 125%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">
<span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%;">5. Finally, none of the professional Israeli
historians refute that the half of Palestine’s population was expelled, they do
not share the shame that I feel about it.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%;">Evangelicals Now is highly regarded for its
factual reporting and balanced book reviews. Mike Moore’s review was neither.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%;">You can read the review and decide for
yourself <a href="http://www.e-n.org.uk/p-4679-The-ethnic-cleansing-of-Palestine.htm" target="_blank">here </a></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 125%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">
<span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%;">Stephen Lendman has written a much more
balanced review for Global Research <a href="http://sjlendman.blogspot.co.uk/2007/02/review-of-ethnic-cleansing-of.html" target="_blank">here </a></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 125%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">
<span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%;">Watch Ilan Pappe on the Ethnic Cleansing of
Palestine <a href="https://www.oneworld-publications.com/pappe/talk.html" target="_blank">here</a>. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 125%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">
<span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%;">Ilan Pappe’s <a href="http://ilanpappe.com/"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">website</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 125%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">
<span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%;">And <a href="http://www.plands.org/map.htm" target="_blank">here </a>is one of the best sites for maps showing the ethnic cleansing of Palestine.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%;"><b>Because Stephen Sizer’s blog does not permit comments, I emailed the following:</b><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 125%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Dear Stephen,</span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%;">I was shocked to read your critique of my EN ‘review’
of Ilan Pappe’s <i>The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine</i> for a number of
reasons.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 125%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">
<span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%;">After our conversation at Starbuck’s in
Guildford High Street earlier in the year, I left feeling that your views on
the Israel/Palestine issue had mellowed a little. I realise now it must just
have been the excellent Starbucks coffee. That rich, dark roast always leaves
me feeling that all is well with the world.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 125%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">
<span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%;">Knowing your strong convictions about Matthew
18:15ff, I wonder why you didn’t contact me before going public and suggesting
to the entire world that Mike Moore is a virtual Holocaust denier. But don’t
worry, <a href="http://www.camera.org/index.asp?x_context=2&x_outlet=69&x_article=1793" target="_blank">I’m not going to set the police on you</a>. </span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%;"><span class="apple-style-span">Thanks to your blog, I’m now nearly famous. A number of
people have brought the blog to my attention.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%;">Do you seriously believe that because I
reject Ilan Pappe’s revised history of the tragedy that befell the Palestinian
people as a result of the establishment of the state of Israel, I ought to be
prosecuted and sent to prison? I do not deny that for the Palestinian people
who lost their properties and livelihoods, the establishment of the state of
Israel was indeed a </span></span><em><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%;">nakba</span></em><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%;">. I do deny, however, that </span></span><em><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%;">the
Nakba</span></em><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%;"> was the direct result of a
deliberate policy on the part of the Ben Gurion government to ethnically
cleanse the land. To equate the </span></span><em><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%;">Nakba</span></em><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%;"> with the Holocaust is a gross insult to the
memory of the six million European Jews who were systematically exterminated
through starvation, hard labour and gassing.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 125%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">
<span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%;">There is plenty of documentary evidence from
the time that Israel was established to prove that the </span></span><em><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%;">Nakba</span></em><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%;"> was caused by the Arab leaders and not by
the Zionists. Here are just a few quotes:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 125%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%;">‘The
fact that there are these refugees is the direct consequence of the act of the
Arab states in opposing partition and the Jewish state. The Arab states agreed
upon this policy unanimously and they must share in the solution of the
problem.’ (Emile Ghoury, secretary of the Palestinian Arab Higher Committee in the
London Telegraph, August 1948)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 125%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%;">‘The
most potent factor [in the flight of Palestinians] was the announcements made
over the air by the Arab-Palestinian Higher Executive, urging all Haifa Arabs
to quit... It was clearly intimated that Arabs who remained in Haifa and
accepted Jewish protection would be regarded as renegades.’ (London Economist,
2 October 1948)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 125%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%;">‘It
must not be forgotten that the Arab Higher Committee encouraged the refugees’
flight from their homes in Jaffa, Haifa, and Jerusalem.’ (Near East Arabic
Broadcasting Station, 3 April 1949)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 125%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%;">‘The
mass evacuation, prompted partly by fear, partly by order of Arab leaders, left
the Arab quarter of Haifa a ghost city... By withdrawing Arab workers their
leaders hoped to paralyze Haifa.’ (Time, 3 May, 1948)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 125%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%;">‘The
Arab civilians panicked and fled ignominiously. Villages were frequently
abandoned before they were threatened by the progress of war.’ (General John
Bagott Glubb (Glubb Pasha), Daily Mail, 12 August 1948)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 125%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%;">‘The
Arabs of Haifa fled in spite of the fact that the Jewish authorities guaranteed
their safety and rights as citizens of Israel.’ (Monsignor George Hakim, Greek
Catholic Bishop of Galilee, New York Herald Tribune, 30 June 1949)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 125%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%;">Many
more of these types of quotes can be found at </span><span style="color: #548dd4; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%; mso-themecolor: text2; mso-themetint: 153;"><a href="http://www.standwithus.com/pdfs/flyers/biglies06.pdf"><span style="color: #548dd4; mso-themecolor: text2; mso-themetint: 153;">www.standwithus.com/pdfs/flyers/biglies06.pdf</span></a>.</span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 125%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">
<span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%;">You did not have to give EN the benefit of
the doubt as to whether the review was commissioned or sent unsolicited (as you
think likely). An e-mail to John Benton or me would have satisfied your
curiosity. It seems that you and I are both bad at guessing the psychodynamics
of the other.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%;">Ilan Pappe, according to your blog, denies
that he gave an interview with <i>National-Zeitung</i> but, rather, that he
simply ‘gave a press conference that was published also in that newspaper’.
Either Ilan Pappe is telling porkies or else <i>National-Zeitung</i> is,
because </span></span><em><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%;">National-Zeitung</span></em><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%;"> states in an introductory paragraph (pardon
my poor German):<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 125%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%;">Original:
Im Gespräch mit Erhard Düvel von der National-Zeitung meinte der Autor, dass
der 14. Mai 1948 für die Völkergemeinschaft kein Grund zum Feiern sei.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 125%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%;">My
poor translation: In conversation with Erhard Düvel of the National-Zeitung,
the author meant that 14th May 1948 should be no reason for the celebrations
for the people partnership.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 125%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">
<span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%;">Pappe claims that he did not say he was using
‘oral histories’ instead of military archives but he then tells you that, in
the case of the alleged Tantura massacre, he researched ‘the archives <i>and
oral</i> <i>history</i>’. Furthermore, he says on page xv of the book that he
distrusts written Israeli military reports and prefers, instead, <i>Arab
sources and oral history</i>. He has his doubts about the written reports of
the IDF, ‘as one </span></span><em><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%;">would</span></em><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%;"> and </span></span><em><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%;">should</span></em><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%;"> have about them today’ (my emphasis). Why <i>should</i>
one doubt reports written at the time but have no doubts about oral accounts
sixty years after the purported events? I am of the conviction that, as a
general principle, the faintest ink is more reliable than the best memory.</span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 125%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">
<span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%;">Pappe states, furthermore, that his
allegations of expulsion in the first five chapters of the book are ‘based on
the Israeli military archives not on post modernist notions’. Then he should
have made that plain in the book.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 125%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">
<span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%;">Although Pappe may not have declared himself
to be a postmodernist and denies that he is ‘a postmodernist scholar’, he
certainly speaks as a postmodernist. In February 2007, you recommended that I </span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%;">read
<i>The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine</i>, adding that it was ‘emotive but also
accurate language’. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 125%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%;">I responded by pointing out that your choice of Pappe was
most unfortunate, as he was probably the very worst of the ‘new historians’.
Most anti-Israel writers, I said, at least claimed to base their findings on
documentary evidence but in the introduction to his <i>A History of Modern
Palestine</i>, Pappe admitted to personal bias and political partisanship:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 125%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%;">My bias is apparent despite the desire of my peers that I
stick to facts and the ‘truth’ when reconstructing past realities. <i>I view
any such construction as vain and presumptuous</i>. This book is written by one
who admits compassion for the colonized not the colonizer; who sympathizes with
the occupied not the occupiers. [My emphasis].<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 125%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">
<span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%;">Furthermore, in</span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%;"> the
Spring 2001 issue of the <i>Journal of Palestine Studies</i>, Pappe published
an article defending Teddy Katz’s Tantura thesis, insisting that Katz’s
conclusions were correct, even if his facts were not, <i>since historical
research need not be based on facts</i>!<span class="apple-style-span"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 125%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%;">If
that is not a postmodernist speaking, I have never heard one. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 125%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">
<span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%;">Pappe told you that Katz’s thesis ‘is not the
basis for the Tantura affair, which is only two pages in the book, but my own
research into the archives and oral history.’ <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 125%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">
<span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%;">Really? First of all ‘The Massacre at Tantura’
takes up <i>five</i> pages of chapter 6, not </span></span><em><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%;">two</span></em><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%;">. Secondly, Pappe says the chapter is based
on his ‘own research into the archives and oral history’. Which archives? Those
Israeli archives he avowedly distrusts? However, as I pointed out in the EN
review, the section features about a dozen quotes and citations, only three of
which are sourced, one of them to a previous book by Pappe himself.</span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 125%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">
<span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%;">Professional Israeli historians may not ‘refute’
(sic) that the half of Palestine’s population was expelled’ but few of them
share his ideas about the reason they were ‘expelled’.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 125%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">
<span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%;">I’m grateful to you for allowing readers of
your blog to read my review and to judge for themselves whether it is ‘balanced’;
I’d be most surprised, however, if any disagreed with you. But what do you mean
by ‘balanced’? And what do you mean when you say <i>Evangelicals Now</i> is ‘highly
regarded for its factual and <i>balanced</i> book reviews’? If by ‘balance’ you
mean my review should have contained some praise for Pappe, then you fall short
yourself because I’ve seen some very unbalanced reviews by your good self. In
an EN review, you dismissed one of Julia Fisher’s books on Israel as ‘inflammatory’
because you interpreted her concern for the Palestinians as a statement that
they should get off their backsides and do something to make a better life for
themselves (or words to that effect). You have written off Paul Wilkinson’s <i>For
Zion’s Sake</i> even though his research was based on primary documents, as
well as summarising Barry Horner’s 400+-page <i>Future Israel</i> as a ‘nasty <i>little</i>
book’ (my emphasis)? <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 125%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">
<span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%;">Contrary to what you claim, <a href="http://sjlendman.blogspot.co.uk/2007/02/review-of-ethnic-cleansing-of.html" target="_blank">Stephen Lendman’sreview</a> of <i>The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine</i> is not ‘a much more balanced
review’ than mine. His review is as totally positive as mine is almost totally
negative. I say ‘almost totally negative’ because I at least acknowledge the
possibility of barbarism on the part of the Israelis. Lendman, however, has
nothing but praise for Pappe and nothing positive to say about Israel in his
review.</span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 125%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">
<span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%;">Neither Lendman nor the website which hosts
his review is ‘balanced’. The Global Research website speculates whether 9/11
was an inside job’ (which, incidentally runs counter to the theory to that the
Israelis were responsible for the collapse of the twin towers, a theory that
you brought to the attention of readers of CZ. Lendman has numerous articles on
Ziopedia, a website whose raison d’être includes the following unbalanced
statement:</span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 125%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%;">'We consider Israel to be the most racist and evil country
on this planet, an illegal political entity, controlled and protected by a
Mafia-like criminal network with a 19th century style colonialist and
social-Darwinist agenda. We fight for Israel’s replacement with a free, united,
egalitarian and secular Palestine.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<h3 style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">'The "Holocult"<o:p></o:p></span></h3>
<div style="line-height: 125%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%;">'We refuse to believe in<span class="apple-converted-space">
</span><em>self-evident truths </em>and<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><em>known
facts, </em>promoted by psychopathic liars like the Zionist masters of
deception and enforced by criminal codes. We refuse to believe in dogmas that
have become such a taboo<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>that
mentioning even the slightest doubt in some of their most non-sensical [sic]
beliefs, leave alone in their three core dogmas - a plan to kill most, if not
all European Jews, 6 Million Jewish victims, and the use of chemical slaughter
houses - is treated like medieval heresy, punished by job loss, financial ruin,
social shun, and - in thousands of cases - even prison.'<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 125%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%;">In conclusion, Stephen, I’m very disappointed and
dismayed that you chose to critique my review in this manner. I do not
understand your almost pathological aversion to Israel nor your willingness to
embrace anyone, however extreme and however anti-Christian, who shares your
negative opinion of the only democracy in the Middle East.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 125%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%;">After we met in Guilford earlier in the year, I shared
with some interested friends that I thought you had become more reasonable.
After reading your blog, I find myself regretting my naivety.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 125%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%;">With best wishes as ever,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 125%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%;">Yours for the salvation of Israel,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 125%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%;"><b>In
response, Stephen wrote the following brief reply.</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 125%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%;">Dear
Mike,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 125%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%;">I
did not accuse you of being a holocaust denier. Come on now. . . I have not
knowingly changed my views since we last spoke. I do believe the Nakba and
ethnic cleansing of over 500 villages listed in my pre-1948 Time Atlas and UN
documents leading to over 5 million displaced Palestinian refugees registered
with the UN today is historical fact. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 125%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%;">By
the way – I am working closely with the police and Leeds university authorities
identifying those associated with <a href="http://www.camera.org/index.asp?x_context=2&x_outlet=69&x_article=1793" target="_blank">Seismic Shock</a> and his/her campaign of
harassment that is now putting lives at risk. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 125%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%;">If
Zionists are going to insist on the right of return for Jewish people worldwide
then I equally identify with those who insist on the right of Palestinians to
return to their homes or receive compensation.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 125%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%;">I
simply believe the Zionist cause is not served by rubbishing the integrity or
credibility of academic research through this kind of book review.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 125%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%;">I
hope you have a good Summer.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 125%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%;">Shalom,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 125%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><b>This was my reply.</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 125%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Thanks Stephen.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 125%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I didn’t say you had accused me of
being a Holocaust denier. I wrote that your had ‘suggested’ I was a ‘virtual
Holocaust denier’.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 125%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">After all, your blog is headed ‘Holocaust
Denial?’ and you state, ‘Thankfully it is a crime in some countries to deny the
Holocaust. It is a shame that it is not yet a crime to deny the Palestinian
Nakba, as Moore does.’<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 125%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">If the English language means
anything, your title suggests that my review is tantamount to Holocaust denial
and the sentence I quoted implies:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 125%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">a) You approve of criminalising
Holocaust denial<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 125%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">b) The Palestinian Nakba was an
event similar to the Holocaust<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 125%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">c) so similar, in fact, that denying
it should be a criminal offence<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 125%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">d) Mike Moore denies the Nakba<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 125%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">e) Therefore it is a shame Mike
Moore cannot be prosecuted for his review and EN for publishing it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 125%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">As I said, I didn’t deny the Nakba.
What I deny is that the Ben Gurion government was responsible for it. The blame
for the Cataclysm lies squarely with the leaders of the Arab nations.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 125%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I hope your summer is good too.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 125%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Best wishes as ever,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 125%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 125%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Yours for the salvation of Israel,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Mike Moorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02475677258430349492noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8846031455080482087.post-11879317660234049692013-09-19T01:48:00.000-07:002013-09-19T01:48:32.216-07:00Tabernacles and the nations<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<img height="213" src="http://calabasasshul.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/lulav-and-etrog.jpg" width="320" /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">Sukkot, or Tabernacles, is the third and final of the great pilgrim festivals of Israel
when all the males of Israel had to appear before the Lord at the temple In
Jerusalem. The ancient rabbis saw a significance in the festival not
only for Israel but also the nations, and the
prophet Zechariah foresaw a day when the Gentile would go up to
Jerusalem to celebrate the festival with the Jews. Thousands of Gentiles from
around the world travel to Israel every year to keep the festival. Although I'm not criticizing Christians who make the annual pilgrimage to Israel for the festival each year, are they really fulfilling the prophecy of Zechariah 14, or is there an even greater significance to the festival? What is the
significance of Tabernacles for Christians today?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 18.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 18.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">1.<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Tabernacles is a Happy
Festival<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">In the Jewish
calendar, the Festival of Tabernacles always falls on the 15th day of the
seventh month, Tishri. In the West, we follow a different calendar, and this
year Tabernacles fell on October 13th.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">The ancient Israelites
were commanded to live in tabernacles for seven days, so that future
generations might remember that God made Israel live in tents after redeeming
them from Egypt. </span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Tabernacles is a joyful celebration at which religious Jews remember God’s
care and provision for Israel when they travelled from Egypt to the Promised
Land, living in tabernacles.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">There are several names for the festival. Its Hebrew name is ‘Sukkot’
but it is also ‘the</span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";"> Festival
of Ingathering’, because the festival celebrates the gathering of the final
harvest of the year.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">It is also the ‘</span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">Season
of our Rejoicing’ because it is the only festival at which the Jewish people are
commanded to rejoice for seven days. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">Tabernacles is such a great festival that some Jews refer to it simply
as ‘</span><i><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">the</span></i><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";"> Festival’. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 18.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 18.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">2.<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Tabernacles is a Harvest
Festival<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">In Deuteronomy
16:16, all the men of Israel were commanded to go to the temple in Jerusalem
three times every year: at Passover; at Pentecost and at the Feast of
Tabernacles. All three festivals occurred
at harvest times. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">Harvest in the
Bible is full of symbolism about God’s purposes for Israel and the nations.
Jeremiah 2:3 tells us that when God chose Israel, she was ‘holy to the L</span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">ORD</span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">, the <i>firstfruits
</i>of his harvest’. Where there
are firstfruits, harvest will follow. When God described Israel as ‘the
firstfruits of his harvest’, he intended that the people should know he would one day have a full harvest from among
the nations. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">Throughout the Bible,
the concept of Israel as the ‘firstfruits’ of God’s harvest occurs in different
ways. For example, in Genesis 12:1-3 God called Abraham to be ‘a blessing’ and
promised that through him ‘all families of the earth will be blessed’. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">The writer of Psalm
67 seems to have Genesis 12:3 in mind when he prays for God to be 'gracious' to Israel and 'bless' Israel and make his face shine on Israel so that the nations will
know God’s salvation. As it goes with Israel, so it goes with the nations. According to Genesis 12 and Psalm 67, the nations cannot be blessed with salvation apart from Israel being blessed first.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">The psalmist's prayer for Israel
also recalls the Aaronic blessing of Numbers 6:24-26: ‘The Lord <i>bless </i>you and
keep you; the Lord <i>make his face shine on you</i>, and be <i>gracious</i> to you…’ <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">Although the high
priests had pronounced the Aaronic blessing on Israel for hundreds of years, the writer
of Psalm 67 knows the nation was not experiencing them in their fullest sense.
Only when the Messiah came could Israel know the blessings of God’s mercy, his
grace and the shining of his face in their fullest sense. The songs of praise celebrating the coming
of Messiah, sung by Mary, Zachariah and Simeon in the first two chapters of
Luke’s Gospel, are full of the themes of blessing, light, grace, mercy and
peace. The Aaronic blessing could be experienced </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">by Israel </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">in their fulness only when Messiah came. But after Messiah had come in grace to bless the
Jewish people with peace and shine the light of God on them, he sent out his apostles
to proclaim salvation to the nations.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 18.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 18.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">3.<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Tabernacles is a Prophetic
Festival<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">When God was
about to redeem Israel from Egypt, he declared that Israel was his ‘firstborn’
son. Just as the ‘firstfruits’ carry the promise of a full harvest, so the
‘firstborn’ in a family anticipates even more children. So if Passover looks
back to when God redeemed Israel his ‘firstborn’ from Egypt, the Festival of Tabernacles
looks forward to a time when he will have a family from all the nations.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">According to the
instructions given in Numbers 29, seventy bulls were offered over the seven
days of the festival, starting with 13 on the first day and finishing with seven
on the last day. The later rabbis taught that there were seventy nations
in the world and that at Sukkot the 70 bulls were offered on their behalf.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">Zechariah
14:16-19 foresees a time when the nations will keep the Festival of Tabernacles,
and over the last thirty years, Christians from all over the world have begun
to go to Jerusalem each year to keep the Festival in the belief that they are
fulfilling Zechariah’s prophecy. Although I am not trying to prevent Christians going to Jerusalem at this time of the year but I think the fulfilment of Zechariah’s prophecy is far greater than those Christians imagine. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">In Revelation 7,
John sees a vision of 144,000 people from all the tribes of Israel. Chapter 14 presents
a similar vision but with additional details to help us understand chapter 7
better. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">Chapter 14:1-7 tells us that the 144,000 were ‘redeemed from among
mankind as <i>firstfruits </i>for God and the Lamb’ and in chapter 7, the vision of
the 144,000 ‘firstfruits’ is followed by a vision of a vast crowd of people
from all nations, so great that no one can count them. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">Here we see both
Israel, God’s ‘firstfruits’, and the full harvest from all nations. After the
vision of the 144,000 ‘firstfruits’ in chapter 14, John sees the Son of Man, Jesus,
reaping a great harvest from the nations with the sharp sickle in his hand.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">The letter of </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">Ya'akov </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">(</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">James</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">) is probably the earliest New Testament letter, written when almost all
believers were Jews. In verse 1 of the letter, </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">Ya'akov a</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">ddresses his readers as ‘the
twelve tribes in the Diaspora’ and in 1:18 he calls them ‘</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">a kind of </span><i style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">firstfruits</i><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">of God’s
creatures’. I suggest that the letter of </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">Ya'akov i</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">s addressed to the
144,000 (or at least some of them), as the ‘firstfruits’ of the harvest of God
and the Lamb.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">If we look a
little more closely at Revelation 7:15-17, we see that the believers from <i>the nations</i> are keeping the Festival of Tabernacles!
On the last day of the Festival of Tabernacles, on Mount Zion in Jerusalem thousands
of Jewish men dressed in white robes with palm branches sing the ‘Great Hosanna’.
But in John’s vision, the people in white robes with palm branches singing the ‘Great
Hosanna’ are all from the nations, not Israel! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">Here is the true
fulfilment of Zechariah’s prophecy. The nations are keeping the
Festival of Tabernacles in the heavenly Jerusalem!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 18.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 18.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Georgia;">4.<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Tabernacles is a Messianic
Festival<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Without water, there can be no harvest. At the time of Jesus, a joyful
thanksgiving service was held in the temple on the last day of Tabernacles. Priests
drew water from the Pool of Siloam and poured it out at the altar of sacrifice
where the 70 bulls for the nations had been offered. The water ran out the temple gate, into
the Kidron valley and through the Judean desert toward the Dead Sea. </span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">It
was said in the second temple period: ‘He that has not seen<i> </i>the joy of drawing
(and the pouring) of the water, has not seen joy in this life.’<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">In John 7, when
Jesus attends the Festival of Tabernacles, we are told: ‘On the last day of the
festival, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let
him come to me and drink… Whoever believes in me, <i>as the Scripture has said</i>,
‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water’.”’ <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">John explains that the ‘living water’ which will flow out of his people is the
Holy Spirit. But w</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">here in the Old
Testament is there a ‘Scripture’ that says ‘rivers of living water’ will flow
from the heart of those who believe in the Messiah? No Scripture that says that,
so what does Jesus mean?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">It will help us
if we remember that in Ephesians 2, 1 Corinthians 6 and 1 Peter 2, Messiah’s
people are called his new, spiritual temple. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">In Ezekiel 40-48, the prophet sees a vision of a glorious future Jerusalem complete with temple. In chapter 47, he sees a river of life-giving water flowing from the
gate of that temple. As the river flows through the desert, it refreshes the
land and causes trees to grow in abundance. Could Ezekiel’s vision be a picture
of Messiah’s spiritual temple?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">John’s vision of
the New Jerusalem in Revelation 21 & 22 is a parallel passage. John sees a New
Jerusalem, from which life-giving water flows and he tells us that the New
Jerusalem is the bride of the Lamb. In Ezekiel’s vision, trees grow in the
desert but on either side of John’s river, the Tree of Life from the Garden of
Eden grows. In the book of Revelation, the entire earth has returned to the perfection of
Eden. But Eden in Revelation is even better than the original. It is filling
the earth and instead of just <i>one</i> Tree
of Life, there is a whole harvest of them and their leaves bring healing to the nations!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">Is this not what
Jesus had in mind when he spoke of living water flowing out of the hearts of
his people, his living temple? Since he ascended to heaven and poured out his
Spirit, life-giving water has been bringing new life to the nations. In
Ezekiel’s vision, the river of life starts as a trickle from Jerusalem but
becomes a great river bring life to the desert. The river of life began flowing
as a trickle from the apostles in the temple on the Day of Pentecost. Since
then the life-giving water of the Spirit has become a great river that is
bringing life to all nations. Christians are called to bring life to the world
and that river continues to flow from us. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 18.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 18.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
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</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Tabernacles is the Final
Festival<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">The three great pilgrim festivals of Passover, Pentecost
and Tabernacles, set before us a single picture of God’s Messianic Harvest programme for the world.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">According to </span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">Leviticus
23:10,11, on the day after the Sabbath at Passover, the people were to bring the
sheaf of the firstfruits of their harvest to the priest. The priest waved
it before the L</span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">ORD</span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";"> and the one who offered the sheaf was
accepted before God. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">At the Passover
on which Jesus was crucified, on the very day that the first sheaf of the
harvest was waved before God, Jesus rose from the grave. In 1 Corinthians 15:20,
Paul describes Jesus as ‘the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep’. The
first sheaf of the barley harvest was a picture of the resurrection of Jesus.
Just as the sheaf of the firstfruits was offered as the guarantee of a full
harvest, the resurrection of Jesus is the guarantee of our resurrection.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">After the Passover Sabbath</span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">,
the people had to count fifty days to
the day of Pentecost. On that day they presented two loaves of bread at the temple as firstfruits of the wheat harvest. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">The Holy Spirit
was poured out on the day of Pentecost, the very day on which the two ‘firstfruit’
loaves were lifted before God in the temple. On the day of Pentecost, like all
religious Jews, the 120 disciples would have been present in the temple when the Holy
Spirit fell on them. In the very temple where the two loaves were offered to
God, the 3,000 Jewish souls who believed Peter’s message were presented to God
and the Lamb as the ‘firstfruits’ of a coming world-wide harvest of souls. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">Five months
later came the final harvest of the Jewish year, the Festival of Tabernacles.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">The firstfruits at Passover related to</span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";"> Israel, as did the two loaves presented at Pentecost (Jews
and Gentile proselytes to Judaism were converted on the Day of Pentecost) but
the final harvest at Tabernacles
anticipated a gathering of not just Israel but all nations into the kingdom of God. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">But the harvest
of the nations will also affect Israel because Paul recognises in Romans 9-11 that
something has gone wrong as far as Israel’s salvation is concerned. From the
Tanakh (the Old Testament), we might imagine that after ‘all Israel’ was saved, the nations
would be saved. But that has not been the case. Nevertheless, God still loves
Israel and will be true to his purpose to save the nation he calls his
‘firstfruits’ and his ‘firstborn’. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">Paul tells us in
Romans 11 that God is using the Gentiles to make Israel jealous and that the ‘the
fullness of the Gentiles’ will be the way God will save ‘all Israel.’<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";"><br /></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">The gospel is to
the Jew <i>first</i>, not the Jew <i>only</i>. By evangelising the Jewish people
we help to bring about the salvation of the nations. Christian Witness to
Israel is working to bring that great day. Pray for us and
help us to ‘provoke the Jewish people to jealousy’ and thus bring about the salvation of Israel
and the nations.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Mike Moorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02475677258430349492noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8846031455080482087.post-82653077333846624662013-09-01T14:52:00.002-07:002013-09-01T14:52:41.649-07:00The Story of the Jews<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<img alt="The historian Simon Schama whose new book tells the story of the Jews" height="248" src="http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02657/schamaintroweb_2657068b.jpg" width="400" /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This evening, after preaching about why Christians should
love the Jewish people, I arrived home just in time to catch the first episode of
Simon Schama’s new BBC 2 series <i>The Story of the Jews</i>, based on his <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95oQipGjgjk" target="_blank">book of the same name</a>. It was everything I expected from a collaboration between the
finest television company in the world and a sophisticated, urbane, Reform Jewish
historian.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Setting aside minor errors such as the ‘Israelites’ becoming
‘Jews’ at the Exodus from Egypt, the programme was sumptuously filmed and
packed full of fascinating information. Much of the details about the Jewish community
at Elephantine in Upper Egypt, for example, were new to me. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The two major focuses in the programme were Freud and Moses.
Starting with Sigmund Freud and surveying the tragic history of the Jews, Simon
Schama ended with Freud as he considered how and why the Jewish people have
survived while their oppressors have turned to dust. Schama suggested that the
answer lies in the fact that Judaism has the written Torah, the purported words
of God mediated through Moses.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It was interesting to see Schama as a religious Jew – albeit
not Orthodox – worshipping in synagogue and celebrating Passover with family
and friends. But while it is true that the written Torah has played a part in Jewish
survival, that is only part of the answer to his question. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I vividly recall the first radio broadcast by Jonathan Sacks,
who retired today as Chief Rabbi of the British Commonwealth. On Radio 4’s
Thought for the Day spot on the Today programme, Rabbi Sacks asked the same question
as Simon Schama asked tonight: What accounts for the survival of the Jews? Jonathan
Sacks’ answer was that the Jews have survived because ‘the final chapter has
not yet been written.’ He was wrong: the Jewish people have survived and will
survive because the last chapter has been written. It was written in eternity,
before the universe came into being.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Although Simon Schama’s explanation is closer to the truth, he
expressed doubts about the total reliability of the Bible, as did a Jewish archaeologist
he interviewed. The archaeologist (whose name escapes me) felt that the
historical reliability of Scripture – for example, whether David and Goliath
were real personages or whether David defeated the Philistine in battle – were
of little concern, it was the metaphorical lessons that were important. But a
book of unreliable metaphors, however inspiring, cannot guarantee the survival
of a nation and a people.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
In the end, the Jewish people survive because ‘H<span style="color: windowtext; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">e who
keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep’</span><b><span style="color: maroon; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"> (</span></b><span style="color: windowtext; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">Psalm 121:4).</span><span style="color: windowtext; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span><span style="color: windowtext;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
Mike Moorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02475677258430349492noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8846031455080482087.post-26481729022804542072013-05-14T23:41:00.001-07:002013-05-14T23:41:09.784-07:00Pentecost and the Plan of God<br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt; text-align: center;">
<img height="300" src="http://diggingalot.org/diggingalot/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/flames.jpg" width="400" /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt;">
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 200%;">At the beginning of this month, I delivered the annual Alfred Edersheim lecture in Melbourne and Sydney. The title of the talk was 'Pentecost and the Plan of God'. </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 200%;"> </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 30px;">According to Jewish reckoning, Pentecost this year falls today, Wednesday 15 May. A</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 200%;">ccording to the Bible, Pentecost or </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 30px;">Shavuot, </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 200%;">falls exactly fifty days after the Sabbath
following Passover, so it is the only festival of the Lord to which no date is
assigned. Israel was to count fifty days from Passover, so that in celebrating Pentecost
they would never forget the festival of their redemption.</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 200%;"><b>The purpose
of the lecture was to explore the relevance of the festival of Shavuot today in
an attempt to relate the events that took place on the Day of Pentecost in the
year 33AD to the plan and purpose of God for the world he created. What follows is the lecture.</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 200%;">According
to Jewish tradition Pentecost, or Shavuot, the Feast of Weeks, is <i>Zeman Matan Torateinu</i>: the ‘Season of
the giving of our Torah’. In Acts 2, Luke appears to depict the events of the
Day of Pentecost as a second ‘Mount Sinai experience’ for Israel. For example,
both the Torah and the Spirit were given on mountains: the Law at Sinai and the
Spirit on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 200%;">In the
account of the giving of the Torah in Ex. 19:18-20, fire and the sound of a
trumpet accompanied the descent of God on Mount Sinai. In Acts 2:2-3, the
descent of the Spirit was accompanied by fire and a sound; a sound ‘like a
rushing, mighty wind.’ It is significant that Luke does not say there <i>was</i> a ‘rushing, mighty wind’ but a <i>sound</i> ‘like a rushing, mighty wind.’ <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 200%;">According
to the rabbis, the world was divided into seventy nations and in tractate <i>Shabbat</i> 88b, the Talmud states, ‘Every
single word that went forth from the Omnipotent was split up into seventy
languages for the nations of the world.’ In Acts 2:4-5, the disciples of Jesus
spoke words in the languages of ‘devout men <i>from
every nation under heaven</i>.’ <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 200%;">There was,
however, a significant contrast between the giving of the Torah and the giving
of the Spirit. In Ex. 32, after Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the Ten
Commandments, 3,000 men of Israel died because of the sin of the golden calf. By
contrast, in Acts 2:41, when the Holy Spirit was given, 3,000’ received the
word’ and were baptised; in other words 3,000 people became spiritually alive
in Messiah. This contrast is developed by Paul in 2Cor. 3, where he contrasts
the Old Covenant and the New Covenant, the Law and the Gospel, ‘the letter’ and
‘the Spirit.’ The Old Covenant, says Paul, ministered death whereas the New
Covenant ministers life. The outpouring of the Spirit of God on that momentous
day generated a movement which was to spread through the world, toppling an
empire and ministering life to countless millions until ultimately the whole earth
will be ‘filled with the knowledge of the glory of the L</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 8pt; line-height: 200%;">ORD</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 200%;"> as the waters cover the sea.’ <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 200%;">What I
propose to do in this lecture is to demonstrate that he events recorded in the
second chapter of Acts reveal that Pentecost was the fulfilment of five
distinct Old Testament elements: a Promise, a Psalm, a Pattern, a Plan and,
finally, Pentecost itself.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-top: 18.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 200%;">1. Pentecost was the fulfilment of a Promise<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 200%;">From the
very first page of the Bible God’s <i>Ruach </i>– his ‘Spirit’ or ‘Breath’ or ‘Wind’ –
is at work at pivotal points such as Creation, when the Ruach hovered over the
unformed and unfilled earth. At the Exodus, the Spirit of God empowered
Bezaleel and his helpers to construct the tabernacle and the things pertaining
to the worship of God; in Num. 11, the Spirit empowered the seventy elders of
Israel, and Eldad and Medad, to prophesy – an event that made Moses wish all
God’s people were prophets, a wish that came true at Pentecost. The Ruach was also
at work at the establishment of the Hebrew monarchy when he came upon David in
power and enabled him to conquer the Philistine giant Goliath. The work of God
is never accomplished by human might or power but always by the Ruach of God.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 200%;">In the New
Testament, the Spirit was central in the ministry of Messiah and his apostles.
In Lk. 1:35, the Spirit overshadowed Mary causing her to conceive the Messiah; in
Mt. 3:16 the Spirit anointed Jesus at the Jordan river, setting him apart as
Messiah; in Mt. 12:28, Lk. 11:20 and Acts 10:38 the Spirit empowered Jesus for
his messianic ministry; in Heb. 9:14 the Spirit sustained Jesus for his atoning
death, and Rom. 8:11 states that the Spirit raised Jesus from the dead. It is
hardly surprising, therefore, that the Spirit of God was present at the
beginning of the God’s mission to the nations. The pouring out of the Spirit on
the Day of Pentecost was the fulfilment of at least two biblical promises made
to Israel, the first being the promise of Joel 2:28-32:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 150%;">And it shall come to pass
afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your
daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men
shall see visions. Even on the male and female servants in those days I will
pour out my Spirit… <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 200%;">However, Joel
2 was not the only prophetic scripture fulfilled at Pentecost. The proclamation
of the Word of the Lord to the house of Israel and the Ruach breathing life
into 3,000 souls was a fulfilment of Ezek. 37:1-14, in which Israel is pictured
as a heap of dry bones. In the vision, God promises to recall his people from
exile, following which he will breathe life into them and cause them to become a
great army. According to vv 27 - 28, God’s dwelling place will be among
resurrected Israel; he will be their God, they will be his people and, when his
sanctuary is in their midst forever, the nations will know that he is ‘the L</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 8pt; line-height: 200%;">ORD</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 200%;"> who sanctifies Israel.’ Israel’s promised resurrection was to have an
effect on the nations.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-top: 18.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 200%;">2. Pentecost was the fulfilment of a Psalm<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 200%;">Commentators
on the book of Acts recognise a symbolic significance in the sound like a wind
and the tongues of fire, and various interpretations of the symbols have been suggested
but few interpreters, if any, link the phenomena to Ps. 104:4, which states
that God ‘makes his messengers winds, his ministers a flaming fire.’<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 200%;">In the
readings for Pentecost, the Church of England’s Book of Common Prayer includes
verses 25-37 of Ps. 104 but, interestingly, not verse 4! But how fitting that with
the coming of the Spirit, God’s messengers and servants should be initiated
into their roles by the very elements God uses as his messengers and servants.
God had spoken to Elijah 800 years before the events of Acts 2 through a ‘still,
small voice’ rather than fire and a howling wind but at Pentecost he spoke with
the unrestrained might and power of a spiritual tornado that uprooted three
thousand observant Jews and Gentile proselytes from the kingdom of darkness and
transferred them into the kingdom of his Son.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-top: 18.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 200%;">3. Pentecost was the fulfilment of a Pattern<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 200%;">One of the
most divisive issues within Evangelicalism today is Supersessionism or, as it
is more commonly known, ‘Replacement Theology.’ Put simply, ‘Replacement
Theology’ is the idea that ‘the Church’ has replaced Israel in the plans and
purposes of God and that all the promises and privileges that belonged to the
Jewish people prior to the coming of Messiah have been spiritualised and transferred
to a new ‘spiritual’ Israel. Some years ago, on Whit Sunday, the churches in a
small town on the south coast of England organised a street party, complete with
party games and jelly and ice cream, to celebrate ‘the birthday of the Church.’
The idea was to attract locals in the hope (I presume) that they, like the
crowd that gathered at Pentecost in Jerusalem 2,000 years ago, would want to
know how to be saved. Apart from the fact that the Holy Spirit is a hard act to
follow, was the Church really born on the Day of Pentecost in 33AD? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 200%;">Look up the
word ‘church’ in an English Dictionary and you will probably read that the word
is based on a medieval Greek term <i>kuriakon
doma</i>, meaning the ‘Lord’s house’. Ask a Christian what ‘church’ is and the
response will more than likely be that ‘Church’ is people not a building.’ Ask a
non-Christians what ‘church’ is and the answer will probably be that it is a
building. Theologically, the Christian is correct but from the point of view of
linguistics, the non-Christian is right. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 200%;">How would
the disciples of Jesus have understood his declaration in Mt. 16:18, ‘I will
build my <i>church’</i>? Although Mt. 16:18
is the first occurrence of the word ‘church’ in the Bible, none of the apostles
asked what a ‘church’ was. The Greek word <i>ekklesia</i>,
translated ‘church’ in Mt. 16, means an ‘assembly,’ or ‘congregation.’ But Jesus,
of course, would have been speaking in Hebrew or Aramaic, not in Greek, and the
term he would have used was one with which his Jewish disciples would have been
very familiar, <i>Qahal</i>. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 200%;">In the Old
Testament, Israel was God’s <i>qahal</i>,
his ‘assembly.’ When the Hebrew Scriptures were translated into Greek in the
third century BC, the translators of the Septuagint, as the Greek version was
known, used <i>ekklesia</i> to translate <i>qahal</i>. ‘Church,’ in that sense, therefore,
was a concept with which the disciples of Jesus were very familiar and, according
to Stephen in Acts 7:38, God had an <i>ekklesia</i>,
a ‘church’ or ‘assembly’ in the wilderness; that assembly being Israel. We must
not think, therefore, that the Church was born at Pentecost in 33AD or that the
Church has replaced Israel as the people of God. From the time of the Exodus,
Israel was God’s ‘church,’ or assembly, and continues to be so.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 200%;">If that
sounds confusing, it might be helpful for us to look at the subject from
another perspective.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 200%;">Jer. 11:16 depicts
Israel as ‘a green olive tree, beautiful with good fruit,’ and in Rom.
11:16-22, Paul draws on Jeremiah’s imagery to speak of Israel as an ‘olive tree’
of which Jewish individuals are the branches. Those Jews, or ‘natural branches,’
who refused to embrace their Messiah were broken off but believing Gentiles – like
branches from an uncultivated olive tree – were grafted onto the cultivated olive
tree of Israel. Whether cultivated or uncultivated, both varieties of branch are
joined to the same tree and are nourished by the same sap that comes from the
roots of the tree, namely the Patriarchs. At Pentecost, God did not cut down
one olive tree and plant a new one, called the Church; he began to call people
from all nations, not just from Israel, to be part of his beautiful green olive
tree in order they might produce good fruit.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 200%;">Something
new did come into existence at Pentecost, however: a spiritual temple. In the
Old Testament, a developing pattern may be discerned in the way God meets with
his people. Before the Fall, God met and communed with Adam and Eve in the
Garden of Eden. After the expulsion from Eden, Cain and Abel approached God as
individuals, each at their own altar. After the call of Abraham, worship began
to take place at a family altar and the mark of the faith of the patriarchs (as
we observe in Gn. 12:8; 13:12; 26:17, 25; 33:18-20) was that they each pitched
their tent, built their altar and called on the name of the Lord <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 200%;">At the Exodus,
the family altar was replaced by a national shrine. The people lived in tents
and, under the direction of the Lord, a tabernacle was constructed where his
people might meet with their God. When the people settled in the land and began
to live in permanent dwellings, Solomon erected a temple of stone to serve as
the house of God. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 200%;">Following
the destruction of the temple in 586 BC, God foretold in Ezek. 40-48 that a
better, bigger and perfect temple would be constructed, out of which would flow
a river of healing water (47:1-12). There are biblical interpreters who insist Ezekiel’s
vision must be interpreted in a strictly literalistic manner but such an
approach raises a number of serious difficulties. According to Ezekiel's
measurements, the temple will be so large that both the Temple Mount and the
Mount of Olives will have to be enlarged and expanded in order to accommodate
it. A clue to understanding the true nature of Ezekiel’s vision can be found in
Jn. 2:19, where Jesus speaks of his body as the temple. And in Jn. 7:38, on the
final day of the feast of Tabernacles, Jesus declares: ‘Whoever believes in me,
as the Scripture has said, “Out of his heart will flow rivers of living
water”.’<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 200%;">‘This,’
says John, Jesus ‘said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to
receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet
glorified.’ The Spirit was ‘given,’ of course, at Pentecost but which
‘Scripture’ foretold the Spirit flowing like a river of living water out of the
hearts of those that believe in Messiah? The only Old Testament passage that
speaks of ‘living water’ flowing out of anything is Ezek. 47:1-12, in which a
river of water flows from the temple of God bringing life to wherever it flows.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 200%;">A series of
New Testament texts, including Mt. 24:1-2; 26:61; Acts 6:14; Eph. 2:19-22; 1
Pet. 2:4-8; Rev. 22:1-5, lead us to conclude that The Body of Messiah,
comprised of living stones, is the new temple, a ‘habitation of God in the
Spirit’, out of which flows living water for the healing of the nations. At
Pentecost, the Spirit began to flow from the followers of Jesus in the temple
where multitudes were observing Shavuot, to Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and,
ultimately, to the uttermost parts of the earth.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 200%;">In Ex. 40,
when the tabernacle was erected, a cloud of glory authenticated it as the
dwelling place of God. When Solomon dedicated the temple in 2 Chron. 7, fire
fell from heaven and the glory of God filled the place. In Acts 2, God authenticated
his new, living temple with a glory even greater than that of the previous
temples. At Pentecost, God dedicated and authenticated his living temple that was
destined to fill the entire world, not simply the Temple Mount and the Mount of
Olives. And whereas, in times gone by, God was encountered in particular
locations such as Eden, the altar, the tabernacle and the temple, since
Pentecost Jews and Gentiles may meet with him not so much in a universal temple
but as living stones in that temple.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 200%;">The temple
reminded people of Eden. It was built on a mountain from which flowed the
Kidron stream and its architecture included cherubim, palm trees, gourds and
other plants and flowers. It was a representation of Eden from which had flowed
four rivers. The single river that flowed from Ezekiel’s temple caused trees to
grow in the wilderness, the leaves of which brought healing. In John’s parallel
vision in the final chapter of the Bible, the river flows from a temple city,
the New Jerusalem, and on either side of the river grows the tree of life with
twelve kinds of fruit, yielding fruit every month. Even the leaves of the tree bring
healing to the nations. Little wonder, then, that the hymn writer Isaac Watts
wrote that in Jesus ‘the tribes of Adam boast more blessings than their father
lost’!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-top: 18.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 200%;">4. Pentecost was the fulfilment of a Plan<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 200%;">Immediately
after the fall of man, in Gn. 3:15, God announced his plan to redeem his fallen
creation. The call of Abraham was part of the divine redemptive plan, the end
of which was that all the families of the earth would be blessed (Gn. 12:3).
Israel’s calling was a missionary calling and the nation is described in Jer.
2:3 as ‘the firstfruits of [the Lord’s] increase’ that is, the firstfruits of
God’s harvest from among all nations. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 200%;">In Jer.
4:1-4, the Lord declared that Israel’s relationship to him would have a
beneficial effect on the Gentiles:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 150%;">‘If you will return, O Israel,’
says the L</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 8pt; line-height: 150%;">ORD</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 150%;">, ‘return
to Me; and if you will put away your abominations out of My sight, Then you
shall not be moved. And you shall swear, ‘The L</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 8pt; line-height: 150%;">ORD</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 150%;"> lives,’ in truth, in judgment, and in righteousness; the nations shall
bless themselves in Him, and in Him they shall glory.’ <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 200%;">God’s plan
of redemption is fundamental to understanding Ps.67:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 150%;">God be merciful to us and bless us,
and cause His face to shine upon us. That your way may be known on earth, your
salvation among all nations. Let the peoples praise You, O God; let all the
peoples praise you. Oh, let the nations be glad and sing for joy! For you shall
judge the people righteously, and govern the nations on earth… Then the earth
shall yield her increase; God, our own God, shall bless us… and all the ends of
the earth shall fear Him.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 200%;">The first
two verses of Ps. 67 remind us of the High Priestly benediction of Num.
6:24-26: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">The L</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 8pt;">ORD</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 10.5pt;"> bless you and keep you; <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">The L</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 8pt;">ORD</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 10.5pt;"> make His face shine upon you, and be gracious to you;
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 150%;">The L</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 8pt; line-height: 150%;">ORD</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 150%;"> lift up His countenance upon you, and give you peace.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 200%;">They also
bring to mind Gn. 12:1-3:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 150%;">Now the L</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 8pt; line-height: 150%;">ORD</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 150%;"> had said to Abram: ‘Get out of your
country, from your family and from your father’s house, to a land that I will
show you. I will make you a great nation; <i>I
will bless you</i> and make your name great; <i>and you shall be a blessing</i>. I will bless those who bless you, and
I will curse him who curses you; and in you all the families of the earth shall
be blessed.’<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 200%;">God
repeated the promise to Isaac in Gn. 26:4: ‘… in your seed all nations of the
earth shall be blessed.’ He made the same promise to Jacob in Gn. 28:14: ‘… in
you and in your seed all families of earth shall be blessed.’<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 200%;">According
to Genesis, before the nations could be blessed, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob had
to be blessed. At every festival the high priest blessed the people and in Ps.
67 the promise of the blessing of the nations is clarified. The blessing God
has in mind for the nations is nothing less than their salvation. Could God
have had anything less in mind when he promised to bless Abraham, Isaac and
Jacob and their descendants? Could he have anything less in mind when he blessed
the people through their High Priest?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 200%;">The
psalmist recognised that although God had blessed Israel in many ways, the
nation did not possess the blessings invoked by the high priest in their
fulness. Moreover, the nations were not saved.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 200%;">Israel
could not enjoy the blessings of Num. 6:24-26 in their fulness, nor could the
nations be saved until Messiah, the seed of Abraham came. And Ps. 67 is a
prayer that Israel will be blessed fully and that the nations will know God’s salvation,
his Yeshua! In the songs recorded in the first two chapters of Luke’s Gospel, it
becomes evident that with the birth of Yeshua, the invocations of the Aaronic
benediction and the pleas of Ps. 67:1-2 were being answered. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 200%;">In Ps. 67:1,
the Hebrew poet appeals to God to show <i>chanan</i>
</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 200%;">–</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 200%;"> grace, or
mercy </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 200%;">–</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 200%;"> to Israel.
In the Magnificat of Lk. 1:46-55, remembering that Mary spoke Hebrew, she sings:
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 150%;">My soul magnifies the Lord, and my
spirit rejoices in God my Saviour… his <i>mercy</i>
[which in Hebrew would have been <i>chanan</i>]
is for those who fear him from generation to generation… He has helped his
servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy [<i>chanan</i>], as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his
offspring forever. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 200%;">In Lk
1:67-79, the blessings of Ps. 67, the high priestly blessing and the promise to
Abraham all come together in the Song of Zechariah: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 150%;">Blessed be the Lord God of Israel,
for he has visited and redeemed his people and has raised up a horn of <i>salvation</i> for us in the house of his
servant David, as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old, that
we should be <i>saved</i> from our enemies
and from the hand of all who hate us; to show <i>the mercy promised to our fathers</i> and to remember his holy
covenant, the oath that he swore to our father Abraham, to grant us that we,
being delivered from the hand of our enemies, might serve him without fear, in
holiness and righteousness before him all our days. And you, child, will be
called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare
his ways, to give <i>knowledge of</i> <i>salvation</i> to his people in the
forgiveness of their sins, because of the tender <i>mercy</i> of our God, whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high <i>to give light</i> to those who sit in
darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into <i>the way of</i> <i>peace</i>. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 200%;">According
to Ps. 67, as it goes with Israel so it goes with the nations, and the Psalmist
appeals to God to bless Israel. Before the nations can be blessed through the
knowledge of Yeshua Israel must be blessed and the New Testament constantly emphasises
the principle ‘to the Jew first,’ as Peter declares in Acts 3:24-26: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 150%;">All the prophets… proclaimed these
days. You are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant that God made with
your fathers, saying to Abraham, ‘And in your offspring shall all the families
of the earth be blessed.’ <i>God, having
raised up his servant, sent him to you first, to bless you</i> by turning every
one of you from your wickedness." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;">There is a
pattern in Ps. 67: Israel is blessed; then the nations are saved; then ‘Israel’s
God’ blesses Israel. Paul reveals a similar framework of thought in Romans 11: Israel
has been blessed but has rejected the blessing; the nations are being saved and
are rejoicing in God’s salvation and this will ‘provoke Israel to jealousy’. At
the moment, says Paul, only a remnant of Israel believes the gospel but that
will not always be the case. There will be a fulness. ‘All Israel will be saved’.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 200%;">God has
called Gentiles to provoke Israel to jealousy. That is our duty. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 200%;">Although
tongues might at first reading appear to be the predominant phenomenon on the
day of Pentecost, tongues were not most important feature; the preaching of the
gospel was the crucial factor on that day. The gospel was preached to the Jews
first but by the time the book of Acts closes the nations are blessing
themselves in the Lord and glorying in him. Pentecost was the launch pad for
the final stage of God’s plan for world redemption, a plan that has nothing
less as its goal than the salvation of the nations and the liberation of the
cosmos itself from the effects of the fall of Adam.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-top: 18.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 200%;">5. Pentecost was the fulfilment of Pentecost<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 200%;">Shavuot/Pentecost,
like the other festivals of the Lord, was highly symbolic festival. It was the
second of the annual pilgrim festivals at which every male Israelite was to
appear before the face of God at the house of God in Jerusalem. The ‘place’ in
which the 120 believers were when the Spirit fell on the Day of Pentecost in
Acts 2 was the temple. The temple was the only place in which observant Jews
would have been on the morning the Ruach of God came upon the disciples of
Jesus. Had the 120 been in an upper room in another part of Jerusalem, those in
the temple would have been unaware of the sound of the wind and the tongues of
fire, and Peter certainly would not have been able to address thousands of his
fellow Jews in the confines of Jerusalem’s narrow streets.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 200%;">Shavuot was
originally a harvest festival but by the first century of our era, as the
Jewish people had become scattered among the nations, the festival had lost its
primary harvest significance and become ‘the season of the giving of the law’
at Sinai. It is surely significant, then, that at the time when the Torah
passage for Shavuot was being read in the temple the Spirit came down on Mount
Zion. The Torah reading would have included Ex. 19:18: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 150%;">Now <i>Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke because the L</i></span><i><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 8pt; line-height: 150%;">ORD</span></i><i><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 150%;"> had descended on it in fire</span></i><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 150%;">. The smoke of it went up like the smoke of a kiln, and the whole
mountain trembled greatly. And as <i>the
sound</i> of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke, and God answered
him in thunder. The L</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 8pt; line-height: 150%;">ORD</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 150%;"> came down
on Mount Sinai, to the top of the mountain.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 200%;">Nevertheless,
the harvest significance had not disappeared and two wheat loaves made from the
firstfruits of the wheat harvest were waved before God in the temple. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 200%;">At both
Passover and Pentecost, firstfruits were presented to God as wave offerings in
the temple. The offering presented the day after the Sabbath of Passover week,
as specified in Lv. 23:10-14 was the firstfruits of the barley harvest, and
barley was considered the poor man’s food. The firstfruits offering at Shavuot
was from the wheat harvest, and in Ps. 81:16 wheat is the rich man’s food. In 1
Cor. 15:21-23, when Paul describes Messiah as the ‘firstfruits from the dead’
he is likening Messiah’s resurrection to the Passover firstfruits offering, which
was presented to God on the very day Jesus rose from the dead.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 200%;">The Shavuot
firstfruits offering was a different picture. The firstfruits of the wheat
harvest was offered in the form of two loaves with leaven. It would seem that
this offering is a picture of the believers – Jews and Gentiles – being
incorporated into the body of Messiah at Shavuot. And as the poor man’s food
signified Messiah and the rich man’s food represented believers in Messiah, we
are reminded that, as Paul says in 2 Cor. 8:9, Messiah became poor for our
sakes that we might become rich in Him. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 200%;">There is a
further significance to the fact that two loaves were offered. The number two is
strongly associated in the Bible with witness. In Dt. 19:15, at least two
witnesses were required for an acceptable testimony in a court of Israelite law
and the principle finds a variety of applications within the New Covenant as, for
example, in Mk. 6:7 when Messiah sent out His disciples by twos in order to
preach the Good News. According to 1 Tim. 5:19, congregations are not to receive
an accusation against an elder without at least two witnesses and, says Peter
in <br />
1 Pet. 3:7, in the marriage partnership there has to be agreement between both
spouses for prayer to be accepted by God. Without two witnesses there is only opinion
and following Pentecost God had both Jews and Gentiles as his witnesses to the
world.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 200%;">Moreover, the
offering of the loaves was accompanied by a number of sacrifices including, as
we read in Lv. 23: 19, a peace offering, in Hebrew a ‘shalom’. When the Apostle
Paul speaks to Gentile believers at Ephesus, he says in 2:14-18:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 150%;">For [Messiah] himself is our peace
[offering], who has made us both [Jews and Gentiles] one and has broken down in
his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments
expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place
of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body
through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 200%;">The Sages
of Israel recognised that the nation’s destiny was to bless the world, and
regarded the coming of Ruth the Moabitess into Israel as a foreshadowing of the
coming of the Gentiles into the blessings of Israel. That is why the Book of
Ruth – which celebrates the coming of a Gentile into the commonwealth of Israel
at harvest time – is read in synagogues at Shavuot. Ruth was blessed by
becoming a member of Israel and Israel, in turn, was blessed by her becoming
the ancestor of King David and the Messiah. At Pentecost in 33AD, there were
Gentile proselytes, as well as natural Jews, incorporated into the commonwealth
of Israel. According to Rom. 11:11-15 and 25-26, Gentiles have been blessed by
Israel and are, in turn, called to be a blessing to the Jews, not least by
provoking them to jealousy.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 200%;">The 3,000
Jews and proselytes who believed Peter’s preaching on the day of Pentecost were
the firstfruits of a harvest that would culminate in a world-wide ingathering
from all lands. Rev. 7 refers to the Gentile converts as a ‘great multitude
which no man could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples and tongues’ (note
the many ‘tongues’ of Acts 2). In Rev. 14:4 the 144,000 are identified as ‘firstfruits
to God and to the Lamb’ and it is to them, the first generation of Jewish
believers, that James addresses his epistle. According to James 1:1), his
readers were from ‘the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad’ and, as he
says in v.18 ‘a kind of firstfruits of His creatures’. While Peter, James, John
and the other apostles continued to reap the firstfruits of God’s harvest
within the house of Israel, Paul says in Gal. 2:9 that he and his companions were
reaping a harvest from among the nations.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 200%;">***<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 200%;">What, then,
do the events of Pentecost as recorded in Acts say to us? The events of that
day bring together a number of threads from the Old Testament scriptures that
hints (some more strongly than others) at God’s plan and purpose for his
creation. The teaching of Pentecost encourages us to trust that God’s purposes
for creation will continue to unfold until at last all Israel is saved, the
people of God from all nations are gathered into the kingdom, and ‘the earth
shall be full of the knowledge of the L</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 200%;">ORD</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 200%;"> as the
waters cover the sea.’<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 200%;">However
difficult the task, however dark the days, the harvest nature of Pentecost
encourages us to pursue mission in the knowledge that the firstfruits of God’s
harvest which was presented to him on Mount Zion 2,000 years ago, guarantees a
full harvest from all nations that no man can number. Therefore, we cannot
afford the luxury of pessimism. In all our service, we can be ‘steadfast,
immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord our
labour is not in vain.’ The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of
our God and his Messiah!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Mike Moorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02475677258430349492noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8846031455080482087.post-43607459454053925222013-05-09T22:29:00.001-07:002013-05-09T22:32:43.780-07:00Former CWI Director slams Church of Scotlands Israel report<br />
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<img alt="image" height="265" src="http://www.freechurch.org/2011uploaddirectory/John_Ross_thumb.JPG" width="400" /></div>
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<em><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 125%;">Former Free Church
of Scotland Moderator <a href="http://www.freechurch.org/index.php/scotland/news_events_item/former_moderator_laments_kirks_offensive_israel_report/" target="_blank">Rev Dr John Ross</a> (above) reflects on a controversial report from the
Church of Scotland which denies any special privileges for the Jewish people in
the land of Israel.</span></em><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 125%;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<em><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 125%;"><br /></span></em></div>
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<span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 125%;">‘The inheritance of Abraham?’, cobbled together by </span><em><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 125%;">the
Church of Scotland’s </span></em><span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 125%;">Church and Society Council<span class="apple-converted-space"> has been removed from the Kirk’s website</span> because
it is being rewritten by Church of Scotland officials.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<em><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 125%;">Dr Ross was awarded
his PhD for research on the Scottish Mission to the Jews, and previously served
as General Secretary of Christian Witness to Israel and was the European
Co-ordinator of the Lausanne Consultation on Jewish Evangelism.</span></em><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 125%;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<em><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 125%;"><br /></span></em></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 125%;">The Church and Society Council’s report for the General Assembly
of the Church of Scotland, said John Ross, was ‘patronising and deeply
offensive.’<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 125%;"><br /></span></div>
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<em><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 125%;"><a href="http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/uk/scotland/article3755355.ece" target="_blank">The Times</a></span></em><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 125%;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 125%;">said it was ‘a slap in the face.’<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><em><a href="http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Columnists/Anti-Jewish-text-will-shame-the-Church-of-Scotland-312398" target="_blank">The Jerusalem Post</a></em><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>saw it as
an ‘Anti-Jewish text [that] will shame the Church of Scotland’.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 125%;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; line-height: 125%; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<em><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 125%;"><a href="http://www.thejc.com/news/uk-news/106939/scottish-church-debate-jewish-right-land-israel" target="_blank">The Jewish Chronicle</a></span></em><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 125%;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 125%;">spoke of it as breathtaking arrogance and with
impeccable logic, the evangelical<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://archbishop-cranmer.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/church-of-scotland-report-denies-jesus.html" target="_blank"><em>Cranmer</em><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></a>blog argued that the ‘Church of Scotland
report denies Jesus was the promised Messiah’. I agree, but I am not in the
least surprised.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 125%;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; line-height: 125%; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 125%;">Sally Foster-Fulton’s<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><em>(Church and Society Council convener)</em><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>report is both highly controversial and
utterly superficial. It provides further proof of how a growing antisemitic
tendency within the Kirk is leading to a deliberate rejection of the Church of
Scotland’s historic missionary priorities.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 125%;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; line-height: 125%; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 125%;">In his critique of <span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">‘The inheritance of Abraham?’</span>, John Ross provides a very useful
historical background to the report.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 125%;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; line-height: 125%; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 125%;">Here, then, is another stage on the Kirk’s inexorable journey away
from is historical commitment to the Bible as the Word of God, its confessional
theological heritage, and its erstwhile evangelical missionary commitments.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 125%;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; line-height: 125%; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 125%;">To all intents and purposes the Church of Scotland’s missionary
interest in the Jews ended in 1981. That year the General Assembly redefined
its relationship to the Jewish people in terms of dialogue with the community
rather than the evangelisation of individuals. But this much vaunted high level
project, considered so strategic, was stillborn.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 125%;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; line-height: 125%; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 125%;">In 1985 this reorientation gave rise to the Board of World
Mission and Unity’s report, ‘Christians and Jews Today’. This report was sent
down to the Kirk’s presbyteries for consideration, but two years later less
than half had bothered to respond.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 125%;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; line-height: 125%; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 125%;">For most, the Church of Scotland’s historic relationship to the
Jewish people was unimportant and uninteresting. Enthusiasm for Jewish
missions, which had been sustained for a hundred and fifty years, had finally
been overcome by inertia.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 125%;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; line-height: 125%; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 125%;">In the years that followed, the Kirk’s Board of World Mission
and Unity ceased to make an annual report to the General Assembly on Jewish
related issues. The historic view of Israel, as the Jewish people, both in the
Land and the Diaspora, was jettisoned.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 125%;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; line-height: 125%; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 125%;">Israel was now seen as synonymous with the State of Israel and
support for Israel was mischievously misrepresented as a tendency to
uncritically rubber stamp any old Knesset policy.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 125%;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; line-height: 125%; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 125%;">By 2000, the Kirk’s interest was refocused on the political
situation in the Middle East. Its reports extended a biased support for
Palestinian cause, dropping the term ‘Israel’ in favour of a mythical entity
called ‘Israel/Palestine.’ <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 125%;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; line-height: 125%; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 125%;">It is significant, therefore, that the 2013 report comes not
from the World Mission Council, but the Church and Society Council, the Jewish
people being no longer of any missionary interest to the Kirk.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 125%;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; line-height: 125%; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 125%;">The most grievous omission of the current report is its total
neglect of the Church’s historical recognition of the great debt it owes, under
God, to the Jewish people. Recognition of this fact need not lead to uncritical
approval of everything done by the State of Israel. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 125%;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; line-height: 125%; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 125%;">Indeed it is the prerogative of friends to offer strong
constructive criticism. But today’s Church of Scotland is no friend to the
Jewish people, on whom it has turned its back.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 125%;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; line-height: 125%; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 125%;">If this report is accepted, it will prove that the Kirk has
turned St Paul’s ‘great sorrow and unceasing anguish’ (Romans 9:2) for the
Jewish people, into scorn and rejection. How different the stance adopted by
Thomas Chalmers, who, in his <i>Lectures on
the Epistle to the Romans</i>, described a sensitive sharing of the gospel with
the Jewish people as ‘the first and foremost object of Christian policy’.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 125%;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; line-height: 125%; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 125%;">The downgrade we are currently seeing in the Church of Scotland
in this, as in many other areas, is inevitable and it will get worse.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 125%;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; line-height: 125%; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 125%;">Remove the lynchpin of Scripture as the Word of God, as the
liberals did, and in time the wheels fall off the ecclesiastical vehicle.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 125%;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; line-height: 125%; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 125%;">Dr Ross's comments are covered this morning in<a href="http://www.scotsman.com/news/politics/top-stories/israel-blasts-kirk-amid-allegations-of-anti-semitism-1-2925446" target="_blank"> <i>The Scotsman</i></a> and in the Church of Scotland's <a href="http://www.lifeandwork.org/news/news/post/46-holy-land-report-has-given-cause-for-concern" target="_blank">L<i>ife and Work</i></a>.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 125%;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; line-height: 125%; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 125%;">Rev Stephen Sizer predictably and enthusiastically praised the Kirk
report and appeared on the Iranian-run <a href="http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/05/07/302307/new-report-questions-israels-claim-of-divine-right/" target="_blank"><i>Press TV</i></a> to endorse the report. He also used the report to promote his own <a href="http://stephensizer.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/church-of-scotland-report-questions.html" target="_blank">anti-Israel material</a>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />Mike Moorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02475677258430349492noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8846031455080482087.post-18964468605001211742013-04-15T13:14:00.000-07:002013-04-15T13:14:03.707-07:00Happy Birthday Israel. 65 today!<br />
<div style="line-height: 125%; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: center;">
<img height="283" src="http://www.nachumsegal.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/israel-at-65.jpg" width="640" /></div>
<div style="line-height: 125%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 125%;">On Sunday, Israel was remembering its fallen
soldiers and victims of terror. Today, 15 April, is Israel’s 65th birthday. </span></div>
<div style="line-height: 125%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">During
the last 48 hours Israelis have remembered all the people who gave their lives so
that they might have freedom and a future to celebrate.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 125%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">A week ago, I was in Israel on
Holocaust Remembrance Day, a day of weeping and mourning. Each year there are
less and less Holocaust survivors and the number of soldiers and civilians
killed in Israel’s struggle for survival continues to grow. Everyone in Israel has
lost a loved one in one of Israel's many wars. Either that or they know someone
who has lost a loved one in conflict. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Israelis celebrate their
country’s birthday every year and they do so because more than any other nation
on earth, they never take their existence for granted. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">So as Israel celebrates their
65<sup>th</sup> birthday, let us pray that the Lord will safeguard that
vulnerable little country surrounded by enemies who constantly breathe out
threatening and slaughter against them. May their God shine the light of His
love on them and remove the veil of darkness that hides Messiah from their view.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Great God of Abraham! hear our
prayer<br />
Let Abraham’s seed Thy mercy share;<br />
O may they now at length return,<br />
And look on Him they pierced, and mourn.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Remember Jacob’s flock of old;<br />
Bring home the wanderers to Thy fold;<br />
Remember too Thy promised word,<br />
Israel at last shall seek the Lord.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Though outcasts still,
estranged from Thee,<br />
Cut off from their own olive tree;<br />
Why should they longer such remain?<br />
For Thou canst graft them in again.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Lord, put Thy law within their
hearts,<br />
And write it in their inward parts;<br />
The veil of darkness rend in two,<br />
Which hides Messiah from their view.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Oh! haste the day, foretold so
long,<br />
When Jew and Greek, a glorious throng,<br />
One house shall seek, one prayer shall pour,<br />
And one Redeemer shall adore!<br />
Thomas Cotterill <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Happy 65th Birthday, Israel! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Mike Moorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02475677258430349492noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8846031455080482087.post-35575192186731841392013-04-11T09:48:00.001-07:002013-04-11T09:50:36.485-07:00Bless this house<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoB6X2m_GUYDOLJze5YVlLcCFxbI4Dwl8TYByWTlLgVi8XOq0KLIXFLuDbshVQzFdVbSIO9dSsaFdku6qMWVv6MIx-HpxBUGdl5_4KWMpix76J_73tbCvagVk4olQU4k4CUweOQtEjQ8mp/s1600/Grace+&+Truth+Opening+2013+129.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoB6X2m_GUYDOLJze5YVlLcCFxbI4Dwl8TYByWTlLgVi8XOq0KLIXFLuDbshVQzFdVbSIO9dSsaFdku6qMWVv6MIx-HpxBUGdl5_4KWMpix76J_73tbCvagVk4olQU4k4CUweOQtEjQ8mp/s400/Grace+&+Truth+Opening+2013+129.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 125%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-size: large;">The Grace and Truth building in
Israel officially opens </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">A historic event took place in Israel on Saturday 6 April
when the first indigenous Christian place of worship to be constructed since
the state of Israel came into being in 1948 officially opened. Almost 300 people,
most of them members of the congregation, gathered to give thanks to God for
his faithfulness.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The growth of the Church in Israel since the rebirth of the
country in 1948 has been remarkable. When the modern state of Israel came into
being there were, significantly, just twelve Jewish believers in the land.
Twenty years later, in 1968, the number of Jewish believers was less than
fifty. In 1988, they numbered less than 500 but today no one knows how many
Jewish Israel followers of Jesus there are. The lowest estimate is 10,000 but,
according to others, there could be twice that number. The fact is that the Church
in Israel is growing at a phenomenal rate and the Grace and Truth congregation was
one of the first to come into being and its leaders see the fellowship as
having a great destiny. The congregation was also the first to declare its
commitment to the historic Reformed Confessions of Faith. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The vision for the building began in the 1990s and after
purchasing, with great difficulty, a piece of land, the groundbreaking ceremony
took place in November 2000. The project came to a halt after funding dried up
but throughout the difficult years, when some members of the congregation saw
the building as an albatross around their necks, congregational elder David
Zadok retained the vision. Two years ago, with the help of the Isaac da Costa
Foundation in Holland, work began again and the building is now virtually
completed.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">David Zadok, who is also the Israel Field Leader of the UK-based
mission Christian Witness to Israel, came to faith in Jesus in the USA and
returned to Israel in 1983. He joined the Grace and Truth because of its
commitment to Reformed theology and was ordained an elder in 1990 but returned
to the States some ten years later to study at Westminster Theological
Seminary. David was installed as the church’s pastor in January and in his
address to the congregation, he reminded them of God’s covenant faithfulness to
the Jewish people and the importance of ‘land’ and ‘place’ in the Old
Testament. God provided a place for Adam and Eve to live, he promised Noah he
would not again destroy the earth with a flood, and he promised land in perpetuity
to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and their descendants. The land provided, among
other things, safety and security but it was also the place from which God’s
law would go forth to all nations. Even in the New Testament Jesus promised to
prepare a ‘place’ for his people. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The Grace and Truth congregation has experienced many
changes over the years, not all of them positive, but the fellowship is now in
a situation to reach out to the community and to serve the wider Messianic Jewish
community throughout the land. With the opening of the building, said Pastor
Zadok, God had provided a place in the land for his people which they must use
for his glory and from which they must reach out with the gospel to their
neighbours. Reflecting on the recent history of the Jewish people, Pastor Zadok
reminded those gathered that God had brought his covenant people back to the
land promised to their fathers and had restored Hebrew as the common language
in Israel. The Jewish people in the land have come from all nations and
languages to their ancient homeland where the tongue of the prophets is
the common language, making it possible for the congregation reach their people
with the message of Messiah. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Situated in the southern part of Gush Dan, the building is beautifully
Middle Eastern in appearance and was designed to resemble both a church and a
synagogue. Inside, light streams in from all sides and from the huge domed
skylight, symbolising the light of Messiah. When the idea for the building was
conceived, it was for a multi-functional structure that would be open seven
days a week throughout the year. Had the building been completed a few years
ago, the congregation would not have been able to make full use of it but
things have providentially come together at a time when the congregation is in
a position to make the best use of the facility. Since work began on the
building, a major road junction has made access to the venue from the north and
south, the east and west easy and quick, and a second major junction is
currently under construction. This puts the magnificently designed building in
a convenient position to serve not only as a house of prayer and worship but
also a conference centre and a cultural venue. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The building was completed through the generous financial
assistance of the </span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%;">Isaac da Costa Foundation and organisations as
far away as Canada and Finland. B</span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">ut
outstanding loans remain to be repaid and the congregation, though growing, is financially
challenged. Christian Witness to Israel is appealing to Christians around the
world to help the congregation through prayer and financial contributions. Donations
to the project can be sent via Christian Witness to Israel, 166 Main Road,
Sundridge, Sevenoaks, Kent, TN14 6EL. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
Mike Moorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02475677258430349492noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8846031455080482087.post-45749516952528874382013-03-12T02:28:00.001-07:002013-03-12T02:28:25.805-07:00Whatever happened to Daniel 2:44?<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><b>As South East England is at a virtual standstill with snow, I find my mind straying back to last week when I was in Roca Baton in Florida to present a paper the the North America conference of the Lausanne Consultation on Jewish Evangelism on Apologetics. My paper dealt with the use of Daniel 2:44 in sharing the gospel with Jewish people. This is the paper I presented.</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 18px;">Whatever happened to Daniel 2:44?</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 125%;">The title of this
paper is a challenge that was put to me by a Hasidic friend, Eliyohu, ten years
ago. Eliyohu and I had corresponded and met occasionally over a period of fifteen
years during which time Eliyohu made a profession of faith in Yeshua and was
even baptized in the River Jordan. However, due to the combined influences of
traditional Judaism and some Jehovah’s Witness friends, and in spite of
acknowledging that the Tanakh [Old Testament] and the Brit Hadashah [New
Testament] taught the deity of the Messiah, Eliyohu refused to accept that
Yeshua was God. He apostatized, converted to Hasidism, married a religious woman
and moved to the Yonkers district of New York. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">In the fall of 2003, Eliyohu
was in the UK for a brief visit and as we walked among the herds of deer in the
beautiful landscape of Knole Park in Sevenoaks, we argued (in the proper sense
of the word) about a number of issues. Eliyohu was extolling the writings of Maimonides,
and I expressed surprise that religious Jews revere him since the Rambam was a
thorough-going rationalist. Suddenly, from out of nowhere, he put to me the
question, ‘If Jesus is the Messiah, what happened to Daniel 2:44?’<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">The New JPS
Translation* of the Tanakh translates the verse: ‘And in the time of those
kings, the God of heaven will establish a Kingdom that shall never be
destroyed, a kingdom that shall not be transferred to another people. It will
crush and wipe out all those kingdoms, but shall itself last forever…’<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">The question relating
to Dan. 2:44 is at least as old as Isaac Troki, who writes in <i>Hizuk Emunah</i>: ‘At the time of the king
Messiah, there is to be only one kingdom and one king, namely, the true king
Messiah. But the other empires and their rulers shall cease at that period, as
we read in Daniel ii. 44… Whereas, we now actually see that many empires,
different in their laws and habits, are still in existence; and that in each
empire a different king is ruling; consequently the Messiah is not yet come.’
Troki expands the reference to ‘those kings’ in Daniel 2:44 to include all
empires, not just the four empires symbolised by Nebuchadnezzar’s statue, and
concludes that because many kingdoms still exist, the kingdom of heaven has not
been established.’<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">As an Orthodox Jew, Eliyohu believes the
indestructible kingdom of Dan. 2:44 will be established by the Messiah.
Therefore, if Jesus is the Messiah, the kingdom of heaven should long since
have been established. Since, according to Eliyohu, Jesus failed to fulfil that
essential task, he could not be the Messiah. <i>End of argument!</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">The question of Dan.
2:44 had never been put to me before and it is a verse I had never considered
as a proof text for the Messiahship of Jesus. The verse does not appear to be
dealt with in great detail Messianic apologists and few commentaries deal with.
But since that discussion ten years ago, I have come to see that the verse forms
a compelling argument for the Messiahship of Yeshua.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><b>The power of prophecy</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">In <i>The Messianic Hope</i>, Michael Rydelnik
warns of a trend among evangelicals towards playing down the issue of direct
Messianic prophecy in the Tanakh and of thinking not in terms of prediction but
of promises, principles and types. For Rydelnik, however, ‘The best way of
understanding the Bible as a whole is to see the Old Testament as predicting
the coming of the Messiah and the New Testament revealing him to be Jesus of
Nazareth.’<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Those of us engaged in
witness to Jewish people know the value of Rydelnik’s traditional and
time-honoured stance. To jettison the concept of Messianic prophecy in the
Tanakh in favour of what might appear a more sophisticated and nuanced approach
to biblical interpretation would be to abandon what has been one of the most
powerful weapons in our spiritual arsenal for ‘the tearing down of strongholds’
(2 Cor. 10:4, King James Version). Religious Jews certainly see the Tanakh as a
book about Messiah, as the Talmud testifies: ‘R. Hiyya b. Abba said in R.
Johanan’s name: All the prophets prophesied [all the good things] only in
respect of the Messianic era’ (Sanhedrin 99a).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Traditional Judaism
accepts the existence of Messianic prediction in the Torah, the Prophets and
the Writings and, on its own terms, the Tanakh is clearly a prophetic book. In Is.
41:21-23, God throws out a challenge to the idols of the nations: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 125%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Submit your case, says the L</span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 8.0pt; line-height: 125%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">ORD</span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 125%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">; Offer your pleas, says
the King of Jacob. Let them approach and tell us what will happen. Tell us what
has occurred, and we will take note of it; or announce to us what will occur,
that we may know the outcome, Foretell what is yet to happen, that we may know
that you are gods! Do anything, good or bad, that we may be awed and see.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%;">If the gods of the nations have any reality, says
the L</span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 125%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">ORD</span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%;"> through his prophet Isaiah, let
them prove it by revealing the future. The challenge thrown down by Israel’s
God to the gods of the nations was a challenge he himself could accept. Just as
Elijah’s challenge to the prophets of Baal to call down fire from heaven was a
test only an omnipotent deity could successfully pass, the ability to
accurately foretell the future is the mark of the all-powerful, all-wise,
all-knowing God. In Isaiah 46:9-10, Adonai declares: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 125%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Bear in mind what happened of old; for I am God,
and there is none else, I am divine and there is none like Me. I foretell the
end from the beginning, and from the start, things that had not occurred. I say:
My plan shall be fulfilled; I will do all I have purposed. I summoned that
swooping bird from the East, from a distant land, the man for My purpose. I
have spoken, so I will bring it to pass; I have designed it, so I will complete
it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">For the purpose of
this paper, and to raise the issue from the realm of the purely theoretical, I
propose dealing first with how I responded to Eliyohu’s challenge at the time
and, secondly, the way my thinking on the verse has developed since.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%;">My initial response to Eliyohu was that if Daniel’s
prophecy concerning the indestructible kingdom of heaven was not fulfilled at
its pre-ordained time, Daniel was a false prophet because according to Dt.
18:22, ‘If the prophet speaks in the name of the L</span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 125%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">ORD</span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%;"> and the oracle does not come true, that oracle
was not spoken by the L</span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 125%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">ORD</span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%;">; the
prophet has uttered it presumptuously.’ <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%;">Eliyohu emphatically denied that Daniel was a false
prophet even though, according to his understanding, the everlasting kingdom of
2:44 had failed to materialize. Seeing he was overlooking the implication of
the words, ‘in the time of those kings,’
I asked who the four kings, in whose days the kingdom would be established, were.
Eliyohu didn’t know.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 18px;"><b>The Kingdom and the kingdoms</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%;">Daniel was written in the sixth century BC, at
the time of the Babylonian captivity, and is a remarkable example of prophecy
according to the parameters established in Dt. 18 and Is. 41 and 46. In chapter
2, Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had a dream, the meaning of which was
revealed by God to Daniel. In the dream, the king had seen a colossal statue
with a head of gold, breast and arms of silver, belly and thighs of bronze and
legs of iron. According to Daniel’s interpretation of the king’s dream, the
various metals symbolized successive kingdoms that would rule over the Jewish
people, beginning with Babylon the head. With few exceptions, biblical scholars
agree that the following kingdoms were Medo-Persia, Greece and Rome. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 125%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%;">The revelation of the establishment of the
kingdom of heaven becomes the major motif throughout the rest of Daniel, particularly
in the second half of the book. Following the fall of Babylon, the Jews came
under the dominion of three further powers and the prophecy is clear: the kingdom
of heaven was to be established within a divinely-ordained time period. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 125%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">After his return to the States, Eliyohu emailed to say
he had done some research into Daniel 2:44 and had been informed that Rashi,
whom he considered to be ‘the best commentator around,’ said the kings of Dan.
2:44 were actually King Messiah!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 125%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">What Rashi in fact said was quite the opposite of what
Eliyohu claimed. In his Commentary, on 2:37 Rashi wrote, ‘Every mention of ‘king’
in Daniel refers to an earthly king, except this one [King of kings], which he
said in reference to the Holy One, blessed be He, and this is what it means:
The King of kings, Who is the God of heaven.’<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 125%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Leaving aside Rashi’s assertion that the title ‘king
of kings’ is not a reference to Nebuchadnezzar, he and the ‘Sages of blessed
memory’ (see Shevu’oth 35b) were agreed that every other king in Daniel is an
earthly king. Therefore, apart from the fact that the reference in 2:44 is to <i>four</i> kings, Rashi and the Sages agree
that the kings are ‘earthly’ kings, not the Messiah. On verse 44, Rashi
comments that the phrase ‘in the days of these kings’ is a reference to ‘<i>when the kingdom of Rome is still in
existence</i>’! On the clause, ‘the God Of heaven will set up a kingdom,’ Rashi
says this is ‘The kingdom of the Holy One, blessed be He, which will never be
destroyed, is the kingdom of the Messiah. it will crumble and destroy It will
crumble and destroy all these kingdoms.’<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 125%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Rashi, who according to Eliyohu is ‘the best
commentator around,’ states that the indestructible kingdom of Messiah had to
be established in the days of the Roman Empire. Thus, Daniel 2 lays a
foundation for understanding Daniel 9:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 125%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 125%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Know therefore
and understand that from the going out of the word to restore and build
Jerusalem to the coming of an anointed one, a prince, there shall be seven
weeks. Then for sixty-two weeks it shall be built again with squares and moat,
but in a troubled time. And after the sixty-two weeks, an anointed one shall be
cut off and shall have nothing. And the people of the prince who is to come
shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. Its end shall come with a flood, and
to the end there shall be war. Desolations are decreed’ (Dan 9:25f, English
Standard Version).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 125%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">In the second half of his book, Daniel experiences a
vision in which he sees the four kingdoms of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream from a
different perspective. In chapter 2, the Babylonian king sees his kingdom and
the kingdoms that succeed Babylon in terms of declining magnificence and glory.
In chapter 7 Daniel sees the same kingdoms as ravenous monsters preying on God’s
people, and in the chapters that follow we have the equivalent of the director’s
commentary on the vision: The world is in chaos; there are monsters on the
loose; but the kingdom of God is coming and when it does God’s people will be
delivered. The kingdom is not imminent but it will come: ‘Seventy weeks are
decreed about your people and your holy city, to finish the transgression, to
put an end to sin, and to atone for iniquity, to bring in everlasting
righteousness, to seal both vision and prophet, and to anoint a most holy place’
(Dan 9:24). The ‘seventy weeks’ of Dan. 9:24 is a clarification of ‘in the days
of those kings’ in 2:44. The more precise ‘seventy weeks’ sharpens up the more
general ‘in the days of those kings’. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 125%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><b>Messianic expectation in the Second Temple period</b></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 125%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">In the Tanakh, the nearest thing we have to a
systematic revelation of the Messiah is the book of Daniel and yet when we open
the pages of the New Testament, in the Gospels we are confronted with intense Messianic
expectation: ‘The people were in expectation, and all were questioning in their
hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Messiah’ (Lk. 3:15). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 125%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Even among the Samaritans, who accepted only the
authority of the five books of Moses, there was an expectation of the coming of
Messiah: ‘The woman said to him, ‘I know that Messiah is coming (he who is
called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things’’ (Jn. 4:25).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 125%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">It is also apparent from the four Gospels that first
century Jews were anything but vague in their thinking about the coming Messiah.
They believed, for example, that the Messiah would be a descendant of David
(Mt. 22:42 ), that he would be born in David’s ancestral town of Bethlehem, (Mt.
2:4ff; Jn. 7:42), that he would be a prophet (Jn. 1:25; 4:25, 29), that he
would work miracles (Mt. 11:4; Mk. 15:32; Jn. 7:31) and that he would be the Son of God (Mt. 16:16; Mk. 14:61; <br />Jn. 1:49).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 125%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">What was the cause of the Messianic speculation in the
period of the Second Temple? Although Daniel’s prophecy of the kingdom of God
must have stimulated the faith of many in Israel, in the period immediately
following the prophecy and even after the return of the exiles there appears to
have been no anticipation of the imminent appearance of the Messiah. The post-exilic
prophets Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi lived under the rule of the
Persians – the second of Daniel’s four kingdoms – and were occupied primarily with
spurring on the people to rebuild the temple. In the inter-Testamental period, after
the Maccabees defeated the successor of Alexander the Greek, no one hailed
Judah the Maccabee as the Messiah. A century after Judah, however, we know from
the Gospels and Josephus that Messianic fervour was riding high. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 125%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">In Acts 5:36f, the great Rabbi Gamliel reminded the
Sanhedrin that two would-be Messiahs had already made their appearance: ‘Some
time ago Theudas appeared, claiming to be somebody, and about four hundred men
rallied to him. He was killed, all his followers were dispersed, and it all
came to nothing. After him, Judas the Galilean appeared in the days of the
census and led a band of people in revolt. He too was killed, and all his
followers were scattered’ (Acts 5:36f).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 125%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I once attended a lecture in London by the Jewish
scholar Hyam Maccabee. Although Maccabee, rejects the New Testament he stated
to his largely Jewish audience that Gamliel’s address in Acts 5 is ‘authentic’
because in rabbinic tradition Gamliel is held in high esteem for his
moderation: ‘Since Gamaliel the Elder died, reverence for the law has ceased
and purity and moderation are vanished’ (<i>Sotah</i>
49a).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 125%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Similarly, but in greater detail, Josephus records:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 125%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 125%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Now it came to
pass, while Fadus was procurator of Judea, that a certain magician, whose name
was Theudas, persuaded a great part of the people to take their effects with
them, and follow him to the river Jordan; for he told them he was a prophet,
and that he would, by his own command, divide the river, and afford them an
easy passage over it; and many were deluded by his words. However, Fadus did
not permit them to make any advantage of his wild attempt, but sent a troop of
horsemen out against them; who, falling upon them unexpectedly, slew many of
them and took many of them alive. They also took Theudas alive, and cut off his
head, and carried it to Jerusalem… besides this, the sons of Judas of Galilee
were now slain; I mean of that Judas who caused the people to revolt, when
Cyrenius came to take an account of the estates of the Jews… (<i>Antiquities of
the Jews</i>, XX, iv,1,2). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 125%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><b>Is Daniel among the prophets?</b></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 125%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> It is significant that in the Jewish division of the
books of the Bible, Daniel is not included in the Prophets nor is the book
included in the annual cycle of synagogue readings. Instead, Daniel is found in
the third division of the Hebrew Bible known as the <i>Ketuvim</i>, the ‘Writings,’
which includes Psalms, Ecclesiastes and the two books of Chronicles.
Nevertheless, in spite of Daniel’s exclusion from the prophetic section of the
Jewish Bible and from the synagogue readings, a rabbinic ruling reveals that
Daniel is indeed a prophetic book and that his book reveals the time of the
coming of Messiah. The Talmudic tractate <i>Megillah</i> informs us that ‘the <i>Targum</i>
of the Prophets was composed by Jonathan ben Uzziel under the guidance of the
prophets Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi and that ben Uzziel sought to reveal the
inner meaning of the <i>Ketuvim</i>, the section of the Bible that includes the
book of Daniel. However, says <i>Megillah</i> 3a, a Bath Kol forbade ben Uzziel
to reveal the inner meaning of the Ketuvim because in it ‘the date of the
Messiah is foretold’!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 125%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">We possess a Targum on every book of the <i>Ketuvim</i>
except the book of Daniel because, says the Talmud, in that book is contained
the date of the Messiah. Josephus strengthens the theory that Daniel is the
book in which the date of Messiah is contained when he says, ‘We believe that
Daniel conversed with God; for he did not only prophesy of future events, as
did the other prophets, but also determined <i>the
time of their accomplishment</i>’ (<i>Antiquities</i>, Book 10, ch 11, v7).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 125%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The Dead Sea Scrolls reveal that the Essene Community
at Qumran understood Daniel 9 to contain a revelation of the time of the coming
of Messiah. Scroll 11Q13, <i>The Coming of Melchizedek</i>, says:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 125%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 125%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">This visitation
is the Day of Salvation that He has decreed through Isaiah the prophet
concerning all the captives, inasmuch as Scripture says, ‘How beautiful upon
the mountains are the feet of the messenger who announces peace, who brings
good news, who announces salvation, who says to Zion ‘Your [God] reigns’’ (Isa.
52:7)… ‘The messenger’ is the Anointed of the spirit, of whom Daniel spoke, ‘After
the sixty-two weeks, an Anointed one shall be cut off’ (Dan. 9:26). (<i>The
Dead Sea Scrolls: A New Translation</i>, Michael Wise, Martin Abegg Jr &
Edward Cook, p 457)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 125%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Lawrence M Wills, in <i>The Jewish Study Bible</i>, observes that ‘Daniel was evidently
considered a prophet at Qumran and elsewhere in early Judaism (Josephus, <i>Antiquities</i> 10:266-68), but because
prefigurations of Christ and Christian resurrection were seen in Daniel by the
early Church, the rabbinic tradition hesitated to embrace the visions of
Daniel.’ <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 125%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The heightened Messianic fervour among Second Temple
Jews confirms that the Jews of that period understood they were living in the
time of Daniel’s fourth kingdom and therefore were expecting the Messianic
Kingdom to break into world history. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 125%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><b>Guess who's coming to Seder</b></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 125%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I want to suggest that this Messianic expectation may shed
light on the origin of the mysterious ritual that takes place early in the
Passover Seder, the breaking of the <i>afikomen</i>. In <i>A Popular Dictionary
of Judaism</i>, Lydia and Dan
Cohn-Sherbok define <i>afikomen</i> as a ‘Hebrew’ word meaning ‘dessert’! In
fact <i>afikomen</i> is Greek not Hebrew and some <i>believe the term</i> derives
from the <i>Greek</i> word for ‘dessert,’ <i>epikomoi</i>.
Others suggest it comes from <i>epi</i> <i>komon</i>, a call for after dinner
entertainment, while others think it derives from <i>epikomion</i>, a ‘festival
song’.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 125%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">All these theories, however, are almost certainly
incorrect. In 1925, the German scholar Robert Eisler proposed that the <i>afikomen</i>
was part of the Passover observed by Jews at the time of Jesus and that the
broken matzah represented the Messiah. Confirmation for Eisler’s theory came to
light in the 1930s when a Greek copy of <i>Peri</i> <i>Pascha</i> (‘On the
Passover’), written by Melito, the second-century bishop of Sardis, was
discovered. The biblical scholar Frank Moore Cross described <i>Peri</i> <i>Pascha</i>
as ‘nothing less than a Christian Passover Haggadah’ and in it Melito twice
refers to Jesus as the ‘one who is coming (<i>afikomen</i>) out of heaven to
the earth’! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 125%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Nevertheless, Eisler’s thesis was opposed by both
Jewish and Christian scholars and was largely forgotten until 1966 when David
Daube, a Jewish scholar at Oxford University, revived it and produced further
documentation to support Eisler’s theory. Daube argued that the term <i>afikomen</i>
was derived from the Greek verb <i>afikomenos</i> meaning ‘the Coming One’ or ‘He
who has come’ and that the ‘Coming One’ was none other than the Messiah. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 125%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">In a lecture entitled ‘He that Cometh’ given at St Paul’s
Cathedral under the auspices of the London Diocesan Council for
Christian-Jewish Understanding, Daube set forth a case that the unleavened
bread Jesus gave to his disciples at the Last Supper was the <i>afikomen</i>.
When Jesus announced, ‘This is my body,’ said Daube, he was making use of an
existing prophetic tradition to reveal himself as the Messiah. According to
Daube, the messianic symbolism was eventually lost, deliberately distorted or
possibly suppressed by rabbinic authorities, giving rise to the later
interpretations of the word as a ‘dessert’ or an ‘after-dinner entertainment’. Perhaps
official Judaism abandoned the existing customs surrounding the middle matzah
precisely because the disciples of Yeshua adopted them. Also, as the Church
became increasingly Gentile and lost sight of its Jewish roots, the Passover
elements of the Lord’s Supper probably became submerged beneath heated
discussions about transubstantiation, the ‘Real Presence’ and the efficacy of
the sacrament. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 125%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">To this day, Passover is linked in Jewish thinking to
the coming of the Messiah, and at every Passover Seder a place is set at table
for Elijah, the forerunner of Messiah. If Eisler and Daube were correct in
believing that the <i>afikomen</i> ritual
existed in some form at the time of Yeshua, it would make eminent sense to
suppose that it was introduced to the Passover Seder by the rabbis after Rome,
the fourth and final beast of Dan. 7, began to rule the land of Israel.
Josephus records that at Passover in the first century, anti-Roman feeling ran
higher than usual among the people of Jerusalem and the pilgrims who were there
for the festival, therefore the Roman governor always had a full contingent of
soldiers present to quell any riots. With the great groundswell of Messianic
hope, this would surely be the time for the rabbis to introduce a further
messianic element – the <i>afikomen</i> –
into the Passover, thus reinforcing in the hearts of the people the conviction that
the Messiah was ‘coming’ (c.f. Lk. 2:25 and 24:21). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 125%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><b>A watertight case?</b></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 125%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">As I indicated at the beginning of this paper, Dan.
2:44 is a very powerful proof text for Jesus being the Messiah. When the
implications of the verse are presented to a pious Jew who believes in the
divine inspiration of the Tanakh, it leaves him with little room for manoeuvre
(although, as my colleague Richard Gibson was quick to point out, there is <i>always</i> room to manoeuvre if a person is
fast enough!).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 125%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The verse clearly reveals that the Messianic Kingdom was
to be established no later than the time of the Roman occupation of Israel, a
view endorsed by Rabbi Shlomo Yitzhaki, no less. If Daniel was a true prophet
according to the definition of Dt. 18:18ff, the eternal kingdom of heaven must
be here now. The fact that the empires of Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece and Rome
no longer exist is further proof that the Messianic Kingdom has come. If it has
not, Daniel was a false prophet and his book should be expunged from the Jewish
canon of Scripture. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 125%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Anti-missionary Moshe Shulman attempts to avoid the
point by interpreting the two legs of Nebuchadnezzar’s as ‘a clear reference to
the Eastern and Western Empires,’ of Rome. He then argues that it was ‘during
the time of these kings the kingdom would arise. So it clearly does not apply
to Rome of the time of Jesus.’ <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 125%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Assuming for the sake of argument that the two legs of
the image in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream were indeed the eastern and western empires
established by Diocletian in 285, the kingdom of heaven would have had to be
established in that period and the Roman empire brought to an end. Shulman does
not comment on the fact that less than thirty years after the empire was
divided, in 313 the Edict of Milam would grant Christians freedom of worship
and the Christian faith would become the official religion of the empire. If
the kingdom of heaven was not established while the empire of Rome was still in
existence, then according to Dt. 18, Daniel was a false prophet.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 125%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">It should not be overlooked that according to Dan.
2:34-35, the stone ‘hewn without hands’ that struck the statue ‘became a great
mountain and filled the earth’. No time scale is given for the transition from
stone to mountain. This fits well with Isaiah’s prophecy of the Prince of Peace
whose government and peace increases without end (Is.9:6)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 125%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The question is then bound to arise: ‘If the kingdom
is already here, where is it?’ That question serves only to vindicate Yeshua’s solemn
statement to Nicodemus that to ‘see the kingdom of God,’ one ‘must be born
again’ (Jn. 3:3). Only those ‘born of water and the Spirit’ can ‘enter’ the
Kingdom (Jn. 3:5 c.f. Ezek. 36:25ff) and only those in the Kingdom can ‘see’ it
(Jn. 3:3). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 125%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">If Yeshua was not the Messiah, who established the
kingdom of heaven in the time of the fourth kingdom? Someone must have established
the kingdom in the time of the Roman empire. If it wasn’t Yeshua, who was is
it? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 125%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Here, it seems to me, is a dilemma on a par with C. S.
Lewis’s famous ‘Liar, Lunatic or Lord?’ argument. The verse Eliyohu considered
to be a watertight case against the messiahship of Yeshua actually constitutes
a very case for Paul’s contention that evidence that ‘<i>when the fullness of time had come</i>, God sent forth his Son, born of
woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law’ (Gal.
4:4,5).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 125%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Sources:<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 125%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 125%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Adele Berlin and Marc
Zvi Brettler (Editors). <i>The Jewish Study
Bible</i> (Oxford University Press, 2004)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 125%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 125%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Philip Blackman. <i>Mishnayoth</i>
(Judaica Press, 1963)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 125%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 125%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Deborah Bleicher Carmichael. ‘David
Daube on the Eucharist and the Passover Seder,’ in <i>New Testament Backgrounds</i>
(Sheffield, 1997)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 125%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 125%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Lydia and Dan Cohn-Sherbok. <i>A
Popular Dictionary of Judaism</i> (Curzon, 1995)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 125%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 125%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">The Complete Tanakh with Rashi</span></i><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 125%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"> (CD-Rom. The
Judaica Press, 1998)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 125%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 125%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Herbert Danby. <i>The Mishnah</i>
(Oxford University Press, 1980)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 125%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 125%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">David Daube. <i>He That Cometh</i>
(London: Diocesan Council, 1966) <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 125%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 125%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Ronald L. Eisenberg. <i>The JPS
Guide to Jewish Traditions</i> (Jewish Publication Society, 2004)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 125%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 125%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Encyclopaedia Judaica</span></i><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 125%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"> (Keter Publishing House, 1972)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 125%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 125%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Richard Harvey. <i>Mapping Messianic
Jewish Theology: A Constructive Approach</i> (Paternoster, 2009)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 125%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 125%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Melito of Sardis. ‘On
Pascha’ in <i>On Pascha and Fragments</i>,
translated and edited by Stuart George Hall, Clarendon Press, 1979)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 125%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 125%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Michael Rydelnik. <i>The Messianic Hope: Is the Old Testament
really Messianic?</i> (B&H Publishing Group, 2010)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 125%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 125%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Moshe Shulman, <i>Judaism Answers</i>
(http://judaismsanswer.com/DrBrown-Dan%209-4.19.htm)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 125%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 125%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">The Soncino Talmud</span></i><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 125%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"> (Soncino Press, no date)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 125%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 125%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Tanakh-The Holy Scriptures. The New JPS Translation
According to the Traditional Hebrew Text</span></i><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 125%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"> (The
Jewish Publication Society, 1988). Unless otherwise stated, all Old Testament
references are from this version.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 125%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 125%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Isaac Troki, <i>Faith Strengthened</i> (Ktav Publishing
House, 1970)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 125%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 125%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">William Whiston (translator). <i>The
Works of Flavius Josephus</i> (Milner and Company, no date)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 125%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 125%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Geoffrey Wigoder (Editor-in-Chief) <i>The
New Encyclopedia of Judaism</i> (New York University Press, 2002)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 125%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 125%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Michael Wise, Martin Abegg Jr,
Edward Cook. <i>The Dead Sea Scrolls: A New Translation</i> (Harper Collins,
1996) <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 125%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 125%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Edward J Young, <i>A Commentary on Daniel</i> (Banner of Truth Trust, 1972)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 125%; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: right; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
Mike Moorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02475677258430349492noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8846031455080482087.post-56724743192154045812013-03-11T04:57:00.003-07:002013-03-11T05:02:15.140-07:00Passover in Carnhell Green<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<img src="http://s4.hubimg.com/u/3319695_f520.jpg" /></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span>
<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">On Good Friday, I'm conducting a Passover Demonstration at <a href="http://www.carnhellgreen.co.uk/" target="_blank">Carnhell Green Fellowship</a> in Carnhell Green, </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">near Camborne in Cornwall. </span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">During the evening I'll be explaining the significance of the Passover for Christians, what the symbolic foods represent, and how Jesus is pictured in the Passover celebration and story. And there will be a Passover meal.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The cost is £10 per person and half price for children aged 16 years and under. There will also be a crèche which will free up parents to enjoy their evening.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Admission is by ticket only, and tickets are available from: <a href="http://www.chymorvah.co.uk/" target="_blank">Chymorvah House, Marazion</a>, Cornwall, TR17 0DQ (by post). You can order by phone on 01736 710497, by Fax: 01736 710508, or by e-mail: info@chymorvah.co.uk. Most credit cards are accepted.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Carnhell Green Fellowship is in Carnhell Green, near Camborne, Cornwall, TR14 0LY. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The time is 5.15 p.m for 6.00 p.m.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The event is being organised by <a href="http://www.christian.org.uk/news/christians-lose-appeal-in-bb-case/" target="_blank">Peter and Hazelmary Bull</a>, t</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">he Christian owners of </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Chymorvah B&B </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">who were taken to court for 'discriminating' against a gay couple. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Last year Peter and Hazelmary Bull were ordered to pay £3,600 in damages to Steven Preddy and Martyn Hall, a gay couple in a civil partnership.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Peter and Hazelmary are a very brave couple who have suffered much for the cause of Christ and Truth and I would encourage you, if you live near Carnhell Green, to support the event.</span></div>
<br />
<br />Mike Moorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02475677258430349492noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8846031455080482087.post-6051930233777094442013-03-09T14:26:00.003-08:002013-03-09T14:26:25.855-08:00Hamas’ blockade against Gaza<br />
<div style="line-height: 125%; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: center;">
<img height="265" src="http://dovcoder.files.wordpress.com/2011/11/gaza-aid.jpg?w=300&h=199" width="400" /></div>
<div style="line-height: 125%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%;">Since Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza in 2005, the
Jewish state has been working with the Palestinian Authority to ensure that
regular food supplies enter Gaza. But last Monday Hamas seized control of Gaza’s
border crossings from the PA and promptly closed the gates, leaving dozens of
heavy trucks loaded with perishable items and humanitarian aid sitting idly on
the border, unable to <a href="http://www.israeltoday.co.il/NewsItem/tabid/178/nid/23717/Default.aspx?ref=newsletter-20130308" title="Click to Continue > by Solid Savings"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">enter</span></a> the coastal enclave.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 125%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%;">Israeli General Eitan Dangot, the officer in charge
of coordinating aid transfers, stressed that Israel continues to facilitate the
entry of goods to Gaza, and will gladly <a href="http://www.israeltoday.co.il/NewsItem/tabid/178/nid/23717/Default.aspx?ref=newsletter-20130308" title="Click to Continue > by Solid Savings"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">resume</span></a> that practice once
Hamas opens the border. He further noted that Hamas is inflicting great harm on
its own people in a misguided attempt to score PR points with the international
community.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 125%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 125%;">So where are all those blockaders, boycotters, disinvesters and sanction advocates when the poor of Gaza really need them?</span></div>
Mike Moorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02475677258430349492noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8846031455080482087.post-42471680946302828652013-03-08T09:53:00.000-08:002013-03-08T09:53:11.514-08:00Ed Miliband speaks out on Israel<div style="text-align: center;">
<img src="http://shiftinggrounds.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Ed-Miliband-006-460x270.jpg" /></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>What is the world coming to! A Jewish left-wing, liberal political figure stands up for Israel!</b></span><br />
<div class="post-content" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #555555; line-height: 14.84375px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; color: #444444; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; line-height: 1.5em;">During a public meeting of around 300 people last night,.</span><span style="font-family: inherit;">Labour Party leader Ed Miliband pledged his support for Israel and declared total opposition to those who support boycotts against the Jewish State. </span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; color: #444444; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">In an event organised by the UK Board of Jewish Deputies, Miliband touched on his own personal connections to Israel, recalling that his grandmother had settled in Tel Aviv after the Second World War: 'I have huge respect, admiration and indeed a debt…to Israel for the sanctuary it gave my grandmother – Israel gave her comfort.' </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Asked by a member of the audience whether he is a Zionist, the Labour leader replied, 'Yes, I consider myself a supporter of Israel.'</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; color: #444444; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Miliband then said that although he does 'not always agree' with Israel’s government and that people should 'understand the anger and dismay about settlements,' he is 'intolerant of those who question Israel’s right to exist. We should have no tolerance for those who go down that road.' </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Expanding on this theme, the Leader of the Opposition continued, 'I take anti-Semitism very seriously. Any kind of delegitimisation of Israel is something we should call out for what it is and not tolerate it.'</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">As a result, Miliband firmly stated, 'I think the boycotts of Israel are totally wrong. We should have no tolerance for boycotts. I would say that to any trade union leaders.'</span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; color: #444444; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">He affirmed his commitment to a two-state solution on several occasions and talked about the need to 'encourage moderate' Palestinians, hoping that Britain could be an 'honest broker' in the process. Addressing Iran’s nuclear development, Miliband said that although he supported the dual approach of diplomacy and sanctions, we should not take any option off the table.'</span></div>
</div>
Mike Moorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02475677258430349492noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8846031455080482087.post-73883942124462054322013-02-05T15:45:00.000-08:002013-05-18T11:06:09.620-07:00The night the world went mad<div style="text-align: center;">
<img height="300" src="http://fc08.deviantart.net/fs20/i/2007/273/c/4/Big_Ben_and_the_sky_by_paweldomaradzki.jpg" width="400" /></div>
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I just heard the result of the Commons' vote on gay marriage and some of the debate as I was driving. I felt like I was listening to a state funeral for common sense and intelligence. Tonight was the night when MPs of all sides, in a fit of midwinter madness, threw what brains they had out of the window of the House of Commons to drift swiftly down the Thames to the sea.<br />
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I was furious to hear one MP liken the bar on gay marriage to the suffering of African Americans in the Deep South of a bygone era. He rejected the 'different-but-equal' thinking of civil partnerships. That reasoning, he said, was the reason behind separate toilets, separate drinking fountains, separate schools buses and separate restaurants in Alabama and Mississippi. Every black person on the planet should feel deeply insulted by that analogy. We do not segregate gay people in public places. Homosexuals have the same rights as everyone else. No gay men or lesbians are suffering simply because they are not allowed to marry.<br />
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But it once again demonstrates that gay propaganda is not about rational discourse. The only reason the homosexual lifestyle is now widely accepted as 'normal' is that since the 1970s gay people have been uniformly portrayed in TV soap operas as warm, sensitive, witty, caring human beings. By the same token 'religious' (read Christian) people have been stereotyped as self-righteous busy-bodies, possessing not one drop of the milk of human kindness.<br />
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In the snippets of the debate I heard, there was no mention of morality. Black people and Jews were not persecuted for their lifestyles; they were hated (and still are) because they were black or because they were Jewish. Gay men have chosen a lifestyle that spreads terrible diseases within their own community but they are not content to be 'different-but-equal'. They want to be, judging from remarks in tonight's debate, 'same-and-equal'. Well, if you think <i>that</i>, someone needs to explain to you about the birds and the bees! To change the metaphor, oranges and apples might equally be fruit but oranges are <i>not </i>apples.<br />
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One young man outside Parliament hoped one day to marry one of his lovers and have a family. Does he have any idea how stupid that <i>sounds</i>? Does he have and idea how idiotic that remark <i>is</i>? If he marries one of his male lovers, they will <i>never </i>be able to have a family!<br />
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Let me be quite clear here. I'm not a bigot. I do not hate gay people. Just because you say someone is wrong does not mean you don't like them, still less that you hate them. I'm just exasperated by this Pythonesque display of Postmodern idiocy in high places at taxpayer's expense. The only way we now know some of our MPs have brains is because they appear to have addled them! We are being ruled by knaves and fools and the worst of it is that the rest of us will suffer for their stupidity.<br />
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May God have mercy on us all!<br />
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<br />Mike Moorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02475677258430349492noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8846031455080482087.post-87637542529419974682013-01-30T07:52:00.002-08:002013-01-30T08:08:19.269-08:00Thick as a brick in the wall<div style="text-align: center;">
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Rupert Murdoch, as we know, has had to once again swallow a large piece of humble following the outcry over Gerald Scarfe's Holocaust Memorial Day cartoon in the Sunday Times. Scarfe himself, in what I think must be for him an unprecedented step, said he was sorry. But it was a qualified apology. He did not know, he said, that the cartoon was to appear on Holocaust Memorial Day. From this we may assume that on any other day it would have been appropriate to caricature the Israeli Prime Minister as a bloodthirsty, genocidal monster using Palestinian citizens as bricks in the bloody wall of his political career. It is worth remembering that the cartoon as such was not a protest against the wall erected by the Israelis to keep suicide bombers out of Israel. Entitled, 'Israeli Elections... Will Cementing Peace Continue,' it was a claim that the the Israel Prime Minister is not serious about peace and that he is murdering Palestinians in pursuit of political power. In other words: a vote for Netanyahu is vote for fascism. If that really is the case, bring it on. Let's have more of the same, especially on Holocaust Memorial Days.<br />
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Why did the Sunday Times publish the cartoon when they did? The way the thinking goes is something like this: We all sympathise with the Jews. They have suffered so much and we sympathise with them to the point that we've now set aside a day each year on which we share in their grief and sorrow. But look at how they behave. The people who have suffered so much are now inflicting pain on their powerless neighbours. Those who endured the Holocaust over a six-year period have been perpetrating a holocaust on the Palestinians for almost 65 years. Those who were oppressed by the Nazis have themselves become Nazis.<br />
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If all that is true, Murdoch and Scarfe owe Israel no apology. If the state of Israel is an apartheid, genocidal regime run by Nazis, it deserves no sympathy. The sooner the current regime is replaced the better. And if they can't elect a government that respects basic human rights then the state deserves to be dismantled.<br />
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I loved Gerald Scarfe's anti-American, anti-South Africa, anti-Rhodesia cartoons in the sixties and seventies. Some white Americans, white South Africans and white Rhodesians were incandescent with rage over Scarfe's hyper-exaggerated depictions of Richard Nixon's nose (see above) and Ian Smith's glass eye. But whatever one's opinions about US troops in Vietnam and white minority rule in Rhodesia and South Africa back then, American bombs really were dropping on the villages of South East Asia, and black South Africans and Rhodesians really were suffering under the apartheid regimes in those countries.<br />
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And that's the entire point. Though Scarfe's portrait of Binyamin Netanyahu is positively photographic compared to the excoriating caricatures of politicians he produced in the 1960s, the idea that the Prime Minister of Israel is massacring Palestinian civilians for his own political ends (or for any ends for that matter) is a palpable lie. And for Murdoch's newspaper to feature it on Holocaust Memorial Day compounds the injury.<br />
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I wonder what Gerald Scarfe's reaction would be if a fellow satirical cartoonist portrayed him at his drawing board, pen dripping with blood surrounded by blood-stained cheques being watched at work by the tear-stained, traumatised eyes of women and children from the bombed Israeli city of Sderot.<br />
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<br />Mike Moorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02475677258430349492noreply@blogger.com0Sevenoaks, Kent, UK51.272410000000008 0.1908980000000610751.192940500000006 0.029536500000061083 51.35187950000001 0.35225950000006107tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8846031455080482087.post-6185351420424398812013-01-27T07:40:00.003-08:002013-01-30T08:08:01.287-08:00Gerald Scarfe cements hate on Holocaust Memorial Day<br />
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<b>Let me say first of all that I have always admired Gerald Scarfe's cartoons. When I was a teenager I wanted to draw like him. He is the Hogarth of the 20th and 21st centuries. Of course, his drawings are often crude and scatalogical but, then, he feels passionately about his themes. And he obviously feels passionately about the plight of the Palestinians. But Scarfe's misplaced rage in the cartoon above bears the clear hallmark of 'zeal without knowledge'. </b></div>
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<b>I know the point he is making: A people who have suffered so much are causing suffering to others. And who could object - if Scarfe was right. But he is wrong. Dead wrong.</b></div>
<b style="color: #333333;">The following was put out today by </b><a href="http://honestreporting.com/cementing-hate-on-holocaust-memorial-day/" style="color: #333333; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">Honest Reporting</a><b style="color: #333333;"> and it is worth reading </b><a href="http://www.thecommentator.com/article/2577/sunday_times_blood_libel_cartoon_on_holocaust_memorial_day_no_less" target="_blank"><b style="color: #333333;">Rashim Kassam's response </b><span style="color: black;"><b>to the drawing. </b></span></a><br />
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Today is Holocaust Memorial Day. Traditionally, and in line with common decency, it is a day to remember the atrocities of the Second World War, particularly the six million Jewish people slaughtered at the hands of Hitler.</div>
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For some, however, Holocaust Memorial Day is transfiguring into a day that ‘the Jews’ or ‘Israel’ (for they will use these terms interchangeably), are to be attacked or set up, completely leaving behind the idea that the country came into existence in the wake of the greatest single crime in history.</div>
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Last week, it was <a href="http://www.thecommentator.com/article/2567/british_member_of_parliament_claims_liberated_jews_perpetuate_atrocities_compares_mid_east_conflict_to_holocaust" style="text-decoration: initial;"><span style="color: black;">Member of Parliament David Ward MP</span></a>, the case of whom highlights an ever growing contingent of anti-Israel sentiment within the British government. These are the fools who would have you believe that Israel’s security barrier is 100 percent concrete, 100 feet tall, and built from the blood of Palestinians.</div>
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And who could possibly blame them for having this ill-informed idea, when their fellow MPs invite them to one-sided trips to the West Bank while at the same time referrin<span style="color: #333333;">g to </span><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQLKpY3NdeA&feature=player_embedded" style="color: #600000; text-decoration: initial;">Hamas and Hezbollah as ‘friends’</a><span style="color: #333333;"> (more on this tomorrow).</span></div>
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But more to the point, who can blame them when some of the country’s smartest media outlets present Israel and its leaders in this particular light: the large-nosed Jew, hunched over a wall, building with the blood of Palestinians as they writhe in pain within it.</div>
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For this is exactly what the Sunday Times has today done; not simply treading the fine line between criticism and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_libel" style="color: #600000; text-decoration: initial;">blood libel</a>, but indeed spitting all over it, leaving it for dust, and careering head first into anti-Semitismsville.</div>
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“Will cementing peace continue?” reads the caption beneath the image of a Quasimodo-like Netanyahu. As if this half-hearted attempt at a pun would help masquerade the overt racism within the image. No.</div>
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In conversation with a friend of mine recently, I was asked, “Do you think in 200 years time, people will have forgotten the Holocaust, or believe that it was a myth?” I naively responded, “No. I believe there are enough good people in the world to ensure that doesn’t happen.” At the time, I would never have thought the editors of the Sunday Times were in amongst those who would seek, in true <i>Der Sturmer</i> fashion, to use Holocaust Memorial Day to publish a blood libel, and knowingly undermine the memory of one of the worst genocides ever.</div>
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I guess I was wrong on that count. I sure hope I’m not wrong on the other.</div>
Mike Moorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02475677258430349492noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8846031455080482087.post-48971310288928773882012-11-24T12:58:00.001-08:002012-11-24T12:58:12.715-08:00 Après moi, le déluge<div id="pop-image-container">
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Why is everyone surprised that Egypt has a new Pharaoh? And why are news interviewers shocked that President Mursi’s supporters can claim with straight faces that a greater, more stringent dictatorship will lead to a greater, freer, liberal and democratic Egypt. <br />
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Not only do we not learn from history; we don’t even learn from recent history.<br />
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Every revolution and coup in the Middle East in the last forty years has produced greater dictators than the ones ousted. One devil is cast out and seven more, even more evil, take his place. The Shah of Persian was replaced by the mullahs of Iran, paving the way for a beady-eyed, Holocaust-denying, Hitler wannabe who wants to finish what his German counterpart started. And no leftist liberal in the West thinks he means it when he says he will destroy the Zionist entity.<br />
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Hamas is the democratically elected government in Gaza, as we are reminded by Israel’s critics. But the last election in Gaza was seven years ago; when will the next election take place? Hamas has no political opponents to be afraid of; they killed them all off after their rise to absolute power. The Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt supports Mursi’s measures to safeguard the revolution, which means there will be no more elections in that country for the foreseeable future. In both Gaza and Egypt the persecution of Christians has increased since the two Islamic parties came to power.<br />
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After Sadam Hussein was ousted from power, the situation in Iraq went from bad to worse. And what will happen there will be the same that is happening in the Israel/’Palestine’; the Islamists will continue to terrorise until they achieve their totalitarian objective. <br />
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These countries were ruled by devils but were replaced by far worse devils. <br />
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It looks set to be the same in Syria. But Syria has stockpiles of chemical weapons and, according to some, Sadam’s weapons of mass destruction. At least the current regime in Syria made no attempt to deploy the barbaric instruments of warfare at their disposal against Israel but there is no guarantee that a rebel regime won’t.<br />
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What will it take to wake western leaders up to the fact that Muslim countries don’t think like we do? What will it take to make our leaders realise that these radical governments cannot be trusted. When will we remember that they are the heirs of the leaders of Arab nations who met in Khartoum in 1967 after the Six Day War to declare there would be no recognition of Israel, no negotiations with Israel and no peace with Israel.<br />
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Hence, last week we witnessed the farce of Egypt, whose government has said it will unilaterally tear up the peace agreement with Israel it signed over thirty years ago, brokering a cease fire between Israel and Hamas. It should have come as no surprise, then, that Gaza continued to fire missiles at Israel after the cease-fire came into place.<br />
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What hope of peace is there? There can be no possible political solution but at least let’s remember what the situation really is and stop bullying Israel to ‘be serious about peace’. Israel is the only party in this conflict situation that can’t afford <em>not</em> to be serious about peace. <br />
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Mike Moorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02475677258430349492noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8846031455080482087.post-1795765616766581602012-11-20T12:31:00.001-08:002012-11-20T12:31:11.839-08:00Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem 2<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><img class="alignleft size-full wp-image-5649" height="250" id="_x0000_i1025" src="http://www.embassyofisrael.co.uk/news/files/2012/11/israel-gaza-rocket_2399203b.jpg" width="400" /></span><br />
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<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"></span>A caller on today’s Jeremy Vine show on Radio 2 thought Israel was over-reacting to the ‘rockets’ fired from Gaza; he thought Hamas was making the area like England on November 5! <br />
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I’ve just spoken to my friend and colleague David Zadok in Israel. Today he was at a meeting in Jerusalem that was interrupted when missiles were fired from Gaza. The meeting hastily adjourned to a bomb shelter. David also made pastoral calls to Ashkelon, where elderly church members are living in terror.<br />
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The Embassy of Israel in the UK released this update today, Tuesday, 20th November.<br />
MISSILES<br />
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More than 1,100 unguided missiles have been fired at Israel since Saturday 10th November of which 900+ were fired since the start of Operation Pillar of Defence (14 Nov.) The Iron Dome anti-missile defence system has intercepted over 300 missiles, preventing them from striking populated areas in Israel. 45 per cent of Israelis are within rocket range. In the last decade, over 12,800 missiles were fired from Gaza.<br />
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<em><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Forty-five per cent of Israelis are within rocket range - the equivalent of 28 million British civilians under the constant threat of missile launching.</span></em><br />
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CASUALTIES<br />
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Three Israeli civilians killed: Mirah Scharf, 25, Aharon Smadja, 49, and Itzik Amsalem, 24, four in critical condition, six in a moderate condition and 141 lightly injured. On Sunday 18th November, at least seven people were seriously injured in direct hits on a home in Ashkelon and a car in Ofakim. Yesterday, Monday 19th November, a Grad rocket exploded outside an elementary school in Ashkelon. No one was hurt as all schools within a 4o km radius of Gaza are currently closed. Ben Gurion University of the Negev, with 15,000 students, also remains closed.<br />
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<em><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Three Israeli civilians were killed on Thursday morning:</span> <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">Mirah Scharf, 25, Aharon Smadja, 49, and Itzik Amsalem, 24</span></span></em><br />
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MILITARY ACTIONS<br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Operation Pillar of Defence has obtained significant achievements, and the terrorist organisations of Gaza have been hit hard.</span><br />
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The Israel Air Force has significantly deteriorated the long-range Iran-made Fajr missile stores.<br />
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Over the course of the morning (Tuesday 20th November), the IDF targeted eleven terrorist squads who were involved in promoting terrorist activity including the planting of explosive devices and the firing of rockets towards southern Israel. In addition, the IDF targeted 30 underground rocket launchers, as well as a senior terror operative’s hiding place which was used to store weapons and ammunition. As a result, severe damage was inflicted upon the rocket launching capabilities and weapon storage facilities owned by terror organisations operating in the Gaza Strip. Furthermore, tank shells and artillery fire were used.<br />
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Israel has no interest and no ambition in conquering land, but we have to stop Hamas firing at our citizens.<br />
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It must be noted that Israel disengaged unilaterally and completely from the Gaza Strip in 2005. The result of Israel’s disengagement is that Gaza has become a giant ammunition depot. In addition, it provides a breeding ground for terrorist groups to organize and to operate. All this is done under the rule, responsibility and sponsorship of Hamas.<br />
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Israel, as any other state, has the right under international law, and a moral obligation, to act in self-defence, to defend its population and to protect its territory when under attack, as well as to take military action against the terrorist attacks from the Gaza Strip.<br />
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Hamas’ actions are in clear violation of the most fundamental principles of international law, including the principle of distinction, which requires Hamas and other terrorist organizations not only to refrain from directing its attacks at Israeli civilians, but also to clearly distinguish itself from its own civilian population.<br />
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These terrorist organisations consciously and deliberately violate these principles in a repeated manner, by deploying weapons and command centres in densely populated areas, operating from residential areas, and exploiting the civilian population by exposing them to serious harm. They also deliberately direct their fire at the civilian population of Israel. These acts constitute a double war crime.<br />
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Israel directs its actions against the military targets of Hamas and other terrorist organisations. It goes to great lengths to minimise harm to civilians. Israel regrets any injury to civilians and places responsibility squarely on Hamas, which uses the residents of Gaza as human shields. Israel does everything possible to prevent harm to Palestinian civilians. Hamas does everything possible to put Palestinian civilians in harm’s way.<br />
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It should be noted that the IDF made tens of thousands of phone calls to Gaza residents to warn them about the military operation.<br />
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The IAF dropped flyers throughout the Gaza Strip calling for people to distance themselves from known terrorists, weapons stores and launching sites <br />
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In addition, the IDF has called off airstrikes when pilots spotted civilians – even when missiles launched by terrorists were speeding toward their target<br />
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HUMANITARIAN AID<br />
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Israel is making a major effort to maintain the fabric of civilian life in Gaza, despite the situation of current hostilities.<br />
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Sunday 18 November<br />
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Kerem Shalom crossing was open for movement of food, medicine and other goods from Israel despite the ongoing missile attacks on the Israeli population and previous attacks on the crossing.<br />
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The Erez crossing was open, as on every other day of Operation Pillar of Defence. Seventy foreign journalists entered Gaza today by way of Erez, 26 Gazans entered Israel for medical treatment, and 23 foreign nationals, representing NGOs who until now had been prevented by Hamas from leaving the Gaza Strip, departed.<br />
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Tuesday 20 November<br />
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The Kerem Shalom crossing opened on Tuesday morning (20 Nov) to allow the transfer of 120 trucks of humanitarian aid. However, when it was targeted by missile fire from Gaza, the IDF was forced to close the crossing to ensure the safety of all those working at the crossing and passing through it. Only 24 trucks of humanitarian aid managed to make it through the crossings prior to the missile strikes.<br />
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Click here to watch the video<br />
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Mike Moorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02475677258430349492noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8846031455080482087.post-40837380680308137472012-11-17T02:12:00.001-08:002012-11-17T02:20:57.533-08:00Pray for the peace of Jerusalem<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Latest news from Israel.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Fourteen rockets were fired from Gaza at the Bnei Shimon Regional Council area, Beersheba, the Eshkol Regional Council area and the Merhavim Regional Council area in one hour. No injuries or damage were reported. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Magen David Adom treated 20 Israelis on Friday, bringing the total number of people treated by MDA to 74 since the beginning of 'Operation Pillar of Defence' on Wednesday. Of the 20 people tended up to last night Friday, five were lightly injured and 15 were suffering from shock.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Yesterday, the third day of 'Operation Pillar of Defence,' the Israel Air Force struck 238 targets in the Gaza Strip. A total of 105 rockets struck Israel yesterday, while the 'Iron Dome' missile defense system shot down an additional 99 rockets and also destroyed a bomb-laden smuggling tunnel.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Israeli cabinet has approved Defence Minister Ehud Barak's request for 75,000 reserve troops in preparation for a possible ground operation in Gaza. On Thursday, the cabinet approved 30,000 reserve troops, 16,000 of whom the IDF mobilized on Friday.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Terrorists in the Sinai Peninsula launched rockets into Israel last night. The missiles fell near an Israeli village on the southern border, causing some damage but no injuries.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Two rockets were fired at Jerusalem from Gaza at the start of the Sabbath yesterday. Police reported there was 'no indication' that rockets landed in the city, stating that 'most likely, the rockets landed in an open area outside of Jerusalem.' Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack, claiming to have shot 'an improved Kassam,' which it called an M-75 towards Jerusalem. The launch represents the first Hamas rocket attack aimed at Jerusalem.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A friend in Israel mailed me to say: '<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Your prayers are greatly appreciated. Last night, for the first time, a siren was sounded in Jerusalem. Our girls were so frightened (after some of their older friends told them that someone was trying to bomb them) that they could not sleep properly last night. Even today all they can talk about is the 'bad people' trying to kill us. Pray for wisdom in knowing how to quieten them and give them the Peace of the Lord.'</span></span>Mike Moorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02475677258430349492noreply@blogger.com0