Standing in support of Israel, Jews, and believers in all the nations, in the name of Jesus (Yeshua). Sharing biblical truth, encouragement, news and prophecy.
Did Pope Francis Really Take Another Step Toward a One World Religion?
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Despite Pope Francis' literal embracing of a top Islamic cleric and declaration that their "Meeting is the message," his top aid said Christians must apply Matthew 28 to everyone, including Muslims.
"We have a mission to convert all non-Christian religions' people [except] Judaism," Cardinal Kurt Koch said. "And what is very important for us is that we can make mission only with a credible witness and without any proselytism."
The Jews are God's chosen people, he continued. Christians should view them as a "mother" figure. But Islam and Christianity are vastly different.
"I don't think that we have the same relationship with Islam that we have with Judaism.
"It is very clear that we can speak about three Abrahamic religions but we cannot deny that the view of Abraham in the Jewish tradition and the Christian tradition and the Islamic tradition is not the same. In this sense we have only with Jewish people this unique relationship that we have not with Islam."
"If you have not see this video, it is one of the creepiest things that I have ever seen on YouTube. It has become exceedingly clear that Pope Francis believes that all major religions are completely valid paths to the same God, and there is virtually no uproar over this," Charisma News' Michael Snyder says of the Pope's actions. "This just shows how late in the game we really are. The one world religion that was prophesied nearly 2,000 years ago in the book of Revelation is starting to come to life, and we are witnessing the events of the last days begin to unfold right in front of our eyes."
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“Thus saith the Lord GOD: I will even gather you from the peoples and assemble you out of the countries where ye have been scattered and I will give you the land of Yisrael.” Ezekiel 11:17 (The Israel Bible™)
MK Rabbi Dov Lipman and Israel Retruns Founder Michael Freund at Ben Gurion Airport together with the Bnei Menashe children who made Aliyah in 2014. (Photo: Nir Kafri)
It is truly a blessing to the nation when their tax dollars go towards bringing about a Biblical prophecy. This was the case when the Israeli government set aside eight million shekels to settle 712 members of the Bnei Menashe, a religious group from India which claims Jewish roots, in the Holy Land. The decision was reported in Israeli media on Sunday.
The Bnei Menashe tribe, which numbers around 9,000 members, last had contact with the Jewish people thousands of years ago, according to their oral history. They are distinct and separate from the community of Indian Jews known as Bnei Israel, who arrived in Israel in 1952. The Bnei Israel did not need to undergo conversion and genetic testing has recently substantiated their unbroken genealogical connection with Israel.
The Bnei Menashe live in northeast India, in an area situated between Myanmar and Bangladesh. Also known as the Shinlung, the Bnei Menashe have an oral tradition, passed down for 2,700 years, which describes how the Assyrians invaded the Northern Kingdom of Israel in 721 BCE and took them into slavery.
According to their tradition, they escaped slavery and fled to Persia, and then Afghanistan. The Bnei Menashe later migrated toward Hindu-Kush and Tibet, eventually reaching Kaifeng in East Central China around 240 BCE.
In 100 CE, the Bnei Menashe were expelled from China. Some fled down the Mekong River into Vietnam, the Philippines, Siam, Thailand and Malaysia. Others went to Burma and west to India.
The Bnei Menashe have always observed mitzvot (Torah commandments) and lived as Jews in every respect, and there are over 50 synagogues throughout northeastern India. Several hundred members of the community have already immigrated to Israel, and thousands more clamor to join them.
Israel’s Absorption Ministry gave responsibility for the aliyah and resettling of the 712 Bnei Menashe members to Shavei Israel, a non-profit outreach organization that helps people around the world who are descendants of Jews in order to strengthen their connection with Israel. Shavei will make arrangements with the local Indian government and fly the community from India to Israel. After the Indian Jews arrive, the organization will also be responsible for all aspects of their integration.
Michael Freund, founder and chairman of Shavei Israel, first heard of the Bnei Menashe 15 years ago when he was working as a deputy in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s communications office. Freund received a letter from the Bnei Menashe, claiming they were the long-lost descendants of the tribe of Menashe, and one of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel. They asked for his help in returning to the Promised Land.
Though Israel is eager to help long-lost brethren return to their homeland, the absorption process is difficult and has not always been successful. Almost the entire population of Ethiopian Jews was brought to Israel in multiple airlifts, but their integration into Israeli society suffered serious shortcomings.
Freund explained the challenge of resettling long-lost Jews in Israel. “When we started Shavei, I saw the need for establishing a comprehensive absorption model together with the government,” Freund told Breaking Israel News.
“A lot of time and planning went into this model. We consulted with experts in the field and as a result, the Bnei Menashe are considered a model for success,” Freund explained.“All of the communities have asked for more immigrants from the group, and other communities have heard of the success of the program and have asked to take part.”
Over 3,000 Bnei Menashe and tens of thousands new immigrants from other communities have make aliyah to Israel, with the help of organizations like Shavei and the Israeli government.
The prophetic project has diplomatic implications, as it brings Israel and India even closer. In October last year, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the Bnei Menashe a “living bridge between our two peoples” in his speech at the special Knesset session in honor of the president of India, Pranab Mukherjee.
Here's why we look to the original, holy language of Hebrew to understand the Bible! While our English verse refers to "your brother's blood", in fact, the original Hebrew text contains a small but significant difference. The Hebrew word for "blood" is written in the plural - "bloods/d'-may." Our Sages describe that Cain shed not only the blood of Abel, but all of Abel's descendants, whose blood "cries out" to God Himself. Today, Shurat HaDin, Israel's non-profit law center, "cries out" on behalf of thousands of Jewish and Israeli victims of Arab terror. Its remarkable battle for justice in international courts has succeeded in cutting off funding to terrorists, and has saved countless lives in Israel and worldwide. Join with Shurat HaDin in its divine mission, and give a voice to terror victims, as God did when He spoke for the murdered Abel.
King Solomon said there's a time for war and a time for peace; a time to be silent and a time to speak out. In this powerful 3-minute video, see how families of terror victims, and their representatives, speak out to stop Israel's enemies. Now this is bravery!
As terror continues to plague the world, it becomes clearer by the day that stopping these atrocities through intelligence, security forces and military action is not enough.
Hundreds of Israelis gathered in prayer at the junction where three Israeli teenagers were kidnapped and murdered by Hamas terrorists two years ago. We pray that candles of goodness will remove the darkness of evil.
Hi there, just want to let you know that as a family of 11 (Grandpa + Grandma 2 married daughters and 7 grandkids) we all have started reading Torah portions and keeping the Sabbath, love the idea of back to our Hebrew Roots. One son in law take tours to Israel every year since 2006. We love Israel, from South-Africa. Be blessed. Riaan + Helen Greyling
I enjoy reading everything that you send to us, the news and the pictures. Thank you. Orietta G Weinstein
For photogenic Jerusalem, a look at how locals first captured their city - THE TIMES OF ISRAEL Shot from every angle since cameras were invented, the capital has usually been viewed through an outsider’s lens. A new exhibit of residents’ pictures from 1900 to 1950 takes a first shot at filling the gap BY SUE SURKES May 26, 2016
Jerusalem has been photographed from nearly every conceivable angle, dating back to the 1830s, when the world’s first photographic images were captured on film.
That photographic heritage is the subject of a new exhibit, “The Camera Man: Women and Men Photograph Jerusalem 1900-1950,” opening Thursday, May 26, at Jerusalem’s Tower of David Museum.
It was European visitors to the ancient city who were the first to photograph Jerusalem’s ancient sites and walls, and their own agendas colored those early photos, said curator Shimon Lev.
The tourists were photographers, archaeologists and devout Christians drawn to the perceived mysteries of the Orient, often inspired by a desire to prove that the events told in the New Testament had happened, and taken place in Jerusalem.
They were followed by the period of “Zionist photography” in the 1920s and 1930s, when professional photographers found paid work through the Jewish National Fund. It was a period of political and ideological photography, depicting tanned young men with bulging muscles pushing plows and athletic young women dancing the hora.
That photography was ambivalent toward Jerusalem, which, at the time, represented many of the Jewish ills which Zionism was supposed to upend, said Lev. Shmuel Josef Schweig. Concert by the cantor Z. Kwartin, from a Jewish National Fund album, Buki Boaz collection of Israeli photography, Mevasseret Zion
What was missing in that perspective was the photographers who lived and worked in Jerusalem, and the varied perspectives they brought to bear through the lens.
“The history of local photography in Jerusalem has never been shown as a body of work and we wanted to be the place to show it,” said Eilat Lieber, the museum’s director.
The results were culled from 18 months of intensive work, as the museum staff scoured photo archives, visited the major collectors of early Israeli photography and identified photographers — often by locating family members.
The exhibition features 120 digitized photographs and a smaller number of originals. It juxtaposes a range of styles, from formal and avant-garde, to a direct, journalistic, documentary style, creating an historic journey of the development of photography. It also casts a lens on the backgrounds of the photographers themselves, who brought their own cultures and histories to bear on their subjects and works.
A Torah lesson at the Diskin Great Orphanage in Givat Shaul in the 1920s, a digital print from glass plate negative (Courtesy Tsadok Bassan/Central Zionist Archives)
Of the 34 photographers on display –- including Jews and Arabs, women and men — Tsadok Bassan was the first Jewish photographer born in the city. A member of a third-generation, religious Jerusalem family, he created a unique photographic record of life in pre-state Jerusalem, immortalizing what went on in yeshivas, orphanages, soup kitchens, hospitals and cemeteries. Each of his pictures is meticulously composed, and natural light is a conspicuous feature.
In startling contrast, German-born Alfred Bernheim, one of the city’s foremost professional photographers, brought the style of the Weimar period and the New Vision movement to bear in his modern, angular compositions.
A rugby match between the Jerusalem Police and the Northern Police, circa 1933 (Courtesy Zvi Orushkes/Central Zionist Archives)
Zvi Oroshkes (Oron) came from Russia and, thanks to good contacts with the British, took journalistic pictures for the British Mandate administration. One shows a pair of clowns dressed up to entertain English families. Another depicts a rugby match.
While photographs of the War of Independence are relatively well-known, Lev chose a humble yet striking image taken by German-born Rudolf Jonas of a father walking with his child through an alley flanked by sandbags. Ali Zaarour, probably the first Muslim Arab photographer to work in Jerusalem, is featured with a poignant image of light streaming down on a painting of the Virgin Mary through a hole in the ceiling blasted by a shell.
A shell hole in Old City home (Courtesy Ali Zaarour/Zaarour family collection)
The 120-photograph show, organized by photographer, will be accompanied by two smartphone apps, one telling the story behind the exhibition, the other featuring locations in Jerusalem as photographed then and now. In addition, visitors will be able to don costumes and pose against a background for formal portraits in the style of the early 20th century.
The museum is also inviting visitors to create the next century’s accounting of everyday life in the city by contributing their own family photos to the museum, complete with information about the photographer, the subjects and the occasion.
As part of the museum’s effort to draw visitors to their Old City location, they are creating panels of some of the photos that will be placed outside the downtown Clal Building, next to the Mahane Yehuda market, in order to engage with Jerusalemites and tourists.
Orphans busy tailoring at the Diskin Great Orphanage in Givat Shaul (Courtesy Tsadok Bassan/Central Zionist Archives)
The idea for the exhibit came from the Tower of David’s own photographic archive that includes thousands of unsolicited photographs sent to the museum. The contents of the archive were recently digitized and uploaded onto an international online collection for museums. A Culture Ministry grant will support restoration of the collection, and the aim is to make them eventually available to the general public online.
Lieber said the largest photo archive in the city is held by the Jerusalem Municipality, and which is currently closed to museums, researchers and the public. Her hope is that the museum’s exhibition will persuade the decision-makers to open the archive, digitize it, and put it on-line.
“The Camera Man,” Tower of David Museum, May 26 — December 12, 2016.
How anything could be so utterly empty is simply astonishing. How modern technology can make it accessible is perhaps even more so.
ULURU IS LIT by the setting sun in the Northern Territory in central Australia.
(photo credit:PHIL NOBLE/REUTERS)
Australia is a big part of my life, having married an Aussie and having spent the formative years of 19-21 in Sydney as a rabbinical student. I return often to visit family and to do lectures and media on books. I’m was there for Israel’s Independence Day, and headlined the Melbourne/Caulfield Jewish community’s Israel celebration.
But in-between I did something which has by now become a tradition: I went out to the Australian desert, or what here they call the outback.
Writers have pointed out that all three great world religions started in the desert: Moses and the Israelites in Sinai, Jesus being tested in the desert, and Muhammad in what is modern Saudi Arabia. There is a purity to the desert that lends itself to spiritual reflection and soul-searching.
The Australian outback is unique in the fact that it is so utterly isolated. There is almost no place like it. It is desolate as you can imagine. It’s like the whole middle of the country, the Red Center, is nearly empty. It takes three and- a-half hours of flying over empty desert from Sydney just to reach the one main attraction, Uluru, or Ayer’s Rock, the world-famous landmark which crops up out of the desert in middle of nowhere.
Scientists try to explain the rock. I have read their explanations.
But whatever physical processes the Almighty chose to form the structure, for me it’s another example of the limitless beauty of God’s creation.
The feeling of isolation in the outback is immense. Yes, there are some other tourists scattered around, and yes there are some charming resorts. But you feel the loneliness all around you. Even when I’m accompanied by family members I still feel it.
I’ve often asked myself why I enjoy that. I hate being alone. I hate going places alone. For me not only does loneliness suck but I’ve even written long treatises on the three levels of loneliness and how they can be remedied.
And still I subject myself, nearly every time I come here, to the searing isolation of the outback. On this desert outing I had my 10-year-old son Dovid Chaim with me. It felt like we were the only people on earth.
Maybe people just need the purifying process of isolation.
It helps you recalibrate, think, rejuvenate. The desert is life without bells and whistles, existence without human accoutrement. I could have gone to some Australian beach town rather than face the rigors and hikes of the outback.
But that would never compare.
I love all kinds of desert. From the American West, which is truly spectacular, to the Judean hills around Jerusalem, arguably the most romantic of all deserts. The Negev desert in Israel, driving from the Dead Sea to Eilat, is breathtaking.
But for sheer isolation there is nothing to compare with Australia. On the flight from Sydney to Uluru you see nearly nothing but empty expanse until you hit the rock.
This place is truly empty.
It feels old, ancient, unchanging, eternal. It looks like the surface of Mars. And the stargazing out here in middle of nowhere – my son’s favorite – is some of the best in the world. You can easily see Mars, Jupiter and Saturn.
I was surprised that I could make it to the top of Uluru, something my wife and I had attempted in the January summer heat a few years ago. I have never felt such scorching heat in my life. But now it’s winter in Australia and the 48-degree heat has come down to a much more manageable 29 or so. Still, the climb was strenuous.
Uluru is sacred to the Aboriginal peoples and many therefore don’t climb it. The Aboriginal peoples of Australia are the most interesting part of the outback. A truly ancient nation, they regale you with oral histories that go back hundreds of generations. They are consistently warm, helpful, fascinating.
At Uluru I stayed at the Sails Resort and was joined by my brother-in-law Yossi Friedman and his wife, Chana Raizel.
Yossi is the rabbi of Maroubra Synagogue where I was to speak that weekend and is widely acknowledged to be Sydney’s electrifying young rabbinical presence, reinvigorating the community. Perhaps even more important, he is an Australian Air Force chaplain with the rank of major and does incredible work serving the needs of Australia’s armed forces. I’m very proud of him.
Having Yossi and Chana Raizel at Uluru softened the sense of isolation, and Yossi climbed the rock with me.
But the best part of all was spending three days with my son Dovid Chaim, who is endlessly curious about all things and fell in love with the desert. We drove five hours from Alice Springs, the town at the very center of Australia, to Uluru and he looked out the window the entire time in search of dingoes, a unique Australian wild dog, and kangaroos. He found a few of the former, none of the latter, but ended up mesmerized by the desert landscape.
I wrote this column on a plane; looking outside for the past hour I’ve seen nothing but red sand. Not a town. Not a city. Not a soul.
How anything could be so utterly empty is simply astonishing.
How modern technology can make it accessible is perhaps even more so. Most incredible of all is the endless majesty of God’s beautiful world and how nature connects us with Him. The author, whom The Washington Post calls “the most famous rabbi in America,” is the founder of The World Values Network and is the international best-selling author of 30 books, including his just-published The Israel Warrior: Fighting Back for the Jewish State from Campus to Street Corner. Follow him on Twitter @RabbiShmuley.
Messianic Believers: No Separation From Jewish Roots
Though the words "Messiah" and "Christ," as well as the adjectives "Messianic" and "Christian," are technically equivalent, they have acquired additional cultural connotations over the years. Unfortunately, they are often misunderstood.
Many people do not realize that the word Messiah has the same meaning as the word Christ. The Hebrew word Mashiach, which means "Anointed One," is transliterated into English as Messiah. When Mashiach is translated into Greek, the word is Christos, which is then transliterated into English as Christ.
To many, Christ is the central person of the Christian faith, but Messiah is the hope of the Jewish people. The same applies to the label "Christian." Generally, to Jewish people, the word Christian means non-Jew. Therefore, when a Jewish person becomes a believer in Yeshua, calling him or her a Christian indicates to the Jewish community that this person has deserted the Jewish people and "joined the Gentiles."
In order to prevent any misunderstanding of our faith by the Jewish community, we (Jewish believers) and those in fellowship with us have come to use the term "Messianic believer" to describe ourselves. Jewish believers are still Jewish, because Yeshua is the Jewish Messiah as well as Savior of the world.
When a Jewish person comes to faith in Yeshua and retains his or her Jewish identity, this serves as a strong testimony to the unbelieving Jewish community. For if Yeshua is the true Jewish Messiah, then a Jewish person who places faith in Him has made the most Jewish act of faith that he or she could ever make!
Why do I focus on Yeshua being the Jewish Messiah? Because the Word of God does. From the very first words of Matthew's account, the New Covenant declares Yeshua to be the Jewish Messiah: "The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the son of Abraham" (Matt. 1:1).
As the Good News according to Matthew was written for a Jewish audience, the Good News according to John was written for a Gentile audience. However, even when John (Yochanan in Hebrew) wrote to Gentiles, he presented Yeshua for who He is: the long-awaited Jewish Messiah. Notice the terms John uses in John 1:29-49 (ESV, emphasis added):
"'Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!... They [the disciples] said to him, `Rabbi...We have found the Messiah... We have found him about whomMoses in the Law and also the prophets wrote, Yeshua from Nazareth... Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!'"
When John wrote to the Gentile world about the essential need for faith in Yeshua, he dared not separate Messiah from His biblical and Jewish roots. Though his Gospel account would declare Yeshua to be the Savior of the world (John 4:42), Yeshua's credentials for being the world's Savior rely upon His being Israel's true Messiah.
If Yeshua is not the rightful Jewish Messiah, He has no authority to be anyone's savior, let alone the savior of the world. To separate Him from His Jewish roots is to separate Messiah from His legitimate, eternal authority and ministry.
It is true that at this present time, the majority of believers in Yeshua are non-Jews. However, this does not change the fact that Yeshua is still the true Jewish Messiah and that faith in Him does not and cannot make Jews into Gentiles.
Consider this illustration from my book, Messianic Discipleship, which expounds on the misunderstandings many have about Jewish believers in Messiah:
There was once a Jewish restaurant (the Bible), which served excellent food (Yeshua, the "bread of life" [John 6:35]). Though this restaurant was Jewish, it was located in a mostly Gentile neighborhood (the world). Now, if this restaurant served such great food that many Gentiles became patrons, would it make the food non-Jewish? Of course not! Jews could still eat there and enjoy the "home cooking."
If those same Gentile patrons enjoyed the food so much that they took some home in their own non-Jewish containers (so that everyone mistakenly thought that the food had come from a non-Jewish restaurant), this still wouldn't change the fact that the food and the restaurant were Jewish. It would be ridiculous to think that Jews who ate in the restaurant would stop being Jewish simply because they ate with Gentiles.
The irony of these questions is this: Quite a while ago, some of the Jewish patrons of the restaurant thought that the Gentile patrons had to become Jewish in order to eat there! This matter turned into a real controversy for the Jewish restaurant. It escalated to the point that all the original Jewish patrons ended up coming together to discuss the issue. At this meeting, it was finally decided that "Gentiles that eat Jewish food don't become Jewish, they simply become fulfilled Gentiles!" (To read of the actual controversy and decision, see Acts 15.)
Shimon, an Israeli believer, met with me shortly after he had come to faith in Messiah Yeshua. He was curious about this "Jewish identity" issue. Since he only wanted to glorify Jesus and not put any trust in the flesh, this Jewish issue seemed to him to be no more than fleshly pride. However, after studying the Scriptures together, he realized that it was no more prideful to be identified as a Jewish believer than to be seen as a male believer; these are simply the facts of the matter.
In fact, according to Scripture, to identify as a Jewish believer in Messiah is a matter of testifying of God's faithfulness to His promises, even as Paul did in Romans 11:1-2. Since then, Shimon has matured as a Messianic Jewish believer, and though he still wants to be careful that he puts no trust in his flesh, he is also bold to declare, "Am Yisrael Chai BaShem Yeshua HaMashiach!" That is, "The People of Israel live in the name of Yeshua the Messiah!"
Dr. Sam Nadleris a Jewish believer in Jesus who has been in Messianic ministry for over 40 years. Sam is the president of Word of Messiah Ministries, which is bringing the good news—to the Jew first but not to the Jew only—and planting Messianic Congregations in Jewish communities worldwide. To encourage and equip the body of Messiah, Sam is invited to speak in churches across the country and has written multiple books on Jewish evangelism, discipleship and the feasts of Israel. For more information and resources, or to invite Sam to speak at your church, visit www.wordofmessiah.org.
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