WHY WE DON’T CELEBRATE CHRISTMAS
Patrick and Maureen LaFaive
(MOSS PATCH NEWSLETTER, Vol. 2, No. 7, November 1991)
As Christians, we gave up Christmas seven years ago when we became aware of the pagan roots of this celebration and diligently searched the Scriptures to see what the Bible had to say about it.
We learned that Christmas is essentially a pagan holiday with a thin Christian veneer. Jesus was not born on December 25th, but the pagans celebrated the Birth of the Unconquered Sun (Saturnalia) at this precise time of year, worshipping their gods with trees, yule logs, wassail, holly, mistletoe, and all the trimmings, right down to the Christmas goose. To make a long story short, in order to bring unconverted pagans into the Roman Catholic church long, long ago, the Church met them half way—letting them keep the pagan feasts that they enjoyed so much, and just “Christianizing” them. It doesn’t sound like a bad idea to Christianize paganism until it is discovered that the Word of God specifically forbids it over and over again throughout the Bible.
For example:
“Learn not the way of the heathen...for the customs of the people are vain...” (Jeremiah 10:2,3).
“Take heed...that thou inquire not after their gods saying, How did these nations serve their gods? Even so will I do likewise.” (Deut. 12:30)
“...Abstain from pollutions of idols” (Acts 15:20).
As Alexander Hislop brings out in The Two Babylons, “The tendency on the part of Christians to meet paganism half way was very early developed. Tertullian, about the year 230, bitterly lamented the inconsistency of the disciples of Christ in this respect and contrasted it with the strict fidelity of the pagans to their own superstition:
‘By us, says he, ‘who are strangers to (Jewish) Sabbaths, and new moons, and festivals, once acceptable to God, the Saturnalia, the feasts of January, the Brumalia, and Matronalia are now frequented, gifts are carried to and fro, new year’s day presents are made with din, and sports and banquets are celebrated with uproar; oh how much more faithful are the heathen to their religion, who take special care to adopt no solemnity from the Christians.’”
Charles Halff, of the Christian Jew Foundation, in his booklet, “The Truth About Christmas” reports:
“The pagan history of Christmas has been well known throughout history. In fact, at one time the celebration of this pagan custom was forbidden by law in England. In 1644, Parliament declared Christmas to be unlawful; and, consequently, it was abolished. The English Puritans looked upon the celebration of Christmas as the work of Satan. At one time in early American history the observance of Christmas was illegal. A law was adopted in the general court of Massachusetts about 1650 which required that those who celebrated Christmas were to be punished. The statute read, ‘Whosoever shall be found observing any such day as Christmas...shall be subject to a fine of 5 shillings.’ The law’s preamble explained it’s purpose was ‘for preventing disorders...(by) observing such festivals as were superstitiously kept in other countries to the great dishonor of God and the offense of others.’ After the Mayflower pilgrims landed in 1620, the first December 25th was spent in labor and cutting down trees ‘in order to avoid any frivolity on the day sometimes called Christmas.’”
Nowhere in Scripture is there any indication that we are to celebrate the Lord’s birth. There are only two “birthday parties” mentioned in the Bible, Pharaoh’s (Genesis 40:20) and Herod’s (Matt. 14:6). Both were pagan celebrations and both had gruesome events associated with them—Pharaoh hung the chief baker, and Herod had John the Baptist beheaded!
Jesus said to remember His death (1 Corinthians 11:26) and look for His coming (Luke 12:37). Why do we add to His words in celebrating His birth? The Bible admonishes us not to add to the words of Scripture:
“Every word of God is pure...add thou not unto His Words, lest He reprove thee.” (Proverbs 30:5,6)
Some say, “Christmas is just a pleasant tradition. There’s no harm in it.” But Jesus says, “You make the Word of God of no effect through your tradition which you have handed down. For laying aside the commandment of God, you hold the tradition of men. All too well you reject the commandment of God, that you may keep your tradition,” (Mark, chapter 7).
The only way we can ever express gratefulness to the One who paid such a dear price to save our souls is to respect His Word and obey His commandments. We cannot do that if we participate in any way in a pagan tradition such as Christmas.
The Christmas tree is an abomination in the sight of God. There are many complex legends, but essentially the tree represents the slain god, Nimrod, reincarnated as Tammuz, the Babylonian messiah. Suffice to say that the Christmas tree is representative of a pagan idol, the very idol whose honoring is condemned as a great abomination in Ezekiel 8:14. We have heard well-meaning people remark, “So it has pagan roots; I do not worship the tree.” Yet what do they do with it. They drape it with garlands, just as the pagan priest honored his gods in Acts 14:13. They deck it with silver and gold, as the tree idol is decorated in Jeremiah 10:3,4. According to the dictionary, worship can simply mean “great honor and respect.” A plain little green tree seems to get the royal treatment during the Christmas season. It occupies the foremost place in the home where it will be noticed and admired even by passers-by from outside as it stands glistening in the window, bedecked with jewels and arrayed more gloriously than Solomon. If it’s not an idol, why are people so unwilling to give it up? It it’s not an idol, why do they sing “worshipful” songs to it? “O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree, how lovely are your branches.” The “green tree” is mentioned ten times in the Bible and in every instance it is associated with idolatry.
The exchanging of gifts is also a pagan custom. Statues of gods and other trinkets were exchanged during religious festivals in heathen lands. Yet, to quote Albert James Dager, who has written on the subject of Christmas traditions in Media Spotlight, “There is certainly nothing wrong with giving gifts to family and friends out of love and genuine appreciation for what they have meant throughout the year. But it would be far better if those gifts were given spontaneously rather than under pressure to meet the social requirements of a pagan holiday. Here it is important to examine our motives. A gift in itself is certainly not evil. A gift given under pressure is a compromise to one’s conscience and is little more than a bribe.”
Mr. Dager also observes, “The atmosphere of the world during Christmas is evidence of its incompatibility with Christ. The media are filled with advertising and programming that turns Christmas into a hedonistic celebration. Jesus is so rarely mentioned that it’s obvious He has little to do with the day anyhow.”
Why is it that the world, that hates Christ, loves Christmas? Multitudes will accept Jesus as a helpless babe in a manger while rejecting Him as Lord of their lives. We cringe when we hear of ministers of the Gospel, after preaching the “Christmas” sermon, extending invitations to sinners to “ask the baby Jesus to come into your heart.” There is no salvation in such a warped concept of surrender to the Living God.
To those who would say, “Let’s put Christ back in Christmas,” we would respond, He was never the “reason for the season” to begin with! Let the world have its tinseled, liquored up Christmas. “As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.”
References:
“The Origin of Christmas Traditions,” Al Dager, Media Spotlight
“The Truth About Christmas,” Charles Halff, Christian Jew Foundation
The Two Babylons, Alexander Hislop
Babylon Mystery Religion, Ralph Woodrow
World Book Encyclopedia
Addendum 4/17/07:
Rabbinical Judaism likes to put “fences” around commandments. Why are Messianics so de-fence-less against Christmas? We often hear, “As long as you don’t worship the tree, it’s OK to have it.” Yet the Second commandment tells us not only “Do not worship idols” but don’t even have them around. “Does it not concern you what God thinks about the “mystery forms” of imagery that you claim are harmless? They represent the enemy of our souls whether we see it that way or not. Did Yeshua redeem us so we could continue in the “chambers of imagery” that He abhors (Ezek. 8:12)? What is the difference between a marble statue of Zeus or a bedecked, gaudy tree prominently displayed in a room in your home? Can you exhibit a Buddha in your living room? As long as you don’t worship it, why not? How about a Mary statue? A Jesus picture on the wall? We knew a man who would gaze at his Jesus picture to keep him from sin. His wife was defending the practice, telling us that it was working. The man was an alcoholic. Yet he would not read the Bible or surrender his life to doing God’s will. Eventually he fell back to alcohol abuse and wife abuse. The picture did not deliver him. He forsook the Word of God for chambers of imagery. If you find holidays such as Christmas “neutral,” just what does comprise temptations to idolatrous practices in our generation? We are told to “flee from idolatry” (1 Cor. 10:14) but if there is no idolatry to flee from in our modern Christian/Jewish world, maybe these Scriptures are irrelevant?
11/29/2009
11/24/2009
The Water Ain't So Fine After All
The Water Ain't So Fine After All
By Banner Kidd
In most things I am a skeptic. I’m accused of some of being negative, but I don’t consider myself a negative thinker. I consider myself a positive thinker who wants to know the facts. There are things I believe for a certainty and there are things that I’m not sure about. The things I believe for a certainty trump the uncertain issues. That’s where I am positive in my outlook on life.
Most people who say they are positive thinkers, I believe, are not as positive as they let on. When I talk to them, or read things they’ve written, their lives are full of fear and reaction. This fear comes from an uncertainty about the things in life that we face on a daily basis. This fear-gripped society is tapped into and propagated by people who have money and power in order to make more money and increase power over the masses.
I watch the news and hear the fear-mongering about the latest crisis; H1N1. The World Health Organization, an arm of the United Nations, has named this a pandemic and people who live in fear hear the declaration and will do whatever the government tells them to do. The sad fact is that many will not take the time to see what is really going on in the world.
I call it the “Just give me my MTV generation.” What I mean is that people just want to have fun. We, as a society, have become so distracted by amusement with fast moving technology and free flowing cash. The pursuit of happiness has become the driving force in much of America. The merchandisers have tapped into this, providing more things to distract and keep people so busy that they pay no attention to what is going on around them. Even the drug companies have created pills to keep people happy. Meanwhile those who are profiting from this endeavor are doing more and more to create a mind-numbed citizenry that falls into more bondage everyday, while being totally unaware of it.
It’s the frog in the pot story. Frogs like the water. Put him in a pan of water, on the stove and turn the flame on low. The frog is a happy camper in this water. It gets a bit warmer and he’s even happier. But as the water gets hotter, and the flame is turned up, the frog doesn’t realize that he is going to be cooked to death! By the time he realizes he’s in trouble it’s too late to get out. I believe the same thing is going to happen with the majority of America.
I was a frog in the pot once. I began to hear another Voice telling me to wake up and look around me. I needed to see where I was at, who was turning up the heat, and how they were doing it. Those who are turning up the heat, and know what they’re doing, are all being influenced by one particular force in the world. There is a supreme liar who is the father of all liars. We are being lied to and have been for a long time. Most of the world is in the pan. They’re beckoning others to “Come on in, the water is fine.” But it’s a lie they’ve believed and they’re unwittingly propagating the lie. The Bible says that these are deceived and they are being used to deceive.
Because mankind refuses to recognize his death sentence he is destined to die. Because mankind refuses to acknowledge why he is under a death sentence he is destined to die. The liar has said from the beginning, “You shall not surely die!” Since then men who have believed this lie parrot the lie. In essence they’re saying, “Come on in, the water is fine.” But those who stay in the pot will die!
The lie begins with questioning the Word of God. The question is “Did God really say…?” And its power lies in the lying proclamation, “You shall surely not die.” The lying concept is that you will not die for rebellion and disobedience to the Commandments of the Creator. But the Commandments of God are in direct opposition to the carnal nature of mankind who are enjoying their quest for 24/7 happiness.
This quest for24/7 happiness is fueled by a power hungry group of people who propagate the lie. They themselves are deceived into believing they are an elite group that won’t suffer the wrath of God that will come upon the sons of disobedience – the sons of the liar, the serpent of old. These men are liars, just as their father is the supreme liar. They will be judged for this if they don’t repent. And those who believe their lies will likewise be judged for their lives of rebellion as well.
So today most of America and in fact the world is in fear of losing the happiness that they are deceived into believing they have. They are so distracted by gadgets and entertainment that they don’t feel the water getting hotter. When they start feeling depressed or anything that they deem “negative” comes into their life they begin to look for more distraction. They want to shut up the negative voices and they do it by looking for more distraction which is readily supplied by men who are profiting from it. The result is a mind-numbed, dumbed downed citizenry that is unwittingly complicit in their own demise.
Our drugged society that receives its fix from pharmaceuticals, rock and roll, movies, Ipods, video games, sex, illegal drugs, and alcohol is a direct result of rejecting the Commandments of God – the Truth of God. The Bible says that the LORD sends strong delusion to those who have not received a love for the Truth that they might believe the lie. Because people don’t love the Truth, which is the Word of God, the lie is easily believed.
When the professing church abandons the Truth society falls in lock step. The church is not reflecting the Light in the darkness. She ends up being those who say, “Come on in, the water is fine.”
This lie is from the beginning, as the church is from the beginning. The liar has always asked, “Did God really say we are to obey HIS Commandments of Torah?” And he has always followed it up with, “You shall not surely die” for disregarding HIS Torah. Yet the professing church has done just that. They have replaced the Truth with the lie.
Rejecting Torah it has become the doctrines of men. The Feasts of the LORD are now replaced by pagan holidays and the church in their arrogance says they’ve “redeemed” them for God. God has never redeemed paganism. HE condemned it and said that those who practice it will not inherit HIS kingdom. HIS Sabbath is replaced by observance of the day of the sun god, Mithra, and yet the church says, “Did God really say we have to observe HIS Sabbath? HE did away with it and we can choose any day we want for Sabbath. You will not surely die for disregarding HIS commanded Sabbath observance!”
Meanwhile the world believes the lie and they don’t see any Truth coming from the professing church. All they see is another part of the lie. The church is practicing the same thing as the world. The world goes after Christmas because it is not of God. The church believes the lie that she can use Christmas to reach people for God. It hasn’t worked because it is not of God. And then the professing church gets mad because the world is taking Christ out of Christmas. The truth is that the world is waking up to the truth that Christ has nothing to do with Christmas while the professing church hangs on to the lie with all she’s worth! She keeps calling out to those who she sees as on the outside saying, “Come on in, the water is fine!” She doesn’t realize that they are all in the same pan together!
There are those in the pan who are born again, and there are those who aren’t. I confess I don’t know how to separate them one from another. I can look at what their practices are and identify them as of being in keeping with Torah or not, but I don’t know which ones are really seeking the Truth and which ones are comfortably and irrevocably in the lie. Those who are truly seeking the Truth will begin to realize they need to get out of the pan. Those who aren’t seeking the Truth will tell anyone who speaks the Truth, “I don’t want to hear your negativity. You’re keeping people from the kingdom because of your divisiveness.” Since when is proclaiming the Truth of the Word divisive? But, in fact it is divisive, just as Yeshua (Jesus) said. HE said, “I did not come to bring peace, but to bring a sword.” This sword is HIS Word that divides even parents from children. It divides those who want to hear the Truth from those who are comfortable in remaining in the lie.
What I - and many more even you if you love the Truth - am called to do is proclaim the Truth. I pray that there are those who will hear the Truth and begin to come out. When you hear the Truth it means you must take action. You remain in the lie when you see and hear the Truth yet stay in the pan. You must realize that you are still believing the lie that says, “Surely you will not die!”
In Revelation Yeshua said, “Come out of her (Babylon) MY people.” His wrath is coming upon Babylon and those who follow after her lies. The professing church has set up residence and staked her claim for existence in Babylon! What she practices is Babylonian and the LORD she claims to follow is saying, “Come out of her!”
Our Creator is speaking the same thing HE has said from the beginning. Please shut out the voices of men, remove the distractions so that you might hear HIS Voice, and heed HIS exhortation before you can’t get out of the pan.
http://torahperspective.com/2009/11/water-aint-so-fine-after-all.html
By Banner Kidd
In most things I am a skeptic. I’m accused of some of being negative, but I don’t consider myself a negative thinker. I consider myself a positive thinker who wants to know the facts. There are things I believe for a certainty and there are things that I’m not sure about. The things I believe for a certainty trump the uncertain issues. That’s where I am positive in my outlook on life.
Most people who say they are positive thinkers, I believe, are not as positive as they let on. When I talk to them, or read things they’ve written, their lives are full of fear and reaction. This fear comes from an uncertainty about the things in life that we face on a daily basis. This fear-gripped society is tapped into and propagated by people who have money and power in order to make more money and increase power over the masses.
I watch the news and hear the fear-mongering about the latest crisis; H1N1. The World Health Organization, an arm of the United Nations, has named this a pandemic and people who live in fear hear the declaration and will do whatever the government tells them to do. The sad fact is that many will not take the time to see what is really going on in the world.
I call it the “Just give me my MTV generation.” What I mean is that people just want to have fun. We, as a society, have become so distracted by amusement with fast moving technology and free flowing cash. The pursuit of happiness has become the driving force in much of America. The merchandisers have tapped into this, providing more things to distract and keep people so busy that they pay no attention to what is going on around them. Even the drug companies have created pills to keep people happy. Meanwhile those who are profiting from this endeavor are doing more and more to create a mind-numbed citizenry that falls into more bondage everyday, while being totally unaware of it.
It’s the frog in the pot story. Frogs like the water. Put him in a pan of water, on the stove and turn the flame on low. The frog is a happy camper in this water. It gets a bit warmer and he’s even happier. But as the water gets hotter, and the flame is turned up, the frog doesn’t realize that he is going to be cooked to death! By the time he realizes he’s in trouble it’s too late to get out. I believe the same thing is going to happen with the majority of America.
I was a frog in the pot once. I began to hear another Voice telling me to wake up and look around me. I needed to see where I was at, who was turning up the heat, and how they were doing it. Those who are turning up the heat, and know what they’re doing, are all being influenced by one particular force in the world. There is a supreme liar who is the father of all liars. We are being lied to and have been for a long time. Most of the world is in the pan. They’re beckoning others to “Come on in, the water is fine.” But it’s a lie they’ve believed and they’re unwittingly propagating the lie. The Bible says that these are deceived and they are being used to deceive.
Because mankind refuses to recognize his death sentence he is destined to die. Because mankind refuses to acknowledge why he is under a death sentence he is destined to die. The liar has said from the beginning, “You shall not surely die!” Since then men who have believed this lie parrot the lie. In essence they’re saying, “Come on in, the water is fine.” But those who stay in the pot will die!
The lie begins with questioning the Word of God. The question is “Did God really say…?” And its power lies in the lying proclamation, “You shall surely not die.” The lying concept is that you will not die for rebellion and disobedience to the Commandments of the Creator. But the Commandments of God are in direct opposition to the carnal nature of mankind who are enjoying their quest for 24/7 happiness.
This quest for24/7 happiness is fueled by a power hungry group of people who propagate the lie. They themselves are deceived into believing they are an elite group that won’t suffer the wrath of God that will come upon the sons of disobedience – the sons of the liar, the serpent of old. These men are liars, just as their father is the supreme liar. They will be judged for this if they don’t repent. And those who believe their lies will likewise be judged for their lives of rebellion as well.
So today most of America and in fact the world is in fear of losing the happiness that they are deceived into believing they have. They are so distracted by gadgets and entertainment that they don’t feel the water getting hotter. When they start feeling depressed or anything that they deem “negative” comes into their life they begin to look for more distraction. They want to shut up the negative voices and they do it by looking for more distraction which is readily supplied by men who are profiting from it. The result is a mind-numbed, dumbed downed citizenry that is unwittingly complicit in their own demise.
Our drugged society that receives its fix from pharmaceuticals, rock and roll, movies, Ipods, video games, sex, illegal drugs, and alcohol is a direct result of rejecting the Commandments of God – the Truth of God. The Bible says that the LORD sends strong delusion to those who have not received a love for the Truth that they might believe the lie. Because people don’t love the Truth, which is the Word of God, the lie is easily believed.
When the professing church abandons the Truth society falls in lock step. The church is not reflecting the Light in the darkness. She ends up being those who say, “Come on in, the water is fine.”
This lie is from the beginning, as the church is from the beginning. The liar has always asked, “Did God really say we are to obey HIS Commandments of Torah?” And he has always followed it up with, “You shall not surely die” for disregarding HIS Torah. Yet the professing church has done just that. They have replaced the Truth with the lie.
Rejecting Torah it has become the doctrines of men. The Feasts of the LORD are now replaced by pagan holidays and the church in their arrogance says they’ve “redeemed” them for God. God has never redeemed paganism. HE condemned it and said that those who practice it will not inherit HIS kingdom. HIS Sabbath is replaced by observance of the day of the sun god, Mithra, and yet the church says, “Did God really say we have to observe HIS Sabbath? HE did away with it and we can choose any day we want for Sabbath. You will not surely die for disregarding HIS commanded Sabbath observance!”
Meanwhile the world believes the lie and they don’t see any Truth coming from the professing church. All they see is another part of the lie. The church is practicing the same thing as the world. The world goes after Christmas because it is not of God. The church believes the lie that she can use Christmas to reach people for God. It hasn’t worked because it is not of God. And then the professing church gets mad because the world is taking Christ out of Christmas. The truth is that the world is waking up to the truth that Christ has nothing to do with Christmas while the professing church hangs on to the lie with all she’s worth! She keeps calling out to those who she sees as on the outside saying, “Come on in, the water is fine!” She doesn’t realize that they are all in the same pan together!
There are those in the pan who are born again, and there are those who aren’t. I confess I don’t know how to separate them one from another. I can look at what their practices are and identify them as of being in keeping with Torah or not, but I don’t know which ones are really seeking the Truth and which ones are comfortably and irrevocably in the lie. Those who are truly seeking the Truth will begin to realize they need to get out of the pan. Those who aren’t seeking the Truth will tell anyone who speaks the Truth, “I don’t want to hear your negativity. You’re keeping people from the kingdom because of your divisiveness.” Since when is proclaiming the Truth of the Word divisive? But, in fact it is divisive, just as Yeshua (Jesus) said. HE said, “I did not come to bring peace, but to bring a sword.” This sword is HIS Word that divides even parents from children. It divides those who want to hear the Truth from those who are comfortable in remaining in the lie.
What I - and many more even you if you love the Truth - am called to do is proclaim the Truth. I pray that there are those who will hear the Truth and begin to come out. When you hear the Truth it means you must take action. You remain in the lie when you see and hear the Truth yet stay in the pan. You must realize that you are still believing the lie that says, “Surely you will not die!”
In Revelation Yeshua said, “Come out of her (Babylon) MY people.” His wrath is coming upon Babylon and those who follow after her lies. The professing church has set up residence and staked her claim for existence in Babylon! What she practices is Babylonian and the LORD she claims to follow is saying, “Come out of her!”
Our Creator is speaking the same thing HE has said from the beginning. Please shut out the voices of men, remove the distractions so that you might hear HIS Voice, and heed HIS exhortation before you can’t get out of the pan.
http://torahperspective.com/2009/11/water-aint-so-fine-after-all.html
11/21/2009
Beware of Ilan Pappe
David Pryce-Jones
RAUS MIT UNS
The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine
By Ilan Pappe (Oneworld Publications 313pp £16.99)
Ilan Pappe is an Israeli academic who has made his name by hating Israel and everything it stands for. In his view, expressed with obsession and a degree of paranoia, Jewish nationalism, that is to say Zionism, has been from its outset a deliberate tool for dispossessing the Palestinians; and therefore it is to be condemned root and branch. He reserves the Palestinian term of Nakba, meaning catastrophe, for describing what to Israelis is their war of independence of 1948. To him, Israeli politicians and soldiers, one and all, are so many murderers. Forests have been planted only to cover up the past. Houses are ‘monstrous villas and palaces for rich American Jews’. Everything Israeli is ugly, everything Palestinian is beautiful. One day, he supposes, the Israelis may well consummate their original crime with something even worse. The only possible alternative lies in the immediate return of every Palestinian to his original home, and that will mean the end of the state whose existence so offends Pappe. This, of course, is exactly the inflexible position taken by Hamas and the PLO.
The reader’s initial reaction must be one of pity. Poor man! What a strain it must be to belong to a nation whose members are so overwhelmingly unbearable that he longs for them to be overpowered by others. Yet there is more to it than that. Sad and creepy though it is, Pappe’s anger is open to rational analysis.
The doctrinal element pushing Pappe into anti-Zionism is his prominent involvement in the Israeli Communist Party, known as Hadash. An outcrop of pure Stalinism and always a marginal movement, Communism in Israel rejected Zionism in favour of internationalism, according to which Jews and Arabs were to form a state together. Events, indeed the whole thrust of history, have proven this to be a complete illusion, but Pappe remains one of a minute handful still in its grip.
The further emotional element pushing Pappe towards his hatred of Zionism is best elucidated by J L Talmon in his profound book, The Myth of the Nation and the Vision of Revolution. Among the ‘horribly charged and tormenting questions’ Talmon asks is why so many Jews have adopted identities that seemingly allow them to deny their Jewishness. Uncountable numbers of Jews have followed the example of the Karl Marxes, Trotskys and Rosa Luxemburgs who sought identities as Communists and revolutionaries in the hope that this would allow them to merge with those who otherwise would be their persecutors. Some Communists – like Lazar Kaganovich, and many in the KGB as well as leaders in the Soviet satellites – set about the deliberate destruction of the Jewish religion and culture. Talmon speaks openly of the neurosis and ‘morbid masochism’ motivating such unhappy people.
In Nazi Germany a few Jews tried to camouflage themselves in a similar manner. Felix Jacoby opened his Kiel University lectures in 1933 by comparing Hitler to the Emperor Augustus. Dr Hans-Joachim Schoeps and Max Naumann even formed a movement of Jews for Hitler. With gallows humour, other Jews replied that this movement’s slogan was Raus mit Uns, or Out with Us. In Israel today, Neturei Karta, a sect of ultra-Orthodox Jews, believes that the Messiah alone should bring about a Jewish state, and that Israel is therefore an impiety fit for destruction. In New York they have a branch called Jews Against Zionism, and recently they welcomed President Ahmedinejad in person there, supporting his call for genocide in Israel. Pappe is the secular and political version of these sectarians. As often happens, extremists have come from opposing poles only to reach the same conclusion.
Zionism, in Pappe’s conventional Marxist view, had nothing to do with the need for Jews to survive persecution by Europeans or Arabs, but was only a settler and colonialist movement cynically directed by British imperialists and their greedy Jewish collaborators. He characterises David Ben-Gurion, the driving personality in the latter stages of the foundation of the state of Israel, as someone who always intended to expel Palestinians from the land. To bring this about, he assembled a body which Pappe refers to as the Consultancy, but the details of who these people were, and what they really did, he fails to give us, instead preferring to conjure an aura of sinister conspiracy. The Israelis were always the stronger party and knew that they would win out at the end of the British Mandate in 1948, Pappe says. In contrast, the Palestinians were defenceless and hardly violent at all, designated victims whose villages were mercilessly overrun and many of the inhabitants butchered.
A huge literature exists in British, Arab and Israeli archives to reveal the multiple reasons for the flight of the Palestinians at the time, ranging from a belief that invading Arab armies were about to rescue them, and they should move out of harm’s way, to a cultural reflex that they could not accept Jews in positions of authority, an escapism on the part of some leaders and delusions of power on the part of others, and of course fear. Savage things were certainly perpetrated by both sides – à la guerre comme à la guerre – but Pappe will have none of that, completely ignoring the context in all its complexity and local variation. His technique is to list towns and villages as though their capture involved always and only simple brutality and expulsion. No mention of the Jewish need to survive in an existential struggle in the aftermath of the Holocaust; no mention of the 6,000 Jews killed, which was 1 per cent of the population; no mention of Azzam Pasha of the Arab League promising a massacre of Jews on the scale of the Mongols; no mention of Arab radio propaganda and disinformation; no proper account of Arab military successes, brushing over Arab atrocities and the destruction of Jewish settlements; no mention of the countervailing expulsion and expropriation of a million Jews in Arab countries.
As history, the book is worthless. In interviews Pappe regularly explains: ‘We do [historiography] because of ideological reasons, not because we are truth seekers.’ For him, as a Marxist and anti-nationalist, ‘there is no such thing as truth, only a collection of narratives’. To substantiate his particular ideological narrative, Pappe puts the worst possible interpretation on any Jewish deed or word, while validating anything said or done by Palestinians. For evidence of Israeli monstrosity, he relies on quotations from his own previous works or from Palestinian polemicists, and above all on the oral testimonies of Palestinian refugees. Over half a century of military and ideological conflict has passed since their exodus, but Pappe declares his faith that whatever they now say is true. This might all seem too pathological to matter much, but Arab and Muslim extremists are making huge efforts to contest the legitimacy of Israel, and many of their allies on the international Left will lean on Pappe for purposes of ‘pilgering’ and ‘fisking’.
The final element contributing to Pappe’s mindset lies in the sphere of psychology and fashion. Contemporary intellectuals have long been accustomed to glorying in an adversarial stance towards their own society, preening themselves as men of nobler spirits than the dull indifferent masses around them, and isolated not because they are foolish but because they are brave. It is a form of snobbery – moral snobbery – which is why intellectuals of this kind are so widely resented.
There is a fatal contradiction at the heart of Pappe’s advocacy of the immediate return of all Palestinian refugees as the necessary condition of peace. If Israelis are really as vicious as Pappe presents them, then Palestinians could not possibly want to live among them. Are Palestinians to return only to wipe out Israelis or to be wiped out themselves? Poor Palestinians, poor Israelis, to be mobilised for such fates. And should Hamas, the PLO or President Ahmadinejad make good on threats to eliminate Israel, there will not be time to rescue Pappe from the consequences of his moral snobbery and his Marxism, or to discover whether he really applauds his own Raus mit Uns demise.
http://www.literaryreview.co.uk/pryce-jones_11_06.html
RAUS MIT UNS
The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine
By Ilan Pappe (Oneworld Publications 313pp £16.99)
Ilan Pappe is an Israeli academic who has made his name by hating Israel and everything it stands for. In his view, expressed with obsession and a degree of paranoia, Jewish nationalism, that is to say Zionism, has been from its outset a deliberate tool for dispossessing the Palestinians; and therefore it is to be condemned root and branch. He reserves the Palestinian term of Nakba, meaning catastrophe, for describing what to Israelis is their war of independence of 1948. To him, Israeli politicians and soldiers, one and all, are so many murderers. Forests have been planted only to cover up the past. Houses are ‘monstrous villas and palaces for rich American Jews’. Everything Israeli is ugly, everything Palestinian is beautiful. One day, he supposes, the Israelis may well consummate their original crime with something even worse. The only possible alternative lies in the immediate return of every Palestinian to his original home, and that will mean the end of the state whose existence so offends Pappe. This, of course, is exactly the inflexible position taken by Hamas and the PLO.
The reader’s initial reaction must be one of pity. Poor man! What a strain it must be to belong to a nation whose members are so overwhelmingly unbearable that he longs for them to be overpowered by others. Yet there is more to it than that. Sad and creepy though it is, Pappe’s anger is open to rational analysis.
The doctrinal element pushing Pappe into anti-Zionism is his prominent involvement in the Israeli Communist Party, known as Hadash. An outcrop of pure Stalinism and always a marginal movement, Communism in Israel rejected Zionism in favour of internationalism, according to which Jews and Arabs were to form a state together. Events, indeed the whole thrust of history, have proven this to be a complete illusion, but Pappe remains one of a minute handful still in its grip.
The further emotional element pushing Pappe towards his hatred of Zionism is best elucidated by J L Talmon in his profound book, The Myth of the Nation and the Vision of Revolution. Among the ‘horribly charged and tormenting questions’ Talmon asks is why so many Jews have adopted identities that seemingly allow them to deny their Jewishness. Uncountable numbers of Jews have followed the example of the Karl Marxes, Trotskys and Rosa Luxemburgs who sought identities as Communists and revolutionaries in the hope that this would allow them to merge with those who otherwise would be their persecutors. Some Communists – like Lazar Kaganovich, and many in the KGB as well as leaders in the Soviet satellites – set about the deliberate destruction of the Jewish religion and culture. Talmon speaks openly of the neurosis and ‘morbid masochism’ motivating such unhappy people.
In Nazi Germany a few Jews tried to camouflage themselves in a similar manner. Felix Jacoby opened his Kiel University lectures in 1933 by comparing Hitler to the Emperor Augustus. Dr Hans-Joachim Schoeps and Max Naumann even formed a movement of Jews for Hitler. With gallows humour, other Jews replied that this movement’s slogan was Raus mit Uns, or Out with Us. In Israel today, Neturei Karta, a sect of ultra-Orthodox Jews, believes that the Messiah alone should bring about a Jewish state, and that Israel is therefore an impiety fit for destruction. In New York they have a branch called Jews Against Zionism, and recently they welcomed President Ahmedinejad in person there, supporting his call for genocide in Israel. Pappe is the secular and political version of these sectarians. As often happens, extremists have come from opposing poles only to reach the same conclusion.
Zionism, in Pappe’s conventional Marxist view, had nothing to do with the need for Jews to survive persecution by Europeans or Arabs, but was only a settler and colonialist movement cynically directed by British imperialists and their greedy Jewish collaborators. He characterises David Ben-Gurion, the driving personality in the latter stages of the foundation of the state of Israel, as someone who always intended to expel Palestinians from the land. To bring this about, he assembled a body which Pappe refers to as the Consultancy, but the details of who these people were, and what they really did, he fails to give us, instead preferring to conjure an aura of sinister conspiracy. The Israelis were always the stronger party and knew that they would win out at the end of the British Mandate in 1948, Pappe says. In contrast, the Palestinians were defenceless and hardly violent at all, designated victims whose villages were mercilessly overrun and many of the inhabitants butchered.
A huge literature exists in British, Arab and Israeli archives to reveal the multiple reasons for the flight of the Palestinians at the time, ranging from a belief that invading Arab armies were about to rescue them, and they should move out of harm’s way, to a cultural reflex that they could not accept Jews in positions of authority, an escapism on the part of some leaders and delusions of power on the part of others, and of course fear. Savage things were certainly perpetrated by both sides – à la guerre comme à la guerre – but Pappe will have none of that, completely ignoring the context in all its complexity and local variation. His technique is to list towns and villages as though their capture involved always and only simple brutality and expulsion. No mention of the Jewish need to survive in an existential struggle in the aftermath of the Holocaust; no mention of the 6,000 Jews killed, which was 1 per cent of the population; no mention of Azzam Pasha of the Arab League promising a massacre of Jews on the scale of the Mongols; no mention of Arab radio propaganda and disinformation; no proper account of Arab military successes, brushing over Arab atrocities and the destruction of Jewish settlements; no mention of the countervailing expulsion and expropriation of a million Jews in Arab countries.
As history, the book is worthless. In interviews Pappe regularly explains: ‘We do [historiography] because of ideological reasons, not because we are truth seekers.’ For him, as a Marxist and anti-nationalist, ‘there is no such thing as truth, only a collection of narratives’. To substantiate his particular ideological narrative, Pappe puts the worst possible interpretation on any Jewish deed or word, while validating anything said or done by Palestinians. For evidence of Israeli monstrosity, he relies on quotations from his own previous works or from Palestinian polemicists, and above all on the oral testimonies of Palestinian refugees. Over half a century of military and ideological conflict has passed since their exodus, but Pappe declares his faith that whatever they now say is true. This might all seem too pathological to matter much, but Arab and Muslim extremists are making huge efforts to contest the legitimacy of Israel, and many of their allies on the international Left will lean on Pappe for purposes of ‘pilgering’ and ‘fisking’.
The final element contributing to Pappe’s mindset lies in the sphere of psychology and fashion. Contemporary intellectuals have long been accustomed to glorying in an adversarial stance towards their own society, preening themselves as men of nobler spirits than the dull indifferent masses around them, and isolated not because they are foolish but because they are brave. It is a form of snobbery – moral snobbery – which is why intellectuals of this kind are so widely resented.
There is a fatal contradiction at the heart of Pappe’s advocacy of the immediate return of all Palestinian refugees as the necessary condition of peace. If Israelis are really as vicious as Pappe presents them, then Palestinians could not possibly want to live among them. Are Palestinians to return only to wipe out Israelis or to be wiped out themselves? Poor Palestinians, poor Israelis, to be mobilised for such fates. And should Hamas, the PLO or President Ahmadinejad make good on threats to eliminate Israel, there will not be time to rescue Pappe from the consequences of his moral snobbery and his Marxism, or to discover whether he really applauds his own Raus mit Uns demise.
http://www.literaryreview.co.uk/pryce-jones_11_06.html
11/10/2009
Divine Intervention
Divine intervention
By Sitiveni Rabuka (Sunday, October 26, 2008)
Miracles on the battlefield ... Israeli soldiers talked of divine intervention in their six-day war
Ni sa bula. On 14 May (!) 1948, against all odds, having been dispersed all over the world for two millennium, Israel was re-birthed as a nation fulfilling prophecies in the Old Testament Books of Ezekiel, Jeremiah, and Isaiah.
This re-birth astounded the world. Never before had an entire race of people, widely scattered around the world, without a homeland, re-establish itself as a nation and in one single day, as well! Israel is the only nation with this unique, historical experience.
Historians and theologians before this event were generally of the view that God's Word in the Old Testament on gathering and restoring His people as a nation back on the land He promised them, were not to be literally taken, because it simply was just not possible. When a race of people is scattered among nations, they usually are assimilated into other cultures and communities, which renders their coming together as a nation virtually impossible.
This view was demolished when Israel was re-born as a nation in 1948 and generated great interest in Biblical prophecy as realisation grew that God means exactly what He says! Jeremiah 31:10, the prophet says" Hear the word of the Lord, O nations; proclaim it in distant coastlands: He who scattered Israel will gather them and will watch over His flock like a shepherd."
No sooner had Israel proclaimed its independence on Friday 14 May 1948, five Arab nations, Egypt, Syria, Trans-Jordan, Lebanon and Iraq launched an attack against the newly re-born and tiny nation, on the same day! They were out to destroy the new state, and reclaim the land for the setting up of another Arab state. The Arab states far outnumbered and out-gunned the Jews. They had troops, artillery and other military hardware that the Jews did not have. Azzam Pasha, Secretary General of the Arab League at the time, confidently declared; "This will be a war of extermination and a momentous massacre which will be spoken of like the Mongolian massacres and the Crusades."
Given the clear superiority of the Arab states in heavy arms, fire power and troops, an Arab victory was expected and boldly predicted. Very few felt that Israel would survive the onslaught.
But Israel bravely fought back, and won what they called their war of independance and liberation against Arab aggression. They gained more territory, and when the war was over the Arabs were left with less territory and more wounded. Had the Secretary General, Azzam Pasha known Jeremiah 31:10 in which God promises to watch over His people, having returned them to the promised land, like a shepherd over his flock, one wonders whether he would have still been so confident of Israel's destruction.
The Israeli-Arab conflict, however, did not end. Israel went on to survive, the 1956 Suez Canal crisis; the 1967 six day war; and the 1973 Yom Kippur war. In every war and conflict, reports of supernatural and angelic interventions on Israel's behalf came from both the Israelis and the Arabs. The prophet Zechariah had foretold that in the end times, God will defend Israel and send His angels to fight for and with His people. Zechariah 12:8 "In that day shall the Lord defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and he that is feeble among them at that day shall be as David; and the House of David shall be as God, as the angel of the Lord before them."
A story is told of a small Jewish community, Pekiin under siege by Arabs who were determined to wipe them out. However, they encountered huge strange beings with flaming swords, and they ran away in great fear, as the astonished village rabbi watched them.
During the 1967 six day war, Gershon Saloman lay badly wounded and saw Syrian soldiers moving into their area shooting wounded Israeli soldiers. They were about to shoot him, when all of a sudden they fled the area leaving their weapons behind. The Syrian soldiers later reported to UN officers that they saw "thousands of angels" surrounding the wounded soldier and that was why they ran away.
An Israeli military historian recorded that during the 1973 Yom Kippur war, an Israeli soldier in the Sinai took captive an Egyptian column and led them to where the Israeli troops were. The Egyptian commander was asked why he and his men gave themselves up to the lone Israeli soldier. He responded with surprise; "One soldier? There were thousands of them." He said that as they neared the Israeli lines, the "soldiers" began disappearing. The Israeli soldier reported that he was by himself when the Egyptian commander and his men surrendered to him. He was totally unaware of the "thousands of soldiers" the Egyptian soldiers saw with him, since he himself did not see them. Psalm 91:10-11 promises that "No evil shall befall you, nor shall any plague come near your dwelling, For He shall give his angels charge over you, to keep you in all your ways."
Bill McKay, a film producer who investigated miracles surrounding Israel's existence and has produced a documentary called In search of a miracle- Against all Odds, said that military experts are puzzled as to how the Israelis won wars they should have lost. Israel's victories just do not make any sense to them.
The documentary shows an eye witness account; Commander David Yinni, during the 1973 Yom Kippur war, preparing to retreat from the Syrian army, when he realised that he and his men were trapped in the middle of a minefield. He ordered his men to clear the mines using their bayonets, crawl on the ground and dig 30 inches deep, carefully disengaging the mines. The slightest mistake and they were in peril of being blown up. One of his men prayed. Suddenly, a windstorm came upon them. It was so strong that it lifted up their tanks and rocked them. By the time the storm moved on, it had literally blown 30 inches of topsoil off. The Israeli soldiers could see every single mine and quickly made their escape.
God's protection over Israel is also for nations and people who believe in Him and worship Him as the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.
Fiji was brought out of a dark history of cannibalism, tribal wars and ancestor worship, thanks to the early pioneering missionaries who brought the Bible and the Light of the Lord Jesus Christ into the lives of our forefathers.
We thank God our Father, for the Light of Christ in this land, and if we remain faithful God will do the "impossible" in our personal lives and in this nation. The nation of Israel is living testimony of the God of the impossible. He did it for Israel, so will He also move on behalf of those who believe, obey and love Him, in this nation.
When I look back at the dates I write about in this article, I can admit that for me 14 May was the only convenient day for my plan in 1987. That the day coincided with Israel's Independence Day, and the first arrival of Indian workers into Fiji - I have often wondered - whether it really was a coincidence and not divine design.
I made the Declaration of our Republic at midnight on 6 October 1987 to coincide with the date of the Yom Kippur War and for Fiji to start its new journey on October 7, '7' being the number serious students of theology and God associate with our Creator.
But, we still celebrate the day the chiefs surrendered their sovereignty in 1874 and the date we partly got it back in 1970, as our national day. Most people do not know the date we became a Republic!
But, stay encouraged - the Lord thy God is near thee. Shalu Shlom Yerushalayim! Pray for the peace of Jerusalem! And pray for the peace of our beloved nation! Have a great and blessed week.
Copyright © 2009, Fiji Times Limited. All Rights Reserved.
http://www.fijitimes.com/story.aspx?id=104343
By Sitiveni Rabuka (Sunday, October 26, 2008)
Miracles on the battlefield ... Israeli soldiers talked of divine intervention in their six-day war
Ni sa bula. On 14 May (!) 1948, against all odds, having been dispersed all over the world for two millennium, Israel was re-birthed as a nation fulfilling prophecies in the Old Testament Books of Ezekiel, Jeremiah, and Isaiah.
This re-birth astounded the world. Never before had an entire race of people, widely scattered around the world, without a homeland, re-establish itself as a nation and in one single day, as well! Israel is the only nation with this unique, historical experience.
Historians and theologians before this event were generally of the view that God's Word in the Old Testament on gathering and restoring His people as a nation back on the land He promised them, were not to be literally taken, because it simply was just not possible. When a race of people is scattered among nations, they usually are assimilated into other cultures and communities, which renders their coming together as a nation virtually impossible.
This view was demolished when Israel was re-born as a nation in 1948 and generated great interest in Biblical prophecy as realisation grew that God means exactly what He says! Jeremiah 31:10, the prophet says" Hear the word of the Lord, O nations; proclaim it in distant coastlands: He who scattered Israel will gather them and will watch over His flock like a shepherd."
No sooner had Israel proclaimed its independence on Friday 14 May 1948, five Arab nations, Egypt, Syria, Trans-Jordan, Lebanon and Iraq launched an attack against the newly re-born and tiny nation, on the same day! They were out to destroy the new state, and reclaim the land for the setting up of another Arab state. The Arab states far outnumbered and out-gunned the Jews. They had troops, artillery and other military hardware that the Jews did not have. Azzam Pasha, Secretary General of the Arab League at the time, confidently declared; "This will be a war of extermination and a momentous massacre which will be spoken of like the Mongolian massacres and the Crusades."
Given the clear superiority of the Arab states in heavy arms, fire power and troops, an Arab victory was expected and boldly predicted. Very few felt that Israel would survive the onslaught.
But Israel bravely fought back, and won what they called their war of independance and liberation against Arab aggression. They gained more territory, and when the war was over the Arabs were left with less territory and more wounded. Had the Secretary General, Azzam Pasha known Jeremiah 31:10 in which God promises to watch over His people, having returned them to the promised land, like a shepherd over his flock, one wonders whether he would have still been so confident of Israel's destruction.
The Israeli-Arab conflict, however, did not end. Israel went on to survive, the 1956 Suez Canal crisis; the 1967 six day war; and the 1973 Yom Kippur war. In every war and conflict, reports of supernatural and angelic interventions on Israel's behalf came from both the Israelis and the Arabs. The prophet Zechariah had foretold that in the end times, God will defend Israel and send His angels to fight for and with His people. Zechariah 12:8 "In that day shall the Lord defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and he that is feeble among them at that day shall be as David; and the House of David shall be as God, as the angel of the Lord before them."
A story is told of a small Jewish community, Pekiin under siege by Arabs who were determined to wipe them out. However, they encountered huge strange beings with flaming swords, and they ran away in great fear, as the astonished village rabbi watched them.
During the 1967 six day war, Gershon Saloman lay badly wounded and saw Syrian soldiers moving into their area shooting wounded Israeli soldiers. They were about to shoot him, when all of a sudden they fled the area leaving their weapons behind. The Syrian soldiers later reported to UN officers that they saw "thousands of angels" surrounding the wounded soldier and that was why they ran away.
An Israeli military historian recorded that during the 1973 Yom Kippur war, an Israeli soldier in the Sinai took captive an Egyptian column and led them to where the Israeli troops were. The Egyptian commander was asked why he and his men gave themselves up to the lone Israeli soldier. He responded with surprise; "One soldier? There were thousands of them." He said that as they neared the Israeli lines, the "soldiers" began disappearing. The Israeli soldier reported that he was by himself when the Egyptian commander and his men surrendered to him. He was totally unaware of the "thousands of soldiers" the Egyptian soldiers saw with him, since he himself did not see them. Psalm 91:10-11 promises that "No evil shall befall you, nor shall any plague come near your dwelling, For He shall give his angels charge over you, to keep you in all your ways."
Bill McKay, a film producer who investigated miracles surrounding Israel's existence and has produced a documentary called In search of a miracle- Against all Odds, said that military experts are puzzled as to how the Israelis won wars they should have lost. Israel's victories just do not make any sense to them.
The documentary shows an eye witness account; Commander David Yinni, during the 1973 Yom Kippur war, preparing to retreat from the Syrian army, when he realised that he and his men were trapped in the middle of a minefield. He ordered his men to clear the mines using their bayonets, crawl on the ground and dig 30 inches deep, carefully disengaging the mines. The slightest mistake and they were in peril of being blown up. One of his men prayed. Suddenly, a windstorm came upon them. It was so strong that it lifted up their tanks and rocked them. By the time the storm moved on, it had literally blown 30 inches of topsoil off. The Israeli soldiers could see every single mine and quickly made their escape.
God's protection over Israel is also for nations and people who believe in Him and worship Him as the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.
Fiji was brought out of a dark history of cannibalism, tribal wars and ancestor worship, thanks to the early pioneering missionaries who brought the Bible and the Light of the Lord Jesus Christ into the lives of our forefathers.
We thank God our Father, for the Light of Christ in this land, and if we remain faithful God will do the "impossible" in our personal lives and in this nation. The nation of Israel is living testimony of the God of the impossible. He did it for Israel, so will He also move on behalf of those who believe, obey and love Him, in this nation.
When I look back at the dates I write about in this article, I can admit that for me 14 May was the only convenient day for my plan in 1987. That the day coincided with Israel's Independence Day, and the first arrival of Indian workers into Fiji - I have often wondered - whether it really was a coincidence and not divine design.
I made the Declaration of our Republic at midnight on 6 October 1987 to coincide with the date of the Yom Kippur War and for Fiji to start its new journey on October 7, '7' being the number serious students of theology and God associate with our Creator.
But, we still celebrate the day the chiefs surrendered their sovereignty in 1874 and the date we partly got it back in 1970, as our national day. Most people do not know the date we became a Republic!
But, stay encouraged - the Lord thy God is near thee. Shalu Shlom Yerushalayim! Pray for the peace of Jerusalem! And pray for the peace of our beloved nation! Have a great and blessed week.
Copyright © 2009, Fiji Times Limited. All Rights Reserved.
http://www.fijitimes.com/story.aspx?id=104343
9/22/2009
My Poor Neglected Blog
It has been a “facebook summer” filled with enjoyable, not always wasted hours (although plenty of time wasting as well). What is so fascinating about facebook that drives us to check “the Wall” ten times a day for updates about what somebody is having for lunch or other mundane news? Well, for one thing, one can learn new vocabulary, such as chrysocarpophagist, or find out that ferrets can swim like otters, or other fascinating factoids. Facebook has unlimited potential to connect family, friends, and like-minded people, and mingle those who would otherwise never meet. It becomes a community, fulfilling a social need to connect.
Meanwhile, though, the blogosphere is falling by the wayside. People are neglecting to update their blogs, myself included. Facebook has become my one-liner journal rather than taking the sweet time to write out my thoughts here or post an important article. I miss blogging, and I miss the blogs of others who no longer share their deeper or amusing thoughts.
There are things I don’t like about facebook.....it is glitchy, shallow, a time waster, full of dumb quizzes and goofy applications, contributes to mind clutter, annoys with cryptic drama, etc. It is addictive, though. Got to get another fix at least ten times a day. Something is wrong with this habit. I think I need to fast from facebook for a period of time...maybe at least on Sabbath to break the bondage.
Well, enough for now, dear Ponderings blog. I am accustomed to short sound bites now. Got to check the Wall for the latest updates, lest I miss something of earth-shattering importance, like how Suzie’s raspberry pie turned out.
Meanwhile, though, the blogosphere is falling by the wayside. People are neglecting to update their blogs, myself included. Facebook has become my one-liner journal rather than taking the sweet time to write out my thoughts here or post an important article. I miss blogging, and I miss the blogs of others who no longer share their deeper or amusing thoughts.
There are things I don’t like about facebook.....it is glitchy, shallow, a time waster, full of dumb quizzes and goofy applications, contributes to mind clutter, annoys with cryptic drama, etc. It is addictive, though. Got to get another fix at least ten times a day. Something is wrong with this habit. I think I need to fast from facebook for a period of time...maybe at least on Sabbath to break the bondage.
Well, enough for now, dear Ponderings blog. I am accustomed to short sound bites now. Got to check the Wall for the latest updates, lest I miss something of earth-shattering importance, like how Suzie’s raspberry pie turned out.
7/05/2009
Endorsing Palestinian Apartheid
Endorsing Palestinian Apartheid
Why does world accept notion of Palestinian state free of Jews?
Jonathan Dahoah-Halevi
YNET News
Aharon Barak, Israeli Supreme Court president, in a speech on June 25 before a meeting of the New Israel Fund touched an exposed nerve regarding the identity and existence of Israel as a Jewish state and a democracy. He burned his candle at both ends when he unequivocally expressed his support for a democratic Jewish state on the one hand and complete fealty to the idea of a country for all its citizens on the other.
His notions were amazing. If Israel is supposed to be a country for all its citizens, why discriminate against non-Jews and give Jews priority in immigration? If he were really faithful to the principle of equality, why did he find it necessary to insist that Israel was a Jewish state and not one determined democratically by “all its citizens?” In a situation of equality, why should the Law of Return not apply to Israel’s Arab population, since “the rights (of the Jews) must be equal those of the Arabs?”
The State of Israel is undergoing a serious identity crisis. The schism between Jews and Arabs grows worse and the Arabs regard themselves as Palestinians rather than Israelis. It also grows worse between those who are faithful to the Zionist idea of a democratic Jewish state and the post-Zionists who want to eradicate the Jewish nature of the state and establish one for all the citizens living within the borders of the State of Israel as it is today, or within the land of Israel-Palestine.
Both solutions are problematic. A democratic Jewish state can provide equality for all its citizens as long as it does not endanger its Jewish nature, and in effect it negates the right of groups which are not Jewish (or Jews who do not agree with its mindset) to change the face of the state in a democratic majority process.
On the other hand, the implication of a state for all its citizens includes within it destroying the unique Jewishness of the state, which was founded as a sanctuary for the Jewish people returning to its historical homeland, as well as including the demand to deny the right of the Jewish people and the Jews living in Israel to their own land.
There is an inherent imbalance in the proposed political arrangement. The Palestinians have won international recognition for their demand to establish a Palestinian state from which all Jews will be expelled. The basic law of the Palestinian Authority, which is the state in the making, expressly states that “Islam is the official religion of Palestine” and that “the principles of Islamic law (Sharia) are the primary source of lawmaking.”
Palestinians demand ‘just agreement’
The international community has permitted the Palestinians what it tries to keep from Israel, that is, the Palestinians are within their rights to establish a country based on the religion of the majority of its citizens, and a Christian minority, even if it should become the majority, will not be entitled to change the nature of the state but at most to be allowed freedom of worship.
Human rights champions in shining armor endlessly preach morality to Israel and demand a country for all its citizens while accepting the morality of establishing an apartheid, racist, Palestinian state which openly and proudly states its intention of being Judenrein.
The foundations of the peace process of the Oslo Accords of 1993 (rapprochement between the sides through interim agreements) crumbled during the al-Aqsa intifada and the united Palestinian front, from Fatah to Hamas, which unequivocally rejects a compromise with Israel and demands a “just arrangement,” based on demands for the right to return of millions of Palestinian refugees and their descendents to what is currently the State of Israel. Those ideas were mentioned again and again in speeches given by Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal.
No one contests the right of the Palestinians to a national state even if it is based on racism and it is liable to be an extremist theocracy like Iran, a foretaste of which can be seen in the Gaza Strip since the Hamas takeover. Even the government of Israel headed by Benjamin Netanyahu recognizes that right and demands that the Palestinian state be demilitarized, among other things.
The Palestinian problem, it is assumed, will be solved when the Palestinian state comes into being. The arrangement, lacking in political symmetry based on a genuine compromise, will leave the gates of conflict wide open and the demand for the “return” of millions of Palestinians, which would mean the expulsion of Jews to make room for the refugees, would raise again the wish for self determination of the Jews of Israel.
International politics will no longer have to deal with the “Palestinian problem,” but rather, with the “Jewish problem” in Palestine.
Why does world accept notion of Palestinian state free of Jews?
Jonathan Dahoah-Halevi
YNET News
Aharon Barak, Israeli Supreme Court president, in a speech on June 25 before a meeting of the New Israel Fund touched an exposed nerve regarding the identity and existence of Israel as a Jewish state and a democracy. He burned his candle at both ends when he unequivocally expressed his support for a democratic Jewish state on the one hand and complete fealty to the idea of a country for all its citizens on the other.
His notions were amazing. If Israel is supposed to be a country for all its citizens, why discriminate against non-Jews and give Jews priority in immigration? If he were really faithful to the principle of equality, why did he find it necessary to insist that Israel was a Jewish state and not one determined democratically by “all its citizens?” In a situation of equality, why should the Law of Return not apply to Israel’s Arab population, since “the rights (of the Jews) must be equal those of the Arabs?”
The State of Israel is undergoing a serious identity crisis. The schism between Jews and Arabs grows worse and the Arabs regard themselves as Palestinians rather than Israelis. It also grows worse between those who are faithful to the Zionist idea of a democratic Jewish state and the post-Zionists who want to eradicate the Jewish nature of the state and establish one for all the citizens living within the borders of the State of Israel as it is today, or within the land of Israel-Palestine.
Both solutions are problematic. A democratic Jewish state can provide equality for all its citizens as long as it does not endanger its Jewish nature, and in effect it negates the right of groups which are not Jewish (or Jews who do not agree with its mindset) to change the face of the state in a democratic majority process.
On the other hand, the implication of a state for all its citizens includes within it destroying the unique Jewishness of the state, which was founded as a sanctuary for the Jewish people returning to its historical homeland, as well as including the demand to deny the right of the Jewish people and the Jews living in Israel to their own land.
There is an inherent imbalance in the proposed political arrangement. The Palestinians have won international recognition for their demand to establish a Palestinian state from which all Jews will be expelled. The basic law of the Palestinian Authority, which is the state in the making, expressly states that “Islam is the official religion of Palestine” and that “the principles of Islamic law (Sharia) are the primary source of lawmaking.”
Palestinians demand ‘just agreement’
The international community has permitted the Palestinians what it tries to keep from Israel, that is, the Palestinians are within their rights to establish a country based on the religion of the majority of its citizens, and a Christian minority, even if it should become the majority, will not be entitled to change the nature of the state but at most to be allowed freedom of worship.
Human rights champions in shining armor endlessly preach morality to Israel and demand a country for all its citizens while accepting the morality of establishing an apartheid, racist, Palestinian state which openly and proudly states its intention of being Judenrein.
The foundations of the peace process of the Oslo Accords of 1993 (rapprochement between the sides through interim agreements) crumbled during the al-Aqsa intifada and the united Palestinian front, from Fatah to Hamas, which unequivocally rejects a compromise with Israel and demands a “just arrangement,” based on demands for the right to return of millions of Palestinian refugees and their descendents to what is currently the State of Israel. Those ideas were mentioned again and again in speeches given by Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal.
No one contests the right of the Palestinians to a national state even if it is based on racism and it is liable to be an extremist theocracy like Iran, a foretaste of which can be seen in the Gaza Strip since the Hamas takeover. Even the government of Israel headed by Benjamin Netanyahu recognizes that right and demands that the Palestinian state be demilitarized, among other things.
The Palestinian problem, it is assumed, will be solved when the Palestinian state comes into being. The arrangement, lacking in political symmetry based on a genuine compromise, will leave the gates of conflict wide open and the demand for the “return” of millions of Palestinians, which would mean the expulsion of Jews to make room for the refugees, would raise again the wish for self determination of the Jews of Israel.
International politics will no longer have to deal with the “Palestinian problem,” but rather, with the “Jewish problem” in Palestine.
6/28/2009
FFOZ Controversy
A LETTER FROM TIM HEGG...................
The time has come for me to make clear my relationship with First Fruits of Zion (FFOZ). In the past I have been closely associated with that ministry as an author, seminar speaker, and a regular contributor to and theological editor of "Messiah Magazine." I must now state openly that I am no longer associated with that ministry. Sadly, I must further state that I strongly disagree with recent changes they have made in important aspects of their teaching. These changes were confirmed to me this week in a face-to-face meeting I had with Boaz Michael, the Director and Founder of FFOZ.
These changes relate to 1) their teaching that Jews and Gentiles have a different relationship to the Torah, 2) their intention to lead messianic communities to define themselves within "normative Judaism," 3) their encouragement for messianics to appreciate and accept a Kabbalistic approach to spirituality, and thus 4) their willingness to employ a mystical hermeneutic as a valid means for interpreting the Scriptures.
While each of these shifts in the teaching of FFOZ touch vital aspects of our faith and community life, I believe that the most important issue is that of biblical authority, because the Bible forms the foundation upon which all other matters of faith and practice rest. I am therefore very concerned by the fact that in their recently published Commentary and Study Guide to Paul Levertoff's Love and the Messianic Age, they embrace a kabbalistic hermeneutic as a valid method for interpreting the Scriptures.
The purpose for publishing Levertoff's work and the accompanying Commentary is not merely to help us appreciate Chasidic thought, philosophy, and theology. It is much more than that. In the Foreword of the Commentary and Study Guide, the work is described not only as a commentary on Levertoff's writing but also that "it is a plunge into the deepest waters of New Testament mysticism and apostolic theosophy" (p. 9). This is a significant statement, because the only way a person could find such "mysticism and apostolic theosophy" in the Bible, akin to that which Levertoff extols, is to employ a kabbalistic hermeneutic. Such a hermeneutic very often undermines the clear meaning of the biblical text itself.
Being made aware of these doctrinal changes in the teaching of FFOZ may be discouraging for many. I know that it has been for me. It gives me no pleasure to disagree so openly with former colleagues I still hold in high regard. Yet we must strive for the truth and be encouraged in the eternal promises of God given to us in the unchanging, inspired words of Scripture. Even as the Apostles themselves battled against a growing Gnosticism that threatened to waylay the followers of Yeshua with "vain philosophy and empty deception" (Col 2:8), so we must be on our guard to bring all things under the scrutiny of the Scriptures.
I have written an 11 page paper focusing primarily upon the present crisis we are facing within the messianic movement regarding the issue of Biblical Authority. I hope you will take the time to read it and share it with others.
Are the Scriptures Alone our Sure Foundation
or Do We Need Something More?
A Growing Crisis in the Messianic Movement
--------------------------
Tim Hegg • June 2009
Perhaps, after reading the title of this essay, you’re asking yourself, “Is there really a crisis within the Messianic movement over the sufficiency of the Scriptures?” Yes, there is, and I hope to alert you to it in this essay. Remember that in the March Newsletter, I wrote about this issue because I was alarmed when I read how Mark Kinzer, a major voice in the UMJC, openly denies the sufficiency of Scripture as the means by which we may know God and obey His commandments.[1] He boldly affirms that in addition to the Scriptures, we must also rely upon the cumulative teachings of the Rabbis (the Oral Torah) as a necessary partner to the Scriptures. As the current President of the Messianic Jewish Theological Institute, Kinzer’s position on the insufficiency of the Bible will doubtlessly be urged upon the students who attend his Institute.
But there is something even more subtle that undermines the sufficiency of Scripture, and this relates to the method some are embracing for interpreting the Bible, or what we call hermeneutics. I have been concerned as I have watched recent doctrinal shifts within the teachings of FFOZ. Setting aside for now their new position on the relationship of Gentiles to the Torah, their recent republication of Paul Philip Levertoff’s Love and the Messianic Age and (even more) their Commentary and Study Guide on Levertoff's book, makes a clear statement about their willingness to embrace a kabbalistic hermeneutic as a valid method for interpreting Scripture. If you’re wondering why I think this signals a crisis, read on.
[1] This does not mean that Kinzer denies the trustworthiness of Scripture. It means that he aligns himself with a basic tenet of rabbinic Judaism, that the Written Torah by itself is incomplete because apart from the Oral Torah, it cannot be fully understood or implemented.
http://www.torahresource.com/Hermeneutic_Crisis.html
---------------
The time has come for me to make clear my relationship with First Fruits of Zion (FFOZ). In the past I have been closely associated with that ministry as an author, seminar speaker, and a regular contributor to and theological editor of "Messiah Magazine." I must now state openly that I am no longer associated with that ministry. Sadly, I must further state that I strongly disagree with recent changes they have made in important aspects of their teaching. These changes were confirmed to me this week in a face-to-face meeting I had with Boaz Michael, the Director and Founder of FFOZ.
These changes relate to 1) their teaching that Jews and Gentiles have a different relationship to the Torah, 2) their intention to lead messianic communities to define themselves within "normative Judaism," 3) their encouragement for messianics to appreciate and accept a Kabbalistic approach to spirituality, and thus 4) their willingness to employ a mystical hermeneutic as a valid means for interpreting the Scriptures.
While each of these shifts in the teaching of FFOZ touch vital aspects of our faith and community life, I believe that the most important issue is that of biblical authority, because the Bible forms the foundation upon which all other matters of faith and practice rest. I am therefore very concerned by the fact that in their recently published Commentary and Study Guide to Paul Levertoff's Love and the Messianic Age, they embrace a kabbalistic hermeneutic as a valid method for interpreting the Scriptures.
The purpose for publishing Levertoff's work and the accompanying Commentary is not merely to help us appreciate Chasidic thought, philosophy, and theology. It is much more than that. In the Foreword of the Commentary and Study Guide, the work is described not only as a commentary on Levertoff's writing but also that "it is a plunge into the deepest waters of New Testament mysticism and apostolic theosophy" (p. 9). This is a significant statement, because the only way a person could find such "mysticism and apostolic theosophy" in the Bible, akin to that which Levertoff extols, is to employ a kabbalistic hermeneutic. Such a hermeneutic very often undermines the clear meaning of the biblical text itself.
Being made aware of these doctrinal changes in the teaching of FFOZ may be discouraging for many. I know that it has been for me. It gives me no pleasure to disagree so openly with former colleagues I still hold in high regard. Yet we must strive for the truth and be encouraged in the eternal promises of God given to us in the unchanging, inspired words of Scripture. Even as the Apostles themselves battled against a growing Gnosticism that threatened to waylay the followers of Yeshua with "vain philosophy and empty deception" (Col 2:8), so we must be on our guard to bring all things under the scrutiny of the Scriptures.
I have written an 11 page paper focusing primarily upon the present crisis we are facing within the messianic movement regarding the issue of Biblical Authority. I hope you will take the time to read it and share it with others.
Are the Scriptures Alone our Sure Foundation
or Do We Need Something More?
A Growing Crisis in the Messianic Movement
--------------------------
Tim Hegg • June 2009
Perhaps, after reading the title of this essay, you’re asking yourself, “Is there really a crisis within the Messianic movement over the sufficiency of the Scriptures?” Yes, there is, and I hope to alert you to it in this essay. Remember that in the March Newsletter, I wrote about this issue because I was alarmed when I read how Mark Kinzer, a major voice in the UMJC, openly denies the sufficiency of Scripture as the means by which we may know God and obey His commandments.[1] He boldly affirms that in addition to the Scriptures, we must also rely upon the cumulative teachings of the Rabbis (the Oral Torah) as a necessary partner to the Scriptures. As the current President of the Messianic Jewish Theological Institute, Kinzer’s position on the insufficiency of the Bible will doubtlessly be urged upon the students who attend his Institute.
But there is something even more subtle that undermines the sufficiency of Scripture, and this relates to the method some are embracing for interpreting the Bible, or what we call hermeneutics. I have been concerned as I have watched recent doctrinal shifts within the teachings of FFOZ. Setting aside for now their new position on the relationship of Gentiles to the Torah, their recent republication of Paul Philip Levertoff’s Love and the Messianic Age and (even more) their Commentary and Study Guide on Levertoff's book, makes a clear statement about their willingness to embrace a kabbalistic hermeneutic as a valid method for interpreting Scripture. If you’re wondering why I think this signals a crisis, read on.
[1] This does not mean that Kinzer denies the trustworthiness of Scripture. It means that he aligns himself with a basic tenet of rabbinic Judaism, that the Written Torah by itself is incomplete because apart from the Oral Torah, it cannot be fully understood or implemented.
http://www.torahresource.com/Hermeneutic_Crisis.html
---------------
I urge my readers to carefully consider Tim's essay. I saw this coming almost three years ago.....and I am sorry that the pleas of many of us for FFOZ to reconsider its direction, its off-balance rabbinic enamorement, went unheeded. Many of us are looking for sound, Biblical teaching. We left the churches because of unbiblical, syncretistic doctrines and practices and had high hopes of discovering the restoration of the true, apostolic faith in the Messianic/Hebrew Roots movement. Overall, while I am glad for what I have gleaned, it has been a disappointment and has led to many defections from the faith. The rest of us are like scattered sheep in search of shepherds who will feed and care for us in our wilderness wanderings. Although I do not always agree with Tim (are there any two believers who agree these days?!?!), I very much appreciate his remarks in this essay, which closely reflect my own views in this matter. Comments welcome.
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