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Sep 5, 2011

The American Theatre of War

A group I was invited to join a few years ago (through David Lewis), the National Christian Leadership Conference for Israel (NCLCI), is a fascinating group. A group you should know more about.

Its uniqueness comes from the fact that NCLCI is comprised mostly of mainline folks who are pro Israel. Dave Blewett, the fabulous director, is Lutheran, as is JoAnn Magnuson (one of the most learned people I know on these subjects). Bill Harter has a wonderful testimony of lifelong pro Israel activity, from his Presbyterian roots.

You should know about NCLCI (www.nclci.org), and I encourage you to investigate the group’s activities. They are, for example, actively involved in opposing the infamous divestment campaign against Israel. NCLCI members run in—I don’t know another way to say this—intellectual circles, and their formidable brainpower and sophistication is invaluable in opposing the hatchet-jobs that most mainline sources use against Israel and Zionism.

They were doing important work decades ago, working with the likes of former Congressman Jack Kemp, and Jewish groups maintaining ties on Capitol Hill.

Gary Green of NCLCI also works with another important group I’d encourage you to check out—Presbyterians for Middle East Peace (www.prmep.org). Gary is well-informed about issues facing Israel.

I was reminded of the importance of NCLCI recently when noticing the destructive work of groups like Evangelicals for Middle East Understanding, which roughly would be the mirror image of NCLCI—mainline groups working for Israel’s destruction (although they wouldn’t frame it that way, obviously). Churches for Middle East Peace is another that opposes the work of pro Israel activism.

These groups that stand apart from NCLCI and are representative of liberal, mainline Christians are made up of folks like Alex Patico (Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America); Michael Kinnamon (National Council of Churches); Gary Burge (Wheaton); and Stephen Sizer (pastor of Christ Church, Surrey, UK).

Sizer in particular is involved in confronting Christian Zionists; you should check out his website at www.stephensizer.com.

The EMEU folks are also involved with the so-called “Christ at the Checkpoint” initiative, designed to bash Israel over the security fence (that has, as I like to point out, stopped the murder of Jews by Palestinian homicide bombers). If you go to www.christatthecheckpoint.com, you will there discover in part just how deeply entrenched Palestinian propaganda is in the American Church, for the “checkpoint” website published a piece by Lynne Hybels, wife of Willowcreek founder Bill Hybels.

In part, Lynne Hybels wrote:

“I’ve met with both Palestinian and Israeli faith leaders committed to using nonviolent resistance to end the occupation. Most recently I spoke at a conference hosted by Christians in Bethlehem. The conference, called “Christ at the Checkpoint: Theology in Service to Peace and Justice,” challenged evangelicals from North America and Europe to stand with the Christians of Palestine. The conference was inspiring, but for me the highlight was the three post-conference days I actually spent with Palestinian Christians.”

She went on to state:

“I am still pro-Israel, but I’ve also become pro-Palestine. Pro-peace. Pro-justice. Pro-equality for Jews and Arabs living as neighbors in the Holy Land. And bottom line, pro-Jesus.”

Okay, let’s break this down:

•She met with the people of the region in order to help “end the occupation.” Her worldview had already been formed, and it says that Israel is oppressing the Palestinians. This is typical of mainline churches, but now we are seeing the Hybels—ostensibly evangelical—bring-in Palestinian propaganda into evangelical churches like a flood. More on that in a minute.

•She believes in and affirms a place called “Palestine.”

•She is “pro-Jesus.” I wonder if she affirms this to be the Jewish Jesus of Nazareth?

I want to say this clearly: Lynne Hybels is not pro Israel. When one takes sides, he or she is one or the other. This malevolent, subtle message that Hybels and her friends are promoting in evangelicalism is anti-Jewish, anti-Israel, anti-peace. It is also anti-Bible.

Hybels and like-minded friends who are outright liberals, such as Tony Campolo, Brian McLaren, Jim Wallis…like to confuse people by claiming to be also concerned for Israel’s security and well-being.

Don’t believe it. One cannot have it both ways when it comes to the Arab-Israeli conflict. To link arms with the barbaric Palestinian society is to oppose Israel to the hilt.

For decades, such animosity towards Israel was mostly confined to the mainline. The very serious problem we are now confronted with, however, is that what was once a gathering of 15 Episcopalians sipping brandy and discussing the evils of capitalism and the “military industrial complex” has now mushroomed into a sizeable and formidable opponent for American Christian supporters of Israel.

And Bill and Lynne Hybels are conduits for bringing young evangelicals into this community of haters of Zionism. How?

Bill Hybels recently hosted his “Global Leadership Summit,” which included Steven Furtick as a speaker. Furtick, pastor of Elevation Church in Charlotte, North Carolina, is a young, Emergent leader. Exhibiting charismatic roots (he has just invited T.D. Jakes to his own conference), Furtick has quite a personality and if you want to be scared, just watch a short video that Furtick produced and hosted in which he arrogantly denounces “haters” (that would be you and me):

www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCW9-MglCsw

Hybels is cleverly and strategically including up-and-comers like Furtick, as he extends his sweep to blanket the American Church with liberal theology.

Sadly, this networking is much deeper. I recently saw a “tweet” from Rick Warren (he posted a short message on Twitter), in which he said:

“I LOVE these pastors & deeply believe in their ministries: @perrynoble @PastorMark @steven furtick @JudWilhite @judahsmith”

So, Warren and Hybels, who move in the same circles and believe the same things (primarily now, social justice issues) are reaching-out to and mentoring these young guys who are building their own huge churches through the cult of personality. Perry Noble, by the way, Warren’s good buddy, recently called his critics “terrorists.” This “terrorist” language, I can document, is coming directly from Palestinian Christian groups that are really front groups for the PLO.

(You might recall, too, Rick Warren’s shameful, affirming meeting with the murderous Bashar Assad of Syria a few years ago. These American Christian leaders long ago abandoned Israel.)

Be warned.

So it is critically important to “follow the money” and discover for yourself the roots and networks of anti-Israel work in America.

These young, Emergent leaders would not first talk about Israel or the Middle East. They are heavily promoting “social justice” talk (which has roots in Soviet propaganda, by the way), as they move away from “the old-time religion.” But if you were able to ask them, I am quite confident they would echo almost exactly what Lynne Hybels said above. No longer are evangelical pastors in America largely pro Israel. If Bill Hybels (whom Steven Furtick calls ‘Bill Freaking Hybels,’ so worshipful is his gaze) told Steven Furtick that the original apostles were really Jedi warriors, Furtick would create a whole sermon series based on Star Wars and the Gospels.

That really isn’t tongue-in-cheek.

We are living in extremely dangerous times. Yet, through it, we still glory in the God of history. He alone directs eras and people. He will see this through.

In the meantime, I urge you with all possible haste to educate yourself as to the threats to the faith, so that you and your family are not among even the elect who are being deceived in what is being waged on a weekly basis in the American Church.

It is war.

jim@prophecymatters.com




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Zechariah 12:3,9:
And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people; And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.

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