The Kidnapping of Three Israeli Children

The Kidnapping of Three Israeli Children

by Malcolm Blog Israel justice Middle East Muslim Palestinians PLO Prayer

On behalf of Malcolm Hedding Ministries and its world-wide constituency I wish to express outrage at the global, and yes European Union, response to the kidnapping of three Israeli young people by the newly formed Palestinian Unity Government. This type of barbaric, cruel and cowardly act demonstrates yet again that Israel is dealing with an entity that is tribal and uncivilized having no interest in peace but driven by a religious ideology that is dedicated to the total destruction of the Jewish State. There is no excuse for this evil behavior and it is stunning to hear and read that western politicians are calling upon Israel to demonstrate restraint as she seeks to employ all the means at her disposal to return these young people to their families.

Indeed there should be global condemnation of this crime and most certainly all financial aid to this newly formed Palestinian government should be suspended. I am fully aware that merely calling upon this government to return these innocent children will achieve nothing. We all know this. This is no time for the madness of political correctness and thus Israel must be fully supported as she employs every means available to her to recover these three children safely.

It is our prayer and hope that this will happen speedily.

Malcolm Hedding.

Special Statement on UN Resolution

by Malcolm Abbas anti-Semitism Arafat Bible Blog Christian Zionism Church evangelical evangelicals Israel justice Palestinians Prayer UN West Bank

On November 29th the UN General Assembly overwhelmingly voted to recognize Palestine as a non-member observer state of the United Nations. This decision gave increased credibility and leverage to the Palestinians in their future negotiations to make this a reality and so the consequences of this decision will be far reaching. It will not escape the astute observer of these things that this decision by the world community to disinvest Israel of her land and Capital took place on the 29th November; for it was on this date 65 years ago that this same body recognized the existence of Israel as a nation state. Now this world forum is seeking to give added strength to a people who through their leaders have waged a relentless war of terror against the Jewish people. This war is not for a state of their own but for the removal of the Jewish State in its entirety. This is not a radical right wing position but rather one that is based on the track record, charter, declarations and deeds of the Palestinian Authority.

Their unaltered charter, in violation of the Oslo Accords, continues to call for Israel’s destruction; their school text books do the same and incite hatred of the Jews, their public statements in Arabic over the years, as monitored by Palestinians Media Watch and MEMRI, have called for Israel’s destruction and removal and in April 1994 in Johannesburg after Nelson Mandela’s inauguration, Yasser Arafat assured a Muslim audience that the PLO had not moved away from the 1964 Phased Plan for the destruction of Israel. Faced with an unprecedented offer of peace from the Israeli government a few years later, that included most of the Old City of Jerusalem and the Temple Mount, he rejected it and provoked a second Intifada. This Intifada deliberately targeted and killed hundreds of Israeli citizens including school children of all ages. Sadly, much of the Western media excused these atrocities and thereby found a way to always blame Israel for them! At no time has Israel ever gone after civilians in an attempt to protect herself from this unrelenting and sustained conflict. Yasser Arafat was not a freedom fighter but a terrorist and indeed the father of modern day terrorism and now his Holocaust denying successor Mahmoud Abbas has been rewarded with statehood by the international community. This is a disgrace and more of a commentary on the evil that lurks in the corridors of the United Nations than anything else. Thankfully Canada and the United States of America called it for what it was and rejected the motion.

The recent war with Hamas in Gaza is part of the same conflict. Having pulled out of Gaza in 2005 with good intentions Israel was rewarded with over 12000 missiles that have rained down on her southern towns and villages. No nation would accept this without a permanent holt to this aggression but once again, by the pressure of the international community, Israel has been bullied into pulling back from a total defeat of these terrorists and this by an Islamist in Egypt who certainly fully supports Hamas and seeks only by this move to consolidate his power base before moving on to deal with Israel in the future! It is a sad day when international politicians of all stripes can no longer discern between good and evil and thus, in the near future, there will be a campaign to rehabilitate Hamas and give it legitimacy!! These calls are already being heard.

We are therefore witnessing the rise of global anti-Semitism and with it a sustained attack against Israel. This attack has been pursued through two strategies: First, that of conflict and terrorism and second, by litigation, the smear of Apartheid leveled against Israel and campaigns to disinvest boycott and sanction Israel. Sadly, many main line churches have given their support to this attack. We are looking at warfare and “lawfare” against Israel and now this will escalate! The goal is to discredit Israel, delegitimize Israel and finally dismantle Israel. The Israelis are putting a brave face on the UN decision but nevertheless it is a serious development and the future will demonstrate how this will be played out. The UN decision of the 29th November has put “the wind at the back” of Israel’s enemies and they will now take full advantage of this. For the present we thank God for the USA and Canada that have stood firm in their support of Israel but we must know that the enemies of Israel will do all that they can to corrupt and break the unshakable relationship that exists between the USA, Canada and Israel.

Seventy years ago thirteen million Jews were threatened in Europe and six million were exterminated while much of the world watched silently. This must not happen again. Now is the time for Christians everywhere to stand up and be counted. We must do all that we can to befriend the Jewish people and Israel. We all have a sphere of influence that we can tap into.

The following words are by Canada’s Foreign Minister, John Baird, please note them carefully:

“In choosing not to stand idly by as the age-old hatred of the Jewish
people has been transferred to the “collective Jew”, I have been speaking
up against the new anti-Semitism that is so pervasive today in the world.
It targets the Jewish people by targeting the Jewish homeland, as the source
of injustice and conflict in the world. It is perversely couched in the language
of human rights. Just as conventional ant-Semitism denied Jews the right to
live as equal members of humanity, the new anti-Semitism denies the State
of Israel the right to live as an equal member of the international community.
Worse still, when this new anti-Semitism expresses itself in the call for the
destruction of Israel and the Jewish people, it is no longer hate speech,
it is incitement to genocide. And we have to name it for what it is.”

The dangers are clear and we must rise to meet them, just as John Baird does, knowing all the time that in the end the battle is the Lord’s and He will not fail His people.

Thus prayer and intercession must be the power behind all that we do.

Malcolm Hedding.

Global Hypocrisy and Selective Morality

by Malcolm Blog Hamas Iran Israel justice Middle East UN

“Now it shall come to pass in the latter days that
the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be estab-
lished on the top of the mountains, and shall be
exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow
to it. Many people shall come and say, “Come,
and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to
the house of the God of Jacob; He will teach us
His ways, and we shall walk in His paths.” For
out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word
of the Lord from Jerusalem. He shall judge
between the nations, and rebuke many people;
they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and
their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not
lift up sword against nation, neither shall they
learn war anymore.”
Isaiah 2:2-4

As I write the global media has wrung its hands and gnashed its teeth over the civil war in Syria and the killing of some 13,000 civilians by Assad but done nothing! Well this is to be expected but one cannot help but wonder why there are no rallies and riots all over the world protesting the killing of civilians as this war drags on to its inevitable end?  Where were the screaming masses that took to the streets in London and elsewhere when Israel, legitimately, defended itself against Hamas initiated terrorism in 2008? They were protesting the loss of plus/minus one thousand civilian lives in Gaza. As things turned out just on six hundred of these were Hamas terrorists and combatants.

This war in Syria has seen countless thousands of civilians lose their lives and thousands more have been displaced in the last month alone! Did the United Nations, set up to be the guardians of peace, intervene with swift military action, as they did in Libya? Of course not;……and, what of the European Union? Apart from a few statements, they pursued “business as usual”. This was not Israel so no one cared and no one took to the streets on behalf of the suffering civilian population. States like Russia and China actually blocked all attempts to condemn Syria in the UN. They have “their vested interests”; more often than not the sale of weapons! This is nothing short of hypocrisy! But we’ve become used to it since it happens time and time again.

Ahmadinejad can deny the Holocaust and call for the destruction of Israel on a global stage, and arm himself with nuclear weapons to do it, and he can walk the halls of government around the world with impunity. The masses will not turn out to protest and Iranian flags will not be burned. In fact western European governments will continue doing business with him where and how they can in spite of the sanctions. This is the morally bankrupt world we live in. Selective morality is the name of the game and one thing stays constant; Israel will always get a bashing!

Her antagonists want concessions from her without recognizing her right to exist and the world, that is the Western World, goes along with this. This, in itself, demonstrates that the goal of those seeking concessions is not a two state solution living side-by-side in peace security but rather a one state solution with Israel consigned to oblivion. How odd that Western politicians can’t see through this or, is there another agenda? The recent termination of the gas flow from Egypt to Israel is a flagrant violation of the Peace accords signed between the two nations in 1979. Once again Israel gave up land for an agreement on paper that is being torn up! The same happened with Lebanon in 2000 and with Gaza in 2005. Land for peace is in fact land for more conflict! When will the lesson be learned?

Politics is always filled with intrigue and betrayal not to mention corruption. For these reasons it is good to know that there is a God in Heaven who has planned a day of reckoning for all nations. On that day the truth, and only the truth, will come out and Israel will be the place from which real peace will radiate to the world. The vision will not fail because Isaiah saw it!   Even the United Nations has inscribed this vision upon its walls! How ironic!

Malcolm Hedding.

Playing with Matches

by Malcolm Bible Blog Christian Zionism Church evangelical evangelicals Israel Jesus justice Middle East Muslim Palestinians

World Council of ChurchesA recent article, featured in the Jerusalem Post, written by Abraham Cooper and Yitzchak Adlerstein, reported on how there is an attempt to undermine evangelical support for Israel by pro-Palestinian agenda groups including evangelicals. Sadly, organizations like the World Council of Churches and some prominent evangelical Christians have joined this “band-wagon.” Not only do they rewrite history in collaboration with their Palestinian friends but, embarrassed by the Word of God itself, they have called for the “dezionisation” of scripture. Theirs is what I call a “Waffle Iron Theology” meaning that those parts of the Bible that contradict their narrative they want expunged from it just as one cuts the batter,  that doesn’t fit in, away from the waffle machine. In short they are playing with matches and those that play with matches should not be surprised if they start a fire! In this game “extreme Palestinian political ambitions are often cloaked in theological garb” as the authors of the article state. They are right! Scripture is twisted and denied in an attempt to overcome its very clear statements about the land of Israel and the return of the Jews to it. These people will never be convinced by a balanced, biblical exposition of scripture. They have made their minds up and will definitely not be confused with facts.

Jesus

In their deluded world Jesus is a Palestinian Freedom Fighter and thus they divorce Him entirely from His Jewish context and roots. He was of course nothing of the sort and He came to Israel because of God’s faithfulness to the Abrahamic Covenant. (Luke 1:46-55) It is this Covenant that is at the crux of the issue, and therefore, they have tried every trick, in their theological box of matches, to try and burn it up. Their problem is even more compounded because the New Testament everywhere fully affirms the Abrahamic Covenant and no where changes or abolishes it. Indeed it is held up to wavering believers as a sure example of God’s faithfulness in the Book of Hebrews. (Hebrews 6:13-20) Paul establishes it in Galatians three and ends the chapter by saying that “if you are Christ’s then you are Abraham’s children according to the promise (covenant)”. (Galatians 3:29) Jesus was always the object of the Covenant but His people were always the context and platform out of which He came. For precisely this reason God promised the land of Canaan to them as an everlasting possession.  (Genesis 17:7-8)This really “sticks up the nose” of the “matchstick players.” They would much rather expunge the Abrahamic Covenant from scripture for this would free them from their problem and empower them to continue their real agenda which is the extermination of all of Israel! After all Palestinian school books teach this!

The God factor

Christian and Muslim clericsThe conflict in the region is really not about so called social justice. I wish it was but sadly it is not. It has everything to do with the dismantling of the Jewish State that is an affront to Islam! This is the truth! It takes many twists and turns and new strategies are embraced all the time in the pursuit of this one agenda. Christians, without a proper biblical grounding, fall for this intrigue all the time and sadly have no fear of God. Now this is not to say that everything that Israel does is right and certainly the indiscriminate killing of civilians by Palestinian terrorists is routinely ignored by these Christians. It’s all Israel’s fault and they are deaf and blind to anything else. They travel to Iran to meet with Muslim Clerics and there, as they do everywhere, they declare biblical Christian Zionism to be sin. When you have no case biblically name calling and smearing is always the position opted for! However, great Christians who have had a profound impact upon our world have held Christian Zionist views through the centuries because they were, in the first instance honoring God! Theirs was a biblical position first, then secondly a question of living in the fear of God and thirdly a recognition of Israel’s unique place in redemption history. History is filled with the wreckage of people who played with matches on this issue and then were burned by the fire they ignited! It will not be different now.

No amount of trickery, debunking of the scriptures or rewriting of history will change the outcome. The Jews have returned to Canaan to stay! That’s it and Christians, if they want to be honest influencers should quit the blame game and encourage both parties to settle their differences within this context!

Malcolm Hedding.

Understanding Church Movements and their views of Scripture

by Malcolm Acts Bible Blog Church Darby evangelical Israel justice Law Scofield

Church movements throughout the years have all approached the Bible differently and this in turn has greatly impacted their life and practice in the world and relationship to Israel and the Jews. While the following models presented are general in presentation they do nevertheless faithfully define these movements and thereby help us to better understand the theological factors that motivate their actions.

The Aerial View
These movements look at the Bible as if it were a sphere. They see method in its pages and embrace the principle. In other words they see a temple in the Hebrew Scriptures, take the principle, and build churches that are in like fashion divided up into two sections. I.e.: A holy place for the congregation and a holy of holies for the Ministers or Priests. They do the same with candles, incense, vestments and “methods” of the New Testament Scriptures like elders, deacons etc.

  1. As regards Jesus death they stress His passion and sacrifice and call on their people to follow His example in sacrificial living etc.
  2. As regards eternity there is very little preaching on the reality of hell. The impression is very often left that all people, who live decently, will go to heaven.
  3. The dangers in this tradition are lack of true evangelical zeal, compromise and Laodiceanism (the lukewarm church).
  4. The Jews are mostly in reflection. That is, their symbols and stories adorn stained glass windows and furnishings.
  5. Their historic engagement is in the arena of social issues relating to justice and righteousness on earth.

The Segment View
For folks in this tradition the Bible is indeed like a sphere but they remove a segment of it. They see principles and embrace method. Much like removing a piece of cake from the whole. It is on this segment that they concentrate. They mainly emphasize the book of Acts as a resource and are reactionary to the wider Church in the world. That is, they are “ purists” in that they believe that they are rebuilding a New Testament Church. Their approach to other expressions of the Church is very often summed in one phrase, “Come out of them my people.”

  1. As regards the death of Jesus it was a passionate expiation of sin and they spend much time preaching on hell and the consequences of sin.
  2. The danger is that very often they are authoritarian in character, have cultic tendencies and fall into the trap of Nicolatianism (power over the laity).
  3. For them the Jews are in history. They are a biblically outdated people with no further role to play in world events.
  4. The historical engagement of this part of the church has been evangelism, as in the house church movement in the United Kingdom of the 80s and 90s. They are isolationists with a heavy emphasis upon a heavenly kingdom. They sometimes even frown upon Christians who vote in national elections. In short they have abandoned the world and its suffering completely. After all it is passing away!

The Linear View
Christians in this tradition see time and purpose. For them the Bible is like a long line of events, beginning at the Book of Genesis, that are broken up into dispensations of time. History is thus dispensational in that the dispensations of time reflect a different aspect of heavenly purpose. These dispensations of time are ages and there are five of these in sequence. That is, ages of innocence, conscience, law, grace and fulfillment.

Those who hold to this tradition have embraced Darbyism, though many who hold to this view of the Bible wouldn’t know it. In America it is called Scofieldism.

  1. As regards the death of Jesus, it is a passionate rescue plan and as a consequence there is much preaching on end time events.
  2. The dangers in this tradition are tunnel vision, the devaluation of Biblical truth and very hardened eschatological views. They easily birth false apostles and do not engage the world compassionately.
  3. For them the Jews are a prophetic sign and they have no real concern or interest in them other than their capacity to fulfill end time expectations.
  4. They engage the world evangelistically with much emphasis on the “lateness of the hour.”

The Legal View
This view sees action and consequence. That is, all have sinned and therefore fall short of the glory of God or; the wage that sin pays is death. The Bible is thus a book of “The Covenant.” Salvation through all of time has only been by grace on the grounds of Jesus Finished work on the cross. The promise of the Son that He would die for the sins of the world was given, before time began, and thus, theologically, He died before the foundation of the world. The various Covenants of the Bible reinforce the Abrahamic Covenant which is God’s great decision to save the world and constitutes the first proclamation of the Gospel. (Galaltians3:8) The God of the Bible thus enters into a relationship with humankind based on legal undertakings that are set out and enforced in the covenants.

  1. As regards Jesus death it is a passionate act of propitiation. He, on the cross, satisfied the demands of God’s character that is reflected in the moral or majestic law (Ten Commandments). Jesus was born under the law, lived perfectly under the law, was condemned under the law and died under the law.
  2. The dangers are that one’s expression of faith becomes too technical and doctrinal losing warmth, love and compassion. Since this view recognizes the role that Israel plays in God’s plan of world redemption it can produce warped theological views and sometimes Israel can supplant the place that Jesus should occupy in believer’s lives.
  3. Jews and Israel occupy a central role in this theological position since they are the custodians of the oracles of God and Gentiles share in their spiritual things.
  4. The historical engagement of this part of the Church is seen in philo-Semitism and world evangelism.

Conclusion
This is a general but fairly true definition of Church groups. There is something good and bad in all of them and it is for us to think about them and construct our view accordingly.

I leave you with this challenge.

Malcolm Hedding