Christianity

January 21, 2022 By Olivier Melnick Leave a Comment

Are We Learning Anything from Pittsburgh, Poway or Colleyville?

80 years ago this week, a handful of high-ranking Nazi officials gathered in the Berlin suburb of Wannsee for a conference during which they discussed the “Final Solution to the Jewish Question”. This was the Nazi euphemism used to privately describe the systematic and deliberate attempt at destroying all European Jews. The various officials represented all the government agencies that were called to work together towards the nefarious goal that almost succeeded.

The conference was not the start of the annihilation of the European Jews. Most of its participants were aware of Nazi Germany’s efforts to mass murder Jews. The Einsatzgruppen had been working for about a year, but they were not efficient enough. Shooting Jews into mass graves that they had dug themselves was too slow for Hitler even though about a third of all the Jewish victims of the Holocaust were killed by mass shootings. The conference only lasted 90 minutes and out of it, a list of 11 million European Jews was drafted. There are very few surviving copies of the protocol document documenting the Conference.

Today, very few people remember, let alone know about the Wannsee Conference and the official implementation of the “Final Solution to the Jewish Question.” Ignorance, apathy or pure disdain are no excuses. If we continue to ignore the dark markers of history, eventually, they will disappear, and the next generation will think that they were just myths or propaganda with no factual truth. We cannot afford that, especially at a time when the weed of antisemitism is starting to regrow and thus choke our historical accuracy and make Jews into monsters again. We are always only one anti-Semite away from another tragedy. This was made clear in Colleyville, Texas, even if the outcome was a good one for all four hostages.

On Saturday, January 15, 2022, a hostage situation unraveled in Colleyville, Texas near Fort Worth. Pakistani UK citizen, Malik Faisal Akram entered Congregation Beth Israel during a live-streamed Shabbat service and took the Rabbi and three congregants hostage. The man claimed to be the brother of extremely dangerous terrorist Aalia Siddiqui, serving an 86-year sentence in a nearby Fort Worth prison. He repeatedly requested her immediate release. It turned out that they were not related after all. By the end of the day after one of the hostages was first released, the Rabbi who had received FBI training helped the other two hostages escape shortly before the FBI raided the facility and shot Malik Faisal Akram.

This is one hostage story that ended well for all, and we ought to praise God for how swiftly the SWAT team intervened. Unfortunately, these do not always end well. Many will remember the 2015 “I Am Charlie” terrorist attack on French soil, culminating in the death of four Jewish hostages at the Paris Kosher Supermarket. Closer to home, we remember the 2018 deadly Pittsburgh Tree of Life synagogue shooting that killed eleven and wounded six (the deadliest attack on the Jewish community in America). Then there was the Poway Chabad Synagogue in Southern California in 2019. One person was killed and three were injured.

It is important to look back and learn from the past, but as we all look forward, the questions remain. Can these tragedies happen again, and if yes, can anything be done to prevent them from happening?

Let me reiterate that we are just one antisemitic person away from the next tragedy. So, yes, we will most likely experience more of the same in the future, but this should not deter us from being involved in the fight against antisemitism. Three aspects of this fight need to be discussed: education, prayer and involvement.

Most news outlets, commentators and even scholars, usually comment on antisemitism from a secular viewpoint. The Jewish hatred is approached from different vantage points that are too often crippled by political correctness. Why was it so hard for the FBI representative in Colleyville to admit that a hostage situation in a Synagogue on Shabbat, to free antisemitic terrorist Aalia Siddiqui, was indeed an act of antisemitism? He was quoted saying “the issue was not specifically related to the Jewish community”. Regarding the same act of antisemitism, CAIR (Council on American Islamic Relations) was quick to whitewash the incident and refocus the public’s attention towards Aalia Siddiqui, painted as a martyr/victim. I can appreciate their desire to protect the Muslim community from backlash because of what one man –who happened to be a Muslim–did, but we must be careful not to overcompensate. Eventually, the FBI had to back-pedal and admit that this was a clear case of antisemitism. The FBI Director finally admitted that it was “an act of terrorism targeting the Jewish community”.

Proper education is key here. Anytime we are swayed towards a biased narrative, our judgment becomes blurred, and our decisions are no longer based on facts, but on either the culture or a certain political agenda. That is dangerous. The fact that the Colleyville incident was not immediately labeled as an act of antisemitism, shows that, as a society, our values are shifting. For Christians, it should be clear that the culture should never dictate the Gospel, but rather the Gospel should punctuate the culture while being contextualized, but without compromise.

Jewish people, today more than ever, need to know that Christians have their backs. 2,000 years of antisemitism, many times by people whom the Jewish community believed to be Christians, is a lot of baggage for evangelicals today. Unfortunately, this is baggage that cannot be ignored or minimized, even though it might not be yours personally. If you are a Christian, it has been connected to you by the Jewish community. This baggage must be studied and understood if we want to be able to relate to our Jewish friends and earn the right to speak. Only then can we tell them what it means to be a Bible-believing follower of the Jewish Messiah.

Alongside education comes prayer. Truly, prayer needs to be at the foundation of all that we do as believers. Praying for the peace of Jerusalem (Psalm 122:6) is important, but this ought not be the only prayer for Israel and the Jewish people. We need to remember to pray for the safety of our Jewish friends and families, but also for their salvation (Romans 10:1). Additionally, as believers, we are even challenged to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us (Matthew 5:44).

We must also remember that the hatred for Israel and the Jewish people is not politically, geographically, culturally or even economically driven. It is a spiritual battle against Satan and those he chooses to use to hurt God by hurting the apple of His eye (Psalm 83:5; Zechariah 2:8b). Satan is the creator of antisemitism and we should never underestimate his drive to destroy the Jews.

So, we learn, we pray and then we speak up, and not necessarily always in that order. Learning is a continual thing; prayer is always necessary and speaking up occurs whenever there is a reason to voice our support. Speaking up will go a long way in rebuilding bridges between Christians and Jews that have been burned over the last 2,000 years.

A simple phone call or email to your local synagogue or Jewish community center to voice your support to the Jewish people will mean a lot in times of trouble. Christians might even consider volunteering to repair or clean up damages on Jewish property because of acts of antisemitic vandalism. The Jewish community might decline the offer, but the offer will never go unnoticed.

For churches that have an outside marquee, it is very easy and quite effective to show support for the Jewish community relating to a tragedy such as a hostage situation or even a killing.

Even outside of a reaction to a tragedy, churches can always display a “Happy New Year to our Jewish friends” or “Happy Passover” or “Happy Hanukkah” at the appropriate time. This too, as simple as you think it is, will go a long way. If the Jewish community organizes a rally in support of Israel or to fight antisemitism, now is the time for Christians to participate and show their support.

Education, prayer, and involvement are not that complicated, but they take time, the right attitude of the heart and a desire to make a difference for God’s kingdom. Once we earn the trust of our Jewish friends, we have also earned the right to speak and the Gospel can move forward.

Let’s not wait for the next Pittsburg, Poway or Colleyville to react. Rather, let’s be proactive and educate ourselves, pray and speak today! Antisemitism might never completely disappear on this side of eternity, but that should not discourage any of us from getting involved in fighting it. Because when it comes to loving Israel and the Jewish people, we are on God’s side!

December 15, 2021 By Olivier Melnick Leave a Comment

Antisemitism 2021: My Top Ten List! – Part 1

As I do each year in December, here is my review of the most important moments I documented in the area of antisemitism in 2021.

January 2021: International Holocaust Remembrance Day!
International Holocaust Remembrance Day is different from Yom HaShoah (Day of the Catastrophe) which falls annually, a week after Passover in Israel (started in 1953). Each year, on January 27, the international community remembers the Holocaust in various ways from synagogue services to vigils to educational events that include Holocaust survivors or scholars. Survivors have dwindled down to a few thousand globally. Considering that anybody born at the onset of the war in 1939 would be eighty-three years old today, most survivors of the Holocaust are in their late early nineties or older. Soon, they will all be in our memories. Here are a few things we can do:

Listen to a Holocaust survivor: The powerful work of the staff at The Holocaust and Antisemitism Foundation brings many testimonies from survivors on video, and by virtue of that medium, renders their unique stories eternal. Additionally, the Steven Spielberg Shoah Foundation has over 54,000 video testimonies of survivors that are there to stay. Every single one of them is poignant and memorable in its own way.
Visit a Death Camp: Walking alongside the one-way train tracks, through the eerily empty barracks and on the death-camp grounds will leave an indelible mark in your memory. The Death Camps are gruesome monuments from one of the darkest periods of mankind’s history. If at all possible, everybody, and most definitely every Christian should walk through one of them once in their lifetime.
Visit a Holocaust Memorial Museum: There are several Holocaust Memorials in the United States. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington D.C. or the Simon Wiesenthal Center/Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles are just two of the most impactful and fruitful in their respective communities and nationally. The list is much longer and warrants several different visits if possible.
Read an account of the Holocaust: From survivors’ accounts to biographies, historical accounts and even poems, the choices are many. Every human being should read the short but life-altering account of Elie Wiesel’s time at Auschwitz-Birkenau retold in Night, his story of resilience and survival against all odds. A detailed and accurate account of the Holocaust can be found in Lucy Dawidowicz The War Against the Jews or in The destruction of the European Jews by Raul Hilberg. If you are not a reader, you can always watch Schindler’s List.

It is our duty as human beings to remember the Holocaust, retell its history to the current and future generations and resist antisemitism by speaking up against those who deny that it ever happened. Don’t rely on others to remember the uniqueness of the Holocaust! Don’t wait for someone else to come alongside or speak up in your place. speak up and remember because it is the right thing to do, and not only on January 27.

February 2021: Covid 19 and the Jews!
• 20% of all English people believe that Jews created Covid-19: As people were surveyed, according to The Oxford Coronavirus Explanations, Attitudes, and Narratives Survey (OCEANS), “Presented with the statement “Jews have created the virus to collapse the economy for financial gain,” 5.3% of the interviewees “agreed a little,” 6.8% “agreed moderately,” 4.6% “agreed a lot,” and 2.4% “agreed completely,” while some 80.8% did not agree with it at all.”
• People accuse the Jews of using the vaccine to control the world population: The CEO of Pfizer, Albert Bourla, is a Greek man of Jewish ancestry. This is enough for crazy conspiracy theorists to claim that the Jews created the vaccine and will use it to streamline the world population and control the world. This is in line with the same theories advanced in the 1904 hoax “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion”.
• Ohio men accuse Jews of being the real plague: During a street protest in Columbus, Ohio against Covid-19 restrictions, two men displayed a sign of a rat looking like a Jew with an Israeli flag. The sign also said: “the real plague”. This is strongly reminiscent of the accusations against the Jewish community during the Black Plague of 1348-51 when Jews were accused of poisoning the wells of Europe simply because of the smaller number of Jewish casualties due to kosher laws and liturgical hygiene.
• Social networks abound with antisemitic memes about the Jews either being or controlling the virus: Vicious attacks on Jewish people and on Israel are everywhere on social networks and most of them are not being censored because of the First Amendment. I am all for claiming Freedom of Speech as long as we are consistent and do not allow for double standards. Unfortunately, this is far from being the case.
• Rashida Tlaib claims that Israel doesn’t vaccinate Palestinians: She tweeted, “It’s really important to understand that Israel is a racist state, in that they would deny Palestinians like my grandmother access to a vaccine, that they don’t believe she’s an equal human being who deserves to live.” The opposite is true. Israel has offered vaccines to Palestinians and many have accepted them. The Palestinian Authority also refused a recent planeload of vaccines from the United Arab Emirates, simply because it was coordinated with Israel for distribution.
• Saturday Night Live comedian claims Israel only vaccinates Jews: On February 20, SNL host Michael Che said: “Israel is reporting that they’ve vaccinated half of their population, and I’m gonna guess it’s the Jewish half.” It really looks like using the blood libel to demonize the Jewish people is still in fashion. Incidentally, Michael Che has repeatedly insulted Jewish people before, but he is very careful not to denigrate other minorities. Entertainers have been fired for less than this. SNL used to be a funny satirical comedy show, but that ship sailed a long time ago.

March 2021: How Christian is Christian Antisemitism?
There is a recurring accusation, especially within Jewish circles, that the New Testament is antisemitic. The justification for such an accusation is found in 2,000 years of Jewish history that have been punctuated by a myriad of antisemitic acts–many of them apparently rooted in Christianity and its teachings. So, the question bears asking, how Christian is Christian antisemitism? Furthermore, is the New Testament antisemitic?

• The New Testament is a very Jewish Book
From the very first words of the first book in the New Testament, everything is Jewish as it records the genealogy of the Jewish Messiah: ” The record of the genealogy of Yeshua the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham: Abraham was the father of Isaac, Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers.” (Matthew 1:1-2). The audience is Jewish, the writers are Jewish (Luke being the possible exception). The context is Jewish, the culture is Jewish and much of the geography is Jewish. As a matter of fact, it is nearly impossible to fully understand the richness of the New Testament without reading it in its Jewish context. Most believers spend their whole life reading the Bible in “Black and White” until they look at the Jewish perspective and all of a sudden, the same story appears in “color and HD”. Don’t quote me wrong, reading our Bible is vital, even when it is not done with an understanding of its Jewish backdrop, but it is greatly enhanced once we look at the Word through Jewish eyes.
• The New Testament Uses Strong Language
How do we reconcile words like “the synagogue of Satan” (Revelation 2:9 3:9) or “your father the devil” (John 8:44) or even “you brood of vipers” (Matthew 3:7)? They are indeed very strong words directed at Jewish people. Those accusatory words were definitely used in the New Testament to describe the hypocrisy and sin of some of the Jewish leaders contemporary of Yeshua. They were accurate words to be sure, but what has been missed and has led to so much damage is the fact that they were used to denounce people who happened to be disobedient sinners first and Jewish second. Their ethnicity didn’t play a role in their guilt. This is what we could call the “Great Christian Departure”. The Church started to attach the sins of early (Jewish) believers to their non-related Jewishness, and before long, being Jewish became a crime.
• The Old Testament Also Uses Strong Language
Why is it that when similar language is used to describe the disobedience of Israel in the Jewish Law and the Prophets, nobody–especially in the Jewish community–has a problem with it? In Deuteronomy 9:7, Moses calls the Jewish people “rebellious.” Is he antisemitic? In Deuteronomy 9:13, God calls the Jewish people “stubborn” and wants to kill them all. Is God antisemitic? Nonsense! Ezekiel calls Israel “stubborn and obstinate” (Ezekiel 3:7). The descriptions are perfectly in line with the actions of the children of Israel described all throughout the Tenach, and they are no different than those of the New Testament, except that they come from the Jewish Scriptures, prior to Yeshua’s first coming, and somehow, that makes them acceptable. Is there a double standard here?
• The Jews Didn’t Kill the Messiah
The most common accusation against the Jewish people that continues to this day, is that of deicide (the killing of God). Jews the world over continue to be called “Christ Killers” by Christians and non-Christians alike. There are two problems with that accusation. First, even if some Jewish people were guilty of the crucifixion of Yeshua (and they are not), it would never make sense to paint with broad strokes and render all Jews of all time guilty of the same crime. By the same logic, all Germans would be Nazis and all Muslims would-be terrorists. This is ludicrous! However, and more importantly, Yeshua gave His own life in obedience to the Father as we read in John 10:17-18, “For this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life so that I may take it again. No one has taken it away from Me, but I lay it down on My own initiative. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This commandment I received from My Father.” So, in reality, we are all sharing the guilt without exception.
• Context is Everything
The very fact that many early Christians took the Scriptures out of context and allegorized much of them doesn’t make the New Testament antisemitic, it simply makes it misinterpreted and misapplied. Can Christians be antisemitic? I think that history speaks clearly on that matter, yes, they can! But are they antisemitic because they follow the teachings of Yeshua of Nazareth? Absolutely not! 2,000 years of Scripture twisting to accommodate and justify human behavior against the Jews have left a bloody stain on mankind in general and the Church in particular. But it is not based on anything taught in the Bible.

So, it is fair to say that Christian antisemitism is not Christian at all. If one takes the Bible literally, all have sinned and fall short of God’s glory (Romans 3:23 ). “All” means Jews and non-Jews alike with no exceptions. Christian antisemitism is simply antisemitism committed by Christians who read their Bible improperly and use it as an excuse to ostracize and demonize the Jewish people. The Christians who paint–with broad strokes– the Jewish people as a sub-human group are as guilty as the Jewish people who claim that all Christians are antisemitic and so is the New Testament. It is time to keep things in context and approach God’s word in context with humility and sincerity.

April 2021: A New US Assistant Secretary of State with Ties to Hamas…What Could Possibly Go Wrong?
Even though the current US administration vows that they seek Israel’s safety, they have shown no interest in dealing with the Middle East as a priority and have made Hady Amr the new Deputy Assistant Secretary for Israel and Palestinian Affairs. He is the highest US ranking official for Middle East affairs, but the question is, “Does he have the credentials for such a task?”

• Hady Amr is a practicing Muslim: This isn’t an issue in and of itself, as freedom of religion is part of our constitution (rightfully so), but might not be the best choice for the person officially representing the US government in the Middle East.
• Hady Amr wrote that He was inspired by the Palestinian Intifada: The Intifada (meaning “uprising”), was organized unrest from Palestinians against Israel, based on the false premise that Israel is an occupier and colonizer and trying to push Palestinians out of their own ancestral land. There is no archeological, geographical or historical basis for such a claim.
• Hady Amr has repeatedly called for dealing with Hamas: Hamas is a terrorist organization with a charter calling for the complete destruction of Israel.
• Hady Amr has been instrumental in resuming US funding to the PA: One of the first items on his agenda has been to restore US funding to the Palestinian authority. US taxpayers are now forced to fund terrorism again.
• Hady Amr has strong ties to Qatar: He lived and worked there for years, establishing a branch of the Brookings Institute. Qatar is notorious for funding terrorism and supporting Hamas and having ties with Al-Qaeda and the Taliban.
• Hady Amr has accused Israel of murdering innocent children: He wrote: “Arabs will never, never forget what the Israeli people, the Israeli military and Israeli democracy have done to Palestinian children. And there will be thousands who will seek to avenge these brutal murders of innocents.”
• Hady Amr has accused Israel of ethnic cleansing: He continues to promote the false narrative that Israel has taken over Palestinian land and committed ethnic cleansing, when in fact, there are more Arabs in Israel today than there were prior to 1948.

May 2021: Do Jewish Lives Matter Only in Theory?
On April 4, 2017, 65-year-old Sarah Halimi, a retired doctor, was tortured by her neighbor Kobili Traoré, and then thrown to her death from the window of her third-floor apartment. Traoré committed this murder while reciting verses from the Qur’an and calling Sarah Halimi a “dirty Jew”. Upon throwing her through the window, Traoré shouted in Arabic that he had succeeded in killing an evil spirit or “killed the Satan”.

When questioned, Traoré declared that he felt “persecuted”, and after realizing that he was high on marijuana, the French justice system decided that he would not stand trial. That decision basically sent the message that anyone’s voluntary drug consumption exonerates them from any responsibility. Traoré was officially acquitted in April 2021 and is literally getting away with murder, while the global media – for the most part – completely ignored this story. French President Emmanuel Macron said that the Jewish community has his full support. What did he mean by that? Were these empty words to save face? It is not the first time that Jewish people have been killed in France in recent years. What about the multiple stabbing of Holocaust survivor Mireille Knoll in 2018, left to die in her burning apartment? Of course, we all remember the kosher supermarket carnage of January 2015 when four Jewish shoppers were murdered. That was six years ago! The site of the tragedy–just a stone’s throw from the house I grew up in– continues to see flowers and photos brought in memory of the victims, that’s very thoughtful, but you cannot fight terrorism and antisemitism with flowers, photos and poems.

It would appear that the lives of Jewish people are not worth much. Incidentally, France is a country where people will get one year in prison if they throw their dog out the window. So, is the life of a dog worth more than the life of a Jewish person? It would appear so!

This can only encourage antisemites to perpetrate more crimes against Jews as they see that their actions if noticed AND if reported properly, might not even garner any punishment. Justice is usually served, but maybe not for Jews, after all. At least not for the foreseeable future in France. This is despicable and very scary for the Jewish community of France. That community already doesn’t report all antisemitic acts because very little if anything gets done when they do. Sometimes Jews even get accused of playing “the victim card” or calling any disagreement with the Jewish community “antisemitism.” There might have been some abuse in that area, but throwing a Jewish woman through her third-floor window screaming “Allahu Akbar” and “I have killed the Satan” is antisemitism without a doubt. So, do Jewish lives matter? Well, it certainly looks like they don’t in France.

In every situation, there are always going to be the perpetrators, the victims and the bystanders. In the case of Sarah Halimi (the victim) and Kolibi Traoré (the perpetrator), inevitably, there are some bystanders. People who are not Jewish, people who fear Islamic extremism’s repercussions and people guilty of “soft antisemitism” who wouldn’t kill Jewish people, but certainly don’t care if someone else does. If you don’t see the beginning wave of a repeat of history in Europe, you are not really paying attention. The last time a Jewish life was worth nothing, we let an evil man and his cohorts decimate six million Jews in the most horrific, systematic way possible.

Tune in next week for part 2 of my top ten list of Antisemitism 2021.

December 1, 2021 By Olivier Melnick Leave a Comment

There Wouldn’t Be Christmas If It Wasn’t For Hanukkah!

What a statement to be making, “There wouldn’t be Christmas if it wasn’t for Hanukkah!” To most people, this might sound like an oxymoron, but I would beg to differ. So, let’s look at the biblical and historical origins of Hanukkah, its modern practice, and finally, let’s investigate to see if it has any connection to Christmas (you might be surprised!)

The feast of Hanukkah is known as either ” The Feast of Dedication” or “The Festival of Lights”, and it actually is both. The word itself means “dedication.” As you will see, Hanukkah teaches us how God delivered and preserved His people and prepared the world for the arrival of the Jewish Messiah, Yeshua of Nazareth.

Historically speaking, the events that led to the creation of the Feast of Hanukkah are found in three of the four books found in the Apocrypha, known as “Maccabees I, II III and IV.” The reason that I speak of the historical record and not biblical is that evangelicals do not accept the Apocrypha as part of the inspired word of God found in the Jewish Bible. This doesn’t mean that their historical accuracy is in question, but simply that the authors of the story were not inspired by the Spirit of God to record the events. Details about the Maccabean revolt are found in I, II and IV Maccabees.

Additionally, the great Jewish historian Josephus wrote about Hanukkah in his Antiquities, in which he calls it “The Festival of Lights”, ” Now Judas celebrated the festival of the restoration of the sacrifices of the temple for eight days, and omitted no sort of pleasures thereon; but he feasted them upon very rich and splendid sacrifices; and he honored God, and delighted them by hymns and psalms. Nay, they were so very glad at the revival of their customs, when, after a long time of intermission, they unexpectedly had regained the freedom of their worship, that they made it a law for their posterity, that they should keep a festival, on account of the restoration of their temple worship, for eight days. And from that time to this we celebrate this festival, and call it Lights. I suppose the reason was because this liberty beyond our hopes appeared to us; and that thence was the name given to that festival.”

Biblically speaking, Hanukkah is not included in the Levitical feasts of the Lord found in Leviticus 23. Similar to the feast of Esther known as Purim, Hanukkah is a post-biblical holiday. It is a celebration that was instituted as the result of a significant event in Jewish history. The prophet Daniel tells us quite a bit about this event and about the rise and fall of Antiochus IV Epiphanes. He also was a type of the Antichrist that will come to the world’s stage in the future. In Daniel 11:3, we are told “And a mighty king will arise, and he will rule with great authority and do as he pleases.” This is a reference to Alexander the Great, the mighty Greek leader who conquered the known world, mostly from 333 BCE to 323 BCE, before his sudden death at a young age.

Alexander the Great didn’t dislike the Jewish people, but after his death, when his kingdom was divided between his things quickly changed. Daniel 11:5, 6, 9 and 11 tell us about the “King of the South” (Egypt) raging war against the “King of the North (Syria) for control over Israel, seen as a buffer zone. This took place between 331 BCE and 198 BCE, but in 198 BCE the Seleucids (Antiochus) gained control (Daniel 11:15, 18, 19).

Eventually, Antiochus IV acted against the Jews as we see in Daniel 11:29-31, “At the appointed time he will return and come into the South, but this last time it will not turn out the way it did before. For ships of Kittim will come against him; therefore he will be disheartened and will return and become enraged at the holy covenant and take action; so he will come back and show regard for those who forsake the holy covenant. Forces from him will arise, desecrate the sanctuary fortress, and do away with the regular sacrifice. And they will set up the abomination of desolation. The next verse (v. 32) speaks of the Maccabees,

Frankly, we get quite a bit of detail in the prophet Daniel to help us understand the Maccabean revolt against Antiochus, the rededication of the Temple and the inauguration of the Feast of Hanukkah. We do not get quite as much as in the three apocryphal books of the Maccabees, but the stories correlate nicely, considering that it took place a long time ago. That was almost 2200 years ago. Antiochus eventually desecrated the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem, massacred many Jewish people and outlawed Judaism altogether. He even sacrificed a pig on the Temple altar to further humiliate the Jewish people. He simply hated the Jews.

But a simple Jewish family from the village of Modi’in (about 30 miles NW of Jerusalem) wouldn’t remain silent. Mattathias and his five sons known as the Maccabees (meaning “hammer” in Hebrew), led a revolt against their oppressor. It took eight years, but they managed to liberate and retake the Temple from Antiochus and free the Jewish people from Hellenistic domination. And so, the story continues to this day.

They proceeded with the rededication and decided to relight the eternal light of the Temple menorah. They needed special consecrated olive oil and only had enough for one day. They lit the menorah and went on to prepare more oil knowing that the process would take a week. The story tells us that the one-day reserve miraculously lasted for the whole week until the new batch was ready. And so, the Feast of Dedication was born. We celebrate Hanukkah for eight nights, as we light a candle on the first night, two on the next night, and so on. The menorah, also known as a Hanukkiah, has nine branches (a regular menorah has seven). One of the branches is either displayed forward or to the side, but always set apart. It is called the shamash or “servant” candle as we light it first and use it to light the other ones and recite the Hanukkah prayers, “Blessed are You, Lord our G‑d, King of the universe, who has sanctified us with His commandments, and commanded us to kindle the Chanukah light.” and “Blessed are You, Lord our G‑d, King of the universe, who performed miracles for our forefathers in those days, at this time.”

We also eat a lot of foods that are fried in oil to remember the miracle of the oil. We eat potato pancakes called latkes, and jelly-filled donuts called sufganyot. Additionally, we spin little tops called dreidels on which four letters are inscribed meaning “a great miracle happened here” (for dreidels used in Israel) or “a great miracle happened there” for dreidels used anywhere else in the world. The modern observance of Hanukkah has often been called the “Jewish Christmas” because gifts are exchanged for eight nights, and the fact that it starts on the 25 of the Jewish month of Kislev which is believed to be the day that the Maccabees defeated Antiochus IV in 165 BCE, (almost always in December within a few weeks of Christmas.)

So, Hanukkah is a time of great celebration of how God preserved, protected and provided for our people. It is a festival of dedication and a festival of lights. It is often said that the Jewish people got a new holiday for each time that the world tried to kill them. And with that holiday, usually come special foods (Passover, Shavuot, Rosh Hashanah, Purim, etc.) So, in Jewish circles, we jokingly say, “They tried to kill us, we won, let’s eat!” And yet, there is another aspect of the Feast of Hanukkah that cannot be missed, and it has to do with its connection to Christmas and the birth of the Jewish Messiah. Oh, and by the way, Yeshua, the Jewish Messiah did celebrate Hanukkah and we can read about it in the New Testament.

It is crucial to understand that throughout our history, several attempts have been made to completely eradicate our people. It goes back to the third chapter of Genesis when Satan realized that the Messiah would be coming from the seed of the woman (Genesis 3:15), eventually learning that He would be from the tribe of Judah (Genesis 49:10) and the line of David (2 Samuel 7:16-17; Psalm 89:34-37.) In other words, the Bible promises beyond the shadow of a doubt that the Messiah would be a Jew in His humanity. If Satan wanted to thwart God’s plans to bring the Jewish Messiah on the world’s stage and secure his job as the great deceiver, the best way would be to completely decimate the Jewish people and put an end to the Jewish race, something that God promised would never happen in (Jeremiah 31:35-37.) This is God’s way of saying that nothing can be done to completely eliminate the Jewish people from the face of the earth,

Notice that God mentions at the very end that even Israel’s disobedience and idol worshipping couldn’t deter Him from preserving the Jewish people. In other words, their preservation is not depending on their performance, but on God’s character only. What a promise!

Several biblical characters were used by Satan to further his destructive agenda. The Pharaoh who didn’t know Joseph decided that all Jewish newborn males should be killed, and as retold in the book of Esther, Haman wanted Mordechai and the rest of the Jews of the kingdom to be killed. Incidentally, as an example of the promise God made in Genesis 12:3, all the first-born of Egypt were decimated as the result of the 10th plague against the Egyptians before the exodus of the Jewish people towards the Promised Land. Additionally, Haman and his sons ended up hanging on the very gallows that he had built for Mordechai. God’s covenantal promise to preserve the Jewish people, protect us and provide for us was strong then and it is strong now because God means what He says and says what He means.

So, when the events that led to the Feast of Hanukkah took place, even though many Jewish people tragically lost their lives, God wasn’t caught off guard and He had not changed His mind. Once again, the Jewish people prevailed, or more accurately, God prevailed on behalf of His people Israel.

I often say that anyone who doesn’t believe in God should look at the history of the Jewish people, our preservation and our growth against all odds. We absolutely shouldn’t exist if it wasn’t for God’s grace and His eternal, irrevocable covenantal promises (Romans 11:28-29), God Has always known that the Messiah would come through a Jewish family and this was not about to change. If the Jewish line was interrupted at the time of the Maccabean Revolt, the Messiah couldn’t have been born and this why we can say with certainty and with hope, “There wouldn’t be Christmas if it wasn’t for Hanukkah!” It has always been God’s timing.

It is God who originally set the stage for the arrival of the Messiah, not a minute too soon and not too late either, “But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law” as Paul tells us in Galatians. Here again, it is confirmed that in His human form, Messiah would be born “under the Law”, another way to mean that He would be a Jew.

The Bible also promises us that the Messiah would be a light to the nations. The theme of light against the darkness shouldn’t be missed. Isaiah 42:6 reads, “I am the LORD, I have called You in righteousness, I will also hold You by the hand and watch over You, And I will appoint You as a covenant to the people, As a light to the nations.” Speaking for God, he continues in 49:6, “It is too small a thing that You should be My Servant To raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the preserved ones of Israel; I will also make You a light of the nations So that My salvation may reach to the end of the earth.”

I find it fascinating that the prominent candle on the Hanukkah menorah, known as the shamash or “servant” candle, is the one that we light first and then use to light all the other candles. The servant brings light to all the others and adds light to fight the darkness. At the very least, I see some similarity with Yeshua the Messiah Who came as “the Servant of the Lord” to bring light to a very dark world. We read about the Servant in four passages in Isaiah: Isaiah 42:1–4; 49:1–6; 50:4–7; and 52:13–53:12.

The most poignant and life-changing passage is probably Isaiah 52:13–53:12 where the Servant is seen as being humiliated, suffering, and innocently killed for his own guilty people. This will remind anyone with an open mind of the fate of the servant of the Lord, Yeshua, who came to be a light to us all but ended up being crucified for us all. Years later, in the context of the Feast of Sukkot (Tabernacles), He even stated that He was that light in John 8:12, ” Then Yeshua again spoke to them, saying, “I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life.”

But maybe even more important than the light He is and He brings, Messiah also brings deliverance which is another important theme found in Hanukkah. The Jews were delivered from Antiochus’ oppression and tyranny by the grace of the Almighty. Today, all people can be delivered from the tyranny of the enemy and our doomed destiny by trusting the Messiah and His finished work. The many miracles told in the book of Acts are a testimony to the atoning work of Yeshua on our behalf, for Jews and Gentiles alike. Acts 26:17-18 reads “rescuing you from the Jewish people and from the Gentiles, to whom I am sending you, to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the dominion of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith in Me.

It is so refreshing to know that the light of the world came to pull us all out of darkness, but we have to believe what He did on our behalf as John 8:24 tells us, “Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for unless you believe that I am He, you will die in your sins.” It should lead us to a desire to dedicate or re-dedicate our lives to God as we are advised in Romans 12:1-2, ” Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.”

Of course, dedication is also a theme that is part of the Hanukkah story as the Jewish people worked hard at cleaning the Temple and re-dedicating it with freshly pressed olive oil for the menorah while as the story tells us, the one-day reserve of oil burned for 8 days until more oil was available.

Re-dedicating our lives should really be a daily event. Each morning we ought to speak to God and offer to Him our day dedicated to His glory in everything we think, say or do. It is a great way to start our day and to stay focused on what is important.

As if all these parallels between Hanukkah and the Messiah weren’t enough, one of the best-kept secrets of the Bible is the fact Yeshua Himself recognized and celebrated Hanukkah in Jerusalem, as we see in John 10:22-23” At that time the Feast of the Dedication took place at Jerusalem; it was winter, and Yeshua was walking in the temple in the portico of Solomon”

So, again, it is not a stretch to say that there wouldn’t be Christmas if it wasn’t for Hanukkah! So, whatever we chose to celebrate, being the birth of the Jewish Messiah or the deliverance of the Jewish people, we ought to recognize God’s hand in all of it. As for me and my family, we recognize and celebrate both the birth of the Messiah the Light of the world and the preservation of the Jewish people by the grace of God.

Happy Holidays to you all!

October 21, 2021 By Olivier Melnick Leave a Comment

What exactly is an “opposing” view to the Holocaust?

What would the six million Jewish victims of the Holocaust say to the Texas educator who recently requested that if the Holocaust was to be taught in schools, an “opposing” view should also be presented? Why is it that one of the most horrific tragedies of the last 2,000 years has to be debated, minimized or even called a hoax? I have to be honest, sometimes I get tired of defending the Holocaust again and again, but what is the alternative? If we let our guard down or allow for different views on possibly the greatest evil of all human history, we are one generation away from its complete disappearance from the annals of world history. may it never be!

This all started recently in Texas, when a school administrator, worried about the danger of critical race theory, decided to include Holocaust studies in his attempt at bringing a more balanced educational experience. This was in response to House Bill 3979. The complete text of that bill isn’t very long and has some merit. Among other things, the bill explains, “Teachers who choose to discuss current events or widely debated and currently controversial issues of public policy or social affairs shall, to the best of their ability, strive to explore such issues from diverse and contending perspective without giving deference to any one perspective.” Applying that part of the bill to the Holocaust led to this recent statement made by the school administrator, “Make sure that if, if you have a book on the Holocaust that you have one that has an opposing — that has other perspectives.” Does it apply to the Holocaust? I do not think so, for several reasons.

• The Holocaust is not a current event: Following the text of Bill 3979, the teaching of current events should always be done without bias or any agenda and with an explanation of the opposing view. So, is the Holocaust a “current event”? It took place during World War Two, which ended in 1945. Seventy-seven years have passed since the camps were liberated. For a while now and rightfully so, the Holocaust has been included in history books around the world because IT IS part of history. Current events are studied within the realm of social studies or political science, never history. The Holocaust is not a current event!

• The Holocaust shouldn’t be a widely debated issue: The Bill also states that “widely debated and currently controversial issues” should offer an opposing view. Frankly, the very fact that the Holocaust continues to be a hot topic should be very alarming. Holocaust denial continues to infect the historical accuracy of that era. It is debated because some have fought hard trying to debunk it. It was when the camps were liberated that General Dwight Eisenhower expressed his grave concern about what he discovered. As General Patton was vomiting at the scene, Eisenhower forced himself to look everywhere in the camp. He wrote to General George C. Marshall the following letter, “The things I saw beggar description. … The visual evidence and the verbal testimony of starvation, cruelty and bestiality were so overpowering as to leave me a bit sick … . I made the visit deliberately, in order to be in a position to give first-hand evidence of these things if ever, in the future, there develops a tendency to charge these allegations merely to “propaganda.”

Sadly, General Eisenhower was right and it didn’t take very long for some to deny that the Holocaust ever happened or that it was Jewish propaganda for stealing “Palestinian” land. After all, how many people looked the other way when trains passed through their villages, made of cattle cars packed with Jews? How many “Christians” sang louder in Church to cover the whistle of those trains passing through? Was it a bad case of cognitive dissonance or was it simply for selfish reasons of one’s survival? Probably both in many cases. We have those who didn’t want to believe it was happening, and that included many Jewish people at the onset of the Holocaust until it was too late to do anything, and then we have those who tried and continue to try erasing it from history. The Holocaust happened and that shouldn’t be debated.

• The Holocaust must be given deference: The Bill goes on to say that teachers, “shall, to the best of their ability, strive to explore such issues from diverse and contending perspective without giving deference to any one perspective.” I can appreciate what the bill is trying to do, it is trying to be impartial in the teaching of facts, so it doesn’t want to give teachers a chance to even appear as if they are taking a position. It is true that the Holocaust was not the only genocide in history, but it was certainly the only organized, structured and methodical attempt at the complete destruction of a people group. Additionally, it was the only genocide of human history where the perpetrators went out of their way to go retrieve Jews who had escaped to other countries, at a great cost to Germany, often believed by historians as one of the main reasons for Nazi Germany’s defeat. For this reason, the Holocaust was unique and must be given deference.

• The Holocaust was pure evil: The horrors of the Holocaust against the Jews and other minorities for a total of over twelve million innocent victims, have never been surpassed. The Holocaust was pure evil committed by evil people, and it should never be taught with alternate views in mind. The alternative to the Holocaust being evil is that it wasn’t, and this shouldn’t be an option in a normal society.

I guess, what I am trying to say here, is that the Holocaust must remain in a league of its own for the rest of mankind’s history. There are way too many recorded testimonies, artifacts and written materials for anyone to honestly defy the veracity of the event unless there is a hidden agenda behind it all. That agenda comes from Satan and is meant to delegitimize and ostracize the global Jewish community as he continues his greater destructive agenda that started centuries ago.

The Holocaust was perpetrated by people used by Satan to eliminate the Jews. Somehow, it was allowed by an all-knowing, all-powerful and all-loving God, for reasons that we will never fully comprehend with our finite human minds. There is no alternative to telling it like it is unless one succumbs to the politically correct agenda, but that agenda is not based on factual truth and the Holocaust is a factual part of history that cannot be denied, altered or erased. Texas House Bill 3979 isn’t a bad bill, but it should never apply to the Holocaust, lest we want to help those who deny that it ever happened.

August 30, 2021 By Olivier Melnick Leave a Comment

Differences Between the Church and Israel – Part 2

At a time when nearly two-thirds of all Christians believe that the Church has replaced Israel in God’s program, it is very important to define who is Israel and what makes the Church or Body of Messiah. Are they the same? Does one eventually replace or supersedes the other? Are they the same but during two different eras of humankind? Last time, we looked at the first five differences. Let’s look at five more:

6 Israel will be judged on earth
Ezekiel 20:34-36 I will bring you out from the peoples and gather you from the lands where you are scattered, with a mighty hand and with an outstretched arm and with wrath poured out; 35 and I will bring you into the wilderness of the peoples, and there I will enter into judgment with you face to face. 36 As I entered into judgment with your fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt, so I will enter into judgment with you,” declares the Lord God.

6 The Church will be judged in Heaven (Bema Seat)
2 Corinthians 5:10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Messiah, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.

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7 Physical Birth is required to be part of Israel
Genesis 35:10-12 10 God said to him, “Your name is Jacob; You shall no longer be called Jacob, But Israel shall be your name.” Thus He called him Israel. 11 God also said to him, “I am God Almighty; Be fruitful and multiply; A nation and a company of nations shall come from you, And kings shall come forth from you. 12 “The land which I gave to Abraham and Isaac, I will give it to you, And I will give the land to your descendants after you.”

7 Spiritual Birth is required to be part of the Church
John 3:4-6 Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born, can he?” 5 Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. 6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

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8 The Holy Spirit indwelt OT Jews temporarily
Joel 2:28 It will come about after this That I will pour out My Spirit on all mankind; And your sons and daughters will prophesy, Your old men will dream dreams, Your young men will see visions (SELECTIVELY)

1 Samuel 16:14 Now the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the Lord terrorized him (TEMPORARILY).

8 The Holy Spirit indwells believers permanently
1 Corinthians 12:13 For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit. (CORPORATELY)

John 14:16 I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever;(PERMANENTLY).

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9 Israel’s priesthood is only from the tribe of Levi

Numbers 18:1-3 The Lord said to Aaron, “You, your sons and your family are to bear the responsibility for offenses connected with the sanctuary, and you and your sons alone are to bear the responsibility for offenses connected with the priesthood.²Bring your fellow Levites from your ancestral tribe to join you and assist you when you and your sons minister before the tent of the covenant law. ³They are to be responsible to you and are to perform all the duties of the tent.

9 The Church includes the priesthood of all believers

Revelation 1:6 and He has made us to be a kingdom, priests to His God and Father—to Him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen.

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10 God directly ratified several covenants with Israel

Jeremiah 31:31-32 Behold, days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, 32 not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them,” declares the Lord.

10 The Church partially benefits from the covenants

Romans 11:11,17 I say then, they did not stumble so as to fall, did they? May it never be! But by their transgression salvation has come to the Gentiles, to make them jealous… 17 But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive, were grafted in among them and became partaker with them of the rich root of the olive tree.

Additionally, there is a verse that I like to point people to that speaks of three distinct groups of people.
1 Corinthians 10:32 Give no offense either to Jews or to Greeks or to the Church of God;

If the Church replaced Israel, why does Paul speak of the Church of God AND the Jews in that verse? In reality, the Church comprises two groups Jews and Gentiles (nations.) There are unbelieving Jews part of Israel and believing Jews part of Israel and the Church. It is the same for the Gentiles. There are unbelieving Gentiles (from all nations) and believing Gentiles from all nations, part of the Church. It doesn’t need to be complicated.

There is another important distinction that must be made regarding the appearance of Yeshua both at the time of the Rapture and at the time of the Second Coming which two completely different events separated by at least seven years.

ISRAEL INITIATES THE SECOND COMING OF THE MESSIAH

Matthew 23:39 For I say to you, from now on you will not see Me until you say, “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!”

Zechariah 12:10 “I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of supplication, so that they will look on Me whom they have pierced; and they will mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only son, and they will weep bitterly over Him like the bitter weeping over a firstborn.

THE CHURCH RETURNS AT THE SECOND COMING OF MESSIAH

Revelation 17:14 These will wage war against the Lamb, and the Lamb will overcome them, because He is Lord of lords and King of kings, and those who are with Him are the called and chosen and faithful.”

So, from these differences found in the Scriptures, we can deduce with certainty that:

ISRAEL IS NOT THE SAME AS CHURCH
THE CHURCH HAS NOT REPLACED ISRAEL
ISRAEL WILL USHER IN THE SECOND COMING
ALL ETHNIC ISRAEL WILL BECOME BELIEVING ISRAEL
SOME OF ETHNIC ISRAEL CAN INCORPORATE INTO THE
CHURCH
ISRAEL AND THE CHURCH ARE BOTH IN GOD’S PROGRAM.

KEEPING ISRAEL AND THE CHURCH SEPARATE IS CRITICAL BECAUSE IT IS BIBLICAL AND HAS MAJOR PROPHETIC IMPLICATIONS.

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