Yeshua

July 3, 2020 By Olivier Melnick Leave a Comment

Israel’s Right To The Land: Mystery Solved!

When the world struggles with a pandemic and increasing racial/cultural riots, Israel takes second place on the news. Don’t quote me wrong, there is still plenty of antisemitic rhetoric to be heard, and acts against Jews still abound. But, somehow, there had been a bit of a respite. That was until the approaching deadline for Israel’s annexation of territories from the West Bank became news. The day for the move was July 1st, but Benjamin Netanyahu decided to delay it a bit.

People have argued about the legitimacy of Israel in the land, pretty much officially since May 14, 1948, but the saga started way before. The 1917 Balfour Declaration followed by the 1920 San Remo Conference really made it clear that the land then known as “Palestine” belonged to the Jewish people. This led to the November 1947, United Nations vote to partition Palestine between Jews and Arabs. Palestine was only a name for a geographical area that comprised “Palestinian Jews” and “Palestinian Arabs” living in harmony or at the very least tolerating each other. And that was fine–not that I ever cared for the renaming of Eretz Yisrael to Palestine by the Romans in AD 135. But, for all intents and purposes, Palestine was just the name of a piece of land in the Middle East from AD 135 to 1948.

Eventually, it became a politically charged word, synonymous with the country of origin for a people known as the Palestinians. Yasir Arafat mastered that narrative to the day he died, and the baton was passed to Mahmoud Abbas who has shared the burden of promoting the same lies with Hamas. So, today, people around the world are buying into the narrative of “the Palestinian victims of occupation and ethnic cleansing by Israel.” It doesn’t matter if it is not true, it has become the new truth about the Middle East, and most people are OK with that. But, for those who really care about the truth, I would like to offer three reasons why Israel ownership of the whole Land is the only viable and legitimate solution.

Biblically, Israel owns the whole land: Going back to the book of Genesis, God made a covenant with Abraham and his descendants. At that time, it was actually more of a promise. He promised him a great multitude of descendants in Genesis 12:2, “And I will make you a great nation, And I will bless you, And make your name great; And so you shall be a blessing.” That promise also happened to be unconditional and eternal. The unconditionality of the Abrahamic covenant is a critical factor that cannot be ignored. In essence, there is nothing that Israel can do or should do to fulfill their part and keep the land. God simply said, “I will” and not” I will if you do”, and that is huge.

Later, God ratified the covenant in Genesis 15:18-21. In that passage, the list of people groups that God decided to turn into the “land of Canaan” (a euphemism for Eretz Yisrael) add up to a land mass that makes Israel the size of twice the state of Texas, as opposed to the current Israel that is about the size of New Jersey. These boundaries have never been fulfilled anytime that has been recorded in the Bible, and we know that it is an unconditional and unbreakable promise from God, so there is a guarantee that it will come in the future. Most Bible students believe that this will be fulfilled when Messiah (Yeshua) establishes His kingdom on earth at His return. The Jewish prophet Daniel speaks of that future time in Daniel 7:13-14 “I kept looking in the night visions, And behold, with the clouds of heaven One like a Son of Man was coming, And He came up to the Ancient of Days And was presented before Him. “And to Him was given dominion, Glory and a kingdom, That all the peoples, nations and men of every language Might serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion Which will not pass away; And His kingdom is one Which will not be destroyed.

Israel’s ownership of the land never negates the fact that God Himself declared that He is the ultimate owner, passing the deed down to the Jewish people as read in Leviticus 25:23, ‘The land, moreover, shall not be sold permanently, for the land is Mine; for you are but aliens and sojourners with Me.” Israel’s ownership of their ancestral, biblical land also doesn’t negate the rights of Arabs to exist and flourish in the region–not that Israel has ever been guilty of antagonizing the Arabs. They are welcome as Arabs if they opt to live in peace in Israel. The fact that many countries of origins for the Arabs that resided in pre-Modern Israel “Palestine” never wanted them back in 1948 is beyond the scope of this article.

Prophetically, Israel needs the whole land: There is an important factor that plays out in the future of the Jewish people. It is known as the Law of Return, that was passed in 1950 in the Knesset (Israeli Parliament.) It allows Jewish people from all over the Diaspora to return to the land with certain [limited] benefits. Modern Israel has experienced various waves of emigration’s over the decades. Jewish people made Aliyah from the former Soviet Union as soon as a ban on Jewish refuseniks was lifted in 1971, and they continue to pour into Israel to this day. Then you have the Ethiopian Jews known as Falashas who started their emigration to Israel in 1977. A myriad of Jews from many countries have emigrated over the years and they form the unique fabric of the Israeli people. Most of these Jewish people are not necessarily religious. Only 15% of global Jews are religious all together.

Regardless of a lack of a biblical connection, the Jewish people are also promised by God that in the future they will all return to the land, even in unbelief. In other words, a Jewish person’s spiritual connection of lack of, to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, has no bearing on God’s promise to bring the Jewish people back to the land in the last days. He will do it because of His holy name. The prophet Ezekiel told us of these days in Ezekiel 36:22-28, “Therefore say to the house of Israel, ‘Thus says the Lord God, “It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for My holy name, which you have profaned among the nations where you went….For I will take you from the nations, gather you from all the lands and bring you into your own land….You will live in the land that I gave to your forefathers; so you will be My people, and I will be your God.

The Jewish people have started to return in large numbers over the last 10 years. Especially from Western Europe. Now, we need to understand that Western Europe is the home of many Jewish people who have live very comfortably there for decades. They have property, investments, wealth and even some deep roots and history. Yet, this is not preventing them from selling all and moving to Israel, France being at the forefront of these Jewish communities. Why? just one word: Antisemitism! The longest hatred has been on the rise as I have been documenting for the last 20 years. It is becoming increasingly unsafe for Jews anywhere in the world except Israel. As the Jews are currently making their way back home, Israel needs every square mile of land to accommodate for their return. Now is not the time to give away more land!

Geopolitically, Israel runs the whole land better: With their proverbial head in the sand, most people do not realize how much better life in Israel can be for all people. This tiny sliver of land in the Middle East truly is a beacon of light in a very dark place. It is recognized as the only true democracy in the whole region. Not that I would agree with every move that the Israeli government makes, but it is by far the healthiest group of political leaders in the region. Start with the fact that the Israeli Parliament is made of many political parties that have to always form a coalition to legally govern. Sure, this can get complicated as we have seen in the last series of elections that ended in an odd partnership between Gantz and Netanyahu. Add to that the fact that the Knesset includes Arab members. Yes, Arab members in the Israeli government…Now you have the Israeli government!

Where else in the Middle East can you find Jews in any of the other governments? Nowhere! Let’s be real, Arabs who live and work in Israel are often better treated than in their own countries, included the “Palestinian Territories.” Women have rights in Israel. Arab women have rights in Israel. Gays have the right to live in Israel without risking their lives (Tel Aviv is home to one of the largest Pride Parade in the world.) A wonderful example of that true “coexisting” is the story of the Israeli drink company SodaStream. Until they were forced by BDS people to move their factory to the south where the “Palestinians” couldn’t go work anymore, they employed Arabs, Jews and Bedouins in the same facility. Every single day, they all came to work in perfect harmony. Even some Arabs where the very supervisors of Jewish workers. SodaStream is the perfect example of how things can work in Israel for all parties.

No matter which direction the annexation of the West Bank goes and how long it takes to accomplish it, the only viable and legitimate solution for Jews and Arabs is an Israel where Jews can live in peace. If Jews can live in peace, they are the kind of accepting people that will allow anyone to live in harmony with them. Land for peace has never worked and the Oslo Accords are dead. The corrupt “Palestinian” leadership worships death in the midst of a vibrant culture that values life. There is a serious dichotomy here that doesn’t appear solvable. But, with God everything is possible. He also promised through the prophet Jeremiah to never forsake Israel or allow for its destruction in Jeremiah 31:35-37, “Thus says the Lord, Who gives the sun for light by day And the fixed order of the moon and the stars for light by night, Who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar; The Lord of hosts is His name: “If this fixed order departs From before Me,” declares the Lord, “Then the offspring of Israel also will cease From being a nation before Me forever. Thus says the Lord, “If the heavens above can be measured And the foundations of the earth searched out below, Then I will also cast off all the offspring of Israel For all that they have done,” declares the Lord.

So, what is so compelling about Israel ‘s right to the land? Any way you look at it, Israel owns the land, needs the land and manages the land better for all people in the region. That is of course if you are interested in the truth. If you believe otherwise, I have a very large and tall steel tower in Paris to sell you!

June 18, 2020 By Olivier Melnick Leave a Comment

The Proper Way to Support BLACK LIVES, and Why it MATTERS!

Growing up as a Jew in France in the 60s and 70s wasn’t without its challenges. My own mother who had lost her dad in the Holocaust at age 15, had developed a fear about telling people that we were Jewish. So much so that she even forced me to learn German in school as a second foreign language, just in case the Germans would invade France again, so that I could get by. It was not until she was in her early forties before she was comfortable telling others that we were Jewish. But all this never stopped me from making friends of different backgrounds at school. Two of my earliest buddies were Vietnamese and African. Every time I told my mother about a new friend, this fearful question always arose, “Do they know we are Jewish?” to which I always answered that they didn’t care and neither did I. Racism never had a foothold in my life. It never made sense to me to hate somebody based on color, race or creed. It didn’t when I was a teenager and it doesn’t today as a middle age adult.

When I moved to the United States in 1985, it quickly became evident that there were racial tensions between blacks and whites on many levels. Economically, culturally, politically to name just a few. Blacks and whites were clashing. Inter racial relations have not improved, they have actually gotten worse, to the point of injustice and wrongful deaths that we have witnessed in 2020. There is a serious problem affecting America today that cannot be ignored, and that is a reason why the movement known as Black Lives Matter–founded in 2013– has gathered so much momentum and picked the interest of so many. Such a movement appears to be giving the African American community the voice and momentum that they need to push reform forward. Philosophically, this is a good thing, but practically, the BLM ideology sends a very different message–if you know where to look. To be sure, I am not saying that black lives do not matter. Of course they do, as all lives matter. I am simply saying that before we blindly join and support the BLM movement based on somewhat of a knee-jerk reaction, from a mix of compassion, rightful indignation and misplaced guilt, we should investigate who the BLM supports and promotes. It is not always the easiest thing to do as a lot of the connections are no longer evident from their website. But let’s consider the following:

To put it simply; Black Lives Matter supports BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions). I have tried my best to expose the false narrative used by BDS proponents for several years. The BDS movement (officially co-founded in 2005 by Mahmoud Abbas and Omar Barghouti), has been pushing for a total boycott (academic, cultural and economic) of Israel and those who support Israel and Israeli products and companies. It has made great strides towards convincing people across the globe that Israel was the perpetrator of crimes against humanity, oppression, invasion and persecution. The BDS movement is not interested in social justice in general or they would also call for the boycott of many other countries that truly commit crimes against humanity such as Venezuela, China, Iran, Sudan and many others, but they don’t. Their only agenda is Israel and the Jewish people worldwide. They are not even hiding it as California University Professor Asad Abu Khalil said, “The real aim of BDS is to bring down the state of Israel….That should be stated as an unambiguous goal. There should not be any equivocation on the subject. Justice and freedom for the Palestinians are incompatible with the existence of the state of Israel.” Likewise, BDS co-founder Omar Barghouti stated, “A Jewish state in Palestine, in any shape or form, cannot but contravene the basic rights of the land’s indigenous Palestinian population…definitely, most definitely, we oppose a Jewish state in any part of Palestine. No Palestinian – rational Palestinian, not a sellout Palestinian—will ever accept a Jewish state in Palestine.”

While it is challenging to find the connection between BLM and BDS, it is not impossible. BLM is part of a larger network known as M4BL (The Movement for Black Lives). Dots become a lot easier to connect once we realize that M4BL is an umbrella organization under which you can find other groups such as Black Lives Matter. Once this is established, it takes no time to find out that M4BL supports BDS. They claim that “3 billion dollars in US aid is allocated to Israel, a state that practices systematic discrimination and has maintained a military occupation of Palestine for decades.” or “The US justifies and advances the global war on terror via its alliance with Israel and is complicit in the genocide taking place against the Palestinian people.” They even propose some actions to be taken against Israel as they encourage people to “Fight the expanding number of AntiBDS bills being passed in states around the country. This type of legislation not only harms the movement to end the Israeli occupation of Palestine, but is a threat to the constitutional right to free speech and protest.”

Additionally the Movement for Black Lives cites as resources: www.BDSmovement.net and www.blackpalestiniansolidarity.com. Both these websites are clear supporters of the BDS ideology and the flawed Palestinian narrative. So, the connection between BLM and M4BL is undeniably clear, and their antisemitic slant is also very obvious. I do not want you to miss the irony here: A movement that claims to fight racism of all sorts and promotes social justice, is also promoting the destruction of Israel and the hatred of Jewish people. So before we support BLM and donate to the cause, we must examine our hearts. Is it OK to fight for justice and equality for African Americans while supporting the oppression and destruction of Israel? Whichever way you look a it, it is hypocrisy. Not to mention the global support for BLM including anti-racism gatherings in Paris where some people were shouting dirty Jews to the crowd. Again, where is the connection? So, where do we go from here?

Inequality can only be remedied by true reconciliation and true reconciliation only comes from God. The problem that seems to arise out of the BLM movement is that reconciliation is spoken of, but submission is what is meant. There are some strong similarities between the “reconciliation” promoted by BLM and the one promoted by groups like “Christ at the Checkpoint (CaTC.) claiming to seek reconciliation between Israel and Palestinians in the name of Christ. When reconciliation is simply a word spoken to force the other side to submit unilaterally, then we have a problem. Reconciliation is a two-way street that includes compromise and humility. I have seen very little of that coming from BDS promoters as well as those who defend the BLM movement. What I am even starting to see, is more and more parallels drawn between the tragic murder of George Floyd and the deaths of Palestinians. Some people are even borrowing visual elements such as the Middle East head scarf worn by Arafat and the Palestinian flag, to incorporate them into images of George Floyd. There is absolutely no foundation for this connection, but that doesn’t stop people from drawing it.

As a French/Jewish immigrant to America, I have come to realize that injustice and inequality is very real all around us, and that is a tragedy. I have been speaking and writing against antisemitism for over twenty years, and I know that it is very real, as Satan infuses that hatred daily in the heart of men. Racism will continue to exist everywhere, but it doesn’t mean that we have to adhere to it. As God’s word tells us that through the blood of Messiah, Jews and Gentiles have been reconciled into one new man, without any separation between them. Racial reconciliation is not something we have to work on, but something we need to grab hold of and believe in, in complete faith, because of what Yeshua did on our behalf; Jews and Gentiles, blacks and whites.

Ephesians 2:11-16 drives the point home better than I ever could,” 11 Therefore remember that formerly you, the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called “Uncircumcision” by the so-called “Circumcision,” which is performed in the flesh by human hands— 12 remember that you were at that time separate from Messiah, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. 13 But now in Messiah Yeshua you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Messiah. 14 For He Himself is our peace, who made both groups into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall, 15 by abolishing in His flesh the enmity, which is the Law of commandments contained in ordinances, so that in Himself He might make the two into one new man, thus establishing peace, 16 and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, by it having put to death the enmity.”

So, I support black lives today as much as I have supported them my whole life, but not through a manmade movement that has a shaky foundation at best. I support black lives because of my Messiah who supported all lives, enough to die for them. We all should support black lives and it definitely matters how we do it!

September 5, 2019 By Olivier Melnick Leave a Comment

Is There Such a Thing as Christian Anti-Semitism?

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?

It is really unfortunate that our Bible (Old and New Testaments) would be divided into two parts. Things would be a lot simpler if we looked at the whole counsel of God from Genesis to Revelation but separated by what is known as “the 400 silent years”, we have the Jewish Scriptures (written in Hebrew) and the Greek Scriptures (written in Greek and Aramaic), thus started the chasm between the two. Words and concepts are not completely transferable from Hebrew to Greek, and the two different cultures added further challenges to God’s message through the ages.

Nobody can deny that the coming of Yeshua onto the scene changed everything. The Jewish leadership of His days felt threatened, intimidated and at times humiliated. The guardians of the Mosaic Law were being challenged by one who came to fulfill that Law, and yet never broke one of its commandments. Additionally, even though He first came for His own according to the flesh, He included Gentiles. It wasn’t long before the very Gentiles who had been excluded but were now grafted in started to take over and slowly forced the erosion of Jewish traditions within Christianity. By AD 325 at the council of Nicaea, much of the Jewishness of Christianity had disappeared or was being further diluted into a faith that couldn’t relate to its own roots any longer.

Early Church Fathers had started to deviate from a literal, historical/grammatical approach to the Bible. Their allegorical interpretations slowly led them to see Israel as a demonized people who had been replaced by the Church. The uneducated masses gladly followed suit and the Jews started to become a burden and a deadweight wherever they could be found. It would take until the Holocaust to have a people group attempt to radically and systematically eradicate European Jewry. Jews had become vermin or a sub-human race, and as such, total annihilation was the only solution. It was “The Final Solution to the Jewish Question” as Nazi Germany expressed euphemistically. All or most of it, when you ask Jewish people, was done by Christians. But was it? An honest approach to the issue would prove otherwise:

• 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 exception.) The context 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.”

• 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)? 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 used, 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 really play a role in their guilt. This is what we could call the “Great Christian Departure.” The Church started to attach the non-related Jewishness to the sins of the early [Jewish] believers and before long, being Jewish was 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, that 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 them “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 around 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 times guilty of the same crime. By the same logic, all Germans would be Nazis and all Muslims would-be terrorists. This is ludicrous! But 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 of 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 mistaken as the Jewish people who paint–with broad strokes– that all Christians are antisemitic. The New Testament is not antisemitic, but it does expose human nature and universal sin for all people Gentiles and Jews alike. It is time to keep things in context and approach God’s word with humility and sincerity.

August 8, 2019 By Olivier Melnick Leave a Comment

Can We Really Co-Exist Today?

Many people have been exposed to the bumper sticker that says COEXIST using symbols of various world religions and worldviews to spell out the word. The letter “c” is a crescent moon representing Islam. The letter “o” is the peace symbol. The letter “e” is a male/female symbol. The letter “x” is the Star of David representing Judaism. The letter “i” is a pagan/Wiccan symbol. The letter “s” is a Chinese yin-yang symbol, and the letter “t” is a cross representing Christianity. The implied message is that no matter what or who we believe in or even if we don’t believe in anything, we should be able to co-exist. Philosophically, it has merit and as humans, we ought to be able to co-exist on our shared planet. In a sense, we are co-existing by virtue of existing and sharing the real estate that earth provides for us. But maybe our co-existing stops at that level, and maybe, just maybe, this is not such a bad idea!

Co-existence requires tolerance, respect and compassion from all parties. These virtues are very biblical, even when people failed to make that connection. Outside of defending ourselves from our enemies, the Bible teaches us to respect our fellow men. The very fact that over the centuries people have twisted the Scriptures to justify their actions doesn’t make the biblical record into a manifesto justifying a destructive agenda.

Scripture tells us that the greatest commandment is to love God, and the second one is to love one another, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” Yeshua even took it one step higher, saying that we are even to love our enemies. In Yeshua, we see the example of obeying the authorities, overcoming evil with good and standing for justice and healing for the helpless. These strong ethics have long been a strong foundation for Western civilization, even though the freedoms they have rested on have more recently been eroding.

Now, it seems that the group that is targeted the most is the Jewish people. To a degree, we are targeted by all the letters of the Coexist acronym; radical Islamists, liberals, LGBTQ, atheists and even some Christians. While each of these groups can and have displayed anti-Jewish sentiment, the most lethal is from Islam. People continue to be scared of saying it like it is, but the vast majority of the recent deaths in the Jewish communities of the world are from people who at the very least call themselves Muslims.

How do we co-exist when one party worships death and the other party values and respects life? It is literally impossible unless the meaning of co-existence becomes redefined, which is exactly what radical Islam is trying to do. If tolerance becomes a one-way street, we are then forced into tolerating an ideology that is foreign to western values. In essence, we are tolerating the intolerant, and that leads nowhere but down the spiral of civilizational demise. So, no, I don’t believe we can co-exist unless we share similar values.

When I moved to the United States from France in the mid-1980s, I was looking forward to integrating into the American way of life and American culture and customs. I eventually became an American citizen, even though in the privacy of my own home, I enjoy French food, music, movies, literature, customs and language. I can c0-exist in America as a French expat, even though I am legally American now. My co-existence is based on the respect of others and the price I place on human life and dignity (all of them biblical values by the way.)

When I say that we cannot co-exist, some will quickly succumb to the temptation of labeling me a racist. That’s inevitable, but that is also inaccurate. The only group that I believe we can not co-exist with is radical Islam, and they have proved over and over that they don’t play well with others. But, please don’t call an Islamophobe a racist, because ISLAM IS NOT A RACE! Islam is an ideology that includes a religion among other things. There are Muslims all over the world, and their ethnic origins have nothing to do with their indoctrination or lack of. I also do not want my statement to be seen as an invitation to exclude, expel or exterminate. This was done to my people in the 1930s and 1940s, and we know it didn’t end well. We just need to be more careful about what we allow people to get away with.

I am greatly concerned about the lack of discernment that our world is showing. I am not even speaking of biblical discernment here, but simply of the ability to detect if people mean what they say and say what they mean. If Islam is indeed the religion of peace, where are the millions of “moderate’ Muslims when a voice needs to be heard to fight anti-Semitism? Radical Islam has given other Muslims a bad rep, but that could easily be rectified if the “other Muslims” would speak up against the abusers. I just don’t see it happening except in a very few cases, and I mean a handful!

To quote a Russian proverb that was made famous in English by Ronald Reagan, “Trust, but verify!” I want to play well with others and I want to give them the benefit of the doubt. Forgive me for checking their intentions. I want to co-exist, but I am not sure we really can anymore, at least not in the pure sense of the term.

May 27, 2019 By Olivier Melnick 2 Comments

The Time to be a “Righteous Gentile” is Today!

After the Second World War, as Europe was coming to grips with the horrors of the Holocaust, it became evident that while most of the world turned its back on the Jewish people, some people found it in their hearts to help. While it was expected that Jewish people would help their own–and they did–help also came from Gentiles. By 1953, only six years after the war, Israel, then a modern nation since 1948, decided to start gathering information about those Gentiles who helped Jews during the Holocaust years. Gentiles became recognized as “Righteous Among the Nations” based on three criteria as they helped Jews during the war years. First, they were not Jewish. Secondly, they acted risking their own lives and finally, they received no money in exchange for their deeds. In 2019, there are less than 27,000 Righteous Gentiles whose names Yad Vashem recognizes worldwide. In the scope of the six million innocent Jewish victims of the Nazi Death Camps, this is a drop in the ocean. But what about modern-day Righteous Gentiles? Do they exist? Who are they, and where are they?

In light of antisemitism’s global rebirth, we need modern-day Righteous Gentiles more than ever before. I am convinced that at the rate Jewish hatred is growing, it won’t be long before the global Jewish community will need help from outside once again. In some ways, we are already there when we consider the attacks in Pittsburg, San Diego, New York and the numerous–almost daily– incidents in Europe. How can we identify The Righteous Gentiles of today?

They read their Bible and they believe God’s plan for Israel
Anytime one reads their Bible, not trying to allegorize the stories that God gave us, they cannot help but discover a theme throughout its pages: Israel and the Jewish people–from early in Genesis all the way to Revelation, and almost on every page of the Bible. This is not to say that one must read their Bible to love the Jewish people. There were and still are many people who might not be religious or have any spiritual connection, and yet, have nothing against the Jewish people. People of good will have always existed. Yet, I do believe that modern Righteous Gentiles will have a greater propensity to help Jewish people if they read their Bible. Taken literally, the story of Israel and the Jewish people is based on promises and covenants made between the God of Israel and various leaders of Israel. Except for the Mosaic Covenant (parallel to all the others AND conditional), these covenants are all connected, unconditional and based on God’s unchanging character.

They love the Jewish people
Today’s Righteous Gentiles, biblically motivated or not, simply love the Jewish people. They recognize Israel’s existence against all odds and often contrary to human logic. There are a lot of Bible believers that could be called Christian Zionists. They believe in God’s plan for Israel and in the restoration of the Jewish people in the land of Israel in the End-Times (Ezekiel 36-37). To an extent, that return to Eretz Yisrael has already begun and Bible believers live with a great expectation of God’s fulfillment of His promises. When one believes in the God of the Bible, it is hard not to love the Jewish people.

They live their Bible
One important aspect of the Righteous Gentiles is that they not only believe the Bible, but they also live it daily. While no Bible believer is made instantaneously perfect by following the teachings of Yeshua of Nazareth, they are encouraged to live for Him and through Him. As a result, Righteous Gentiles strive to apply biblical principles to their own lives, just like the people of the French village of Le Chambon did during World War Two. Somebody once said, “Preach the Good News every day, if necessary, use words!” Our actions ought to be enough to demonstrate what we believe and why we believe it. Words are good but actions are better!

They will take risks to protect the Jewish people
To that extent, Righteous Gentiles will not hesitate to, again, help the Jewish people when the time comes, and the time is coming! There is no doubt in my mind that even though the Bible is replete with God’s promises for Israel and the Jewish people, things are going to get worse before they get better. Righteous Gentiles took great risks eighty years ago to hide, protect and save Jews. Today’s Righteous Gentiles are ready to do the same, but most Jewish people are not aware of it. Jewish people today need to be made aware that there are Gentiles who are their friends. Not every Gentile is an antisemite! Yet it is becoming increasingly difficult for Jewish people today to know where to turn for help and who to trust.

If you are a Gentile today, ask yourself these few questions, and if your answer is YES, then you might be a Righteous Gentile awaiting his/her call to reach out to God’s chosen people.
• Do you believe the Bible’s promises for Israel and the Jewish people will be fulfilled literally?
• Do you believe the Jewish people are at risk again?
• Are you willing to take risks to help your Jewish friends?

While I do not believe that Bible believers will go through the horrors of the Great Tribulation, in Matthew 25:40, we see how serious Yeshua is about the way Gentiles should treat Jews. At the end of that seven-year period of perilous times, Gentiles who would have survived the Tribulation and helped Jews in the process, will be recognized by King Yeshua, “The King will answer and say to them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.'” These Righteous Gentiles will not earn their entrance into God’s Kingdom because they protected Jews during the Tribulation, but their actions will simply demonstrate that they had become believers during that time, leading them to make the right choices.

The time to be a Righteous Gentile is today. Unbeknownst to them, the Jewish people are counting on you!

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