The "Mitternachtsruf"
["Call at Midnight"] – a call in the wrong direction? /
e-mail Conno Malgo, 00, 2013-11-05
The rejection of Israel
under the New Covenant
The rejection of Israel
under the Old Covenant
The biblical future of today’s
Israel
Opening address by Chief
Rabbi M. A. Friedmann / International Conference of Rabbis 2004, Vienna
The Religion of the Future.
/ Article by Brother Nathanael Kapner 00, 2014-04-24
The "Israel movement" in
the Christian congregations. / Christian Evangelical Zionism - Discourse 101
Looking up the biblical quotations
of the "Friends of Israel" in the Bible / Continuation Part 2, Discourse 1012
Report from the camp of the
"Israel movement". / Continuation Part 3, Discourse 1013
The Jewish Anti-Defamation League
rewrites the New Testament. / Continuation Part 4, Discourse 1014
Shema Yisrael ‒ Hear, O ISRAEL
- the judgment of God on his people. / Continuation Part 5, Discourse 1015
The Foundation of the State of
Israel in 1948 prophesied in the Old Testament! / Continuation Part 6,
Discourse 1016
Israel is different
Dear Mr. Horak,
The differences between Israel and the nations are so clearly represented in
scripture that it would be worth our while to recapitulate just a few of
them here.
The apostle Paul engages with this theme when he says, "Then what
advantage has the Jew? Or what is the benefit of circumcision? Great in
every respect. First of all, that they were entrusted with the oracles of
God." (Rom 3,1-2).
Many other sayings in the Bible are likewise aimed exclusively at Israel. It
is only with reference to Israel that God says, in Gen 12,3, "And I will
bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse."
It is only with reference to Israel that God says, in Zechariah 2,8, "For
he who touches you, touches the apple of [My] eye."
Only about Israel do we read in the Bible, "In all their affliction He was
afflicted, and the angel of His presence saved them" (Isa 63,9).
Israel is blind – the nations are blind. But it is only of Israel that we
are told that its blindness will be removed when the fullness of the
Gentiles has come in (Rom 11,25)!
And yet it remains true that even a Jew can only be saved through faith in
Jesus Christ, as John 14:6 clearly states. Let us pray for Israel, that many
more may yet be saved. With a heartfelt shalom,
Yours, the Missionswerk Mitternachtsruf [Midnight Call Mission]
Beth-Shalom Division
Conno Malgo
Vom Schattenkrieg zum Showdown [From the Shadow War
to the Showdown] –
"Mitternachtsruf" ["Call at Midnight"], October 2013
Missionswerk Mitternachtsruf [Call
at Midnight Mission]
Dear Mr. Malgo,
In your e-mail to the readership of the "Mitternachtsruf" you write as
follows:
"Many other sayings in the Bible are likewise
aimed exclusively at Israel. It is only with reference to Israel that God says,
in Gen 12,3, "And I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you
I will curse."
But please would you finally desist from picking isolated verses
out of the Bible and using them as the base for a completely false edifice of
faith for your readers. Would you please just read this verse, Gen 12,3, in its
proper context:
Now the LORD said to Abram, I will bless those who bless you, And the one who curses you I will curse.
Gen 12,1 Now the LORD said to Abram,
"Go forth from your country, And from your relatives And from your father’s
house, To the land which I will show you; 12,2 And I will make you a great
nation, And I will bless you, And make your name great; And so you shall be a
blessing; 12,3 And I will bless those who bless you, And the one who curses
you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be
blessed." Gen 12, 1- 3;
You will see then that these words are not addressed exclusively
to Israel, nor indeed are they addressed to Israel at all – God is speaking
here to Abraham. And Paul, whom you quote above, also writes of Abraham in his
letter to the Galatians:
Now this Hagar is Mount Sinai and corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children.
Gal 4,22 For it is written that Abraham had two
sons, one by the bondwoman and one by the free woman. 4,23 But the son by the
bondwoman was born according to the flesh, and the son by the free woman through
the promise. 4,24 This is allegorically speaking, for these women are two
covenants: one proceeding from Mount Sinai bearing children who are to be
slaves; she is Hagar.
4,25 Now this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present
Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children.4,26 But the Jerusalem
above is free; she is our mother. 4,27 For it is written, "Rejoice, barren
woman who does not bear; break forth and shout, you who are not in labor; for
more numerous are the children of the desolate than the one who has a
husband." 4,28 And you brethren, like Isaac, are children of promise.
29 But as at that time he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who
was born according to the Spirit, so it is now also. 4,30 But what does the
Scripture say? "Cast out the bondwoman and her son, for the son of the
bondwoman shall not be an heir with the son of the free woman." Gal
4,22-31;
So as Paul writes, Israel (Jerusalem) under the Old Covenant and
the Mosaic religion remains in slavery. The Israelites are in a figurative sense
the children of the bondwoman, the children of the flesh. We Christians on the
other hand, under the New Covenant, are the children of the free woman, the
children of the promise, and so the spiritual children of Abraham, who just like
him have been saved not through righteousness but by faith.
And please consider one thing, Mr. Malgo: Abraham was not an Israelite! When
Abraham received this blessing of God, it still took 150 years until Jacob, who
then received the name "Israel" from God, was born at all. Also therefore God
did not say this "exclusively to Israel", but to Abraham.
As we can see, there is absolutely no reason why Israel should
be given preferential treatment, still less admired. Quite the reverse – when
we read scripture carefully, we recognize that Israel has been God-less for two
thousand years and so has had no possibility whatever of getting into contact
with God in any way.
Unless you believe that I am He (the Messiah), you will die in your sins. [and go to hell]
Jn 8,21 Then He said again to them, "I go away,
and you will seek Me, and will die in your sin; where I am going, you cannot come."
8,22 So the Jews were saying, "Surely He will not kill Himself, will He, since He says,
‘Where I am going, you cannot come’?" 8,23 And He was saying to them, "You are from below, I am from above; you are of this
world, I am not of this world. 8,24 "Therefore I said to you that you will
die in your sins; for unless you believe that I am He (the Messiah), you will
die in your sins." Jn 8,21-24;
When you reflect that the people of Israel has rejected the Lord Jesus Christ,
the Son of God, for two thousand years, presenting him as an impostor and
blasphemer, then would you please just tell me which of the biblical statements
above you would venture to disagree with?
Would it be the statement of our Lord Jesus Christ in 1Jn 2,23, where he says,
"Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father"? Or the one in Jn
15,23: "He who hates Me hates My Father also"? Or do you mean – like the
Israelites – to question the credibility of the Son altogether and actually
contradict the statement made by the Father, the Almighty, in Mt 17,5, where he
says, "This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased: listen to Him!"?
I find it quite astonishing that you strew biblical quotations around when you
have not even read the context in which they occur. Nor do I understand how you
are capable of turning a blind eye to the many crimes of Israel today –
ranging from the expulsion of the people of Palestine from their homeland to the
illegal manufacture of 400 (!) atom bombs in contradiction of the atomic
non-proliferation treaty passed by the community of nations (the UNO), not to
mention the current threat to bomb Iran because there may be grounds for
suspicion that Teheran is planning to make one (!) atom bomb.
And you then use your paper to disseminate militaristic propaganda with articles
like "From the Shadow War to the Showdown". Are you an advocate of war?
Haven’t the Israelis of today not killed enough people and carried on enough
wars in the Near East already – against Egypt, against Jordan, against
Palestine, against Lebanon, against Syria?
Israel was once the people of God, and will be so again in the Kingdom of Peace
of our Lord Jesus Christ. But until that time, they are – with the exception
of Jews who have become Christians – a faithless people, as are all other
peoples of this world! And I also agree with you when you write, "Israel is
blind – the nations are blind." For two thousand years the overwhelming
majority in Israel have been blind just like all the other nations of this
world.
Likewise your statement that "Israel is different" is one with which I can
thoroughly concur. Whereas true Christians – with the exception of
pseudo-Christians like those in the Catholic church – believe in the redeeming
sacrifice of their Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Israel rejected its Messiah two
thousand years ago and still does, and the rabbis in Israel teach in their
Talmud that Jesus Christ is burning in hell!
But in rejecting the Son of God, Israel has also rejected the Father (1Jn 2:23).
Since Israel had the Son of God put to death on the cross, God has dissolved his
covenant with Israel, allowed the Temple and the city to be destroyed and has
abandoned the people of Israel (Mt 27:51).
(See also Discourse 1114: "The
destruction of the Temple."
All these are not just biblical and historic facts – we find
them daily confirmed in the media reports of global political events. Only
someone who turns a blind eye to Israel can claim that this people today is
being under the guidance of its God. Where, in the Bible, will you find a God
who encourages the manufacture of atom bombs?
And then we find it asserted, "Since the re-establishment of the political
state of Israel in May 1948, this land has become the fulfillment of biblical
prophecy" (Arno Froese in his book "Das Geheimnis der Entrückung" ["The
Mystery of the Rapture"). – Do these authors not read the Bible at all?
What is here euphemistically referred to as a "re-establishment" was
actually a war of expulsion in which thousands of people, Jews and Arabs, were
killed. And the militaristic confrontations between Israel and the Palestinians
continue to the present day. What biblical prophecy should we see as having been
fulfilled by war, murder, expulsion and dishonesty (including the illicit
manufacture of 400 atom bombs behind the back of the UNO)?
Quite on the contrary, as God tells us through his prophet Hosea:
I will not deliver them by bow, sword, battle, horses or horsemen.
Hos 1,6 Then she conceived again and gave birth to
a daughter. And the LORD said to him, "Name her Lo-ruhamah [No-compassion],
for I will no longer have compassion on the house of Israel, that I would
ever forgive them. 1,7 "But I will have compassion on the house of
Judah and deliver them by the LORD their God, and will not deliver them by
bow, sword, battle, horses or horsemen." 1,8 When she had weaned
Lo-ruhamah, she conceived and gave birth to a son. 1,9 And the LORD said, "Name
him Lo-ammi [Not-My-people], for you are not My people and I am not your
God." Hos 1, 6- 9;
God delivers his people not with war and the sword – he will
deliver them and bring them back to their country through his Holy Spirit, and
without any kind of violence. As the entire passage from Hosea, before and after
this text, points to Messianic times, to the Millennium, it follows that God is
only going to save and gather his people in the Millennium, in the Thousand
Years Kingdom of Peace of our Lord Jesus Christ.
So the establishment of the Israeli state in May 1948 was not the gathering
promised by God either. It was an expulsion of the people of Palestine from
their homeland, planned by the Zionists of Theodor Herzl and carried out with
military violence and thousands of deaths. As once on the mountain of Horeb,
here again Israel has made itself a "golden calf", in the form of this state
of Israel, and is now dancing around it – with the enthusiastic practical
support of the "Friends of Israel" in Christian circles.
Incidentally, when we look carefully at the text of this
biblical passage, we find God saying here, in Hos 1,6: "... For I will no
longer have compassion on the house of Israel, that I would ever forgive them."
With this categorical pronouncement ("no longer", "ever") by God, would
anyone want to claim that the times we are living in today are specifically
exempt from that declaration or affected only in part?
Quite the reverse! For when we then look at the verses immediately following, we
find there a temporal qualification of this verdict of God’s:
And in the place where it is said to them, "You are not My people," it will be said to them, "You are the sons of the living God."
Hos 2,10 Yet the number of the sons of Israel
Will be like the sand of the sea, Which cannot be measured or numbered; And in
the place Where it is said to them, "You are not My people," It will
be said to them, "You are the sons of the living God." 2,11 And
the sons of Judah and the sons of Israel will be gathered together, And they
will appoint for themselves one leader, And they will go up from the land, For
great will be the day of Jezreel. 3,1 Say to your brothers, "Ammi
[My-people]," and to your sisters, "Ruhamah [compassion]."
Hos 2,10-3,1;
So God will once again have mercy on the Israelites. But only
when "the number of the sons of Israel will be like the sand of the sea, which
cannot be measured or numbered". And that – like the passage in Zech 2,4-5
where Jerusalem is referred to as a city "without walls because of the
multitude of men and cattle in it" – is the well-known promise of salvation
referring to the Millennium (cf. Zech 8:5; Isa 49:19; Eze 38:11).
The fate of Israel in its godlessness in the time up to the Millennium is
revealed to us then in the subsequent verses of Hosea:
Behold, I will hedge up her way with thorns, And I will build a wall against her so that she cannot find her paths.
Hos 2,5 "For their mother has played the
harlot; She who conceived them has acted shamefully. For she said, ‘I will
go after my lovers, Who give me my bread and my water, My wool and my flax, my
oil and my drink.’ 2,6 "Therefore, behold, I will hedge up her way
with thorns, And I will build a wall against her so that she cannot find her
paths. 2,7 "She will pursue her lovers, but she will not overtake them;
And she will seek them, but will not find them. Then she will say, ‘I will go
back to my first husband, For it was better for me then than now!’ 2,8 "For
she does not know that it was I who gave her the grain, the new wine and the
oil, And lavished on her silver and gold, Which they used for Baal. Hos 2,
5- 8;
It is today’s Israel the prophet is referring to here, the "mother"
of the Israelites to be born later on in the Millennium. The passage is easier
to make sense of if we put a label on the "lovers". The USA, for instance:
Tel Aviv / Washington (IRIB/ german.ruvr.ru 2. April 2013)
– According to a report by the Israeli economics journal "The Market",
the USA has supported the Israeli regime since 1948 to the tune of more than
230 billion dollars. A further financial deal worth 40 billion
dollars for armament projects alone has just recently been concluded.
Or Germany, for that matter:
Since the Luxembourg Agreement of 1952 (involving the
payment of around 1.53 billion euros), the question of indemnification has
been an important political issue in relations between Israel and the
Federal Republic of Germany. In total, German indemnification payments to
people living in Israel who suffered persecution under the Nazis come to
around 27.8 billion euros to date.
BRD
– Auswärtiges Amt, Oktober 2013
[Federal Republic of Germany – Ministry of Foreign Affairs, October
2013]
Germany gives Israel 2 billion euros along with the
delivery of 6 submarines
Of course this was not something the man in the street was supposed to know
about, so the announcement was given a low profile. When we keep hearing
talk of financial crisis and debt, when we are repeatedly instructed to
tighten our belts and the government claims to have no money available for
schools and kindergartens and the like, an announcement like this – of
such a generous handout to Israel, for which German tax-payers of course
would have to foot the bill – was not going to be the best kind of
publicity. (…)
And what is more, these six submarines are not intended for defense – they
are equipped with rockets carrying atomic warheads, which are meant for the
attack on Iran. Israel blatantly continues to threaten Iran with war. In
donating these submarines, Germany is violating its own War Weapons Control
Act, where the supply of weapons to crisis areas is expressly forbidden.
Could there be any more inflammatory crisis zone than the Near East?
Wahrheitskrieg
– Dezember 2011 [War of Truth]
The Israel of today plays the harlot with the nations, and does
not recognize that it is still God, in spite of everything, who lets them
receive all these billions that they lavish on their "Baal" – acquiring
weapons, making war, manufacturing atom bombs and lording it tyrannically over
other peoples.
It is the hubris of this people which leads them to see the effects of God’s
actions as something due to them and to look down on the rest of the human race,
as Yitzhak Shamir, Prime Minister of Israel from 1983 to 1984 and again from
1986 to 1992, made extremely plain in an interview with Newsweek on 11 April
1988:
"And looking down from the height of this
mountain, and from the point of view of our thousands of years of history, we
say to you: Compared with us, you are like grasshoppers."
And this is why the Almighty will "hedge up her way with
thorns" and "build a wall against her so that she cannot find her paths".
Until the Millennium, the Almighty will not have any mercy on the house of
Israel. Just the name "Lo-Ammi" in Hos 1,9 ["Not My People"] shows that
God has terminated his covenant with Israel.
This means that Israel is a God-less people – not just in accordance with the
prophecies of our Lord Jesus Christ in the New Testament (see box below), but
also here in accordance with the prophets of the Old Testament. And this
condition persists until the Millennium – so it is still the case in our own
times.
God will still have mercy on the house of Judah and deliver them – but we
would probably be wrong to assume that these Jews are to be found in the present
day state of Israel. In my view it is more likely to be those Jews who are the
only ones to have refused the call in 1948 to immigrate to the "re-established"
state of Israel – the "Baal" of our day.
(See also Discourse 08; "The
gathering of Israel: already since 1948, or not to happen until the Last Days?")
These are the Orthodox Jews true to their faith all over the
world who have remained in the Diaspora because they know from their scriptures
– the Old Testament – that repatriation in accordance with the will of God
will only be possible on the advent of the Messiah, as the following statement
by Moishe Arie Friedmann, Chief Rabbi of the Orthodox Jews true to their
religion in Vienna, confirms:
"With the Holocaust as a justification, the state
of Israel was founded by the use of force, which contradicts the will of God
(Hos 1:7). As Jews true to our faith we accept the fate of the Diaspora which
God has laid upon us. But the founding of the state of Israel has not just
damaged the Jews on this religious plane; the means and the methods used by
Israel to secure its existence against the Palestinians damage all Jews
world-wide, and encourage the rebirth of anti-Semitism. For Jews true to
their faith it is clear, however, that the Diaspora is the fate laid upon us by
God until the coming of the Messiah."
(See also discourse 46: "Statement by
Chief Rabbi M.A. Friedmann, Vienna")
Religious Jews, survivors and victims of the Holocaust, will
for the first time since the founding of the Federal Republic of Germany,
make a public appearance in Germany and express their view of history. They
contend that the leadership of the Zionist state has no right to exploit the
Jewish victims of World War II for their political goals, to evade
criticism, or as an "alibi" for the oppression of the Palestinian
people. This is especially true since the Palestinian people share no
responsibility for the crimes of the Hitler regime. These religious Jews
come to deliver a new message: a plea for justice, together with the
religious conviction that God is ultimately behind the steering wheel of
history. At the same time, they appeal for a new beginning in relations
between Jews and non-Jewish Germans, on the basis of mutual respect. What
lessons do religious Jews learn from the Holocaust? And where does
Torah-loyal Judaism stand today on the issue of the slow genocide being
committed against the Palestinian people?
The above questions and more will be discussed by the following speakers:
Rabbi Moshe Ber Beck (USA) Holocaust survivor
Rabbi Yisrael David Weiss (USA) Grandparents murdered in Auschwitz
Rabbi Ahron Cohen (UK) Holocaust survivor
Rabbi Jouseph Antebi (Jerusalem, NL, Berlin) Victim of Zionist persecution
Reuven Cabelman (Berlin, Antwerp) Berlin spokesman for the Neturei Karta
International
organizer of the Press Conference Moderator: Christoph Hörstel (Neue Mitte)
But to come back now again to the e-mail of Conno Malgo quoted
at the beginning:
You then again quote isolated biblical
verses or just the last half sentence of the given verse:
"It is only with reference to Israel that God
says, in Zechariah 2,8 "For he who touches you, touches the apple of [My]
eye."
Only about Israel do we read in the Bible, "In all their affliction He was
afflicted, and the angel of His presence saved them" (Isa 63,9)."
The translation you use of Isa 63,9 (the Masoretic text) is
somewhat controversial. In German and English bibles, generally the LXX
(Septuagint) translation is used, based on the consonantal text.
"In all their affliction He was afflicted,
And the angel of His presence saved them;"
But let us just take a look at your quotation from Zechariah,
along with its context:
For thus says the LORD of hosts, after glory He has sent me.
Zech 2,8 For thus says the LORD of hosts,
"After glory He has sent me against the nations which plunder
you, for he who touches you, touches the apple of His eye. 9 "For behold, I
will wave My hand over them so that they will be plunder for their slaves. Then
you will know that the LORD of hosts has sent Me. 10 "Sing for
joy and be glad, O daughter of Zion; for behold I am coming and I will dwell in
your midst," declares the LORD. 11 "Many nations will join themselves
to the LORD in that day and will become My people. Then I will dwell in your
midst, and you will know that the LORD of hosts has sent Me to you.
Zech 2, 8-11;
Here again, if you had read (and then, above all, actually
quoted) the first part of this verse, a quite different picture would have
emerged. Here we find it written: "For thus says the LORD of hosts, ‘After
glory He has sent me...’". The "LORD of hosts" is of
course God the Almighty. But who is the one whom he has sent?
And here we can see that this first part of the prophet’s statement – which
Mr. Malgo regrettably fails to quote – conceals a forecast of the coming of
the Messiah. He whom the Almighty has here sent out is the Son of God, our Lord
Jesus Christ. Anyone who claims that the prophet is here referring to himself,
has like Mr. Malgo ignored the context of the passage.
And to prevent any misunderstanding, we find the same logical connection
repeated just a verse further on: "And you will know that the LORD of hosts
has sent Me to you". And finally at the end of the section we
find it stated once more, quite specifically, "Then I will dwell in your
midst, and you will know that the LORD of hosts has sent me to you."
So he, the one who has been sent, will dwell in the midst of Zion. And in Zech
2,11 we are then told: "Many nations will join themselves to the LORD in that
day." Here again we recognize that this prophecy points directly to the
Thousand Years Kingdom of Peace of the Son of God.
There, in the Millennium, the "one who has been sent" – our Lord Jesus
Christ – will dwell in Zion and rule the world. And at this time, after Israel
has been converted and gathered, God says to them, "He who touches you,
touches the apple of [My] eye". Then the nations too will be converted and
will seek God in Jerusalem.
Ten men from all the nations will grasp the garment of a Jew, saying, "Let us go with you"‘
Zech 8,22 ‘So many peoples and mighty nations
will come to seek the LORD of hosts in Jerusalem and to entreat the favor of the
LORD.’ 8,23 "Thus says the LORD of hosts, ‘In those days ten men
from all the nations will grasp the garment of a Jew, saying, "Let us go
with you, for we have heard that God is with you."‘" Zech
8,22-23;
So it is the Son of God speaking in the above passage, in Zech
2,8-11. And he testifies that the "LORD of hosts", in other words God the
Almighty, has sent him. – So what was it like at the time when this "sent
one", this "ambassador", was living on earth? Just these four verses of
their prophet Zechariah should have been sufficient to tell the scribes of
Israel of the day that God was sending them an ambassador, who was actually
speaking to them in person.
But instead they crucified him. – The kingdom was promised to them, but they
botched it. As a result of their rejecting the messenger of God, their Messiah
and our Lord Jesus Christ, the kingdom of God was taken away from them and given
to those who believe in the Son of God (Mt 21:43).
Israel in the light of the Bible.Based on the Old Testament God has completely taken away his compassion from the house of
Israel (Hos 1:6). They are no longer his people (Hos 1:9). Only the house
of Judah will be saved by the Lord. Not by war, however, but by his Spirit
(Hos 1:7). And only in the Millennium, when the Son of God has entered on
his thousand years rule on earth (Hos 1:10; 2,18 Eze 34:25; Isa 2:4), will
the Lord once more accept Israel as his people (Hos 2:23; Jer 31:27-28). Based on the New Testament It is God’s will that we should listen to his Son (Mt 17:5). This same Son
of God has told us that anyone who rejects him rejects God as well (1Jn
2:23; Lk 10:16; Jn 5:22-23. 15:23). The people of Israel today deny the
Son of God and abuse him as an impostor and blasphemer. As a result of
this denial of the Son, Israel has also rejected the Father and so is a
God-less people. (Jn 8:24) |
So the above text from Zech 8 speaks – as does the entire
chapter 8, incidentally – of the Millennium, the Thousand Years Kingdom of
Peace of the Son of God here on earth. And at the start of these promises, in
Zech 8,7-8, we learn that it is at this time that Israel will be saved by
its God.
I am going to save My people (...) and I will bring them back and they will live in the midst of Jerusalem
Zech 8,7 "Thus says the LORD of hosts, ‘Behold,
I am going to save My people from the land of the east and from the land
of the west; 8,8 and I will bring them back and they will live in the
midst of Jerusalem; and they shall be My people, and I will be their God in
truth and righteousness.’ Zech 8, 7- 8;
So God the Almighty will himself gather them from all over the
world, and he, God himself, will bring them back to Jerusalem.
Apart from the fact that this is one of the many Old Testament passages proving
that Israel, in accordance with God’s promises, will only be gathered and
returned to its own land in the Millennium – and so the "1948 Gathering"
was a forced occupation brought about by the Zionists of Theodor Herzl against
the will of God, involving as it did war and the expulsion of the Palestinian
people – an important question clearly suggests itself here.
If on the one hand, according to scripture, Israel is only going to be gathered
and brought back to its own land by God in the Millennium, but on the other hand
the Israelis are already living in this land, there must at some point in the
intervening period be an event through which the Israelites will again be
expelled from their land.
And indeed we find prophecies to this effect, both in the Old and in the New
Testament. These forecasts, admittedly, are not always easy to identify, because
the Israelites had already been repeatedly driven out of their land in the past
millennia. But if we look carefully at the context and line up the scriptural
statements against the historical facts, we can arrive at a relatively precise
distinction.
(See also Chapter 02: "The
conquest and dispersion of Jerusalem.")
The basis for the fate of Israel in this tribulation of the Last
Days may be found in the 5th chapter of the prophet Isaiah. Unfortunately a full
analysis of this text would take up more time and space than we have available
here. For those readers who are interested in reading this really pithy
description – pithy not just in what concerns Israel, but also as having
reference to the circumstances of our own day – and who do not happen to have
a bible to hand, here is a link to the passage: Isa 5:1-30.
Along with this classic passage from Isaiah, the texts in the Old Testament
having the most substance are the statements to be found in Zech 14,1-2, and in
the New Testament, those from Lk 21,30-24 and Rev 11,1-2:
For I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem to battle.
Zech 14,1 Behold, a day is coming for the LORD when
the spoil taken from you will be divided among you.
14,2 For I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem to battle, and the
city will be captured, the houses plundered, the women ravished and half of
the city exiled, but the rest of the people will not be cut off from the
city. Zech 14, 1- 2;
The people will be led captive and Jerusalem will be trampled under foot by the Gentiles.
Lk 21,20 "But when you see Jerusalem
surrounded by armies, then recognize that her desolation is near. 21,21
"Then those who are in Judea must flee to the mountains, and those who are
in the midst of the city must leave, and those who are in the country must not
enter the city; 21,22 because these are days of vengeance, so that all
things which are written will be fulfilled. 21,23 "Woe to those who are
pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days; for there will be
great distress upon the land and wrath to this people; 21,24 and they
will fall by the edge of the sword, and will be led captive into all the
nations; and Jerusalem will be trampled under foot by the Gentiles until the
times of the Gentiles are fulfilled. Lk 21,20-24;
The nations will tread under foot the holy city.
Rev 11,1 Then there was given me a measuring rod
like a staff; and someone said, "Get up and measure the temple of God and
the altar, and those who worship in it. 11,2 "Leave out the court which is
outside the temple and do not measure it, for it has been given to the
nations; and they will tread under foot the holy city for forty-two months. Rev
11, 1- 2;
The time frame of these texts can be ascertained with relative
ease. In the case of the prophecies from Rev 11,1-2, there is no doubt whatever
in the minds of serious commentators that these have not yet been fulfilled and
so point to the future. With Lk 21,20-24, on the other hand, we frequently meet
with the suggestion that these statements are referring to the time around 70 AD
– the conquest of Jerusalem by Titus and the expulsion of the Jews into the
Diaspora.
We find concrete prophecies referring to this event in all the Synoptic gospels.
Luke describes it in Lk 19,43-44. But Luke is the only one to come up with a
second prophecy of this kind, in the passage above, Lk 21,20-24. Together with
the fact that the statements of the two texts are quite different in terms of
content, this justifies the assumption that we must be concerned here with two
distinct events.
A further argument in support of Lk 21,20-24 is the connection with the assured
text in Rev 11,2, where we are told: "For it has been given to the nations;
and they will tread under foot the holy city for forty-two months". And
this statement we then find repeated in Lk 21,24: "Jerusalem will be
trampled under foot by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are
fulfilled".
Zech 14,2 likewise prophesies: "For I will gather all the nations
against Jerusalem to battle, and the city will be captured." And that
establishes the connection between these three scriptural passages, allowing us
to place the entire concatenation in future time.
Israel (Jerusalem) will be captured by the nations (the Gentiles) and the people
will be led away into captivity. This, then, would be the key statement of these
prophecies. But is this actually realistic? Is it really conceivable in our own
time – this above all in view of the fact that Israel, we can safely assume,
is armed to the teeth (with 400 atom bombs!), the neighboring Arab peoples
cannot exactly be seen as highly courageous (look at what happened in the Six
Day War) and Israel can in any case rely on the help and protection of the USA?
So the former leader of Judaism worldwide, the President of the World Jewish
Congress, Edgar M. Bronfman, said to the former German Foreign Minister Lothar
de Maiziere at his inaugural visit in New York in September 1990: "The
Germans will meet a terrible fate if future generations should terminate their
payments to Israel and the World Jewry: then the German people will vanish from
the earth."
And the religious leaders in Israel, who might have been expected to distance
themselves in the name of their God from this megalomania and from the
hate-laden tirades of their politicians, are even worse rabble-rousers. Rabbi
Yaacov Perrin for instance said at the burial of the mass murderer Baruch
Goldstein [1], according to a
report of 28 February 1994 in the London Times, that "A million Arabs are not
worth the dirt under a Jew’s fingernail."
And Rabbi Emmanuel Rabinovich announced to the world on 12 January 1952:
"Our final goal is to precipitate World War
III, which will surpass in destruction all previous contests. (…) This war
will end for all time our struggle against the Goyim (Non-Jews) (…)
and our race will rule undisputed over the world."
(See also the entire speech of Rabbi Rabinovich:
"Rabbi Rabinovich’s
speech of the Jewish rule over the world.")
If we consider the present situation – where, under pressure
from Israel, negotiations are being carried on with Iran, Israel’s most
virulent opponent, on the reduction of uranium enrichment, with a view to
preventing them from making an atom bomb – here again the Israelis are showing
their wonted chutzpah. As Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has
announced, Israel will itself bomb Iran (perhaps using one of its 400 atom
bombs?) if the Americans do not succeed in stopping Tehran.
If, God forbid, a situation like this were to occur, then not only would Israel’s
reputation be gone for good, even its "big brother", the USA, would no
longer have any realistic possibility of defending this people and supporting it
in the face of world opinion
This would give rise to an admittedly rather improbable scenario, in which
Israel has painted itself into a corner and is condemned and ostracized by the
whole world. And in this case it would be conceivable that the Arab states might
avail themselves of this unique opportunity of attacking Israel and so making
these prophecies come true.
If we now look once again at the prophecy quoted earlier, in Hos 1,6-7, where
God promises that he will save the house of Judah, by contrast with the house of
Israel:
Hos 1,6 Then she conceived again and gave birth to
a daughter. And the LORD said to him, "Name her Lo-ruhamah [No-compassion],
for I will no longer have compassion on the house of Israel, that I would ever
forgive them. 1,7 "But I will have compassion on the house of Judah and
deliver them by the LORD their God, and will not deliver them by bow, sword,
battle, horses or horsemen." Hos 1, 6- 7;
– we also recognize here in what way God save the house of
Judah: not with war and expulsion, the strategy vainly practiced by the God-less
Israelis in Palestine. God will save the house of Judah, by acting on their
spirit through his Spirit and so bringing it about that these Jews will not
immigrate to Israel in the first place but will remain in the Diaspora, and so
will be quite unaffected by all these catastrophes, whenever they may happen to
occur.
But let us go back to the statements made by Mr. Malgo.
The last remark in your e-mail is one with which I can agree unconditionally:
"And yet it remains true that even a Jew can only
be saved through faith in Jesus Christ, as John 14:6 clearly states. Let us pray
for Israel, that many more may yet be saved."
Exactly so – that is the point! Let us pray for Israel! But we
cannot on the one hand weary God’s ears with our prayers for the conversion of
Israel, and then ourselves do just the opposite – by kowtowing to and
supporting those who make it illegal to proclaim the gospel in Israel (the
Jewish Agency – Israeli Ministry of Interior).
(See also Discourse 1013: "The
"aliyah" ‒ The big temptation for the congregation in the
Last Days")
So I ask you to consider that your persistent propaganda efforts
for the godless and Zionistic state that is Israel today is not going to
encourage a single Jew – whether of the Mosaic or of an atheist persuasion –
to convert to Jesus Christ. By the way, I have seen very little about this –
about Jesus Christ, that is to say – on your paper, though there is a very
great deal about the state of Israel!
Ladies and Gentlemen,
esteemed guests of honor, dear friends!
I am privileged to welcome you warmly to this event, and am delighted to see
so many prominent personalities, high ranking politicians and university
professors, lawyers, doctors, ambassadors, chief rabbis and rabbis assembled
here today.
My warmest thanks to you all for coming.
I am not used to giving speeches in German, so I must ask for your
understanding. I also mean to keep my address as short and to the point as
possible, after which it will be the turn of my highly esteemed colleagues
and our guests of honor to take the floor.
The situation in which believing Judaism true to the Torah finds itself
today is extremely difficult – indeed practically unbearable. Global
political developments, especially in the Near East, give us grounds for
anticipating serious threats to our future and that of our children. This is
associated with the many lies about the true character of Judaism which have
been propagated worldwide and believed by many. Above all in Germany and
Austria many matters are regarded as taboo, so that anyone audacious enough
to speak of them is exposing himself to considerable dangers.
Notwithstanding, at this international conference we would like to put these
matters in plain view and draw the necessary conclusions, because that is
the only way the situation is going to change – which would be in the
interest of us all..
At this very time, on the occasion of the Theodor Herzl centenary, we have
to address certain fundamental points which concern the essential basis of
the Jewish religion. The national celebrations here in Austria and in other
countries do tend to give the impression that Zionism can be equated with
Judaism, or at least can be seen as a legitimate political movement of
Judaism. In fact the opposite is the case!
Before we go into this matter further, however, we must first make it clear
that our critique is not a political critique – on the contrary, we are
speaking purely and solely from the point of view of our religion, of our
faith. We are advancing not political but religious reasons for our point of
view – seeing that, based on moral and religious principles, we basically
distance ourselves from politics.
The most important point which all Jews true to their faith share – and
that includes all the rabbis and chief rabbis assembled here today – is
that we have to bear the fate of the Diaspora which has been laid on us by
God. This important conviction of faith often meets with incomprehension
among non-Jews, so I will emphasize it again at this point: since we Jews
accept in faith the fate of the Diaspora laid on us by God, we endeavor to
live without problems or conflicts as loyal citizens of whatever state we
find ourselves in. Whenever there have been difficulties and conflicts over
the many past centuries, our chief rabbis have tried to come to a solution
with the authorities on the basis of submission, argument and heartfelt
appeals for clemency. And this kind of peaceful solution was in the great
majority of cases actually brought about – without any kind of provocation
or political power games.
The problems began to grow and to become more serious after the so-called
"emancipation", when the liberal ideas of the Enlightenment made an
impact on Judaism, and certain Jewish groups hoped they might be able to
achieve political benefits. For millennia our community of faith in Germany
has lived in peaceful coexistence with the German people, and has enjoyed
the latter’s hospitality, with a large measure of freedom of religion.
Even when the Zionist reformed congregation started to persecute Jews who
remained loyal to their faith, the German people stood by our side.
Consequently the German authorities authorized my predecessor, Chief Rabbi
Samsan Raffael Hirsch, to set up his own Orthodox Jewish community of
worship and allowed it all the necessary privileges.
At this time Theodor Herzl traveled frequently to Germany, in order to turn
opinion against us in every way possible, even visiting the Kaiser, with the
aim of stirring up hatred against Judaism true to the Torah. On occasion he
came up against resistance. Nonetheless, Theodor Herzl deliberately
encouraged antisemitism through his activities, because he hoped this would
encourage European Jews to aspire to the establishment of a Jewish state.
But in the last resort, in this way he brought about the catastrophe of
Judaism. Because the Zionists wanted to bring the state of Israel into
existence and encourage Jewish emigration to Palestine, they did not even
shrink from inciting and provoking pogroms in Russia – however awful that
sounds, ladies and gentlemen, there is the evidence to prove it! In the same
way the Zionists tried to provoke Hitler and the German people by calling
for boycotts and other political campaigns; they welcomed the Nuremberg
Laws, and did everything they could to whip up antisemitism still further.
So the Zionists must bear the essential blame for the Holocaust.
We Orthodox Jews true to our faith did not have anything whatever to do with
these matters. We did not get involved with these provocations against
Hitler and the Third Reich. We did not take part in calls for boycotts or
international propaganda. Nonetheless it was we who became the real victims
of the Holocaust. Based on our faith and conviction, the Holocaust was God’s
punishment of the Jewish people, who had turned away from their faith to
follow Zionism – even though the main victims of this same Holocaust were
the Orthodox Jews. Unbelievable as it sounds, it is nonetheless
incontestably true – our chief rabbis even declared in Auschwitz that
although we had rejected Zionism and fought against it, we had done too
little and with too few resources, for which reason it was not without
justification that God’s punishment fell upon us as well. I know that such
sentences can hardly any longer be understood in Europe today. I know that
such sentences will give rise to incomprehension and head-shaking among many
Europeans, because most Europeans do not in fact take their own Christian
faith seriously any longer. All the same, this is our conviction in faith!
But the Zionists actually managed, after the war, to put themselves across
as the sole legitimate representatives of Judaism. Above all the occupation
of Germany and Austria made this possible. The results have been terrible!
In the name of Judaism – and we Jews true to our faith have really had
nothing to do with it – for decades now, massive pressure has been applied
to the entire political and economic development of Germany. Germany
continues to be an occupied country, the United Nations enemy state clause
continues to apply to Germany, which means that Germany is not a member of
the UNO with equal rights! It is an example of the inconceivable degradation
of Germany that Mr. Michel Friedman – my namesake, I am sorry to say –
who is a morally dubious user of cocaine and frequenter of prostitutes, has
the opportunity of making moral reproaches to the German people and setting
them moral conditions – and all this in the name of Judaism!
In Austria the situation is only slightly better. Here too Theodor Herzl is
presented as a great personality, although in truth he did monstrous damage
to Judaism, because he tried, against the will of God, to turn a purely
spiritual religion into a political power system – a power system which,
like all political power systems, has opponents and enemies and fights
against them. The Palestinians, the population of Palestine, must logically
become the enemy of a Zionist power system of this kind. The consequences of
this – the war, the intifada, the anti-Jewish terrorist attacks and the
equally terrorist attacks of the Israeli army on Palestinian leaders, with
equal numbers of civilian deaths – are matters with which we are all
familiar.
As Jews true to our religion, we can never accept the doctrine of Dr.
Theodor Herzl. As Jews true to our religion, we are completely opposed to
Zionism and reject it. As Jews true to our religion, we see Zionism as a
betrayal of God and of the Jewish religion.
We Jews faithful to the Torah wish to continue living in peace with other
peoples in future, among the Germans as among the Arabs – we do not want
to blackmail any people or put any people under political pressure, but just
to have the possibility, wherever we are living, of worshiping God in peace.
Consequently we are starkly opposed to Zionist power politics. Thus we are
also starkly opposed to all attempts on the part of international so-called
Jewish organizations to put Germany and Austria under any political or
financial pressures. For the same reason, we deliberately avoid getting
involved in the internal affairs of the countries in which we are living.
When Dr. Martin Hohmann, a CDU member of the German parliament, saw people
who had fallen away from their faith – whether Bolsheviks or Nazis – as
the real criminals of the 20th century, we could only support his analysis.
When boycotts were launched against Austria in view of the blue-black
government of some federal states, we declared in public that we did not
regard such interference with the internal affairs of a country as
legitimate, and that in our view the Austrian people had every right to
choose the government they wanted. On this occasion we even put a big
advertisement in the New York Times, at our own expense, in which Jewish
chief rabbis true to their faith from all over the world lent their support
to this point of view.
I hope, in speaking to this esteemed audience, that I have been successful
in making it clear to you that the Zionism of someone like Theodor Herzl has
nothing to do with the convictions of Jews who are genuinely true to their
religion. It is high time that the official representatives of the Republic
of Austria should also recognize that Judaism true to the Torah is
represented by us, and that they have someone else to talk to apart from the
so-called Israelite cult community.
Ladies and gentlemen, honored guests, in this introduction I have already
touched on the main thorny issues which we hope to address at this
international conference of rabbis. I would like to extend a particular
welcome to the following speakers:
1) first of all Dr. Martin Hohmann, member of parliament of the Federal
Republic of Germany
2) the constitutional lawyer Professor Hans Klesatzky from Innsbruck
3) former federal minister Professor Erwin Lanc
4) Public Ombudsman Ewald Stadler
5) Professor Matschner
6) Federal Councilor Dr. John Gudenus
7) the lawyer Dr. Johannes Hübner
There’s a movement afoot in Judaism that portends to be
the religion of the future.
It’s called "Tikkun Olam" which means "Repairing the World."
Based on the Kabbalah that Jews are ’sacred partners with the Divine,’
its leaders Reb Zalman Schacter-Shalomi and Rabbi Michael Lerner promise
their followers that their movement will ‘heal the world’ and ‘heal
our hearts.’
But Jews have wrecked the world and a bunch of neurotic Jews aren’t going
to heal anything.
They already swindled us on the notion that once they got their own State
they’d be a ’light to the nations’.
"But darkness fell on the Palestinians who the Jews murder and plunder to
this day.
Relations with their own neighbors are in disrepair…and Jews are going to
repair the world?
I don’t think so.
Tikkun Olam is yet another Jewish scam of crafty clichés…another Tower of
Babble bereft of Christ.
[Clip: "If we could create a ‘we’ consciousness, a consciousness that
we are all in it together." Because in fact there are millions and
millions of people who want a different reality of love and caring of
kindness and generosity, of a sense of meaning and purpose to life that
transcends the individualism and selfishness of American society." And
outside of Tikkun you don’t hear this kind of talk." Some people move to
the religious right because at least in the religious right they hear that
being talked about even though it’s talked about and then in an extremely
distorted way."]
The movement’s founder, Reb Zalman – who styles himself a ‘Jewish
practitioner of generic religion’ – has concocted a New Age kind of
Judaism where you don’t even have to be Jewish to join.
[Clip: "So I’ve been teaching the people that every religion is a vital
organ of the planet. Jewish Renewal is really saying that. That there’s a
new way of looking at cosmology and our place and the order of this organism
called earth."]
It’s a precursor of the religion of the future. For it wants to swallow up
all of us.
You can be Hindu, Muslim, Buddhist, Atheist, and even a Wiccan practicing
witchcraft, so long as you let Jews reign supreme over you.
You can believe whatever you want.
But the boundary between the ‘Jewish and non-Jewish world’ – blurred
just enough so the Gentiles feel they belong – will be set in stone by the
Jewish purveyors of the divine.
The language may be different than conventional Judaism but the intent of
this New Age Judaism is the same:
Jews are gods and the Goys are cattle. (quod licet iovi non licet bovi)
Light came into the world two thousand years ago but the Jews snuffed it out
for themselves – (they’re hell-bent on snuffing it out for everybody
else) – and crucified Christ.
Jewry has nothing to offer the world but the continued crucifixion of all
that is good and beautiful. They murdered the most Beautiful Who ever
existed. What good can come from them?
We don’t need another Jewish utopia.
We’ve had our share…first with the Bolshevik revolution followed by the
Zionist convolution. Blood still runs in Jerusalem.
The work of repairing the world is not for Jews without Jesus.
And their religion of the future will be the ultimate wrecking of the world.
Brother Nathanael Kapner is a recognized monastic with the Russian Orthodox
Church Outside Of Russia (ROCOR) where he is officially recognized as a
"poslushnik"/"novice" monk.
He speaks and writes as a former Jew--now an Orthodox Christian--and not in
any official capacity with the ROCOR jurisdiction. He resides in the Rocky
Mountains of Colorado.
After eight years of monastic communal life (1996-2005), Brother Nathanael
has been engaged in a public mission through his Street Evangelism efforts
and as an Internet publicist.
His most recent endeavor as President of The Brother Nathanael
Foundation, is to bring a Christian consciousness and influence to
every sphere of American life.
[1]In 1994 the
Jewish doctor Baruch Goldstein forced his way into a mosque in Hebron and there
shot more than 60 praying Palestinians with a machine pistol. Today a polished
memorial plaque can be seen on the spot, carrying the following inscription:
‘Here lies the saintly doctor Baruch Kappel
Goldstein. Without flaw and with a pure heart, he sacrificed himself for his
people, the Tora and the land of Israel. May God bless this righteous man,
avenge his blood and give his soul eternal rest.’
The "Israel movement" in
the Christian congregations. / Christian Evangelical Zionism - Discourse 101
Looking up the biblical quotations
of the "Friends of Israel" in the Bible / Continuation Part 2, Discourse 1012
Report from the camp of the
"Israel movement". / Continuation Part 3, Discourse 1013
The Jewish Anti-Defamation League
rewrites the New Testament. / Continuation Part 4, Discourse 1014
Shema Yisrael ‒ Hear, O ISRAEL
- the judgment of God on his people. / Continuation Part 5, Discourse 1015
The Foundation of the State of
Israel in 1948 prophesied in the Old Testament! / Continuation Part 6,
Discourse 1016