April 5, 2002 9:45 a.m. | Evangelicals and Jews Together | An unlikely alliance.

It may sound strange, but it's true: Aside from Jews, the strongest American supporters of Israel are Evangelical Christians, many of whom fervently believe God has granted the Jewish people a divine right to rule over historic Palestine. At times like the present, when the Jewish state is largely friendless in a hostile world, the Israelis depends on the backing of this politically potent bloc of American voters to exhort Washington to look favorably upon its interests.

"I think it would be fair to say that Evangelical support for Israel and its legitimate security interests has been paramount to Israel's support in Congress and in many administrations, second only to the Jewish Committee itself," says Republican political consultant Ralph Reed. "The Jewish community has played a strong role in keeping the Democratic party strongly pro-Israel, and Evangelicals have played a similar role among Republicans."

In 1998, Benjamin Netanyahu, who was then prime minister of Israel, was not falsely flattering an Evangelical audience in Washington when he said to them: "We have no greater friends and allies than the people sitting in this room." Indeed, as Columbia University religion scholar Randall Balmer puts it: "Evangelicals have been very charitable, to say the least, toward Israel, because they believe the Jews are the Chosen People of God, even though they failed to recognize Jesus as Messiah. They believe that God's promises to Israel are still good, and that any nation that doesn't line up with Israel is against God."
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It begins with a novel theory of the End Times developed by an Englishman, John Nelson Darby, who taught in the 1830s and 1840s that Christians would be taken instantaneously out of the world in the "Rapture" before Christ returns. Darby's views became known as dispensationalism," because he divided God's dealing with mankind in history into three consecutive "dispensations." The first dispensation was the Mosaic Law, through which God offered salvation to the Jews through the observance of His commandments. This age closed with the coming of Christ, who instituted the age of Grace, in which God became preoccupied with Christians. The third and final stage will begin with the return of Jesus, who will establish a literal thousand-year reign upon the earth.

"Dispensationalists see a clear distinction between God's program for Israel and God's program for the church," reads a statement issued by the Dallas Theological Seminary, a leading center of dispensationalist learning. "God is not finished with Israel. The church didn't take Israel's place. They have been set aside temporarily, but in the end times will be brought back to the promised land, cleansed, and given a new heart."

This is not what Christians prior to Darby had believed. The traditional Christian reading of Scripture, dating from the early Church fathers, held that the Jews' rejection of the Messiah abrogated, or at least reduced the significance of, God's covenant with them. As the Rev. Gregory Mathewes-Green, an Antiochian Orthodox priest explains, "The Church's classical understanding is that she herself is the 'Israel of God,' the authentic continuation of the People of God, both ethnic Jews who accepted Jesus as Messiah and Gentile converts who, to use St. Paul's language, were 'grafted on.'"

Dispensationalists, who scorn the traditional teaching as "Replacement Theology," go further. As indicated above, they proclaim that the Bible foretells that the final stage of history before the advent of the Antichrist and the Second Coming of Christ would see an ingathering of diaspora Jews from around the world to the Biblical land of Israel — a development that the 19th-century world could scarcely have foreseen. The beginnings of the Zionist movement in the latter part of that century energized American dispensationalists, who had grown in number thanks to the efforts of an extremely successful evangelist named D. L. Moody, who is chiefly responsible for introducing dispensationalism to America. ...
- posted by Editor @ 7:54 AM

Jewish teens assault Muslim, scream “Jews rule this country!”

This crime is astonishing not only for its savage and unprovoked brutality and the young ages of the assailants, but also because only 5 of the 10-12 young men seen attacking the victim were charged.

"They hit me in the face with brass knuckles four or five times while somebody held my hands," said the victim, Shahid Amber, 24, a gas station attendant.

"Then they all beat and kicked me. They were screaming 'Muslim m-f-r. You m-f-g Muslim terrorists. Go back to your country.' "

Amber, who was eating ice cream outside a Midwood Dunkin' Donuts when the gang attacked on Sunday, needed 15 stitches on his broken nose and reconstructive surgery.

Unbelievable brutality.

Yet Zionist organizations, which must be common in Brooklyn, are not even mentioned in this map of hate groups that TGR linked today.

Witnesses who called 911 said that 10-12 youths jumped him, a source said.

Amber said the attack began after one of the group asked if he were Muslim and he answered yes.

Amber's father, Umbar Islam, 56, described a brutal assault by boys in long black jackets, black pants and black hats.

"They punched and broke his nose. They ripped his jacket. He was covered in blood.

They said, 'Jews rule this country!' " Islam said. ...
- posted by Editor @ 5:07 PM