Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, July/August 1998, Pages 82, 95

Christianity and the Middle East

An Open Letter to Fundamentalist Ministers From a Member of a Christian Fundamentalist Church

By Kathleen Banks

To ministers and leaders of the Evangelical or Fundamentalist congregations who support the State of Israel in its expansionist policies:

I am a member of a fundamentalist or evangelical church. Therefore, for some time I have been much troubled upon seeing your names listed in The New York Times (4/18/97 edition), or The Washington Post (1/22/98 edition) along with a number of other prominent fundamentalist ministers who are “joining together to support our Jewish brethren and the State of Israel.”

The articles indicated that your support for Mr. Netanyahu and/or expansionist Israeli leaders and governments is based on your interpretation of Revelation 7:3-8 and various verses from the Old Testament. I understand that you interpret these verses to mean that when the second coming of Christ is about to occur, the Jews on this earth will again possess all of the lands which were once theirs in the Old Testament.

These verses from the Old Testament you interpret to mean that God has a covenant with all Jews because they are the seed of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph and David. (Genesis 12:17, Leviticus 26:44-45, Deuteronomy 7:7-8, David 7: 12-16, I Kings 15:4, Psalms 89: 34-37 and Psalms 105:8-11). In none of these verses is it said that this covenant is with all of the seed of these Jewish leaders and forefathers.

The Christians and Muslims who are presently living in Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza may be the seed of these Old Testament Jewish leaders as readily as the Jews who are presently living there, many of whom are immigrants from elsewhere. Many of the disciples themselves were originally Jews who lived in these areas. Would you not expect many of their “seed” to be there still?

Mr. Netanyahu and his government continue to build Jewish settlements on land taken by force and terror from the Palestinians, both Christian and Muslim. He and his government continue to seal off or blow up the homes of families in which one member is suspected of participation in any violent acts.

Suspected Christians and Muslims are deported or imprisoned for years without trial and are tortured while in prison. Christian and Muslim families are never given permits to enlarge their own homes no matter how many children they may have.

Taxes are exceedingly higher for Arab citizens than those for Jewish citizens, so high as to drive many Christians and Muslims out of business and/or their homes. Punishments for the killing of Christians and Muslims are usually so minor as to imply that their lives are worth nothing.

It has been indicated also that you base your support of Israel’s apartheid governments on your interpretation of what appear to be signs in today’s world that you think indicate the time for Christ’s second coming is near.

Christian villages have been taken over by terrorist tactics.

In the light of all the Christian as well as Muslim villages that have been taken over by means of the very terrorist tactics that Mr. Netanyahu and his government now decry on the part of the Palestinian extremists, and in view of the apartheid treatment of both Christian and Muslim citizens in the areas that are controlled by the Israeli government, would it not be more in keeping with the teaching of Christ to consider more carefully the words of Christ in Acts 1:6 and 7:

“When they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power.”

Time and time again throughout history, groups of Christians thought they had determined the time and the season by using the signs that are given in the New Testament, but each time they were made to look foolish when these words of Christ proved to be true.

We are told that part of your support for Mr. Netanyahu and his “greater Israel” government is based on Genesis 12:3 where God said to Abraham, “I will bless them that bless thee and curse him that curseth thee...” God is speaking to Abraham, not to all of his descendants. In the words that follow, “and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed,” surely these words refer to the coming of Christ out of the seed of Abraham, not to those Jews who rejected Christ then and now, and continue to persecute Christ through persecuting his followers.

“Who Are My Brethren?”

In Matt. 12:48-50, Mark 3:33-35 and Luke 8:21, Christ (the seed of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and David) stated who His seed are when he said, “Who is my mother? And who are my brethren? And He stretched forth His hand toward His disciples, and said, Behold my mother and my brethren! For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister and mother.”

Many fundamentalist Christians are following the lead of Christian ministers who are giving support to those very people who best fit the description of the antichrist. I am not speaking of those Jews who truly desire peace with justice in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza, many of whom place themselves in great jeopardy by speaking out or writing books to expose the insidious pressures and organized power used as well as the horrible injustice and cruelty practiced by the Zionists in order to obtain their objective of a greater Israel. I am speaking of the Orthodox, right-wing, hawkish Jews, many of whom look upon Christians and Muslims as subhuman and not worthy of human treatment.

In Jewish History, Jewish Religion, Dr. Israel Shahak, himself a Jew, quotes this special curse against Christians from the daily prayer book used by many Orthodox Jews in Israel: “And may the apostates have no hope, and all the Christians perish instantly” (page 92). On page 93 Dr. Shahak says that a devout Jew must utter a curse when passing near a Gentile cemetery, and upon seeing a dwelling inhabited by people other than Jews must ask God to destroy it.

The Israeli government, in response to the demands of these Orthodox Jews, bans the use of the plus sign in mathematics because it resembles the cross.

Should not our Christian leaders consider the possibility that the remnant of converted Jews spoken of in Revelation may consist in part of the persecuted Christians in this area whose ancestors may well have been the earliest Jewish converts, or the Jews who (in a more Christian spirit) abhor the cruelty and injustice inflicted on Christians and Muslims by the Netanyahu government and other “greater Israel” motivated governments? Surely the latter are the more likely candidates for conversion.

Would it not behoove us to walk every day as if the second coming were going to occur on that very day by simply trying to live as Christ commanded, one aspect of which would be to support our fellow Christians and give comfort to them in their suffering even as we forgive the persecutors? Surely Christ would not have us support those who persecute them? By the latter action is it possible that we might be endangering our immortal souls?

Another book written by a Christian minister is Blood Brothers by Elias Chacour, whose Christian village in Palestine was demolished by Israeli soldiers. Pastor Chacour preaches forgiveness. Still another book is What Price Israel? by Alfred Lilienthal, a Jew who served the U.S. government in the Middle East during and after World War II.

In the report by the U.N. Committee Against Torture can be found the verification of the apartheid treatment of Christians and Muslims in Israeli occupied territories. In the May 9, 1997 issue of The New York Times the following quote serves to substantiate my statement regarding the use of torture by the Israeli government or the Shin Bet with the acquiescence of the Israeli government: “According to Israeli human rights organizations, in recent years about 5,000 Palestinians have been subjected to violence in detention annually.” Also the following: “Human rights groups claim that 80 percent of the Palestinians who are tortured are never indicted for a crime.”

If you are interested in verifying anything I have said by reading the sources from which I have quoted and cannot find them in your local library, they can be obtained from the Washington Report , P.O. Box 53062, Washington, DC.

May you be constantly filled with and governed by The Holy Spirit, acting in His wisdom and, as such, walking in His peace.

cc: Dr. John Hagee (Pastor—Cornerstone Church, San Antonio); Pat Robertson (Chairman, the Christian Broadcasting Network and President, The Christian Coalition); Oral Roberts (Founder & Chancellor Oral Roberts University); Bishop Charles E. Blake (Pastor—West Angeles Church of God in Christ, Los Angeles); Pastor George Morrison (Pastor—Faith Bible Chapel, Arvada, CO); Dr. Jerry Falwell (Pastor—Liberty Road Baptist Church, Lynchburg, VA); Ed McAteer (President—the Religious Roundtable); Dr. E.V. Hill (Pastor—Mount Zion Missionary Baptist Church, Los Angeles); and Dr. David Allen Lewis (President—Christians United for Israel).