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There is a minority of Palestinian Christians who love Israel and believe what the Bible says about God’s purposes for His chosen people. These Christians risk their lives when they share this truth with the other 98% of Palestinians who are Muslims. Their belief that the Word of God foretold the rebirth of the State of Israel cannot be publicly preached under the Islamic Palestinian regime. A Muslim convert to Christianity is an anathema to the Palestinian Authority and completely unacceptable to the Islamic Palestinian population. Public evangelism among Muslims is prohibited. Now, an entire movement among Palestinian Christians, promoted at Christ at the Checkpoint Conferences in Bethlehem, has risen up to join hands with Islam for the purpose of delegitimizing, isolating and destroying Israel with an enhanced version of Replacement Theology. It is the quintessential doctrine bred from anti-Semitism.

But now these Palestinians have gone much farther. They have created what is called Palestinian Liberation Theology. According to them, Jesus was not a Jew. He was a Palestinian. Israel has no historical or theological right to exist. Rather, according to the rewritten scriptures, the Palestinians are the chosen people. https://goo.gl/qqQ4FG

This issue is of utmost importance to evangelical Christians—especially in America, but also in Europe—for Western Evangelicals are the bull’s-eye of the purveyors of this doctrine. Together with the Islamic Palestinian Authority, these Christian Palestinians have as their mission to bring the pro-Israel evangelical public into their Liberation Theology fold.

Every two years, the leaders of Bethlehem Bible School host at CATC like-minded scholars, priests and religious leaders who ferociously attack the Jewish State for existing and for oppressing innocent Palestinian victims. They don’t mention Islamic terror against Israel. They invite Palestinian Islamic authorities to their conferences who “verify” the “brutality” of the Israeli state against the “non-violent” innocent resistance. And many well-known Evangelicals are falling for their deceit, distortions and dishonesty.

Caroline Glick of the Jerusalem Post explains the importance of the Evangelicals to Israel:

Today, Evangelical communities in the US number anywhere between 60–150 million people, depending on who is counting. They form the backbone of American support for the Jewish state. It is the support of the Evangelical community, rather than the Jewish community in the US that ensures that come hell or high water, no matter how Israel is demonized in the media and in academia, the majority of Americans continue to support Israel. https://goo.gl/qqQ4FG

But times are changing. Many Christians aren’t aware there is a ferocious battle going on for the soul of the Evangelical Church which loves Israel. This year, Christ at the Checkpoint unrelentingly attacked not only Israel, but Christian Zionists—those who love and support Israel—both spiritually and physically.
A Christian Zionist journalist, Brian Schrauger, notes that in North America, the millions of Christians who support Israel seem unaware of significant erosion within. Their children, evangelical millennials in their 20s, are tottering toward an anti-Israel religious world view. He warns:

Arguably and since it began in 2010, the entire Christ at the Checkpoint movement aims to be the lever that tips, or converts, those millennials into religious ambivalence, if not hostility, toward the Jewish state and Jews everywhere. https://goo.gl/uyyMol

In all fairness to Arab Christians in the West Bank, I cannot imagine the pressure these Palestinian Christians endure living under an Islamic dictatorship. If they were to publicly speak out as to what the Bible says about the land and people of Israel, the PA would make their lives intolerable. Over the last three decades, since the PA has ruled these areas, nearly all Arab Christians who are Catholic, Greek Orthodox or Protestant have left the Palestinian territories for other countries.

The Palestinian Authority, along with their Islamic imams, does what comes naturally for Islamics. They inundate their people with a constant onslaught of Jew-hatred TV, school books and the glorification of Palestinian terrorists— with many millions of dollars of Western support going into the pockets of terrorists in and out of jail, and their families. When we then consider that Palestinian Christians of all stripes have been raised on Replacement Theology —they hardly stand a chance to be able to read the Bible without dark-clouded glasses that pronounce evil, good and good, evil.

I have lived in Israel since 1967—which includes the time that Yasser Arafat began to create a Palestinian people group which did not exist before. I also well know that Islamic leaders of surrounding Arab nations helped create and sustain this new people as their tool to destroy Israel.

In my opinion, here is the crux of the Palestinians’ great national tragedy. As long as Arab children are educated from birth that they have “lived in the Holy Land for centuries” and “Israel had stolen their land,” this created people group will be a continuous weapon against the existence of Israel—victims of Islamic theology and hatred of the Jew. The Jewish nation will continue to exist, but the Palestinian people will live in chaos, poverty and hatred—with murderers of Jews as their national Palestinian heroes.

Except for Jordan, every other Islamic country has refused Palestinians the right to citizenship in their Arab countries—even though those who now call themselves Palestinians speak the same language, eat the same food, have the same basic culture and the same religion.

Schrauger warns that a meaningful relationship with Palestinians, Jews and Christians must be in the context of a fierce commitment to objective truth. Relationships must not be allowed to devolve into relativism in which we speak of “your truth” and “my truth.”

He points out that when CATC claims their purpose is to “confront religious extremism,” they do not mean Islamic terrorism—they mean those who believe Israel has a right to exist as a Jewish nation.

Israel’s Front Page Magazine gave this disturbing analysis: “Among the enemies of Israel—Islam, European Union, the UN, anti-Israel political forces and Palestinian terrorism—Christ at the Checkpoint Conference will join in the chorus of those who work to destroy Israel with the power of their words.”

To give you a clearer picture of the purposes of Christ at the Checkpoint from an Israeli point of view, I’ve included an article by Israeli author Barry Shaw. Secondly, I have added an article by a brave Palestinian Christian who will remain anonymous for security reasons.

Lastly, I have written a “layman’s rebuttal” to explain in simple terms Replacement Theology, Fulfillment Theology and Palestinian Liberation Theology. It’s obviously not a comprehensive study by any means, but will give you an overall picture of these errant doctrines that are at this moment infiltrating Evangelicals across the globe.

Why do they go out of their way to deny the undeniable Jewishness of Jesus according to their own biblical commentaries?

It’s that crazy Christian biennial event in Bethlehem when traditional beliefs are thrown out of the church window. This spring saw the fourth rendering of that anti-Israel libel “Christ at the Checkpoint” played out yet again.

It is bad enough when devious Arab Islamic leaders, including Holocaust-denier Mahmoud Abbas, head of the Palestinian Authority, speak at Christmas time of Jesus the “Palestinian messenger,” but it is something completely different when church leaders call Jesus a Palestinian.

They know it is a lie, yet they subscribe to this mantra. It leads one to question why they do it. Why do they go out of their way to deny the undeniable Jewishness of Jesus according to their own biblical commentaries? There can only be one inevitable conclusion.

It’s anti-Semitism.

It was anti-Semitism that fed the brutal dogma that expelled and killed millions of Jews as European Christianity pursued Jews around the globe from Spain and Portugal into central and southern America in the name of Christendom.

It was anti-Semitism at the heart of replacement theology that positioned God as having abandoned His Covenant with the Jewish people in favor of Christians.

It is anti-Semitism that drives Christian leaders to abandon the Old Testament narration of a return to Zion of the Jewish people in favor of promoting the notorious Kairos Palestine Document, which positions Palestinian Arabs as Jesus-figures deprived of their land, and Israelis as the Christ-killers. This blood libel is alive and well. It has shaken off the Christian shame of the Shoah [Holocaust], and found its voice in anti-Zionism.

Deconstructing the history of the Land of Israel in order to deny Jewish sovereignty is central to Palestinian policy. This narrative has been adopted by many Christians, who have found a moral hook on which to hang their anti-Semitism, namely the transfiguration of who are the violent and devious actors and who are the victims.

It is truly appalling how cynically deceptive some Christian leaders can be. They come up with emotional but false messages. Take Christ at the Checkpoint as an example. This is the name of the event that took place in Bethlehem. Christians tried to portray Jesus as a Palestinian suffering at an Israeli checkpoint. In support of the Palestinian narrative it carries the message, “Your Kingdom come!”

Had Jesus arrived at a checkpoint this year he would have been reminded by Israeli soldiers that, as a Jew, it was too dangerous for him to cross into Bethlehem, as his life would be in grave danger in a place that has become so radically Islamic that even the Christians have fled this once Christian town.
Participants who attended this event should be reminded that Israeli security forces arrested 14 members of Islamic Jihad based in Bethlehem. During their search, they found weapons and explosives in the houses of the Bethlehem terrorists.

At precisely the same time, the rector of London’s St. James’s Church was organizing, at her church, a propaganda event called “Bethlehem Unwrapped.” In a Guardian newspaper article, it said she was supporting a “beautiful resistance.” Neither should churches be supporting such “resistance,” known to Israelis as terrorist attacks. This is the campaign and cause that some Christian leaders and the Christ at the Checkpoint event promote, while hiding the truth of what is actually going on here.

What is going on is that Israelis are being targeted for slaughter, as are Christians in the Muslim world, including within Palestinian-controlled areas. In Bethlehem, they are being persecuted and oppressed, not by Israel but by Palestinians, including the leadership.

Prior to Israel’s surrender of Bethlehem to Arafat’s PLO in 1995, the Christian population was actually growing beyond the 80 percent mark, but today Bethlehem’s Christians have been reduced to a mere 10 percent.

This can hardly be blamed on Israel, considering that the Christian population in the Jewish state continues to flourish. Since Israel’s founding in 1948, its Christian community has expanded more than a thousand percent.

Christ at the Checkpoint is primarily a public relations plot to dissuade Evangelicals worldwide from their pro-Israel views. They state this openly in their mission statement. They wish “to create a platform for serious engagement with Christian Zionism” in order to pull them away from their support for Israel.

Mark Tooley of Front Page Magazine wrote, “To succeed, they will have to put blinders on cooperatively gullible evangelicals, guiding their eyes towards disruptive Israeli checkpoints, while hiding the rest of the surrounding reality.”
How right he is. It is this dishonest act that reveals their anti-Semitism. It is not performed out of ignorance.

It is done knowingly, a conscious act of deception and yet another Christian libel against the Jew, this time the national Jew, Israel.

Participants at this event call themselves “peace activists.” They cloak themselves with a moral message of peace, while the aim of this event is not peace but division and bias against the Jewish state.

Stephen Sizer is one of the most vehement anti-Semites. A British Anglican and a constant Israeli delegitimizer, in his book Christian Zionism—Road Map to Armageddon he suggests that “it is irresponsible to believe that God will bless Christians materially if they support the largely secular State of Israel.”
The violently anti-Semitic denial of Jewish rights at the heart of anti-Israel Palestinian and Islamic campaigning and violence is the reason why there are checkpoints in the first place. There is no room for this truth at Christ at the Checkpoint. It is an exercise in trickery, deception and replacement theology.

Reprinted by permission. The writer is senior associate for public diplomacy of the Israel Institute for Strategic Studies, and author of best-selling books Fighting Hamas, BDS and Anti-Semitism and BDS for IDIOTS.

As many of our brothers and sisters in Christ around the globe listen to the arguments and teachings of Palestinian Liberation Theology, we should consider the recent Christ at the Checkpoint Conference, which was sponsored by Bethlehem Bible College. Its goal was to encourage evangelical Christians to solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But did its organizers actually speak on behalf of Palestinian evangelicals?

As a Palestinian evangelical myself, I disagree with this conference, and I do not believe I am alone in my convictions. But many of my Palestinian brothers wish to maintain good relations with other Palestinian evangelicals and are wary of being labeled as “Zionists.” It is not my goal to cause divisions, and I love and respect those who disagree with me, but I must point out why many Palestinian believers do not follow Christian Palestinianism.

Jesus’ mission was to save people’s lives, not to support their political views. When people speculated that the Galileans were “worse sinners” because Pilate mingled their blood with their sacrifices, Jesus told these people to not speculate, for the Galileans were not worse sinners than they were (Luke 13). The Romans here had killed many Galilean Jews, who were from the same region where Jesus grew up. The Jews had come to Jesus to discuss how the occupying forces had killed many Jews.

Perhaps the Jews expected Jesus to encourage them to resist and fight the Romans and lead them as a king. But Jesus’ response shocked even me, as I read these verses directly. Jesus always focused on his message to save people. He responded that, “if you do not repent, you will likewise perish.”

When the Jews asked Jesus if they should pay taxes to Rome—which itself established an occupation in Judaea—did Jesus respond by calling the Roman governance unjust and asking the Jews to use nonviolent resistance? Jesus did not show any interest in the political, but rather showed the clear difference between living for God and obeying government, telling the Jews to “give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and give to God what is God’s.”

The Apostle Paul spoke in a similar vein in Romans 13, writing at a time when the unjust Roman Empire controlled much of the world. Neither Jesus nor the apostles spoke against Roman authority, for they understood the will of God about the purpose of government, and the sovereignty of God in ordaining governments to rule…

Here is the main reason why I disagree with Christ at the Checkpoint: Its Liberation Theology clearly undermines the Biblical role of government and the purposes of God.

The conference also fails to tell the whole truth between Israelis and Palestinians. While the theme of Christ at the Checkpoint was religious extremism, its speakers did not present religious extremism truthfully. They invited guest speakers who offered a sanitized view of Islam—what I call “cute Islam.” Concurrently, their speakers launched incredible attacks against our brothers and sisters in Messiah who believe in Christian Zionist theology. The main goal of this conference was actually to attack Christian Zionism.

The conference speakers were quick to mention the extremist Jews who burned a church in northern Israel last year, but gave an incomplete portrayal of Islam. Islamic terrorists have killed thousands of people without guilt or shame, yet this was given hardly any attention at Christ at the Checkpoint. So I appeal to my brothers who attended this conference to simply read the Quran, learn more about Mohammed the prophet of Islam, and understand what is causing the Islamic terrorism of the Islamic State today.

Closer to home than the Islamic terror attacks in Paris, Ankara, Beirut, Iraq and Syria, we can look at Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Hebron—none of which are far from Bethlehem. During the past six months, Palestinians (mostly Muslims) have carried out more than 200 terror attacks against Israelis. Most of these have been against civilians. This wave of terror was barely mentioned at the conference—let alone condemned unequivocally.

Is it not part of religious extremism when an imam calls for the stabbing and beheading of Jews, drawing from stories of Mohammed’s battles with Jews?

Is this not religious extremism? Why talk about ISIS when you have Hamas? Why talk about Al-Shabab when extreme Muslims in Gaza killed Rami Ayyad because of his faith in Jesus?

My brothers mentioned the arson attack on the Church of the Loaves and Fishes in Tiberias, but failed to speak about the arson attack on the Church in Bethlehem, which is a holy chapel for the Maronites. They did not mention that the Jews who perpetrated this arson in Tiberias are now in prison in Israel, while no one has heard about the results of any investigation into the arson in Bethlehem, the city under Palestinian Authority control and jurisdiction.

So how can we focus on our own suffering while ignoring others who suffer? Are we called to this? I do not believe that loving our enemies means that we simply say to them, “Look how I suffer and hurt,” while not seeing our “enemy” bleeding before our eyes. According to God’s teachings that we read of in 1 Corinthians 13, this is not love.

Reprinted with permission from Philos Project.

Replacement Theology teaches that God’s covenant with the Jews ended with Christianity. The Church has replaced Israel in God’s plan; the Jews are no longer God’s chosen people, and God does not have specific future plans for the nation of Israel. Instead, the Christian Church is God’s chosen people. And in the New Testament, after Pentecost, the term, “Israel” refers only to the Church.

Covenants given to Israel, and the plans, purposes and promises of God to Israel are now fulfilled exclusively in the Christian Church. It follows that many of the promises that God made to Israel must be spiritualized. When it speaks of Israel being restored to the land, this really means that the Christian Church will be blessed.

The fruits of Replacement Theology (also known as supersessionism—from the word “supersede”) have been the foundation of almost two millennia of Jew-hatred known as anti-Semitism. Its doctrine has enabled fallen man’s evil instincts to enjoy unlimited acts of horror, terror and extreme violence towards the Jewish people.

Hundreds, if not thousands, of episodes rooted in historical Jew-hatred have manifested themselves under the guise of this doctrine—for example, the infamous Spanish inquisition when 200,000 Jews were expelled from Spain by the Catholic Church. Ten’s of thousands were slaughtered, purposely drowned in the sea, or their bodies ripped open after rumors spread that Jews who were fleeing had swallowed their gold and silver items.

Even today, the “blood libel” fiction claims that Jews kill children to drink their blood on Passover. Internet bloggers this Passover accused Jews of killing Palestinian children to mix their blood with their matza.

Replacement Theology played a prominent role in Hitler’s plans to extinguish the seed of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; he comfortably appropriated the Church’s anti-Semitism down through the ages, which rose to new heights through Martin Luther’s demonization of the Jewish people.

IT STARTED 1900 YEARS AGO

The truth is that Replacement Theology was already spreading its tentacles even during the Apostle Paul’s lifetime. Paul strongly refuted this doctrine in Romans chapter 11. Arrogance and false teaching against the Jews was taking root among the new Gentile Christians and Paul warned them against this evil.

Paul made it clear that God has not deserted the Jews, and it was incumbent upon the Gentiles (i.e. the nations) not to boast nor be puffed up against the Jewish people even though most had not accepted Yeshua as their Messiah:

THROUGH ISRAEL’S FAILURE CAME SALVATION

Secondly, Paul explains that through the failure of the Jewish people, the Gentiles have received salvation through the Sacrificial Lamb of God who died at the hands of the Roman government at the demands of the Pharisaical religious leaders.

An amazing parallel in the Old Testament is seen in the life of Joseph. His brothers hated him, thought to kill him, and then gave him to the Gentiles to be rid of him.

Through that terrible offense, Joseph became the second ruler of the Gentiles (Egyptians) and also saved his own family who, when they recognized Joseph, humbly and in sorrow acknowledged their sin.

Furthermore, Paul revealed that the day is coming when the Jewish people will return to their God, and through the revelation of their Messiah, they will continue to bless the world.

Paul actually warns that a contemptuous attitude towards the Jewish people risks themselves being cut off.

A PROMISE ONLY GOD COULD MAKE

Then comes Paul’s reinforcement of the promise in the Old Testament that the Jewish people will one day be redeemed. The promise is found in a Psalm that all Israel sang on their way up to Zion for the annual holy feast days.

Paul confirmed this promise in Scripture that gives every Messianic Jew in Israel and abroad hope:

Paul again recognizes the fact that most of our Jewish people are not yet in a personal relationship with the God of Israel through the Messiah, Yeshua, but insists that God has still elected or chosen the Jewish people because of his promises to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob:

SO THE HISTORICAL CHURCH HAS BEEN SPOTLESS?

In my mind, the most ridiculous aspect of the Replacement dogma is the absolute blindness of any person who thinks he or she is without sin, not to mention the believing corporate Church over the last 1900 years. Has it acted righteously and without sin? There is no more pharisaical attitude than this.

Think about this concept—that the Church has replaced Israel because of Israel’s sin and rejection of God. The history of the Church is so incredibly full of sin, violence, and evil, that a person has to be in deep dark blindness to be unaware of the Church’s own historical wretchedness. Sexual abuse by Catholic Church leaders, perfidy of Protestant wars, hatred, greed, and so much more. How much clearer could the Bible be than to let the world know that all—Jews and Gentiles—have sinned and come short of the glory of God!

Of course, there are godly people in the Church, past and present. But if God has forever forsaken His chosen people because of their sins, how could He not forever forsake the Church for all its sins as well?

God has not forsaken Israel. Some 6,400,000 Jews now live in their ancient homeland. And, among our Jewish people, the number of Messianic Jews is growing exponentially!

In parallel, there are countries like China and in South America where the same phenomenal growth with Christian conversions is taking place. Because of God’s mercy, all of us are looking forward to a last-day world awakening both among Jews and the nations!

The dogma of Replacement Theology has probably brought more sin and evil to the world than any other Christian doctrine.

THE NEWEST BRAND: FULFILLMENT THEOLOGY

And yet, in these last days its heresy has expanded into a newer version of anti- Semitism.

Called Fulfillment Theology, now it’s not the Church that replaces Israel but Yeshua Himself!!! The argument goes like this: Since Yeshua fulfilled in His life all the redemptive work, his promises to the Jews including the Promised Land is null and void.

What a travesty and hodgepodge of God’s word! Yeshua didn’t come to replace Israel. Yeshua came to redeem Israel and all who are grafted into “Israel’s Olive Tree.”

Have all things been fulfilled? Obviously not. Yeshua has not yet returned for His bride as the Bible promises. Peter explained what was yet to happen on earth before the Second Coming of the Messiah when he spoke to the Jewish people who had gathered around him after a lame man was healed by the power of Yeshua’s Name. He told them:

PALESTINIAN LIBERATION THEOLOGY

Yet, can you believe? Now Palestinians’ Liberation Theology careens even farther from the core truths of the Bible, if that were possible.

This theology denies the words of Yeshua when He said, “For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished.” (Matthew 5:18)

It denies the words of Yeshua who said, “Jerusalem will be trampled underfoot by the Gentiles [i.e. the nations] until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.” (Luke 24:21)

It denies the promise Yeshua made to the unbelieving Jewish leaders when he said,

“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!’” (Matthew 23:39)

It denies the greatest promise to Israel: “All Israel shall be saved.” (Romans 11:26)

There isn’t a single mention of Philistines, Palestinians or Palestine in the New Testament. But Israel is mentioned 78 times. Judea 46 times. Samaria 12 times. Galilee 64 times. Jews and Jewish 173 times. Yeshua’s Jewish genealogy is listed twice, as a son of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob whose name God changed to Israel.

Palestinian Liberation Theology has been born out of hatred and jealousy of the Jewish people, reinforced and buttressed by Islamic theology.

This Palestinian Christian Theology meshes perfectly with Islamic theology concerning the extinction of the Jewish people and the dispossession of their promised land.

Now a growing list of influential ministers and ministries in America and Europe has embraced the lie—names wellknown to you if I listed them. And they are pulling many Evangelicals into their theological web. They are doing great harm in their attempt to destroy the State of Israel. But in the end, according to the Scriptures, the damage will be much greater to themselves.

GOD’S ARAB PEOPLE

I must always add that God loves the Arab people. He sent His Son to die for the sins of all the Arab people in the world. Satan has stolen God’s gift of salvation and replaced it with a religion that stands for murder, hatred and forced conversion.

How utterly tragic to be born into this theological prison, with no possibility to have a personal relation with the God of Israel through Yeshua, King of the Jews. Yet we keep hearing of incidents around the world where Yeshua is appearing to Muslim individuals in dreams and visions, resulting in their turning to the One True God. We must earnestly pray for and love Muslims, and do all we can to bring them the truth.

How would you like to be born a Syrian, a Libyan, a woman in Afghanistan, a boy soldier snatched by Boko Haram? How about being one of the millions of sex-slaves under the charge of Mohammed’s followers?

Disaster will certainly happen to the Palestinian Christians if a Palestinian State is created. According to all polls, Hamas will win the elections in the West Bank if elections are allowed. Ask the born-again Christians in Gaza about their freedom to follow their Lord there. They won’t be able to tell you much—for fear of their lives.

The once warm relationship Israel had with Turkey has broken down since authoritarian President Erdogan has become increasingly Islamic and hostile towards Israel. Conversely, Israel’s relations with Greece and Cyprus have become very warm. Cyprus understands what Islamic aggression is, as Turkey invaded and conquered the northern part of Cyprus, causing the island to be divided into two parts, with Greek Cypriots having to flee from the north with the loss of all their possessions.

The Apostolic Church of Jesus Christ in Limassol hosted a conference on Israel, where we were invited to speak God’s purposes and plans for Israel in these last days. These people love and pray for Israel and have a wide audience outside of Cyprus through their live streaming.

 

Perhaps the greatest sign yet of the Soon Coming of King Messiah is the growing number of young Messianic Jewish believers in Israel and around the world finding their Messiah.

For this reason, we at Maoz, together with the Messianic Jewish Alliance of America are sponsoring 30 Messianic Jewish Israelis to attend the yearly conference in Pennsylvania where they will meet and mix with over 1,000 Messianic Jews and Christian Zionists.

Relationships across the ocean build and nourish the Messianic body. These investments will most certainly bear fruit for the future.

You can bless these pioneer Messianic young people by sponsoring their trip to the U.S.

Maoz’ participation in the cost of bringing Israelis to the U.S. is $1,500 for each Israeli – for a total of $45,000. Let’s invest together in this generation. They are worth it!