Apr
26
Written by:
Dr. Ernie Moore
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
There is an old Chinese proverb that says “Before we can negotiate we must define terms.”
Nowhere is that more important than in a discussion of “Christianity” in Israel.
First, read this paragraph from an op-ed by Giulio Meotti on Ynetnew.com:
“The numbers are telling. Today there is only one Middle Eastern country where the number of Christians has grown: Israel. As documented in the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics, the Christian community that numbered 34,000 people in 1949 is now 163,000-strong, and will reach 187,000 in 2020.”
As I read the piece, I was struck with the – I’m sure – unintended misinformation. Read the entire article and I’ll be back with some salient comments.
Begin:
Mideast without Christians
Op-ed: Christians must realize Israel’s fate intertwined with fate of non-Muslims in region
Giulio Meotti
Published: 04.18.11
This is the saddest Easter in the long epic of Arab Christianity: The cross is near extinction in the lands of it origin. The much-vaunted diversity of the Middle East is going to be reduced to the flat monotony of a single religion, Islam, and to a handful of languages.
In 1919, the Egyptian revolution adopted a green flag with the crescent and the cross. Both Muslims and Christians participated in the nationalist revolution against British colonialism. Now, according to the Egyptian Federation for Human Rights, more than 70 Christians a week are asking to leave the country due to Islamist threats.
The numbers are telling. Today there is only one Middle Eastern country where the number of Christians has grown: Israel. As documented in the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics, the Christian community that numbered 34,000 people in 1949 is now 163,000-strong, and will reach 187,000 in 2020.
In the rest of the Middle East, the drive for Islamic purity is going to banish all traces of pre-Islamic pasts. This has affected not only Christians, but other non-Islamic communities too, such as the Zoroastrians and Baha’is in Iran (the late also found refuge in Israel, in Haifa.)
The silence of the global forums, the flawed conscience of human rights groups, the self-denial of the media and the Vatican’s appeasement is helping facilitate this Islamist campaign. According to a report on religious freedom compiled by the US Department of State, the number of Christians in Turkey declined from two million to 85,000; in Lebanon they have gone from 55% to 35% of the population; in Syria, from half the population they have been reduced to 4%; in Jordan, from 18% to 2%. In Iraq, they will be exterminated.
Should the exodus of Christians from Bethlehem continue in the next two or three decades, there may be no clergy left to conduct religious services in Jesus’ birthplace. In Iran, Christians have become virtually non-existent since 1979, when Khomeini ordered the immediate closure of all Christian schools. In Gaza, the 3,000 who remain are subjected to persecution. In Sudan, Christians in the South are forced into slavery.
Israel’s flag a symbol of hope
In Lebanon, the Maronites, the only Christians to have held political power in the modern Arab world, have been reduced to a minority because of Muslim violence and Hezbollah’s rise. In Saudi Arabia, Christians have been beaten or tortured by religious police. Benjamin Sleiman, archbishop of Baghdad, is talking about “the extinction of Christianity in the Middle East.”
The Christian Egypt was symbolically represented by former United Nations Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali, a Christian married to a Jewish woman whose sister was the wife of Israeli Foreign Minister Abba Eban. In 1977, Boutros-Ghali, who was then Egypt’s foreign minister, accompanied President Anwar Sadat to Jerusalem.
Sadat, who as a child had attended a Christian school, was killed because the treaty his signed with the “Zionists,” among other reasons, and his cold peace is now under attack from the new rulers in Cairo.
In 1948, the Middle East was cleansed of its ancient Jews. Today is the Christians’ turn. Just as Islamist totalitarians have ruthlessly persecuted Christians in the Middle East, they have been waging war for the past 63 years to destroy the Jewish state in their midst. That’s why the fate of Israel is intertwined with the fate of the non-Muslim minorities.
Should the Islamists prevail, the Middle East will be completely green, the colour of Islam. Under atomic and Islamist existential threats, the remnant of the Jewish people risks being liquidated before Israel’s centennial in 2048. It’s time for Christians to recognize that Israel’s survival is also critical and vital for them. During the Holocaust, when most Christians were bystanders or collaborators, the Yellow Star was a symbol of death for the Jews. Today, the white flag with the beautiful six pointed star is a symbol of survival and hope for both Jews and Christians.
Giulio Meotti, a journalist with Il Foglio, is the author of the book A New Shoah: The Untold Story of Israel's Victims of Terrorism.
EDM BEGINS:
“The numbers are telling. Today there is only one Middle Eastern country where the number of Christians has grown: Israel. As documented in the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics, the Christian community that numbered 34,000 people in 1949 is now 163,000-strong, and will reach 187,000 in 2020.”
Let’s define terms:
Born again Christians:
In Israel if they are Jewish, the normal term is Messianic Jews. If they are Gentiles then born again Christians are called Evangelicals or Evangelistis.
Being born again means that one has personally accepted four truths: One is that everyone is a sinner. Two is that unrepentant sinners go to hell. Three is that Christ died for sinners. And fourth is that salvation is a personal salvation wherein a person recognized the first three, prays for forgiveness based on Christ’s shed blood (no remission without the shedding of blood), and by faith accepts that forgiveness.
When doubters say it is too simple, or too easy, they seem to forget that it was not easy for the one who paid the debt for man’s sin – Jesus Christ.
Catholics, Greek Orthodox and similar Christian religions:
These people are either a. born into their religion, and sprinkled (baptized) as infants, and accepted as part of that religion, or b. later join the religion and go through a class where they are taught the tenets of it.
They accept the Pope or other top leader like an archbishop, whereas born again believers do not.
Catholics pray to a host of saints, especially the Virgin Mary, even above Jesus Christ whereas born again believers pray to God the father, Son or Holy Ghost, the trinity.
Political differences:
Often many of the Catholic, etc. religions do not favor Israel or the Jews. Some even go so far as to say that the Jews killed Jesus.
Born again believers hold that Jesus willingly gave His life for the salvation of all who will believe in Him for forgiveness.
And in Israel – here’s the point of the disinformation in the article above – most of the increase in “Christians” in Israel is based on Arabs joining the Catholic or Greek Orthodox Churches.
In fact there is an increase of the number of Messianic Christians inside Israel annually. But the numbers are difficult to nail down.
Author and novelist Joel Rosenberg, a Jewish-believer and Baptist said in Israel at a meeting I attended that the number stands at between 15,000 and 30,000 Messianic believers.
That number may be even higher due to the fact that we understand many Messianic believers do not disclose their faith decision due to the fact that they sometimes face real threat to their way of life inside Israel. We know of one college professor who was fired from an Israel university because he wrote a booklet discussing the subject of faith in Jesus Christ as the Messiah.
Many born again believers in the United States are unaware of the conditions Messianic Jews face because their only interaction with Israelis is in the tourist industry and the topic virtually never arises.
Regardless, even though they come to face the facts, they still insist on praying for Israel, love the land and its people and believe that the Bible clearly teaches this as God’s position.
ISRAELIS ARE LEARNING
In the twenty-five years we have been traveling in Israel, living there and reporting and lecturing on the land, history and people we have been asked repeatedly about the differences discussed above by Israelis who are unfamiliar with it all. Previously they had just figured that all “Christians” were Catholics or Greek Orthodox unless they had come to know Messianic Jews.
When we explain the differences, it is interesting that they often were pleased to finally be made aware of the facts. They don’t always change their minds about Christians, but many are happy to know that the Evangelicals are friends of Israel.