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"My opinion of Christian Zionists?
“Only one nation, Israel, stands between ... terrorist aggression and the complete decline of the United States as a democratic world power... If Israel falls, the United States can no longer remain a democracy. ...Arab money is being used to control and influence major U.S. Corporations, making it economically more and more difficult for the United States to stand against world terrorism.”[1]
CHRISTIAN ZIONISM DEFINED
“every act taken by Israel is orchestrated by God, and should be condoned, supported, and even praised by the rest of us.” [3]
The Unity Coalition for Israel, for example, which is the largest, brings together 200 different Jewish and Christian Zionist organizations including the International Christian Embassy, Christian Friends of Israel and Bridges for Peace. They claim a support base of 40 million active members. [8]
These organizations make up a broad coalition which not only helps keep Sharon’s racist government in power and is also, as we shall see, helping to shape the aggressive stance of US foreign policy in the Middle East today.
‘for the first time in more than 2,000 years Jerusalem is now completely in the hands of the Jews gives a student of the Bible a thrill and a renewed faith in the accuracy and validity of the Bible.’ [11]In 1976 a series of events brought Christian Zionism to the forefront of US mainstream politics. Jimmy Carter was elected as the ‘born again’ President drawing the support of the evangelical right. In Israel, Menachem Begin and the right wing Likud Party came to power the following year. A tripartite coalition slowly emerged between the political Right, evangelicals and the Jewish lobby. In 1978, Jimmy Carter acknowledged how his own pro-Zionist beliefs had influenced his Middle East policy. [12]
In a speech, he described the State of Israel as, ‘a return at last, to the biblical land from which the Jews were driven so many hundreds of years ago ... The establishment of the nation of Israel is the fulfillment of biblical prophecy and the very essence of its fulfillment.’[13]
However, when Carter vacillated over the aggressive Likud settlement programme and proposed the creation of a Palestinian homeland, he alienated the pro-Israeli coalition of Jews and evangelicals who switched their support to Ronald Reagan in the 1980 elections.

Hal Lindsey also claims Reagan invited him to speak on the subject of war with Russia to Pentagon officials. [16]
In a personal conversation reported in the Washington Post two years later in April 1984, Reagan elaborated on his own personal convictions to Tom Dine, one of Israel’s chief lobbyists working for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC):
‘You know, I turn back to the ancient prophets in the Old Testament and the signs foretelling Armageddon, and I find myself wondering if ~ if we're the generation that is going to see that come about. I don't know if you’ve noted any of these prophecies lately, but believe me they certainly describe the times we're going through.’[17]While George Bush Snr., Bill Clinton and George W. Bush do not appear to have shared the same dispensational presuppositions of either Jimmy Carter or Ronald Reagan, they nevertheless have maintained, however reluctantly, the strong pro-Zionist position of their predecessors. [18]
This is largely due to the influence of the Zionist lobby considered by many to be the most powerful in the United States.[19] Aluf Ben, a spokesman for Shimon Peres, was quoted in the mass-circulation Tel Aviv daily Ha’aretz as claiming
“60 percent of all financial help to Democrats came from Jewish sources.” [20]According to the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, “Most pro-Israel fund-raisers estimate that at least 60 to 90 percent of Democratic campaign funding comes from Jewish sources, which also supply perhaps 40 percent of Republican funding.”[21] Perhaps this is why it is hard to find a single elected American politician willing to criticize Israel publicly.
When Israel bombed Iraq’s nuclear plant in 1981, Begin phoned Falwell before he called Reagan. He called to ask Falwell to ‘explain to the Christian public the reasons for the bombing.’[24] During the 1982 invasion of Lebanon, Falwell similarly defended Israel’s actions:
When the massacres occurred at the two Palestinian camps, Falwell just mimicked the Israeli line: “The Israelis were not involved.” And even when The New York Times was giving eyewitness accounts of Israeli flares sent up to help the Phalangists go into the camp, Falwell was saying, “That’s just propaganda”.’[25]
In March 1985, Falwell spoke to the conservative Rabbinical Assembly in Miami and pledged to ‘mobilize 70 million conservative Christians for Israel.’[26]In January 1998, when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited Washington, his first meeting was with Jerry Falwell and with The National Unity Coalition for Israel, a large gathering of more than 500 fundamentalist Christian leaders, rather than with President Clinton. According to Donald Wagner, the crowd hailed Netanyahu as ‘the Ronald Reagan of Israel.’
In 2000, Falwell revived Moral Majority under the name People of Faith 2000, ‘a movement to reclaim America as one nation under God’ and which also takes a strong pro-Israeli stance.[30] Falwell has succeeded, probably better than any other American Christian leader, to ensure his followers recognize that their Christian duty to God involves providing unconditional support for the State of Israel.
While Jerry Falwell may be one of the most influential Christian Zionists, he is also a figurehead, along with Pat Robertson, for a much wider alliance of over 150 influential fundamentalist Christian leaders including Oral Roberts, Mike Evans, Tim LaHaye, Kenneth Copeland, Paul Crouch, Ed McAteer, Jim Bakker, Franklin Graham, James Dobson, Chuck Missler and Jimmy Swaggart who have all taken a pro-Zionist stance in their writings or broadcasts. [31]
These Christian leaders and their organizations have regular access to over 100 million Christians, more than 100,000 pastors and combined budgets of well in excess of $300 million per annum. They form a broad and immensely powerful coalition which is both shaping and driving US foreign policy on the Middle East as well as Christian support for Israel today.
We are going to examine six ways in which Christian Zionist theology has been translated into political action: This outline illustrates the correlation between the movements distinctive doctrines and their political agenda.
Doctrine
|
Practice
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Chosen People
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Standing with Israel
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Restorationism
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Facilitating the Aliyah
Programme
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Eretz Israel
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Supporting West Bank
Settlements
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Jerusalem
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Lobbying for International
Recognition
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Temple
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Funding the Rebuilding of
the Temple
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The Future
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Opposing Peace &
Hastening Armageddon
|
The conviction that the Jewish people remain God’s ‘chosen people’ in some way separate from the Church is deeply rooted in Christian Zionism.A recent Christianity Today survey of evangelical opinion about Israel gives an indication of the strength of Christian Zionism in America. The survey revealed that 24% believe ‘the biblical mandate for Christians is to support the State of Israel.’[32] This is expressed in a variety of ways:
In it they called upon evangelicals to show solidarity with the State of Israel at this critical time: ‘Now is the time to stand with Israel. Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, our hearts are heavy as we watch the images of violence and bloodshed in the Middle East ... Christian friends, “The gifts and calling of God are irrevocable” (Romans 11:29). So must our support for the survival of Israel in this dark hour be irrevocable. Now is the time for Christians to stand by Israel.’[35]
‘Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, enabled by US weapons and money, inflames anti-American attitudes in Arab and Muslim countries. The expansion of Israeli settlements on Palestinian land makes a mockery of the US commitment to self-determination for Kosovo, East Timor and Tibet. Beyond the region, US policy on nuclear weapons proliferation is undermined by the double standard that has led it to ignore Israel’s nuclear programme while condemning those of India and Pakistan.’[36]
Along with other organizations making up the Unity Coalition for Israel, their principal strategy is to lobby the US media and political establishment, to challenge what they term ‘disinformation and propaganda’ and to express ‘the truth about Israel.’
In September 1991, he complained that,‘there are 1,000 lobbyists up on the Hill today lobbying Congress for loan guarantees for Israel and I’m one lonely little guy down here asking Congress to delay its consideration of loan guarantees for 120 days.’[38]Lind points out that the pro-Israeli lobby was also responsible for encouraging, ‘the greatest abuse of the Presidential pardon power in American history’ when Bill Clinton, on his last day in office, controversially pardoned Mark Rich, the fugitive billionaire on the FBI’s ‘Most Wanted’ list. In a New York Times article in February 2001, Clinton explained that he had done it for Israel
:
‘Many present and former high-ranking Israeli officials of both major political parties and leaders of Jewish communities in America and Europe urged the pardon of Mr. Rich because of his contributions and services to Israeli charitable causes’ [39]
‘It is wrong and perverse for fanatical elements within the two and a half percent of our population who are Jewish to hold Congress hostage. America must regard the Israeli progression from penetration to direction of US foreign policy as the work of a master criminal.’[41]Christian Zionists have also been influential in forging a closer relationship with Israel by facilitating solidarity tours to the Holy Land.
Israel’s greatest success, however, has been to enlist American evangelical leaders such as Pat Boone and Jerry Falwell as allies in promoting pro-Israeli solidarity tours. For example, Falwell’s 'Friendship Tours’ to Israel include not only meetings with top Israeli government and military officials but also an on-site tour of modern Israeli battlefields, an official visit to an Israeli defence installation, strategic military positions, plus they can experience firsthand the battle Israel faces as a nation. [44]
Since 1980, a coalition of Christian Zionist agencies has taken the initiative in encouraging Jewish people to emigrate to Israel, seeing this as the fulfillment of prophecy. Exobus was probably the first Christian Zionist agency to turn the doctrine of Restorationism into a reality and assist Jews in the former Soviet Union (FSU) to make aliyah. Founded in 1984 they have assisted over 56,000 Jewish people to emigrate to Israel in close cooperation with the Jewish Agency. Exobus is also probably the largest Christian agency facilitating aliyah, comprising 80 team members, drawn from 13 countries and operating 40 vehicles transporting approximately 1,200 Jews overland from 16 different bases in the FSU each month. [46]
Since 1991, the ICEJ has also paid for the transportation of another 40,000 immigrants, 15,000 of whom were taken to Israel on 51 ICEJ sponsored flights. [47]
ICEJ Russian team members are especially active in the more remote regions of the FSU. They locate Jews, persuade them to emigrate, help them obtain documents to prove their Jewish origins, distribute humanitarian packages and pay for exit permits, passports, debt repayment, transport and accommodation. [48]
Once in Israel, ICEJ assist émigrés with their resettlement costs, providing food, clothing, blankets, kitchen and school supplies as well as medical equipment. [49]
Believing the Jews remain God’s chosen people and that God is bringing them back to the land, it is imperative that they claim all the land God promised their forefathers.
Christian involvement in the realization of Eretz Israel includes the military justification of these enlarged borders; the political adoption of the settlement programme; and economic support for the settler movement. For example, David Allen Lewis, President of Christians United for Israel, puts the territorial claims of Israel into the wider context of the Middle East. He observes that,
‘The Arabs already have 99.5 per cent of the land … this cannot be tolerated.’[50]In response to international calls on Israel to give back the West Bank, Bridges for Peace asks the rhetorical question: ‘What is so sacred about the June 4th, 1967 line?’ Nothing, they argue since historically this was all part of biblical Israel and ‘squarely won in defensive battles in 1967 and 1973.’[51]
Several Christian organizations have given their full support to this judaization of the Occupied Territories. The Christian Friends of Israeli Communities (CFOIC), founded by Ted Beckett in 1995, works in partnership with Christian Friends of Israel (CFI) and defines a settlement as:
"A piece of land where brave, Jewish pioneers have taken up residence. In most cases it is a barren rocky hilltop set up to establish a Jewish community where none had existed for thousands of years.’ [53So far, CFOIC claims 39 illegal Israeli settlements have been adopted by 50 churches in the USA, South Africa, Germany, Holland and the Philippines. For example, Ariel has been adopted by Faith Bible Chapel, Arvada, Colorado; Hebron by Greater Harvest, Tallahassee, Florida; Alei Zahav by Calvary Chapel, Nashville.
The reality is that Palestine is no more. The Separation Wall has cast in concrete the reality that all Palestinians can hope for are a few isolated and impoverished Bantustans similar to the Indian reservations of North America, although on the West Bank they are also denied the freedom of movement between them. Christian Zionists have not only made a clear stand in justifying Israel’s illegal settlement of the West Bank. Their ‘adoption’ programme is also intended to be a means by which financial assistance as well as practical support for the settlers is delivered.
Bridges for Peace (BFP) has a similar scheme called ‘Operation Ezra’ which funds over 50 otherwise unsustainable projects such as the settlement farm, Sde Bar, near Beit Jala and the Herodian. [58]
4. JERUSALEM : LOBBYING FOR INTERNATIONAL RECOGNITION
At the core of Christian Zionist support for Israel’s claim to the Occupied Territories lays the conviction that Jerusalem is, and must remain, the exclusive and undivided Jewish capital.
Jerry Falwell and the AIPAC lobby also spoke in favour of such a move. Senator Bob Dole later introduced legislation in the American Senate which required the US Embassy to be rebuilt in Jerusalem by 31 May 1999, and authorized $100 million for ‘preliminary’ spending. [60]
In October 1995 he stated, ‘Israel’s capital is not on the table in the peace process, and moving the United States embassy to Jerusalem does nothing to prejudice the outcome of any future negotiations.’[61]
Lamenting the failure of the US President to ratify the Senate decision, Dole commented:
‘Jerusalem is today as it has been for three millennia the heart and soul of the Jewish people. It is also, and should remain forever, the eternal and undivided capital of the State of Israel ... The time has come ... to move beyond letters, expressions of support, and sense of the Congress resolutions. The time has come to enact legislation that will get the job done.’[62]In 1997 the ICEJ also gave support to a full page advert placed in the New York Times entitled, ‘Christians Call for a United Jerusalem.’ It was signed by 10 evangelical leaders including Pat Robertson, chairman of Christian Broadcasting Network and President of the Christian Coalition; Oral Roberts, founder and chancellor of Oral Roberts University; Jerry Falwell, founder of Moral Majority; Ed McAteer, President of the Religious Roundtable; and David Allen Lewis, President of Christians United for Israel:
‘We, the undersigned Christian spiritual leaders, communicating weekly to more than 100 million Christian Americans, are proud to join together in supporting the continued sovereignty of the State of Israel over the holy city of Jerusalem. We believe that Jerusalem, or any portion of it, shall not be negotiable in the peace process. Jerusalem must remain undivided as the eternal capital of the Jewish people.’ [63]Readers were invited to ‘Join us in our holy mission.’ ‘The battle for Jerusalem has begun, and it is time for believers in Christ to support our Jewish brethren and the State of Israel. The time for unity with the Jewish people is now.’[64]
Lindsey is equally sure that, ‘right now, as you read this, preparations are being made to rebuild the Third Temple.’[67] Contemporary Christian Zionists are working to achieve this.
‘The mission of the present generation is to liberate the Temple Mount and to remove ~ I repeat, to remove ~ the defiling abomination there. The Jewish people will not be stopped at the gates leading to the Temple Mount. We will fly our Israeli flag over the Temple Mount, which will be minus its Dome of the Rock and its mosques and will have only our Israeli flag and our Temple. This is what our generation must accomplish.’ [69]In a London Times, interview Salomon insisted that the Islamic shrine must be destroyed: ‘The Israeli Government must do it. We must have a war. There will be many nations against us but God will be our general. I am sure this is a test, that God is expecting us to move the Dome with no fear from other nations. The Messiah will not come by himself; we should bring Him by fighting.’[70]
ED Noor: On Passover of 1998, Jewish rabbis conducted animal sacrifices at the Western Wall (the "wailing wall"), which may have been the first animal sacrifices conducted at the Temple site since 70 AD.
The design and construction work, furnishings and utensils, the training of priests and breeding of sacrifices all require funds and in large measure, like the red heifer, these are being provided by Christian Zionists. According to Grace Halsell, Stanley Goldfoot raises up to $100 million a year for the Jerusalem Temple Foundation through American Christian TV and radio stations and evangelical churches. [75] ‘
Jewish longing for the Temple, Christian hopes for the Rapture, and Muslim paranoia about the destruction of the mosques [are being] stirred to an apocalyptic boil.’ [76]
God has been kind to America because ‘America had been kind to the Jew.’ [77]
‘Only one nation, Israel, stands between terrorist aggression and the complete decline of the United States as a democratic world power. Surely demonic pressure will endeavour to encourage her to betray Israel. Israel is the key to America’s survival. As we stand with Israel, I believe we shall see God perform a mighty work in our day. God is going to bless America and Israel as well. If Israel falls, the United States can no longer remain a democracy.’ [79]
The two nations of America and Israel are like Siamese twins perceived to be pitted against an evil world dominated by Communism and Islam both antithetical to the Judeo-Christian democratic values of America and Israel. [82]
Ramon Bennett illustrates how such prejudices remain common today describing the modern Arab nations as ‘barbarous’.[83]
‘The Arabs will not be happy until every Jew is dead. They hate the State of Israel. They all hate the Jews. God gave the land to the Jews. The Arabs will never accept that.’ [86]
Despite considerable pressure from pro-Israeli groups the invitation was not withdrawn. It was left to the White House press secretary, Joe Lockhart, to defend the invitation. He lamented, ‘it’s done every year in the spirit of reconciliation. And it’s unfortunate that there are some who don’t fully understand the spirit of reconciliation and inclusion.’ [89]
But I’m afraid it gets worse.
Frequently, defending Israeli security leads Christian Zionists to deny Palestinians the same basic human rights as Israelis. Some are even reluctant to acknowledge the existence of Palestinians as a distinct people. Dave Hunt is typical of those who equate Palestinians with the ancient Philistines, and use the term Palestinian in an entirely pejorative sense.
‘Central to the Middle East conflict today is the issue of the so-called Palestinian people... Palestinians? There never was a Palestinian people, nation, language, culture, or religion. The claim of descent from a Palestinian people who lived for thousands of years in a land called Palestine is a hoax!’ [90]Based on Hunt’s logic presumably the same arguments could be used against the right to self-determination of citizens of the United States or indeed of several dozen nations founded in the 20th Century. The history of the persecution of the Jews illustrates how easily the denigration of an ‘inferior’ people or a denial of their existence as a distinct people can lead to the rationalizing of their eradication.
:‘Most of the people who now populate Israel were transported from all over the world to that land and they made it their home. The Palestinians can do the same and we are perfectly content to work with the Palestinians in doing that. We are not willing to sacrifice Israel for the notion of a Palestinian homeland. I’m content to have Israel grab the entire West Bank. There are many Arab nations that have many hundreds of thousands of acres of land, soil, and property and opportunity to create a Palestinian State.’ [91]Matthews gave Armey several opportunities to clarify that he was not advocating the ethnic cleansing of all Palestinians from the West Bank, but Armey was unrepentant. When asked, ‘Have you ever told George Bush, the President from your home State of Texas, that you think the Palestinians should get up and go and leave Palestine and that’s the solution?’, Armey replied,
‘I’m probably telling him that right now. I am content to have Israel occupy that land that it now occupies and to have those people who have been aggressors against Israel retired to some other arena.’ [92]Armey’s view that Palestinians should be ‘retired’ is only the latest in a series of calls in the mainstream US and UK media for the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from the Occupied Territories. [93]
While such racist attitudes among Christian Zionists toward Arabs are common, as are the stereotypes that Palestinians are terrorists, it is more especially Muslims who are demonized.
As for the Muslim immigrants Pat, it makes you wonder, if they have such contempt for our foreign policy why they’d even want to live here?’
‘Well, as missionaries possibly to spread the doctrine of Islam. I have taken issue with our esteemed President in regard to his stand in saying Islam is a peaceful religion. It’s just not. And the Koran makes it very clear, if you see an infidel, you are to kill him. The fact is our immigration policies are now so skewed to the Middle East and away from Europe that we have introduced these people into our midst and undoubtedly there are terrorist cells all over them.’ [95]At the 2002 Southern Baptist Convention [96] held in Florida, the former national convention leader, the Rev. Jerry Vines, pastor of the 25,000 member First Baptist Church of Jacksonville, brought applause from several thousand participants of the pastors’ conference when he described Muhammad as ‘a demon-possessed paedophile’ [97]
Such antipathy toward Arabs, denigration of Palestinians and hatred of Islam invariably leads Christian Zionists to also oppose any peaceful resolution of the Arab Israeli conflict which might require or coerce Israel to relinquish territory or compromise its security.
“I am heartbroken over the latest stage of the “road map to peace”, describing it instead as a “Odyssey to Holocaust” [98]He went on to rebuke the US president.
“I was sickened to watch a well-meaning Christian American president talk incessantly about his vision for a Palestinian state and Jewish state living side by side in peace.” [99]
To many Christian Zionists peace talks are not only a waste of time, they demonstrate a rebellious defiance toward God’s plans.
My great fear is that President Bush is ignorantly leading the United States into God’s judgment. For God warns that He will judge all nations that have contributed to keeping Israel from living in the land He sovereignly gave them.” [101]Christians are left in no doubt which side to ‘uphold.’ On the 1st January 2002 edition of the CBN 700 Club, Pat Robertson warned that if the US
‘wants to interfere with Bible prophecy and wants to move in and wrest East Jerusalem away from the Jews and give it to Yasser Arafat. Heaven help this nation of ours. If the United States takes East Jerusalem back and makes it the capital of the Palestinian State, then we are asking for the wrath of God to fall on this nation.’ [102]Robertson even suggests that Rabin’s assassination was an act of God, a judgment for his betrayal of his own people:
‘This is God’s land and God has strong words about someone who parts and divides His land. The rabbis put a curse on Yitzhak Rabin when he began cutting up the land.’ [103]Such pronouncements coming from highly influential Christian leaders appear little different from those of Muslim fundamentalists who call for a ‘holy war’ against the West. Karen Armstrong is not alone in tracing within Western Christian Zionism evidence of the legacy of the Crusades. Such fundamentalists have, she claims, ‘returned to a classical and extreme religious crusading.’ [104]
1. The belief that the Jews remain God’s chosen people leads Christian Zionists to a justification for Israel’s military occupation of Palestine.2. As God’s chosen people, the final restoration of the Jews to Israel is therefore actively encouraged and facilitated through partnerships between Christian organizations and the Jewish Agency.3. Eretz Israel, as delineated in scripture, belongs exclusively to the Jewish people, therefore the land must be annexed and the settlements adopted and strengthened.4. Jerusalem is regarded as the eternal and exclusive capital of the Jews, and cannot be shared with the Palestinians. Therefore, strategically, Western governments are placed under pressure by Christian Zionists to relocate their embassies to Jerusalem and thereby recognize the fact.5. The Third Temple has yet to be built, the priesthood consecrated and sacrifices reinstituted. As dispensational Christian Zionists, in particular, believe this is prophesied, they offer varying degrees of support to the Jewish Temple Mount organizations committed to achieving it.6. Since Christian Zionists are convinced there will be an apocalyptic war between good and evil in the near future, there is no prospect for lasting peace between Jews and Arabs. Indeed, to advocate Israel compromise with Islam or coexist with Palestinians is to identify with those destined to oppose God and Israel in the imminent battle of Armageddon.
“We reject the heretical teachings of Christian Zionism that facilitate and support ~ a form of racial exclusivity and perpetual war rather than the gospel of universal love, redemption and reconciliation taught by Jesus Christ.Rather than condemn the world to the doom of Armageddon we call upon everyone to liberate themselves from ideologies of militarism and occupation and instead to pursue the healing of the world.We will stand for justice. We can do no other. Justice alone guarantees a peace that will lead to reconciliation and a life of security and prosperity for all the peoples of our land. By standing on the side of justice, we open ourselves to the work of peace ~ and working for peace makes us children of God.”
When FARTWELL got that free, customized jet from Israel, all the other phony Bible Thumpers took notice and realized there was a gravy train of unlimited money flowing and they wanted some of that loot.
ReplyDeleteThat's one of the reasons the dumbed down Evangelicals and Pentecostals now worship Israel and not their G-d.
that and most won't read...
ReplyDeletebut the children of israel have never been the "jews"...
notwithstanding what Jesus actually said..
"He that soweth the good seed is the Son of man;
The field is the world; the good seed are the children of the kingdom; but the tares are the children of the wicked one;
The enemy that sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers are the angels.
As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire; so shall it be in the end of this world.
The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity;
And shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.
Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Who hath ears to hear, let him hear."
be an angel...harvest some tares
davy