Summary…contd….

    “Before your eyes I will repay Babylon and all who live in Babylonia for all the wrong they have done in Zion, “ declares the Lord.” (Jer.ch.51,v.24.)

   “There I will enter into judgement against them ( all nations,) concerning My inheritance, My people Israel, for they scattered My people among the nations and divided up My land.”( Joel,ch.3,v.2.)  Most of the nations,even now, are intent on “ dividing up” the land of Israel among her Arab neighbours !

   “I am very jealous for Jerusalem and Zion, but I am very angry with the nations that feel secure. I was only a little angry, but they added  to the calamity.”(Zech.ch.1,v.14-15)

    “I was angry with My people and desecrated My inheritance; I gave them into your hand, and you showed them no mercy….A  calamity will fall upon you that you cannot ward off with a ransom.”( Isaiah,ch.47,v.6, & 11)

      Basilea Schlink has reminded everyone :” Israel is, and always will be the first-born son. Though the Jews have been two thousand years under God’s chastening hand, they were no less precious to the Father during this time of judgement…. And if in the trials of the Dispersion it appeared that the Jews were no longer beloved by God, in actual fact such times were a proof that they were dearly beloved as the chosen ones of God.  Only because God loved them did He chasten them.” ( “Israel, My Chosen People;” p.74; Kanaan Publications ,2000)

      The Holocaust seems to point up and crystallise the essence of all the sufferings inflicted upon the Jewish people over many centuries, and it now presents a fourfold message to all European Christians. If we now fail to respond to that message it may be that the revival or spiritual awakening which these same Christians are dreaming of will be withheld from us by the Judge of all the earth. European “Christianised” culture is the beneficiary of many centuries of Biblically inspired law-making,devotional and expository scholarship,hymnody,liturgy,traditions, revivals and missionary outreach to the ends of the world, and yet it is now lapsing into spiritual impotence and complacency as the Christians living in the third-world lands suffer persecution and oppression. Even more harmful is the accommodation and compromise with alien religions, and with the mores and culture of this present evil “world.”

 

(TO BE CONTINUED…)

Summary… contd.

     It is evident that  Christians and Jews share a common base in the Old Testament scriptures with its promises, commands and admonitions , but they are united also throughout history in the bond of suffering for their faith and its traditions.  The numbers of Jewish people who have suffered in Europe in massacres, pogroms, torture, expulsions, forced baptism and expropriation of goods is quite unknown, apart from he six millions who died in the Holocaust. The proportion of Jews who have died is far higher than that among Christians , although it has been estimated that during the two millennia seventy million Christians have died for the name of the Lord Jesus.Even in the twentieth century forty-five millions have suffered for His name, and each year from 2000 at least 200,000 Christians have been martyred ( according to the Voice of the Martyrs, Christian Solidarity  Worldwide and Release International.) In the 1970’s about 400,000 died for their faith  during the brutal tyranny of Idi Amin in Uganda. During the recurring persecution of Armenian Christians in the old Turkish empire the sufferings of that small minority during jihad against them are unimaginable. The figures do not convey the realities: 1894-96….150,000 died; 1908-09 …..30,000 died; 1915… 800,000 died ; 1916-1918… 300,000 died; 1919-22… 250,000 died. The Turkish authorities and many other governments fail to recognise these atrocities, and the Turkish government does not admit their failure to protect these minorities.

SUMMARY…contd…

    The supervising or over-riding intelligence manipulating such hostile groups and generating this enduring animus against the Jews is an evil one. Could it be that Satan is currently using human agencies to vent his malice towards the Jewish people, of whom is Jesus, Messiah and King of the Jews ? He understands the Biblical promises of the coming of the Messiah, born of the Jews and that all human “ salvation is of the Jews.”  The enduring hatred, now re-named “anti-Zionism “ does seem to originate with Satan and his minions. He knows, although many Christians in the western world seem unaware of this,-as were the five foolish virgins in the parable,- that the final days are near to completion. Demonic powers are vainly seeking to turn the eyes of men away from the only Champion of our whole race and from His victory upon the cross and His resurrection.

    In regard to the hatred which led directly to the Holocaust, I quote :

“It was a diabolical hatred, in reality directed not against a particular race but against God Himself . ( A purely racial issue could never have generated such an intensity of hatred) Behind it all was envy – diabolical envy- because the Jewish people, not the Nordic race, bore the mark of divine election and had been chosen for a world mission.” (  Basilea Schlink, “My Chosen People.”,p13-14; Kanaan Publications, 2000.)