Israel is in the eye of the storm – it’s the grit in the world’s eye. As prophecy after prophecy is being fulfilled leading to the soon return of the Lord Jesus Christ, worldwide hatred of the Jewish people is rapidly rising. Sadly, many in the anti-Semitic movement are so-called “Christian leaders,” men who seem to forget that Jesus was a Jew who will return to rule and reign from Jerusalem. To counter “pro Palestinian” propaganda propounded by the world media, a church in Britain has published a detailed rebuttal of the lies told at a recent conference in Bethlehem, called “Christ at The Checkpoint.” Their response is called “The Church at Christ’s Checkpoint” and we have some details of how you can get a copy.
This is the introduction to the booklet by Andrew D. Robinson,Senior Pastor of Hazel Grove Full Gospel Church,68 London Road, Hazel Grove, Stockport,Cheshire,SK7 4AF,United Kingdom. The booklet was compiled by Associate Minister Paul Wilkinson, Tel: 0161 345 8910, Email: pwilkinson71@ntlworld.com The booklet is available free from the church but my (AF's) suggestion would be that donations to help towards expenses would be helpful.
Dear Friends,
Just over a year ago we produced ‘Prophets Who Prophesy Lies In My Name’: Christian Palestinianism and the Anti-Israel Crusade, a publication which charts the nature and scale of opposition within the Church towards the modern State of Israel. Anglican clerics like English evangelical Stephen Sizer and Palestinian liberationist Naim Ateek, who are in the vanguard of this crusade, insist thatIsrael has been replaced by the Church in the purposes of God and that the Land promises made to Abraham and his seed have been fulfilled in Christ.
The Jewish nation is thus twice robbed through the medium of replacement theology: of its prophetic Scriptures and its promised Land. In fulfillment of the Deuteronomic law of God, the Jewish people are back in their ancient homeland after centuries of exile (Deuteronomy 30:1-9), but today’s neo-crusaders, like their medieval predecessors, are bent on ‘liberating’ the Holy Land from what they see as unlawful occupation.
The crusader ranks swell daily, with members of mainstream churches, Islamic groups, political and secular parties, and a host of others, marching on Israel with a determination to bend the Zionist spirit to their will. Like their historical forbears, today’s anti-Israel crusaders are an eclectic mix who find common ground and unity of purpose in their collective condemnation of, and virulent opposition to, the modern State of Israel.
Those who support Israel on biblical grounds, be they Jewish Zionists or Christian Zionists, are subjected to intimidating rhetoric from the anti-Israel camp. In a letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams (June 2011), Naim Ateek, whose Palestinian Ecumenical Liberation Theology Centre (‘Sabeel’) was represented at the Christ at the Checkpoint Conference, described Jewish and Christian Zionists as “a greater threat to us [Arab Christians] than the extremist Islamists.”
Stephen Sizer joins the attack, denouncing Israel as an “apartheid state” which he claims is guilty of ethnic cleansing, and demonizing Christians who support Israel as heretical “Armageddonites” whose interpretation of the Bible “provides a theological endorsement for racial segregation, apartheid and war.” These are outlandish sentiments.
This booklet makes for sober reading, but we believe it is of paramount importance that the true agenda underlying the pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel Christ at the Checkpoint Conference and associated forums is brought to the attention of both Christian and Jewish communities. One of our purposes therefore is to take the reader behind the scenes to reveal the high level of interconnectedness that exists between conference speakers, their respective constituencies, and the wider anti-Israel, and in some cases, anti-Semitic world.
It is imperative that we recognize that we are not simply dealing with an isolated, self-contained conference with stand-alone presentations, but with a highly sophisticated pro-Palestinian network, in which the Christ at the Checkpoint Conference sits. In my opinion, anti-Zionism is nothing less than politically-correct, internationally sanctioned anti-Semitism. Those who defend their anti-Israel position with a “My best friend is Jewish” gambit, need to explain how that works when their circle of ‘friends’ also includes known anti-Semites.
Early in 1932, Sir Oswald Mosley, the English fascist leader, attended a business dinner at the home of British industrialist, Zionist and philanthropist, Israel Sieff (of Marks and Spencer fame). Mosley was looking for financial support for his newly formed political party from the industrialists attending the dinner. He shared his plans for the new party, stressing that “a new movement must find somebody or something to hate. In this case it should be the Jews.” Sieff writes: “He did not seem to think he had said anything particularly unacceptable, but the effect on the company was instant. I said, ‘I must ask you to leave, Sir Oswald’. He strode out… and I never saw him again.… Until that time I did not know what he felt about the Jews.”
There are many Christian Palestinianists, Christ at the Checkpoint speakers included, who do know what some of their ‘friends’ feel about the Jews, and yet are still willing to engage with them in platform sharing, press conferencing, political rallying, petition signing, and policy making, if it serves their anti-Zionist purposes. As a Christian pastor, I challenge the basis of such friendships, and urge those who seek to court the enemies of the Jewish State in furtherance of their pro-Palestinian agenda, to think again.
I pray that the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob will use this document to inform and alert, warn and challenge, encourage and enlighten; that by His grace many eyes will be opened to the true scale of the anti-Israel crusade, which is paving the way for wholesale condemnation of the international Jewish community. May the Lord bless you from Zion,
In the service of His Son, the Lord Jesus,
Andrew D. Robinson
Senior Pastor
Here are a few extracts from this booklet: A Response to the Second ‘Christ at the Checkpoint’ Conference in Bethlehem, 5-9 March 2012 by Paul Wilkinson.
Revising History, Reinterpreting Prophecy
In the wake ofIsrael’s establishment as a modern state in 1948, the myth of a ‘Palestinian people’ was born. When Jewish forces retook East Jerusalemin 1967, it became even more politically expedient for the ‘Palestinian’ authorities to promote this myth; they did so by revising history.
In AD135, following Bar Kokhba’s defeat, Judaea was renamed ‘Syria Palaestina’ by Roman Emperor Hadrian, Palaestina being a Latinised corruption of the Greek name ‘Philistia,’ the land of the Philistines. Hadrian’s goal was to sever all Jewish connection with the Land. Thereafter, until 1948, the Jewish homeland was referred to as ‘Palestine.’ It is important to note that in 1908 the World Zionist Organisation established a Palestine office in Jaffa; during WWII the British Army had a Palestine Brigade comprised solely of Jewish volunteers; the Palestine Symphony Orchestra was a Jewish orchestra; the Palestine Post, today the Jerusalem Post, was a Jewish newspaper; and postage stamps were issued bearing the inscription ‘Palestine-EI’, where EI represented Eretz Israel (the Land of Israel).
The ‘Palestinian’ myth has become so deeply embedded in the Arab consciousness that Arab believers who spoke of their ‘Palestinian’ identity during the conference not only paraded this historical revisionism from the platform, but also overlaid upon it a mixture of traditional Replacement Theology and modern ‘Palestinian’ Liberationism.
Weighing the Evidence
Christians who have not fallen foul of the allegorical, predominantly amillennial, and fundamentally supercessionist approach to biblical interpretation which underpinned the ‘Christ at the Checkpoint’ Conference, understand that there can only be one explanation for the establishment of the modern State of Israel in 1948, and that is the faithfulness and integrity of a covenant-keeping God who does not change!
Throughout the history of the Church the Lord has called faithful witnesses to the stand to speak up on behalf of the Jewish people concerningIsrael’s promised restoration. Sadly their evidence has been rendered inadmissible by ‘Christ at the Checkpoint’ speakers:
“and behold, the Lord stood upon a wall made by a plumb line, with a plumb line in His hand” (Amos 7:7, KJV).
Whose ‘Checkpoint’ did people pass through in Bethlehem?
I believe that the fundamental issue is this: by revising Middle Eastern history and spiritualizing God’s prophetic Word, ‘Christ at the Checkpoint’ speakers are guilty of propagating a theological or spiritual form of anti-Semitism which is damaging the Church, demonizing Israel, and dishonoring the integrity and Name of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
Conference organizers, along with the majority of speakers and delegates, believed that Christ was at the Israeli checkpoint sanctioning their Evangelical, pro-Palestinian solidarity gathering. On the contrary, it is our belief that the Lord Jesus Christ established His checkpoint in Bethlehem in order to inspect the hearts and minds of all who confess His name, but condemn His people Israel.
During the preparation of this document my pastor was led to Amos 7:7, a scripture which we believe applies directly to the flawed foundations upon which the crooked theological walls of theBethlehemconference stand:
“and behold, the Lord stood upon a wall made by a plumb line, with a plumb line in His hand” (Amos 7:7, KJV).
