Christian Zionism

Pastors with Differing Motives Condemn the Philistines to Occupation

2009-12-09T07:03:00.000-08:00

We quote Pastor RA anonymously as a courtesy, still hoping to make a friend of him. He did us a favor in writing to condemn as false two separate comments we made on stories about Huckabee and Coral Ridge Ministries. All three are flagrant in ignoring Jesus’ words and commands in order to follow their respective ambitions. It is likely that only Pastor RA believes the line he espouses; we think he is the victim of a bad book. Those he defends have long ago left the book behind in search of power and money.

We are a nation of churches, and if pastors taught what the Bible says about peacemaking, no politician or businessman would dare drag us into a war. War making is national economic policy, and most pastors dare not denounce it for fear of losing their tax exempt status. We only ask them to honestly teach what the New Covenant of Christ teaches in the New Testament about peacemaking and love of one’s brothers…all of our brothers, including those who are Muslim. Jesus did not exclude any race.

Coral Ridge Ministries, a once distinguished giant church and radio ministry, is promoting an issue solely for the sake of raising money. Its exaggerated anti-Islamic films make Christ-followers’ blood boil to the point where their checkbooks levitate out of their pocket, even if the accounts are empty.

We have no problem naming Coral Ridge because seven years ago we caught its business management in the act of raising money to free non-existent slaves, which contributors were told would be bought at non-existent “Arab Muslim” slave markets in petroleum rich Sudan. The byproduct of Coral Ridge’s highly successful fund raiser was mutual hatred between Muslims and Christians. Coral Ridge’s new pattern is to capitalize on anti-Islamic fervor by publishing frightening accounts of the evils of Islam and then asking readers and viewers to do their duty and write a check to support the Ministry’s ventures.

Coral Ridge Ministries was founded by Dr. D. James Kennedy, a conservative Reformed Presbyterian by theology, and in no way a Christian Zionist. But long before his death, his corporate style mission was taken over from within, during his long illness. Today Coral Ridge is all about money, and Dr. Kennedy’s wonderful sermons are a prop--recorded speeches from the grave every week on national TV. Many listeners still do not know Dr. Kennedy is dead.

Pastor RA also criticized our coverage of the story about former Baptist Pastor Mike Huckabee, who was carried by the Israel media, where he voiced a policy toward the occupied Philistines that can only lead to extermination and more war. His motive
appears to be power, for he ran well and capably for President in 2008, and is clearly preparing early for the next campaign where he will capitalize on the dreadful economy that the Obama people can only patch over.

Huckabee is a wannabe, and his strategy is to first secure Jewish Zionist confidence, and then the Christian Right vote; as a former Baptist preacher, he is well suited for the task.
Huckabee and Coral Ridge are lost causes, but in Pastor RA and 100,000 pastors like him we find both our greatest problem and our best hope. He sincerely believes what he says and has little in common with those he defends; else he would never take the risk to write to us. I do not know Pastor RA, so I am typing him based on contacts with hundreds of pastors and laymen--
Christians who talk just like him. His position (“its biblical… that no one but Israel owns the land”) is not based on avarice or his own craving for power, but on self-deception absorbed from the Bad Book of Christianity that teaches that the State of Israel is the fulfillment of Biblical prophesy, and that Israel‘s needs are more immediate than Jesus’ commands for us.

There is not just one bad book but many, for Judeo-Christianity have made end times writing a big business. False books of Judeo-Christian leaning are epidemic. However the Scofield Reference Bible is, we believe, the terrible root source of corruption of evangelical Christianity, published in 1908 by Oxford University Press, and now in about its fifth update. We have researched and written about this bible a lot. (5)

One who is taught from the Bad Book will eventually find himself placing the interest of Israel ahead of the teaching of Jesus Christ, especially relating to war and peace; the State of Israel has been at war with its neighbors and those it occupies for its entire 60-year existence. One cannot support Israel and its leaders without also supporting war.

Pastor RA’s words brand him as one who supports the two opportunists mentioned above only because they support Israel’s agenda; he supports a false doctrine promoted to control America’s huge Christian church vote. The enormous financial and media attention given to anti-Islamic fervor has probably helped to make his church at least modestly successful in harvesting converts to Christian Zionism. Mike Huckabee and leaders of churches like Coral Ridge fan the flame of race hatred to gain Jewish approval and financial rewards.

All in all, the Christian Zionists make themselves heard loud and clear, ignoring Jesus’ words about peace and love of brother. There is no excuse for those who believe Jesus’ words to remain silent. An easy and hardly disputable good stewardship that all military aid (paid for by US taxpayers) to both the Israelis and the Philistines, be stopped immediately. At present, Israel gets much and the Philistines nothing! Only food and clothing, cloaks and tunics, as Jesus condoned, should be given. This formula might also help us clean up our own financial and political messes: that really makes it our business.

Investigate Possible Israeli War Crimes

2009-09-10T03:36:00.000-07:00

Background: In late July, FBI Special Agent Robert J. Cooke filed a criminal complaint in US District Court (District of New Jersey) against Levy Izhak Rosenbaum. The complaint alleges that Rosenbaum unlawfully conspired "to acquire, receive, and otherwise transfer human organs for valuable consideration for use in human transplantation ... and did an act to effect the object of the conspiracy." Rosenbaum is quoted as indicating that he had been procuring human organs for "ten years" and that there are "people over there [in Israel] hunting" for organs. The Rosenbaum case was part of broader corruption and money-laundering case that garnered international media attention.

On August 17, 2009, a Swedish newspaper, Aftonbladet, published "Our sons plundered for their organs," an article by veteran Middle East photojournalist Donald Boström. Boström indicates that the organ trafficking charges against Rosenbaum inspired him to bring to light his experiences in the West Bank and Gaza Strip in the 1990s. He writes: "I then travelled around interviewing a great number of Palestinian families in the West Bank and Gaza – meeting parents who told of how their sons had been deprived of organs before being killed. ... The families ... felt that they knew exactly what had happened: 'Our sons are used as involuntary organ donors,' relatives of Khalid from Nablus told me, as did the mother of Raed from Jenin and the uncles of Machmod and Nafes from Gaza, who had all disappeared for a number of days only to return at night, dead and autopsied." Although Boström does not assert the factuality of the Palestinian accusations he does note that the charge that Palestinians are being used as Israel's "organ reserve" is "a very serious accusation, with enough question marks to motivate the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to start an investigation about possible war crimes."

It requires no great leap of logic or imagination to go from "support and direct involvement of the Israeli Ministry of Defense" in illegal Israeli organ transplantations abroad to Israeli military involvement in the harvesting of organs from Palestinians in territories under Israeli military occupation. And as it turns out, just a little more than a year after Scheper-Hughes gave her testimony, Israel's Chief Pathologist and Director of the national Institute of Forensic Medicine in Tel Aviv, Dr. Yehuda Hiss, was investigated for "for suspicions including the removal of organs from 81 deceased persons without familial consent." The Israeli news network, Arutz Sheva, reports in 2005, Hiss agreed to a plea bargain with Israel prosecutors. It say: "In all of the 125 cases, Dr. Hiss and his subordinates removed organs, bones and tissue without the permission of, and in many cases, against the expressed wishes of the families of the deceased."

As people deeply concerned with human rights, we believe it is essential to listen respectfully when many members of a population speak about war crimes committed against them. Therefore, we support Donald Boström and the editor and publisher of Aftonbladet in their decision to publish "Our sons plundered for their organs." We salute the Swedish government in refusing to submit to Israeli pressure and undermine the fundamental rights of freedom of the press and freedom of expression. We support calls for a thorough investigation into allegations that Israelis have removed organs from Palestinians in violation of international humanitarian law. We urge the International Committee of the Red Cross, the International Court of Justice, and other competent tribunals to undertake a thorough, impartial investigation of these charges.

Christian Zionists Snap at the Heels of A Man From Galilee

2009-06-13T10:42:00.000-07:00

Archbishop Elias Chacour is a rotund 69 year old dynamo. As a child of eight he was made homeless by the Israeli army, but against all odds he stayed in Israel long after most of his villagers became forced refugees elsewhere. He went on to become one of the most important educators of Arab children, and a Christian citizen of Israel. There he built schools that teach some 4000 thousand children in Galilee, northern Israel. Now he has been appointed Archbishop over several Melkite Catholic Churches that are sanctioned by Israel within its territory. Bishop Chacour is author of “Blood Brothers” (Arabs and Israelis) and is a proven advocate of peace, preaching love of all races as his “only weapon.”

Archbishop Chacour pulls no punches in describing his background. He remembers vividly when, in 1948, the state of Israel drove them from their home the family had owned for generations. He relates with the vivid memories of a child how the Israelis separated the village men from their families, shipping the men including his own father to the borders of Israel. The men gone, they ordered the women and children out of their homes to seek refuge wherever they could find it. Later, Israel’s new Air Force bombed the empty homes to rubble so no one could not sneak back to live. It is this part of his life's story that, in part, seemed to arouse the ire of Christian Zionists in his audience.

Elias Chacour’s life seems to demonstrate peace, love and sacrifice. But he also challenges Israel’s right to take life and property from his Christian and Muslim Arab friends. And he speaks with passion to his belief that his Christian God hates killing regardless of what race of human is being killed. And he emphasizes that God has no favored race held above His Commandments.

It seems these statements, which Chacour made with indelible clarity, were enough to elicit a charged response from a dozen or more who attended his talk at SBC. We can guess at their number by counting those who either spoke out or walked out! We will examine this strange and un-Christ-like reaction to this unimpeachable presentation because it is We Hold These Truths goal to expose and reclaim Christian Zionists, most of us having once had and rejected this virus.

Chacour’s lecture, at which perhaps a hundred attended, was not, we are told, a formal function of SBC, but was arranged privately and without church advertising, nor was the meeting even noted in the Church bulletin. This seems to suggest that the church leadership had reason for concern about the reaction to Chacour’s words. The invitation was spread, not by the church, but by word-of-mouth through sponsors, Evangelicals for Middle East Understanding, and friends, including We Hold These Truths.

In contrast to Chacour’s life of self-sacrifice, Israelists, the most extreme of which call themselves “Christian Zionists,” are invariably preoccupied with what they consider political Israel and its absolute right, as they see it, to take any and all land in the Middle East. And, if taking or holding land involves killing Arabs they feel the Bible justifies killing. And, they invariably believe that political Israel and its Jewish settlers are favored by God, and are still the “chosen people” of God. Finally, they wrap these three beliefs around their borrowed “end times” eschatology, to come up with "Israelism," posing as evangelical Christianity.

Hamas: the Best Chance for Peace in the Land of Palestine

2009-05-11T12:18:00.000-07:00

For peace between Israel and the Philistines each side must have a government with an honest intent to represent its own tribe and to negotiate in good faith with the opposing one. This seems self evident, and we will assume it is so.

This writer believes Israel's two year blockade and the December holocaust in Gaza demonstrates that Hamas is the only qualified government, and that the United States and Israel must allow it to negotiate. Instead, the negotiating has been done by the Palestinian Authority (formerly the Palestinian Liberation Organization), which the people rejected two years ago in a free election. Corruption has been exposed at the very top of the PA, just as it was in Yasser Arafat’s PLO, a blow to the PA, and affirmation for Hamas.

Israel’s reputation for honesty in office is worse. A Google search on the words “Israel corruption” turns up no less than 688 articles containing the exact phrase. A broader search reveals thousands of articles in Israeli publications about graft and criminal acts at the top of every administration in Israel’s history. Ehud Olmert stands officially accused of massive financial misdeeds. Ariel “The Butcher” Sharon slipped into a coma three years ago; his crimes can be more easily forgotten if he is kept on life support for the next 10 years.

From its very beginning, the Likud has a history of constant wars on its neighbors, and it has campaigned on more war. Israel’s wars have destroyed two smaller, more helpless neighbors--Lebanon and Gaza--in as many years; occupation and division have destroyed the West Bank. The 2009 coalition government’s Avigdor Lieberman publicly boasted that the US Government will do anything Israel wants it to do. He wants to bomb Iran tomorrow.

Meanwhile, the noble and historical ancient Philistines, who populate two provinces but have no nation, are led by two separate and opposing movements, each claiming to represent the people: the Palestinian Authority and Hamas.

Americans are constantly reminded that the PA leaders are well-meaning but bumbling drones who don’t cause much trouble and are ready to compromise for peace; Mahmoud Abbas seems to be just such a drone…dull, pliable but honest. But we are learning that Mr. Abbas is a profiteer, like his predecessor, Yassar Arafat.

Hamas has faults. It has often dealt violence when faced with violence. Some, including American Arabs with long memories, believe Hamas was at one time backed and funded by Israel in order to create a counterbalance to PLO growth and power. This was probably true at one time, but it does not matter now because it is clear from the Gaza holocaust that Israel has a bull’s eye on every Hamas leader, who must be dedicated to want the job. Hundreds have been killed and arrested, so it is safe to say these were not Israeli agents.

It is also well known that PLO leaders were at times protected by the USA government. The Philistines only supported the PLO as long as there was no one else. It is natural they would turn to Hamas because the PLO had a long history of losing ground every year while its leaders became more wealthy.

We Hold These Truths listened to Jimmy Carter when he said the election that brought Hamas to power in 2007 was legitimate and represented the will of the people. His team had talked to the voters. Carter said democracy demands that the world recognize Hamas and let the people work out their own problems. Carter stood for self-determination--a decidedly American principle, and some Israeli's now agree.

We went a step farther after the December annihilation of the Gazans, when we stated Hamas appeared to be an amazingly efficient and accepted governing body, functioning under impossible conditions. We based this conclusion in large part on Hamas’ development of the tunnel system that is saving the lives of the men, women, and children in the gulag called Gaza.

What more can a government do than help its citizen feed and care for themselves under impossible conditions? For their life-saving efforts, many Hamas leaders and their families have been systematically hunted and killed by Israelis. Whoever and whatever Hamas is, it has support because it delivers.

Israel’s Death Culture Is a Dragging Anchor

2009-04-15T19:24:00.000-07:00

Israel Defense Forces trains snipers to kill, but who are they trained to target? Many of us had military training at one time or another and the thought of killing a human is something soldiers must be prepared for. But based on the result, something about Israel's sniper training must be very different, for the thought of killing a woman, much less a child, never entered the mind of any soldier I have ever known.

These graduates of IDF sniper school came out wearing t-shirts that promoted killing children, women, and especially graphically about killing pregnant women.

Israel

has played the “self defense” card since 1948. It no longer works. The t-shirt orders were approved by officers, or at least by Platoon Sergeant, according to Haaretz. That means the commanders also had to know. Haaretz, the leading daily paper in

Israel

, broke the t-shirt story soon after it featured another story involving murders in Gaza admitted to by active duty IDF solders, which made it plain that this attitude is not confined to barracks’ latrines talk.

The sniper-graduates of the IDF kill school intended that these shirts be seen. They are not ashamed of what they’ve been taught to do and what some of them surely will do; they want to advertise it. Only those who do not want to know can fail to recognize the pride Israel takes in its death culture. Its young men and women are trained and conditioned to hate and kill Arab men, women, and children without reservation. In recent Haaretz new stories, veterans of the January campaign in Gaza revealed that they see nothing wrong with executions because their leaders expect it of them.

A soldier knows he can get away with any murder, so long as he does not do it at point blank range in front of a camera held by an Arab news service like Aljazeera. If he makes this mistake, then some minimum discipline may make him out as one bad apple in the Israeli barrel. Israel’s death culture extends beyond the mass killing fields of Lebanon and Gaza. Israelis also kill their own kind with impunity. They have killed many more Jewish Israeli babies (some 20,000 a year or more) than all the Philistine men, women, and children they have shot, burned, and starved in its 60 year life. Israel’s low live birth rate is the principle reason it cannot compete in a democratic society with the Arabs. This should horrify Christian Zionists who claim to be pro-life almost to a man.

Arabs have families in both Israel and Gaza. With rare exceptions, they do not abort their children. Israelis, however, have a high rate of abortion, subsidized by its national government. The most dangerous months of a young Israeli’s life are not those spent carrying a gun in the IDF, but those spent in his mother’s womb. Blame for the ongoing abuse of the Palestinians rests with the Israelis, with American Zionist Jews, the cowardly Congress, and flagrantly biased, Zionist-monitored media. How many times have you seen the t-shirt story, or the IDF confession story on ABC, NBC, or CBS? Once for ten seconds would be more than expected.

But the real villains who enable Israel’s Death Culture are the 70 million evangelical Christian Zionists who are led by a handful of fanatical leaders who reap huge personal profits from their Israel-worshiping donations and junkets. “Christian Zionism” is the oxymoronic name we gave this biggest of all cults nine years ago, and it stuck. We defined it as “Those who believe the State of Israel is the fulfillment of biblical prophesies.” Christian Zionists worship Israel and feel they have authority to pronounce curses upon anyone who criticizes Israel. I know, because I have had curses pronounced on me to my face, not to mention the silent ones I have been told about.

Conclusion:

Israel is a dragging anchor weighing down our Ship of State. Once we were a giant luxury liner, and the weight of Israel hanging from our bow was not noticeable; but now we have hit an iceberg and we are taken on water in a rough sea. The dead weight on our bow is enough to sink us. Israel is lionized by Jewish Zionists and deified by the American Christian Zionists movement, but is not respected by one else in the world. Every government including ours knows this and most say it. Evangelical Christian Zionists can also no longer afford their love affair with Israel because it is a toxic ungodly affection that abandons traditional Biblical values.

The American Government must cut loose the anchor and let Israel sink to its natural level; but for this to happen evangelical Christians must let go of the anchor chain. Israel’s Death Culture was always there, but it has been exposed in Gaza and Lebanon, and even the American media cannot put it back in the bottle. It is time to end Israel’s free ride on America’s bow.

What can we do personally about Israel’s Death Culture? Tell your Congressman you blame him for the blood and lives lost. Refuse to purchase products of any kind that are imported from or use materials from Israel; check labels or ask merchants and let them know what you’re doing; withdraw your patronage from anyone who supports Israel. Ask local merchant, and then walk out if they do. Followers of Christ should not take a tour to Israel until it grants full equality to the Palestinians. Tourism supports Israeli killing. If you know a church that offers tours, go to members, including the tour leader and the pastor, and show them why they should stop!

Would Jesus Concur or Weep?

2009-03-02T20:18:00.000-08:00

Looking at the photo of an innocent, dead, Palestinian child, I want to weep. It appears that the child is a girl of around 3 years old. Her parents are probably Muslims because the population of Gaza is predominantly Muslim. However, there are Christians peaceably living there, side by side with the Muslims. So, there is a small probability that this little girl’s parents could be Christians. Of course, it doesn’t make any difference whether her parents were Muslims, Christians or Jews. If her parents are still alive, they would be grieving. And, we as Christians should be grieving.

Americans and our Congress have overwhelmingly supported the actions by the Israelis against the Palestinians in Gaza in the first few weeks of January, 2009. Probably hundreds of young children, as the girl pictured here, were killed. Typically, a large percentage of Americans view the loss of such young lives as “collateral damage.” This is an euphemism used by our military to sooth the American public. We’ve all heard about the collateral damage in Iraq and Afghanistan. It wouldn’t be nice if it were called what it really is: murder. One group in the United States that religiously and fervently supports Israel, no matter how it conducts itself against the Palestinians that reside in Israel, are Christian Zionists. They believe that the modern state of Israel is a fulfillment of Old Testament, Biblical prophecy.

In a nutshell, Christian Zionists believe unconditional love must be bestowed upon Israel; not doing so would result in condemnations and curses from God. The idea that the modern state of Israel is a fulfillment of Biblical prophecy is a debate topic that can be carried on between Christians of different viewpoints. As Christians, our first and most important allegiance must be to Jesus Christ. No where in the New Testament does Jesus or another writer require that a belief in a physical state of Israel is necessary for salvation. Jesus’ kingdom is based in the spiritual realm.

We are all equal in the sight of God. He displays no favoritism based on race, social status, or gender. Jesus Christ gave his life out of love, not to save a tiny plot of land or a favored ethnicity, but for all mankind. Not for inanimate shrines and places, as much as we may love what they represent to us, but for the forgiveness of sins and salvation of all who will receive Him. His sacrifice was to make us “living stones” in one glorious temple, not built by human hands, but by a living God who wants relationship with us. That is the gospel. The question for the American church today is simple: What gospel are we believing and preaching?

Evangelical Zionist’s Dilemma: Love Your Enemy or Starve Him

2009-02-03T19:54:00.000-08:00

Evangelical Zionism is our own descriptive term. It is not a denomination, but an acquired disease in the body of Christianity. The universal symptom is the belief that “the political state of Israel is the fulfillment of biblical prophesies.” Jesus said, love you brother, even your enemy; Evangelical Zionism, in its extreme morphs, holds that Old Testament scripture allows the extermination of the Palestinians.

Elena has recovered from it, and this is her story. She wrote to us and called with several questions common to recovering Evangelical Zionists making them feel quite alone amid the hatred that is directed toward the people of Palestine and, in fact, toward all of Islam. She is learning to be a missionary for peace within her own church. Her story is not unique, but her tactful determination is. We have asked her to allow us to share her experience with you. Elena was raised a Catholic and became an evangelical protestant during her years of child-rearing. There she stayed for most of her adult years until she discovered that the church she had joined had a primary dedication to evangelical Zionist teachings and beliefs. This became clear to her as she learned of Israel’s abuse of the Palestinians, and her church’s unconditional and unquestioning support of Israel.

Like so many of us she had left one or more churches she found infected with Evangelical Zionism, looking for the prefect church. She did not find it. She finally settled into a small congregation with a Reform theology. She became an active part of the congregation and started a home bible study to encourage other church members. Strangely, it was here she was to discover her worst frustration. While her denomination’s theology denies evangelical Zionism, some of its members believe and teach a form of it.

On the positive side, her pastor says he shares her anti-war view and sympathy for Palestinians, but does not discuss it from the pulpit. He does not seem to have the disease but perhaps he fears to speak out against it. However, the volunteer leader of the Bible study, Carl, is a denominational church planner assigned to her church. When war became a hot issue, Elena discovered that all the class supported the U.S. wars and Israeli occupation. The study leader horrified her by telling her privately, “if it was up to me I would kill them all.”

Elena responded by purchasing and giving away a detailed secular book on Zionism in an attempt to show her friends what Zionists privately think of Christians, but it did not work. Elena’s letter ended with familiar and painful words asking if we can recommend another church for her and saying,

“I feel like an outcast and I did nothing wrong! I know I believed the scoffed, dispensationalist lie for almost my entire Christian life, but when you read the truth you just can’t turn your back on it.”

She provided an exchange of messages with their Bible study leader, Carl. In it he denies he told her he would kill all the Palestinians; Instead he now asserts “he would cut off food and water to them.”

The Lie That Justifies Mass Murder: "Hamas Hit Us First"

2009-01-03T15:18:00.000-08:00

The White House’s press release is exactly the same as the Zionist Israel position, blaming the victims. It is imperative that we know why. Here is the official Israeli line, directly from Washington:

“It was ‘completely unacceptable’ for Hamas, which controls Gaza, to launch attacks on Israel after a truce lasting several months”, said Gordon Johndroe, a spokesman for the National Security Council. "These people are nothing but thugs, so Israel is going to defend its people against terrorists like Hamas that indiscriminately kill their own people." The reason the US Administration parrots Zionist Israel’s story is that there is a common agenda that calls for more war in the Middle East. As we have written for some years, ours is a war-based economy, and Israel plays a large part in it because the USA’s targeted enemy is Islam.

War, to those who direct our course from above and beyond presidential politics, is not about religion, but are a vehicle to force economic growth where there is now stagnation. Broader, bigger and more permanent wars are a part or the “Dilution Solution” planned to save our economy, much as World War II was thought by many to be a planned solution to the “Great Depression.”

Zionist politicians have their own political reasons for the unreasonable brutality which has been discussed in the Arab press. Israel wants to regain political control over the Philistines, so to their way of thinking, Hamas must go. This writer uses the biblical “Philistine” in place of the popular “Palestinian” to emphasize that Arabs are the historic occupants of the land, and they presently do not even have a state. Paradoxically, they are like the unarmed David, a stateless people wondering in the land of the Philistines, but with the slingshot, versus Israel, the militarist Goliath.

As a practical matter, Israel cannot kill all three or four million Philistines, although it has been officially considered. And, Likud politicians will do it if they can. Past Prime Minister Ariel Sharon actually stated he was capable and willing to kill all Palestinian Arabs if the Zionists could handle the world heat it would generate. Israel’s objective, instead, is to eliminate Hamas, so they can once again control the Philistines, as they have in the past, by controlling its leaders.

Israel with the help of the USA trained Yassar Arafat to be its kind of Arab leader and helped him to become a billionaire. In exchange Arafat created a terrorist image for his peace-seeking people, but he never attacked Israeli political figures, as he would have done if he was their enemy.

Before the spasms of violence by Philistine youths in the 1980s called “Intifada,” the Arab population of some three million was in effect a low cost labor pool for Israel. Philistines did the menial labor and farming, commuting from gulags called refugee camps in Gaza and the West Bank. Israel could and did build industry around this desperate labor force much as Germany provided its war materials from slave labor camps populated by prisoners, many of whom were European Jews. This writer wonders if Zionists did not borrow the idea from the National Socialists (NAZI). South Africa was criticized and embargoed for using its black labor pool to build its industry, called Apartheid, but it never bombed the slums where the laborers lived.

Israel’s forced labor pool declined with the Intifada from the early 1980’s on. The youth uprising started with Philistine children throwing rocks and the subsequent Israeli Defense Force policy of deliberate bone-breaking of children. Eventually the desperation led to human bombs. We Hold These Truths appeals to those who consider themselves moral and spiritual to speak out, making the cause of the Philistines a moral issue. Many of us want to be involved but are frustrated about finding an effective venue. We have chosen America's churches as our target because theirs is the biggest block of voters. The Philistines are not allowed to choose their leaders; we are, and there is no excuse for or silence or assent.

Salvage the Pieces of the Big Three; Don't Try To Patch the Broken Egg

2008-12-15T21:07:00.000-08:00

The blog author would like to sincerely apologize for the very long hiatus in which our beloved readers were forced to endure a very long wait. We would like to inform you that we will now be posting a blog every 2-3 weeks in order to keep up with our current events.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This writer wishes President-Elect Obama success in his endeavors and will give him the benefit of the doubt for sincerity. However, we also wish the best for our children, which come first. Obama’s task will be difficult if he stands on principle, impossible if he does not. What seems to appear easy for him will bring disaster to the American people. Hopefully the new President was taught and will remember the common sense of nursery rhymes; else he may lock us in an endless nightmare of depression with rising costs. Obama tells us he believes he has the power to fix the economic crisis, but Mother Goose says otherwise; he must realize he does not, and he should not try or he will destroy the capacity of our great system to purge itself, and to restart.

Every bailout is an abuse of the laws of nature, theft of the consumer’s stored wealth, and must be repaid with our sweat and tears. Bankruptcy is the right course for the automakers if they cannot arrange their own financing. General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler are brick and mortar with questionable and expensive managements. Their great plants with workers, inventory, and technology will not go away if they admit failure. The courts will decide who gets paid and who does not, the time honored way to settle the matter, and someone will take over these great enterprises and produce if there are buyers left. Those who beg for aid are the managements who gave us the Hummers, Escalades, and Expeditions.

Our Congress wants them to submit a “plan” for use of the bailout loan money. Only Congress would be so gullible as to trust their plan. Why should this failing management be rewarded with loans that will be paid by the consumers in higher prices? Mr. Obama should listen to Mother Goose, who said of the broken egg:

“...all the King's horses and all the King's men, couldn't put Humpty-Dumpty together again."

Let us hope President Obama's grandmother explained that old English rhyme to him. We must ask, does the new President-Elect understand the process by which trillions of dollars are now flooding our economy from the top? We repeat, the only company that he should nationalize is the one printing the money, the Federal Reserve System, who refuses to tell Congress to whom they are giving money.

The Crucifixion of Jesus' Words

2008-10-22T07:36:00.000-07:00

Evangelical teaching and preaching often directly contradict that which Jesus taught about love and peace, and more surprisingly, celebrity Christian statements often directly conflict with Jesus' statements about Heaven and Hell. Matthew, the first book in the New Testament, contains the most outrageous example of added words that directly contradicts Jesus words. A quote from the Scofield Reference Bible footnotes directly contradicts what Jesus Christ is quoted to have said, His simple words, taken from the King James Edition, describing the basis upon which Jesus told his followers He himself will someday judge every man from every tribe "nation".

Three classes of individuals are mentioned:

(1) Sheep, saved Gentiles;

(2) Goats, unsaved Gentiles; and

(3) Brethren, the people of Israel.

Oxford Press introduces radical racism into its interpolation of Jesus' words by limiting heaven to Jews and those non-Jews who are excessively kind to Jews. And the footnotes also claim it is not even Heaven Jesus it talking about. Instead it is an early kingdom that is yet to come...and it has (according to Oxford) nothing to do with the world the Disciples and Jesus lived in!

Who, to Jesus, were "the least of these my Brethren?" Oxford has them to be "Jews" living in the state of Israel at some future age. When Jesus spoke of "his brethren" He was in no way talking about the 1948 created State of Israel. Jesus words were (this writer thinks) relevant to those who followed him then; if not, how can the words be believable to those who try to follow Jesus now?

To make sure everyone knows what Jesus was talking about, Heaven and Hell, he provides two parables in first half of the same 25th Chapter that he labeled as explaining the kingdom of Heaven "the kingdom of Heaven is like". What is Oxford's motive? Oxford Press treats Jesus Christ like a public school drop out who cannot express himself.

We are supposed to believe that the Scofield bible (written and rewritten by Oxford University Press from 1921 on) is needed to interpret Jesus lack of expression. How insulting to God. Oxford Press and Pharisaic Christian leaders should tremble in fear if they indeed believe He is God. Traditional Christians (as well as Muslims as we understand them) believe Jesus was describing the "narrow path" to heaven.

Jesus words are easy to understand, but difficult to follow toward the Strait Gate. Oxford deliberately subverted the meaning of Jesus' analogy of the sheep and goats by italicized sub-headings. Schofield also claimed Christian conversion while doing time for forgery. Pastors who accept Oxford's deliberate abuse of Jesus words belong in the street, if not in jail with Scofield's ghost.

Oxford press sets out to convince the reader that Jesus changed the subject from what He said he was talking about, heaven and hell, to the "second coming" at his "return to earth" or Armageddon scheme by adding the above line of italics between the verses. We are to believe that Jesus was finished with heaven and hell and switched subjects without warning, to talking about "Christ's return to earth" popularly fictionalized as "the end times.”

Together sub-heading and footnotes complete the terrible forgery of God’s words. Without the sub-heading there is no reason to think Jesus changed the subject...he is still talking about his heaven in the sheep and goats story. Obviously, Oxford has a problem with Jesus words so it vetoed what Jesus said. This of course would make Jesus a liar to his own followers, but Oxford does not flinch at doing this.

Exposing The Roots of Christian Zionism

2008-09-13T10:36:00.000-07:00

Rod Parsley does religious business surrounded by cornfields a few miles Southeast of Columbus, Ohio in an immense hexagon-shaped building with a sharp spire sticking up from its center. World Harvest Church looks like an oversized candy dish with a lift-off lid in the middle of acres of parking lots. The county appraiser lists its assessed valuation of land and buildings at $27 million, but like other Christian Zionists, it pays not a dime of taxes on it.

Project Strait Gate leader Ted McClung was legally prepared with the plat map of the property, else Rod Parsley’s crew of off-duty policemen in blue and white uniforms might have pushed our demonstration into the eight-foot high corn across the road.

Few attendees stopped, this being a high-speed drive-in church claiming 13,000 members. One exception was a sturdy man in a massive SUV who stayed to exchange views with yours truly (he wanted to speak to our leader). He said he is a member of the church and volunteered that he is a civilian contractor with the US State Department, carrying out assignments in Iraq and “many” other Middle Eastern countries. In other words, he claims to be a mercenary in foreign wars. In fact, he looked and acted a little like Eric Prince of Blackwater fame, and he said he wanted to nail down our purpose there.

I explained that that World Harvest Church is a war enabler and we want the congregation to know that it is apostate, as an eight-foot long sign explains. I asked this self- proclaimed mercenary “Christian” if he had been required to kill anyone in the course of his work. He replied cautiously that he did kill, but only on occasions if “absolutely necessary,” and he declined to tell me details of the killings. Instead, he wanted to engage me in a hypothetical situation.

“What would you do, he asked, if you were guarding a load of food on the way to starving villages and someone started shooting at you from the ditches?”

My response is that it depends on who owns the road he is on and if he had a right to be there in the first place. Finally, what would Jesus say about taking pay to shoot the people in their own ditch? Just whom in Iraq would Jesus kill? I ended by asking, as sincerely as I could muster, if he had considered changing careers. He firmly assured me he had not, and the mercenary (if he really is one) sauntered back to his SUV.

The fact that this man is comfortable in Rod Parsley’s church says a lot about this Christian Zionism! Killing Arabs for a living must not a sin inside World Harvest Church. This is the fruit of Christian Zionism.

It is significant that most “Christians” who stop to talk invariably want to turn the conversation to the secular, worldly questions, and don‘t want to discuss what the New Testament says that contain the words Christ followers’ think Jesus spoke. Their favorite subject is, "When it’s OK to kill humans."

Another inconsistency, church members usually assert that abortion is always wrong, while also believing the deaths of already born Iraqi children are "collateral damage." Only three men and two women, including my newfound ally, Henry Herskovitz, from Ann Arbor, intervened for peace at World Harvest Church. Did the five of us change anything at Rod Parsley’s 13,000 member, tax-exempt, money laundering, political Zionist stronghold?

Yes, this time there can be no doubt we had an instant impact or World Harvest Church because Parsley’s actions telegraphed his guilty conscience. Thirty days before we trekked to Columbus, Rod Parsley was advertising that he could buy the freedom of a slave in Sudan for $45.00 per head, and was actively raising money for this cause. He made a big promotion on one of his weekly TV shows in July about accepting the contribution of a schoolchild who raised the money from her classmates to repatriate one Sudanese slave. At that time, Parsley’s website was sprinkled with pleas for money to free slaves. Now these are gone!

The ads and promotion to free slaves disappeared from Parsley's massive website right after our July 29 fax letter to Parsley, which was also emailed in an open letter to many area pastors. In it, we called Rod Parsley’s bluff and told him we know his slave repatriation fundraiser was a fraud. These words were in our letter to him:

“Parsley has, for years, raised donations ‘to free 29,771 slaves in Sudan’ by his own claim, supposedly buying them from slave traders and setting them free. But the evidence and first hand testimony since as early as 2002 have overwhelming refuted that there is any organized slave trade in Sudan, and reveals that supposed ‘slave reparations’ are largely fund raising photo-ops that benefited armed revolution in Sudan.”

By the time we arrived at World Harvest Church on August 10 just two weeks later, solicitations for slave repatriation had evaporated except for one line in a YouTube posted ad quoted above. Project Strait Gate calls this progress!

It is important that we make it clear; We Hold These Truths is not in the business of saving Rod Parsley’s attendees from having their pockets picked. Nevertheless, we do not want them to be deceived on matters of life and death. We want them to remove themselves from a false and apostate theology that is abhorrent to Jesus Christ because it enables killing.

We wonder how many of those who drove by has contributed money to free slaves, and, we hope that they will ask Parsley why he suddenly dropped this "mission."

The Beginning of the End of Christian Zionism

2008-08-21T19:53:00.000-07:00

A woman named Sue called saying she is a bible prophesy researcher for a Christian group and discovered Project Strait Gate while researching John Hagee. She was excited to learn we confront him. Why? She said we are in the Bible, prophesied in the book of Revelations, in conflict with John Hagee who is a “False Prophet.” One could get a head rush from finding oneself in the Bible, even if not by name. Sue wanted to talk about all kinds of wonderful and frightening prophesies about the end times. It seems her purpose was not to join us in our work, but to educate us about our importance. After a few minutes of polite listening, I excused myself without learning our place in history. There is just too much to do trying to get there. We are busy working and Sue’s group is wrapped up in writing and talking about future events, so I thanked Sue and moved on.

On that very same day a newsletter from a friend, analyzing the letter 34 "Evangelical" pastors who recently wrote to President Bush standing up against his blanket support of Israel, right or wrong. Project Strait Gate is all about seeing pastors change, it is the result we work for, the pot at the end of our rainbow. Here in part is what the 34 said:

“As evangelical Christians, we embrace the biblical promise to Abraham: "I will bless those who bless you." (Genesis 12:3). And precisely as evangelical Christians committed to the full teaching of the Scriptures, we know that blessing and loving people (including Jews and the present State of Israel) does not mean withholding criticism when it is warranted. Perhaps the best way we can bless Israel is to encourage her to remember, as she deals with her neighbor Palestinians, the profound teaching on justice that the Hebrew prophets proclaimed so forcefully as an inestimably precious gift to the whole world.”

I, of course, applaud the 34 Pastors trained in the dispensational school to think as John Hagee and thousands like him who have reject his conclusions. This is a part of the “great turning” from the age of dispensational heresy. The 34 are truly a revolt from within the roots of Christian Zionism. However, in reading the statement the 34 pastors made I have a question for them.

Why are they still “evangelicals?” If one DOES NOT believe he is commanded by God to support the political state of Israel, and DOES NOT believe he will be cursed for failing to do so, as seminary students are taught from Scofield References Bibles, then why be a dispensationalist (“Evangelical”)? After all, dispensationalism is about Israel and has Israel at its root and core belief, which is why its hard-liners like Hagee and hundreds of others now proudly label themselves “Christian Zionists. They are proud to put Israel first, ahead of American and perhaps ahead of Jesus Christ as the “fulfillment of prophecy.” Without Israel, dispensationalism is an empty bag.

Conversely, if one believes his obligation is to follow Christ's teachings, as we find them in His words, and if one is willing to be judged accordingly by Christ as he said (be it heaven or hell, whatever hell is), then it also should not matter to that person if there is an "end times" now, in the future or never. What difference if there is a battle of Armageddon, rapture, a rebuilt Jewish Temple, or any of the other dispensational trappings in earthbound prophesies?

Jesus says nothing about an allegiance to any political unit then or now, and telling the truth about Israel, and everything else, is part of His rules. Furthermore, if following Christ is the formula to secure heaven for the faithful, as Jesus told His followers, then what difference does it make if there is a rapture, a new Jewish temple, or a red heifer to be sacrificed there? In addition, if it matters not, why would Sue or the 34 Pastors waste a single moment of time in speculation over Armageddon, left behind, or any of the dispensational questions? Why spend time researching prophecies if political Israel is not in it? Could it be that vanity tweaks us to look for our own type in the Bible?

One whose life goal becomes following Christ on the “narrow path”, hopefully toward the “strait gate” would seem to be traditional Christian under the standards set by the original dozen or two who falteringly followed Jesus. They managed without Scofield Reference Bibles, TV evangelists, or even church buildings to meet in. Christian Zionism, Mormonism, and all the other "ism" cults that claim to make themselves important by supposedly unraveling God’s plan for other people, would be irrelevant if more pastors recognized that none of these prophesies, and fantasies should logically matter to Christ following believers.

The “if it does not matter, don’t bother with it” Christ following seems to negate the need for brainy and intellectual studies of the bible, nor is there much need for good commentaries to counteract the bad commentaries on the end times.

This author had the unique experience of hearing our mission defined in two words, restoring Christianity, by a perceptive Muslim cleric who heard me explain to Oxford University Press' contribution to Christian Zionism four year ago. Indeed We Hold These Truths' mission is about restoring Christianity; however, it might be better to say we are trying to do our part to rescue Christianity from suicide by explaining where it has been misled to follow Christian Zionism. I now know that this goal is possible; if 34 dispensational scholars can reject Christian Zionism there is no reason the rest cannot do the same.

Behind Matthew Murray’s Church Executions: More Blood on Judeo-Christian Hands

2008-08-05T19:00:00.000-07:00

Matthew Murray may be the first known assassin to aim his weapons at Judeo-Christians because they were Judeo-Christians. He was an insecure, deeply disturbed young man in need of counseling, if not treatment, of this there seems little doubt from Matthew Murray’s own writings. There is much to be learned about Judeo-Christianity from Matthew’s recorded diary left on blogs. Murray’s well-documented blog posts reflect a frustrated and incomplete knowledge of Christian-Zionism and some of its roots in Israel and neo-conservatism.

Matthew did not write about those who die daily because of Judeo-Christianity’s support of war and its own form of bizarre Israel-first racism. We are fortunate that Matthew’s thoughts are uniquely available. Murray said he could forgive his mother, but he deeply resented Judeo-Christian institutions that influenced her. Matthew’s crime siege began at a student dormitory of the mission organization called YWAM located on the huge campus of Israeli-patriot, mega-church, Faith Bible Chapel in Arvada, Colorado. It is likely the blood Matthew Murray and those he senselessly assassinated is also on their hands.

Matthew chose to turn away from Jesus and toward violence. It seems Judeo-Christianity was force fed to Matthew, as it has been spoon fed to tens of millions, but Matthew says he got it 24 hours a day. Without a good understanding of why Judeo-Christian churches worship George W. Bush, Israel, and the Republican party, those like Matthew can only revolt from the neo-conservatism of Judeo-Christianity, and many mistakenly abandoning anything associated with Jesus Christ in the process, as they come to blame Christ for the corruption of Judeo-Christianity.

Seven months before this writer heard of Matthew Murray, fifteen We Hold These Truths’ volunteers, about half of them teenagers and college students, challenged that same Zionist-oriented Faith Bible Chapel in Arvada Colorado with a Vigil for Peace with Justice outside its doors. Our 30 square ft. black on yellow sign read:

"APOSTATE CHURCH, CHRIST FOLLOWERS MUST NOT KILL"

There we protested the church’s hypocrisy in claiming to be “pro-life” while backing war making in Islamic countries. Inside the church, the rhetoric of guest speaker John Hagee, of Christians United for Israel, called for more war to protect Israel, even suggesting nuclear war in God’s name on Iran. Matthew Murray needed to known that this race-related hatred is not Christ following, but is church apostasy. Matthew's blogs indicate he was tormented by the fabricated theology he was raised to believe.

Matthew's killing spree ended after a two-hour drive south to the Christian Zionist New Life Church in Colorado Springs. Church leaders at both churches were quick to announce they did not consider Matthew’s acts to be “God’s judgment”, though charismatic leaders are often quick to label catastrophic events as God's punishment. Matthew had detected this hypocrisy; it is sad that his family did him this discredit.

Matthew’s blogs describe Bill Gothard’s education program as full of impossible rules. Matthew did not know how Judeo-Christian “bible scholars” have reinterpreted Mt: 25 in the Scofield Reference Bible and other study bibles, so Judeo-Christians will not take these important verses seriously:

“In as much as you have done it unto the least of my brothers you have done it unto me.”

It is impossible to follow this and in the same breath support war on Islam, so Matthew 25 is simply left out of Judeo-Christian Bible vocabularies. It is no surprise to me to learn Matthew was rejected from the YWAM mission program, for much as he wanted to be a missionary, he was not a Judeo-Christian. Naturally, YWAM would reject him; Judeo-Christianity allows no questioning from within.

What 17 year old Matthew needed was a big yellow and black sign he could hold up in front of the church that reads:

"APOSTATE CHURCH, CHRIST FOLLOWERS MUST NOT KILL "

Matthew needed a mission, which is what Mt: 25 tried to teach him, but not for YWAM. Our purpose is to point the ancient way to the "Strait Gate"(Matthew 7:13). We humbly believe God must see Christian-Zionism as the vilest apostasy in the 2000-year history of Christianity. Its sly forerunner goes by the name of Judeo-Christianity. I do not know where Matthew Murray was on May 20, 2007, when that small group, several his own age, stood in quiet protest in front of Faith Bible Chapel. Had any one of our 15 or so volunteers had but a half-hour to talk to Matthew, this story might have ended differently. Most of us can explain our own escape from Judeo-Christianity. We know its history; we know its errors; we know its awful results.

The state of Israel is the “Judeo” in “Judeo-Christian. This is the Israel that Matthew Murray was suppose to revere if he wanted to be a missionary holds 5200 Palestinian children in prison cells today, some as young as eight years old. Each day it arrests two more children. Some are girls, kept detained, where no one except their jailers can see what is done to them. There are no limits to the terror and abuse that security guards are allowed to inflict upon them, much of the rape and brutality is encouraged, as former guards have told. Only a small part of Israel’s brutality to children has ever been filmed, but it is know. Children have been driven to suicide in these prisons, and some even after they are released.

Palestinians and Israelies: Who Is To Blame?

2008-07-19T17:23:00.000-07:00

Israel is justifying its continuing killing of Palestinian civilians and destruction of their property on grounds that Palestinian terrorist bombers are intentionally killing innocent Israelis. What if, in fact, the human bombers attack military targets and not civilians...is this still terrorism?

Though the rest of the world sees it the other way around, most Americans seem to be persuaded that the Israelis are the good guys and the Palestinians are the bad guys.

According to recent polls, these beliefs are derived largely from the media, which uses the label terrorist repeated day after day to describe Palestinians, while labeling Israeli actions as purely defensive.

For instance, according to Fox News on May 5, 2002, a mother from Jenin and her three and four year old children were all shot to death, each hit in the head or upper body, and in a separate incident the same day a nine year old boy from Tulkarem was shot twice in the chest and killed...all in one day. But Israel excused these as military targets and provided various excuses.

The media has persuaded many Americans that if Palestinians kill Israeli civilians, that's terrorism which must be fiercely punished; but, when Israelis kill Palestinian civilians, often children, that's collateral damage. Israelis shrug and say they were aiming at government buildings; that civilians were acting suspiciously; or children just got in the way.A majority of Americans buy into the label terrorist state to describe Palestinians based on the acts of 55 Palestinian human bombers.

This number and our information regarding these acts, comes to us from military press releases prepared by Ariel Sharon's government, previous governments, and also from this author's personal observation of military presence in Israel.

It can be shown that all or most Israeli death reports carried in the US media purposely omit mentioning of persons who happen to be in the Israeli Defense Forces or paramilitary, and that the 55 terrorist bombing of innocent civilians were undoubtedly aimed at Military personnel.

WHTT thinks it is time to examine the one-sided use of the label terrorist, and to ask whether there is any real difference between Israeli smart bombs and Palestinian human bombs that warrants one being called terrorist, but not the other.

Philip Mauro on Dispensationalism and Zionism in 1927

2008-07-06T07:47:00.000-07:00

The Gospel of the Kingdom is a remarkable book, an epiphany to this writer. Philip Mauro, a lawyer, (nevertheless a devout follower of Christ), wrote this as a devastating refutation of the Scofield Reference Bible with amazing insight in 1927. In a chapter headed “Concerning Zionism” he tells us:

The "dispensational" doctrine is that the natural descendants of Jacob will be gathered back to Palestine, still in impenitence and unbelief (Zionism is supposed to be the beginning of this movement); that Christ will come to "the air" above (unseen), will raise dead believers, change the living and take all to glory (1 Th. 4:16, 17), thus leaving only unsaved persons on earth; that the "great tribulation" will then ensue and will last for seven years…”

Mauro continues:

“… Zionism… has for its object the making of Palestine a homeland for the Jews. Concerning that movement a great deal of misinformation has been disseminated during the past twenty years in the interest of dispensationalism. For dispensationalist writers and speakers have painted wonderful word-pictures portraying the multitudes of Jews said to be flocking to their ancient homeland; the miraculously renewed fertility of the soil; the return of the early and latter rain etc. etc.; and it has been made to appear that the re-constitution of the Jewish State and the rebuilding of the Temple were matters of tomorrow or the day after. All these supposed happenings were presented to eager readers and hearers as a marvelous fulfillment of prophecy taking place before our very eyes, and as giving assurance that the time of the end had come. But the sober facts are that Zionism has been a pitiful failure almost from the beginning… Palestine is wretched in the extreme, and that the attitude of the great mass of Jews throughout the world towards the Zionistic project is that of complete apathy and indifference.”

Mr. Mauro concludes his book’s introduction:

“I would point out that this modern system of "dispensational teaching" is a cause of division and controversy between those followers of Christ who ought to be, at this time of crisis, solidly united against the mighty forces of unbelief and apostasy; and further that it tends to bring the vital truth of our Lord's second coming into discredit with many, because it associates that great Bible doctrine with various speculative details for which no scriptural support can be found.”

Mr. Mauro’s introduction reminds me of the haunting phrase in slave trader John Newton’s “Amazing Grace;” What makes this book so remarkable to one who writes about Scofieldism today is that Mauro had only the early version of the Scofield Reference Bible to go by when he asserted that Israel, as a state and someday homeland, had no place in Christianity, but was a myth invented by those who promoted Scofieldism.

Mauro did not have this advantage, because at the time he was writing, Israel existed only in the minds of Lord Rothschild and the World Zionist Organization, in words privately written by Sir Arthur Balfour, and in the footnotes inserted into the 1917 edition of the Scofield Reference Bible. Mauro destroys and buries these deliberate myths to perfection. We also have the advantage of the 1967 Edition of this incredible Oxford Press fraud against the name of Christ that forces a huge, foul dead rat state of Israel down our throats as a God Icon.

What follower of Christ can ignore the plea of the Christian Arabs coming from Israel? A March 12 Reuter’s story from Jerusalem tells us of Israel’s inhuman abuse of the indigenous populations.

“Despairing of life under Israeli occupation, many Palestinian Christians are moving abroad, threatening their ancient links to Bethlehem and the land where Jesus was born…

"There is a real fear that 50 years down the road, the Holy Land will be without Christians," said Mitri Raheb, 45-year-old pastor of the Lutheran Church in Bethlehem…. "There is no business, no freedom of movement," he said.

"We depend on tourism, which is being demolished. Sometimes we receive 1,500 tourists a day but none of them stay the night. They visit the Nativity Church and leave, so we don't benefit….Palestinian Christians are generally better off than other segments of society, but they too have felt the pinch… Christian leaders say they face no religious persecution from the Palestinian Muslim majority or from Israel…

"Bethlehem will basically be a four-square-mile (10-square-km) open prison."

Israel’s never ending stream of “Christian” tourist buses run from Tel Aviv to the occupied territories, led by Zionists like John Hagee and Jerry Falwell, who arrange junkets so no guest need ever talk to an Arab alone, and few buy from their shops. These Armageddon seeking Christians flock to see the “sacred sites” on guided tours, but stay only in Israeli “five star” hotels on the other side of the 26 foot high prison wall, thus the plight of the Philistine Christians remains a secret to those who walk right past their shops.

We shall try our best to bring this book back to life, and I suspect that God has blessed Philip Mauro for writing it.

A Glimmer of Hope

2008-06-13T16:10:00.000-07:00

Americans are setting unhealthy records with the least savings, the highest debt, and least time to think about their future that anyone can remember. There is plenty of information, but it seems no time to learn. Each week we publish a fresh Pharisee Watch editorial, which purposely exposes some problem of society and government that desperately requires our attention. So where do we see the hope?

Millions who are unseen by the media are turning to a natural abhorrence to the blood shedding they see on the Internet, and increasing numbers are groping for the causes and sources of the mass executions euphemistically called “war.” Americans are finally realizing these acts cannot be healthy for us…that we are live in an artificial, conflict-based economy where someone is marketing war to us with the same persistency that pharmaceuticals are peddled on prime time TV.

We Hold These Truths’ mission is to help those who want to see. We have focused on America’s churches, which are paradoxically the biggest problem and at the same time the greatest opportunity; they have responsibility before God so their obstruction to truth is the most abhorrent.

A small minority already knows, and is beginning to say that politicians and central bankers have built their empires on maintaining a war state. These War makers have allowed us (who fight and pay for the wars) to have peace only when we get mad enough to threaten their empires. This happened after Vietnam after we had lost a generation. Some of the survivors revolted suspecting that three major wars within 25 years was more than a coincidence. War is not our only problem, but if we find who is instigating the wars we will also find the cause of other problems, including declining morality in our churches, and the dilution of our money.

Chris, a young man who cuts my grey hair, told me the first time I sat down in his chair, “We live in a war-based economy.” I was thunderstruck with his succinct analysis, which came as his reply when I asked him why his haircuts cost so much. Chris knows his rising costs and the cost of my haircuts are related to war, and he does not apologize when he charges me 17 times what my first haircuts cost many years ago. Everything costs him that much more. It is not a coincidence that we American taxpayers have financed about 17 wars in those same years counting the big ones and little ones.

Chris is one of a growing number who cannot be fooled by smooth talk and phony promises about “fighting terrorism” and “ridding the world of dictators.” He knows instinctively that one class to keep the economy steaming for the benefit of the banking class fights every war. He would agree that each war (on an average) doubles the cost of a haircut by halving the value of the dollar that pays for it.

There is hope because a growing number are taking time to think, and are those who try to tell us they will think for us longer fooling no. Chris is a double important model because he is not just a first class barber whose instincts uncovered the fact of the “war-based economy” He is also a Christ follower who has not been fooled by the pulpit prattle that it’s all “God’s plan;” and he is not to fret because we are all on an unavoidable, collision course with the final hours of the earth, the “end times.” Chris is one who does not accept that “wars” are part of God’s plan; he knows serial wars are men’s plans and that Christ is not the Prince of War. He already suspected who the planners are before I came along. We Hold These Truths did not have to change Chris; he figured it out for himself and explained it to me, which makes him a double encouragement.

The Bigfish Conspiracy and Zionized-Christian Reality

2008-05-21T13:01:00.000-07:00

Uncounted big plot theories abound. Most people wonder if there is a "who" and "they" who control, or conspire to control, the world. Our Serial wars are at the root of our inflation (money dilution) problem. The cost of war dilutes our money and makes goods, including gas and food, expensive, and elevates taxes on property.

War and dilution is the politician's twin drinking buddies. Israel is a catalyst for war; the Serial Wars in the Mideast depend upon acts by and in behalf of the State of Israel to keep wars going, and equally Warmakers depend upon hatred against Israel to keep the embers of war alive...they want Israel to keep on killing and remain hated by its neighbors!

The so-called Christian Right is the most powerful supporter of the State of Israel, therefore, these Zionized Christians, while mostly well meaning, are the primary enablers of Serial wars. Celebrity-Christians own a tax-exempted media is second only in size and power to the Jewish controlled public media. When you combine the votes and media control of Jews and the Christian-Zionist you reach a critical mass for information control. The Internet is the new superstar on the media block, but the Bigfish who control the establishment media too is rapidly controlling it.

Our indescribably important mission is to do a necessary part to save Christianity from Christian-Zionism. Our target audience is between 30 and 70 million in the USA and more around the world. It is up to us to continue until a significant minority in most churches and mosques understands our “Facts of Life”. To this end we join with all those who would end Serial wars, which is the most horrible vehicle for spiritual collapse.

Prominent members (celebrities) of the Christian-Right are exposing their Achilles heel to the world when they adopt un-Christian positions in order to do spiritual business with the State of Israel. Zionized-Christians surrender certain basic tenants that Christ accepted, and they accept much of what Jesus resoundingly rejected, including Pharisaism.

The most obvious example of professing Christians making provable un-Christian statements in support of false values is found in the words of American Celebrity Christians in their ridiculous fawning over the Israel. The Bigfish Conspiracy and the Christian-Right starts with the influence of the Oxford Press on what we think of as “Christianity.”

Inhuman Sonic BOOM!!!

2008-05-07T12:07:00.000-07:00

Recent disclosures of the Israeli practice of sonic bombing of the 1.3 million fenced in and captive people in the Gaza Strip may take the award for the meanest trick yet. Israel’s pilots fly made in the USA F-16 Fighters low and fast, deliberately breaking the sound barrier over sleeping people. Gaza is an island of children, four or five per family. Why terror? Because most people in Gaza have seen or felt death by explosive bombing.

America’s churches could end sonic bombing and other deliberate practices of starving and torturing the Palestinians overnight. Religious junkets to Israel are probably Israel’s biggest and most profitable tourist industry. Ending religious tourism in Israel is logical. God would seem to forbid supporting those who torture children, some of whom are Christians. Evangelicals should stop talking about their obligations to Israel long enough to listen to Jesus.

What would Jesus say about terrorizing the little children? The diabolical meanness of the bullyboy, sonic bombers defy comprehension. The children of Gaza are used to being bombed with real bombs that blow off limbs and crush families under the debris. Most children in Gaza know shooting and bombing victims, so the sonic bombings play on the fear that is already present. In my brief and never to be forgotten few days in Gaza city, I saw and heard the sounds of real nighttime assassinations, the bombing launched from right overhead, from USA gifts of Apache helicopters.

It is a universal practice of the bully to accuse the little kid of just what the bully is guilty of. Dr. Eyad Sarraj, Palestinian psychiatrist in Gaza City, chain smoked as he spoke to me in March 2002 about the Gazans. He spoke of the traumatizing of the children. Dr. Sarraj has for years run a modest mental health clinic in Gaza City. To him the children were the unseen victims, many scarred for life.

Last week Dr. Sarraj, speaking of sonic bombing, told author Laila El-Haddad,

"Although it is not lethal, it can lead to death indirectly, of unborn children, it can lead to highly traumatizing effects on children particularly, and adults too."

Israel usually bombs at night when the children are asleep, elevating the terror with the darkness that surrounds them. In September of 2005 Israel removed the 21 settlements housing a scant 6000 Israelis in Gaza, which made Sonic-bombing possible. Israel would never terrify its own citizen’s children with sonic bombs. But once the squatters were gone, 1.3 million residents of Gaza were no longer protected by the presence of the Israelis scattered about Gaza.

Can an evangelical pastor imagine himself, stripped and beaten by soldiers in front of the wife and children? How can a pastor lead a flock of lavish spending “Christians" on a five star posh tour of Israel when sonic bombing torture is going on?

Answer: No one has suggested they stop! No one has challenged them, picketed them, confronted them, and scalded their collective conscience. But We Hold These Truths does.

From Religious Rant to Political Bombast to Spiritual Emptiness and Deception

2008-04-14T10:47:00.000-07:00

If John Hagee’s "Night to Honor Israel" extravaganza is any indication, Christian Zionism is a misnomer. From happy-clappy Jewish praise music, to love songs crooned to and about Israel, to a kitschy Hava Nagila; from invocations and benedictions that turn out to be sermons; from Muslim-bashing to Israel lauding; from dramatic processions to keynote addresses; from offerings taken and offerings given -- there was not a shred, a trace, a scintilla of Christianity in the proceedings. The PTA or the Rotary Club could well have sponsored it.

Of course, if Hagee wants to honor Israel and give it gobs of non-governmental funds that is certainly his privilege. But to promote this under the aegis of "Christian" is, frankly, fraudulent. But the "Night to Honor Israel" was worse than a fraud -- it was idolatrous, and this in two ways.

First, what was worshiped was the state of Israel, and more particularly, Jerusalem. Select passages culled from the Hebrew Bible, referring to Israel’s "right" to the land -- all of Palestine -- and an undivided Jewish Jerusalem were repeated again and again ad nauseam. What were not quoted were those passages that speak of the obligation to do justice and practice mercy. Part of the problem is in the word "prophecy."

Christian Zionists, as well as most fundamentalists and millennialists, use that word almost exclusively as a means to understand present, and predict future, events. [Jewish understanding of "prophecy" also differ from Christian Zionists.] Contemporary events, seen through the spectacles of "prophecy," lead to "Rapture" and "Tribulations" and "Second Comings" and "Armageddon." Biblical passages are interpreted to coincide with that scenario.
On the other hand, prophecy in its initial sense is a human agent (the prophet) who speaks God’s word for a particular existential situation.

Christian Zionists would be well advised, for example, to read the book of the prophet Amos as a corrective to these skewed interpretations of various passages often quoted from Ezekiel. Daniel, and Revelation.

Second, the adulation of John Hagee, as one who is becoming the most important leader of contemporary Christian Zionism, if not idolatry, comes awfully close to it. This cult of the personality was most striking at the "Night." David Brog, Executive Director of CUFI [Christians United for Israel] extolled the virtues of Hagee in the words, "Pastor John Hagee is not an important man. Pastor John Hagee is a great man!" With the cheering and clapping and whistling and stomping of feet and raised arms of the 3000 disciples at this announcement, I was reminded of Leni Riefenstahl’s film, Triumph of the Will, about the Nuremberg rallies in Nazi Germany. Hitler had his Gobbles; Hagee has his Brog.

Interspersed with religious rant from misinterpreted Hebrew Scriptures (the New Testament was not mentioned once, nor was Jesus; God got a tip of the hat only occasionally) was political bombast. Malcolm Hoenlein, Executive Vice President of the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations, supplied this.

Two things were most disturbing: the advocating of violence and the racism of the Christian Zionist movement. Time and again Hoenlein, as well as Hagee, called for the bombing and possible invasion of Iran. Diplomacy is not an option since it simply conveys weakness to the 300 million (count ‘em) Muslim terrorists who "hate freedom" (that old canard) and who, if not stopped in Iran, will eventually come to our shores with suitcases full of nuclear bombs.
What is inherent in this scenario is the racism that declares the superiority of the West and western culture over against the East (read Middle East). And that racism is Manichaean -- in stark terms "they" are evil, "we" are good (so Hoenlein). The good must not only defend itself against the evil, it must wipe it out; it must obliterate it.

Finally, I am struck by the fact that throughout the speeches and the hoopla the centuries-old complaint of Jewish victim hood was juxtaposed with Israeli military triumph (also of the will), which (God?) will grant Israel. Victim or conqueror: You can’t have it both ways. Hagee closed his speech with "God bless Israel and God bless the United States of America." Implied is "and God damn all those who are not us.

On Easter: Have Joy and Go to Work

2008-03-24T12:41:00.000-07:00

As a child, "Good Friday" seemed a paradox. What can be good about the day one is tortured and murdered by his enemies? But the words attributed to Jesus' mouth say otherwise. He said His kingdom was spiritual one therfore it cannot be here on earth, as so many "Christians" now wrongly believe; if it were, we would have nothing to do for Him!

Jesus needed to shed his earthy body. It was only used for a little while to teach us. His kingdom began on earth when his body died. It is logical that He is a silent spirit among us, to lead those who will listen to him through words he left.

If to the contrary, Jesus was to have an earthly kingdom, as Christian Zionists say, he could have grabbed a human weapon and mowed down the Pharisees who condemned him along with enough of the Roman Legions to cause Pilate to depose Herod and install Jesus as "King of the Judeans." After all, this is what His followers expected in spite of all his teaching to the contrary.

What makes Jesus so believable to me is that He plainly told them the agenda but no one believed him until after he was crucified. Jesus said to Pilate "my kingdom is not of this world" and he expects us to believe it and act like we believe Him.

Jesus' most remembered words are about making peace. But man's nature is to enable those who make war. Jesus did not die for Christian-Zionism, which preaches a wrong doctrine of a warring Jesus that they expect to return on a white horse with a monster sword in his hands to dispatch most of the human race. We humbly believe God must see Christian-Zionism as the vilest apostasy in the 2000 year history of Christianity.

Our mission is to rescue followers of Christ from the apostasy called Christian-Zionism, and its sly forerunner that goes by the name of Judeo-Christianity, also an oxymoron.
We try as best we can to reach out to the "lost sheep" inside our churches who do not know they are lost. They will remain lost if they listen only to their apostate religious leaders.
Our purpose is to point the ancient way to the "Strait Gate." Christian-Zionism, by whatever name, is not that path and is purely a political movement.

We ask Christ followers to be Peacemakers in His name, and reject the evil of warring on behalf of Israel, or any other state. We invite you to join us in taking joy in Jesus' sacrifice. It seem all too obvious that Jesus left a role for us to play here on earth. We could not accomplish it if He was here carrying out justice with a club.

Follow Christ, reject "Christianity"

2008-03-17T11:54:00.000-07:00

The evangelical churches stated reason for attacking Islam is Muslim “militancy.” The Christian Right’s leaders managed to read far enough into a Qur’an to find passages about conflict with other tribes in the 7th Century when the book was scribed. Islamic militancy is the standard line of defense by dispensationalist pastors. They learn from the successful patterns of their Celebrity Christian mentors.

The more aggressive Celebrity Christians now use the term "Islamic fascists" a new favorite fad term at the “Christians United for Israel" first "Washington-Israel Summit" as Dan Jennejohn reported:

“Amidst plenty of the celebratory song and dance usually associated with evangelical meetings and a three-course meal was served to over 2,000 attendees, a series of prominent religious and political speakers got up to promise unquestioning support for the state of Israel.”

No evangelical I have ever met admits that he is at open war against Islam, it is always Islam who is the aggressor, and he is acting out of enlightened self-defense.

Pat Robertson told his “700 Club” audience that he traveled to northern Israel in a show of support for the Jewish state. In every modern case the battle is being fought on Muslim turf. Muslims were invaded first, not the other way around. Gaza, the West Bank, Iraq, Lebanon, Chechnya, Bosnia, Kosovo are a few good examples of Muslim holy wars where they were invaded, and every battle has been fought entirely on Muslim territory.

The World Trade Center is offered as an exception to the rule, but it is falling increasingly under question as history plays out the facts that have been denied to us. Today’s Christian Right leaders expect the rest of us taxpayers to hire mercenary armies of Israelis and our own all paid military to kill Muslims for them.

“Christian” leaders like Pat Robertson amass huge fortunes and from politically favored NGO’s (non-government organizations) to dip into the taxpayers’ contributions when reconstruction time comes to Iraq and Palestine and Afghanistan. We pay for Pat’s share of our mercenary armies, while he and John Hagee enjoy tax-exempt status at almost every level. At least the Muslims fight and die in there own wars on their own lands. For instance, Muslim Iraq, which is very poor indeed, has pledged 60 million dollars of its diminished oil revenue to support Hezbollah in Lebanon. . If Iraq gives the money it is Muslims sacrificing for Muslims, with a minority of non-Muslims who can scarcely object.

Conversely, the American Congress, under heavy lobbying pressure from the “Christian Right” and the Jewish AIPAC pledged $2400 million (2.4 billion dollars) in military aid annually to Israel. According to the polls about 85% of Americans still think they are in some way “Christians” but the leaders of the churches who do the lobbying for war are virtually 100% exempt from payment of property and income taxes, state and federal, so Celebrity Christians do not participate in the cost of the wars they enable. We American non tax-exempt taxpayers pay for the wars of the Christian Right, fought on Muslim soil.

Conversion of the hungry and orphans, by offering food with prayers attached, is no different than conversion by the sword, which “Christians” accuse Islam of doing.

What makes some “Christians” so bloodthirsty toward Muslims?

“Israel is the fulfillment of Biblical prophesy,” therefore, “Christians” feel they must support the prime enemy of Islam, Israel. "Christianity" has become associated with Christian-Zionism, an American invention. Jesus would challenge it, as he challenged the Pharisees of his day. Christ followers do not hate or kill, “Christians” do.

Why Should America Honor Israel?

2008-03-11T10:14:00.000-07:00

Pastor Dan was waiting with a sign adorned with two Israeli flags reading “AMERICA STANDS WITH ISRAEL” when I arrived. Thus my question, “For what noble act would you honor Israel?”

I asked Pastor Dan least a dozen times to give me one good reason why any follower of Christ would honor Israel while we stood holding opposing sign in front of his church. Christian Zionism is beginning to collapse, and disintegrate it must because the words of Jesus are anathema to the acts of political Israel. Pastor Dan did not tell me what scriptural course he sailed to arrive at the link between political Israel and Jesus Christ, but I am going to make a very good guess, and I will invite him to comment.

Pastor Dan will assert that his “salvation” depends exclusively upon his acceptance of Jesus Christ, and it is here his course becomes very confused. For Dan also believes he has an absolute responsibility to love political Israel but with slightly less reverently than Jesus. John Hagee contends America’s “blessings” come from our loving care for Israel. Word of Life Christian Center defended political Israel by holding up some thirty signs and an estimated 90 Israeli flags in front of its church when Project Strait Gate appeared. Secular thinkers might view Pastor Dan’s logic to be legally and historically topsy-turvy.

For by no stretch of logic can one credit a 60 years old political state that borrowed the name “Israel,” with the advent of Jesus 1900 years earlier. Some of our religious readers will be tempted to dismiss Pastor Dan as a harmless. But that is sadly wrong on both counts. Some 60 million Americans think much like him, and he is part of a group that is much better organized than their critics are.

This is reminiscent of the popular and catchy Nashville ditty of slight-of-hand genealogy of the 1950’s, “I Am My Own Grandpa.” Some of our a-religious readers will be tempted to dismiss Pastor Dan as a harmless. But that is sadly wrong on both counts. Some 60 million Americans think much like him, and he is part of a group that is much better organized than their critics are.

The long list of those who reject “Israel first” theology probably includes most of the professors at Bethel Seminary where Pastor Dan graduated in nearby St. Paul, which is associated with the old Baptist General Conference.Christian Zionism is a tool used by others, including the State of Israel, to engulf America in serial wars. It is up to those who understand it to expose it. And at the same time we need to remind the Mainline churches that they have timidly and politely allowed Jesus’ name to be rubbed in the filth of political Israel.

The Christian Right: Not Right, Not Following Christ

2008-02-25T10:43:00.000-08:00

Christian Right pastors and spokesmen in thousands of churches swear that Israel has a biblical right to bomb Gaza and Lebanon. They teach that to resist Israel is to interfere with God’s Plan. The normally Israeli-sympathetic network media is giving wings to the neo-theology of the Christian Right. A recent story in the Baltimore Sun reveals a rare honest glimpse of the weapons superiority of Israel over Lebanon’s rebel Hezbollah. Comparing Hezbollah weapons to Israel’s is like comparing the Spirit of St. Louis to the Challenger.

Who can deny that the USA is the bully in Iraq or that Israel is the bully in Lebanon? The Christian Right has the newest story to defend the bully in the schoolyard: “God told them to do it.”

Why do the Christian Right pastors and spokesmen in thousands of churches swear that Israel is right? Because God ordained Israel’s acts, they tell us, but not one can present a credible argument from scripture.

“Israel’s war is God’s war and let no man stand in the way.”

It would be hard to overstate Bennett’s devotion to Israel. He volunteers without reservation that “Arabs live to destroy Israel and kill Israelis.” Darien Bennett is one of several pastors at upscale Scottsdale Bible Church, a success story with a membership of 6000. Bennett claimed he had met Arabs in their homes in Gaza, and when pressed for a reaction to them as mankind, he describes them as “fools”…. because “they cannot compete militarily” and “God loves Israel and God does not love them because they oppose Israel.”

Pastor Bennett and thousands like him impute the wrath of the Old Testament God to Jesus, while ignoring Jesus’ admonitions to be peacemakers. Pastor Bennett justifies the bombing on Beirut by 2500 year-old prophetic references to the destruction of ancient cities of Sidon and Tyre, cities in today’s Lebanon.

In his eyes God hand on Israel is now destroying Sidon and Tyre, with Beirut thrown in for good measure. He is sure no Christian would want to defy God by siding with anyone but Israel. Televangelists and Celebrity Christians play biblical Scrabble, which they support with sophist logic to arrive at their unwavering support for Israel. Some Christian-Zionists leaders as well as Israeli secularists have quoted the beautiful Christian book of Isaiah as justification for Israel to destroy the state of Syria. (Chapter 17).

A contemporary Israeli book talks of Israel’s destiny to nuke Damascus. If the USA gives Israel the green light to nuke the millions in Damascus the Christian-Zionists would flock to Isaiah 17 to proclaim it is God's will. The Christian Right cannot be Christian because it is biblically un-Christian.

Most of the Christian Right is not right about preserving life, therefore, it cannot be Christian.

The Christian Zionist Lie Must Die

2008-02-20T11:52:00.000-08:00

At first blush, one could hardly characterize the show of power exhibited by John Hagee’s Christian Zionists at his brash Washington Israel Summit in D.C. last week as a dike about to break: 4500 Christian Zionists filled the Washington Convention Center. Senator Lieberman likened Hagee to Moses, a "leader of a multitude." John Hagee was the dealmaker of the hour for Israel, their political rock star, and a political money machine.

But a closer look by religion writer Abe Levy reporting in the San Antonio Express-News, Hagee's hometown newspaper, shows that the Christian Zionist dike is holding back a surging sea of truth and truth-telling. There are cracks. Cracks Hagee will not be able to contain since they are coming from the very people Hagee claims to be saving from holocausts and persecutions.

The first cracks in this Judeo-Christian dike are a few vocal, and significant, Jews and Rabbis critical of Hagee’s Christians United for Israel (CUFI) movement. It is the secular Israeli Zionists who control "political Israel" that love Hagee, as do the US neocons and US political pragmatists who accept Hagee's offerings without looking at the logic hand that presents it. It is the secular Israeli Zionists who are counting on Hagee and mega-pastors like him to deliver US voter and taxpayer support for their political agenda in Israel, not to deliver the words of Christ to Christ-followers from the pulpit each Sunday.

"We're supporting Israel because Israel is threatened like no other time in all of her history."

Hagee’s spokesman Brog speaks for "Christians", but is himself a practicing Jew. CUFI’s excuse for its existence now is that Hagee and his lobby group share Israel's "moral lifestyle." Hagee's followers do support Israel for religious "biblical" reasons that they learned from Hagee were inviolable. Hagee’s followers have told us so at many encounters during vigils held at four A Night To Honor Israel extravaganzas.

The next crack in the leaking Christian Zionist dike will break it: When God-fearing Judeo-Christians from thousands of churches nationwide realize they’ve been conned by political Israel's agents, they will leave CUFI, Christian Zionism, and the hundred-year-old movement we call "Scofieldism", to return to the teachings of Jesus Christ.

Pastor Art Preisinger, also a member of Wagner’s group, wrote in a searing article after observing A Night To Honor Israel at Hagee’s Cornerstone Church, "There was not a shred, a trace, a scintilla of Christianity in the proceedings. It could well have been sponsored by the PTA or the Rotary Club . . . to promote this under the aegis of 'Christian' is, frankly, fraudulent.”

The Judeo-Christian cracks and leaks will break into a capsizing torrent. According to the old Hagee, every Christian Zionist must believe the political state of Israel is an act of God, the fulfillment of Biblical prophecy, and that he or she must support Israel as a conduction of their faith, and believe their individual salvation depends on it.

Levy quotes a Hagee follower: "We know we'll get blessed because we're blessing Israel," said Jean Ann McNally, the CUFI co-state director for Tennessee. Israel is about 85% secular and denies any acknowledgment of Christianity's holy New Testament, the only record of Jesus Christ, and Christianity's universal calls for peace. Hagee has only one characteristic to share with Israel: a common commitment to war that has dominated its 59-year history.

David Brog told reporter Levy that Hagee’s critics do not know their own faith:"I think (Hagee's critics) are misunderstanding Christian theology. God has no set time for the Second Coming. And there's nothing you or I can do about it."

For Brog to tell distinguished Professor Wagner, Pastor Preisinger, or this writer that we don’t understand what Jesus expects of his followers is more than a little amusing. This writer, however, is sincerely grateful for John Hagee, who will be the apex for the final and total downfall of Judeo-Christianity and its false premises. The incongruity of Judeo-Christianity and its radical warring mouthpiece is an association that will fail, as all false ideas must, eventually.

"Balance of Power" Means Murder

2008-02-11T11:24:00.000-08:00

Beginning in the 18th century, Great Britain focused intently on protecting and expanding its worldwide empire by seeking always to maintain a "balance of power" among civilized nations. Hence the numerous British wars against France, for example, in the 18th and 19th centuries, and myriad ever-changing alliances with all sorts of nations throughout the period.

British obsession with this balance of power reached its peak in 1914 with the outbreak of World War I. From the British point of view the Great War was fought to reduce the growing power of a unified, highly industrialized Germany. That millions of men would die in muddy trenches for such selfish goals is testimony to the importance of the "balance of power" concept in the minds of its adherents.

Today another nation, our own, practices the old British approach to international relations, attacking other nations whenever they begin to get too uppity.

Today’s list of uppity nations earning the attention and sometimes the bombs of these New Imperialists include Libya, Iraq, Afghanistan, Sudan, and Yugoslavia. And the list of enemies and friends is just as fluid as it was in the heyday of the British Empire.

Thus Iraq and Afghanistan received military support in the 1980s, only to be attacked in the present. And dirt-poor Sudan, thanks to its huge undeveloped oil reserves, finds itself the victim of economic sanctions imposed by the USA, bombing attacks and invasion, solely because the New Imperialists fear it may become a stronger regional power.

Some leaders clearly believe it is better that thousands of innocent children starve and die than to allow a Third World nation to develop and disturb their sacred balance of power.

Who is this New Imperialist who attacks and befriends nations with Machiavellian gall to maintain a British style "balance of power"?

Israel, with the help of its $5.5 billion per year sugar daddy the United States, plays an important role. For an understanding of the influence wielded by the State of Israel upon the US Congress and our foreign policy, read the book review of One Nation Under Israel

Prison Break from Gaza, A Glimpse of A People Scheduled for Starvation

2008-01-30T12:48:00.000-08:00

The unheralded news from the rest of the world, including BBC, is never without compelling reports from a little place called Gaza. Gazans for the first time face slow starvation; Hamas members face selective execution. Israel has more direct political clout and media coverage in Washington than any other nation. Therefore, only Israel can move to starve an entire population while Congress and the press looks on. The US press makes the people of Gaza irrelevant by ignoring events there.

Recent rare news clips have exposed for the first time, the wall that separates southern Gaza from Egypt for about four miles. It is worth noting that neither Egypt nor Gaza built this wall. Israel built it when it took over policing of Gaza's small south border with Egypt. . Israel managed the Rafah Gate when I went there in 2003. In 2005 Egypt took over managing the no-man’s land by agreement with Israel.

Egypt’s Gaza wall has, according to Hamas, Israeli cameras and computers in place monitoring everyone who comes and goes, identifying and remotely scrutinizing each face. Egypt is compelled to cooperate with Israel, making it more or less a jail keeper.

When the Gazans breached the wall, the USA was quick to tell Egypt that $100 million in US Aid to Egypt would be suspended, pending its forcing the Gazans back inside their bottle. Only about five percent of the Gazans broke out into Egypt Monday, January 21, 2008. If Egypt does not do so, it will face the combined wrath of the USA and the pit bully of the Middle East, nuclear Israel.

What is the USA’s plan for the 1.4 million Gazans? Israel has also made it clear the Palestinians can have a state of their own, but only if Israel has the power to police it, as they police Gaza and the West Bank now. Therefore, there is no place in Israel’s plan for 4 or 5 million Philistines with dreams of self-determination. Israel’s ambition is for virtual slave labor camps that are pretend states. Prior to its uprisings, Gaza provided thousands of day laborers for Israel’s fields and factories. This is what Zionists in Israel wants.

Former Prime Minister Arial Sharon had offered to conduct an annihilation of every Arab, if political Israel could stand the international pressure from his acts. He was dead serious and he is far from the only Israeli leader who believes this way.

The economy of the Gaza society has been systematically destroyed by isolation. Israel’s plan is no secret; it is simply cushioned by our press and politicians. Israel allows no equality for other religions, nor do non-Jews participate, except under its Apartheid-like control, so there will be no shared state unless the world forces a democracy upon Israel.

Israel has systematically forced Palestinian attrition from the occupied lands for 59 years-- attrition by emigration for those able to leave, and attrition by violent death for thousands who stay. Our research reveals that food burning now assures widespread world famine. With this going on, Israel might get away with starving the Philistines while the media focuses attention elsewhere on bigger tragedies. So huge is the problem we see that a million missing Philistines might be overlooked, lost in the shadows of a worldwide tragedy… a tragedy that may someday be remembered in infamy as "The Famine of the Food Burners." Shall we stand idly by and allow it?

Ethanol: Burning Food, the Path to Global Famine

2008-01-17T12:33:00.000-08:00

Why is inflation running away with everything on the kitchen table? One huge reason is industrial food burning. Over 200 ethanol production plants are subsidized to manufacture a colorless liquid many think they would like to drink, but few want to use in an automobile because it is inferior to gasoline.

Alcohol factories’ appetite for food-to-burn is literally insatiable, so commodity prices cannot seek normal market levels, as they always have in the past when temporary high prices took care of short supplies. The giant food burning mechanism is evil by nature in that it is already causing massive unnecessary starvation and death. About 60% of the corn produced in Iowa in the 2007 fall’s harvest will be turned to auto-alcohol, even though it is generally accepted (as our report details) that ethanol requires more petroleum to produce than it gives back in energy!

Because this is a moral issue, it is one that Christ-followers must take seriously. Even if you and I may think we can afford to buy food, regardless of its cost, we should be concerned for the tens of millions condemned to be the new starving people. Worst of all, American consumers are forced to finance the Burning Food Famine with massive subsidies most of us don’t even know we are paying. We must pay a second time in high produce prices, from milk to bread. Meat will probably be the next item in your basket to rise much higher.

We Hold These Truths’ original 4500 word paper was released on September 27, 2007, under the title, Corn-to-Ethanol: US Agribusiness Magic Path To A World Food Monopoly. We searched the Internet and found it on well over 100 websites in several countries and languages, with broad interest, from cooking and gardening, to family sites, educational, political, and some mainline religion sites. No one has seriously attempted to refute either our facts or conclusions. Politicians ignore them.

Burning food, primarily corn, is an issue most people can feel and some fear, and it saddened me to have to write it. I am dismayed to note that not one candidate for President has raised Burning Food as an issue (though I believe Ron Paul voted against all the subsidies). The lobby for Burning Food must indeed be ominous to cow every candidate!

Wheat prices have run up 300%, much of this in the last year. The affect on the very poor can be understood by considering the example of 1.5 million humans (not to mention animals) imprisoned in plain view of the world on an island cage called Gaza. They are dependent on wheat that is literally elevated over the wall to them dropped in their cage. Gazans could not survive but for the largess of humanitarians, including the United Nations food charities. But now the donated dollars buy less than 1/2 as much wheat as one year ago.

Will the Gazans learn to live on a fraction of their former diet, or will one of every two go hungry? The facts are they are already documented to be starving. This is the legacy of burning food. Literally thousands of tribes in Central and West Africa already feel the Burning Food Famine, the diabolical path to global famine. Many normally eat corn that now must be imported, and that costs almost $5.00 per bushel in Chicago.

We trust this update will lead many to read the whole report, some 4500 words of careful research and the conclusions of scientists. Please redistribute it to schools, church and polling place. Printed copies are available.

Our only honorable course is to force politicians to remove the subsidies given to industrial ethanol plants. A quick and decisive end to all ethanol subsidies will stop the Burning Food Famine overnight.

Warning: Killing ethanol subsides may require a revolution, and perhaps it is time. This is a moral issue, and the majority of Americans who are professing Christians have a responsibility before God to not to allow corporate and political plunderers to cast a pall of planned starvation over the planet. Leaders in Christian churches have become quite political; demand they help fix the problem of starvation that they have allowed by giving carte blanche support to those most responsible for it.

View The Full Report here:
http://cp.whtt.org/index.php?news=2&id=1774

Would you like CD and a hard copy of the report? We can now provide it.

Joy To The World, The Lord Has Come

2007-12-26T13:03:00.000-08:00

Today 250,000,000 Americans celebrate various professions of Jesus’ birth. World wide more than two billion people of the two largest faiths, acknowledge that one God blessed and made a promise to a nomad wonderer called Abraham foretelling of Jesus’ coming, recorded as:

“..And in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed.” (Genesis 12:3)

A millennium after Abraham was buried, a man named Paul, who was later executed while trying his best to walk in Jesus’ footsteps, recited God’s promise of a messiah for all men in a letter he hoped would bring others to follow Christ:

"...Know ye, therefore, that they who are of the faith, the same are the sons of Abraham."

And the scriptures, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles through faith, preached before gospel unto Abraham, saying,

“In thee shall all the nations be blessed.” (Galatians 3:7)

Matthew, a Christ follower, who had been a corrupt government agent, described those who followed Jesus as treading the “narrow path” leading to “the Strait Gate.” (Matthew 7:13)

We founders and volunteers of We Hold These Truths and Strait Gate Ministries, honoring co-founder Jim Kerr who died at His work, thank each of you who would follow in the example of Abraham, Paul, and Matthew, and who have helped us as we toil along on the sometimes difficult path. In a few days we will be back with you on line. May you truly experience Joy, and may you help to bring Jesus’ promise of love for all our fellow men.

Dealing With Christian Zionists Inside Our Own Churches And Families

2007-12-20T08:54:00.000-08:00

John wrote in frustration about a reply he received from his pastor in response to his letter about the church’s lack of concern for the ongoing slaughter in Iraq. John sought an answer to two scriptural references and the pastor’s reply was entirely secular. This big church pastor ignored Jesus and the Apostle Paul’s words. Instead, he told John how evil Saddam Hussein was, that Islam must be stopped, and that the State of Israel is an example of why all wars are not evil.

War-favoring, war-excusing, and war-enabling church leaders usually avoid New Testament scripture because there is no justification for killing anyone in it. We are often asked how one can pick a church to attend that is not Judeo-Christian. Christ followers, by our label, generally believe that Jesus is the fulfillment of biblical prophesies, mostly fulfilled in the first century AD, when Jesus came, taught, set up his earthy discipleship, was crucified under the will of the Pharisees, and arose from the dead.

By contrast, Judeo-Christians may believe all or part of what Christ followers believe, but they have an added layer superimposed over the top, like frosting on a cake, that holds to the notion that the physical, political State of Israel is the fulfillment of God’s Old Testament prophesies (in addition to Christ). In order to make room for Israel as sort of an extra deity, most Judeo-Christians accept the explanation that Jesus left unfinished worldly business behind that will require His return to manage an earthly kingdom for 1000 years.

It is not your writer's place to decide if Jesus will return earthly king; there is some Biblical evidence both ways and Jesus did not firmly say no. I would like to think Jesus never left. Unfortunately most pastors, even those in traditional churches, have been influenced by the opulent worldly success of the Judeo-Christian churches. Many cannot identify with a poor and humble Jesus and penniless apostles, and have compromised.

Fred, as I will call the lead pastor, is a graduate of Fuller Theological Seminary, and calls himself a “Christ Follower.” The audience responded positively, Pastor Fred is clearly not promoting more war from the pulpit. So far so good, right out of scripture... the traditional view of Jesus, who could be more traditional than George Frideric Handel? Jesus' kingdom is "not of this earth" as he told Pilate, but is a spiritual one.

Except for this one Judeo-Christian admission Pastor Fred appears to be a traditional Christ follower. What is the damage in believing Jesus will come back to earth for a 1000 year reign of goodness and justice? First Jesus does not say this; it is implied by some aggressive assumptions.

Judeo-Christianity is a great mega-church builder because it relieves us of the burden Christ placed on us of following regardless of the cost of inconvenience. Judeo-Christianity shifts the burden back to God. Judeo-Christians have only to confess that they believe in Judeo-Christianity (not simply Jesus), an apostate concept.

In dealing with pastors and church leaders, it is we, the laymen critics, who must force them to stay scriptural, even when they try to lead us into a secular story. We must not allow them to drag us into secular arguments like those John's pastor raised. Only in this way can we change them, and change our churches, and protect those we love from them.

Pastor's Reply To Previous Letter

2007-12-11T10:34:00.000-08:00

November 19, 2007
Response of Pastor to John
Dear John (withheld by Blogmaster)

The Pastor has read your letter and has asked me to reason on his behalf.

Obviously this is a matter about which you have given a great deal of thought and have very strong feelings. You are also aware that there is a great diversity of opinion on this issue. As a church we would not agree that all war is wrong, as any consideration of the history of Israel would verify.

Whether the United States should have invaded Iraq is a question that I am not sure we can answer fully at this point in time. Certainly some of the things we were given as justification have subsequently been shown to be untrue. On the other hand, I think it would be hard to argue that the overturning of Saddam Hussein’s godless, inhumane dictatorship was a bad thing.

Whether we want to acknowledge it or not, radical Islam is a serious to our world and failing to acknowledge and address it will only allow this threat to worsen.

I believe that the United States had made a greater effort to protect the lives of civilians as this war has been conducted, even to the endangerment of our own troops and military objectives, than any other country in recent history.

We certainly respect your point of view and your right to hold it, but it is not one we share.

In His Service
(Signed) Administrative Pastor
(Name and church withheld by Blogmaster)

Letter To the Pastor

2007-12-11T10:22:00.000-08:00

November, 11, 2007
Pastor’s name withheld
Church and City withheld
South Carolina

Dear Pastor
This morning’s service, on Veteran’s Day, was a special reminder to me. I am a ‘peacetime’ veteran, but I feel I should not be standing with those actually served in ‘wartime.’ Thank you for your acknowledgment of (we) veterans, in any event.

But the reminder is that, approximately one year ago, I spoke to you regarding the unconstitutional, immoral war our nation is waging against Iraq, and the fact that you, our church leadership, and nearly the entire congregation cares not a wit nor whimper about this unmitigated disaster of ‘war-making’. I was incredibly discouraged with our time together (i.e., that I failed to even begin to reach you with this issue); nevertheless, I feel it was the messenger-yours truly-who failed, and not the message.

The message is still that our so called Christian nation, led by professing Christian President George W. Bush, is waging an unconstitutional, immoral war on innocent Iraqi people, killing, maiming, and devastating the lives of literally millions of innocents. The Iraqis are innocent as they had absolutely noting to do with “9/11”, NOTHING! Christ calls us to be peacemakers, not war makers! You spoke this morning of our/one’s Christian testimony; what is our nation’s testimony but that of a war maker! We send missionaries all over the world, and they are truly our ‘peacemaker foreign policy’, and have been for scores of years. But our nation now sends out ‘military missionaries’ who kill and destroy, and figuratively, if not literally, destroy all the good our spiritual missionaries have created. Indeed, our military missionaries have undoubtedly caused Christian missionaries to flee Iraq, in safety.

You spoke this morning, from Acts 24:16, “to have always a conscience void of offense toward god and toward man.” Can there be a more fitting condemnation of our nation’s war making and condemnation of those who won’t speak out?

In our meeting, you mentioned that God’s words speak of “wars and rumors of wars;” yet this is referenced in my bible as concerning Daniel’s 70th week. Nevertheless, that certainly is in no way an approval by Christ of ‘war making’. Christ calls us to “love our enemies.”

You asked this morning, “Whom do I worship?” I worship Christ, the peacemaker. Will you be a peacemaker, Pastor?

John
(Name withheld by Blogmaster)

The Lesser of Two Evils...Is Still Evil

2007-12-10T08:15:00.000-08:00

This seven-year-old story, by your Editor, may help some avoid repeating a tragic mistake in the 2008 election. Some think the mistake was to accept Mr. Bush… it was not. The mistake was, and still is, to accept anyone backed and acceptable to the “Neo-Cons,” as our International banker dominated, Zionist, power structure is called today. In 2000 I called them “Israeli Patriots” and they still are.

Every major Republican candidate in 2008, plus Democrat Hillary Clinton, seem quite acceptable to the “Israeli Patriots.” The sole exception is Ron Paul, who is clearly an anathema to them. They do not seem to care which candidate gets elected, so long as it is not Congressman Paul. On the Democrat's side, the jury is still out and deliberating on Barack Obama, the only electable Democrat the establishment seems not quite ready to trust.

In printing this shortened version of our old story, your author does not apologize for disrespectfully calling our current President “Baby Bush” because he was not yet elected, though we were quite sure he would be. Short version:

The Lesser of Two Evils...Is Still Evil

The term "Lesser of Two Evils" has been used to describe George Bush Jr. by many of those who consider themselves Christ following, pro-American, Pro-Life patriots. Most knew that Bush was a political fledgling a decade ago when his more famous father was busy forcing a reluctant and weak Republican Congress into endorsing the Gulf War, to be commenced at Papa Bush's whim. Baby Bush was then only beginning his serious political career in Texas after finishing his riotous early manhood. It is not our purpose to rehash Baby Bush's past or Papa Bush's war. Instead, we will examine briefly those who control this, the most manipulated and malleable President ever to hold such vast power.

History has given us other weak and controlled leaders. Bill Clinton is not weak, but he was controlled. He might be likened to the Roman Emperor, Nero. There is only one Nero (Claudius Caesar Drusus Gramanicus) who commands an ignominious place in the sad history of the decline of Rome, but whose brutal persecution catalyzed the first growth surge of Christianity. He was characterized by a strange combination of fanaticism, incompetence, insanity and perversion. It is also believed by many that he converted to Pharisees during his reign, which may account for his obsession with the tormenting of the early Christ followers.

To say George W. Bush had an undistinguished youth is an understatement. The upcoming Bush Administration is likely to be the most controlled and manipulated administration ever. Bush himself is a competitor for most incompetent man to ever achieve the Presidency. His is also likely to be a planned one-term president for reasons to be discussed in future editions. What is vital to discuss is to whom he owes his allegiance.

Unfortunately Bush's geopolitical incompetence has nothing to do with his capacity to do evil to our country, for the more vacant and underachieving the President, the more manipulated he is in the hands of his advisors, and the more dangerous to us.

There is nothing incompetent or undecided about Bush’s advisors. Powerful and ambitious men, most of whom shaped his fathers Gulf War-making administration, already surround baby Bush. And unfortunately there is absolutely nothing in George W. Bush’s character that suggests he will resist, or even understand the nature of the evil he will be asked to pronounce upon those who they envy and hate.

The Israeli lobby completely dominated and controlled the Clinton Administration, and it appears it is equally in control of the new President-elect. As we pointed out in, the term "Israeli Patriot" means any office holder or advisor who qualifies by birth for the right to dual citizenship in the State of Israel under their "Law of Return". Baby Bush is surrounded by Israeli Patriots, including Shultz, Perle, Zoellick and Wolfowitz, to name only an obvious few. About half of his advisors are Israeli Patriots. Clinton at least had the excuse for appointing Israeli Patriots that he got most of their votes.

What is Baby Bush’s excuse for allowing Anti-Christians to dominate his choices? Voters should ask the New American and similar publications, "Who really runs the Republican Party?" Moreover, Gentiles who have long histories of Israeli partisanship who are practiced in the art of warmaking will heavily influence Bush administration. His Vice President, Richard Cheney, was Papa Bush’s Secretary of Defense during Desert Storm, and James Baker, who has been a prominent spokesman for George W. Bush during the Florida vote count fiasco, was on Papa Bush’s war team as head of the White House Staff. Dr. Robert Blackwill was a State Department Assistant to both Kissinger and George Schultz, so his allegiances can hardly be doubted. Richard Armitage also is a veteran of Papa Bush team and was an Assistant Secretary of State in 1983-89.

Those who influence Bush are experienced gross assassins, and a disproportionate number are Israeli Patriots by birth. Someone has assembled a most arrogant and ruthless tribe of anti-Arab, pro-Israel, anti-Christian Warmakers to advise (if not to dictate) the foreign policy for Baby Bush. The clear evidence of this lies in the conduct of the Gulf War, which was a slaughter of the innocent, and which has never stopped. The Bush cabinet will no doubt be made up of unrepentant killers who were his father’s advisors.

And for a better understanding of who really runs the American policy of systematic liquidation under William Jefferson Nero Clinton, we suggest you examine Divide and Disarm, The Warmakers Plan for Yugoslavia. (http://whtt.org/index.php?news=2&id=239)
Every one of the six members of the Yugoslavia war team--Berger, Albright, Rubin, Holbrooke, Cohen and Matthew Kuhn Clark--were eligible for Israeli citizenship under the Law of Return, an amazing non-coincidence indeed.

As long as there is a Middle Eastern conflict in which Americans pay for the subjugation of the Palestinians, we will be drawn into other wars to destroy the Arabs, as in Iraq. We taxpayers are the hired gun in Israel's War on Islam. Baby Bush stands to be used as a warmaking tool perhaps more brutally than Mr. Clinton was. The "Lesser of Two Evils" is still evil.

The Pastor and His Son "Why Do We Support Israel?" Part 2

2007-11-28T07:29:00.000-08:00

Fast-forward 6 years where Pastor Haigen’s son is now a freshman in college.

PASTOR HAIGEN-Hey son, your mother and I are so happy to have you home for a while. Would you like to attend the Rally for Israel tonight at our Church?

SON-Ugh, um, I don’t think so.

PASTOR HAIGEN-Why not? Do you have plans?

SON-No dad, I don’t, but I can’t say I am a big supporter of Israel, so I don’t think I could contribute any cheers to your rally.

PASTOR HAIGEN-Well, I’m very sorry to hear that. I’ve always had the fear that college would have a negative effect on you. What are you going to tell me next, that you’re now an atheist?

SON-Dad, I haven’t stopped believing in Christ. I just don’t see the whole Middle East situation the way you do.

PASTOR HAIGEN-Didn’t we discuss this when you were younger? Have you forgotten the Christian reasons behind the support for Israel?

SON-I haven’t forgotten them. I don’t think they ever made sense to me.

PASTOR HAIGEN-How’s that?

SON-To start with, I never understood who decides who is a blessed seed of Abraham with land claims and who is not.

PASTOR HAIGEN-Let me try to simplify it. Jews, whether direct blood descendents or converts, carry Abraham’s blessing. Nobody else. It’s the word of God.

SON-Paul says in Galatians 3:29, “If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” But I know you don’t believe Christians have a valid land claim in Israel/Palestine.

PASTOR HAIGEN-That’s right, only Jews.

SON-But why can’t Christians make the same claims?

PASTOR HAIGEN-Because we’re not the seed of Abraham in the same way Jews are.

SON-Then why does Paul refer to us as the seed of Abraham? Isn’t the book of Galatians the word of God?

PASTOR HAIGEN-Look, we are Abraham’s spiritual seed, but not in the way Jews are.

SON-So what you’re saying is Jews, even those who deny God’s existence, are more Abraham’s seed then devout, practicing Christians?

PASTOR HAIGEN-God made a covenant with Israel and swore loyalty to her.

SON-Who is Israel?

PASTOR HAIGEN-Abraham and his descendents.

SON-So who decides who is a descendent of Abraham and who is not?

PASTOR HAIGEN-For the purposes of immigrating to Israel, the Israeli government

SON-But I thought you said they don’t require people to document their ancestors thousands of years back to Abraham?

PASTOR HAIGEN-It’s up to them to decide who qualifies as a Jew and who does not. If they recognize a person as a Jew, he can immigrate to Israel. If they don’t, he cannot.

SON-So your saying that a group of people who claim an exclusive connection to Abraham, without any proof required, are the arbiters deciding who is a descendent of Abraham and who is not?

PASTOR HAIGEN-I guess you can look at it that way, but I don’t think it’s biblical.

SON-Why? As Christians, Paul says in Galatians 3:29 that we are the seed of Abraham, which we believe to be the word of God, and you say we have no right to the land. And what about the Muslims’ claimed connection to Abraham?

PASTOR HAIGEN-As for Muslims, I don’t believe in Mohamed, the Koran, or any of their beliefs. Therefore if they claim to be descended from Abraham, I don’t believe it so I don’t believe they have a right to the land. As for Christians, I can’t imagine that God meant hundreds of millions of people when he said he would gather his people from the ends of the earth and bring them back to Israel. Christianity originated in the land of Israel and Palestine, but we never lived there, so it makes no sense that God would gather us together and send us back.

SON-I thought many Jews were converts of European descent. Why would God send them back if they never lived there?

PASTOR HAIGEN-I guess it’s because once they converted to Judaism, it’s assumed their connection to Abraham is as good as blood. If a conversion is good enough for the Jewish rabbis, it should be good enough for Christians.

SON-So basically, it the rabbis who decide who has a connection to Abraham valid enough to be entitled to the land.

PASTOR HAIGEN-Son, I really do not like your tone. You are coming across as anti-Jewish to me. Don’t forget, Jesus Christ, our lord and savior, was a Jew – he was king of the Jews.

SON-What about the Crusaders, were they Christians?

PASTOR HAIGEN-The Crusaders slaughtered many innocents in the name of Christ and called themselves Christians. But certainly they would not be considered Christians by our standards.

SON-Then how do we know that all Jews who call themselves Jews are truly Jews as Abraham and Christ were Jews? Because they go by the same name and CLAIM a legitimate connection? So self described “Jews”, who cannot prove to be descendents of Abraham, who deny Christ, and many of which deny the very existence of God, are supposed to be given our full support, both morally and financially, to take by force the land of a people, some of whom are Christians, who CAN prove they have lived in the land of Palestine for centuries?

PASTOR HAIGEN-I see your point. But don’t forget God’s promise to Abraham in Genesis 12:3, “I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” Are you willing to doubt that Jews are the exclusive descendents of Abraham and risk God’s curse?

SON-I don’t understand. It sounds like God was speaking directly to Abraham, and giving a warning to those who would bless or curse Abraham, not every potential descendent he may have into perpetuity.

PASTOR HAIGEN-Where do you come up with these interpretations? That IS NOT how this verse is generally interpreted.

SON-So the validity of an interpretation is dependent on how many Christians accept it? Can’t the majority be wrong since interpretations of scripture have changed over the centuries?

PASTOR HAIGEN-They can be, but that’s why we pray to Jesus Christ to give us wisdom in interpreting the word of God.

SON-Oh.

PASTOR HAIGEN-Do you see now?

SON-Not quite. What does it mean for us to bless the descendents of Abraham?

PASTOR HAIGEN-To give them support: Morally and financially.

SON-Unconditionally?

PASTOR HAIGEN-Well, of course not. We should not support them if they commit acts of evil. But we do have to be careful withholding anything from them, because they are always fighting for their survival. They are surrounded by millions of people who want to see their country destroyed.

SON-But I read that Israel has something like the 4th or 5th strongest military in the world. They have hundreds of nuclear bombs, and weapons that are just about as advanced as that of the U.S. Enemies who want them destroyed may surround them, but their neighbors are hardly able to carry out these wishes even if they wanted to.

PASTOR HAIGEN-Look son, Israel is not perfect, but I truly believe that God has blessed us because of our support for Israel.

SON-How’s that dad?

PASTOR HAIGEN-Look at how rich and powerful our country has become.

SON-But Israel wasn’t even created until 1948. Decadence, promiscuity, corruption, divorce, and crime have skyrocketed since 1948. I’m not saying this is due to our support of Israel, but I fail to see what blessings have come our way since then.

PASTOR HAIGEN-Although we have our problems, we’ve been blessed. Most of those problems you’ve mentioned are a function of our turning our back on Jesus Christ, not due to our support for Israel.

SON-But if your interpretation of scripture is correct, we should be blessed for blessing the seed of Abraham, regardless of our relationship to Christ. God didn’t say you must follow my son and bless the seed of Abraham to be blessed. He said, “I will bless those who bless you.” I sure can’t think of any blessings, unless you consider 9-1-1 a blessing.

PASTOR HAIGEN-Wait a minute. I think 9-11 happened because of our sin. God took his hand of protection off of this nation due to our sin: Sexual deviancy, immorality, and general ungodliness.

SON-But if God wanted to punish us for our sins, he could have caused a massive earthquake or other natural disaster. The fact remains a disaster didn’t simply befall our country, it was attacked by Arab Muslims who have a long list of grievances against us, many surrounding our unconditional support for Israel.

PASTOR HAIGEN-So you think God has cursed us for our support for Israel?

SON-I’m not saying I know God’s plan regarding 9-1-1. But if our country and the church have been deceived, and our unconditional support for the nation of Israel isn’t in accord with God’s wishes, 9-1-1 very well could be a message from God. Surely the attack of 9-1-1 has more connection to our policies in the Middle East then our general ungodliness.

PASTOR HAIGEN-Look son, even if you disagree with my theology, don’t you think the Jews deserve a homeland because of their horrible suffering in the Holocaust?

SON-First, I don’t think they have the right to make a false claim on another people’s land due to their own suffering. What about the Armenian genocide that took place in the 1920s at the hands of the Turks? Why don’t they get a homeland? And what about Tibet, which has been virtually destroyed by the Chinese? Why don’t we support them?

PASTOR HAIGEN-Those things are terrible, but it’s not the same. The Holocaust is unique.

SON-Why?

PASTOR HAIGEN-Because Hitler tried to rid the entire continent of Europe of Jews, and the number of Jews killed was in the millions.

SON-Stalin tried to rid the Soviet Union of non-communists. He purposefully starved to death at least 20 million people. Why is that less horrible?

PASTOR HAIGEN-Well, we can’t try to right every wrong. But Israel is home to God’s chosen people. God promised the land of Israel and Palestine to the Jews.

SON-I give up. I think were back to where we started.

Our Thanksgiving Prayer

2007-11-21T08:30:00.000-08:00

We Hold These Truths’ Advisors thank God for encouraging us through His people. We, like the Pilgrims in 1621, are still here, and we are still able to focus on our dream and purpose.

Many of you, in your way, have been a part of our efforts with your own work and prayers. We are now in our 10th year of organizing exposure of the roots of the Christian-Zionist problem, as we foresaw when we started. Now many see it from various prospective, we are no longer alone, but in many ways we are still in the lead.

We are particularly grateful to those who have answered our call to stand with us at one or more of our now over 60 vigils at churches and organizations that included the Southern Baptist Convention, Promise keepers and John Hagee’s “Night to Honor Israel” in four different cities. As our friend Mark, who experienced his first vigil, told me after challenging Hagee’s Cornerstone church at our San Antonio vigil, “this is the deep end of the pool.” Mark is right, and he and you are brave; it is not easy, but it works because it honors God.

Thanks also to our contributors and especially the sacrificial widow’s might friends, who cannot afford it but do it anyway. And thanks to everyone who has bought a book or tape. Our limitations are financing and volunteers. We can do much more.

To me Thanksgiving is America's most honorable custom. In its true context it dates back to 1621 in Plymouth, Massachusetts. Those still alive on that day in November offered grateful thanks to God for the gifts only He could give them. They honored God’s promise to love them if they honored him, not just about a free land or a first harvest, but in an eternal peace when life is gone.

I looked at a painting of the earlier Jamestown colony, and I was surprised to see only men in the picture. It was a businessman’s colony, a commercial endeavor. But not so with the Pilgrims at Plymouth, they had the courage to bring wives and numerous children on the Mayflower, sailing in the dead of winter. A good number of them were buried at sea. Only 41 (men only) signed the Mayflower Compact just before they left the ship. But don’t forget the women were there, and that is why Plymouth is so special!

The issue for the Pilgrims was religious freedom, not commerce. They came to the North American wilderness from Europe, bringing nothing with them but dreams of escaping persecution in their former land.

In their Christian practices they were different from some of us, but basically it was the same faith in Jesus Christ, believing that if they sacrificed life itself it was not the greatest loss, believing that God could be trusted to provide an afterlife better than a frozen and hungry Plymouth existence. Their belief in God’s grace is the unique reason they took the risk.

In observing the 1621 Thanksgiving it should be noticed the Pilgrims had very little physically to celebrate. Their first year was a bum crop; they faced six months of winter with not nearly enough to survive. These few appeared have almost nothing to give thanks for, except that they were still alive.

The first feast day was a very humble one, and depended upon the goodwill the settlers had earned from the native Indians because, it seems, they acting in a Christ-like way toward the Indians.

Some who prayed those prayers of thanks did not survive the long winter to follow. They honored God for what little they had, counted on Him to bless their dream of a land where they could raise their children and reckoning that life is God’s great gift and life after death is his great promise.

Let us keep that faith and celebrate God’s gift of life, and let us show a will to spend that gift in a way that honors him, if need be, as the Pilgrims did.

My best on Thanksgiving,

Chuck Carlson

Polls Sell A U.S. Attack On Iran

2007-11-14T10:35:00.000-08:00

The campaign to bomb Iran is centered on the Bush Administration's stated desire to do so, supported by the establishment media, the Israeli Lobby, and the voting power of the Christian Right. Public opinion polls are playing a major part in bending Americans to accept, if not endorse, an attack on Iran. Polls are being used, if not designed, to bend opinion toward an attack.

Examples are found in a recent Gallup poll on Iran, paid for by USA Today, and a Zogby Poll on Iran. The press brazenly distorted both telling readers and listeners that the majority of Americans favor a preemptive attack on Iran. Second, Judeo-Christians are the most feverish fans in support of war in the Middle East and an attack on Iran. The Zogby poll identified them as "born again." The Judeo-Christians' cheerleaders call themselves "Christian Zionists". The total number firmly in favor of bombing Iran appears to be about 26%, and is shrinking.

Zogby made a well-publicized interview with Tucker Carlson of MSNBC dated October 31st, in which he allowed himself to be part of an interview that concluded, “A slim majority favor a U.S. attack on Iran.” More damaging yet, Zogby also editorialized that the American people seem to be about as much inclined to bomb Iran as they were to hitting Iraq five years ago.

Most polls are commercial business, including Zogby’s. A spokesman for Zogby International, Fritz Wenzel, told this writer that a client did not pay for this poll. Zogby made his statement on MSNBC, and concluded that 52% of Americans support bombing Iran. Tucker Carlson responded that he was “stunned” because the vast majority of Americans now oppose the war in Iraq. Zogby responded to Tucker Carlson’s “stunned” disbelief by explaining briefly that the 52% assumed bombing was for the purpose of preventing Iran from gaining nuclear weapons.

The tip-off that Zogby was skewing the results of his own poll is that he failed to recite the exact question asked by the poll of 1,028 persons. The Zogby International Website does not display the actual question asked in the poll.

If you don’t know the question what good is the answer?

Zogby’s website summarizes the poll: “a majority of likely voters – 52% – would support U. S. Military strike to prevent Iran from building a nuclear weapon.” Choices: (Very supportive, somewhat supportive, not very supportive, not at all supportive, no opinion)

It is no surprise that 26% of Americans would be in favor of bombing Iran because there are about that many Christian Zionists, plus a few Jewish Zionists and Arab Zionists, plus Israel favors bombing. What value is “somewhat supportive” of bombing Iran if and only if it is to prevent nuclear weapons?

Question (7) in the poll was never mentioned by Zogby, but reveals a very strong negative to any bombing even if Iran is found to have nuclear weapons. How convenient is Zogby’s language for President Bush, who says he wants to make a “surgical strike” against Iran. The mainline Neo-Con sympathetic press, starting with MSNBC, is shaping Zogby’s conclusions to support bombing. It chose this headline: “Most Americans Support Strike.”

It is no coincidence that about the same percentage (26%) were “very supportive” of bombing Iran, and by reading Zogby’s own poll we can clearly state a slightly greater number outright oppose war, some 28.8%. This Zogby poll confirms what we already know, that Christian Zionists (“born again” in this poll) are the rabid public fans in favor of more devastation in the Middle East.

They are most of the 26% of voters who support bombing Iran. They should naturally choose life, not war. Our best hope is that slumbering mainline churches, and their dormant common sense for self-preservation are already at work awakening them.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Slim Majority Favor U.S. Attack on Iran to Stop Nuclear Program
http://www.zogby.com/news/ReadNews.dbm?ID=1379
Listen to the John Zogby Interview on Tucker Carlson
http://www.zogby.com/video/view.cfm?id=35

Ending Our Plague

2007-11-12T10:09:00.000-08:00

Americans are sick with an intentionally spread disease far more deadly than anthrax. Our Plague has symptoms: constant wars and the dilution of our wealth are the two most deadly. The mystery of how the plague was spread engendered terror. "Plague" became a uniquely feared word in our language. Fleas that lived on immune rats carried the Plague. When humans got too close to the rats they were bitten by infected fleas and soon died a terrible death, and the rats had more to eat; they were unseen, hiding everywhere. Our plague has two faces and its own special rats.

Someone is methodically stripping our money of its value. We are, it seems, helpless to stop it. Pharisee Watch calls this financial plague "dilution," because someone is causing our hard-saved dollars to be watered down. War goes hand in hand with dilution. The planners of Serial Wars are like child molesters; they never stop; they're always plotting. Plague-makers repeat their war crimes as long as the public does not revolt over the killings. War is a business they cannot allow to stop. Serial wars are perpetual paydays for them.

Serial Wars also steal the minds of our children, numbing them to killing, a generation at a time. Wars are teaching them that life is cheap. Military camera footage caught on open ground in the dark the appalling sights and sounds of two young Americans who had received permission to execute three Iraqi men. The callous dialog of the two young Americans, with their sights locking onto the infrared images of humans, should chill your blood.

It feeds the drug importers and porn industry, collapses sexual morality, fuels the abortion mills and crack houses; job problems and anger are anti-family symptoms of the Plague. To pay for their wars, the Plague-makers print money and pay it to their allies. To hide rising prices (caused by diluted money) they sign treaties that lower labor costs, forcing emigration of stable jobs.

The war promoters also deliberately discourage industry at home with regulations that don't apply abroad. The lower priced, cheap-labor stuff we buy provides the illusion that we are not sick. The service economy is vulnerable, unstable. The illusion that the Plague does not exist is the cruelest part of the hoax. In order to further hide the cause of the disease, the Plague-makers have purchased control of virtually the entire media.

Newspapers, TV and talk radio, most of Hollywood and both political parties. All of these openly campaign to justify more serial war. The Plague makers chose to make China an ally, and Islam was elected as the war target. In 1992, the Plague-makers published and obscure map, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) World Peacekeeping Map, and on it was the locations of future wars, even Bosnia. Your writer bought the map; it called for war on Islamic states.

God’s Fearsome Law that Judeo-Christians Break

2007-11-07T09:11:00.000-08:00

What if there does happen to be a God, and what if He did give us a Book containing His words guided by His ever-present spirit to be used as a life guide? Celebrity Christians accept, and loudly proclaim that the Bible contains the spirit led words of God, but they freely alter the words to make it conform to their own interests. How can a loving family man and father, who is 100% pro-life for every unborn child, be pro-war? Killing all these people is an unthinkable paradox for a pro-life "Christian." Does Pro-war equal Pro-Life? No Christian Zionist, by whatever name he calls himself, can justify killing a single child in faraway places with bombs.

Since they cannot justify it by man's logic, they bend God's words to justify it for them, while still declaring the Bible is the literal word of God. Why would God send a prophet with stories not relevant to them? God is logical. Ezekiel is the story of a prophet warning his own kinsmen of what God demanded of them, or else! They were dragged off into slavery because of their abuse of their God's words, and Ezekiel was the messenger sent to revive them. Christ's Disciple John recorded a bizarre nightmare in Revelations 19, which is likewise distorted. What did John mean? Hundreds of thousands are dying on account of his words. Cyrus I. Scofield was a willing bender of God's words. If there is a God, and if He left a Book for us to follow, why did he not protect the Word with a big warning sign?

One bible dictionary trivializes the Third Commandment: saying "take God in vain" may include "pointless or insincere oaths." Wrong, there is nothing trivial about corrupting God's Word for man's purpose. If you think of "vain" as self-serving it is easy to see why it is near the top of the list along with "thou shall have no other God..." When G.W. Bush suggested God was leading us into Afghanistan and Iraq, he was taking God's name in vain? Celebrity leaders who want to support George W. alter God's words in order to justify George W's actions. No wonder God put altering His words near the top of his "Thou shall not" list.

Every pastor and priest who falsely claims that "this is God's war" is taking God's name in vain to sell a lie. What could be more horrible in the sight of a Holy God, who loves good and hates evil, than to see His words distorted in such a way as to encourage, justify and excuse evil acts of violence and war? The time has come to pull down the pastors from their mega-church pulpits if they take God's name in "vain". You will find those who stand by God's firm and real words talking to smaller groups. Find them and support them! It is Jesus’ way.

Who Is Guarding the Oil Well Guards?

2007-10-31T09:20:00.000-07:00

"Should we pull out or stay, should we 'cut and run' or finish the job we started." We hear every reason examined and discussed...every one except the real reason, oil. And please notice; we never see the oil wells or plants in Iraq.

None of the reasons for staying make much sense when given a little thought. For instance, we are supposed to believe it is not macho to walk away from a fight we have started. But we citizens did not start the fight with Iraq and they did not start it with us, our government started it on purpose, and citizens suffer for it and pay for it. Not one elected American official has died in Iraq to my knowledge. And with all the publicity why is it we never see and oil well doing what they do? We don't see them being attacked nor do we see who guards them.

We could tick off the reasons we are told for the wars one by one, but you already know them, you hear them every day too...except for the one real reason that makes perfect sense.

The real reason for staying in Iraq, the one we are never told about, has to be involved with oil because that is what Iraq does, it produces oil. Oil is the national business of Iraq; it is a series of scattered giant oilfields with sand poured on top! Why else would the 200,000 men solders be there?

Fox News presented a shocking but all too typical example of how oil-o-phobia infects Democrats, the Administration, and the big media with chicken virus on Sunday, December 4. News host Chris Wallace interviewed neo-war opponent, Democrat Barbara Boxer and Presidential Security Adviser Stephen Hadley.

Chis Wallace hurled creampuff questions at the guest about Iraq. The pat logic for staying was debated. One of several silly argument is, "We owe it to the Iraqis to finish the job of democratizing them," inane because the country is now in civil war over our presence. But the one real reason for staying is never uttered by any side, OIL, oil, oil. Not one reference was made to any oil related word, such as petroleum on the Chris Walace show; you would not know oil exists. If you find this hard to believe, so did I, but it's not even unusual, it's the norm in press encounters.

When someone is trying to fool you the first thing they lie about is their motive. If you can be convinced the Warmakers has a noble motive, you may have forgiveness and even support. You may even defend the liar for having good intentions even when he is caught red-tongued, if there seems to be no evil motive. The Warmakers can't justify their motive for being in Iraq so they hide it under a media blackout, and the press also must forget there is oil in Iraq, so powerful is the force of their purse.

WE STAY TO PROTECT THE INTERNATIONAL OIL INDUSTRYThe USA and our British partner cannot pull out because the industrial companies our leaders have placed in charge of the oil fields all over Iraq can not hold the territory without our troops. Our 200,000 soldiers have to keep 15 million Iraqi's imprisoned in big city gulags so the people don't bother the folks who control and guard the oil field.

If our leaders withdraw our military, Halliburton, the Seven Sisters, and hundreds of their illegitimate brats who are profiteering in Iraq, would all have to go home? The people of Iraq have shown that they are willing to die for what they consider theirs; the Warmaker's private armies do not have the stomach for such a conflict without our full military support.
Simply stated, the revolt against the occupation, called insurgency is a revolution to get back the national wealth of the country. Oil and water are the natural assets of Iraq. Every Iraqi benefited in some way from oil, even under the petty tyrant Saddam Hussein who was a small time assassin compared to our own Warmakers.

But few Iraqis have benefited from the oil under Halliburton. Gasoline cost as little as $.05 per gallon before Shock and Awe, yes, I mean five cents a gallon. Now there is a gasoline shortage in Iraq, and the production is way down. Our leaders have proved they don't care if the Iraqis have a civil war and kill each other, while they are contained and kept busy in the cites guess who is harvesting the oil in the desert? Do you need proof that our troops stay to protect the oil profiteers?

Ask yourself when did you last see a press report on or a film about the oilfields in Basra or northern Iraq, or anywhere else in the country for that matter?

The answer is probably "never." This writer has not seen one since the 1991 withdrawal from Kuwait when we saw distant panoramas of burning oil wells on the horizon as far as the eye could see. Then, for a brief moment in history, we saw an image of what the real Iraq should look like. Then, Brown and Root, Halliburton and others, came in to put out the fires, and the Warmakers have never left. It makes one suspicious of who started the fires, I think Saddam started them, but could I be mistaken?

We occasionally hear about an attack on a pipeline, but where is the color photo of these attacks? Why don't Don Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney pose for photo ops beside a drilling rig, refinery or pumping station in what is the second largest oil reserve in the world? The answer is simple. They don't want you to think about the wealth of Iraq.

If the news media does not show oil (or is now allowed near it) and our President does not mention it, it does not exist. Then there is no motive for perpetuating an American created civil war in a cage. Please also note that with all the Democrat political neo-objections and anti-war posturing, not one congressman I know of has dared to bring up the oil motive. Democrats also voted for the war, and they look to war business for their reelection.

To buck the war is politically acceptable, so long as appropriation of the oil fields is not mentioned as a motive for having gone to war. It is also taboo to say we went to help Israel, which is now participating in the plunder.

To Halliburton, the Seven Oil Sisters, and all the armament makers, Iraqis oil fields are very real. The "War on Terrorism" is too good a deal to just walk away from. Our controlled press is also afraid of Halliburton, the seven oily Sisters and their slick lesser brats. Don't expect your TV anchor to tell you we are staying the course to make Iraq safe for Wall Street's Warmakers enterprises and international bankers.

Blackwater Corporation mercenaries are paid at the rate of about a $1000.00 per day to watch the black stuff flow from the ground, as it flows in few other places in the world, at a production cost of only pennies per barrel. No wonder industrial America wants you to guard their newfound empire, acquired with bombs and bullets you paid for.

Answering our own questionThe last time you saw Iraqi oil wells on your local TV channel was in 1991 when Saddam Hussein was blamed for setting about 200 wells afire as his men fled Kuwait. Remember, they lighted up the sky for miles. Yes, it is time to cut and run, cut our military death losses and the Warmakers' profits.

What can one person do in the face of unspoken collusion among industry, media, and both political parties with the intent to deny us knowledge of our government's motive for its crimes?

"Kill On Sight" A Christ Follower

2007-10-24T08:38:00.000-07:00

Killing the wounded and bombing civilians is a policy from the U.S. An imbedded journalist traveling with a U.S. Marine squad that was cleaning up hours after the so-called fighting photographed a point blank murder with full sound and voices. Televised images of marine fatally shooting an unarmed, wounded insurgent in a Fallujah mosque were repeatedly broadcast on Arab TV.

The byline called the helpless man a “combatant". The Marine's recorded voice reveals that he did not fear the man, that he considered him less than human, and that he thought it his right to kill him. In another documented incident, four Iraqis were killed by Marine rifle fire in a crowded mosque in Baghdad on Friday, November 19th, while praying. This disgusting act by Marine X in Fallujah was absolutely predictable by anyone who bothered to read the pre-attack statements of our leaders.

Permission to murder innocents was telegraphed by several Marine commanders before the invasion started. Every statement emphasized massive killing. How can we expect more humanity from Marine X? Every professional soldier commander, every political war maker, and every Judaized Christian leader who supported the war and made Fallujah possible shares the blood guilt on the hands of the men in Iraq, including the near idiot who committed the terrible deed on camera.

This Marine X is not a fluke; he is the rule. We know who murdered one man, but who killed the 100,000 other Iraqi civilians buried in and under and around the destroyed homes of Iraq? The press works its subtle distortion in the face of indisputable evidence. It fails to make the obvious point that Marine X's act can only be the tip of the iceberg of thousands or tens of thousands of slaughtered Iraqis since the onset of “Shock and Awe", a name intended to imply unimaginable destruction and brutality.

From the highest levels they use the "Kill" word when speaking of Iraqis. One Marine Colonel, who sounded like a Baptist preacher, was quoted as saying:

"The enemy has got a face. He’s called Satan. He lives in Falluja. And were going to destroy him."

No cameras or reports were allowed when the original killing force went through the mosque killing everyone in sight and leaving this one victim for dead. "Battalions like ours are coming from behind, going house-to-house killing guys" said a US marine, Lt. Michael Prato. Blame the Christian and Jewish leaders who reelected Bush and his war plans by registering and driving Bush voters.

The Christian leaders who rallied their people for Bush did so under the terribly mistaken belief that carrying out the will of Israel’s brutal leaders is their duty to Israel. Let those who agree with us withdraw support from the pro-death churches now. Even if you choose to go back to help change the friends you’ve left behind, withdraw all financial support. Join Project Strait Gate to expose the Judaization of our Christian churches.

The Pastor and His Son "Why Do We Support Israel?"

2007-10-17T08:47:00.000-07:00

SON- Dad, Mr. Peterson thinks it is important that we understand about the Middle East in our 7th grade Social Studies class. He thinks some of us may have to fight in wars someday. I have a question for you, OK?

PASTOR HAIGEN- What’s that, son?

SON- Will you explain to me again why we as Christians should support Israel in its wars over there?

PASTOR HAIGEN- Because the dispute is over the land, houses, orchards and the property, and Israel is home to God’s chosen people. God promised the land of Palestine to the Jews.

SON- Who is a Jew?

PASTOR HAIGEN- What do you mean, "Who is a Jew"? Jews are people who pray in synagogues, observe the 10 Commandments, observe the Sabbath every Saturday, and so on.

SON- But, didn’t you tell me most Jewish people don’t even attend synagogues or follow the laws of the Old Testament...are they still considered Jews?

PASTOR HAIGEN- Well, many Jews have fallen away from the faith. But, ugh, they’re still considered Jews.

SON- Why?

PASTOR HAIGEN- -Because they are descendents of Abraham. Specifically, God promised the land of Israel to the descendents of Abraham.

SON- So God’s promise to Abraham’s descendents is based on a blood relationship to Abraham?

PASTOR HAIGEN- Yes.

SON- How can a man who wants to immigrate to Israel trace his ancestors thousands of years back all the way back to Abraham?

PASTOR HAIGEN- Well...I suppose he can’t. Genealogy records back to Abraham don’t likely exist for anybody. But under Israel’s Right of Return laws, I think he just needs to be recognized as a Jew by the Jewish community. Do you understand now?

SON- Not exactly dad. I mean, doesn’t the Bible say Abraham was born in the city of Ur, which is in modern day Iraq?

PASTOR HAIGEN- Yes

SON- If Jews are descended from Abraham, why don’t they look like other people we see on TV from Iraq or from the Middle East?

PASTOR HAIGEN- Well, some of them do. There are Jews who look just as Arab as Saddam Hussein.

SON- Why do all the Jews in my school and those I’ve seen on television look like white people?

PASTOR HAIGEN- Well, when the Jews were dispersed in the Diaspora- that was in the same century when Jesus was crucified- many went to Europe.

SON- So, living among Europeans, they turned into white people?

PASTOR HAIGEN- Of course not. They probably intermarried with the indigenous populations, and it’s also likely many people of European descent converted to Judaism.

SON- So why did they go back to Israel?

PASTOR HAGAN- To get land that Abraham promised their ancestors.

SON- So how can anyone know if they have Abraham’s blood? Manny Abasse, who is in our class, looks like an Arab, and his parents told him they came here because some of these Jewish people from Europe took their grandparents’ house in Israel.

PASTOR HAGAN- God gave the land to the Jews and not to the Arabs. The Bible tells about it in Genesis 12, and many other places. Didn’t you memorize those verses in Bible class, Son?

SON- Yea, Dad, I remember: God sent Abraham out into the wilderness to a new land and promised to protect him if he did what God said, right? And Joseph and Mary both descended from Abraham, so Jesus came from his tribe, right Dad?

PASTOR HAGAN- Yes son, very good! But a lot more is implied. God said He would give Abraham’s future generations all the land forever. If you have any doubts, many other places in the Bible absolutely confirm that this is what God meant. Don’t you remember my sermons about the land without a people and a people without a land? As Christians we cannot argue with God’s holy word, can we son?

SON- No Dad, I wouldn’t do that, and you know I trust you, like Abraham trusted God and Isaac trusted his father. And I know you are smart about the Bible and history...but I have to get this straight about the land. Manny says his parents told him Jews stole their property with guns and killed the Arabs who would not leave. Do you think his dad lied to him?

PASTOR HAGAN- Your friend is a Muslim so he is not capable of understanding God’s holy law. They are blessed because they descended from Ishmael, Jacob’s half brother. But God blessed them less than the Jews, and their blessing did not include land. Even if the Jews used force it is justified because they were taking back the land God gave them; it’s part of their "right to return". You will find God even tells us where the land is in Genesis 15, it is between two big rivers- the Nile and the Euphrates.

SON- Is it fair for Jewish people to take the land of Palestine that other people live on without at least proving they descended from Jacob, and that the Arab didn’t? I mean Manny looks more like a native Middle Easterner than most Jews.

PASTOR HAIGEN- Well, son, when we talk about the seed of Abraham having a right to the land, it’s not just a blood right. It’s also a spiritual right, meaning those who are the spiritual seed of Abraham are the same as his genetic sons and don’t need to provide proof of lineage.

SON- Dad, we sang those songs at camp and at Sunday school about us Christians being the "Sons of Father Abraham" and "Climbing Jacob’s Ladder." So do Christians also have a right to the land in Palestine? If I could get my land I think I would give it to Manny.

PASTOR HAIGEN- Sorry son, only Jews have land rights under God’s promise to Abraham.
Its absolutely true that we Christians are spiritual sons of Abraham, just as the songs says, which means we will go to heaven if we believe in God’s promise through His Son. But Jews are the only ones with an earthly claim to the land of Israel; God gave it to them. That’s what is taught in seminary, and it’s generally recognized by Evangelical Christians, and I can give you a hundred Bible sites that prove it without a doubt. Son, some things you must accept by faith. You don’t want to doubt God’s holy word, do you, Son?

SON- No Dad, but Manny’s folks says there are Christians in Palestine who lost their houses too. So do Jews have a right to take the houses from Christians?

PASTOR HAIGEN- The Christians you are talking about is Arabs, and we don’t really know if they are true believers.

SON- Well Dad, I really believe in Jesus, why can’t I have land there?

PASTOR HAIGEN- Because Christians are Abraham’s spiritual seed, but not in the way Jews are. God made a covenant with Israel and swore loyalty to her, and Israel decides who is a Jew with land rights and who is not.

SON- Who is Israel?

PASTOR HAIGEN- Israel is the government of the Jewish state that was formed after World War II in Palestine.

SON- Do they decide who gets the land based on the Bible?

PASTOR HAIGEN- Well, I guess you could say they do; the government sometimes quotes Genesis 12 as one authority. But as a Christian I take it on faith that the Government of Israel is able to decide who came from Abraham. I don’t see why God would deceive us as to who are his chosen people. I have faith that modern day Jews are either spiritual children or directly descended from Abraham, and through God’s covenant have exclusive right to Palestine.

SON- Should I tell Manny we have to take it on faith that the people who took their land have a right to it, and all Christians believe that?

PASTOR HAIGEN- Son, there are some people who say they are Christians but who don’t believe in the chosen peoples rights. They are wrong about a lot of things and we don’t need to know about them. It boils down to that Manny and his family and others who don’t believe as we do need to become true believers in Jesus Christ before the rapture comes and leaves them behind or worse yet they die unsaved.

SON- So tell me one more time, why was it right for the Jews to come to Palestine and take Manny’s house?

PASTOR HAIGEN- Son, I don’t know why you are having trouble with this; you get straight A’s in school. We can’t try to right every wrong. But Israel will always be the home of the Jews. God promised the land of Israel and Palestine to them. The Palestinians cannot overcome God’s will; they must leave like your friend’s parents did.

SON- I am not sure I can explain it to Manny and my class so it will make sense to them.

PASTOR HAGAN- Its simple son, you just have to believe that the Jews are God’s chosen people.

SON- Oh! I think we’re back to where we started, Dad. ...I guess I will do my homework and go to bed. Goodnight Dad.

It May Be Time To Leave Your Church

2007-10-01T08:12:00.000-07:00

Jesus addressed the Pharisees of his day; the job of Christ-followers is to address the Pharisees of our day. Our church leaders are the Pharisees. When we call your church leaders "Pharisees" we are not talking about someone else's church. Mainline and Catholic churches are not normally evangelical, or "dispensational" as the popular self described term introduced by Cyrus I Scofield calls them, but if Mainliners and Catholics fail to speak out, they are no better than evangelicals who openly support war.

Jesus set the standard for challenging religious leaders. In talking to Pharisees, Jesus said (paraphrased):

"How terrible it is for you teachers of the law, Pharisees, you hypocrites! You lock the door of the kingdom of heaven in other people's faces, but you yourself do not go in nor do you allow in those who are trying to get in."

Jesus told the Pharisees they were unfit for the kingdom of heaven. The source of their corruption was the ruling faction Jesus referred to as Pharisees and condemned to hell in Matthew 24. Our political leadership today depends on Judaized Christians (the so-called Christian Right) for their rock hard political support. Pharisaic-Christianity is every bit as political as Judean Pharisaism was.

The Pharisees were in bed with the Romans. We Hold These Truths published a scholarly book named One Nation Under Israel on this subject. Judaized support for serial wars hinges upon the 100- year old altered scripture found in study bibles and scores of related popular novels, which place the focus on Israel instead of Christ.

The modern State of Israel borrowed its name from an ancient story of the lineage of Abraham, called Israelites. The political State of Israel came into existence 40 years after the first Scofield Reference Bible heralded it's coming. The Zionist state of Israel and evangelical Christianity are a strange pair of Siamese twins, inseminated at the same time, but born after different gestation periods. Israel existed very much in the plans of the World Zionist movement in 1908 when a Zionist-friendly Oxford University Press published the Scofield's book.

Scofield helped an absent-minded god remember his long-forgotten promise, (they claimed) not to the ancient Israelites and their descendants, but to the European immigrants to Israel. Respected European, Theodore Herzl, legitimatized political Zionism--a movement to establish political rights to land for a Jewish state. Evangelicalism is now a giant cross-denominational sect that we have named Judaized-Christianity.

One such international Pharisee in the news is Kay Arthur, the founder and leader of Precept Ministries. At a Jerusalem interview in early June she told of plans to lobby the Israeli Knesset against Israel giving any concessions to Palestinians. She is one of those who seem to believe the Palestinians must go, on foot or in body bags. She told Haaretz:

"God has chosen Israel above all the nations of the earth, and because I love God, I have to follow God's heart and be dedicated to the land and the people of Israel."

Also

"If I had to choose between America and Israel, I would choose Israel.”

Kay Arthur's Israeli Patriotism is her own business, but the blood on her hands is staining those who follow here, and her political lobbying for war costs live and lot of dollars everywhere. Evangelicals are taught that the Old Testament is fulfilled in the creation of the political state of Israel. Why? Because Jesus said so. In the book of Matthew, Jesus called the Judean Pharisees "a generation of vipers." "You snakes and children of snakes, how do you expect to escape from the condemnation of hell?" Matthew 23:33

Pharisees are, by Jesus definition, the leaders of most (but not all) evangelical churches. Their mission is every bit as deadly and bloody as those Jesus challenged almost 2000 years ago. These leaders can change.

One Nation Under Israel

2007-09-29T10:24:00.000-07:00

Former United States Senator J. William Fulbright, Chairman of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee, stated repeatedly in 1973, “Israel controls the (U.S.) Senate.” Senator Fulbright was driven from office by the very lobby he tried to expose, a testimony to the power of the Israeli lobby. Israeli influence extends to the Executive branch as well. On May 18, 1998, Vice President Al Gore told the 39th Annual Policy Conference of the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), “our commitment to the security of Israel is unconditional.” “One Nation Under Israel” may be the first historically documented expose of the hijacking of the American Congress. For as Author Andrew Hurley clearly explains, Congress is not under the control of its constituents but of a foreign power.

“One Nation Under Israel…” was first published in 1990 on the very threshold of the Gulf War. It was then entitled “Holocaust II, Saving Israel from Suicide.” In it, Author Hurley wrote a clear but unheard warning to the American people that they were losing control of their government. In spite of Hurley’s careful scholarship and the timely subject matter, the Israeli patriot control media, publishing houses, booksellers, and book reviewers blacklisted the book.

Author Hurley is a historian. His book is a fascinating, scholarly history of the creation of the State of Israel in 1948 by the United Nations’ partitioning of Palestine. He factually documents Israel’s subsequent expansion by war and encroachment into neighboring territories. Mr. Hurley holds academic degrees in both political science and law. Hurley’s unique vital message to the peoples of the entire world is that the American Congress has for decades been virtually under the control of a lobbying machine dominated by the State of Israel.

Those who govern the State of Israel receive billions of dollars annually in U.S. Foreign Aid. Millions of these dollars are recycled into the American Israeli Public Affairs Council (AIPAC). Under Secretary of State and Ambassador to the United Nations, George Ball stated:

“Practically every congressman and senator says his prayers to the AIPAC lobby…they have done an enormous job of corrupting the American democratic process.”

In truth, it was a quid pro quo donation from Israel. In 1994 AIPAC offered its posh Israel junket to all new members of Congress. U.S. warmaking in the Middle East appears to have only one lasting beneficiary, the State of Israel. “One Nation Under Israel” . . . reveals a 51st state with more power than the other 50 put together.

Gasoline Sold for Five Cents a Gallon

2007-09-26T08:59:00.000-07:00

A temporary gasoline shortage struck Phoenix, AZ in 2003. Desperate workers pushed their cars and trucks to gas stations in 108-degree heat. Some price doubled to as high as $3.50 a gallon. If you want to see giant price gouging, take a look at the price of gasoline in Iraq since President Bush allowed Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and his oil industry friends unfettered operation of Iraq’s oil industry. Sadly some of the least strong Iraqis have and will also lose their lives for lack of fuel.

It may be hard for some Americans to believe the absolute fact that gasoline and diesel fuel were sold to the Iraqi public (and business as well) for less than a nickel a gallon ($.05) during the sanctions (embargo) period between 1991 and US occupation. Gas was indeed often cheaper than water in Sadam Husseins Iraq.

US politicians’ favorite arch villain Saddam Hussein must have realized there is value in making friends with the ordinary people. It is vital to note that for the Empire’s sanctions against Iraq were administered by the United Nations. These sanctions starved Iraqis and also prohibited American from enjoying the benefits of Iraq’s surplus energy. We were paying nearly $2.00 per gallon for gas in January 2000, 40 times more than the Iraqis were paying for the same fuel at the same time!

The reported price now varies from $1.00 to $1.50 per gallon, an impossible price for the unemployed and impoverished Iraqis. Clean water and electricity have remained unavailable to many since the bombing. The price of fuel, on which Iraq families depend for survival, has increased by 30 to 50 times, and the Cabal is in charge.

One of the Rumsfeld Cabals first acts was to reopen the pipeline from Iraq’s northern oil field into Cabal cooperative Turkey. Imagine the wrath of the Iraqis when they learn their liberators are scudding fuel out of the country to the Turks. No wonder the Kirkook pipeline has been bombed so many times. A long time trusted friend, Archie Blumhorst, at some risk to himself, traveled to Iraq in January 2000. We quote from our printed and taped interview with Mr. Blumhorst in March 2000:

"A busload of Americans were stretching their legs during a fuel stop. A. W. Blumhorst calculated the conversion of gallons to liters and native currency to U.S. Dollars in his notebook. He watched the attendant pump diesel fuel into the European made bus. ‘Do I have this figured right?’ He asked the English-speaking bus driver. ‘Is it possible you are buying fuel for four cents a gallon? Are you really going to fill this bus with a $10.00 bill...? Maybe I should take a gallon home to Missouri or they will never believe me!’"

Mr. Blumhorst's calculations were confirmed by others in Iraq. This balance was absent from the American press. It was Hussein’s economic policies that kept most of the people of Iraq friendly toward him. Oil, the national treasure of Iraq, is simple being looted from the suffering public before their eyes.

No one should be surprised that a war Cabal powerful enough to control presidents uses murder, false witness, theft, and covetousness as operating tools. How much we will pay for fuel with the Cabal in control of Iraq’s oil? Shame on the terrible "Christian" enablers of serial wars.

Chaos and Confusion

2007-09-05T11:20:00.000-07:00

Senator J. Williams Fulbright, Chairman of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee, stated repeatedly in 1973, “Israel controls the U.S. Senate.” Senator James G. Abourezk told reporters at Colorado Jefferson-Jackson Day dinner where he was a keynote speaker in 1977,

“As a United States Senator, I have sworn an oath to uphold the government of the United States, but I never dreamed I would be required to swear allegiance to any other government.”

He continued,

“The United States is likely to become, if it has not already become, a captive state of its client state.”

Senator Fulbright was driven from office by the very lobby he tried to expose, a testimony to the power of the Israeli lobby (Senator Abourezk served only one term).

Former President George Bush admitted in an interview on the Corporation for Public Broadcasting’s January 1999 documentary “Fifty Years War: Israel & the Arabs” that he had been threatened and intimidated when, prior to the 1992 election, he considered withholding a $10 billion dollar loan guaranty to the State of Israel. He describe his intimidator as an agent of “AIPAC…a very powerful Israeli lobby”, Mr. Bush stated he was threatened with an “end to his political career” However, his interview omits one even more incredible detail: that later in 1992 President Bush quietly approved that very same loan.

Senator Charles Percy, a successor to Fulbright as Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, stated in a public debate on 60 Minutes in 1998, “I finally reached a point where I saw our foreign policy totally turned around with the Muslim World-2.2 billion people. Can Israel and the Prime Minister have more power than Congress?”

Under Secretary of State and Ambassador to the United Nations, George Ball stated, “Practically every congressman and senator says his prayers to the AIPAC lobby…they have done an enormous job of corrupting the American democratic process.” The Israeli Lobby rewarded Percy for objecting to massive foreign military aid to Israel by being driven from Congress.

Why Doesn’t God End Our Serial Wars?

2007-08-29T11:16:00.000-07:00

To those of us who wonder when our warring leaders will be satisfied and bring about an end to conflict around the world…the answer is NEVER. In the eyes of our political leaders in both parties, war continues to be a necessity to carry out their agenda. We Hold These Truths has exposed that agenda in the past, and those who do not understand it can find lots to read about this on our website. History is an account of what happens between inexplicable wars. And it rarely provides a logical reason for war.

History books seldom tell us our leaders wanted to strengthen their power or increase their wealth, and war is the time-honored path of political choice. Nor are we reminded that the stronger member, not the weaker one, invariably starts wars. We Hold These Truths has said over and over again, it is our responsibility (if we claim to follow Jesus) to do everything in our power to end the killing. Those of us who live in the USA still think we are the authority over our government, and unless and until we are shown to the contrary, we must keep on trying to control politicians.

Why can’t I just go along for the ride like so many who say, “We can’t win anyway, so it’s best to stay out of the way"? This is a statement we hear all the time. It too, has a simple answer: It’s our job to try to resist because God says we must represent Him and His law as long as we have breath.

This is supposed to be what Christianity is all about, that is, if you use Jesus Christ as a guide. An objective person looking at the control mechanism now running our world might well conclude he had better NOT believe in God, lest his conscience force him to resist the irresistible. Those of our readers who have given up on God may feel they have a free pass, but not those who follow Christ. We do not have an option in the matter, Jesus does not give us a pass, when he said, “Blessed are the Peacemakers” he also demonstrated that he meant it.

As we say over and over again…the primary enablers of war today are America’s evangelical “Christian-Zionist” churches. They can hardly escape being enablers of our present war in the Middle East because war against Islam is in their doctrine! It is part of their creed necessitated by their support of an Israeli state. We Hold These Truths is not the only one who has written and recorded much to demonstrate that Christian-Zionism is a religion fallen away from Christianity. Celebrity churchmen who call themselves “evangelicals blow the trumpet our leaders want to hear…that Christ permits (if not demands) war against Islam. In return for this scriptural lie, they are helped to become the celebrity Christians who receive access to the media, tax-free status for huge church businesses, publicity, friendly regulation, and an open field for self-promotion. Most important, the public standards of racism are ignored when Christian-Zionists denounce Islam.

Christian Zionist “The Christian Right” celebrities are the oracles for the unfettered and unapologetic anti-Islam media of our day. Their appointed job in the Neo-Con order of the new world is to campaign every day for more serial wars against Islam. They do it! Whenever you hear someone like Franklin Graham make a racially hateful statement against Muslims he is carrying out his appointed mission in the politicians’ War on Islam. God will not end our Serial wars because he has left this very tough job to the followers of Christ. Every man (whatever his church) who says he follows Jesus must necessarily work for and pray for peace. As part of this peace mission he ought to visit a Mosque. Why? Because Muslims who worship in Mosques also want an end to the Serial wars, they have this in common with followers of Christ. So why not get to know them? I think Jesus would.

You will even find a few followers of Christ bumbling around in perplexity inside every evangelical church. If you have a chance to visit a mosque, don’t hesitate to do so. I felt warmly received during my visit. Compare this to downright animosity received on occasion from some of my “bloodthirsty brothers in Christ” when standing outside their churches holding a sign that simply says: “Choose Life, Not War.

The Unacceptable Cost of Christian-Zionism

2007-08-27T08:09:00.000-07:00

We Hold These Truths’ objective for nine years has been to explain why members of this loosely knit group we call Judeo-Christianity thinks and acts as though political Israel was a god. Christian Zionism is co-opted by a foreign lobby, AIPAC, and used to carry out Israeli objectives. It was later referred to as the “Christian Right.” Today the millions of people who have made the present state of Israel the centerpiece of their Christian religion have been given the name “Christian Zionists.”

We Hold These Truths’ Pharisee Watch was created as a think-tank to expose Judeo-Christianity’s apostasy. Project Strait Gate was created in 2003 to help correct Judeo-Christian leaders by confronting them in their members’ presence, usually by holding vigils outside churches to protest their use of the bible to support war.

Essential facts about Christian Zionism:

First: It must be understood what Judeo-Christianity (also called “evangelicalism,” dispensationalism, or Christians Zionism) is: by any name, a 20th Century phenomena, an apostate-cult, meaning it practices, in part, a deviant path of following Christ, and it relies upon many varied human sources other than the traditional bible(s) for its theology.

Second: Judeo-Christianity ascribes holiness to a foreign political state, Israel, as though it was itself a god. It placed political Israel on the throne along side of Jesus Christ, and, in so doing, its teachers ignore, if not annul, much of Jesus’ teachings.

Third: Rank and file churchgoers and many lesser known Judeo-Christian pastors think of themselves as moral, even when they are actively contributing to immoral acts, such as supporting mass military assassinations in Gaza and the West Bank. They do not consider these acts immoral because they believe events are ordained, or even demanded, by God. Anger against them is misplaced, because they, too, are victims of their own acts. They probably bring as much suffering upon themselves and their families as on any other middle class group. Because opposing any war that Israel favors is considered a-religious, it is quite likely that there are proportionately as many while, Judeo-Christian boys and girls serving, and therefore killed in military combat, than for instance the sons of agnostics or other religious groups. We have yet to find any date to support or discredit this argument so it is offered strictly as this author’s observation and opinion.

Finally, Judeo-Christianity is much larger than generally believed and is active in every state and community in the USA. The new CNN.com is featuring from an upcoming, six-hour television event, "God's Warriors," hosted by CNN chief international correspondent Christiane Amanpour stated in the introductory segment: “A recent poll found that 59 percent of American evangelicals believe Israel is the fulfillment of biblical prophecy. She also asserted: “The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs estimates 85 million evangelicals believes God tells them to support Israel — more than six times the world's Jewish population.

For these several reasons Judeo-Christianity can easily be used by its leader, and by the leaders of Israel, to carry out a political agenda that favors that foreign political state over and ahead of the interests of America, and ahead of the interest of any humans in the USA or any other country except Israel.

Professors John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt have written a powerful paper, The Israel Lobby, which tells us Israel has too much influence in US Foreign Policy. Christian Zionism gives the Israeli lobby people power making it virtually unstoppable on any issue. Educate the laymen within our own churches, especially mainline churches, can break Israel’s power-hold over our politicians, and it can restore others to follow Christ instead of Israel.

Many more, maybe 100 million, are influenced by Judeo-Christian network TV and big name national and international home Bible studies. AIPAC and many American businessmen have profit interests in war and campaigned for new wars as a matter of business, but it is the Judeo-Christians who have provided the grassroots clout to keep the War On Islam churning.

Christian Zionist leaders like Gary Bauer, John Hagee and Pat Robertson are not the only ones who believe the Christian Zionist vote controls the USA. Politician Tom Delay who was an ardent supporter of every war against Islam, recently was quoted as saying at John Hagee’s Night to Honor Israel in Washington DC, that he not only “believes in the Rapture, I live for it” Too bad Delay left the world in such a mess just before his anticipated departure.

Israel lobby harness Judeo-Christianity:Every politician in Congress and those competing for the presidency know George W. Bush became president because he and Carl Rove found a way to identify Bush with the Christian Right, but to get this blessing one must also be Israel blessed. Even today 70% of Republicans support Bush and his war in Iraq because what is left of the Republican Party is predominantly Judeo-Christian.

Rudy Giuliani and Hillary Clinton know this, and candidates who want Christian Zionist leaders to endorse them must go to Israel first and receive its stamp of approval from Israel’s reigning power, the Likud government. Hillary Clinton was in Israel to courtesy to the Likud leaders, as did Republican Rudi Giuliani. The Israeli press reported Rudi assured their Likud leaders that if he is the US President there will be no problem with Israel’s continued occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. Israel’s spokesman quoted him as promising there will be no Palestine state in his White House. Giuliani promises four more years of military aid for Israel, and four more years of occupation and starvation for the Philistines. Israel has ample reason to trust Giuliani so he will get its support.

Now, having earned Israel’s endorsement, Giuliani is all set to seek the smiling handshake and endorsement of American Christian Zionist leaders, which then give him access and a forum before 100 million Judeo-Christian US citizens and perhaps as many as 40 million voters. The relationship between the Christian-Zionists leaders and AIPAC is simple and straightforward.

AIPAC pressures Congressmen in Washington to give Israel what it wants; the Christian-Zionist celebrities brainwash the laymen in hometowns to pressure the Congressmen at the polls, and the Congressman takes a junket to Israel and complies. Misguided Christians have been used to fight and support war from the 11th Century Crusades to Iraq.

Judeo-Christianity, like Pope Gregory, teaches we all must honor Israel ahead of America, and even rebuild a temple there before Jesus will come. Celebrity Zionists beat the drums for war that Israel wants, but I have not heard of Hagee or Farwell’s son enlisting, or any of the congressmen’s children.

The scorched foot soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan include a disproportionately large number of Judeo-Christians, who we believe, often enlist because mom and dad raised him in the Judeo-Christian church where volunteering is considered noble, even today after Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo. Their youths are taught that if we honor Israel we earn blessings for America from God. We owe it to every Judeo-Christian to tell them about the cost of our serial wars against Islamic non-enemies. What has the Judeo-Christian movement given back to America? We need to appeal to the sense of morality of Judeo-Christians.

We conclude there could have been no Shock and Awe or war of occupation in Iraq were it not for the Christian Zionists’ zealous campaign to destroy Muslim nations. The now publicly acknowledged War on Islam is in fact already 17 years old. Project Strait Gate was started to challenge it in its very lair. Jesus and his disciples took their arguments to the temple and the synagogues. We are doing the same.

The War on Islam

2007-08-25T09:20:00.000-07:00

The State of Israel is acting out the part of the Warmaker’s Pit Bull, escalating toward a full-fledged world war on Islam. This is happening with the support of the "Christian Right," a unified minority among the American people, which actually welcomes a war on Islam regardless of the consequences. The Warmaker’s policy architects of our present administration admitted long ago they planned continuous war to be justified by the “economic benefits” of war. War on Islam is the Warmaker’s economic war to replace the Cold War, and Arab oil is not a coincidence.

But the underlying reason for the war is neither for oil nor for hatred of Islam. It is a war to control our own economy and the life habits of our people; war is and always has been an end in itself for those we call the Warmakers. We suggest a simple, anyone-can-do-it action plan called Project Strait Gate. The whole world knows it is gagging on printing press dollars. Who prints it, and what if the inflation plan fails?

The so-called Neo-cons want war and they control the Administration, so why don’t they simply persuade George W. Bush to bomb the next Islamic country, says Iran? Simply stated, no matter how willing Mr. Bush is, he cannot manufacture even one more war. The Warmakers need a proxy for Mr. Bush to start the next war, and provide an excuse for the USA to be drawn into it. That proxy is Israel.

As the War on Islam accelerates the price of necessities will become unaffordable to a greater number. The Neo-Con solution to the obesity of war is more inflation and more war. The evangelical mega-churches and the Zionist-controlled public media protect Israel. The Zionist-friendly media cannot prop up Israel without the Christian Right's media support.

Israel is the Warmakers’ proxy. With the support of the press, American Jews, and the vocal Christian-Zionists, the USA will eventually come to Israel’s rescue and occupy Israel’s neighbors, or so goes the plan.

General Eisenhower called it “the Military Industrial Complex.” Perhaps only you doubt the Warmakers exist? The American press has, and will continue to greet Israel’s mass assassinations by either ignoring it entirely or by implying that the Hezbollah and Hamas provoke Israel. President Bush, as would be expected from his list of friends and supporters, says Israel has the right to defend itself, and he blames everyone but Israel for the escalation.

He even blames Syria, his cue to Israel to bomb Damascus. “The War on Islam” is not new, it includes Gaza, Afghanistan, Iraq, Chechnya, Somalia, and Bosnia. We Hold These Truths identified this war in an article on March 21, 1994. US foreign policy has been war on “terrorism” ever since the anti-war movement of the 1960s forced a rethinking. We now make war on tiny countries the size of our smallest states.

The Warmakers know full well that Israel’s arrogant brutality will beget more violence, and the hatred will correctly focus on the USA.

Pat the Hun?

2007-08-22T09:19:00.000-07:00

Recently, pundits and politicians apparently agreed that the time was ripe for a fresh round of Pat Buchanan bashing, following reports that Buchanan was likely to bolt the Republican Party. In one gloriously orchestrated week, the Washington Post, the New York Times and even the normally conservative Wall Street Journal and Weekly Standard unleashed vicious and usually poorly argued attacks on Buchanan. Later, even judicial egghead Robert Bork weighed in with a strange digression into Buchanan's supposed "anti-Semitism" tacked onto the end of an unrelated Wall Street Journal essay he wrote.

One of the most preposterous claims made by these attack dogs is that Buchanan is self-evidently wrong to question whether American involvement in World War I was good for America or for Europe. For the record, Buchanan is absolutely right.
The key to understanding America and Europe in the 20th century is World War I, and on this topic Buchanan reveals himself to be a much wiser steward of America's interests than his fellow Republicans. Indeed none of Buchanan's main points regarding World War I are especially groundbreaking to anyone familiar with 20th century history. The "Great War" was truly an early interventionists' war, involving no interests worth 116,000 American dead. The war was not a struggle between good and evil. Nor was it simply a clash between peaceful democracies and aggressive tyrants. It was in fact a purely European power struggle in the late colonial era, in which the USA had no more reason for military involvement than we do today over the affairs of Yugoslavia, Iraq, or the Republic of Sudan.

Nowadays, columnists can peck away on their keyboards and express with great certainty that America must be willing to fight wherever there is injustice, virtually regardless of American interests. But this is really a post-1917 vision of America's role in the world. After all, nobody ever questions why an earlier America didn't intervene in the Napoleonic Wars, the Crimean War, the Franco-Prussian War, or the Russo-Japanese War. So why World War I?

All America got for joining the European war in 1917 (besides a lot of dead men) was our share of a worldwide influenza epidemic and a field test for the invasive central planning model of government. Even Britain's own Winston Churchill shared Mr. Buchanan's opinion that American involvement in 1917 led to the war's worst possible outcome--ending the chance for negotiated settlement by making plausible the demand for Germany's unconditional surrender. By 1920, the American public--4.6 million of who had just returned victorious from Europe--overwhelmingly sensed this, which is why we refused to join globalist Woodrow Wilson's new League of Nations.

Conventional historians also agree that the severe terms imposed upon Germany at Versailles in 1919 fostered the conditions that spawned Hitler and World War II. Germany was physically split in two and lost a great deal of territory, plus all of her colonial possessions. It was demilitarized and treated like a pariah state. All this, when the Germans had seemed so close to winning just months before the Armistice, and Germany itself had not been invaded.

Germany's sudden collapse under the weight of American intervention even provided fodder for anti-Jewish sentiment: Europe's self proclaimed Jews who called themselves "Zionists" were accused of "stabbing Germany in the back" by soliciting a pledge from the British for a "Jewish homeland" in Palestine (the Balfour Declaration). These zealots were also associated with communist uprisings in Germany at war's end. Right or wrong, such are the genies released in the chaos of total war.

The controlled media and controlled politicians would rather nobody discuss and debate history, especially nobody as smart and honest as Pat Buchanan. What are they afraid of, that we'll learn something?

American Militarism Injures Foreign Missions

2007-08-13T17:56:00.000-07:00

For the purpose of this article, we will define “Militarism” as an attitude among followers of the Christian Right and other conservative Americans, which favors an aggressive, military approach to foreign policy problem solving.

Militarism is that which favors “pre-emptive first strikes” and military intervention in foreign nations, based on such justifications as total obedience to the President, looking for weapons of mass destruction, revenge for 9-11, war on terrorism, nation building, clash of civilizations, bringing democracy to the Third World, fulfillment of Bible prophecy, etc. The Christian Right in general has become known for its support for militarism.

This attitude is widespread among fundamentalists, evangelicals, charismatics and other segments of the Christian Right. The impression is sometimes given that, all Bible believing, conservative Christians support militarism, or that they ought to do so as an expression of their Christian faith. The perception of the public, nationwide and worldwide, is that evangelical Christians in America provide the main bulwark of support for our war in Iraq. Of course, there is nothing new about the role of organized religion in supporting war.

In World War I, churches on both sides of the conflict dutifully supported that disastrous war, and some observers feel that this use of religion to promote war is partly to blame for the lack of interest in God and religion on the part of the disillusioned masses of Europeans from that time until now. Should we make support for the war in Iraq a test of fellowship, when at most only 27% of Americans now support the war as it is currently being fought?

Perhaps we should also pay attention to the possibility that the effectiveness of American missionaries to foreign countries may be adversely affected by the perception that American Christians are promoting militarism.

Recently I spoke with an independent Baptist missionary to a Third World country, who criticized the militaristic emphasis of American Christianity. This sense will aid the American missionary to drop his need to control. The control-syndrome has plagued some missionaries of the past. There is currently an innate American need to control the world.

This requires a military establishment capable of controlling the hostile impulses of other societies who must also have military establishments aimed at controlling our covetous impulses.

As the years drag on and the war continues with no end in sight, support for the war dries up, except among evangelical Christians who perceive the war as beneficial for purposes of fulfilling Armageddon scenarios and “setting the stage” for Christ’s return. Evangelicals who do not believe in killing, bombing and torture for purposes of “fulfilling prophecy” are regarded as infidels by the Christian Right.

Gordon MacDonald of World Relief has sounded forth a warning on what our support for militarism is doing to the image of American Christians in the Third World:

“We are now part of an evangelical movement that is greatly compromised - identified in the eyes of the public as deep in the hip pockets of the Republican Party and administration. Our movement has been used. Any of us who travel internationally have tasted the global hostility toward our government and the suspicion that our President’s policies reflect the real tenets of Evangelical faith."

Some militarists cite the teaching of a prominent conservative radio entertainer, who appears to hold the position that once the Commander in Chief has committed us to war, it is our duty to support that war without question. Voters in our November elections heavily repudiated militarism as expressed in our war in Iraq, voting out of office many conservative legislators who supported our views on abortion, the homosexual agenda, cloning and embryonic research, and who supported conservative Supreme Court justices.

Surely it is not a sin to ask questions about the militaristic emphasis of modern evangelical Christianity, to determine whether such a policy is in harmony with the Bible or in conflict with what the Bible teaches.

The purpose of such an inquiry is not to spread discord among Christians, but rather to promote unity. We need to do one of two things - we need to develop and promulgate a Bible-based theological justification for militarism, one that all of us can understand and unite on. Or if we cannot do that, then we need to allow each other soul-liberty to disagree on this controversial issue, and to avoid demanding conformity of belief over this complex political issue on which good Christians disagree.

Radical Israel Seeks Support of Judeo-Christians for Culture of Death

2007-07-30T09:45:00.000-07:00

Muslims have played an important part in our last two vigils, answering questions about Islam and holding up signs to free us to rove the crowd. The Jewish News of Greater Phoenix quoted this writer for Project Strait Gate at A Night to Honor Israel. They reported that an Arizona Rabbi wisely refused to attend and warned during Temple services two days before why American Jews should have no part of John Hagee. The media needs to be told that radical Zionists both in Israel and here at home are using Hagee to promote war with Iran. Hagee may be the only religious leader in the world who openly proclaims nuclear war acceptable.

It is vital — a matter of life and death — to understand that Hagee and those like him are providing the only grassroots support for the neo-con Bush aim to incite a long-term war with Iran via a pre-emptive strike under the phony excuse of destroying non-existent nuclear capacity.

The Jewish News of Greater Phoenix report is important because it cracks the door for further criticism of both Christian Zionists and Jewish Zionists. Mainline American Jews are recognizing increasingly that Hagee/Zionist common war agenda may not be good for them.

Jewish News of Greater Phoenix quotes Rabbi Strauss:

“Rabbi Andrew Straus, spiritual leader of Temple Emanuel in Tempe, gave a sermon on the Friday night before the CUFI (Christians United For Israel) meeting explaining why he would not be going. ‘John Hagee believes that what he is doing is divinely ordained and fulfilling biblical (prophecy),’ he told Jewish News, ‘and he believes Israel cannot return a single square inch of land, which goes against the policies of the last five Israeli prime ministers and the views of most Americans and Israelis. (Americans) have a habit of creating friends we think we can control, but we end up being the monkey on the lion’ s back. I think Hagee will end up using us.’”

Jewish News of Greater Phoenix quotes Charles Carlson:

“The handful of protesters outside the building had a different view. ‘In this hall will be assembled some of the only people in the world who really believe in bombing Iran, in continuing the occupation of Iraq and continuing to support the occupation of Palestine,’ said Chuck Carlson, the president and co-founder of We Hold These Truths, a Christian group that has protested at past CUFI events.”

It is significant that no effort was made to paint Project Strait Gate as “anti-Semite,” the usual trick with Jewish critics; instead they correctly gave our protest a Christian bend by quoting several of our sign messages without distortion:

The protesters carried or leaned on signs that read

• Choose life not war,
• One nation under God, not Israel
• Innocent blood in Gaza and Iraq, and
• Hagee’s racism kills Palestinians."

John Hagee may not realize that his agenda is being shaped to conform with what General Tira and the Radical Zionists at the top levels of Israeli politics want; nonetheless, Hagee’s lobbying agenda in Washington is designed to force U.S. congressional support for an unconscionable — and lethal — attack on the people of Iran. In the end, this not only threatens the tiny country of Israel, it threatens the greater national security of the United States and our service men and women in Iraq. It is an act of insanity, or what the head of the UNIAEA told the BBC, an "act of madness."

Hagee states:

“I would hope the United States would join Israel in a military pre-emptive strike to take out the nuclear capability of Iran for the salvation of Western civilization.”

We Hold These Truths' goal is a complete break from everything John Hagee says he stands for at A Night To Honor Israel and the misguided Christ-followers among the 40 to 70 million who under the stupefying spell of such Judeo-Christian leaders. They are defying Christ to following Hagee’s and others like him . . . into a culture of death. At least half of these millions are capable of waking up in a heartbeat and turning their backs on the warring church leaders who have deceived them.

How To Dialogue with a Judeo-Christian

2007-07-23T09:30:00.000-07:00

This man, call him Norman, became my instant partner in spotting whales. Norman told me the weather has changed. Norman did not answer directly but politely switched the subject to what is no doubt his favorite when he finds a listener, his Christian walk:

“I am a Christian so I believe it’s all [weather included] in God’s hands. God is winding things up; he is going to end everything…after the rapture and tribulation…the end times….”

Norman had opened the door to a discussion with life and death implications, the Judeo-Christian churches’ role in the Serial War era. Judeo-Christians are called by many names; the Christian Right, dispensationalists, Charismatic, Mormons, Pentecostals, and even Christian-Zionists, but all believe what Norman had just stated.

I dread to lump this spiritual and sincere man, Norman, in with some of the intentionally bloody Christian-Zionists, but they have a common link to a State that calls itself “Israel.” If we could call every pastor and religious writer to debate (I have publicly debated one prominent Christian–Zionist), it should center around one defining query that effectively detects Christian Zionism’s abuse of God’s word:

“Do you believe the (present day) State of Israel is the fulfillment of Biblical prophesies?”

If we can remember nothing else, ask this one question. Norman has already told me his answer by telling me about the “end times” and “rapture.” So, returning to Norman, I skipped to the second defining query:

“Norman, should it matter to you as a follower of Christ if there is a Rapture and Armageddon and an end times…don’t you have to act out following Christ regardless of what you may think is coming?”

If you get a positive answer to this question you should win the day. With Norman it was not necessary to debate the point, he answered instantly and emphatically:

“No it should not matter. Yes you’re right, it should not matter to a Christian…(our actions should not be different) …I am pro-life and my state passed a bill to ban abortion, but it’s being challenged in the Supreme Court… (thoughtfully) we may have gone a little too far...no exceptions for life of mother, incest, or rape…”

“…If you are truly pro-life don’t you have to also oppose the mass assassination of the innocent in wars?”

Norman could not think of a Jesus answer, so he abandoned the scripture for a secular response:

“In the Old Testament there were numerous times God commanded the Israelites to annihilate entire populations because of their evil acts."

Note that Norman has now introduced Israel into the discussion for the first time.

"Would Jesus have done that? Jesus did not give the modern state of Israel that right either…”

Norman’s answer? He did not answer, but I think he nodded, ever so little. We shook hands, and Norman gave me the chance for a last statement.

“Norman, I must tell you: the churches like yours have blood on their hands, and they are spilling the blood on you... It’s not only our leaders. You cannot be pro-life if you ignore even one Iraqi mother or child’s right to life, even if you consider them enemies. God cannot honor your church if it fails to honor life. The church has failed in it pro-life efforts because it’s only half sincere about all life. God is consistent. We must oppose all unjust killing; it is not an option with Jesus. It has been a blessing to me to talk to you, Norman. See our website if you have questions.”

It is my prayer that Norman will not be able to forget.

Visiting A Mosque

2007-07-12T09:27:00.000-07:00

My friend Chuck called to ask me if I’d like to go with him to an open house at a mosque in Tempe, AZ. Having never been in a mosque, I thought that it would be an interesting experience but wondered if I would need a bullet proof vest or an assault rifle to protect myself during the visit. After all, haven’t numerous government and Christian leaders warned us that the Muslims are out to create a holy war against us infidels?

We parked our shoes on the ground floor of the mosque and walked up to the second floor into the prayer and worship room. There were about 50 visitors in attendance plus members of the mosque who filtered in during the open house portion of the service. After the open house, their regular Friday night service would be conducted. It was easy to spot the visitors because they were sitting in chairs. It was explained that during the service and prayer time the flock was either standing, sitting or bowing down on the floor. The men are in the front and the women in the rear with a curtain that could be drawn by the women if they wanted privacy.

The Imam, the Islamic equivalent of a pastor or priest, was giving a Power Point presentation on the fundamental beliefs of Islam. Part way through the presentation, the Imam said that they would break for a brief prayer session and we were invited to observe how this part of their worship is conducted. Muslims are required to pray 5 times a day, this one lasted about 10 minutes. A group of more than a dozen men came to the front to participate in the prayers. The chanting and prayers were in Arabic but there seemed to be a similarity to a Catholic worship service in that both services are composed of ritual elements.

The Imam continued with a discussion on the life of Muhammad and other prophets they recognize and revere: Abraham, Moses and Jesus. Interestingly, the Imam said that they recognized that Jesus was born of the Virgin Mary with no earthly father. It seems curious to me that because of Jesus’ uniqueness ascribed by Muslims that He should receive a higher status in Islam than he does. The Imam said Muslims recognize Mohammad as the last prophet of Allah (God) but claim not to worship him. Judaism doesn’t recognize Jesus, but the Muslims do. Does this mean that followers of Mohammad are closer to God than those of Judaism?

Next, the Imam opened the floor for questions. The Imam and a woman who he identified as “his boss” meaning she was a layman from the mosque congregation, fielded the questions. One person asked about the apparent unequal treatment of women as exhibited by the women sitting in the back of the mosque and other examples demonstrated in the Muslim world.

It was explained by the Imam that because of the frequent bowing down during the service that having women in the front could be a distraction to the men worshippers who are to be focusing on Allah.

A statement by Muhammad sheds some light on the subject: “O People: It is true that you have certain rights in regard to your women, but they also have rights over you. Remember that you have taken them as your wives, only under God’s trust and with His permission…Do treat your women well and be kind to them, for they are your partners and committed helpers…”

Another visitor asked about the Islamic “Jihad” against Christians and if Muslims were committed to the destruction of infidels. It was explained by the Imam and the other lady that Jihad is not a word that just translates into “war”. Its meaning could be better defined as “a struggle against something”. Another person wanted to know about all the killing done by Muslims. The Imam said that their religion does not condone killing. In the Imam’s accompanying notes to his presentation, a quotation attributed to the Prophet Muhammad’s last sermon is noteworthy: “All mankind is from Adam and Eve. An Arab has no superiority over a non-Arab nor does a non-Arab have any superiority over an Arab; also, a white has no superiority over a black, nor a black has any superiority over a white – except by piety and good action…”

Another visitor in the audience recounted that when her family was based in Turkey they were treated beautifully by the Muslims in that country.

There is no doubt that there are some Muslims who want to “get” us. But, as I pointed out in some general comments I made to the assembly: the United States was also guilty of killing millions of innocent people needlessly in the steady stream of serial wars that the U.S. fosters and perpetuates. I said that as a follower of Christ that I could see no justification for what the U.S. has done in Iraq. I pointed out that the war in Iraq was not legal because our Constitution does not give the President the power to declare war. Only Congress has been given the power to declare war. Also, I pointed out that our President claims he is a Christian. His actions are certainly at a variance to the teachings of Jesus. No wonder the world is so mixed up about what Christians say they believe and what they advocate. Applause originated from a number of the members of the mosque after making my comments.

Upon my sitting down, another visitor jumped up to strongly disagree with me and question my patriotism. He claimed that he was a veteran and had defended our freedom. Then, a number of the visitors applauded him. It is a sad commentary to think how the American public has been brainwashed to think of Muslims as a threat to us. Any honest person when reviewing the facts will see how dangerous the United States’ policy of wars for “democracy” really is. Many Americans believe that the United States is somehow morally superior to anybody else on the planet and is the universal dispensing agent of truth and justice. Applying Jesus’ directive to love your neighbor as yourself still sounds valid to me.

If you have a chance to visit a mosque, don’t hesitate to do so. I felt warmly received during my visit. Compare this to downright animosity received on occasion from some of my “bloodthirsty brothers in Christ” when standing outside their churches holding a sign that simply says: “Choose Life, Not War.”

Who Owns Title to the Land of Palestine?

2007-07-10T11:10:00.000-07:00

In January of 1997, an Israeli soldier opened fire on Arab civilians in the city of Hebron in occupied Palestine, killing some and wounding others. His motive was to prevent the return of Israeli-occupied lands to the Arabs. This soldier was convinced that God has given the land of Palestine to the Jews, and that it would be a sin to return the land to the Arabs. Zionists prefer to rely on the Old Testament, citing Genesis 13:15 where God said to Abraham,

"For all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed for ever."

They construe this verse to teach that a large chunk of the Middle East still belongs to the Jews today, including the ancient lands of Edom and Moab, even though God said in Deuteronomy 2:5, 9 that He would never give those lands to the Jews.

Christian Zionists regard God's covenant with Abraham, including the land grant, as an unconditional covenant. They admit that the Jews have broken that covenant, and have rejected their Messiah, but insist that Palestine still belongs to the Jews because God gave it to them "forever." However, the Bible teaches that God's covenant with Abraham and his descendants were a conditional covenant, not unconditional.

In Genesis 17:9-14 the Jews were warned that they must keep the covenant or be cut off from God's people. Leviticus 26:40-45 teaches that the Jews must confess and forsake their sins in order to maintain the covenant. Joshua 23:15-16 and 2 Chronicles 7:19-22 not only teach that the covenant was conditional, but they also specify that the Jews would lose their land grant if they broke the covenant.

In Exodus 12:23-24, God ordained the ordinance of the Passover to be observed "forever."

In Deuteronomy 18:3-5 the Levites are ordained to be God's ministers, and to receive the offerings of the people, "forever."

Leviticus 16:29 specify that the Day of Atonement is to be observed "forever."

The same reasoning applies to the land grant of Palestine to the Jews. The covenant and the land promise to the Jews were not eternal, to last until the end of time. The Jews did not keep the conditions of the covenant, and for this reason God took away the kingdom of God from them, Matthew 21:42-45, and gave it to the New Israel (Galatians 6:16,) the Church which consists of believing Jews and Gentiles.

The inheritance of the new Spiritual Israel is not land in the Middle East, but rather the New Jerusalem in heaven. The old Jerusalem on earth is of absolutely no importance to God's people, John 4:21, Galatians 4:24-28, Hebrews 12:18-24. The final disappearance of the old covenant took place in 70 AD when the Romans destroyed the Temple, the City of Jerusalem, and the Jewish state. There is no statement or hint in the New Testament that God will revive the Jewish state. Nowadays there are prominent evangelists who preach to their followers that God never fulfilled His promise of giving all the land of Palestine to the Jews.

They support whatever action necessary, even nuclear war, to obtain Arab lands in the Middle East and give them to the Jews. Read Joshua 11:23, Joshua 21:43-45, 2 Samuel 8:3, 1 Kings 4:21, 1 Kings 8:56, 2 Chronicles 9:26 and Nehemiah 9:7-8, 24 and it will become very clear that God did give all of the land promised to the Jews. The prophet Jeremiah is often quoted to prove that God promised a restoration of the Jews to their land and that the promise began to be fulfilled in 1948 AD. Instead of rejoicing in the New Covenant which was promised to all God's people, Jeremiah 31:31-34, they want to go back to the Old Covenant which has been forever abrogated.

The duty of Christian churches today is to seek the well-being of Jews according to the flesh, Romans 9:3. We will accomplish that, not by lobbying for the territorial expansion of Israel, but rather by preaching the Gospel and planting churches, thereby giving all Jews and Gentiles an opportunity to enter the heavenly Jerusalem for all eternity.

Letter to Pastor David Friend of Scottsdale First Assembly Dream Center

2007-06-21T11:15:00.000-07:00

Dear Pastor Friend:

Project Strait Gate will hold a Vigil for Peace With Justice outside Scottsdale First Assembly Dream Center on the morning of June 24, 2007. You may learn about our some 56 Vigils by touring our Project Strait Gate website. We are not mass demonstrators, but are quiet and respectful and aim our information at your attendees, not at passing traffic. Please feel invited to come out and meet us on the public right-of-ways, or contact me in advance if you have questions or wish to discuss any facet of what we do.

We are choosing Scottsdale First Assembly Dream Center because we already know it is, sadly, violating the clearest standards Jesus set for us when you invited John Hagee into your church, and by allowing Christians United for Israel to use your good name and to take God’s name in vain.

It is documented and without question that Hagee’s CUFI publicly urges more engagements called “wars” that would, if not stopped, produce even more massive death and destruction. John Hagee has openly urged the preemptive bombing of Iran, and he supports Israel’s 59 year-old occupations of Israel’s neighbors, who we call the "Philistines" to respect their tribal history. They are not Palestinians because there is no state by that name; they are homeless people without a country because Israel occupies every foot of their legal homes at its pleasure. Many of them are Christian.

Project Strait Gate’s purpose is to influence Christ-followers to oppose continued slaughter in the Middle East. It is an ongoing continuous assassination campaign that is supported not by Jesus’ words, but by secular conclusions about the need for war. If you or John Hagee have any convincing new answer to Jesus’ many clear statements about loving ones enemies and preserving all life, please enlighten us. Our vigils have reached 56 churches and organizations and I have yet to hear one bit of justification based on Jesus or any of his disciples.

John Hagee does not explain how he handles “BLESSED ARE THE PEACEMAKERS,” instead he largely ignores the entire New Testament. Hagee makes only one reference to Jesus’ words in his entire Night To Honor Israel message at Furman University, and that reference took Jesus’ words out of context.

Pastor Art Preisinger, who attended John Hagee’s Night to Honor Israel in San Antonio, put it this way: “There was not a shred, a trace, a scintilla of Christianity in the proceedings. It could well have been sponsored by the PTA or the Rotary Club.” Pastor Preisinger is right, it is non-Christian; he errs in one respect, no secular organization like the Rotary Club could get away with such a racist and violence-promoting public meeting as Pastor Hagee presents.

All of America, save evangelical churchgoers, now opposes our warring in Iraq. Evangelicals like you, (and formerly myself) are the only major group that remains for continued occupation. Only “Christian Zionists” remain in support of occupation of Iraq, which has cost 3527 of our own men, with at least 25,000 wounded and maimed. This says nothing of the virtual destruction of our economy by inflation. Pastor Friend, perhaps you do not identify with Christian Zionism, but you do support John Hagee who does, and Christian Zionism is Judeo-Christianity in overdrive.

Americans have no choice but to hold evangelical, Judeo-Christian pastors and lay leaders responsible for their role as “enablers” of serial killings called “wars.” Christ followers in places like Lebanon and Gaza and Iraq are among the victims. What would Jesus say about our professional military being trained in the ugly art of mass execution and torture? Our churches must share the guilt for abortion and other forms of violent immorality that are related to war right here in our country. To use Israel as an example, it has 59 years of continuous war, and it also has an epidemic of abortions controlled, performed and paid for by the very government that John Hagee supports “without condition.”

Israel boasted, only this week, that it is now the fourth biggest armaments dealer in the world, selling some $5 billion in weapons of mass destruction to others. No wonder it can field tanks against people with small arms, rocks, and home made pipe rockets in Gaza.

It is no longer deniable that leaders of Scottsdale First Assembly Dream Center, and thousands of other Judeo-Christian churches are tacit enablers, if not overt supporters, of war in Iraq and of Israel’s 59-year occupations of Gaza, the West Bank, and Lebanon by supporting instead of denouncing John Hagee.

The most ungodly damage done by Christian Zionism, which is nothing more than Judeo-Christianity in overdrive, is the damage done to Christianity itself. Those who make war in Jesus’ name are making it a Christ laughing stock, if not an image of contempt worldwide. Many who loved and respected Americans a generation ago now commonly call Christianity the religion of the war-makers and tie our evil acts to political Christianity. They can read the Bible and they know Jesus, the Peacemaker, bombed no one, and did not allow for others to do so in his name. There can be no room for war-makers in His kingdom.

Israel’s burgeoning immorality exceeds our own
Israel’s progressive assassination finally resulted in shooting a 68-year old Palestinian grandmother to death a few weeks ago to prevent her from delivering a human bomb to an Israeli Military post. This woman’s son was previously shot to death; another son crippled and in a wheel chair; the family’s home had already been deliberately destroyed, and finally this grandmother with nothing left to dream of, marched into the face of death.

The following week Israelis in tanks shelled and killed four women, wounding many others. These women were surrounding a Mosque in Jambalaya Camp in Gaza to protect those inside with their own bodies. Can you imagine what tank rounds full of steel darts does to the body of a women or child. These acts are not flukes; the Israelis John Hagee extols routinely shoot children who throw rocks. Over 300 women and children are prisoners held without charge in Israel. Pastor Friend, Israel could not get away with one of these acts without the unequivocal support of churches like yours.

Scripturally there is no more reason to support Israeli Jews than Muslim Arabs. According to a missionary named Paul, "All are one in Christ Jesus and heirs to the promise," if and when each one believes. Jesus is the fulfillment of the promise to *-
Abraham, not a political State created by man in 1948.

Quotes from John Hagee about war and the support of Israel*The enemy is islamo-fascism*No Bible believing Christian can support disengagement. (Referring to Iraq)*You are not going to heaven if you do not like the Jewish people. *The claims (to land) of the Palestinians are a historic fraud...they never owned the land...this makes them gasp for air like catfish out of water.* I would hope the United States would join Israel in a military Pre-emptive strike to take out the nuclear capability of Iran for the salvation of Western civilization.
The blood of the innocent on your hands is not only Philistines children's blood. All life is sacred and Israelis and Americans are also dying. Since September 2000, about 1021 Israelis have been killed, a small number compared to 4008 Philistines killed by Israelis during the same period; the ratio of children killed is even wider, 118 Israeli to 921 Philistine, about 1 Israeli for every 8 Philistine children. Who would you judge to be the aggressor based on those numbers? Maybe you and I cannot stop the carnage but we do not have to support it. Please know in advance, one sign in front of Scottsdale First Assembly Dream Center will read:

APOSTATE CHURCH
Christ Followers Do Not Kill
Pastor Friend, I am sorry to say the sign is appropriate because of your association with John Hagee, if for no other reason. I would welcome dialog with you personally and invite you to call me, as other pastors have done. I would like to know your personal views and if you are in any way rethinking your interpretations of “end times” prophesy and the state of Israel? Many are, including pastors we have reached in our Vigils.
It is not too late to withdraw from Night to Honor Israel. Why not instead have a Night to Plan for Peace. I ask you one question in closing: where in the New Testament is there a word or a line that justifies us to take the life of someone else’s child 10,000 miles from our own comfortable homes?

Toward the Strait Gate,
Charles E. Carlson

At a Night to Honor Israel: Christ is Left Outside With the Vigil Team

2007-06-18T09:35:00.000-07:00

The threat goes by the name of Christian Zionists. Since the death of Jerry Falwell, John Hagee has assumed de facto leadership of the radical Christian Zionist movement. Art Preisinger, a Lutheran minister associated with the Institute for the Study of Christian Zionism, attended A Night To Honor Israel at Hagee’s Cornerstone Church in San Antonio, Texas, October 23, 2006, and had this to say:

"Of course, if Hagee wants to honor Israel and give it gobs of non-governmental funds, that is certainly his privilege. But to promote this under the aegis of "Christian" is, frankly, fraudulent. But 'A Night to Honor Israel' was worse than a fraud -- it was idolatrous, and this in two ways."

Jesus and His followers did not have a part to play in A Night To Honor Israel. The stated purpose of Christians United For Israel is to generate political support for Israel. Congresswoman McCollum stated:

“Well publicized public statements by Pastor Hagee demonstrate extremism, bigotry and intolerance that is repugnant."

One Rabbi described Hagee's movement, Christians United for Israel, as "AIPAC with a cross" (American Israeli Political Action Committee). One of the big signs Project Strait Gate displayed at A Night To Honor Israel at Pastor Hammond’s church read, WHO WOULD JESUS BOMB? Christ never said His law is easy, and he did not make it optional or exclude those who follow John Hagee and love political Israel. Hagee ignores Jesus’ admonitions in his Night to Honor Israel show, and the church hosts like Mac Hammond also ignore it. When Project Strait Gate comes to call, we often get anything but love, grace and kindness.

In each case the church has hired uniformed off-duty police to order demonstrators off public property under threat of arrest, sometimes claiming ownership of public sidewalks. Grace Community Church of Sun Valley, CA, pastured by the very public and famous John MacArthur, has been the scene of four Vigils over five years. Both women walked on the parking lot on church property after Project Strait Gate Vigils ended.

Later Project Strait Gate proved to the city engineers that the Vigil members had been on public property, and the City of Phoenix responded by forcing the church to permanently mark the right-of-ways for public use and refrain from parking cars on right-of-ways. Project Strait Gate has learned to send instructions to potential Vigil team members warning them about the attitude of church leaders, including a warning to avoid even stepping on church property. Judeo- Christian churches do not “turn the other cheek.”

Word of Life Christian Center arranged a counter-demonstration to muffle Project Strait Gate, with 30-40 church staff and volunteers, about ten for every one of the vigil volunteers, surrounding each individually and physically shielding our team members from contact with arriving and departing persons. Judeo-Christians believe God places curses on anyone who is not sufficiently kind to Israel, in other words, anyone who fails to honor Israel might be eligible for a curse, an idea extrapolated from ancient verses in Genesis 12:3. It’s unlikely that Mrs. Smith can quote a New Testament source of her ability to render curses, but she, like John Hagee, believes in a world where war is holy if it’s war that pleases Israel.

John Hagee wraps his love of Israel around the idea of blessings for those who bless Israel, and curses for those who do not. Hagee routinely makes the following statements in publicly recorded meetings and services, here are a few:

“The blessings and curses are real…the Jewish people are prophesied”
"He (God) will bless those who bless (Israel) and curse those who curse (Israel)"
"Iran is Germany…Ahmadinejad is Hitler”
“We support Israel’s right to self-defense against Gaza…”
“Long after Hamas and Hezbollah are buried in the bone yard of history…Israel will be there.”
"The sleeping giant of Christian-Zionism has been awakened”

A hallmark of Christian Zionism is that few will discuss the acts and words of Christ pertaining to the subject of life and death in Israel and Iraq, or the present war on Islam in general. Project Strait Gate has confirmed that leaders deceive millions of well-meaning and good-hearted followers. These false leaders include Hagee and every pastor named in this article, and many more where we have held Vigils. Each one teaches that Judeo-Christianity is “the word of God.” However, many to whom we speak are self-deceived, as this writer once was. They are in the comfort zone, and we must not allow even one to hide behind the error of their leaders. Rather we must realize the need, even if kindled by our own self-interest, to spring loose some 70 million brothers and sisters from the heresy of Christian Zionism. Project Strait Gate is our way. What is yours?

Pat Tillman: Killed by Friendly Fire or Executed by His Own Government?

2007-06-12T09:32:00.000-07:00

The Tillman brothers were both professional athletes who enlisted in the US Army together in May 2002, 8 months after day 9/11, but before the bombing of Iraq. They were first shipped to Iraq where they lived together in the same unit; then they were transferred to Afghanistan where parties unknown killed Pat Tillman about two years after his enlistment. The Army now admits Tillman was killed by his own unit, but there appears to be much more to the story. Tillman’s own brother, Kevin, who was with him every day, says Pat despised and rejected the war in Iraq as unnecessary and brutal. Pat Tillman's family has firmly rejected the Defense Department's findings on the former NFL star's friendly-fire death in Afghanistan; calling for congressional investigations into what they see as broad malfeasance and a cover-up. They are told in the reports that nine Army officers, including four generals, “made errors” in not reporting the friendly fire death to their superiors and to the Tillman family. Pat Tillman's father, a lawyer, while avoiding the legal term “murder” is having none of this explanation.

Logic dictates that we raise the possibility of Tillman’s assassination by his own government. Top civilian leadership had the reason and the opportunity to assassinate Tillman, and now they are acting quite guilty.

The Tillman story has a great chance of breaking out: survivor Kevin Tillman was with his brother constantly at war. Pat and Kevin were shipped from Iraq to Afghanistan because Pat made no secret of his opinion that war in Iraq was “illegal and unjust,” and he was, according to his brother, prepared to tell his story publicly at the first opportunity. The Tillman brothers were due for a furlough, and Kevin stated in interviews that Pat had arranged to meet with an anti-war journalist while at home. It seems overwhelmingly likely that Tillman was not a victim of fratricide or “friendly fire” as it is euphemistically called, but was deliberately assassinated. Tillman may not have been shot by anyone in the military. It has been asserted that even now some of Tillman’s unit cannot be located for questioning.

The army had another reason to fear Tillman- his incredible determination to do what he believed was right. Kevin Tillman has said in interviews that Pat had interviews arranged when he got stateside. Pat Tillman could have been ordered into a unit at the same time as a hit team was ordered in to assassinate him. No one could say for sure if the assassin aimed at Tillman’s face or not.

Patrick Tillman Sr. said: “The army killed its poster boy.” Responsibility for killing Tillman might reach very high indeed in this administration. Kevin Tillman will be safer if he puts every thought on paper and places them in public hands. Let us not allow Pat Tillman’s concern for his fellow man to be in vain.