1984

By Jim Fletcher
Prophecy Matters

When George Orwell wrote his classic look at future horror, when Big Brother watches everyone, he couldn’t have known how prescient he really was. Specifically, I am right now thinking of the word he used, “doublespeak,” which describes how dark change agents communicate with the masses.

In other words, Orwell looked ahead to a time when doublespeak would pass for regular conversation. It is when someone says something, but means something entirely different. And, this is purposeful, not accidental.

This ran through my mind this week as I continued an email exchange with an Emergent leader who insists that he is “pro Israel,” but not pro “Christian Zionism.” He sees the two terms as being different, although I pointed out the obvious: everyone else on the planet sees them as interchangeable. They mean the same thing.

Not to this leftist, who cleverly uses language to confuse those he really dislikes: Bible-believing Christians.

Of course, it is a side story, but it was 1984 when right-wing Israeli leader Yitzhak Shamir formed a national unity government with Labor’s Shimon Peres. The latter is the classic double-minded man.

Peres was the defense minister who pushed-through the daring plan to rescue hostages at Entebbe in 1976, but he was also the shaman who conjured up Israel’s involvement in secret negotiations with the PLO, which led to Oslo.

Back to the email exchange.

I will say this as plainly as I can: the turning against Israel, of American Christian leaders, is to me the clearest signal that we are not coming up on apostasy. We are in it.

When I began the conversation with the Emergent fellow, I stated obvious things, such as Christians who support Israel are also Christian Zionists.

But this wouldn’t do. Why? Because he and his friends want to confuse American Christians. It is the same as Barack Obama saying he is committed to Israel’s security, but then demanding a return to the ’67 lines. He doesn’t mean the first statement.

Now, the Emergent fellow is leftist and masquerading as an evangelical.

However, I believe the turning away from Israel — and I’m speaking strictly here of visible American Christian leaders — is equally disturbing.

It is the evangelical world that will abandon Israel. Again, I want to be clear: I am talking about American Christian leaders. Not all of them, of course, but a sizeable majority. Sizeable.

I know the head of an apologetics ministry who emphasizes a particular teaching that is spot-on. However, when Israel or Bible prophecy enters the equation, there is an undercurrent of dislike or disgust. He is a classic Replacement Theology guy.

At the National Religious Broadcasters (NRB) convention in Nashville in February, the Israel Ministry of Tourism hosted a breakfast. It was a wonderful time, and when it was over, everyone stayed to mingle and reconnect. There was an obvious bond between Israeli officials and Christian Zionists in the room.

However, this apologetics leader I know made a bee-line for the door, his cell phone to his ear. That in itself isn’t bad, but knowing him like I do, I knew that he had zero interest in Israel, but uses tours to the country to broaden his base. He knows that his followers are also largely pro Israel. This strikes me as coldly callous, and that in itself is quite disturbing.

Then there are the legions of pastors in America who appropriate Old Testament verses and use them for the Church. Passages like Ezekiel 37, or verses like 2 Chronicles 7:14:

“If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.”

Those verses are referring to the House of Israel. Of course, in passing, one can “lift them” to make a point about Christians or the Church, but primarily they are about the Jews. Yet time and again, every Sunday across the country, pastors use them in Christian sermons.

It is becoming unpopular for pastors to stand for Israel. Some never did, but others who were at least decent friends of the Jewish state now find it uncomfortable to stand with old friends.

Incredibly, there are those Christian leaders who see no linkage between modern Israel and the ancient Israelites. Have they not read the Old Testament?

The propaganda campaign to marginalize Israel among American Christians is so deep and so well-planned that I see their plan largely succeeding. I really do. When the younger generations — nurtured and mentored by wolves in sheeps’ clothing — emerge as the next leadership in the American Church, they will have served as a key pillar in the fulfillment of Jeremiah 30, in which God tells the Jews that in the end, they will be alone.

I attended the “Reclaiming America for Christ” rally (www.reclaimamericaforchrist.org) at First Baptist Church of Moore, Oklahoma this past weekend. Largely planned by Paul Blair (a whale of an offensive tackle for a decade with the Chicago Bears) of Fairview Baptist Church in Edmond, it was hosted by Kevin Clarkson of First Baptist Moore. Them, and men like them, still dot the American landscape and I can tell you that as we approach the coming all-out culture war, it is comforting to know they will not buckle.

So there is that hope, which is no small thing. It lets us know that there are others around whom we can huddle and not be alone.

As I continue this email conversation with the man from 1984, I see that in 2011, dark clouds have gathered over the Church in America.

It centers around the growing dislike of Jews and Israel, from American Christian leaders.

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