Showing posts with label Holocaust Memorial Day. Show all posts

Sunday, January 27, 2019

The Holocaust Remains a Wake-Up Call for the Church - Charles Gardner ISRAEL TODAY

The Holocaust Remains a Wake-Up Call for the Church

Sunday, January 27, 2019 | Charles Gardner ISRAEL TODAY

Topics:

Nearly three-quarters of a century has passed since the Red Army liberated the notorious Auschwitz death camp on January 27, 1945, a date now marked by the annual Holocaust Memorial Day here in Britain and elsewhere.

It is held with the intention of ensuring that it never happens again. But alas, anti-Semitism is back to haunt us, proving the point often made that we never learn from history.

In the UK, we face the dreadful possibility of having a Prime Minister with strong anti-Israel sympathies if the party currently holding onto power by the skin of its teeth does not get its act together.

In the US, they have witnessed the ghastly spectre of a congresswoman who took “swearing in” quite literally as she launched a profanity-laced tirade against President Trump on taking office.

Democrat Rashida Tlaib and Representative Ilhan Omar are the first two Muslim women elected to Congress, with the latter having already expressed her opposition to Israel.

Anti-Semitism has also been cited among issues affecting the Women’s March movement in America. In fact, it is on the rise worldwide, with left and right forming an unholy alliance against God’s chosen people.

On the other hand, there is increasing support for Israel from unexpected quarters. Take Brazil, for instance. Its new president, Jair Bolsonaro, has boldly declared his intention of following the US lead in moving his embassy to Jerusalem. And Wilson Witzel actually requested the sound of a shofar to accompany his inauguration as a Brazilian state governor, so strong is his support for the Jewish state.

So what does this mean? Nations, communities and individuals are lining up for battle (whether knowingly or not) in anticipation, no doubt, of the day of judgment when the sheep are separated from the goats (see Ezekiel 34.17, Matthew 25.31-46, Joel 3.2) on the basis of how they treated the Jewish people.

In the midst of all this, the silence from most leaders of the Christian church has been deafening – just as it was in Germany and elsewhere during the Shoah. I guess this is largely because of the dangerous and heretical Replacement Theology that has certainly swept through much of the British church.

We should be witnessing stirring calls from our pulpits to stand with the Jews, but somehow they don’t see the connection. That’s because they have been disconnected from the roots of their faith, and have forgotten that we worship the God of Israel, who has sent his Son as Messiah, first for the Jews and also for the Gentiles.

We owe them everything – the Law, the Prophets, the Patriarchs, the entire Bible (Luke being the only Gentile author) and most of all Jesus, who will soon return as the Lion of the tribe of Judah (Rev 5.5).

That the Jewish state is once more under severe threat was illustrated by the surface-to-surface missile fired into Israel by Syrian-based Iranian forces on Sunday. Fortunately, it was successfully intercepted.

Anne Graham Lotz, daughter of the late evangelist Billy Graham, is currently suffering severe side-effects from cancer treatment which she believes could be a message for Israel.

Recalling that God had some of his prophets live out the message he gave them, she wonders if her current life and death battle relates to the Jewish nation, reborn just a week before she came into the world.

“The warning I feel deep within is that Israel is in danger of a surprise attack in this, her 70th year,” she writes, urging them to return to the Lord (Joel 2.12-14) and us Gentiles to pray for the peace of Jerusalem “and for the whole House of Israel”.

If we truly love Jesus, we will love the Jews – as many of our Arab friends testify on finding peace and reconciliation at the cross. Wake up, church!

PHOTO: Visitors seen at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial museum in Jerusalem ahead of International Holocaust Remembrance Day. (Miriam Alster/Flash90)

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Saturday, January 26, 2019

Jewish Evangelist Who Preached Yeshua During the Holocaust - Charles Gardner ISRAEL TODAY

Jewish Evangelist Who Preached Yeshua During the Holocaust

Friday, January 25, 2019 | Charles Gardner ISRAEL TODAY

Topics:

Messianic Jews

With the annual Holocaust Memorial Day in view, it is worth being reminded not only of how many perished, but also of those who escaped the jaws of Nazism – often miraculously.

It is a little known fact that in spite of terrible persecution in Eastern Europe, thousands of Jewish people were very open to the message of Jesus. In fact, research is currently being undertaken on the so-called ‘Messianic’ believers who died in the Shoah.

Among those who experienced miraculous deliverance from the death camps was Jakob Jocz, a Lithuanian-born third generation follower of Yeshua who became an evangelist to the Jews of Poland under the auspices of CMJ (the Church’s Ministry among Jewish people), a British-based international society already reaping a plentiful harvest of souls throughout Europe and North Africa by the 1930s.

Such was the response to their work that the Warsaw branch CMJ chief Martin Parsons expressed the need for over 700 staff rather than the mere ten suggested at the time.

Jocz was sent to Birkenhead, near Liverpool, to train for Anglican ordination, and when he returned to Poland, he wrote: “In spite of anti-Semitism and increasing hatred, the Jews met us in many places with an open mind and with great readiness to hear the gospel.”

He added: “Today when the cross is being twisted into a swastika…Jewish men and women flock into the mission halls to hear and to learn about the wonderful Saviour.”

In May 1939, he received an urgent call to England to replace the main speaker of the Church Missionary Society’s annual summer conference, who was unavailable due to illness.

In a recent research paper The Rev Dr Jakob Jocz, Dr Theresa Newell writes: “This was indeed a miraculous deliverance as members of his family died at the hands of the Nazis soon afterwards…” Jakob’s father Bazyli was betrayed to the Gestapo and shot to death.

The family’s story has something of a Fiddler on the Roof ring to it. Jakob’s grandfather, Johanan Don, was the local milkman in his shtetl (village) who first encountered the good news of Jesus when seeking medical help for his teenage daughter Hannah (Jakob’s mother) who had been crippled in a fall.

The doctor was a Jewish believer and gave Johanan a Hebrew New Testament. He subsequently became a disciple, but died soon afterwards.

In order to make ends meet, his widow Sarah took in a boarder, a young rabbinic student named Bazyli Jocz. When he read Isaiah 53, he asked his teacher, ‘Who is the prophet speaking about?’ It was of course a situation very reminiscent of the Ethiopian eunuch’s conversion in the Book of Acts (chapter 8). But the teacher was no evangelist, instead hitting him over the head and calling him a ‘detestable Gentile’ for asking such a ‘foolish’ question.

Bazyli was shocked, but undeterred, and after consulting the same doctor who had pointed Johanan in the right direction, he too became a believer.

He duly married Hannah, and Jakob was born in 1906. He became a noted evangelist and theologian whose writings represent a rich legacy of inspiration and encouragement for Christians – all called to preach the gospel to Jews.

As the Third Reich stormed across Europe, he wrote a booklet appealing to churches to speak out against the persecution of his people. As an Anglican bishop pointed out in the foreword, “he rightly calls attention to apathy in the church on the subject of missionary effort amongst the Jews.”

Indeed, he challenged the church to become ‘missional’ as its raison d’etre and to remember the call in that mission is “to the Jew first” (Romans 1.16).

If the church has no gospel for the Jews, he believed, it has no gospel for the world. He had total confidence in the authority of Scripture and stood on the premise that “loyalty to Jesus Christ is the ultimate test of the disciple,” adding: “Commitment to Jesus Christ makes universalism (the idea that all roads lead to God) impossible.”

He was highly critical of Rabbinic Judaism, lamenting that “making Torah into a religion robbed it of life” and saying that the removal of the sacrificial system (following the destruction of the Temple in AD 70) without their acceptance of the “once and for all times sacrifice” of Jesus led Judaism to a preoccupation with the study of the law. The irony of this, of course, is that the law was anchored in the fact that “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sin”. (Leviticus 17.11)

One of his theses was that the early church was much closer to the Old Testament than Rabbinic Judaism is today. And he advocated Jewish believers to fulfill the prophetic call to take the gospel to all nations.

Jakob certainly practiced what he preached. It is estimated that, through outreach efforts like his, there were as many as 100,000 Jewish believers in Yeshua by the time war broke out in 1939, many of whom would no doubt have shared the fate of their brethren in the concentration camps but who would also no doubt have shared the life-giving gospel of their Saviour.

Charles Gardner is author of Israel the Chosen, available from Amazon; Peace in Jerusalem, available from olivepresspublisher.com; and A Nation Reborn, available from Christian Publications International

Sunday, January 28, 2018

COMMENTARY: The Battle of Britain - Charles Gardner ISRAEL TODAY

COMMENTARY: The Battle of Britain

Sunday, January 28, 2018 | Charles Gardner ISRAEL TODAY

Topics:

Anti-Semitism

As we mark another Holocaust Memorial Day, held each year on the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, the ongoing nightmare experienced by the Jewish people – with anti-Semitism once again spreading like cancer – should drive us to our knees.

And I’m glad to say that our African brethren, at least, who have brought much-needed new life and vigour to the British church, are doing just that by calling a special day of prayer focused on our fractured relationship with Israel.

Wale Babatunde of the World Harvest Christian Centre in south London is particularly concerned by Britain’s failure to follow President Trump’s lead in recognising Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

This follows a series of betrayals over the years which have undone much of the goodwill fostered by the government’s pledge, through the Balfour Declaration 100 years ago, to do all in its power to re-settle the Jewish people in their ancient land.

Fortunately, African Christians know how to pray, so we are fully expecting God to shake up our complacency over Israel – both in Parliament and in the Church.

My own MP, Dame Rosie Winterton (Labour, Doncaster Central), has already chaired a debate on Holocaust Memorial Day in the House. In a report to her constituents, she said this year’s theme, The Power of Words, was a reminder that the Holocaust did not start with the gas chambers, but with hate-filled words, adding that words can also be a force for good through which we can demonstrate that we will not stay silent when such vilification and de-humanisation occur.

In South Africa, meanwhile, farmer/evangelist Angus Buchan has called another It’s Time day of prayer for his country – this time in Cape Town where he recently addressed Parliament as part of a prayer rally.

Last year, 1.7 million Christians travelled to a farmer’s field near the central city of Bloemfontein to pray for a nation steeped in corruption and lawlessness, and Angus is hoping for a similar response on March 24 this year

We should be doing it here too. Many of us have forgotten, or perhaps never knew, that it was prevailing prayer – not Spitfires and Hurricanes – that won the Battle of Britain. Rees Howells and his Bible College students in Wales were on their knees daily throughout the war. In fact, according to Norman Grubb, in _Rees Howells – Intercessor _(Lutterworth Press), “the whole college was in prayer every evening from 7pm to midnight, with only a brief interval for supper. They never missed a day. This was in addition to an hour’s prayer meeting every morning, and very often at midday. There were many special periods when every day was given up wholly to prayer and fasting.” Howells told his students: “Don’t allow those young men at the Front to do more than you do here.” Over the Dunkirk period, Howells spent four days alone with God “to battle through and, as others have testified, the crushing burden of those days broke his body. He literally laid down his life.”

It’s time we did it again. Both Britain and Israel face an enemy just as terrifying as the Nazis, only subtler. This is the belief that we are no longer answerable to a heavenly authority, and that man is his own god – a secular/humanist view that has brought the beginnings of totalitarianism (that brooks no dissent) to a society once proud of its freedom. It was for this that my father’s generation risked their lives in World War II.

But as journalist Melanie Phillips has said on a tour of America, Israel is absolutely central to the recovery of Western values, which are based on the Hebrew Bible. “We’re in this together,” she told the Minnesota-based Olive Tree Ministries radio programme.

Here is the stark reality of what is facing the Jewish people today: Iran is fast developing nuclear weapons with which to “wipe out” Israel (in the words of the Ayatollahs and Iranian presidents) and, ominously in the eyes of many, the Russian Bear has now established a foothold in the region. The current spat between Shiite Iran and Sunni Saudi Arabia further adds to the tension and Gaza-based Hamas is repeatedly firing rockets into the Jewish state while Lebanon-based Hezbollah continues to pose a serious threat on its northern border. Brutal Islamic State are also stalking the area while the Palestinian Authority incites its people to murder and mayhem, and some Westerners are engaged in a boycott of Israeli goods on the pretext that they are oppressive occupiers of land not their own. But the truth is that, in most cases, Jews are being attacked simply because they are Jews, not for political or economic reasons.

Tragically, however, the South African government is fanning the flames of anti-Semitism with their ruling party, the African National Congress, having last month announced its intention to loosen diplomatic ties with Israel, citing alleged apartheid policies against the Palestinians along with America’s acknowledgement of Jerusalem as the nation’s capital.

Thankfully, the Zulu King is urging them to reconsider. Goodwill Zwelithini, monarch of South Africa’s largest ethnic group, praised the Jewish state for their help in curbing the devastation of drought through their cutting-edge water technology along with the spread of HIV/AIDS through Jewish-sponsored medical circumcision.

But in both Britain and South Africa, we have a God in heaven waiting to hear our cry for mercy. Jesus said we could move mountains with our faith. (Matthew 17.20 & 21.21, Mark 11.23)

Let’s pray for the mountain of paralyzing unbelief and complacency to be removed from our nations, in Jesus’ name!

PHOTO: Courtesy of Charles Gardner

Charles Gardner is author of Israel the Chosen, available from Amazon, and Peace in Jerusalem, available from olivepresspublisher.com

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Wednesday, April 26, 2017

Germany's Choice - Tsvi Sadan ISRAEL TODAY

Germany's Choice

Wednesday, April 26, 2017 | Tsvi Sadan ISRAEL TODAY

Topics:

Israel

German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel made a choice during his visit to Israel. He chose to meet with two subversive NGOs rather than sit with Prime Minister Netanyahu.

Gabriel's choice would be akin to a visit to Germany by Israel's Foreign Minister during which he met with German NGOs investigating German soldiers for war crimes in Afghanistan rather than meet with Chancellor Angela Merkel.

What makes Gabriel's choice even more aggravating is the fact that his visit was part of Germany's participation in Holocaust Memorial Day. Not unrelated is the fact that Gabriel's father was an avowed Nazi until the day he died in 2012, at the age of 91. Though this does not makes him one, it should have made him all the more sensitive.

Further still, Gabriel's choice was made after a week of exchanges between himself and Netanyahu's office. In other words, Gabriel's choice was Germany's choice to prefer blatant anti-Israel NGOs over the elected Prime Minister of Israel.

The two organizations he met with are B'Tzelem and Breaking the Silence, groups that exist only to vilify Israel. Germany is supporting these organizations with millions of euros, thus blatantly interfering in Israel's internal affairs. For too long now, Israel has turned a blind eye to foreign governments' intervention, these attempts to make Israel capitulate to the European radical left agenda, an agenda that is becoming increasingly antisemitic.

Eldad Beck, a journalist who lived for many years in Germany, and who is well versed in German politics, wrote for the Mida news portal that Sigmar's was a deliberate and well calculated provocation.

"Anyone claiming that the German Foreign Minister didn't know about the explosive nature of his meeting with Breaking the Silence and B'Tzelem," writes Beck, "is throwing dust in your eyes. The German government, German political parties and private and government funds are among the largest supporters of [Israeli] left-wing organizations."

Given this background, Netanyahu, for the first time, has drawn a clear red line: "My policy is clear," he said, "not to meet with diplomats who visit Israel and engage with organizations that slander Israeli soldiers and seek to have them put on trial as war criminals."

Commenting on Netanyahu's decision to cancel the meeting with him, Sigmar mislead observers by presenting subversive organizations as legitimate "civil organizations, some of which are critical of the government." He also said that "we do not want to enter the Israeli political game."

What Sigmar would not state was the names of these "civil organizations" that Germany supports. These are the most radical, not civil, but political NGOs disguised as civil organizations.

According to NGO Monitor, Germany supports organizations engaged in legal warfare and advancing boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel. Among those receiving money from Germany are the "Women's Coalition for Peace," "Physicians for Human Rights," and "Zochrot" – an organization calling for the return of all Palestinian refugees to Israel (in other words, Israel's destruction).

Germany also supports Palestinian organizations like Miftah, which has accused Israel of apartheid, cultural genocide and war crimes.

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Sunday, April 23, 2017

Israel Remembers - David Lazarus ISRAEL TODAY

Israel Remembers

Sunday, April 23, 2017 | David Lazarus ISRAEL TODAY

Topics:

Israel

Tomorrow begins a week of memory and commemoration in Israel. April 24 is Holocaust Memorial Day, and next week on May 1 begins Memorial Day for Fallen Soldiers concluding with the celebrations of Independence Day on May 2.

I have often wondered why we spend so much time reliving these heartbreaking events? Surely the people who lived through these traumas do not need a day to remember, they live everyday with memories.

During memorial days my grandfather would take me to visit the graves of his friends and loved ones. He pointed out the people he knew from the town where he grew up; a man who helped build the local synagogue, the butcher who lived across from the Jewish community center. Each grave marked with a Jewish star represented a unique life, a life that had left its mark on my grandfather.

In honoring these people, my grandfather left an indelible mark on me. I was reminded that we stand here today because of the sacrifices of so many who are no longer with us.

Tomorrow in Israel we will join in commemorative memorials across the country, in schools, at war monuments and in cemeteries. Tears will be shed, prayers prayed and stones placed on graves with flags raised in honor of those we have lost in wars and a holocaust over the past century. Friends and family will come together to tell the stories and recall the bravery, and the pain, of loved ones we can never forget.

Soon, in just a few short years, there will not be any survivors left to tell their stories. We feel their absence, for they are no longer here to give us direction, fill leadership roles in our communities, or extend comforting hugs.

This week, as we marvel at the spring season of rebirth, it is good that we also find time to renew the memory of the untold sacrifices of those who made it possible for us to enjoy our lives. It is good that we bring our children to Memorial Day events, read the names on the plaques and think about the families that were forever changed by the lives and the losses of their loved ones, and shake the hand of a young soldier in appreciation.

They have earned our eternal gratitude.

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Sunday, January 27, 2019