American Evangelicals and other Protestants are known for their “love” and support of Israel and Jews. They often give lots of money to Israel and Jewish causes, which both happily take. However, many Evangelicals tend to equivocate the support and willingness to accept money from such Christians as a sign of openness to the Gospel.
The truth is rather the opposite. If Christ came to lead man out of spiritual Babylon to freedom, then to be a Jew in the true sense is completely devoid of race as a facet of “tribal” membership and is to embrace Christianity, and therefore modern Judaism is not following God, but rather a form of tribal warfare that is running back to Babylon to worship demons. The Bible says in 1 John 2:22 that he who does not embrace Christ and rejects Him embraces the antichrist, and such a rejection is found no more perfectly in the Talmud and related works such as the Zohar.
It is therefore of interest as reported by the Christian Post that a new Evangelical TV station in Israel is facing legal threats over preaching Christ in its broadcasts.
A new evangelical Christian television channel in Israel has been threatened with being shut down if it engages in any type of missionary activity, according to Israeli media reports.
The Jewish Telegraphic Agency reports that the international television network GOD TV’s new Hebrew-language channel Shelanu began airing last week on Israel’s HOT cable network after receiving a seven-year license from the Israeli Communications Ministry.
GOD TV CEO Ward Simpson announced the launch and declared that the network has been “given government permission to broadcast the Gospel of Jesus Christ” in Israel, something he said has never been done before.
Proselytizing to people younger than 18 without their parents’ consent is against the law in Israel, according to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz. And under the terms of the Shelanu license, the network is forbidden from engaging in missionary activities.
The Chairman of the Cable and Satellite Broadcasting Council, Asher Biton, told the newspaper that he was unaware when the license was granted to Shelanu that the new channel planned to engage in activities that are prohibited under the terms of the license.
Biton told the newspaper that he has ordered an investigation into the channel. Biton was quoted as saying that if it’s determined that the license terms have been violated or there is any intention to violate them, Shelanu would be shut down.
“According to our regulations, it is fine to broadcast religious programming,” Biton was quoted as saying. “[B]ut it is forbidden to broadcast content that has the potential to influence viewers in an undue fashion, and most certainly young and impressionable viewers.”
Biton said he doesn’t want to rush to judgment because shutting down television networks isn’t something the council does often.
A HOT spokesperson told the newspaper that Shelanu is one of a number of religious channels that are broadcast in the country.
“It received a permit from the council and is broadcasting according to law,” the spokesperson declared, adding that “full information was provided to the council and the channel is operating in accordance with the permit it received.”
According to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Communications Minister David Amsalem said he “will not allow any missionary channel to operate in Israel, at no time and under no circumstances.”
Amsalem also demanded that if an investigation finds the channel to be engaging in missionary activities that “it be removed immediately.”
The Christian Post reached out to GOD TV for comment on the reports. A response is pending.
According to a statement from GOD TV, Shelanu translates to the word “ours” in Hebrew. The channel aims to “present new and original programming from local congregations on the ground in Israel.”
“Additionally, international Messianic voices will share powerful real-life testimonies of Israelis who have come to know Yeshua as Messiah,” the statement reads. “The channel, which won’t carry fundraising, is being financed by Christians across the globe who want to empower Messianic congregations.”
The GOD TV statement also states that Shelanu wants “every person in Israel to know, not a foreign Messiah, but a Jewish one!”
“His name is Yeshua and He has not forgotten His people,” the statement adds.
Shelanu is operated in partnership with Tikkun International, an Israel-based network of Christian ministries.
“We want Jewish viewers to grasp the fact that Jesus is theirs,” a statement from Tikkun International on the new channel reads. “He is not a foreigner, intruder or imposter. He is their Jewish Messiah, born in Israel, raised as a Jew.” (source)
It is true that God has not forgotten the Jewish people. They are His people- just as ALL people are His people. And the true “chosen people” are those who embrace Christ as it is and act of faith and the will and not identitarianism or related ideologies.
Is it a surprise that countless saints of old declared, almost uniformly, that albeit living in different ages that it would be out of the Jews that the antichrist would emerge? If modern Judaism is defined by the rejection of the Messiah, which the Bible explicitly states that the Jews crucified and when given the chance to free Him changed “Not this one but Barabbas” and “Let His blood be upon us and upon our children, crucify Him”, and this is how the religion has defined itself since the time of Christ, is there not a more perfect scenario?
The utter contempt being shown towards this one television station about proclaiming Christ is evidence of the Evangelical ignorance of these realities. It is certainly important to be good to Jews, as all people, not because they are Jews, but because it is the morally right thing to do. However, evil must never be accepted at all, and likewise mistreatment must also not be accepted against oneself.
For decades, the Evangelical- and thankfully dying -bloc has continued to support Israel out of a flawed theology without ever asking if they were receiving support back from Israel. All that these Evangelicals largely want is a platform to spread the Gospel, even if people do not agree with it. Yet when they ask for this, they are violently rejected and even threatened with legal assault from ostensibly the same people they tried to help.
It is long overdue that Evangelicals vote with their dollars and show them the same contempt which many Evangelicals still hold towards Catholics. What is the point of giving money to causes and groups for people that beg for money but when asked for a small favor immediately show ingratitude and open hostility, especially about something so kind as preaching Christ, which is all they want to do?
Let Israel ask Trump and Jared Kushner to print more money for them- Trump as already shown his willingness to print trillions, so what is a few billion between allies? But let the Evangelicals keep their money and spend it on things that will bear more fruit for more people, for God came to save all races, and a little money will go a long way to helping pagan and Moslem peoples hear the Gospel, who are likely more open to it, than to provide more money for the slush funds of American transplants from Jewish communities in New York and other areas to the West Bank at the expense of the native Arabs to eat cheap pizza from their government-funded settlements courtesy of the Israeli taxpayer.