Gifts and Calling

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A 'secular' case of Israel

Though I've not been able to track it down, there is apparently a Kairos Journal booklet called Israel and Legitimacy: Modern Achievement vs Islamic Prejudice. The booklet avoids the theology and presents an honest-to-goodness common sense perspective on the issue. The 'Contact Online Weblog' provides a helpful outline of the booklet's case.

1. Islam predominates overwhelmingly in the region (including the West Bank). Her scripture denigrates Jews racially1 and prescribes their subjugation. This attitude is reflected, for example, in the constitutive documents of Hezbollah and Hamas2 and would seem to make conflict intractable.

2. Israel is the only genuine ‘parliamentary democracy’ in the region,3 with its leaders accountable to the people through the many parties that represent them, and the military strictly accountable to these elected leaders.

3. As Franklin Roosevelt observed a century and a half after America’s founding, ‘Democracy cannot succeed unless those who express their choice are prepared to choose wisely. The real safeguard of democracy is education.’4 Because Israel is the educational leader in the region, she offers the best promise for enduring fraternity with the democratic nations of the earth.5

4. The Israeli populace, outnumbered 14 to 1 by its immediate neighbors, sustains the region’s only journalistic powerhouse. Here alone does the expression ‘free press’ ring true. There are more than 40 print newspapers in Israel, with more than 20 of them appearing daily—and contentiously so.6

5. Israelis have distinguished themselves as stewards of the land. As John Kennedy put it, ‘I first saw Palestine in 1939. There the neglect and ruin left by centuries of Ottoman misrule were slowly being transformed by miracles of labor and sacrifice. But Palestine was still a land of promise in 1939, rather than a land of fulfillment. I returned in 1951 to see the grandeur of Israel.’7

6. Israel ‘has more scientists and engineers per capita than any other country,’ and the fruit of their research and technology is a blessing to nations of every ethnicity and conviction.8

7. Israel relies upon the knowledge, resourcefulness, and initiative of its women to keep it strong and fruitful—in the marketplace, journalism, the military, the corporate boardroom, the university, and the halls of government—and educates them equally and fully to that end. This is unique in the region.9

8. Though its record is not spotless, the Israeli Defense Forces train their soldiers in the ‘Purity of Arms,’ characteristic of the Western just war tradition: ‘The soldier shall not employ his weaponry and power in order to harm non-combatants or prisoners of war, and shall do all he can to avoid harming their lives, bodies, honor and property.’10 Terrorism is condemned and not condoned, celebrated, or even rewarded, as it is in the neighborhood.11

9. As England’s chief rabbi, Jonathan Sacks, has put it, ‘Today there are 82 Christian nations and 56 Muslim ones, but only one Jewish one: in a country . . . one quarter of one per cent of the land mass of the Arab world.’12 With the annihilation of one-third the Jews on earth in WWII, it is important that the Diaspora Jewish people have a place to stand, and a place to flee from persecution around the world. In this connection, over 200,000 Russians13and around 100,000 Ethiopians14 have emigrated to Israel in recent decades, the latter through special operations named Moses, Sheba, Joseph, and Solomon.

10. Declarations of the Palestinian refugees’ ‘right of return’ to Israel mask deeper realities — that, before the 1948 conflict, many ‘West Bank’ Arabs (Muslim and Christian alike) opposed Jewish settlement on duly-purchased land (almost 800 square miles);15 that many of those who left did so voluntarily, trusting they could return once Israel was destroyed by the Muslim nations which invaded the day after her founding;16 that of the surrounding Arab nations, only Jordan has granted their brother Arabs a path to citizenship;17 that Jewish refugees from Arab lands have forfeited tens of billions of dollars worth of property, without receiving apologies or compensation;18 that repatriation of the Palestinians and their families would mean demographic suicide for Israel,19 whose Jews would then face the same difficulties they do in other Muslim-majority nations where they might abide.

From the beginning, Israel has lived under dire circumstances, and today is no different. So it is vital to recognize that there is a cultural and political kinship with the Israelis that calls us to stand against those who would cripple or destroy her. This does not mean endorsing all she does; it does mean rejecting the specious claims of moral equivalency employed to compromise or neutralize her sovereignty.

Footnotes:

1 For example, Qur’an 5:60.
2 For instance, the Hamas Covenant blames WWI and WWII on the Jews, and credits them with founding such nefarious ‘secret societies’ as Rotary and Lions (Article 22); it also rejects all ‘peaceful initiatives and conferences’ concerning the status of the Palestinians, who have unquestioned right to all the land in question (Articles 11 and 13).

3 For instance, the CIA World Factbook designates Jordan, to the east, a ‘constitutional monarchy’ and Syria, to the northeast, a ‘republic under an authoritarian regime.’ Though Egypt is designated a ‘republic,’ it seems, in the wake of the ‘Arab Spring,’ that the army has the upper hand when it pleases.

4 Franklin Roosevelt, ‘Message for American Education Week,’ The American Presidency Project Website, September 27, 1938, (accessed June 26, 2012).

5 In unfortunate contrast, as a writer for the Economist has observed, ‘The Middle East has a bad reputation when it comes to books; nowhere else do so few people read them.’ See ‘Revolution between Hard Covers,’ The Economist Website, January 28, 2012, (accessed May 16, 2012).

6 Half again as many as one finds in metropolitan Chicago, whose population is roughly the same as Israel’s.

7 ‘Speech by Senator John F. Kennedy, Zionists of America Convention, Statler Hilton Hotel, New York, NY,’ August 26, 1960, The American Presidency Project Website, (accessed May 4, 2012).

8 For instance, the Weizmann Institute of Science conducts cutting-edge medical research on the causes of Batten disease, ‘a rare but fatal neurodegenerative disorder that begins in childhood.’

9 Muslim women, whose literacy rate is well below that of their husbands (e.g., in Egypt, 59% versus 83%), are better known in literature for their writings of protest and lament (e.g., Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali; Cruel and Usual Punishment by Nonie Darwish; A God Who Hates by Wafa Sultan; The Trouble with Islam Today by Irshad Manji). And these Muslim women have been joined in their cause by such European writers as Italy’s Oriana Fallaci (The Rage and the Pride) and Norway’s Asne Seierstad (The Bookseller of Kabul).

10 From orientation packet for the Machtzavim-IDF Educational Leadership School in Jerusalem. See also ‘The Spirit of the IDF: The Ethical Code of the Israel Defense Forces,’ Jewish Virtual Library, (accessed May 4, 2012).

11 Christopher Schult, Britta Sandberg, and Ansgar Mertin, ‘Life Insurance for Palestinian Suicide Bombers: Arab Bank Pays Out Blood Money,’ Spiegel Website, February 9, 2007, (accessed May 4, 2012).

12 Jonathan Sacks, ‘Israel Rightfully Belongs to the Jews,’ in Israel: Opposing Viewpoints, ed. Myra Immell (Detroit: Greenhaven, 2011) 53-54.

13 Ofira Seliktar, ‘The Changing Political Economy of Israel: From Agricultural Pioneers to the ‘Silicon Valley’ of the Middle East,’ in Israel’s First Fifty Years, ed. Robert O Freedman (Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2000), 211.

14 Dan Cohn-Sherbok and Dawoud El-Alami, The Palestine-Israeli Conflict, rev. ed. (Oxford: One World, 2003), 73.

15 [A]fter 1908 . . . a consistent activity against Jewish settlement started . . . which was undertaken mainly by two Arab newspapers: al-Filastin and al-Karmil. They were both owned by Palestinian Christians . See Anthony O’Mahony, ‘Palestinian Christians: Religion, Politics and Society, c. 1800-1948,’ in Palestinian Christians: Religion, Politics and Society in the Holy Land, ed. Anthony O’Mahony (London: Melisende, 1999), 46.

16 Syria’s prime minister Khaled al-Azm, reflected on the situation: ‘Since 1948 we have been demanding the return of the refugees to their homes. But we ourselves are the ones who encouraged them to leave. Only a few months separated our call to them to leave and our appeal to the United Nations to resolve on their return.’ See James Ciment, Palestine/Israel: The Long Conflict (New York: Facts on File, 1997), 35.

17 Ciment, 38-39.

18 Richard L. Cravatts, ‘There Is No Right of Return,’ in Israel: Opposing Viewpoints, ed. Myra Immell (Detroit: Greenhaven, 2011), 83.

19 Rashid Khalidi, ‘Truth, Justice and Reconciliation: Elements of a Solution to the Palestinian Refugee Issue,’ in The Palestinian Exodus: 1948-1998 (Reading: Ithaca, 1999), 229.

Reports of CWI's doctrinal demise are greatly exaggerated

Just as Mark Twain denounced the premature report of his death as 'greatly exaggerated, I too want to set the record straight about the rumours I’ve heard over the last ten years since I became the General Secretary of Christian Witness to Israel that CWI is moving away doctrinally from its historic Reformed position.


CWI has always been an interdenominational mission and our basis of faith is the Bible, as articulated in the historic confessions of the Reformation, in particular the Westminster Confession of Faith, the 39 Articles of the Church of England, the 1689 Baptist Confession of Faith, the Heidelberg Catechism, the Belgic Confession and the Savoy Declaration. CWI is the only international mission to the Jewish people whose basis of faith is firmly based on the Reformed confessions.

The core teachings of those confessions is that the Bible is the inspired and inerrant Word of God, the only authority for what Christians should believe and how they should live, and that salvation is granted by the grace of God (Father, Son and Holy Spirit), solely through faith in the completed work of Jesus the Messiah. We are committed to the confessional 'solas': Scripture alone, God alone, Christ alone, grace alone, faith alone.
CWI workers agree not to teach, encourage or practice anything contrary to the consensus of the Reformed Confessions but, where those Confessions are not in agreement, each worker is at liberty to teach, encourage and practise what they believe is the teaching of the Scriptures. Therefore CWI has no formal or official position of such things as baptism, church government, the charismatic gifts, the modern state of Israel or the Last Things.

At our staff conference two weeks ago, we spent an entire session dealing with and affirming our commitment to the confessions and to the doctrines of grace. Our commitment to the Reformed Confessions is not something we bang a drum about but it undergirds all CWI believes and teaches. I’m making an issue of that commitment now – and I’m doing it publicly – in order to scotch these rumours once and for all.

To refer to Mark Twain again, he is alleged to be the source of the adage, ‘A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is still putting on its shoes.’ Stories that CWI has changed its doctrinal position could do us a great deal of harm, so my shoes are on and I’m stating categorically that CWI remains unequivocally committed to the historical Confessions of Faith listed above.

And that’s the truth.

Glatt Kosher Jesus!

I’m trying to think of something in current parlance to describe Michael Brown’s The Real Kosher Jesus. I could say it’s cool, it kicks, it rocks or it’s awesome but instead I’ll just say it is a brilliant piece of work in every sense of the word except the writing style. It’s probably just me but I find Mike’s attempt to be really simple verges at times on being patronising. Apart from that and the inexcusably poor cover design (which is not Mike’s fault), I have nothing but praise for his response to Rabbi Shmuely Boteach’s Kosher Jesus. As a self-publicist, Rabbi Boteach can run rings round Mike but in terms of intellect, courtesy to his opponents as well as physical stature, Mike is head and shoulders above Shmuely and most other people.


Because it is so simply written and because I was aware of quite a bit of the book’s contents, I read it quickly. In had expected a kind of page-by-page, statement-by-statement to Kosher Jesus and was a little disappointed that Mike didn’t take that line. However, he does in fact do that briefly but effectively in Appendix B, after laying a rock solid foundation in the first 15 chapters.

Alone amongst those who endorse the book, Boteach attempts to damn Brown with faint praise: ‘. . . while his arguments are utterly futile against my intellectual onslaught, you have to give him credit for trying.’ The fact is that in every chapter of the book Mike Brown sets forth arguments that expose the biblical, historical, intellectual and logical fallacies and errors on which Boteach’s Kosher Jesus is constructed. ‘Shmuley has manufactured a Jesus-Yeshua that never was,’ says Brown, ‘a fictional character no closer to reality than the European, blue-eyed, blond-haired version sometimes seen in media and art.’

Though Boteach claims to have rescued Jesus from the Christians by reconstructing him as a Roman-hating, freedom fighting national hero, as Brown points out, ‘Shmuley’s depiction of Jesus as an armed freedom fighter is not only untrue, but it is also downright pathetic: Shmuley’s Jesus was totally deceived. Such a leader should be pitied, not praised. It would be like Moses really believing that God called him to challenge Pharaoh to “Let my people go,” only to find out he was wrong— dead wrong—with disastrous consequences for his people, not to mention certain execution for him. (And would we be honoring the memory of Moses if he led our nation into the Red Sea really believing that God would part the waters for them, only to watch them drown?)’

With regard to Boteach’s hatchet job on Paul in Kosher Jesus, Brown concludes: ‘The theory espoused by Maccoby and Rabbi Boteach not only strains credulity but also insults it.’

In 'Section III: From Kosher Jesus to Unkosher Christianity?' Brown deals with some of the great theological stumbling blocks that prevent Jewish people from embracing Jesus as Messiah. In Chapter 9, Brown conclusively demonstrates from Jewish sources that the concept of God becoming man is entirely consistent not only with the Hebrew Scriptures but also with mainstream Judaism.

He quotes the late Menachem Mendel Schneerson, Boteach’s Rebbe, who taught that the Hebrew word echad (one) in the Shema (Shema Yisroel, Adonai Eloheinu Adonai echad) did not pertain to unique singularity. According to Rabbi Schneerson, ‘Chassidic teaching explains that . . . echad represents a deeper unity than yachid. Yachid is a oneness that cannot tolerate plurality—if another being or element is introduced into the equation, the yachid is no longer yachid. Echad, on the other hand, represents the fusion of diverse elements into a harmonious whole. The oneness of echad is not undermined by plurality; indeed, it employs plurality as the ingredients of unity.’

In the following two chapters, Brown deals with the concept of a suffering Messiah and reveals the long-established tradition within Judaism that the life of the righteous has the power to atone. Anyone who, after reading Chapter 11, maintains that neither Judaism nor the Bible knows of the righteous dying for the wicked has either not understood the chapter or is simply denying the facts.

In a real sense, what you will find in The Real Kosher Jesus is the essence of Brown’s 5-volume Answering Jewish Objections to Jesus. If that series is too heavy or too expensive, get The Real Kosher Jesus. If the 5-volume series is Mike’s Hizzuk Emunah (Faith Strengthened), The Real Kosher Jesus is his Moreh Nevukhim (Guide for the Perplexed). Not only is it invaluable for strengthening the faith of Gentile Christians and Messianic Jews, it is ideal for giving to Jewish people who really want to know whether Jesus is the Messiah. Buy it from Amazon here.

Kill and Tell

On Friday I downloaded the Kindle version of Tass Saada’s Once an Arafat Man immediately after it was recommended to me by a colleague. I read it virtually in a single sitting on Saturday.

‘Once an Arafat man. . .’ always an Arafat man? Well not in Tass Saada’s case at any rate. Saada was born into a Muslim family in Gaza in early 1951. He grew up in Saudi Arabia and Qatar, and following the ignominious defeat of the Arab forces by Israel in the Six Day War in 1967 he and two of his chums quietly bunked off to Damascus to join the PLO. According to the book, before he was out of his teens Saada was a trained sniper, Yasser Arafat’s chauffer and had met Osama bin Laden. I have to admit to a degree of scepticism when I started reading the book but as I made my way through it I sensed it had a ring of truth about it. Once an Arafat Man is no prurient, self-glorifying kill-and-tell story. Unlike some Christian testimonies, Once an Arafat Man doesn’t major on Saada’s pre-Christian life. Apart from his account of a PLO ambush of Israeli forces at al-Karameh in chapter 1, Saada supplies little detail about his time in the PLO.

Although his conversion was dramatic, Saada deals with it briefly. The purpose of his book is to explain how an extremely angry young Muslim man was turned from hatred to love.

Although I don’t care for the staccato writing style of the book, it is an important publication for a number of reasons. First of all, drawing on his experience of life in Saudi Arabia, Saada demonstrates that the Palestinians are regarded with contempt by many in the Arab world.

Second, according to the received western, liberal, left-wing opinion, America and the West are to blame for Islamic terrorism, not least the atrocity of 9/11/2011. The Islamic world declares the USA to be the ‘Great Satan,’ a doctrine Tass Saada imbibed and believed until he arrived in America and experienced nothing but kindness and friendship.

Third, in contrast to the current vogue among Christian theologians to spiritualise the promises made to Israel in the Hebrew Scriptures and transfer them wholesale to the Church, Saada accepts those promises at face value. The ‘Christ at the Checkpoint’ conferences, though ostensibly about peace and reconciliation, appear to have fomented conflict and division by exporting to the Middle East a western political theory dressed up as theology; a liberation theology that was responsible for great suffering in Central and South America during the 1970s and 1980s.

Fourth, Saada’s love for his own people has not diminished, even though he sees the inherently evil nature of Islam. In 2001, Saada and his American wife Karen launched ‘Hope for Ishmael’ ministries, to bring hope and reconciliation between Arabs and Jews through education, cultural understanding and faith in the Jewish Messiah. Tass and Karen are convinced that peace between Arabs and Jews can be achieved only when individuals have a heart change; political solutions will not last.

Fifth, he presents a helpful biblical perspective of the Arab nations that extreme Christian Zionists need to consider.

Last, he recounts his last meeting with Yasser Arafat, at which he shared the gospel with the PLO leader. Some time later, an Egyptian evagelist told Tass that he too had met Arafat, that he shared the gospel with him and led him in saying 'the sinner's prayer'. Stranger things have happened. . .

I recommend this book highly. Along with Son of Hamas, Once an Arafat Man should be read by everyone who wants to understand the conflict between Jews and Palestinians and the solution to it. Buy it here.

Privilege and Responsibility

Boy! Have I been out of circulation. The last three weeks have been so hectic that I didn't even have time to place a tribute to Stan Techin who went to be with Messiah on 4 June. I'll post something soon but in the meantime, here's the fourth of my series of videos 'The Jewish People and You'.

Dinnae confuse me wi’ facts

I'm still in Scotland and, Boy, am I depressed. In my last blog I reported that I had been warmly received by the Free Church of Scotland and the Free Church (Continuing). Both churches are very supportive of CWI’s ministry to the Jewish people and many are supportive of Israel and the Jewish people.

I wish the same could be said of Scotland’s national Church. Last week, its General Assembly approved a motion that the Church of Scotland will no longer consider the Israeli perspective when campaigning on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

A report in the Jewish Chronicle says delegates at the General Assembly of Scotland’s largest church, which has over 450,000 members, voted overwhelmingly against a motion to ‘ensure a proper balance between the Israeli and Palestinian perspectives’ at a session on Gaza.

It followed the adoption of a special report and vote instructing the church to lobby the British government to ‘end the inhumane blockade of Gaza and related violence.’ The report suggested the church may stop support for a two-state solution, but also condemned rocket attacks on Israel.

When urged by a delegate to reverse the one-sided approach at last Monday’s assembly meeting of the Church and Society Council, convenor Rev Ian Galloway said: ‘There could never be a truly balanced view between Israel and Palestine.’

The vote means future reports and resource material produced by the church for its members would not present an Israeli narrative.

A Church of Scotland spokesperson said: ‘After debate the Assembly agreed overwhelmingly that the [Gaza] report was balanced as it stood. The thrust of the report was not to inform commissioners or congregations about the political explanations of either side but to report on the experiences shared by people living and working in Gaza.’

I’m appalled. If this isn’t a case of a church saying, ‘I’ve made up my mind; don’t confuse me with the facts,’ I don’t know what is.

And now for something completely different. My fourth video about how Christians should view the Jewish people is online. If you agree with me, don’t forget to click ‘Like’. And please let others know about it.



Shabbat shalom.