There is a lot of ignorace in the West today about, well, a lot of what goes on in the world around us. We have much more information than we've ever had at our finger tips, yet we still choose to keep ourselves in the dark about much of what we've been taught throughout the years. Some of us don't have the time, some of us only read articles online that affirm what we already believe, and others of us would rather keep ourselves numb and entertained with the myriad of screens that soothe our brains to sleep.
I would challenge you, especially if you are a Christian in the West, to spend a good amount of time researching the reality of one piece of the United State's foreign policy, involving our relationship with Israel.
Many Christians automatically toe the party line when it comes to our support of Israel. We believe all of the Zionist propaganda and don't take the time to study the parts of the Bible used (or misused) to back up that propaganda. The reality that we either do not know, or choose to ignore, is that our support actually helps persecute and kill our Palestinian brothers and sisters in Christ. Now, that's not to say that we should therefore support the PLO or Islamic groups that have killed many civilians. It just seems necessary to me, that if we are going to support a country without questioning it's actions, we should at least know the whole truth about those actions. Also, we have to ask ourselves how God views this support? What does He think about our inolvement in the oppression of those He bought with His blood, who love and serve Jesus, who are actively working in awful conditions to try and bring peace to their land?
If you are up to the challenge, I would highly recommend three books to get you started:
"Blood Brothers: The Dramatic Story of a Palestinian Christian Working for Peace in Israel" by Elias Chacour
"Light Force: A Stirring Account of the Church Caught in the Middle East Crossfire" by Brother Andrew and Al Janssen
"Son of Hamas" by Mosab Hassan Yousef
Here is an excerpt from "Light Force" to get you started. This is the conversation between a Dutch Christian and a Palestinian Islamic Jihad member:
"'Now I would like to ask you some questions.'
'What sort of questions?' I asked him.
'About Christianity and the Bible,' he replied. 'I have spent nineteen years in prison. I was first arrested in 1971. I was freed in 1985 as part of a prisoner exchange. I was arrested again in 1988 and several more times since. When you spend that much time in prison, you have a lot of time to think.'
I wondered if Abdul had been imprisoned for terrorist activities. Or was he kept in administrative detention, as I knew thousands of Palestinians were? Regardless, prisoners had little physical activity, which, unless they were determined to use their time productively, provided opportunity for their hatred to fester and grow.
Abdul leaned forward to say, 'You talk about the future of peace. The solution is Islam! I reached that conclusion in prison.' He leaned back, lit his cigarette, and added, 'I read the Bible in prison. I also read the Quran and that's when I decided to become a Muslim.' '
'You were not a Muslim already?'
'Culturally, I was a Muslim. Not intellectually. However, I have questions about the Bible and Christianity, and maybe you can answer them.'
I opened my hands on the table, inviting him to ask whatever he wished.
He didn't ask anything at first but rather launched into a passionate speech....'That's right. We revere Jesus. He was a great prophet. But the Jews didn't listen to Him. Jesus symbolized for us our struggles. When I read the Injil [Arab word for Gospel, used for the New Testament], I identified with Jesus. My problem is with the Old Testament. For example, in the book of Joshua, how could God order the Jews to go into Jericho and kill every living person, including women and children and all the animals? And yet we are condemned if one of our people, fighting for our land that was taken from us, kills a few civilians. Can you explain to me the difference?''
My friends and I were surprised by the intensity of Abdul's words. More calmly than I felt, I tried to answer his question. 'You have to understand the context,' I explained, choosing my words carefully. 'The people living in the land then were idol worshipers who practiced child sacrifice among their many wicked acts. God gave them four hundred years to change their ways. When they didn't, being God, He had the right to wipe them out and replace them with the people of His choosing.'
'But that is not the situation today,' Abdul said. 'We are not pagans.'
'You are correct that this is not the same situation. The orders God gave Joshua were unique.'
Abdul crushed the remainder of his cigarette and lit another. 'Maybe you can explain this to me. Why do the Christian Zionists support Israel so strongly? I would like to understand.'
'You ask me the hard questions!' I laughed and for the first time Abdul smiled for an instant. 'Let me first say that not all Christians are Zionists. There are two factors at work for many Christians. One is guilt.' Here I briefly explained how, for the most part, the Christians in the West didn't rise up and protest the killing of Jews during the Holocaust. 'After the war, many Christians believed that it was necessary to give the Jews a place of their own so that they would no longer be at the mercy of a ruthless tyrant like Hitler.
'The second factor concerns theology. There are many Christians who believe that God is preparing the world for the end times and that the nation of Israel is the fulfillment of many prophecies. They conclude that if they don't support Israel, they are resisting God's plans.'
'I have heard that in the book of Zechariah the last two chapters are being fulfilled today. Do you believe that?'
Obviously Abdul had read the Minor Prophets. 'Now you ask me to explain one of the toughest passages in the Bible. Those chapters are indeed about the last days. We believe that Jesus will rule over all the earth, as it says in Zechariah 14:9. I don't need to remind you that Muslims believe this as well. But whether the present state of Israel is referenced in these verses, well, Christians do not agree on that.'....
[After Abdul left]...Al and the Palestinian Pastor sat in stunned silence. Finally, Al commented that he was amazed at the man's openness.
'Why?' I asked.
'He's a thinker. He seems to be genuinely searching.'
'You are surprised that he is a human being like you and me? Perhaps it is easier to think of him as mindless terrorist. That will do nothing to help solve the problems of the Middle East.'
Later as I lay on my bed, a ceiling fan trying listlessly to move the hot, humid air in my stuffy room, I thought about how Al's response was typical of many Western Christians. The news media rarely put a face on Islamic fundamentalist groups in Gaza and West Bank. Therefore few people stopped to think that these men, like people everywhere, had families, dreams, and fears. Abdul was married, and he'd told us that he had seven young children. I could imagine him at home, sitting on his sofa with a toddler snuggled up to him on each side. This wasn't how most of us chose to think of a senior member of Islamic Jihad. I wondered how many of his colleagues were also struggling to figure out the meaning of life. For many, their only source of enlightenment was Islam."
- Brother Andrew
from: http://www.amazon.com/Light-Force-Stirring-Account-Crossfire/dp/0800731042/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1387132651&sr=1-1&keywords=light+force
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