Churches Together in Britain and Ireland and the Forty Thieves

Lent is a 40 day season during which Christians prepare for Easter by fasting, repentance, moderation and spiritual discipline. The purpose is to set aside time for reflection on Jesus Christ, His suffering, sacrifice, life, death, burial and resurrection.

The connection between the Jewish Passover and Easter is well known but Rabbi Evan Moffic argues persuasively that the preparatory period of Lent derived from the ancient Jewish tradition of Passover preparation. He goes on to identify the 40 days of Lent with the 40 years of Wilderness wanderings.

Biblical Judaism provides the foundation for Christianity, it was the religion of Jesus.

Lent is the season during which we reflect on the mystery of the Glory of Israel, Jesus Christ, Who was made a Light for the Gentiles. We should remember that we Gentiles have no natural claim on Him, that He was and is the Glory of His people, Israel, and that He is our Saviour by grace. In gratitude for such a gift we should pray for the good of Israel and for the people whom Jesus called ‘my brethren’, the Jews. It was for them that He shed bitter tears when He last beheld Jerusalem and it is for their redemption that He will appear a second time.

Lent is supposed to be a beautiful time, a time of elevation.

Churches Together in Britain and Ireland,  a group seeking to work for unity in the Church, have prepared a Lent programme in which they invite people to focus, not on Jesus Christ, but to “walk and pray with the Christians of the Middle East.” The pity of it is that they haven’t been able to do this without misrepresenting the Jews of Israel in the process. It turns out to be just another opportunity to abuse the only country in the region in which Christians are safe as the programme devotes an entire 33% of its space on unsubstantiated accusations and innuendo directed against the Jews.

The plight of thousands of Christians in the Middle East is harrowing but the political bias within this program overshadows its object.

A few exerpts should illustrate this clearly. “The promise given to Abraham and Sarah is of a secured future where they will not be alone.” This is incorrect, the promise was that he would become a blessing to the entire world, not that he “will not be alone.” But this is stated in order to prepare us for what is to follow, namely, that the land belongs to Palestinian Arabs as well as to Jews and they will be forced to live together regardless of the fact that 80% of those Arabs think that murdering Jews is good.

The underlying message becomes clearer with this quote from Riah Abu El-Assal, the former Bishop of Jerusalem. “As a Christian I look to the Old and New Testaments for the origins of my faith. Muslim and Christian Arabs look on themselves as heirs to the original covenant through Abraham’s first born son, Ishmael…..for both Jews and Christians, the Bible is not only our spiritual guide, but a record of our history and proof of our roots in the land. We have always lived side by side….Is there really no room for me here?”

His reading of the Old Testament should have informed the Bishop that the covenant to which he referred was between God and Abraham, passed on to Isaac, not Ishmael. The Arabs have no part in this covenant, this is a Jewish covenant and includes possession of the land. Ishmael was indeed promised blessings and they consisted of the assurance that he would be “multiplied exceedingly” (fulfilled by a population nearly 50 times larger than that of the Jews of Israel) but, some years later, God Himself instructed Abraham to send Ishmael and his mother out of the land. If the Bishop wants to validate his claim on the Land of Israel then he must look elsewhere than the Old Testament. I suggest A Thousand and One Nights or Ali Baba.

The article says, “….holy sites….can be a cause of tension between religious communities…” The writers don’t inform us what holy sites they are referring to and we are left with the impression that all sides in the matter are equally to blame. But the facts are brutal. The Cave of the Jewish Patriarchs in Hebron, Judaism’s 2nd holiest site, has been desecrated by Muslim ‘worshippers.’ Likewise, Joseph’s Tomb. A Jew may not even pray on his holiest site, The Temple Mount, whilst the Arabs use unauthorised bulldozers in an effort to expunge any evidence of the two Jewish Temples.

And there is the slur against the Israeli Government, “…hidden…from foreign tourists….are pockets of significant poverty and exclusion….” The contemptible implication is, of course, that this is the Israeli Government’s fault, and, not only that, but this shameful situation is “hidden” from visitors. We are then perniciously informed that the victimised Palestinians have “higher rates of infant mortality compared to Jewish citizens.” The impression given is that it is the Jews’ oppression of the Palestinians that is the cause of their children dying. But the reality is quite contrary, for instance, the doors of Jewish Hospitals are open to provide free state-of-the-art medical treatment for Arabs and Israel is well-known for its worldwide emergency aid.

In the Middle East imagined by CTBI, the Arabs and Christians are placed together as fellow sufferers at the hands of the Jews. But we have every reason to believe that, without the presence of the Jews of Israel, the Church would cease to exist in the land. After all, it is being eliminated throughout the Middle East and elsewhere, in imitation of Mohammed. Only in Israel are Christians happy and safe, only there is the Church growing.

The writers say: “In the context of the present conflict in the Middle East, many are perplexed as to how to interpret the promise to the land.” This appears to be telling us that “many are perplexed” because the claim of the Arabs on Jewish land continues to rise in decibels. As though the louder they shout and the more innocent blood that they shed, the more credibility it gives to their claim. But they shout and kill precisely because they have no legal or moral right to the land. The Arab Muslims justify all their land-theft by their holy book and the example of Mohammed but Arab Christians are even worse because they re-write the very Scriptures that they claim to believe inspired. It has become evident that Arab hatred for Jews is capable of surviving conversion and we in the West are being manipulated by CTBI to sympathise with it.

The programme says: “The Christians of Palestine, who live under occupation…” Again, the picture is of an innocent victim crushed under the boot of an occupier. But the Jews have long desired to leave the so-called West Bank and allow the Arabs to rule themselves, however, the moment they turn their backs, rockets begin landing on their schools and hospitals. If there is any form of occupation at all then it is forced upon the Jews because of the intransigence and wickedness of the Arabs.

“…the Christians of Palestine whose origins can be traced back to the time of Christ.” This statement is utter nonsense and is made for the single reason of fortifying the Arabs claim on Jewish land. To begin with, there were no Palestinians in the time of Christ because there was no Palestine, the country was called Galilee and Judea. Furthermore, the 1st cent. Church was composed of Jewish believers, not an Arab in sight. In those days the forefathers of today’s Palestinians were marauding tribes scattered over the deserts of Arabia.

One is tempted to applaud the effort of CTBI to awaken the conscience of the Western Church regarding their suffering brethren elsewhere but Lent is not the season in which to do it and the Jews should not be scapegoated to enhance the message. If the Jews have made a remarkable success of their country in a mere 67 years and fought off every spurious claim on their Promised and hard-won land then they deserve our admiration not our censure, our praise, not blame.

This hopelessly biased view of reality finally reaches its goal with the claim that all the difficulties of life for the Palestinian Christian derive from “occupation, checkpoints, land seizures and sometimes even the denial of the most basic human rights.” The image of the grasping Jew comes once more into view and, far from helping the Western Christian to sympathise with his brethren in the Middle East, it will rather make him despise the Jew.

And all this during Lent, the season leading up to the remembrance of the crucifixion! The irony should not go unnoticed.