By Theodore Shoebat
Thousands of Christians conducted a meeting in Jerusalem in a sports arena to praise Christ and have fellowship. Ultra-Orthodox Jews were enraged and tried to push the government to prevent the event from happening. The mayor of Jerusalem, Nir Barkat, rightfully allowed the Christians to have their meeting, despite the intense protests of the ultra-Orthodox Jews, who are a part of the haredi sect of Judaism.
According to Jewish journalist, Moshe Heller, the rabbis of the city of Jerusalem also called for the Israeli government to prevent the event. But, the attack against the event on the part of the haredi and other rabbis, was so great that the mayor of Jerusalem acquiesced and has established a new rule: that the mayor must first consult and get permission from the rabbis before allowing any Christian events. Here is the statement from the the Jerusalem Municipality:
It has been decided that in future events, in case concerns are raised about illegal missionary activity, Jerusalem’s chief rabbis and the Municipality’s legal advisors will be consulted.
Just within this month a Christian church — called the Church of the Multiplication, built where Christ fed the 5,000 — was horribly burned by Jewish extremists. They spray painted the walls, calling Christians idolaters. This same church was attacked a mob of Jewish youths last year, destroying the church’s Christian cross and throwing church benches into a lake.
Rabbi Yuval Cherlow, head of the Petah Tikva Hesder Yeshiva, condemned the recent attack against the church:
Judaism has a battle against idolatry, as a faith which claims to have a historic mission of bringing a blessing to the world… Torching churches is the exact opposite of that. It’s a barbaric act which harms people, pulls the rug from under the moral claim which forbids harming Jews around the world, and mainly does nothing to promote the battle against idolatry. … We should stand unequivocally against the wrong implementation of the vision of the monotheistic faith, and move together with the entire world towards a belief in one God and in the morality that this belief requires.
Israel’s Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi David Lau, said,
this act, which was allegedly committed by radical elements, contradicts the values of Judaism and human ethics. …The gentle fabric of these relations must be maintained, and the religions’ leaders have an important role in influencing their community members. They must insist that there will be no offense to any place which is sacred to any religion.
I don’t understand, why would any Jew hate Christians, or go through this trouble to prevent Christian events in Israel? Christians are the greatest friends of the Jews. The Christians the greatest supporters of Israel. Look how many Christians from America and the West fought and died to liberate the Jews from the Third Reich, look at how Pope Pius XII rescued hundreds of thousands of Jews from the death camps of Hitler, look at how Eastern Orthodox Christians (such as Chiune Sugihara) saved tens of thousands of Jews from being killed by the Nazis.
And look at all of the good that Jews have done for Christians. It was a Jewish doctor who saved my grandfather from dying of a horrible illness; look at all of the medical inventions done by Jews that saved lives and prevented many deaths. IDF soldiers have risked their lives defending Christians from Muslim terrorists (read about what happened in the Siege of the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem), and there are so many good Israelis who would not hesitate to help Christians. There is no reason why Jews and Christians should hate each other. All of this hatred is from Satan.
Jews, Assyrians, Chaldeans, Syriac and Lebanese Christians, are all the same race. Abraham was Chaldean, and the whole Hebrew race came from his line, which means Chaldeans are one in the same people. The Christians in Iraq and Syria are related of Abraham, and are one and the same with the people in Israel.
So when Christ returns, and the people of Israel realize that He is the Messiah, it will be as though Christ will be telling them, ‘Come back to the Covenant that you left, return to the Ark before the flood waters overtake you. Return to the family that you left.’
The lost son who left his Father will return to his original family, as the prodigal son returned to his father after eating amongst the swine, and as the eleven sons of Jacob reunited with Joseph, the brother that they so hated.
The son of Abraham was not allowed to be slaughtered upon the altar of sacrifice, so that the sacred family could multiply, and the Holy One to be born, for His blood to be shed upon the altar of the Cross, for His blood to unite all of humanity, fulfilling what was said by the Eternal King, that the family of Abraham could be multiplied “as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore” and that through his “seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed” (Genesis 22:17-18).
Humanity is the colors upon the coat of many colors that Israel gave to Joseph. The brothers returned the coat to their father and it was covered in blood, and this was a prophecy unto itself. The Jews rejected Christ and thought that they had killed him. The blood was on the cloak of many colors, for the blood of Christ connects all of humanity together, and redeems the nations.
Joseph was sold like a slave, but returned as royalty, and all of his brothers rejoined him, and the family was united. Christ was given to the slaughter, and as the Jews today think of Him as dead, He will return as a King, and they will rejoin the many colors of humanity that have, through the Incarnation and the divine blood of Christ, been united with God.
“And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob” (Romans 11:26).