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September 19, 2022 By Olivier Melnick 43 Comments

Has the Red Heifer been found, and if so, what’s next?

To say that we are living in exciting times is an understatement. World events are converging at such a high rate of speed that it is hard to keep up. For Bible students like myself, it is both exhilarating and concerning to see the whole planet moving towards a one-world government so quickly. I have been a believer for 39 years and since then, I have firmly believed in what the Bible says about the end times, the one-world government and a cashless society, but I always thought that it wouldn’t be in my lifetime, and yet, here we are.

The next event on God’s timetable is the Rapture of the believers from planet earth. This is a “signless event”, meaning that it doesn’t require anything before it takes place. I also believe that after the Rapture, those left behind will go through increasingly perilous times known as “The Time of Jacob’s Trouble”, or as most of us know it, “The Great Tribulation”. This will be a period lasting seven years before the triumphal return of Yeshua the Messiah at the end of those seven years. This is when the Messianic or millennial kingdom will finally be inaugurated.

Incredibly, during the Great Tribulation, or more precisely at the midpoint, after 3.5 years, the Temple will be desecrated, but which Temple? Not counting the wilderness Tabernacle after the Exodus, there are four Temples described in the Bible. First, we read about Solomon’s Temple, which is the one that David wanted to build, in (1 Kings chapters 5-9) and 2 Chronicles (chapters 2-7). Then, after suffering some heavy damage at the hands of Nebuchadnezzar, that Temple was rebuilt by Zerubbabel between 520-515 BCE and became known as Herod’s Temple. Roman general Titus destroys the Herodian Temple in 70 CE.

Israel currently doesn’t have a Temple in Jerusalem. Are things about to change? The Bible speaks of a third and a fourth Temple or Millennial Temple (Ezekiel 40-46). The third Temple is a project that has been at the heart of the Temple Institute in Jerusalem for decades. A section of religious Jews is convinced that they will be rebuilding their Temple and once again resume the sacrificial system in Israel. Towards that end, they have painstakingly recreated all the implements necessary for the resumption of Temple life. Everything has been ready for a while now, even the priests from the tribe of Levi (remember that the tribe of Levi is the only one that can be identified since its identity was preserved in the name of its members such as Levy and Cohen and other derivatives). But the proverbial buck stops here because, to resume Temple duties, a red heifer is needed. It is important to note that the third Temple, while simply called the third Temple by its Jewish proponents, is also known by Yeshua’s followers as the Tribulation Temple.

The search for the red heifer has been going on for decades. The criteria for the selection of the ultimate red heifer are quite specific. The reason why a red heifer is needed is that Jewish people at the Temple must present themselves in a state of ritual purity before they perform their duties. We get this from the Passover celebration in the wilderness in Numbers 9:5-7, “They observed the Passover in the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, at twilight, in the wilderness of Sinai; according to all that the LORD had commanded Moses, so the sons of Israel did. But there were some men who were unclean because of the dead person, so that they could not observe Passover on that day.”

According to Judaism, there isn’t one Jewish man alive who can claim that level of purity and since the Temple no longer exists and the ashes of the red heifer are gone, it cannot yet be attained. Ritual purification continues to be mandatory for anyone within Judaism who has had contact with a dead body. The 113th commandment of the 613 found in the Torah stipulates that “the ashes of a red heifer are to be used in the process of ritual purification.” Numbers 19:1-22 explains the process, “Then the LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, “This is the statute of the law which the LORD has commanded, saying, ‘Speak to the sons of Israel that they bring you an unblemished red heifer in which is no defect and on which a yoke has never been placed. You shall give it to Eleazar the priest, and it shall be brought outside the camp and be slaughtered in his presence. Next Eleazar the priest shall take some of its blood with his finger and sprinkle some of its blood toward the front of the tent of meeting seven times. Then the heifer shall be burned in his sight; its hide and its flesh and its blood, with its refuse, shall be burned….Now a man who is clean shall gather up the ashes of the heifer and deposit them outside the camp in a clean place, and the congregation of the sons of Israel shall keep it as water to remove impurity; it is purification from sin.

So, the only way to be cleansed from impurity is to be washed with water mixed with the ashes of a red heifer, but not any red heifer would do! The parah adumah or “red cow” must be a young (less than three-years-old) red heifer with no defect, on which no yoke was ever placed. Only nine red heifers were ever found in the entire history of Israel, so it goes without saying that they are extremely rare and valuable. Much mystery surrounds the reason for using the ashes of a red heifer. Why ashes? Why a cow of a specific color? Why a sacrifice outside the Temple compound? Why mixed with water? Jewish tradition records that even the very wise king Solomon didn’t understand it. The Red Heifer is also mentioned in the New Testament in Hebrews 9:13-14 as an example of Yeshua’s spotless, sinless sacrifice being greater than the ashes of the animal.

Recently, five spotless, young red heifers were flown to Israel from Texas. If they continue to grow spotless, without defect and without even one black or white hair, they will qualify for the special sacrifice and gathering of their ashes. Time will tell, but these five are bringing a lot of hope to the Temple people patiently awaiting the qualified candidate. So, what does this all mean to us?

If indeed a kosher Red Heifer has been located and selected, this represents the last piece of the puzzle for the next Temple. Since all the implements have been recreated and the priests selected and trained, the Temple can be rebuilt, and the Levitical team can be purified. This validates the veracity of the Bible even further as if we needed more validation to believe that it is the infallible, inerrant word of God!

Unfortunately, if this is all happening in front of our eyes, and as great news as it may be for us followers of Yeshua the Messiah, it also means that the third Temple is ready to be rebuilt. This is the Temple that believers know as the “Tribulation Temple”. It is the very edifice that the coming antichrist will desecrate as he calls himself god and forces people to worship him. This means that the Tribulation is near and that great casualties will be seen in the world.

Christians can rejoice about the Red Heifer from a biblical standpoint, but from the perspective of the eternal order, only those who have trusted Yeshua will be in God’s presence, and this is no reason to rejoice when we think of all those around us who have not believed yet that Yeshua is the Messiah.

The Red Heifer, if qualified, will bring us one step closer to the last moments of the end times, which means that the Rapture is even closer than we think and that the need to share the Good News is truly now more important than ever!

July 28, 2022 By Olivier Melnick Leave a Comment

Satan’s Creativity: Antisemites Come in Different Shapes, Sizes and Colors! – Part 2

A few weeks ago, I started a list of all the different types of antisemites. I want to continue that list in part two of this article. Remember that antisemitism cannot be fully understood without the spiritual component that allowed it to persist through the centuries. It is a creation of Satan to eradicate Israel and all Jewish people. Satan is as creative as he is hateful. He has managed to summon Jew hatred from so many people around the world and over the ages.

It really helps to identify all the different types of antisemites that one can run into. Some of them might be harder to identify because of how devious Satan is at disguising the hatred and making it look like social justice. In a day and age when social justice is so attractive, many people will jump on the antisemitism bandwagon, thinking they are doing a great deed.

So, who are these various antisemites? Let us continue our list with a few more in no particular order, keeping in mind that some of the various characteristics might intersect and some people can display several of them all at once. Additionally, the list will keep growing because of Satan’s creative hatred and continued subcontracting of it to many people.

The Boycott antisemite: The Boycott of Israel and Israeli goods and personalities was revived in 2005 by Mahmoud Abbas and Omar Barghouti who repurposed the South African apartheid definition to fit the Palestinian narrative. Fighting real apartheid with a boycott made sense and the concept of a boycott isn’t bad in and of itself, but the BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) movement is built on an entirely false premise.

People around the globe have bought into BDS and are promoting it blindly without checking the facts. The boycott antisemite will almost always claim that he/she is anti-Israel or anti-Zionist but not antisemitic. This is another case of trying to hide Jew-hatred under a thin veneer of social justice.

The Neo-Nazi antisemite: The Nazi regime left a scar that will never disappear. So much so, that after WWII, most people believed that the new Jewish motto “NEVER AGAIN” really meant something. To this day, it is very unpopular to join the ranks of any Neo-Nazi group. They only exist on the fringe and do not constitute a very serious threat. This being said, they can still be found in several countries of Europe. They espouse a new brand of Hitlerian ideology and adhere to all the antisemitic tropes and blood libels in the book.

The Coward antisemite: For the better part of 2022, various antisemitic flyers have been found in multiple US states in residential neighborhoods. The flyers accuse the Jewish people of various ills such as controlling the world, the banks, Hollywood and even the Coronavirus. Even though the flyers seem to all be connected to the same internet site known as Goyimtv.tv, there is a certain amount of cowardice in the way they are placed on private residential properties at night.

The Leftist antisemite: In recent years, antisemitism has been heavily promoted by the left. While it is important to recognize that antisemitism currently comes from the left, the right and just about all other political and ideological factions out there, the left is particularly active in denigrating Israel. What is so ludicrous is that the liberal left–for which many Jews vote to this day–is promoting an anti-Israel agenda and a pro-Palestinian narrative.

Even Radical Islam and the liberal left agree on the destruction of Israel and the Jewish people, when ideologically they agree on nothing else, being on two opposite side of the spectrum. Yet, we all know the adage “The enemy of my enemy is my friend!”

The Social Media antisemite: The advent of the Internet changed the way we communicate and consume information and data forever. There is nothing that cannot be shared almost instantly and globally. This too is an aspect of our civilization that is neutral in and of itself but again, fallen into the wrong hands; the Internet is can become a vile and even lethal weapon.

Beyond the Internet is the web of social media networks. These networks have been overwhelmingly used by Jew-haters. Sadly, when many people get penalized for speaking the truth and being perceived as divisive and racist, antisemites the world around seem to have an open platform with almost no censorship.

The Jewish antisemite: While “Jewish Antisemitism” should be an oxymoron, it does exist. It exists on an individual level with liberal Jews who boldly promote Holocaust denial and Israeli colonization and occupation of Palestine. There are also Jewish Religious groups like Neturei Karta meaning “Guardians of the City” who have opposed Zionism since the late 1890s. They even had a conference in Iran. Groups such as The International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network, while being fringe groups, still play a role in the denigration of Israel and the Jewish people. Their voice helps to embolden the more aggressive antisemites of the world.

The Isolated antisemite: Probably the most puzzling antisemite of them all is the isolated antisemite. It is the person who hates Jews openly and yet has never met one in their life. All the other racists base their dislikes of a particular people group or ethnic community on experience and interaction–not that it would ever justify such feelings. For the isolated antisemite, indoctrination against the Jews based on more than 2,000 years of libels and lies is all they need. How one can say they hate someone without having ever met them shows the irrationality of antisemitism.

So, what do all these types of people have in common in spite of their various approaches to the subject of antisemitism?

They are all ignoring facts to come to their conclusions.
• They are promoting lies knowingly.
• They do not accept correction easily if at all.
• They are willing to join arms with enemies for the sake of their common agenda.
• They are believing the most irrational stories.

From a biblical perspective, it is rather obvious that they have chosen their side. They take the side of the enemy of God, Satan, who hates what God loves and loves what God hates. I am not implying that antisemites are all demon-possessed (although some might be), but I am saying that they are allowing Satan to influence them. He is the only being crafty enough to make the irrational look and sound rational. He knows that Israel is the key player in the Second Coming of the Messiah, which also spells his final demise, so he has done everything to stop that or at least postpone it.

“Antisemitism is the irrational and satanic hatred of the Jewish people and Israel characterized by thoughts, words or deeds against them.” There is no room for Christians or people of goodwill in that definition. Period!

July 21, 2022 By Olivier Melnick 2 Comments

Could The 1942 “Vel d’Hiv” Round-up of Jews Happen Again?

Eighty years ago, a massive round-up of Jews took place in the Greater Paris area. It became known as “La rafle du Vel d’Hiv” or the “Vel d’Hiv Round-up.” The Vel d’Hiv or “Velodrome d’hiver” was a winter stadium built for bicycle races near the Eiffel Tower. It was a highly frequented place for sports fans and could hold a large crowd. In 1942, the stadium became the site of World War II’s most extensive round-up of Jews from France. The French police worked very closely with the Nazi regime, and in two days, July 16 and 17, over 13,000 Jews were taken to the stadium, including 4,000 children. They were packed in and kept in minimally sanitary conditions. Soon after, the French police sent the people to one of three internment camps in France in Pithiviers, Beaune-La-Rolande and Drancy. The next step occurred in late July and early August when most prisoners were sent to Auschwitz. Of the 4,000 children, only six came back, and only 811 adults returned after the war. My maternal grandfather was put on a train out of Paris to Auschwitz on July 19, 1942, only two days after the infamous round-up. All seems to indicate that he was part of the round-up.

Outside of the terrible collaboration between the Vichy government and the Nazi regime, the Vel d’Hiv round-up left a scar on France that has been haunting people, although not much has been said or done to date to maintain the memory of the event. The building was burned to the ground in a fire in 1959. Soon after, a small plaque was attached to a wall near where it stood. It was not until 2008 that another more detailed plaque was placed to remember the victims, thank those who might have helped some of them at such a difficult and dangerous time and encourage people passing by to remember the past. The plaque says:” On July 16 and 17 1942, 13152 Jews were arrested in Paris and its suburbs and then deported and assassinated in Auschwitz. In the Winter Stadium that once stood here, 4115 children, 2916 women and 1129 men were packed in inhuman conditions by the Vichy government police obeying orders from the Nazi occupiers. Let us be grateful to those who tried to help the victims. As you are passing by, please remember!” The discrepancy in the final numbers of victims is due to the fact that a final count brought the revised number of victims to over 13,000. The Vichy Government had promised 22,000 Jews out of France to the Nazi regime and came short at the round-up, but by the war’s end, 88,000 French Jews had perished.

Eighty years later, could such a thing happen again anywhere in the world? In his book, Every Day Remembrance Day: A Chronicle of Jewish Martyrdom, the late Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal listed six major causes that could lead to another Jewish catastrophe. A close look and analysis might surprise you as to how close we are.

1. Hatred (prejudice, racism, xenophobia or antisemitism).
There has not been a time in our recent history when hatred was so strong. We live at a time of extreme polarization between the political left and right, between conservatives and liberals, and between blacks and whites. Somehow, just as it was during the Maccabean period when the Seleucids fought the Ptolemies, and the Jews got caught in the proverbial crossfire, modern-day Jewish people end up in the crossfire between the polarized factions. Fair and polite dialogue including disagreements doesn’t seem possible anymore in 2022. Add to this the fact that we are in what appears to be the 59th minute of the 11th hour on the end-times timetable.

2. A dictatorship or totalitarian regime.
Throughout its history, the world has seen a number of dictators like Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, Pol Pot and Saddam Hussein to name just a few. The dictionary defines a dictator as, “a person exercising absolute power, especially a ruler who has absolute, unrestricted control in a government without hereditary succession.” The idea is that one person or a few elite members of a group control the masses. It could be argued that the World Economic Forum (WEF) operates with dictatorial tendencies. Biblically speaking, we know that there is a new world order coming that will include the antichrist (1 John 2:18-22; Revelation 13) as the ultimate global dictator. Even in the United States, as we are seeing the rapid erosion of free speech, freedom of religion and Judeo/Christian ethics, we could see a totalitarian regime on the horizon if things don’t pivot back to a more balanced political landscape.

3. A bureaucracy.
When we speak of bureaucracy, people often think of large offices with a myriad of paper-pushers and a hierarchical system of filing, retrieving and processing. There is truth to that at the core of the definition, but what is meant here is more about those who carry out the order of the regime, often almost blindly and “for the greater good”, whatever that means! We have witnessed some of that recently when the world came to a stop and the masses were funneled into doing the same thing, like sheep, hoping for the best results.

4. Technology.
Technology has grown by leaps and bounds in the last 50 years. Personally, I have always considered myself somewhat of a technology aficionado. I love all the different things we get to perform better and faster, not to mention the new things we have at our fingertips that several decades ago would have been considered pure sci-fi. Technology will continue to be developed and grow exponentially. The problem is not with the technology, but rather on how it is used and by whom. We have seen too often when technology falls into the wrong hands, disaster follows. Take for instance the use of the Hollerith tabulating machines (IBM) by Nazis in the camps to catalog and process Jews faster towards total elimination. This was most definitely a case of great new technology landing in the wrong hands.

5. A crisis that becomes an opportunity to blame people.
The world we live in is never going to be without crisis, simply because it is an imperfect world. It has been that way since the fall of man in Genesis 3. Crises can be economic, political, natural or medical to name just a few categories. Gas shortages, food shortages, extreme weather, immigration, diseases, inflation, recession and political uncertainty are all crises that we have seen recently. Globally, we can even look at all these and see how they have converged to a point where our planet appears to have become so fragile. Many of these crises are great opportunities to blame people and further control them.

6. A scapegoat people such as a minority to demonize.
Now if the world could pinpoint a people group, point the finger at them and have them carry the responsibility, that would be the perfect storm. But wait, the world HAS found its scapegoat, and not just recently, but for the last several millennia. We, the Jews, are constantly held responsible for the ills of the world. We have been accused of the black plague, using the blood of Christians to make Matzoh, killing Jesus, controlling Hollywood, controlling the world, inventing diseases and inventing their cures to make money. When it comes to faulting the Jews, much of the world has never let a crisis go to waste.

So, when I look at the events of the Vel d’Hiv that took place eighty years ago; and when I see how over two days, 13,000 Jews were collected in the greater Paris area and packed in a single location with the help of French police bureaucracy under the Nazi totalitarian regime without much fight from the Jews and with almost no help from the French populace, I have no doubt that everything is currently in place for another catastrophe to take place. This time it will include the Jews–it always has in the past–but people need to wake up because more of us are at risk today. There is a slew of ready-made “immigration camps” all over the USA and the world. They are ideal for a repeat of the Vel d’Hiv scenario. Please, do not believe that humanity has learned from the mistakes of the past. Yet, as individuals, we always have an opportunity to make a difference and fight tyranny.

People of goodwill, Christians and Jews are now becoming prime targets. The reason why I need to bring your attention to the Jewish people is that for a very long time now, we have been the canaries in the coal mine of civilization. What happens to us is often a precursor of what can or will happen to you. When you see the world going after us, don’t look the other way or you might miss those who are coming after you next!

July 18, 2022 By Olivier Melnick 2 Comments

Satan’s Creativity: Antisemites Come in Different Shapes, Sizes and Colors! – Part 1

As early as the first Jews were described in the Bible, antisemitism was a thing. And thousands of years later, it continues to be a thing. What could possibly fuel so much hatred against the same people group for such a long time? It is fair and accurate to say that Jewish history has been and continues to be punctuated by acts of antisemitism. Most scholars who write and teach on antisemitism through the ages are somewhat puzzled at its pernicious persistence. I believe that it is due to the fact that they do not take into account the spiritual aspect of the oldest hatred. The moment God expressed interest in the Jewish people and shared His plan for Israel and her people, His archenemy, Satan, started to work towards eliminating the chosen people.

Antisemitism cannot be fully understood without the spiritual component that allowed it to persist through the centuries. It is a creation of Satan to eradicate Israel and all Jewish people. He tried to kill the “Seed of the Woman” (Messiah) in Genesis 3:15, and then corrupt the lineage of the Jewish Messiah in Genesis 6:1-5. He turned the Amalekites against the Jews in the wilderness in Deuteronomy 25:17-19. We cannot forget his attempt at completely annihilating the Jews through Haman in the book of Esther.

Yet, Satan didn’t stop there. He continued to turn the world against the Jews, and when Yeshua of Nazareth–the Jewish Messiah–gave His life on that cross for all of us two millennia ago, it didn’t take long for people to accuse the Jews of deicide (the killing of God). Incidentally, it took the Roman Catholic Church and Pope Paul VI, over 1900 years to officially declare in 1965 in Nostra Aetate, that the Jews were no longer guilty of killing Christ. This hasn’t really stopped some modern Catholics from hating Jews to this day.

Satan is as creative as he is hateful. He has managed to summon Jew hatred from so many people around the world and over the ages. It really helps to identify all the different types of antisemites that one can run into. Some of them might be harder to identify because of how devious Satan is at disguising the hatred and making it look like social justice. In a day and age when social justice is so attractive, many people will jump on the antisemitism bandwagon, thinking that they are doing a great deed. So, who are these various antisemites? Let us list a few in no particular order, keeping in mind that some of these various characteristics might intersect and some people can display several of them all at once. Additionally, the list will keep growing because of Satan’s creative hatred and continued subcontracting of it to many people. I will let you discover where some of these people fit within that list.

The Historical antisemite: Deep in the soil of Europe grows the kind of hatred based on the multiple libels and tropes that have cursed Jewish communities from post-biblical days, through the Middle Ages and the Reformation. This is the antisemite who believes that Jews use Christian blood to make matzah for Passover and that Jews poisoned the wells of Europe to cause the great plague that killed over 50 million people in Europe from 1346 to 1353. This is a brand of antisemitism that is in the DNA of many Europeans.

The Muslim antisemite: Islam (early 7th Century) is much younger than Judaism and Christianity. For the last 13 centuries, Islam has developed into one of the three top world religions. For reasons beyond the scope of this article, parts of Islam have become radicalized, and an intense polarization now exists between our Judeo/Christian community and Islam. Jews have become a prime target of Islam and are often targeted as archenemies worthy of death. The Arab/Israeli conflict of the last century certainly doesn’t help the issue. Children are often indoctrinated against Jews and Israel at a very young age.

The College antisemite: For a couple of decades now, antisemitism has been present on college and university campuses. Unfortunately, due to extreme beliefs taught on campuses across the United States, Jews are targeted as enemies. “Campus Intifada” and “Hate Fests” are held on numerous campuses where most of the speakers are solely antisemitic. Gullible students who don’t communicate with others outside those circles end up believing Israel and the Jewish People are the “great Satan”! When Jewish and pro-Israel or pro-Zionist students try and organize themselves, they almost always get disrupted and shouted out of having a voice.|

The Joking antisemite: Everybody loves a good joke, right? Well, we should be careful not to make ethnic jokes, and most people do pay attention to that warning. Yet, there seems to be a disconnect when it comes to jokes involving Jewish people. People regularly joke about Jewish people being stingy, liking money and good deals, thinking it is funny when it really is very offensive. Most Jewish people will shrug their shoulders and appear to be brushing it off, but it is hurtful. The Joking antisemite thinks he/she is funny, but they are not.

The Christian antisemite: How can one be a Christian and hate the Jewish people? Wasn’t Jesus a Jew? Of course, He was! Unfortunately, starting within one century after the closing of the biblical canon, many Church Fathers started to develop an allegorical approach to the Bible that led them and their disciples to believe that the Christians had replaced the Jews in God’s plan, promises and covenants. This is known today as Replacement Theology and is absolutely not biblical. The Christian antisemite thinks he/she is keeping with the Bible’s instruction by replacing the Jews, but they are actually making God a liar and a covenant breaker. Additionally, another group of Christians teaches that Jewish people do not need Jesus or the Gospel to be saved because they are already accepted by God by virtue of being Jewish. This is known as Dual Covenant theology and is also not biblical. Actually, to love Jewish people, but refrain from sharing the gospel with them, is a form of soft antisemitism.

The Political antisemite: The political arena is not exempt from the poison of antisemitism. Various states have elected representatives who claim not to be antisemitic, but only anti-Zionists. These representatives have infiltrated Congress and are fighting hard to give Israel and the Jewish people a bad rep. They claim that Israel is an occupier, colonizer and human rights violator while completely ignoring terrorist attacks against Israel and the Jewish people. The political antisemites lobby against Israel and slowly recruit more of their acolytes who will grow their ranks and help pass more resolutions against Israel.

The United Nations antisemite: When it comes to resolutions, we cannot ignore the many antisemites filling the ranks at the UN. Fourteen resolutions were passed against Israel (population 9.5 MM) in 2021, while five were passed against the rest of the world (population 7.9B), which shows the vast imbalance. Israel represents only .012% of the world population. There was three times more resolution against a country the size of New Jersey than against the whole world. This happened during the 76th session of the UN General Assembly for 2021-2022. UN antisemitism comes from various countries, many of them from the Middle East, but not exclusively. Israel’s demonization at the UN makes one wonder what they are really “United” about?

The Theological antisemite: At a recent Christian conference that is known for supporting Israel, I walked into a hallway and overheard a man conversing with a fellow Jewish believer in Yeshua. I was shocked when the man dogmatically claimed that “the Jews killed Christ!” I had to stop and ask him what he meant after I told him that both of his interlocutors were Jewish. His response was even worse. He told me, “I was only speaking theologically!” How can one spew that kind of nonsensical hatred and claim that it was just a theological statement? You cannot cover antisemitism with a veneer of theology. I asked the man if Hitler killed six million theologically as well. He had no comments.

A few more types of antisemites need to be listed and exposed, but for now, we need to pause and reflect on the first eight of our list. You probably know someone who fits the bill or even more than one type within the same person. People can be corrected once we know that they need correction. We have to do our part firmly and in love. In part II, I will list nine more types and we will look at what they all have in common and how we can start to redirect their biased and xenophobic mentalities toward the truth about Israel and the Jewish people.

July 5, 2022 By Olivier Melnick 5 Comments

Is PC-USA Burning the Judeo-Christian Bridge Further?

When we look at the relations between Jews and Christians in the last 2,000 years it is not very difficult to see that the bridge between the two has been progressively burned. Whenever a yard of it was rebuilt, two yards were further destroyed. When Jewish people are approached by Christians, the Christians are almost always unaware of the baggage they bring into the conversation. My people’s history has been punctuated by acts of hatred, xenophobia and demonization, too often by people who claimed Jesus as their Lord and Savior.

The Christian baggage is filled with events such as the Crusades, the Blood Libel, the Inquisition, the Pogroms, Martin Luther and the Holocaust. It should not surprise believers in Yeshua (Jesus), that Jewish people are very reluctant to consider Him as the Messiah. Why would we want to believe in, follow the teaching of and serve the one whom Christians claim as Christ (Messiah) when so much harm was done to us in His name?

I am encouraged when I see Christians who love Israel and the Jewish people. It warms my heart to see how they are trying so hard to rebuild the bridge. I personally know quite a few pastors and Christian leaders who have tremendous love and burden for the Jewish people, and yet, today, they constitute a minority. The bridge is in dire need of solid rebuilding, so anything that weakens it weakens our chances to reach the Jewish people with the saving message of the Gospel of Yeshua.

Several denominations within Christendom have shown their true colors regarding Israel in the last few decades, but none as abrasively and as boldly as the Presbyterian Church USA (PCUSA.) My intentions are never to commit character assassination out of frustration or anger, but I still feel the need to expose their anti-Semitism for the benefit of other Christians and Jews. Keep in mind that the corporate decision of an entire denomination never includes all its members, so let us refrain from painting with broad strokes.

During their 225th General Assembly, the PC-USA passed Resolution INT-02 (28-3) stating that PC-USA must “Recognize that Israel’s laws, policies, and practices regarding the Palestinian people fulfill the international legal definition of apartheid. Apartheid is legally defined as inhuman acts committed for the purpose of establishing and maintaining domination by one racial group of persons over any other racial group of persons and systematically oppressing them This occurs in Israel/Palestine through:

• Establishing two sets of laws, one for Israelis and one for Palestinians, which give preferential treatment to Israeli Jews and oppressive treatment to Palestinians.
• Expropriating Palestinian land and water for Jewish-only settlements.
• Denying the right to freedom of residence to Palestinians.
• Dividing the population along racial lines by the creation of separate reserves and ghettos for the Palestinians.
• Denying Palestinians the right to a nationality.
• Urge members, congregations, presbyteries, and national staff units, including the Office of Interfaith Relations, to seek appropriate ways to bring an end to Israeli apartheid.
• Direct the Stated Clerk to communicate this action to all other PC(USA) councils.”

So, here we go again with the accusation of apartheid as a foundation for acting against Israel and boycotting the Jewish State. The Committee declared that they were hoping that recognition of the problem would lead to peaceful reconciliation between Israelis and Palestinians. No mention of terrorism was made. Only mentions of “occupation”, “apartheid” and ” the punishment of innocent Palestinians.”

PC-USA also recognized May 15 as the official date of the Nakba (catastrophe) for the Palestinians. It was picked as the day after Israel’s Independence date of May 14, 1948. This makes the strong statement that PC-USA recognizes that May 14, 1948, as the start of the illegal occupation of Palestinian land, without recognizing the biblical right of Israel to her ancestral homeland and ignoring the international weight of the 1917 Balfour Declaration and the 1920 San Remo Conference and without mentioning the November 1947 United Nations vote to partition British mandate Palestine.

Many Christians have left the PC-USA denomination over the last few decades and many of their churches have closed. The denomination seems like it is struggling to survive, but it still hangs on to its anti-Semitic approach to Israel, all the while claiming that they have nothing against Jewish people.

Unfortunately, even if their moves are political and not theological–something I sincerely doubt–the damage is done and the encouragement for anti-Semites becomes stronger.
We live at a time when anti-Semitism is rising exponentially all over the world. There is no doubt in my mind that Jewish people are in great need of a friendly and loving Christian Church. Paul’s statement in Romans 11:11, “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.” becomes a sober reminder of the Church’s failure in making the Jewish people jealous of their personal relationship with the Jewish Messiah. The last 2,000 years have made my people angry and eager to distance themselves from anything “Christian”. When PC-USA digs in its heels as a denomination and continues to delegitimize and demonize Israel, it is Christian anti-Semitism.

If PC-USA wants to throw Israel under the bus, let them; but somebody, please tell the denomination that their choice is not just anti-Semitic, it is also anti-biblical. As a result, the mistakes of a few who are under the banner of Christendom are affecting the many Christians who think otherwise. I would beg my Jewish people to consider the fact that the Christians who read the Bible and understand it properly absolutely cannot reject, ignore or replace Israel. Anything of the sort is a slap in the face of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. There is this thing called “accountability”, and when it comes to taking God seriously, PC-USA is not exempt.

For we know Him who said, “VENGEANCE IS MINE, I WILL REPAY.”
And again, “THE LORD WILL JUDGE HIS PEOPLE.”
It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
(Hebrews 10:30-31)

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