Prophecy And Politics II

     Prophecy and Politics

            Christian Zionism: Justifying Apartheid in the Name of God

   British Subversion of the United States: Who is wagging your neighbor's tongue? The militias and Pentecostalism

Whose is using Who? The Unholy Alliance - Christianity & The NWO

Publishers' Row Moved By The Spirit -- Of Evangelical Money
Must Publishing Pluralism Extend To Fundamentalist Intolerance?

"President Bush and the Christian Zionist lobby," The Daily Star (Beirut) May 9, 2002

Pat Robertson's Reward  
Jewish Conservatives Join Forces With Christian Evangelicals

Christian Zionism: Justifying Apartheid in the Name of God

Article published in Churchman (Summer 2001) and given as a lecture at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford, and as part of a s eminar for the Muslim World Forum for Global Connections (Evangelical Missionary Alliance) Whitfield House, Kennington in March 2001.

Ariel Sharon’s provocative visit to the courtyard of the Al Aqsa Mosque protected by over a thousand armed Israeli soldiers wiped out any hope of a peace agreement between Jews and Palestinians. It simultaneously ended Barak’s short lived coalition government, ignited a renewed Palestinian Intifada, led to over 350 deaths, the vast majority Palestinian including many children, with a further 10,000 injured.[1] It has also sparked a revival in Christian Zionist support for Israel.[2] A Christian Zionist may be defined in general terms as,

...any Christian who supports the Zionist aim of the sovereign State of Israel, its army, government, education etc.; but it can describe a Christian who claims to support the State of Israel for any reason.[3]

The Zionist dream, so forcefully articulated by Theodor Herzl in Der Judenstaat in 1896 and a year later at the First Zionist Congress, may actually be attributed to the writings and activities of Christians like Lewis Way, Joseph Wolff and Edward Irving who formed a broad coalition of Christian Zionists from the 1820's[4], some sixty years before similar views were being espoused by Jewish leaders.[5] When it was known, for example, that Herzl was wavering on the option of Palestine as a Jewish homeland in favour of Uganda or South America, he received a Bible from William Blackstone, the American Christian Zionist, in which every reference to ‘Israel’ or ‘Zion’ had been underlined in red, together with a letter urging him to insist Zionists settle only in Palestine.[6]

Christian Zionism is born of the conviction that God has a continuing relationship with, and covenantal purpose for, the Jewish people. This is based on an ultra-literal reading of Scripture and the conviction that Old Testament prophecies concerning Israel are being fulfilled in the contemporary State of Israel. For Christian Zionists, God’s promise to Abraham remains unconditional and eternal. “To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates... The whole land of Canaan, where you are now an alien, I will give as an everlasting possession to you and your descendants after you; and I will be their God." (Genesis 15:18; 17:8).

In 1975, the United Nations condemned the ethnic exclusivism of Zionism as, ‘a form of racism and racial discrimination.’[7] At best, it seems, the Israeli State views Palestinians as an inferior species to be herded into Bantustan townships and refugee camps, and at worst treated like animals, expendable to be sacrificed before the god of Zionism. Israel’s continuing illegal settlement plans, land seizures, house demolitions, expulsions, deportations, military occupation, use of torture and ‘extra-judicial’ killings of Palestinians is seen by many as a form of racially motivated ethnic cleansing.[8]

Essentially, Christian Zionists see themselves as defenders of, and apologists for, the Jewish people, and in particular, the State of Israel. This support involves opposing those deemed to be critical of, or hostile toward Israel, but also inevitably leads to the justification of apartheid on so called ‘biblical’ grounds. As tensions increase in the Middle East, so the stakes are raised to gain the moral high ground, and the Bible is used as another weapon to silence Israel’s critics. Increasingly, anti-Zionist convictions are equated with anti-Semitism and the Shoah exploited by what even some Zionists admit is ‘holocaustology.’[9] For example, Hal Lindsey is not alone in accusing those who oppose Zionism of anti-Semitism,

..the same error that founded the legacy of contempt for the Jews and ultimately led to the Holocaust of Nazi Germany.[10]

Similarly, Tony Higton, General Secretary of the Churches Ministry Among Jewish People (CMJ) laments the polarisation of positions.

It is so politically correct in many church circles to condemn Israel (as the recent ritual condemnation from Christian Aid illustrates) that to make balanced comments about her brings accusations of being a right wing, fundamentalist, Zionist...[11]

In a previous Churchman article, the author offered a critique of Christian Zionism and provided an alternative theology of the Holy Land.[12] This article will elaborate on what Christian Zionists believe about current events in the Middle East, why they support the State of Israel, lobby for an exclusively Jewish Jerusalem, advocate the rebuilding of the Jewish Temple, resist Palestinian aspirations for self determination, and are generally pessimistic about any peace deal between Jews and Arabs. Material has been drawn from the most influential evangelical Christian Zionist in Britain and the USA. These include the Church's Ministry Among Jewish People, Jews for Jesus, Christian Friends of Israel, Bridges for Peace and the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem.[13] The primary motivation driving Christian Zionism today is the conviction that ‘the Bible tells them so.’[14]

1. Ultra-Literalist Biblical Hermeneutic

The rise of biblical literalism and a futurist reading of scripture, which equates biblical references to Israel with the modern State of Israel and not the Church can be attributed to Christian Zionists like Lewis Way, Henry Drummond, Edward Irving and their associates at the Albury ‘Unfulfilled Prophecy’ Conferences of the 1820's.[15] In 1821, for example, Way published a pamphlet called ‘The Latter Rain’ in which he called Christians to pray for the Jews out of the conviction that Old Testament prophecies have a ‘primary and literal reference to the Jews’.[16]

This movement was the catalyst not only for the founding of the London Jews Society (now CMJ) but also for John Nelson Darby, Edward Irving and Cyrus Scofield to develop an innovative premillennial dispensational theology which, historically, is the theological basis for Christian Zionism. Rob Richards, former UK Director of CMJ, offers a contemporary paraphrase of that position. “Israel is Israel is Israel.”[17]

It will be shown that, following this literalistic and essentially pre-Christian hermeneutic, Christian Zionists claim that the borders of the land promised to Abraham - from the Nile to the Euphrates - must become the future borders of the State of Israel since the Jews have never inherited all the land. Similarly, because the Jewish temple described by Ezekiel has never been built, it must one day replace the Moslem Dome of the Rock. Promises made during the Babylonian exile of a return are made to apply 2500 years later to the emigration of Soviet and Eastern European Jews because the language appears to suggest a ‘final’ return, one more extensive than has ever occurred before. Patrick Goodenough of the International Christian Embassy, for example, insists,

We simply believe the Bible. And that Bible, which we understand has not been revoked, makes it quite clear that God has given this land as an eternal inheritance to the Jewish people.[18]

Anne Dexter challenges those who reject this hermeneutic:

Some Arab believers and expatriate Christians in Israel feel so strongly about these matters that they will not read the parts of the Bible that seem to promise the land to the Jews or in any way uphold their election... Large parts of the Scriptures are effectively invalidated by this approach.[19]

Instead of recognising how Jesus and the Apostles reinterpreted the Old Testament, it is made to speak about present and future events almost as if the New Testament were never written. Under the Old Covenant, revelation from God came often in shadow, image, form and prophecy. In the New Covenant that revelation finds its consummation in reality, substance and fulfilment in Jesus Christ (see Hebrews 1:1-4, 8:13, 10:1). The question is therefore not whether the promises of the covenant are to be understood literally or spiritually as Christian Zionists like to stress. It is instead a question of whether they should be understood in terms of Old Covenant shadow or in terms of New Covenant reality. This is the most basic hermeneutical error which Christian Zionists consistently repeat.

2. The Jews Remain God’s ‘Chosen People’

Because of their biblical literalism, and dispensational roots, many Christian Zionists believe that the Jews remain God’s ‘chosen people’ enjoying a unique relationship, status and eternal purposes within their own land, separate from any promises made to the Church. So, the promises made to Abraham remain true today for the descendants of Isaac, Jacob and Joseph. Based on passages like Genesis 15, Christian Friends of Israel, for example, insist,

The Bible teaches that Israel (people, land, nation) has a Divinely ordained and glorious future, and that God has neither rejected nor replaced His Jewish people.[20]

Similarly, Jews for Jesus perpetuate the dispensational distinction between God’s purposes for Israel and that of the Church.

We believe that Israel exists as a covenant people through whom God continues to accomplish His purposes and that the Church is an elect people in accordance with the New Covenant, comprising both Jews and Gentiles who acknowledge Jesus as Messiah and Redeemer.[21]

David Brickner, Executive Director of Jews for Jesus, affirms the position first propounded by Darby, that the Jews remain ‘God’s chosen people’ while the church is merely ‘a parenthesis’[22] to God’s future plans for the Jews. Christian Zionists fail to recognise that in the Bible, 'chosenness' becomes progressively universalised, the gift of God's grace in Jesus Christ to all who trust in Him, irrespective of their racial origins.

3. Restorationism

Since the Jews remain forever God’s chosen people, the promises concerning the land are similarly seen as unconditional and eternal. Therefore Christian Zionists are active in encouraging Jews to ‘return’ to Zion. At the Third International Christian Zionist Congress held in Jerusalem in 1996, under the auspices of ICEJ, some 1,500 delegates from over 40 countries unanimously affirmed the following,

The Lord in His zealous love for Israel and the Jewish People blesses and curses peoples and judges nations based upon their treatment of the Chosen People of Israel... According to God's distribution of nations, the Land of Israel has been given to the Jewish People by God as an everlasting possession by an eternal covenant. The Jewish People have the absolute right to possess and dwell in the Land, including Judea, Samaria, Gaza and the Golan.[23]

Celebrating the 50th anniversary of the founding of the State of Israel, Walter Riggans reaffirmed CMJ’s continuing commitment to restorationism.

CMJ has always been at the forefront of teaching about God's restoration of the Jewish people to and in Israel, and we are continually excited by, and watchful of all that is happening... In other words, our prayerful interest in the State of Israel is as constant and committed as ever.[24]

David Brickner summarises how Christian Zionists view the contemporary State of Israel as evidence of God’s continuing protection and favour toward the Jews.

I believe the modern day state of Israel is a miracle of God and a fulfillment of Bible prophecy. Jesus clearly said that "Jerusalem would be trodden down of the Gentiles until the time of the nations is fulfilled" (Luke 21:24). It has been 50 years since the founding of that state, but only 30 years since Jerusalem came under the control of Jews for the first time since Jesus made that prediction. Could it be that "this generation shall not pass until all these things are fulfilled?"[25]

These theological presuppositions clearly have serious political implications. Jewish 'restoration' to the lands associated with biblical Israel inexorably leads Christian Zionists to support and defend the contemporary State of Israel.

4. Support for the State of Israel

Representative of other Zionist organisations, a CMJ resource pack includes a section entitled, 'The State of Israel: Why should we support it?'[26]

... in the biblical worldview one cannot actually separate theology and spirituality... one cannot divorce the issue of the people of Israel's relationship with God from their relationship to their delegated sovereignty in the land of Israel... God.. has made it possible for Jewish people everywhere to come and live in a restored Jewish homeland ...it seems to us that God is undoubtedly behind the re-creation of the Jewish State in the modern world. We are called to a support for the State of Israel...[27]

For similar reasons, Jews for Jesus justify the military stance of Israel based on biblical precedence and divine command, claiming the choice for them is between survival and annihilation.

So far as force of arms is concerned, the choice for Israel has been to fight or to be annihilated. It must be remembered that every defensive position entails some violence. All bloodshed is regrettable; but Israel has no choice when faced with an intransigent and implacable fore who has threatened in the past to "drive her into the sea." ... We must also remember that war has not always been "wrong." In Moses' time the sons of Jacob did not traipse into the land of Canaan and find a welcoming committee eager to greet them and congratulate them upon their arrival. God commanded that they take Canaan by force. At that point it would have been wrong for them not to do it. There may be some who think that God has learned some new lessons since ancient times, but to our knowledge, God does not change. It is entirely possible that once again he might move Israel to resort to force.[28]

Logically, such convictions extend to the justification of Israel’s military occupation of the West Bank, Gaza and the Golan Heights.

5. The Territorial Extent of Eretz Israel

At the heart of Christian Zionism is the conviction that the Land of Israel in its entirety was given unconditionally, exclusively and eternally by God to the Jews. The geographical extent of ‘Eretz Israel’ , as Arnold Fruchtenbaum explains, is nonnegotiable and covers everything from the Nile to the Euphrates.

So, then, according to the Scriptures, three promises are made with regard to the land: first, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were all promised the possession of the land; second, the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were promised the possession of the land; and third, the boundaries of the promised land extended from the Euphrates River in the north to the River of Egypt in the south. ...At no point in Jewish history have the Jews ever possessed all of the land from the Euphrates in the north to the River of Egypt in the south. Since God cannot lie, these things must yet come to pass. Somehow or other, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob must possess all the land, and second, the descendants of Abraham must settle in all of the promised land.[29]

Likewise, Louis Goldberg, of Jews for Jesus, is equally dogmatic.

To whom does the land belong? Based upon God's statement to Abraham ("Unto thy seed will I give this land." Genesis 12:7), and corroborated by the prophets of the Hebrew Scriptures, we can only declare that the land belongs to the people of Israel. Ultimately Israel will have all that was promised in its entirety to Abraham.[30]

The fourth resolution of the ‘Declaration of the First International Christian Zionist Leadership Conference’ held under the auspices of the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem in August 1985, was entitled, ‘All Nations Should Recognize Judea and Samaria as Belonging to Israel.’

The Congress declares that Judea and Samaria (inaccurately termed ‘the West Bank’) are, and by biblical right as well as international law and practice ought to be, a part of Israel.[31]

Jan Willem van der Hoeven of the ICEJ offers a theological interpretation of recent historical events. Speaking of the war in 1967 he speculates:

God wanted to give His people that part of the land which they did not receive in 1948, and by hardening the hearts of the different Arab leaders - Presidents Nasser and Assad and King Hussein - He impelled Israel to react. The result of what became known as the Six Day War was that Judea and Samaria - heartland of biblical Israel - and the ancient city of Jerusalem - King David’s capital - were returned to their original owner... Thus, the Lord, by hardening the hearts of the Arab leaders, caused His people Israel to inherit the rest of the land, especially their ancient city, in a war of self defense! Until then, since 1949, Jordan had illegally held and occupied the “West Bank” and Jerusalem. Thus, when Israel recaptured Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem, they did not even take over a territory that legally belonged at that time to any nation! How few in the West have even realized this. God has His own sovereign way to fulfil His Word and promise.[32]

Anne Dexter explains why present or future negotiations involving a land for peace deal will never appease Zionists.

The question of the ancient boundaries cannot be ignored. It underlies the policies of many Israeli statesmen. It explains why Sinai is always negotiable - it has twice been captured by Israel and returned to Egypt. It is the reason why Jewish settlements on the West Bank and Golan Heights is not just a matter of secure and defensible borders. It is the guiding principles in Israel’s interpretation of West Bank autonomy, which insists that whatever the degree of self-determination allowed the people, the land itself belongs to Israel.[33]

In her view, Palestinian Christians must accept Zionism, and learn to live with it. "Arab Christians are squarely faced with the biblical election of the Jews, and their role throughout history, particularly in the present."[34]

Tony Higton concedes that Palestinians are unhappy with the size of the ‘areas’, a euphemism for the Bantustans, which the Israeli’s are offering in a ‘land for peace’ deal. However he justifies Israel’s claim to the illegally held Occupied Territories on three grounds. The Palestinians have Jordan, the British allegedly went back on promises made in the Balfour Declaration and the amount of land agreed by the League of Nations in the 1948 Partition Plan was too small anyway.

I understand Mr Safieh’s feeling that the Palestinian areas are too small. However, we must remember that Jordan is a Palestinian area too. It was part of the Mandated Palestine and, after we British reneged on the Balfour Declaration, the UN gave the Jewish people - Holocaust survivors and all - far too little land in 1948.[35]

Higton’s arguments contain several errors of fact. According to Uri Avnery, the Jewish historian, the Green Line agreed after the war of 1948 actually gave the State of Israel 78% of Palestine although the UN had only agreed to allow them 55%.

When the Palestinians agreed to a peace settlement based on the pre-1967 border (the Green Line), they were already giving up in advance 78% of the land between the sea and the Jordan river. They are ready to set up their state in the remaining 22%. Our government wants to ‘compromise’ over this area. Meaning: ‘What’s mine is mine, about what’s yours, we shall compromise.’ [36]

The Peace Plan brokered by Clinton and Barak would have given the Israeli’s a further 30% of the West Bank leaving the Palestinians isolated ‘Palestans’, that is isolated pockets of land surrounded by barbed wire, electric fences, mines and Jewish settlements. Christian Zionists cannot understand why Palestinians are not grateful. Richard Harvey, for example, points out that,

The Arab minority in Israel lives in better economic conditions than in many neighboring Arab states, and is certainly treated far more humanely than a Jew would be in an Arab land.[37]

Christian Zionists therefore invariably oppose the dismantling of the Jewish settlements in the Palestinian Territories. Theodore Beckett, Chairman of the Christian Friends of Israel Community Development Foundation, for example, has initiated an 'adopt-a-settlement' program among evangelical churches. The Jewish town of Ariel, for example, has been adopted by Faith Bible Chapel in Denver. Seventy other Jewish settlements have also apparently been adopted in this way,

...with larger churches adopting larger settlements and smaller churches adopting smaller settlements and giving all a morale boost to show them they are not alone and are loved by many.[38]

Tony Higton questions whether Israel’s willingness to allow the Palestinians a measure of autonomy should extend to returning territory illegally occupied since 1967.

But should this involve giving them any further territory, including part of Jerusalem? Israel’s borders are scarcely viable now. Would any other country in the world give up half of its capital?[39]

Jews for Jesus go as far as to compare Israel’s continued occupation of the Palestinian Territories with the United States claim to Texas.

Many might wish that the Israeli government could feel secure enough to withdraw the settlements on the West Bank. But on the same basis, the United States should seriously consider giving Texas back to Mexico and, indeed, should never have settled it in the first place.[40]

Christian Zionists also downplay or denigrate the role of the United Nations and human rights issues since they believe the Land has been given to Israel unconditionally and in perpetuity by God. Jews for Jesus, for example, have been consistently critical of Christians who point out Israel’s failure to uphold the human rights of Palestinians living under military occupation. Brickner even criticises agencies such as Evangelicals for Middle East Understanding (EMEU), founded by John Stott and directed by Don Wagner, who have challenged Israel’s failure to respect human rights.

There are, however, others who describe themselves as evangelicals who want "middle east understanding"-- when in fact they are merely mouthpieces for anti-Israel propaganda. They allow their politically correct, over-wrought sense of moral outrage over the suffering of Palestinians to dictate their view of Scriptures. They point to injustice in the land and the fact that Israel is in unbelief, and conclude that God is through with the Jews and the land of Israel is illegitimate in His eyes. [41]

This tension between those who seek the implementation of international law and Christian Zionists is no where more clearly polarised than on the status of Jerusalem.

6. Jerusalem, The Eternal and Exclusive Jewish Capital

In 1992, the ICEJ sponsored various receptions marking the 25th anniversary of what they referred to as the “Reunification of Jerusalem.”[42] In 1996 this position was reiterated.

Because of the sovereign purposes of God for the City, Jerusalem must remain undivided, under Israeli sovereignty, open to all peoples, the capitol of Israel only, and all nations should so concur and place their embassies here.[43]

In 1997 the ICEJ gave support to a full page advert placed in the New York Times entitled, “Christians Call for a United Jerusalem” signed by 10 evangelical and fundamentalist 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 support Israel’s efforts to reach reconciliation with its Arab neighbors, but 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.[44]

Readers were invited to:

Join us in our holy mission to ensure that Jerusalem will remain the undivided, eternal capital of Israel. 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.[45]

Tom Getman, director of World Vision in Palestine, responded with an open letter to the ICEJ calling them ‘either hopelessly naive or liars.’

Two things you may want to consider in your blatant partisan support:

1. For 5000 years any time this city has been under the exclusive control of one power it has been the cause of untold bloodshed; and 2. Israel’s so called “exemplary record in guaranteeing access to biblical sites” has been significantly sullied in recent years, and even over this past Easter weekend, when in and around the Old City, streets were blocked off to all traffic except Jewish Pessah worshippers. For those of us who could not get to Good Friday and Easter services, and for your Palestinian brothers and sisters in Christ who could not even get out of Bethlehem, you are setting yourselves up to be perceived as either hopelessly naive or liars. Jerusalem is the spiritual home for 2 billion people... Only 15 million are Jewish. The better part of wisdom would be for “God’s chosen” to share it or they will absolutely guarantee being proven the world’s rejected once again.[46]

Nevertheless Israel has progressively built more and more settlements in East Jerusalem while at the same time demolishing Palestinian homes and depriving Palestinians of residence permits thereby shifting the demographic balance in favour of Jews. David Pileggi is therefore not surprisingly confident that the ‘facts on the ground’ will ensure Jerusalem remains under Israeli control.[47] Probably the most controversial issue uniting many Christian Zionists with more extreme Jewish Zionists is the issue of the Temple Mount.

7. The Rebuilding of the Temple

The rebuilding of the Jewish Temple is something many Christian Zionists assume will happen soon. David Brickner basis his belief on passages such as Daniel 9.

Obviously the Temple has been rebuilt because Daniel tells us this ruler puts an end to sacrifice and sets up some kind of abomination (a loathsome horror that would be anathema to Jewish worship) right inside the Temple in Jerusalem. Ultimately this ruler is destroyed in a final conflagration of enormous proportion. Who exactly is this "ruler" who makes a treaty with Israel? Why will the Temple be rebuilt in Jerusalem, and what will this final conflagration alluded to be like?[48]

While Jews for Jesus claim they do not endorse the activities of Jewish groups committed to rebuilding the Jewish Temple, it nevertheless provides information on, and offers direct Internet links to, eight extreme Jewish organisations involved in attempts to destroy the Al Aqsa Mosque and Dome of the Rock, rebuild the Jewish Temple and re-institute Temple worship and sacrifices. These include the Temple Institute and Temple Mount Faithful.[49]

Indeed, Zhava Glaser of Jews for Jesus praises Gershon Salomon, founder of ‘The Temple Faithful’.

Very few Jews have the courage to talk about the most important subject in the Jewish religion: that is, the question of the Temple, the high priest, the altar and the place of sacrifice. Gershon Salomon is a man of such courage. This 53-year-old scholar is the founder and head of a group called, "The Temple Faithful." His credentials as an Israeli patriot are impeccable, beginning at age eleven when he was arrested by the British authorities for putting up Zionist posters during their occupation of Israel. He has stood up for what he believes to be true ever since... One must take Salomon seriously. Nine thousand people are on his "Temple Mount Faithful" membership list.[50]

Sam Kiley regards Salomon as representing the ‘...almost acceptable face of millennial cults.’ In an interview with him, 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.[51]

Such sentiments are shared by many Christian Zionists who support Jewish groups dedicated to rebuilding the Jewish Temple. One book, in particular, has galvanised Christian Zionists on this issue, namely, Ready to Rebuild: The Imminent Plan to Rebuild the Last Days Temple, by Thomas Ice and Randall Price. From their dispensational perspective they anticipate the imminent rebuilding of the Jewish temple next to, if not in place of, the Dome of the Rock.[52] This Jews for Jesus review of the book implies that the State of Israel is behind such moves.

Something is happening in Israel! For many years there has been speculation as to whether the Second Temple, destroyed in 70 AD, will ever be rebuilt - even though Scripture predicts it. Now you can read the startling evidence. The move is already underway. This fascinating, fast-moving overview of contemporary events shows why the Temple is significant in Bible prophecy and how, more than ever, Israel is ready to rebuild.

“A masterpiece presenting all the various views with substantiating evidence... A mine of information for those concerned about prophecy... A solid basis for faith and what can actually be expected in regard to the rebuilding of the Temple... (it) is highly recommended.” - John F. Walvoord, chancellor, Dallas Theological Seminary. Chapters include: The Temple in transition; The Temple and Islam; Activity on the Mount; An ancient tunnel uncovered; Temple Mount alternatives.[53]

8. Antipathy Toward Arabs and Palestinians

Christian Zionists, while lovers of Israel, rarely show the same emotions toward Arabs and Palestinians. Anti-Arab prejudices and Orientalist stereotypes are common in their writings.[54] Comparisons between Hitler and the Arabs are common.[55] Hal Lindsey, probably the most popular Christian Zionist writer, insists,

Long ago the psalmist predicted the final mad attempt of the confederated Arab armies to destroy the nation of Israel... The Palestinians are determined to trouble the world until they repossess what they feel is their land. The Arab nations consider it a matter of racial honour to destroy the State of Israel. Islam considers it a sacred mission of religious honour to recapture Old Jerusalem.[56]

Franklin Graham, President of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, made similar remarks in a recent newspaper interview.

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.[57]

Many Christian Zionists are reluctant even to acknowledge the existence of Palestinians as a distinct people group. Dave Hunt is typical of those who wrongly equate Palestinians with the ancient Philistines, and who 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! That land was Canaan, inhabited by Canaanites, whom God destroyed because of their wickedness. Canaan became the land of Israel given by God to His people. Those who today call themselves Palestinians are Arabs by birth, language, and culture, and are close relatives to Arabs in surrounding countries from whence most of them came, attracted by Israel’s prosperity. The name Palestine comes from the Philistines, who were not Semites, but invaded Canaan from Crete and parts of Asia Minor. Yet Arafat, an Arab, claims that ancestry.[58]

Similarly, David Pileggi laments,

Palestinians cannot be entrusted with a state in the heart of Israel... No delegations have lectured the Palestinians on peace and justice like those that endlessly besiege Israel. Is it only reprehensible when Israelis kill Palestinians, but somehow acceptable when Arabs murder each other? [59]

Rob Richards justifies Israel’s apartheid regime on the grounds that Palestinians are the biblical equivalent of the ‘alien’ residents in Eretz Israel, to be respected but not entitled to the same status, or equal rights, as the Jews.

The alien has rights and we can remind Israel of this. Palestinians and Arabs who have made Israel their home come under that biblical word ‘alien’.[60]

Richards ignores the fact that Palestinians over the age of 50 were living in their own land of Palestine long before the State of Israel was unilaterally imposed upon them. Brickner similarly uses the term 'sojourner' to describe the status of Palestinians in Eretz Israel.

God commanded Israel to be kind to sojourners because we were once sojourners in the Land of Egypt and we know what it is like to be treated harshly.[61]

Jews for Jesus even go as far as defending Israel’s denial of basic human rights to Palestinians on the grounds of national security. In a response to Gary Burge’s criticisms, Jim Eriksen made the following assertions.

Burge continually gives the reader personal examples, derived from his trips to Israel, of alleged Israeli abuses in the occupied territories. In addition, he attempts to cite human rights studies and international norms that may be applicable to Israel. In doing so, he exposes the weaknesses of his analysis. For example, although Israel is a signatory of various international human rights documents, it has signed with reservations; namely, it has reserved the right to derogate certain rights in times where national security is threatened. This derogation of rights by reservation is not unique to Israel; most nations make a similar reservation to preserve national sovereignty during times of unrest or war. No mention of this is made by Burge, and the reader is left to believe that Israel has refused to abide by agreements it signed.[62]

While the United Nations is invariably viewed with great mistrust, for many Christian Zionists, the two nations of America and Israel are seen as Siamese twins, linked not only by common self interest but more significantly by similar religious foundations. Together they are perceived to be pitted against an evil world dominated by Islamic regimes antithetical to the values of America and Israel.[63] It is therefore not hard to see why Christian Zionists are pessimistic of, or even oppose, the current peace process. Walter Riggans, for instance, believes the Oslo Peace Accord threatens to legitimise Palestinian claims to Jerusalem and the West Bank.

...many Jewish people are quite devastated, and feel they have been betrayed into the hands of cunning and ruthless Palestinians who are exploiting the accords as a first step towards the elimination of Israel.[64]

Neil Cohen is equally pessimistic.

Partnership of Jew and Arab is untenable in Israel... we live in an age of political correctness which claims we live in a world where all people have equal rights. I don't agree with that because I don't think it squares with the biblical record... the search for peace in the Middle East, laudable though it is, is a wild goose chase.[65]

Regrettably such a stance which sees the land as exclusively Jewish, in which Palestinians are 'aliens' and to which Jews from around the world are encouraged to settle, not only undermines the witness of the indigenous Jewish and Palestinian Christians who live there, but also disregards the New Testament ethic which requires us to live by equal grace and common justice.

9. Anxious for Armageddon

It is with regard to their perspective on the future that Christian Zionists appear to be ‘Anxious for Armageddon’.[66] The 1967 ‘Six Day War’ marked a significant watershed for Christian interest in Israel and Zionism. For example, Jerry Falwell did not begin to speak about modern-day Israel until after Israel's 1967 military victory.

Falwell changed completely. He entered into politics and became an avid supporter of the Zionist State... the stunning Israeli victory made a big impact not only on Falwell, but on a lot of Americans... Remember that in 1967, the United States was mired in the Vietnam war. Many felt a sense of defeat, helplessness and discouragement... Many Americans, including Falwell, turned worshipful glances toward Israel, which they viewed as militarily strong and invincible. They gave their unstinting approval to the Israeli take-over of Arab lands because they perceived this conquest as power and righteousness...[67]

Hal Lindsey asserts,

The Bible foretells the signs that precede Armageddon... We are the generation that will see the end times ...and the return of Jesus...[68] Never before, in one book, has there been such a complete and detailed look at the events leading up to 'The Battle of Armageddon.'[69]

Jerry Falwell’s 'Friendship Tours’ to Israel include not only meetings with top Israeli government and military officials but also,

.....On-site tour of modern Israeli battlefields... Official visit to an Israeli defence installation... strategic military positions, plus experience first hand the battle Israel faces as a nation.[70]

Invariably therefore Christian Zionists are pessimistic and even antagonistic toward peace negotiations in the Middle East.

Because of the sovereign purposes of God for the City, Jerusalem must remain undivided, under Israeli sovereignty, open to all peoples, the capital of Israel only, and all nations should so concur and place their embassies here... the truths of God are sovereign and it is written that the Land which He promised to His People is not to be partitioned...[71]

Neil Cohen expresses the sentiments of many Christian Zionists as to why peace cannot be negotiated, and why continual conflict is inevitable.

At no time in history did God cancel his covenant with the Jews. What he promised to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob remains true to this day and will remain true at least until Jesus returns and the search for peace in the Middle East, laudable though it is, is a wild goose chase.[72]

Christian Zionists sometimes attempt to silence critics with the threat of divine retribution. For example, Brickner warns those who do not share his particular Zionist perspective that they are fighting against God.

Peril awaits those who presume to say that God is finished with His chosen people: "And in that day I will make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all peoples. All who lift it shall be slashed, and all the nations of the earth will be gathered against it" (Zechariah 12:3). Woe to anyone who joins those nations to gather against the Jewish people who are now back in the city of David. Just as God judged the nation of Egypt for her ill treatment of His people, so will He judge nations today. Evangelicals who would understand the Middle East must pay close attention to the teaching of Scripture, and take note of the cosmic forces that now do battle in the heavens but will soon do battle on earth. They must choose carefully which side to uphold.[73]

10. A Critical Summary of Christian Zionism

This article has sought to show that behind their commitment to work with God in his ‘continuing purposes’ for the Jewish people, another agenda is being pursued by many Christian Zionists, best summarised in Kelvin Crombie's own epilogue.

For if the Bible is true, literally, then Israel would be restored, first physically, then spiritually. The CMJ work in Israel was founded during the last century upon such a belief. The establishment of the State of Israel in 1948 was surely an indication that such beliefs were correct... Those who established the work at Christ Church... believed in the future physical restoration of Israel to its land... it reminds us that throughout the history of the Church a remnant of believers has remained faithful to God's covenant relationship with Israel.[74]

Such literalist assumptions of restorationism preclude any possibility of an alternative reading of the Bible, history or a just and lasting outcome to Middle East peace negotiations. While there is a commitment by Jews for Jesus and CMJ to evangelise Jewish people, their solidarity with other non-evangelistic Christian Zionist agencies such as Bridges for Peace and the International Christian Embassy has led many Evangelicals to equate their faith with Zionism, becoming apologists for the State of Israel itself and defending apartheid and human rights abuses in the name of God.[75]

Kenneth Cragg summarises the implications of Christian Zionism’s ethnic exclusivity.

It is so; God chose the Jews; the land is theirs by divine gift. These dicta cannot be questioned or resisted. They are final. Such verdicts come infallibly from Christian biblicists for whom Israel can do no wrong-thus fortified. But can such positivism, this unquestioning finality, be compatible with the integrity of the Prophets themselves? It certainly cannot square with the open peoplehood under God which is the crux of New Testament faith. Nor can it well be reconciled with the ethical demands central to law and election alike.[76]

The Middle East Council of Churches (MECC), representing the indigenous and ancient Oriental and Eastern Churches, has been highly critical of the activities of Christian Zionists. They regard Christian Zionism as a deviant heresy which is subservient to the political agenda of the modern State of Israel. It represents a tendency to,

...force the Zionist model of theocratic and ethnocentric nationalism on the Middle East... (rejecting)... the movement of Christian unity and inter-religious understanding which is promoted by the (indigenous) churches in the region. The Christian Zionist programme, with its elevation of modern political Zionism, provides the Christian with a world view where the gospel is identified with the ideology of success and militarism. It places its emphasis on events leading up to the end of history rather than living Christ's love and justice today.[77]

What should evangelicals make of Christian Zionism and its claim to biblical certitude regarding Israel? Christian Zionists make much of Romans 9-11 suggesting, wrongly in the opinion of the author, that the promises of future spiritual revival are synonymous with physical restoration. It is rare, however to find any analysis among Christian Zionists of Hebrews 8:13, which, it is suggested, provides not only the hermeneutical key to unravelling the Christian Zionist case, but also to explaining Paul’s vehemence at the Judaizing tendencies corrupting the church in Galatia.

By calling this covenant "new," he has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and aging will soon disappear. (Hebrews 8:13)

It may be argued that it should be impossible for Christians to view claims and promises made to the Jews by God in the Hebrew scriptures without now reading them through the cross and its irrevocable consequences for the Jews. Now we find that it is Gentiles (and Jews who believe in Jesus) who are declared to be the true children of Abraham and Sarah. Jews outside the new covenant of grace have, through the cross, and because of their rejection of Jesus, become the children of Hagar. (Galatians 4:21-26). This is no excuse for arrogance or worse. With sensitivity and compassion we must rightly share our faith in Jesus praying that our Jewish friends find their Messiah and complete their faith. However, any suggestion that the Jewish people continue to have a special status or exclusive rights to the lands of the Middle East, as advocated by Christian Zionists is surely, in the words of John Stott, ‘biblical anathema.’[78]

1. The Old Testament promises about the Jews’ return to the land are comforted by promises of the Jews’ return to the Lord. It is hard to see how that secular, unbelieving State of Israel can possibly be a fulfillment of those prophecies.

2. The Old Testament promises about the land are nowhere repeated in the New Testament. The prophecy of Romans 11 is a prophecy that many Jews will turn to Christ, but the land is not mentioned nor is Israel mentioned as a political entity...

3. The Old Testament promises according to the apostles are fulfilled in Christ and the international community of Christ. The New Testament authors apply the promise of Abraham’s seed to Jesus Christ. And they apply to Jesus Christ the promise of the land and all the land which is inherited, the land flowing with milk and honey, because it is in him that our hunger is satisfied and out thirst quenched. A return to Jewish nationalism would seem incompatible with this New Testament perspective of the international community of Jesus.[79]

Essentially, Christian Zionists are viewing biblical prophecy through the wrong end of the telescope. In doing so, they distort the Bible and marginalise the universal imperative of the gospel which is of equal grace and common justice. It may therefore be argued that it is actually Christian Zionists who are anti-Semitic through their partisan support for Israel’s apartheid regime, their antipathy toward Arabs, and their almost pathological conviction which makes them ‘anxious for Armageddon’.[80] In so doing, they have, whether intentionally or otherwise, legitimised the oppression of Palestinian Christians in the name of God.

© Stephen Sizer

5 March 2001

1 [1]Right Revd Riah Abu El Assal, unpublished letter, 27 November 2000.

2 [2]Open Letter to Evangelical Christians from Jews for Jesus, ‘Now is the time to stand with Israel.’ New York Times, 23 October 2000.

3 [3]Walter Riggans, Israel and Zionism (London, Handsell, 1988), p. 19.

4 [4]Known as the ‘Albury Circle’ hosted by Henry Drummond and later included Lady Powerscourt and John Nelson Darby. See Andrew L. Drummond, Edward Irving and his Circle (London, James Clarke)

5 [5]Regina Sharif, Non-Jewish Zionism, Its Roots in Western History (London, Zed, 1983), back cover.

6 [6]Donald Wagner, Dying in the Land of Promise (London, Melisende, 2000), p. 16.

7 [7]Regina Sharif, Non-Jewish Zionism, Its Roots in Western History (London, Zed, 1983), p. 1 & 120.

8 [8]Ewan MacAskill, ‘Building Unbearable Lives’ The Guardian, 12 January 2001, p. 17.

9 [9]Ruth Rosen, ‘Holocaustology, Past Oppression, Present Excuse?’ Issues Vol. 13. 5.

10 [10]Hal Lindsey, The Road to Holocaust (New York, Bantam, 1989) back page.

11 [11]Tony Higton, ‘The Battle Continues’ Christian Herald, October 2000.

12 [12]Stephen Sizer, ‘An Alternative Theology of the Holy Land: A Critique of Christian Zionism’ Churchman, Volume 113, 2. (1999), pp. 125-146.

13 [13]A more detailed critique of Christian Zionism, dispensationalism and Christian Zionist agencies is available from the author's web site http://www.sizers.org

14 [14]Kathleen C. Boone, The Bible Tells Them So, The Discourse of Protestant Fundamentalism (London, SCM, 1990)

15 [15]D.W. Bebbington, Evangelicalism in Modern Britain. (London, Unwin, 1989), p. 88.

16 [16]Lewis Way, The Latter Rain, 2nd edn (London, 1821), in Bebbington, Evangelicalism., p. 88.

17 [17]Rob Richards, Has God Finished With Israel? (Crowborough, Monarch, 1994), p. 23.

18 [18]Kathy Kern, ‘Blessing Israel? Christian Embassy Responds’ Christian Peacemakers Team, Internet:menno.org.cpt.news@MennoLink.org 2 November 1997.

19 [19]Anne Dexter, View the Land (South Plainfield, New Jersey, Bridge Publishing, 1986), pp. 214-215.G

20 [20]Christian Friends of Israel, Standing with Israel, information leaflet, n.d.

21 [21]Jews for Jesus, Doctrinal.,

22 [22]David Brickner, Future Hope, A Jewish Christian Look at the End of the World, 2nd edn. (San Francisco, Purple Pomegranate, 1999), p. 18.

23 [23]International Christian Zionist Congress Proclamation, International Christian Embassy, Jerusalem. 25-29 February 1996.

24 [24]Walter Riggans, General Director's Annual Report 1996 (CMJ, St Albans, 1996)

25 [25]Brickner, Don’t.,

26 [26]CMJ, Always be Prepared to Give an Answer Resource Pack (CMJ, St Albans, 1996)

27 [27]CMJ, The State of Israel: Why should we support it? (CMJ, St Albans, 1996)

28 [28]‘zionism.htm’ Jews for Jesus FAQ, www.jewsforjesus.org

29 [29]Arnold G. Fruchtenbaum, ‘This Land is Mine’, Issues, 2. 4. www.jewsforjesus.org

30 [30]Louis Goldberg, ‘Whose Land Is It?’ Issues, 4.2.

31 [31]Declaration of the First International Christian Zionist Leadership Conference (Jerusalem, International Christian Embassy, Jerusalem, 1985)

32 [32]Jan Willem van der Hoeven, Babylon or Jerusalem? (Shippensburg, Pasadena, Destiny Image Publishers, 1993), p. 151.

33 [33]Dexter, View., pp. 214-215.

34 [34]Dexter, View., p. 32.

35 [35]Tony Higton, ‘Beware of anti-Israel Propaganda’ The Church of England Newspaper, 10 November 2000, p. 16.

36 [36]Uri Avnery, 12 Conventional Lies, email newsletter, 27 October 2000.

37 [37]Richard Harvey, ‘Has Zionism Failed?’ Issues, 5. 10.

38 [38]Sarah Honig, 'Adopt-a-Settlement Program' The Jerusalem Post, 2nd October 1995.

39 [39]Tony Higton, ‘The Battle Continues’ New Christian Herald, October 2000.

40 [40]‘zionism.htm’ Jews for Jesus FAQ, www.jewsforjesus.org

41 [41]Brickner, Don’t.,

42 [42]International Christian Embassy Jerusalem (Jerusalem, ICEJ, 1993), p. 24.

43 [43]International Christian Zionist Congress Proclamation, International Christian Embassy, Jerusalem. 25-29 February 1996.

44 [44]‘Christians Call for a United Jerusalem’ New York Times, 18 April 1997, www.cdn-friends-icej.ca/united.html

45 [45]‘Christians Call for a United Jerusalem’ New York Times, 18 April 1997, www.cdn-friends-icej.ca/united.html

46 [46]Tom Getman, ‘A Response to Christian Zionist Exclusivism’ Cornerstone, Issue 15, Spring 1999, p. 19.

47 [47]David Pileggi, ‘Stumbling Over Jerusalem’ Shalom, November (1991).

48 [48]Brickner, Future.,

49 [49]Rich Robinson, ‘Israeli Groups Involved in Third Temple Activities’ Jews for Jesus Newsletter Issue 10, Adar 5753, 1993.

50 [50]Zhava Glaser, ‘Today’s Rituals: Reminders or Replacements’ Issues., 8, 3.

51 [51]Sam Kiley, ‘The righteous will survive and the rest will perish’ The Times, 13 December 1999, p. 39.

52 [52]Thomas Ice and Randall Price, Ready to Rebuild, The Imminent Plan to Rebuild the Last Days Temple. (Eugene, Harvest House, 1992)

53 [53]Jews for Jesus review of Ready to Rebuild by Thomas Ice and Randall Price (Eugene, Harvest House, 1992), www.store.jewsforjesus.org/books/products/bk154.htm

54 [54]Edward Said, Orientalism (New York, Vintage, 1978)

55 [55]Jan Willem van der Hoeven, Babylon or Jerusalem? (Shippensburg, Pasadena, Destiny Image Publishers, 1993), pp. 132-133.

56 [56]Lindsey, Israel and the Last Days (Eugene, Oregon, Harvest House, 1983), pp. 38-39.

57 [57]Charlotte Observer, 16th October 2000

58 [58]Dave Hunt, ‘O Jerusalem, Jerusalem.’ TBC, September 2000.

59 [59]David Pileggi, ‘Letter from Jerusalem’, Shalom July (1991).

60 [60]Richards, Has., p. 159.

61 [61]Brickner, Don’t.,

62 [62]Jim Eriksen, A Review of Who Are God’s People in the Middle East? by Gary Burge (Grand Rapids, Zondervan, 1993), in Messianic Review of Books, Vol. 2.2 www.jewsforjesus.org

63 [63]Merrill Simon, Jerry Falwell and the Jews (Middle Village, New York, Jonathan David, 1984), pp. 63-64, 71-72.

64 [64]Walter Riggans, ‘The Messianic Community and the Hand Shake’ Shalom, 1, (1995)

65 [65]Cohen, Guildford.,

66 [66]Don Wagner, Anxious for Armageddon (Scottdale, Pennsylvania. Herald Press, 1995); Grace Halsell, Prophecy and Politics, Militant Evangelists on the Road to Nuclear War. (Westport, Lawrence Hill, 1986)

67 [67]James Price and William Goodman, Jerry Falwell, An Unauthorized Profile, cited in Grace Halsell, Prophecy., p. 72.

68 [68]Hal Lindsey, The 1980’s, Countdown to Armageddon, (New York, Bantam, 1981), back cover.

69 [69]Hal Lindsey, The Final Battle (Palos Verdes, California, Western Front, 1995), front cover.

70 [70]Don Wagner, 'Beyond Armageddon'. The Link (Americans for Middle East Understanding) Vol. 25 No. 4 October/November (1992) p. 3.

71 [71]International Christian Zionist Congress Proclamation, International Christian Embassy, Jerusalem. 25-29 February 1996.

72 [72]Debate between the author and Neil Cohen, Guildford Diocesan Evangelical Fellowship, St John's, Woking. Surrey, 18th March 1997.

73 [73]Brickner, Don’t.,

74 [74]Crombie, Love., pp. 257-258.

75 [75] Regina Sharif, Non-Jewish., p. 7; see also Uri Davis, The State of Palestine (Reading, Ithaca, 1991), p. 28.

76 [76]Kenneth Cragg, The Arab Christian A History in the Middle East. (London, Mowbray, 1992) p. 238.

77 [77]MECC, What is Western Fundamentalist Christian Zionism? (Limassol, Cyprus, Middle East Council of Churches, 1988) p. 13.

78 [78]John Stott, quoted in Don Wagner, Anxious for Armageddon ( Scottdale, Herald Press, 1995) p. 80.

79 [79]John Stott, ‘The Place of Israel’. unpublished sermon preached at All Soul’s, Langham Place, London.

80[80]in Don Wagner, Anxious for Armageddon ( Scottdale, Herald Press, 1995)

Reproduced gratefully from: http://www.virginiawater.co.uk/christchurch/articles/czema.htm

For an excellent and extensive selection of articles critical of Hal Lindsey and Christian Zionism in general please go to: http://www.virginiawater.co.uk/christchurch/articles/  

13:33 2002-02-18

British Subversion of the United States: Who is wagging your neighbor's tongue? The militias and Pentecostalism

 by Anton Chaitkin 

The author requests all questions, comments or further intelligence leads be sent to Anton Chaitkin c/o larouche@larouchepub.com .

"The greatest threat from terrorism in the United States comes from people who are associated with a British Church of England-run Pentecostalist movement inside the United States. It is this apparatus which has structured the militias. Now, most people in the militia movement, or associated with it, have no part of the intentions of those who are behind it, particularly that section in the Episcopal Church, or Pat Robertson, who's part of this same movement, who are barking--authentically barking--Pentecostalists, who, with their connections with the military, deeply embedded in the military, including the ... corps of chaplains in the U.S. military, are largely controlled, presently, by outright barking Pentecostalists.... This is the ... main source of the internal threat of the potential for terrorism, and other kinds of treason inside the United States, today."

--Lyndon LaRouche, "EIR Talks," July 30, 1997.

Two years after the bombing of the Oklahoma City Federal building, a stream of lies is pouring through British-run media sewers, preparing credulous populists to view terrorism, or even civil war, as inevitable.

The grotesque joke is on the American populists. Their paramilitary militias, and Pentecostal sects, are creations of the very "Godless internationalists" they believe they are resisting. The British Empire high church apparatus seeks to reduce the American mind to that of a clown, a hypnotized "Christian" who babbles or barks like a dog; a "patriot" numbed by anti-government gossip and Armageddonism, so that he sees his own nation as his enemy.

Will these Americans provide cover, and become patsies, for criminal outrages by professional terrorists? In hopes that, instead, they will get out of the game, and turn their righteous anger against their manipulators, we offer this report on how the game is rigged.

This investigation began with a probe into the armed standoff between police and "Republic of Texas" members demanding the secession of Texas, in April 1997. This writer telephoned into the besieged compound and interviewed Richard Otto, alias "White Eagle," who said he was asking members of militias around the country to come to the site, armed for a shootout.

I checked Otto's background, and then shared my findings informally with militia members and others who might have been drawn into the provocation. Otto, it turns out, had been trained and set into motion by an Air Force officer who toured the world practicing New Age pagan rituals, in consultation with senior British intelligence drug-rock-sex gurus such as Gregory Bateson. This unappetizing profile, subsequently spread around by wary militants themselves, helped to discredit and defeat the provocation.

While Otto and his band surrendered on May 3, reports flooded into this news service of continuing, outrageous provocations. Among these was the bizarre case of an anti-government Texas demagogue with important military connections, one Jim Ammerman, whose incitements have been widely circulating among separatists and militia members.

A Pentecostal clergyman and retired Army colonel, Ammerman now controls chaplains currently serving in the U.S. Armed Forces around the world, as well as within prisons, and even in the Federal Bureau of Investigation. He claims supernatural prophetic powers, preaches the imminent end of the world, denounces the U.S. government as illegal, and says the President has deserved execution. During the April siege, Ammerman "mediated" between the Texas separatists and the FBI.

As EIR inquired further into the origins of the Ammerman operation, and how it is protected within the U.S. military, a much broader picture came into view. Described here are:

• * Colonel Ammerman's agent methods;
• * Britain's militia adventures among Ammerman's clients, and the Oklahoma City bombing;         
• +the highest-ranking U.S. general who was captured by Pentecostal mind-benders, and who created Ammerman's anti-government agitation bureau;
• *how British Empire master-race theorists concocted Pentecostalism; their colonial religious experiments among blacks in the United States and Africa;
• *the America-hating, feudalist, high church aristocrats and globalists who pushed through "charismatic renewal"; and
• *the national security danger from this British-owned military, paramilitary, and religious apparatus, including such operatives as Pat Robertson

 Colonel Ammerman: treason in the Army 

A videotape is circulating among the militia networks, entitled "The Imminent Military Takeover of the United States." This is a speech by the Rev. Jim Ammerman to the Prophecy Club of Topeka, Kansas. Ammerman warns that the President, aided by masses of foreign troops already on American soil, will soon put the nation under martial law--if God does not end the world before the current President can act. Ammerman decrees that President Bill Clinton should long ago have been executed, for avoiding the Vietnam draft.

Ammerman, who retired in 1977 as a U.S. Army colonel and chaplain, is described by the Prophecy Club as a former Green Beret and "CIA official" with 26 years in the military, and top-secret security clearance. He is the leader of some 200 chaplains now serving in the U.S. Armed Forces under the banner of his group, the Chaplaincy of Full Gospel Churches. His chaplains presumably speak in tongues and perform supernatural cures, as does he. He tells his audience that his chaplains provide him with inside information about military activities ordered by what he claims is the illegal dictatorship of the U.S. President.

Ammerman's frantic tapes and faxes have been pushed all over the populist and Pentecostal milieu, and to the members of the Republic of Texas group. Douglas Towne, manager of a ghostly Ammerman-led intelligence group called the Mount Rushmore Foundation, told this reporter that the Ammerman circle had extensive communications with the chief provocateur in the siege, Richard Otto ("White Eagle"). Towne calls Otto "a real soldier ... just like Tim McVeigh [convicted in the Oklahoma City bombing], ... who can't be shaken or broken, confident that he has backing."

In recent weeks, Ammerman has spread the warning, or threat, that some form of terrorist act will soon occur, giving the "illegal" U.S. government the pretext for the imposition of martial law.

Why is our government "illegal"? Ammerman's fellow Prophecy Club speaker, Ralph Epperson, explains that the United States was founded by Luciferians, Illuminati communist-masons, in order to usher in Satan's rule.

Ammerman himself is a furious Anglophile. He warns of foreign soldiers on U.S. bases, especially Germans, whom he calls "enemy troops"; but to him, nothing British is foreign. He reviles the U.S.A. historically. John Kennedy's mafia background got him killed, after he had passed the time during the Bay of Pigs crisis by womanizing; Abraham Lincoln was a dictator, understandably murdered, he claims. Ammerman lies that President Clinton has murdered many people to cover his crimes. He thus creates a climate in which Clinton's murder would be "understandable." Meanwhile, he pretends to strangers that God has told him secrets about their personal problems, and that he has supernatural powers to help those who will suspend their reason.

This purported Christian minister, on whose authority the Pentagon employs a large number of its chaplains throughout the world, is no single bad apple. As we shall see, his chaplaincy is a British intelligence and Anglican Church project, involving a former top-level U.S. Army general with responsibility for counterinsurgency, whose brain was scrambled by Pentecostal operatives.

Ammerman lies, whipping up anti-government activists, maneuvering them into terrorism or what looks suspiciously like terrorism. The British have acted through other channels, in tandem with Ammerman, triangulating propaganda fire against the same audience of potential patsies.

Britain's U.S. militias and Oklahoma City 

Just before the April 19, 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, Lord William Rees-Mogg, the London Times's strategist of the Conservative Revolution, issued a false report designed to provoke armed clashes between "citizen militias" and the U.S. government. Rees-Mogg's report was in the March 22, 1995 Strategic Investment newsletter, which is published jointly by himself and James Dale Davidson, the head of the U.S.-based National Taxpayers Union. The Rees-Mogg provocation was very widely circulated, by fax and other means, among populists in the U.S. Western states. It read as follows:

"The slaughter of dozens of women and children in Waco by government stormtroopers under the command of Field Marshal Reno may pale in comparison to what has been planned for late March [elsewhere the date is given as March 25]: a nationwide BATF/FBI assault on private militias as the prelude to a possible declaration of martial law throughout the United States. All leaves have been canceled for BATF/FBI personnel.... Government agent provocateurs are set to plant fully automatic and heavy weapons, like rocket launchers, on the property of militia leaders. Every militia in the country--and there are dozens, many of which are well-armed and well-led by former or even active duty officers--is on a state of Red Alert. Should Reno be stupid enough to actually attack them militarily, there is going to be a lot of blood.

"The establishment media is programmed to immediately thereafter thunderously bellow for nationwide gun confiscation and even martial law."

In a later interview with this reporter, Soldier of Fortune writer James Pate claimed credit for originating the story put out by Lord Rees-Mogg; Pate pretended it was fed to him by a source in the Treasury Department Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (BATF). Colorado-based Soldier of Fortune magazine, a global recruitment channel for mercenaries and assassins, was started up in the 1970s with seed money from British Special Air Services operatives in Africa.

On March 25, 1995, reacting to the Rees-Mogg provocation, about 125 hapless militia activists turned out at Cuero, Texas, to see whether they would be arrested or slaughtered on the predicted date. At the rally, Texas Constitutional Militia attorney Carl Haggard, touted as a national militia spokesman in the Soldier of Fortune April issue then on the newsstands, demanded that the militiamen drop politics, and prepare themselves with straight military training. Haggard is a former corporate attorney for the Anglo-Dutch multi, Shell Oil.

The same day as Lord Rees-Mogg's memo went out, March 22, 1995, a very spooky British agent named Jon Roland faxed and e-mailed this warning to journalists and militias: "We have ... reports of possible plans for atrocities to be committed by agents against innocent persons and blamed on militia activists. The atrocity targets include ... homes and families of ... government agents, judges, and elected officials. This would provide a pretext for labeling militiamen `terrorists.'... Crowded public places, to be bombed and the bombings blamed on militia leaders, with evidence to later be planted on them." Four weeks later, 168 died in the Oklahoma City blast.

Jon Roland, the bizarre "prophet" of the bombing, had earlier been promoted in the British press as a leader of angry Americans. Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, the London Sunday Telegraph's Washington correspondent, from a prominent British intelligence family, had begun his reportage on America's anti-government paramilitary groups in a Dec. 4, 1994 article datelined Dallas.

"The Texas Constitutional Militia," or "TCM," wrote Evans-Pritchard, "is growing at phenomenal speed.... `We have penetrated the government's electronic intelligence system and we've turned it against them,' says Jon Roland, a former civil rights and environmental activist who helped set up the TCM. `There are lots of Little Brothers watching Big Brother.'|" The quote refers to George Orwell's novel 1984, in which the dictatorial government, "Big Brother," creates false opposition movements secretly under its control. Orwell's novel is modelled on British Empire practice, as in Kenya, where the British set up ineffective opposition to colonialism as "countergangs" to subvert true independence movements.

The private Texas Constitutional Militia was in fact started by Roland. Militia members say that Roland showed up in south Texas in April 1994, around the first anniversary of the Waco massacre. He advertised for patriots to turn out to a "muster," telling those who showed up that he would put them into business as a private militia. He prescribed the form of organization, such as he had used to start up militias in other states: seven-man, self-contained cells, within county groups, to guard against treachery. And he produced a list of contacts which would keep them in touch with authentic information about the national scene.

The conservatives who joined were a bit puzzled when Roland identified himself as a "secular humanist," which is anathema to Christian conservatives--but perhaps his other credentials were in order.

In an April 27, 1995 interview with this author, Roland spoke expansively about his background. He said that his "good buddy" Ambrose Evans-Pritchard had put him "in touch with intelligence agents around the world." He meets periodically with these Evans-Pritchard intelligence community contacts, Roland said, and they give him "inside information."

Roland said he had been sarcastic when he told the militia members he was a secular humanist, and that he is currently a Zen Buddhist. He explained that he has long been an activist of the "international federalist movement"; he advocates the formation of a "true constitutional world government." An ultra-Malthusian environmentalist, Roland has "worked closely with the leadership of the Friends of the Earth," as well as Greenpeace, inhabitants of Prince Philip's stable of environmentalist groups. Roland claims that even as few as "tens of thousands of people, using modern technology, will eventually destroy the Earth" if they are allowed to exist "scattered all over the landscape." Echoing Prince Philip and the World Wildlife Fund, Roland said that "overpopulation" causes Africans "to kill each other."

Militia founder Roland has been a computer specialist for the U.S. Air Force, as an officer and contractor, since 1967. He says that he received specialized training from the Army's 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell, Kentucky/Tennessee, the home of the psychological warfare unit that assaulted Panamanian leader Gen. Manuel Noriega. He has written on "Third Wave" computer strategy themes in the Futurist, organ of the World Future Society. He was long a member of a British intelligence front, the L5 Society, promoting Britain's utopian counterstrategy to the hated John Kennedy's Apollo space program.

Six days after the Oklahoma City bombing, NBC TV's "Dateline" program featured an interview with Roland, portrayed only as an angry militia leader and computer specialist, who warned of a civil war in America.

Speaking later to this author, Roland provided a list of his associates in the militia movement that Roland has worked at organizing throughout the United States. First on the Roland list was Bradley P. Glover, a Kansas paramilitary leader.

During July 1997, Glover and six other persons were arrested on charges of plotting to bomb U.S. military bases, beginning with Fort Hood, Texas. The FBI said that Glover and an associate were arrested on July 4 near Fort Hood, in possession of various weapons, and that others in on the alleged plot were charged with possession of pipe bombs and machine guns. The arrests allegedly resulted from Missouri state police infiltration of paramilitary groups. Glover was featured in the Wichita Eagle on April 30, 1995, as perhaps the pre-eminent Kansas militia leader. He is said to lead about 1,000 armed men in the southern half of the state. In a 1995 interview, Glover told this reporter that he had initiated the militia movement in Kansas in November 1994. Glover said he was a former Naval Intelligence officer, but that any contacts that he might have with intelligence agencies at present are "none of your business."

Glover created a movement "against the globalists." Informed by this reporter about Jon Roland's British and World Federalist affiliation, Glover replied that he would have to decline to state whether he himself favored or did not favor world government.

General Haines and Operation Garden Plot 

There is an ironic reality, a dangerous half-truth, in the provocative warnings about martial law and military takeover, issued by the British lords and their U.S. assets.

Interviewed by this reporter on May 22, 1997, Jim Ammerman stated: "There is a network of colonels and above, throughout the military, who would stand by the Constitution and against the President. They know who they are, and they are in close communication with each other. They could control the country if they need to."

The "multi-jurisdictional task force" is a repeated theme in Ammerman's exhortations to the militias. The military is allegedly now combined, under the Federal Emergency Management Agency, with other departments of the Federal government and with local governments. When the President tries to use this overreaching military against the people, Ammerman maintains, the "good" military officers will side with armed citizens against the President.

Curiously, Ammerman's own organization was created at the request of an Army officer, Gen. Ralph E. Haines, Jr., who personally supervised the military policing of the population, against which Ammerman directs his rhetoric.

General Haines had been vice chief of staff of the U.S. Army in 1967-68, when he was in charge of counterinsurgency preparations in the continental United States. He worked with the full resources of the Army under him, including military intelligence capabilities, to plan to cope with black ghetto riots and civil disturbances during the Vietnam War. Haines moved his troops into Detroit and Washington, D.C., as riots hit American cities before and after Martin Luther King's assassination. General Haines went public in an April 11, 1968 press conference, describing his "Operation Garden Plot." He had planned and directed the military arrangements for the takeover of every single American city, and arranged the linkages between the military and Justice Department, local police, and state governments.

The April 14, 1968 New York Times reported that Haines "said that detailed military planning for the summer began in February. The `garden plot' preparations were national, he said, including `every city you can think of.' Many officers who were to be assigned to specific cities in a military mobilization visited them in mufti [civilian clothes] to familiarize themselves with the terrain, the social and economic problems of potential riot areas, and the police with whom they would work if called, the general said."

It was this General Haines who asked Ammerman to create his Full Gospel Chaplaincy. In his book, Supernatural Events in the Life of an Ordinary Man, Ammerman says that at first he resisted the Haines project, but at length acceded to it.

The Defense Department received the petition for acceptance of the Full Gospel Chaplaincy in June 1983. After 13 months of resistance by military traditionalists, expressed by a bitter fight within the board of chaplains, the petition was approved in July 1984. This was at the height of the covert operations run though the military and the National Security Council by then-Vice President George Bush and his London allies, and such of their flunkies as Lt. Col. Oliver North (ret.), an Episcopalian speaker-in-tongues.

Colonel Ammerman, the pretended "anti-New World Order crusader," gave George Bush a thank-you salute. Ammerman's 1991 book, After the Storm, about the religious conversions of U.S. soldiers during the Persian Gulf War, opens with President George Bush's prayer proclamation as a preface.

The Haines-Ammerman project was a component of Britain's Pentecostalist political initiative, set in motion within the United States following World War II. This British initiative was to leap ahead in the United States in the 1960s. Haines would be inducted, dazed, and mind-battered into its service in 1971, while he was commander of the Continental U.S. Army Command. Retiring from the Army in 1973, at age 59, Haines then embarked on a second career, in the netherworld of political and covert operations peopled by active-duty, retired, and reserve officers.

In 1978, Haines led a group of American Episcopalian speakers-in-tongues, to Canterbury, England, for a global meeting of the Anglican Church under Queen Elizabeth's Archbishop Donald Coggan. Haines and others, colonials and Brits alike, launched a world crusade to spread Pentecostalism under Anglican guidance.

An Episcopal colleague of Haines, Gen. Albion Knight, U.S. Army (ret.), in a discussion with this reporter on June 5, 1997, lavishly praised the Haines-Ammerman project. A nuclear weapons and logistics specialist, Knight is now a Conservative Revolution leader in Howard Phillips's Taxpayers Party. He explained the strategy put in gear at the 1978 Canterbury meeting: Get away from stuffy high churchism. Get with the people. This hard-charging Anglicanism is "exploding in the Third World"; Africa is especially targetted. Intimately identified with the British authorities and the Church of England, General Knight manages the Church Information Center, which, he says, "feeds information to around 125 leaders, an intelligence network in the Anglican world."

How the general got zapped 

In an interview with this reporter on July 28, 1997, General Haines said he asked Colonel Ammerman to initiate the new chaplaincy organization when he and Ammerman were in Europe in the late 1970s. They had both been speaking at a Heidelberg, Germany, military unit of the Full Gospel Businessmen's Fellowship International--a covert, masonic-like core organization of the British religious initiative created in the early 1950s.

Haines described his own fall into the "spirit-filled" world. At that time, military officers, scientists, and others leaders of America's military-industrial complex were being hunted as prizes. He said his wife was "baptized in the Holy Spirit" around 1967 or 1968, some three or four years before his own induction. This gave her "something to occupy herself with" while Haines was commander of the Army for the Pacific region (1968-70), with responsibility for the logisitics of the Vietnam War.

In 1970, Haines became commander of Continental Army Command, headquartered at Fort Monroe, near Norfolk, Virginia. His wife began working with the Pat Robertson organization as a volunteer. Through his wife, and one of Robertson's close associates, an invitation was issued for Haines to speak at a rally of the Full Gospel Businessmen's Fellowship, at a Buffalo, New York hotel, on July 24, 1971.

He said he went there thinking he would give a moderate Christian speech, such as he had given before to the Kiwanis and Rotary clubs. He showed up July 23, the day before he was to speak, in order to "case the joint." But they had him sit at the head table, next to Harald Bredesen. This Bredesen is one of a small central clique of operatives in the Pentecostal initiative, working under the coordination of British Empire agent David J. du Plessis, whose career will be reviewed below. Bredesen is a professional mind-bender in what is best termed Britain's "occult bureau." He inducted Robertson into the game around 1960; Bredesen and the Full Gospel Businessmen then built up Robertson into a multibillion-dollar political empire.

This is how Haines depicted his capture: "The `businessmen' [in the audience] testified; tears ran down their cheeks. I was getting very uncomfortable. I signalled to my aide, let's get going, let's get out of here. But Harald leaned over to me; he said, Are you charismatic? I thought it over. I answered, I don't think so. What did charismatic mean? I thought of George Patton.

"Harald was the speaker. I thought, when in Rome, shoot Roman candles. People were putting up their hands [in uncontrolled fervor]. I put my hands up a little bit--the discreet Episcopal level. People asked me, `General, what's your problem--why only half mast?'

"After Harald gave his talk, there was renewed praising of the Lord. My hands crept up to fully extended. I felt things happening to me. I felt things beyond my comprehension. It was not elation. I was dazed by it. Everyone crowded around me--they could all see something was happening. People closed in on me--I got out--I went to my room; I wanted to be alone. Harald came and ministered to me for a short time.

"The next day I saw that the speech I was to deliver was pabulum. What would satisfy these people? The people were saying, `The general got zapped last night.' So though I used the core of what I had prepared, I now spoke differently, tailoring it to what had happened. I then thought, I don't know what God wants of me but I'm ready to do what He says."

What happened, when General Haines became possessed "by the Holy Spirit" at that rally? In a recent article in Stephen Strang's Charisma magazine, Bredesen explains "the way demons operate. Unclean spirits come into a medium, violate her personality and speak through her." But rest assured, what Bredesen and his sponsors are doing is different. "The Holy Spirit doesn't want mediums, robots or zombies." Do you want to become God's partner? Bredesen instructs you, "Don't speak words your mind understands. As long as you do, your mind will remain in control.

"Don't listen to yourself. Can you imagine a little child learning to talk? Does he say, `Ma-ma-ma-ma,' and then stop with, `I can't say that. That's not language'? No, he just hugs his daddy's neck and prattles away." Charisma publisher Stephen Strang is a trustee of a U.S.-based core leadership team of mind-benders, incorporated as the Charismatic Bible Ministries, along with Ammerman, Oral Roberts, and others in this British outreach initiative. Strang also publishes New Man magazine, organ of the recently formed Promise Keepers cult. In a recent issue, under the title "Worm Training," a cult guide named Wellington Boone explains the religious problem and how this gang solves it:

"People have not yet learned how to become broken.... We are called to be `worms.'... A worm never protests.... Can you say, for Christ, `I am a worm and am no man'?|... Jesus was crushed like a worm. He was slapped. They spat in His face until it ran down His cheeks.... God doesn't raise anything that is not dead.

"If we allow God ... to work into us the idea of `worm-training,' it would be revolutionary. We would gain a worm's-eye view of what God wants.... When we really meet Jesus and allow ourselves to be crushed ... the impact will rock this world."

The 'mystery' of British-Israel solved 

Nowadays, 50,000 men and boys are periodically herded into a stadium to babble incoherently, to weep and laugh hysterically for the Promise Keepers. Or, at a specially rigged church at the Toronto, Canada airport, troubled worshippers come from far way to be miraculously cured; they fall into trances on the floor and bark like dogs, in "worship." Civilized humanity is obliged to ask, how has this come about?

The main figure in the creation of today's Pentecostalism, British agent David J. du Plessis, insisted that this phenomenon has no history whatsoever: It simply happened. Writing in 1956, du Plessis claimed, "It [is] clear that it was no man-made cult of `tongues.' Only the `power' of which Jesus spake, could have caused its miraculous growth and establishment" up to that point, from the beginning of the twentieth century. As the "charismatic renewal," a new Pentecostal movement, was just then being geared up in the 1950s, du Plessis lied that "there has never been a man or a movement than can claim the credit for having planned or propagated this world embracing Pentecostal Revival. It is simply the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit ... to bring the `Full Gospel Message' to the whole world in this generation.... This sudden move towards mass evangelism lately ... cannot be attributed to anything else than the spontaneous move of the Holy Spirit."

We shall give here the first serious historical account of the "planning and propagating." We speak now of the high church principalities and powers who have built this new Tower of Babel, who look down with contempt upon their captive babblers, their low churchers, the herd, the worms.

It is necessary first to bring to light a myth known as British Israelism, which stands behind Pentecostalism. This is an evil piece of historical race gossip, spread into American religion, into the ranks of American populists, poisoning the minds of separatists and Armageddon terrorists.

The British monarchy and its prime ministers and Foreign Office fabricated British Israelism in the nineteenth century, from earlier versions of the story. They claimed that Queen Victoria was descended from the Biblical King David, and was thus a descendant of the Davidic family tree that produced Jesus. They taught that the tribes of Israel wandered into northern Europe; that by this supposed genealogy, the British are the real Chosen People, and the British Empire is thus God's empire.

The modern Jews, by this British account, are not the historical Hebrews of Old Testament Israel, but rather, the British are. But, says the British Israel myth, in a leap of logic, the Jews need to be put into Palestine, to fulfill prophecy, get slaughtered in a war with the Muslims, and bring about the End Times.

To provide fuel for this mythology, the royal family asked the British Grand Lodge of Freemasonry to establish the Palestine Exploration Fund. In the 1870s, they dispatched soldier-archeologists to the Holy Land, to dig up supposed religious relics that might impress the cheap fancies of the beggarly masses.

British Israelism designed its Jewish angle to be worked in many politically useful ways, along a spectrum from Nazi anti-Semitism to radical Zionism. The cynical character of this entire travesty may be seen, in the way the story was changed to suit imperial politics. During the 1870s, Germany broke from allegiance to British free trade doctrines. The London "prophets" then reconfigured ancient history. Suddenly, it wasn't Britain and Germany, collectively the Nordic Aryans, who were the wandering Chosen People, but only Britain. Modern Germans, it had been discovered, are the ancient Assyrians!

In his book Religion and the Racist Right: The Origins of the Christian Identity Movement, author Michael Barkun presents a nagging paradox, which he never solves. He reports that British Israelism originates with the British military, the Anglican Church, the British upper classes, who are fanatical loyalists to the government, the British Empire. Yet, this mother has given birth to the Christian Identity Movement, whose racist paranoia and paramilitary anger are aimed against the government, the United States government. Barkun cannot puzzle out the mystery, how the same historical movement can both support the government, and oppose the government!

The British Empire invents Pentecostalism 

According to Pentecostal lore, the movement began when a woman spoke in tongues in the church of Charles Fox Parham in Topeka, Kansas, in 1901. Reverend Parham spread the method until it blossomed in the famous Azusa Street, Los Angeles, revival of 1906; from there, disciples took it around the world.

During the year preceeding the launch-time, Parham had caught fire with British Israelism. He had been indoctrinated into the Empire's mystery cult by emissaries of one Frank Sandford, who ran a cult center called Shiloh, near Durham, Maine. Parham made a pilgrimage and studied under Sandford at Shiloh, after which the two of them went on tour through Canada.

Sandford had made the New England Toryism of his fancy Anglophile family relations into a career, travelling back and forth to England, working to inculcate Americans into the British Empire gospel.

In those days, British Israelism was not shy. Its literature, such as The Anglo-American Alliance in Prophecy, or The Promise to the Fathers, published by Our Race Publishing Co., featured the masonic mummery of a pyramid topped by an all-seeing eyeball. The Egyptian pyramids allegedly contained coded secrets for understanding prophecy. The explicit message of the British Israel propaganda was, Americans should give up their mistaken Revolution, and reunite with their Anglo-Saxon racial brethren in the English fatherland. The movement's masonic Anglomania was proudly displayed. Parham's biography, written by his daughter, includes a photo of a mystery gavel, brought back from Palestine and donated by Parham to his masonic lodge.

With British Israelism as his theory of man's cosmic destiny, Parham began teaching Americans how to die mentally, to speak in tongues, as a religious exercise, allegedly re-creating the descent of the Holy Ghost upon Christ's Apostles during the Jewish feast of Pentecost. He took this show on the road from Topeka, and in Houston, Texas, a black preacher named William J. Seymour, the son of a slave, became part of his audience. The catch was, that Parham, being a crazed racist, would not permit Seymour inside the lecture hall; he had to listen at the window, or in the hallway.

Much is made of Seymour's spreading of the technique to a mostly black congregation on Azusa Street in Los Angeles, and of the fascination and novelty it held for visiting religious adventurers who took "Pentecostalism" out to the world. The movement was widely condemned by Christians as scandalous exploitation, and its historical origins faded into the mist. Frank Sandford spent ten years in jail for manslaughter, after many of his cult members died. Charles Parham's religious vocation was destroyed when he was charged with sodomizing a young male follower in Texas; Parham went on to a new career as a stump speaker for the Ku Klux Klan.

In 1908, British and allied American missionaries, who had observed the success of the experiment among blacks in America, brought Pentecostalism to South Africa. The British Empire had just then completed its conquest of that country in the Boer War against the Dutch-immigrant Afrikaner settlers. The great majority of the population were black Africans, including the rebellious Zulus, whom the British had militarily subdued in 1906. The new British masters shaped a uniquely brutal system of racial separation and slave labor, called apartheid.

The cultists and hypnotists went to work on the Zulus of South Africa. At the new Apostolic Faith Mission church, Zulu worshippers, in trances, would fall into heaps, clustered around the altar. British Empire South African strategist Cecil Rhodes congratulated the Pentecostal mind-benders for pacifying the natives as no military could have done.

Americans had better reflect deeply about what the British have done to Africa. For it was precisely the British Empire's apparatus for colonial conquest in Africa, which fashioned irrational Pentecostalism as one among the weapons used against America's "uppity" spirit of Reason and Progress.

Du Plessis comes to America 

We shall now review the career of South African David du Plessis (1905-87), the 1930s head of the imperial cult-master Apostolic Faith Mission denomination, who came to America and supervised the creation of Pentecostalism, and who managed the body-snatchers working on Gen. Ralph Haines.

With his British passport clearing him to reside as an alien in the United States, British subject David du Plessis came north in the late 1940s. By the early 1950s, du Plessis was a consultant to the International Missionary Council, a group formed by the British authorities who had spun off from it the World Council of Churches. Du Plessis strategized on the British rule in Tanganyika, Nyasaland, and Rhodesia with the Missionary Council's chairman, Briton John A. Mackay, who had earlier moved to America to head the Princeton Theological Seminary. Mackay, du Plessis's prime public sponsor, had been for many years a close collaborator of the Anglophile political-religious strategist John Foster Dulles, in Britain and at Princeton.

Simultaneously, du Plessis was employed on two other 1950s projects, in the world of covert intelligence:

+Du Plessis was a paid agent of the Far East Broadcasting Company, a religious cover for the official intelligence agencies operating in Asia (based in the Philippines) and Europe (based in Greece). This arrangement was especially cozy beginning in 1953, when John Foster Dulles became Secretary of State and his brother Allen became Director of Central Intelligence.

+Du Plessis was the master chef cooking up the Full Gospel Businessmen's Fellowship International, with Oral Roberts, Gordon Lindsay, front man Demos Shakarian, and later, Harald Bredesen. The FGBFI has penetrated Central and South America, Asia, and the Middle East as an occult intelligence agency, working in aggressive insurrectionary politics since its 1952-54 founding.

During the 1950s, du Plessis was adopted by the executive apparatus of the World Council of Churches, to ram Pentecostalism down the throats of Christians in America, and to "charismatize" the Catholic Church through agents at the Vatican. This was accomplished through the instrumentality of the Church of England.

The 'high church' gathers its forces 

The British spread religious irrationalism to subdue and destroy that dangerous, typically American concept that man is created in God's image, dignified and self-governing. We will see this strategy, unadorned, by briefly inspecting the actions and words of du Plessis's employers.

The World Council of Churches was founded in England in 1937, under the direction of Anglican Church missionary leader J.H. Oldham, based on a plan developed by Lord Lothian and other members of the Round Table group.

World Council co-founder John Mackay (later du Plessis's sponsor) published a book, The Universal Church and the World of Nations, expressing the new World Council's desire for the reordering of global political affairs under a world government. The lead article was written by Lord Lothian, entitled "The Demonic Influence of National Sovereignty"; another article was written by Mackay's crony John Foster Dulles, who represented the Presbyterian Church at the World Council founding. Lothian and Dulles argued that national sovereignty, such as the political and juridical independence of the United States, causes wars.

The Round Table group had been organized by South Africa's British governor, Lord Alfred Milner, to fulfill the strategy of British South Africa leader Cecil Rhodes for a new-style white racialist world empire, in which the annoying independence of the republican United States, in particular, was to be extinguished. The core of the Round Table group was assembled from among the aides to Lord Milner in South Africa. Lord Lothian was the first editor of the Round Table quarterly, and was the chief executive of the Rhodes Trust, administering the Rhodes Scholarships to bring Americans and other "colonial" students to Oxford University.

John Foster Dulles and his brother Allen met the principal Round Table members after World War|I, and were informally inducted. In a letter to Round Table founder Lionel Curtis, Lord Lothian expressed the racial views which the British Round Table shared with the Dulles brothers, in opposition to the viewpoint of American nationalists:

"The real problem is going to arise from the treatment which must be accorded to politically backward peoples.... There is a fundamentally different concept ... between Great Britain and South Africa on the one side and the United States ... on the other.... The inhabitants of Africa and parts of Asia have proved unable to govern themselves ... because they were quite unable to withstand the demoralizing influences [i.e., the desire for modernization] to which they were subjected in some civilised countries, so that the intervention of a European power is necessary in order to protect them from those influences.... The American view ... is quite different."

How they got away with 'charismatic renewal' 

In May 1960, an English-born Episcopal priest, Dennis Bennett, told his Van Nuys, California parishioners that he had begun speaking in tongues after baptism in the Holy Spirit. This was the beginning of present-day Pentecostalism. The controversy over Bennett's announcement spread quickly, with coverage in Time and Newsweek magazines. The publicity, interpretation, and proselytizing for the new movement within the American church community and worldwide, was handled personally by David du Plessis.

Both Protestants and Catholics, who had earlier looked upon Pentecostalism as a freak show, or a Satanic influence, placidly accepted what was termed "charismatic renewal," as a respectable, non-threatening addition to Christendom. This succeeded because the British authorities and the World Council of Churches put their stamp of approval on David du Plessis, as the designated--by them--world representative of the new, "improved" Pentecostalism.

Between 1952 and 1954, John Mackay and World Council of Churches General Secretary Willem Adolf Visser 't|Hooft introduced du Plessis to scores of the highest level Protestant and Eastern Orthodox church officials. The World Council executive shopped du Plessis around to the Ivy League U.S. colleges and seminaries, to speak of the religion of the future. Through Cardinal Augustin Bea and Cardinal Jan Willebrands, the World Council got du Plessis invited to the Vatican II council, and set up an official, global, "Catholic-Pentecostal Dialogue," which consisted of du Plessis talking to Vatican officials. Vatican officials did so despite the fact that when the World Council of Churches invited du Plessis to take part in its 1954 global meeting, he represented no Pentecostal religious body whatsoever; he was merely a British political agent. (The previously established Pentecostal churches were hostile toward the World Council and the Catholics.)

In England, Anglican Churchmen Michael Harper and other partners of du Plessis cemented the ties of Catholics around the world to the new movement.

Following Bennett's Episcopal Church outbreak of 1960, du Plessis, aided by Bennett, published Trinity newsletter. This was circulated in the United States and England as the spur for the new charismatic movement. Trinity was edited by Jean Stone, a wealthy American Anglican loyalist who mediated between du Plessis and the high-society bankrollers of the Episcopal Church. The organization publishing Trinity was chaired by Harald Bredesen, by then a well-established British intelligence operative.

Du Plessis instructed clergymen and parishioners who were pulled into the babble-boom, to follow the Bennett example, and "stay in your church, do not form a new church denomination." Many charismatics followed the advice of du Plessis, who was publicized as "Mr. Pentecostalism"; so, the regular church denominations were decimated by those who stayed, as well as those who left their fold for wilder, newer sects.

General Haines, who had been "zapped" in 1971, resigned from active duty on Jan. 31, 1973. Two weeks later, Haines, du Plessis, and Bennett were the star speakers at the Dallas founding meeting of the Episcopal Charismatic Fellowship. By that time, Episcopals were the driving force for the spread of Pentecostalism. According to Haines, 20% of Episcopalians were then already speaking in tongues.

Haines says that when he led the American delegation to the 1978 Canterbury Cathedral meeting, launching the Anglicans' worldwide drive for charismatic renewal, he was struck by the spectacle of dancing around the altar led by the representative (white) South African Anglican bishop.

Haines went on to commission Ammerman's Full Gospel Chaplaincy, on whose board Haines sits today, and whose serving chaplains Haines addresses. Public statements promoting armed conflict between citizens and the government, Haines leaves to Colonel Ammerman to make.

The security problem, defined 

The danger involved in this British initiative is not a matter of wrong or heretical religious beliefs. At issue is the buildup of a hostile, irrational, foreign-directed network within our military and civilian political life.

The political intelligence group known as the Mount Rushmore Foundation, mentioned above, illustrates the problem. Ammerman is the political adviser and "chaplain" to the group. Manager Douglas Towne says the foundation "studies the Patriot movement," and "participates in it." Towne's longtime political partner, Rushmore Foundation board member Gen. Benton Partin, U.S. Air Force (ret.), is an expert in high-explosive devices, including nuclear weapons. Partin has received extensive news media coverage for his critical analysis of the Oklahoma City bombing; he has made an apparently reasonable case, that it would have been technically impossible for Timothy McVeigh to have done it acting alone.

Less well known is General Partin's sponsorship of an ongoing, catastrophic shooting war in Africa, which lends a more sinister character to his hatred of the United States government. Partin is a founder and board member of the Front Line Fellowship, a group of commando-missionaries taking active part in the war against Sudan and other African states viewed as enemies of the British Crown. The Fellowship members are former "scouts" of the South African Army. Partin describes his partner, Fellowship leader Peter Hammond, as a "former South African army and government officer."

That General Partin's "Christian" organization is at heart merely the British military irregulars, who are generally incinerating Africa to recolonize it, may be judged from the Fellowship's book, Faith Under Fire in Sudan. Chapter Three is a celebration of Charles "Chinese" Gordon, who led British regulars in a war in China against the uprising of a British-organized pseudo-Protestant cult. After 20 million Chinese died in this game, Gordon was sent to try to subdue Sudan as Britain's governor, but he died, defeated at the hands of Sudanese nationalist forces. Chinese Gordon was not a drunken homosexual pederast, Partin's group says, but Britain's Christian model for us to follow into war.

The British have never forgiven Sudan, or the United States, for the American Revolution. To the Ammerman circle, the U.S. government is "communist." General Partin says that even Abraham Lincoln was put into the Presidency by the creators of international communism. Partin has received from London, since the 1940s, the intelligence reports published by Kenneth Hugh de Courcy, geopolitician of the British Israel movement.

Observe the Pat Robertson empire. Robertson writes that his family's aristocratic lineage, linking it to the British Churchill family, gave his mother, Gladys Churchill Robertson, confidence that Pat would succeed. His father, Sen. A. Willis Robertson, was London's and Wall Street's chairman of the Senate Finance Committee.

Originally a playboy, Pat began speaking in tongues, and exchanging prophecies in a circle like ouijah board players, under the guidance of master spook Harald Bredesen. The ghost-written Bredesen autobiography, Yes, Lord, explains that Robertson's mentor was himself trained by the International Christian Leadership group. Bredesen proved himself to the group by speaking in tongues, in ancient Arabic, to an Egyptian heiress. This feat by their trainee was observed and attested to by the president of the Leadership group's British branch, Ernest Williams, who was simultaneously "a member of the directing staff of the British Admiralty," and "a member of the Archbishop of Canterbury's Commission on Evangelism."

International Christian Leadership was designed specifically to capture wealthy or influential leaders of society, into a network controlled by the group's patrons. It was initiated during World War II by Col. Sir Vivian Gabriel, a British Air Commission attache in Washington, and leaders of the Episcopal Church. The Netherlands royal family became the group's prime sponsor and center of world operations in the 1950s. Bredesen wrote that his personal trainer, Abraham Vereide, claimed to have "won [Netherlands] Prince Bernhard for Christ." A strange Christ it must have been, because the former Nazi SS officer Bernhard was just then busy launching the globalist Bilderberg Group's conferences and creating the World Wildlife Fund, with Britain's Prince Philip.

Pat Robertson started off as assistant pastor to Bredesen, the operative of the Anglo-Dutch monarchies' Leadership group. Then, David du Plessis's Full Gospel Businessmen raised the money to expand Robertson's and Bredesen's Virginia-based Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN) toward global power status.

In a Feb. 1, 1997 column in Virginia's Richmond Times-Dispatch, Robertson told critics why he had used "Operation Blessing" aircraft to transport supplies for his own personal diamond-mining venture in Zaire, rather than for Christian charity, as expected by CBN viewer-contributors. Robertson claimed that he really went into Zaire at President George Bush's request, to pressure the government to give up all Zaire's mines to foreign owners. Later, when British mining companies paid for the invasion that killed hundreds of thousands of people, Robertson invited the bloody Laurent Kabila to be his guest in America; and, he put Britain's Africa slaughter-coordinator, Baroness Caroline Cox, on his television network.

In this regard, consider U.S. Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.), a member of the international board of referents of Baroness Cox's blood-smeared British intelligence front, Christian Solidarity International (CSI). Wolf has made the Toronto Airport church his own spiritual stopping point, where the participants fall in heaps, jerk about on the floor, and bark.

Lady Cox is the Anglican high priestess of the Pentecostals. An August 1997 Charisma magazine story, headlined "Just Call Her Saint Caroline," explains, "Baroness Caroline Cox--a member of London's House of Lords--is spending lots of her time in war zones these days. She's dodging bullets to help the world's persecuted Christians.... She attends mainline Anglican churches but says she also enjoys `the sort of robust and very expressive forms of worship' found in charismatic fellowships.... Many CSI board members and supporters are from the more evangelical and charismatic end of the church spectrum, she notes."

Finally, consider the Promise Keepers, who train their men to be worms, to be broken, to die mentally. Promise Keepers national spokesman Mark DeMoss is a professional at preparing fanatics for Armageddon warfare. As chief of staff to Jerry Falwell, DeMoss was the administrator of the self-proclaimed "Christian Embassy" in Jerusalem. The embassy serves as a bridge between End Times Christians, lunatic freemasons, and right-wing Israeli Zionists. This is a pivotal component of the Temple Mount initiative to foment a religious war over the holy sites in Jerusalem, to "fulfill Scripture." This covert network is engaged in the most dangerous terrorist provocation, which may yet bring on End Times unless it is handcuffed.

At Fort Bliss, Texas, DeMoss's Promise Keepers were engaged to train the nation's highest-ranking non-commissioned officers. Earlier this year, the United States Army Sergeants Major Academy advertised "training with `Promise Keepers'" as a "spiritual fitness program," on the Army unit's official Internet web site.

It is time for Christians and patriots to clean their house, before Her Majesty's legions blow it up.

The author requests all questions, comments or further intelligence leads be sent to Anton Chaitkin c/o larouche@larouchepub.com .

Reproduced gratefully from:  

• LaRouche, Lyndon - Official Campaign Site

• LaRouche, Lyndon - Executive Intelligence Review

• LaRouche, Lyndon - Project Vote Smart

------

    Whose is using Who?


The Unholy Alliance -
Christianity & The NWO
Part I
EXCLUSIVE TO RENSE.COM
By Eric Jewell
sum14hizwrd@tcworks.net 
2-25-2

Part II

Eric Jewell will be Jeff's Guest, Thursday, March 14, 2002


The Bilderbergs.
The Trilateral Commission.
The Council of Foreign Relations.
The Central Intelligence Agency.

Most everyone has heard of these groups and some of the conspiracy theories surrounding them regarding the development of the 'New World Order.'

Now imagine for a moment there is something to this (and there appears to be no lack of documented material justifying these theories). That would mean that at almost every elevated level of business and government, world wide, men and women have infiltrated, become the controlling administrators and are working to effectively control every aspect of the life of the "world citizen."

One aspect of this that has not been properly searched out is the "religious" connection. Surely, given that much of the world is religious, and in the currently reigning SuperPower nation of the U.S., predominantly "Christian," then it would only make sense that these organizations have infiltrated the Church itself and are also actively leading it to into the New World Order as well.

Do the worlds leading Christian evangelicals have ties to these organizations?

Yes they do, and it is thoroughly documented.

Rev. Sun Myung Moon (The Moonies), and
the Unification Church

For those few of you who are not familiar with the Rev. Moon, in the 60s both he and his Unification Church were universally regarded as a dangerous cult. The abuse his followers suffered at the hands of their mind manipulating master is indeed very well established.

His claims include stating that Christ failed His mission, and that Moon himself is the "new messiah" who is come to fulfill the mission of God. He also claims that it is his mission to 'unite the world through uniting religious forces'. But would it shock you to know that nearly all the big name Christian evangelicals have extremely strong ties to him?

One such Church leader and internationally recognized evangelical Christian, Jerry Falwell, readily admits that he accepted 2.5 million dollars from Moon in 1994 in order to bail out his Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia. This was funneled through a Moon organization known as the 'Womens Federation for World Peace' which has been chaired by Beverly LaHaye, Wife of Timothy LaHaye, who is the popular co-author of the "Left Behind" Christian fictional book series and a well known evangelical Christian. The Womens Federation for World Peace paid 3.5 million to the Christian Heritage Foundation, which in turn bought Falwell's $73 million debt, and then frankly wrote it off. The Heritage Foundation then seems to have paid themselves a fee of one million dollars for their trouble.

Since that time Falwell has spoken at many of Moons functions, embracing the cult-leader with unabashed reverence and friendship. Even writings from Moons' Church confirm Falwells comradeship with 'the new messiah' and his cult. Moon has even been a guest speaker in mainline denominational Churches in the past few years. Falwell further praised Rev. Moon calling him, "An unsung hero to the cause of freedom, who is to be commended for his determination and courage and endurance in support of his beliefs."[2]

According to official court records of a lawsuit that was filed in Bedford County Circuit Court (West Virginia), it was alleged that Falwell and an associate flew to South Korea, January 9, 1994 to meet with Unification Church officials. This trip came shortly before Falwell was awarded the Moon money. Falwell stated openly, "If the American Atheists Society or Saddam Hussein himself ever sent an unrestricted gift to any of my ministries, be assured I will operate on Billy Sunday's philosophy: The Devil's had it long enough, and quickly cash the check."[1]

Falwell is not the only evangelical reported to have accepted money from Rev. Moon. Other notable speakers for Moon's organizations and affairs receiving as much as $80,000 to $150,000 have included Ralph Reed, Beverly LaHaye, Gary Bauer, and Robert Schuller, well known for his "Crystal Cathedral" in Southern California and "Hour of Power" 'positive-thinking' television ministry.

The Council Of National Policy (CNP)

Another Moon sponsored organization is the Council of National Policy founded in 1981 by Tim LaHaye, the aforementioned co-author of the "Left Behind" book series. It is reported that he received $500,000 from a Mr. Bo Hi Pak, Moons #1 man, and a former Korean CIA officer. Though a tape exists showing that LaHaye thanked Pak for the money, LaHaye never denied the charge but verbally attacked the sources verifying the allegation with a barrage of insult.

Other members of the CNP have included:
Beverly and Lee LaHaye, also associated with Moons CWA group. Gary Bauer, Bill Bright, James Dobson (Focus On The Family), Bob Dugan, Ron Godwin, Robert Grant, Rebecca Hagelin, Bob Jones the 3rd (Bob Jones University), Alan Keyes (Outspoken ultra-conservative black talk show host and author), Dr. D. James Kennedy (noted television evangelist and Pastor), Peter Marshall, Sam Moore of Thomas Nelson Publishing, Pat Robertson (founder of the Christian Broadcasting Network and former Presidential aspirant), Rev. Duane Motley, Ralph Reed, Oliver North (formerly with the National Security Council), Phyllis Schlafly (ultra-right columnist and pundit), Rev. Jim Woodall, John Ankerberg (internationally recognized Christian television personality), Rev. E.V. Hill, James Robison, Jay Sekulow (Attorney and activist for ultra-right/Christian causes), Pat Boone, Larry Burkett, Reed Larson, and many others.

Some of the political leaders involved with the Moon sponsored CNP group include Senators Jesse Helms, Don Nickles, and Trent Lott. Also Representatives Tom DeLay, Dan Burton, and Bob Dornan.

Looking into some of the CNP officers we find not only a just a strong association with Moon, but also powerful ties with the CIA and the Council on Foreign Relations, not to mention association with high level Freemasonry for which many conspiracy theorists have more than a mere elementary knowledge related to the NWO. Another past President of CNP is Rich DeVoss, co-founder of Amway (and 33rd degree Mason).

Coalition For Religious Freedom (CRF)

Another past Moon organization was the 'Coalition for Religious Freedom' where again, Tim LaHaye held a paid position as Chairman. It was formed by LaHaye after Moon was arrested for tax evasion. Jerry Falwell, Jimmy Swaggart, James Robison, James Kennedy and Rex Humbard, have all served as executive committee members. Other notables to serve in Moons CRF include Hal Lindsey (Author of "The Late Great Planet Earth"), Paul Crouch (Head of the Trinity Broadcasting Network), Dr. D. James Kennedy and Don Wildman to name a few.

CRF President Don Sills admits that CRF has received no less than $500,000 from Moon sources. In 1984, despite forces in government opposing the move, Moon was jailed for tax evasion (sentenced to 18 Months in prison and fined $25,000). In a CRF sponsored rally Tim Lahaye asked that people go to jail with Moon in protest. 

Kingpins In The Unholy Alliance

Evangelists & Politicians

Rev. Sun Myung Moon, founder, leader & self-proclaimed 'Messiah' to the Unification Church & the world.

Tim LaHaye, evangelist & Christian author of best-selling series "Left Behind."
Beverly LaHaye, wife of Tim LaHaye, author and spokesperson for several Moon funded "Christian" orgs

Paul Crouch, Founder and Chairman of Trinity Broadcasting Network, one of the largest tele-evangelical corporations

Bill Bright, Founder and head of the international evangelical association, 'Campus Crusades for Christ'

Robert Schuller, Pastor and Tele-evangelist from the famous 'Crystal Cathedral' in Southern California.

Rev. Billy Graham, recognized world-wide as one of the most influential evangelical preachers; author and syndicated religious columnist

Pat Robertson, Television Evangelist, Founder of the Christian Broadcasting Network & 700 Club anchor; founder of Operation Blessing; one time presidential candidate


Rev. James Kennedy, founder & pastor of Coral Ridge Ministries, outspoken television evangelist


Rev. James Robison, TV evangelist; Life Outreach International Ministries; associated with many Moon organizations

Ralph Reed, former director of the Christian Coalition and member of the conservative think-tank "Heritage Foundation"


Gary Bauer, Conservative politician and Executive Director of the Christian Coalition; unsuccessful Presidential candidate.

Dr. James Dobson, Pediatrician, author and publisher, head of Focus On The Family, a Christ-centric organization and magazine

Phyllis Schlafly, Christian political activist who says a woman's place is in the home... even though she's not

Jay Sekulow, Christian political activist and attorney involved in family values issues from abortion to parents rights

American Freedom Coalition
Led by Dr. Robert Grant and also a Moonie organization. In a period of a little over 2 years they received nearly 6 million dollars from Moon organizations and enterprises. This group includes Paul Crouch, Rex Humbard, James Robinson and many more, names well known among the evangelical Christian community.


Concerned Women of America
Headed by Beverly LaHaye. The wife of Tim LaHaye, She too has been a public speaker for Moon functions.



Womens Federation for World Peace
Also headed by Beverly LaHaye and recipient of Moon funding. Former President George Bush Sr. (and one time former CIA Director) received an undisclosed amount for speaking engagements from this organization and his fee is lost somewhere in the 13.5 million dollar conference expense-line according to IRS records.


Family Federation for World Peace
Another Moon organization which held a meeting in Washington in 1996. Among the speakers at this event were Beverly LaHaye and Ralph Reed. Over 1500 notables from around the world attended.



National Religious Broadcasters
Members include Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell, Jimmy Swaggart, Tim LaHaye, Billy Graham, Bill Bright and many others clearly associated with Moon.


Pat Robertson in the early 80s, as Oliver North was trading guns and ammo (and who knows what else) in Nicaragua, was coordinating efforts to use "Operation Blessing" to help supply goods to the Contras. Allegedly these goods included hard cash and gasoline for Contra vehicles.


The head of Operation Blessing was Captain Robert Warren, who was also formerly associated with a CIA group called "Operation Phoenix." Allegedly this was an assassination group that operated in Vietnam. Also associated with this group was... surprise, Oliver North.


The Washington Times Foundation
A pro-Bush Inaugural luncheon, held in Washington D.C. was sponsored by the Washington Times Foundation, another Moon founded group. Among the attendees were Paul Crouch, founder of Trinity Broadcast Network, Robert Schuller, Kenneth Copeland, Jerry Falwell, Don Argue, past president of the National Association of Evangelicals, Pat Boone, a former T.B.N. board member, Billy McCormack (who was a Christian Coalition board member who actually presented Moon with an award) and Southern Baptist Convention President James Merritt.



Council of 56 of the Religious Roundtable
Another Moon associated group is called the 'Council of 56 of the Religious Roundtable'. This group is made up of many of the same members from Rev. Moons' CNP and CRF organizations. It marries leading Moon associated evangelicals to the CIA, the Council for Foreign relations, the Trilateral Commission and Freemasonry. CFR, and TLC are closely tied to the Bilderberg group.


The following list of members of the Council of 56 of the Religious Roundtable can be found here http://www.pir.org/gw/rrt.txt 

GroupWatch was compiled by
The Interhemispheric Resource Center,
Box 4506,
Albuquerque, NM 87196.
http://www.irc-online.org/ 


GroupWatch files are available at http://www.pir.org/gw/ Group:
Religious Roundtable File Name: rrt.txt 
Last Updated: 4/93


Principles:
Members of the board of directors of the Roundtable were: Ed McAteer, founder and Pres; Jack Stewart, Vice Pres; Bob Amis, M.D.; John Beckett, Intercessors of America; Othal E. Brand; T. Cullen Davis; Nancy DeMoss; Rev. Del Fehsenfeld, Jr., LifeAction Ministries; Dr. E.V. Hill, pastor at Mt. Zion Baptist Church; Rev. Richard Hogue, Nelson Bunker Hunt, Dr. D. James Kennedy, Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church; J.P. Mills; Dr. Paige Patterson, Criswell Center for Biblical Studies; Rev. James Robison, James Robison Evangelistic Association; D.G. Seago, Jr., Mid-Continent, Inc; and Dr. Charles F. Stanley, First Baptist Church of Atlanta.(2,11) In 1986, Dr. James Robison was Vice President and John Beckett was secretary/treasurer.(14) Former Michigan Congressman Mark Siljander has served on the Roundtable board.

Past members of the Council of 56 include:
Jack Amis, M.D.; Ben Armstrong, executive director of National Religious Broadcasters; Rev. Raymond W. Barber, Worth Baptist Church; John Beckett,Intercessors of America; Dr. George Benson, President emeritus of Harding College; Morton Blackwell, President of the Leadership Institute; Neal Blair, President of Free the Eagle; Tim Bobbit; Dick Bott, President of Bott Broadcasting; Dave Breese, President of Christian Destiny; Paul Broadhead; William Bronson; Rev. Fletcher Brothers, Gates Community Chapel; Judy Brown, American Life League; Dr. Roland Byrd; Dr. David E. Calvin, West Ridge Baptist Church; Clay Claiborne, executive director of the Black Silent Majority; Dr. E.M. Cohron; Dale Collins; W.A. Criswell, Criswell Center for Biblical Studies; Paul Crouch, President of Trinity Broadcasting Network; Mary Crowley; Dr. Paul Cunningham, pastor of Nazarene College Church; Dick Dingman, Republican Study Commission; Dr. Jerry Falwell, Moral Majority, Old Time Gospel Hour and Thomas Road Baptist Church; Rev. Charles Firoe, John Fisher,American Security Council; Charles Fitzgerald, director of Operation Lifeline; Ken Fonas, the Fonas Corporation; Richard Ford,Coordinated Consulting; Rev. Roger Fulton, Neighborhood Church of New York; Peter B. Gamma, Jr., National Pro-Life PAC; Ellen Garwood; General Daniel Graham, President of High Frontier; R.M.Goddard; Robert Grant, Christian Voice; Lloyd Hansen; Dr. Roy Harthern, Calvary Assembly; Richard Headrick; Senator Jesse Helms(R-NC); Steve Herring; Rev. Melvin Hodges, 1st Baptist Church of Glen Oakes; Don Howard, Accelerated Christian Education; Mildred Faye Jefferson, M.D.; Congressman James Jeffries; Representative Louis (Woody) Jenkins, Friends of the Americas; George B. Jones; Dan S. Kauffman; General George Keegan, Jr.; James Kennedy, pastor of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church; Bill Keyes, Black PAC; General Albion Knight, Jr.; Beverly LaHaye, President Concerned Women for America; Dr. Tim LaHaye, Scott Memorial Baptist Church; Reed Larson, President of Right to Work; Larry Lea, pastor of Church on the Rock; Marian Maddox, Point of View Radio; Connie Marshner, President of the Family Coalition; Don McAlvany, President of the International Collectors Associates; Bob McCustion, chairman of Faith Ministries; Dr. William H. Marshner, chairman of the Department of Theology at Christendom College; Congressman Larry McDonald (deceased); Jay Menefee, Robert Metcalf; Dr. Bobby Moore, Broadway Baptist Church; Dr. Gary North, Christian Economics Foundation; Larry Parish; Paige Patterson, President of the Criswell Institute; Howard Phillips, The Conservative Caucus; Dr. William A. Powell, Sr., Editor of the Southern Baptist Journal; Randall R. Rader, deputy counsel to the Senate Subcommittee on the Constitution; Dr. Ross Rhoads, Calvary Presbyterian Church; Bill Richardson, California State Senate; Bobby Richardson, Ben LippenSchool; Gary Richardson; Rev. Tom Riner; Phyllis Schlafly, President of the Eagle Forum; Earl Seall, White's Ferry Road Church of Christ; Cory SerVaas, editor and publisher of the Saturday Evening Post; Doug Shadoux, National Republican Party; William S.Smith; Scott Stanley, editor of Conservative Digest; Rev. George Swanson; Helen Marie Taylor, U.S. Representative to the United Nations; William Taylor; Bob Tilton, Bob Tilton Television Ministry; Michael Valerio; Bob Weiner, President of Maranatha Ministries; Paul Weyrich, President of the Free Congress Foundation; Earl E. Whitwell, Kim Wickes, Kim's Ministries; Don Wildmon, President of the National Federation for Decency; Rev.John Wilkerson, Bethel Temple; Rev. Ralph Wilkerson, Melodyland Church, J.C. Willke, M.D., President of National Right to Life, and Jack Wilson, executive director of the Council for National Policy.(2,12).

The following are a few shortened bios from the same source, associated with this Roundtable of 56...

Govt Connections:
Major General George J. Keegan, Jr. was the chief of the U.S. Air Defense Intelligence and member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, worked for the CIA from 1963-1966
General Daniel Graham (ret.) During the Vietnam war from1967-1968 he was chief of the Army's military intelligence estimates. In 1971 Graham served as director of collections for the Defense Intelligence Agency, the pentagon's version of the CIA. In 1973 Graham served as a deputy to CIA Director William Colby and from 1974-1976 he was the director of the Defense Intelligence Agency

Groups belonging to the Roundtable include:
The Christian Broadcasting Network, Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, Moral Majority, Christian Voice,Church League of America, National Religious Broadcasters, Campus Crusade for Christ, Plymouth Rock Foundation, National Association of Evangelicals, Gideon Bible, Wycliffe Bible Associates, and Intercessors for America.(15) Ed McAteer was sales marketing manager for Colgate-Palmolive Company when he retired to become the national field director of the Christian Freedom Foundation (CFF), and organization devoted to training evangelicals for places of leadership in government. From there McAteer moved to the righting Conservative Caucus where he served as national field director until founding the Religious Roundtable.(1) He is or was a member of the board of the evangelical Wycliffe Bible Associates.


Unity: A One World Religion?
In light of the ties between nearly all Christian "evangelicals" with Rev. Moon, the CIA, the Council for Foreign Relations, the Trilateral commission, the Bush family and Bush Sr's "New World Order", is it any wonder that after the September 11th tragedy, Billy Graham prayed in the name of God, AND ALLAH, as dignitaries from many faiths were gathered before him? This prayer was broadcast the world over. His call was for religious cooperation and 'unity of all faiths,' the trump of Rev. Moon.

Franklin Graham's (son of world renowned evangelist Rev. Billy Graham, and heir to the very lucrative and influential Billy Graham Evangelistic Ministries) answer to a question by NBC's Tom Brokaw, ..."it's very important that all the faiths, all the denominations are coming together, cooperating together, working together; it is a wonderful testimony to the spirit of America, and the dedication of the American people."

Moon also owns the Washington Times, THE conservative voice of the nation. Though this establishment should have gone under several years ago, Moon pours multi-millions of dollars annually into this paper. He also owns the publication "Insight". He indeed owns many businesses and operates in media of several nations worldwide.

In Central America He is the owner of the "Tiempos del Mundo" (Times of the World), another leading news publication, making him the conservative voice there as well. In the early 1980s, Moon was shooting for the acclaim of all of Central and South America. He met political opposition from Carlos Menem, Argentinas President.

His rescue came in the form of one man. That man was George Bush Sr. former director of the CIA, former Vice President, and former President of the United States of America.

Bush was the principal speaker at the Sheraton Hotel at a Moon sponsored event, with 800 to 900 guests in attendance giving this manipulative operative remarkable credibility overnight. Bush declared enthusiastically; "...The editors of The Washington Times tell me that never once has the man with the vision interfered with the running of the paper, a paper that in my view brings sanity to Washington, D.C. I am convinced that Tiempos del Mundo is going to do the same thing."

Both George and Barbara Bush made several speeches in Asia in 1995. In Tokyo, Japan during one Moon rallying function, over 50,000 pro-Moon advocates were addressed by the two. This was sponsored by the Womens Federation for World peace.

It has also been speculated that Moon and Bush were seeking joint business ventures in South America.
An interesting fact is that despite over 30 years of allegations (from some U.S. government officials seemingly out of the loop) of Moons connections with the Korean CIA (and as we can now see the American counterpart as well) no steps have been taken to deport him, let alone prosecute him.


Conclusion
What do Rev. Moon, leading Christian evangelicals and the American government have in common? And, just what does this have to do with the "New World Order," as (re)coined by George Bush Sr.? There can be no doubt that these dark elements of government, industry, banking, and intelligence are leading us into their new world order, and their influence has been extended to nearly every Christian in the world through these leading evangelicals who claim to represent Christ. Perhaps this Rev. Moon quote from August 4th 1996 may give us a little more "insight"...

"Americans who continue to maintain their privacy and extreme individualism are foolish people... The world will reject Americans who continue to be so foolish. Once you have this great power of love, which is big enough to swallow entire America, there may be some individuals who complain inside your stomach. However, they will be digested."

Could this be the 'falling away' of the Church so often preached by these same evangelicals? The great 'apostasy' which will, in the last days render much of the Christian Church faithless to their original calling and subject to the manipulation, will and prophesied plans of the 'Antichrist'?



References:
[1] Falwell quote from Christianity Today Magazine
Christianity Today, February 9, 1998
'Moon-Related Funds Filter to Evangelicals'
by John W. Kennedy

[2] Moon's 'Christian Ecumenism in the America's Conference' in Montevideo, Uruguay.
http://www.thelionofjudah.org/rick/April99l~1.htm 

Reproduced gratefully from: http://RePortersNoteBook.com

        From:

       http://www.TomPaine.com

Publishers' Row Moved By The Spirit -- Of Evangelical Money
Must Publishing Pluralism Extend To Fundamentalist Intolerance?

Bruce Bawer is the author of Stealing Jesus: How Fundamentalism Betrays Christianity.

There are growing ties between mainstream New York publishers and evangelical Christian authors, The New York Times reported on June 8. In one recent high-profile deal, Bantam Dell, a division of Random House, paid $45 million for a new raft of "evangelical thrillers" by Timothy LaHaye, who is listed as co-author of the Left Behind series of so-called prophecy novels (even though he acknowledges that he doesn’t do any of the writing himself). Among much else, the Left Behind novels offer hair-raising accounts of the post-Rapture punishments that, according to the theology subscribed to by premillenialist Christians, will be meted out to those who believe differently than they do.

After reading the Times report, I can't help wondering what Random House co-founder Bennett Cerf -- who published, among others, James Joyce, Eudora Welty, and Ralph Ellison -- would have made of all this. In Cerf’s time, surely, no reputable New York publisher would have touched such books. But times have changed. Irwyn Applebaum, publisher of Bantam Dell, answered concerns over the possible contents of LaHaye’s contracted books by telling the Times, "We certainly are not in the business of precensoring our authors."

But why should Mr. LaHaye be a Bantam Dell author in the first place?

The relationship is not entirely comfortable for either side. Just as evangelical readers, authors, and booksellers tend to be extremely wary of publishers whose lists include books such as The New Joy of Gay Sex (HarperCollins) or the Harry Potter series (which, they argue, promotes paganism and witchcraft), some mainstream publishers admit to considerable discomfort over their industry’s increasing coziness with writers like Mr. LaHaye.

Yet others on Publishers' Row are apparently so eager to get their hands on all that evangelical money that they all but apologize for their own liberal, pluralistic views.

"We are mostly liberals in publishing who have probably been publishing a lot of books which are offensive to Christians," Laurence Kirshbaum, chairman of AOL Time Warner’s book division, told the Times. "Maybe this evens it out." Meaning what? That because fundamentalists are offended by books that reflect the democratic pluralism of mainstream American society, it somehow morally balances things out to publish, say, wish-fulfillment fantasies about non-fundamentalists suffering apocalyptic torment?

Make no mistake: what is new here is not the genre or its popularity; it is the widespread zeal with which mainstream publishers are hunting down such titles for their lists.

The granddaddy of all these books, Hal Lindsey’s The Late Great Planet Earth, appeared way back in 1970, and was probably the top-selling American book of the 1970s. (It never made the Times bestseller list, however, for in those days the list did not take into account sales in religious bookstores.) In his book, Mr. Lindsey served up a highly popularized account of the premillenialist vision of the so-called End Times, in which the deity is seen as inflicting exceptional suffering on Jews in order to bring them to "the true Savior, Jesus." (Eventually many Jews will knuckle under and convert, Mr. Lindsey explained, but only 144,000 will be saved.) Mr. Lindsey’s opus was published not by a mainstream house but by Zondervan, then an independent, Michigan-based religious publisher. Yet the prophecy novels that New York publishers are now eagerly signing up are solidly in Mr. Lindsey’s tradition. And Zondervan, significantly, is now part of HarperCollins.

Americans are, of course, entitled to hold whatever religious beliefs they wish, no matter how much they may disturb others. But publishers, who reject books every day, are under no obligation to disseminate and encourage those beliefs. On the contrary, some of us still cling to the old-fashioned idea that the publishing of books in a democratic society, in addition to being a business, is also a profession that carries with it certain moral, intellectual, and aesthetic obligations. Yes, Publishers' Row has always churned out its share of less-than-meritorious books, and in recent years its standards have eroded sharply. But the current move into premillenialist prophecy novels and other works of hard-core fundamentalism seems a giant step too far.

There are ancillary concerns, as well. If mainstream publishers are willing to embrace books of the sort that Mr. LaHaye writes, is it not reasonable to worry that these same publishers, out of fear of damaging their extraordinarily profitable relationships with evangelical authors, readers, and booksellers, may soon begin turning down books that that constituency finds "offensive"?

Nor, finally, do these developments seem felicitously timed. At a time when the United States is waging a war against fundamentalist intolerance and illiberality -- against minds and hearts possessed by dark and irrational dreams of violence -- is it a good idea for Publishers' Row to be capitulating to worryingly similar forces at home?

Published: Jun 13 2002

"President Bush and the Christian Zionist lobby," 

The Daily Star (Beirut) May 9, 2002 

by Clifford Kiracofe

Any doubt about the pervasive influence of Christian Zionist ideology in the US Congress was just erased by the leader of the Republican Party in the House of Representatives. On May 1, Texas Congressman Richard Armey, on national television, bluntly told MSNBC talk show host Chris Mathews that he supported the mass expulsion of Palestinians from Israeli-occupied Palestine.

Christian Zionist influence over Republican Congressman and Senators has reached a level such that even President Bush, as leader of the national party, cannot prevent Republicans in Congress from introducing and voting for inflammatory and irresponsible resolutions diametrically opposed to the US national interest and security requirements in the Middle East.

While rejected by all mainline Christian churches in the United States, Christian Zionist ideology is aggressively promoted by a small minority of fundamentalists linked to the Jewish Zionist lobby in the United States and allied to the most militant extremist elements of the Israeli political spectrum.

Although this strategic political alliance was forged in the mid-1980s, it did not become a topic of national political discussion until the current crisis triggered by the Israeli provocation and aggression led by Sharon. Even though Congressman Armey is retiring this year, his protege and fellow Texas Congressman, Tom DeLay, is scheduled to step into his place next year. Like Armey, DeLay openly espouses Christian Zionist ideology using such coded terms as “Judea and Samaria” to described occupied Palestine.

The relevant background on the Israeli link to American Christian Zionists dates to the 1967 war. In the wake of the war, extremist elements in Israel formed the Movement for Greater Israel, and the settler movement that established Kiryat Arba near Hebron. The extremist Gush Emunim settler organization grew out of this environment.

In the years after 1967, the Gush Emunim became the leading edge of the Israeli new right. There were three components of this new right: Labor Party factions supporting the Movement for Greater Israel, the new religious-nationalist activists, and the old-line Jabotinsky nationalist right converted into the Begin-led Herut Party.

>From 1974 to 1977, three Labor Party leaders vied for supremacy, and each had his Gush Emunim supporter within his ministry. Prime Minister Rabin had General Ariel Sharon as his special adviser.

Defense Minister Shimon Peres had Yuval Neeman, later leader of the pro-Gush Emunim Hatechiyah Party. Foreign Minister Yigal Allon was the patron of the fanatic settler network behind Kiryat Arba.

By the time Likud came to power in 1977, the power of the Gush Emunim over the government was complete because Begin was a long-time supporter of the settler movement.

In the United States, however, the Carter administration attempted to pursue a more evenhanded policy in the Middle East in the face of an omnipotent domestic Zionist lobby. So hard-line Jewish Zionist intellectuals formerly associated with the Democratic Party adopted a new stance. They repackaged themselves as neoconservatives in order to penetrate the Republican Party foreign policy network with a view to the 1980 election and a potential victory for the US new right.

In Israel, preparations were made by the Likud to form political relationships with Christian fundamentalist groups in the United States because they could be counted on to support Likud’s “Eretz Israel” policy. In turn, such a political alignment would enhance the position of the Jewish neoconservatives in a Republican administration in Washington.

A key academic study by a brilliant young Israeli scholar, Yona Malachy, emerged as an operational guide for Likud political strategists targeting the United States. In 1978, this study, entitled American Fundamentalism and Israel: The Relation of Fundamentalist Churches to Zionism and the State of Israel, was published by the Institute of Contemporary Jewry at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

In due course, the International Christian Embassy-Jerusalem (ICEJ) appeared in Jerusalem on Sept. 20, 1980. Mayor Teddy Kollek hosted the opening ceremony, and the organization became a leading international Christian Zionist support mechanism for the Likud’s Eretz Israel policy. The ICEJ’s Washington office became a focal point for Christian Zionist political and lobbying activity in the United States.

After several years of organizational activity in the United States, the Christian Zionist lobby came out of the closet with its first National Prayer Breakfast for Israel held in Washington on Feb. 6, 1985. The event attracted many key political personalities and supporters.

”A sense of history, poetry and morality imbued the Christian Zionists who more than a century ago began to write, plan and organize for Israel’s restoration,” said the featured breakfast speaker. “The writings of Christian Zionists, British and American, directly influenced the thinking of such pivotal leaders as Lloyd George, Arthur Balfour and Woodrow Wilson.” The guest speaker was the Israeli UN ambassador, Benjamin Netanyahu.

Over the past decade, the so-called National Unity Coalition for Israel (NUCI) emerged as an important lobbying arm of the American Christian Zionists. It is not surprising that this organization has close links to the ICEJ, to neoconservatives in Washington think tanks and to neoconservative operatives inside the Bush administration.

On Capitol Hill, NUCI works in parallel with the well-established and influential American Israel Public Affairs Committee to dominate the United States Congress when it comes to legislation and policy relating to the Middle East.

President Bush faces many international challenges to his policy of a two-state solution for the Palestine question although the Saudi plan and the new “quartet” offers some hope. But the US president must first impose his full constitutional authority at home in order to conduct foreign relations despite a recalcitrant Congress and a Republican Party in the thrall of an extremist Christian Zionist minority.

=====================================

Clifford Kiracofe is a journalist based in Washington, DC, and a former senior professional staff member of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He wrote this commentary for The Daily Star

From:

Pat Robertson's Reward   Jewish Conservatives Join Forces With Christian Evangelicals Bill Berkowitz is a long time political observer and columnist. On Sunday, July 14, televangelist Pat Robertson was presented with the State of Israel Friendship Award at the annual "Salute to Israel" dinner held by the Chicago chapter of the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA). According to a ZOA spokesperson, Robertson, through his Christian Broadcasting Network and his daily program, "The 700 Club," has consistently supported Israel during this latest wave of tension and turmoil in the Middle East. In a pre-dinner press release, Morton Klein, National President of ZOA, said "As Israel continues to face grave dangers from Palestinian Arab terrorists devoted to the destruction of the State of Israel, we are honoring Pat Robertson as a major Christian leader who strongly supports Israel and its religious, historical and legal right to the holy land. Our organization continues to be dedicated to spreading the message that a Palestinian Arab state is a grave danger to the State of Israel." Some critics were flabbergasted by the ZOA's choice, questioning how the organization could disregard Robertson's past anti-Semitic statements and writings. "We wouldn't do it," Abraham Foxman, the national director of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), told the New York City-based newspaper, The Forward. "He's not deserving, but I have no objections to other groups honoring him." Foxman's ADL has been monitoring Robertson's work for a number of years. The stormy relationship between Foxman and Robertson reached hurricane status after the publication of a 1994 ADL report titled "The Religious Right and the Assault on Tolerance & Pluralism in America." Author David Cantor wrote: "Robertson's repeated references to America as a 'Christian nation' and to American governance as a 'Christian order' insults not merely Jews but all who value religious freedom." The report set off a bitter debate between Jewish conservatives who leaped to defend Robertson and those who believed Cantor was on target. According to The Forward, "In April [of this year], Foxman sent Robertson a letter protesting the network's broadcast of an Easter cartoon 'saturated with sinister caricatures of Jews reminiscent of the anti-Semitic stereotypes promulgated only in the darkest periods of Christianity.' In a letter written in reply, Robertson described Foxman as the Democratic Party's 'principal secret agent' whose 'focus is not the defense of worldwide Jewry, but the domestic political agenda of the Democratic Party.'" ZOA doesn't appear to be concerned about infighting between conservative and liberal Jews. "We wanted to give our thanks to one of our Christian friends," the Chicago chapter's executive director, A. Yami Isaacs, said. "We chose Dr. Robertson, based primarily on 'The 700 Club' and its presentation of the situation in Israel, and on his benevolent work in Israel." The ZOA claims it is "the oldest and one of the largest pro-Israel organizations in the U.S.," with a membership of over 50,000 in chapters throughout the country. The ZOA award is not Robertson's first from Jewish organizations. According to PatRobertson.com, the televangelist has received "the Millennium Jerusalem 2000 Council Award by the State of Israel Jerusalem Heritage Study Programs, Defender of Israel Award in 1994 by the Christians' Israel Public Action Campaign, and the Distinguished Merit of Citation Award in 1979 by the National Conference of Christians and Jews." Jewish Conservatives and Christian Evangelicals Join Forces American Zionists and evangelical Christians have a history of strategic cooperation at least as long as the history of Israel. As violence and tension between Israel and Palestinians have mounted, cooperation between the groups has intensified -- several new initiatives involving Jewish conservatives and Christian evangelicals have been launched in the past few months. In late-May, Rabbi Yehiel Eckstein, president of the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews (IFCJ), and Ralph Reed, former executive director of the Christian Coalition and current Republican Party chairman of Georgia, joined forces for a new project, "Stand for Israel." The Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz reported that "Stand for Israel" hoped to become a "Christian version of the pro-Israel lobby on Capitol Hill, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC)." One of the group's primary activities will be to counter what they see as media bias against Israel -- a long held belief shared by both Israelis and Christian right activists. In early July, AgapePress, a Christian news service, reported on a new venture aimed at linking conservative Jews with Christian evangelicals. The organization, called the American Alliance of Jews and Christians (AAJC), is headed by Rabbi Lapin and Gary Bauer, the failed presidential candidate who is currently president of American Values. According to a press release from Toward Tradition, the Washington, D.C.-based AAJC will be "a unique synthesis of Jewish authenticity and Christian grassroots muscle." Bauer believes the new project will help to ensure the alliance between America and Israel while at the same time build a movement of Jews and Christians for traditional values. If Rabbi Daniel Lapin, the president of the conservative Jewish organization, Toward Tradition, has his way, the ZOA affair will only be the first of a new series of Jewish-sponsored events honoring Christian evangelicals. In a June 21, article in The Forward, titled "Born-Again Allies," Rabbi Lapin argues that it is time for Jews to take action to concretely thank Christian evangelicals for their support of Israel -- or risk losing that support. Rabbi Lapin praises President Bush, and Texas Republican Congressmen Tom DeLay and Dick Armey for their support of Israel. The newly resurgent friendship between Christians and Jews may obligate Jews to reciprocate. "At very least," he writes, "we have an obligation to desist from thinking of ourselves as the parole officer for the Rev. Billy Graham, who was recently humiliated for offensive remarks made long ago. We should also stop acting as the watchdogs over Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell and many other Christian leaders, all of whom are devotedly pro-Israel and who are guilty of nothing more than frankly stating their religious beliefs, some of which we as Jews do not hold." David Klinghoffer, editorial director of Toward Tradition and author of the book "The Lord Will Gather Me In," echoes Rabbi Lapin's suggestion in a late-June piece in National Review online: "At a minimum, Christians can reasonably ask that groups like the ADL, the American Jewish Congress, and Wiesenthal Center lay off a bit. In exchange for their vital support of Israel, at least until the Mideast crisis has subsided, let [Abe] Foxman et al. declare a moratorium on bashing Christians." The "End Times" Elephant The elephant in the room, the issue Jewish conservatives prefer to ignore or gloss over, is the question of "end times" theology. Rabbi Lapin glides over this controversial issue in his column and Klinghofer appears to underestimate how significant it is to Christian evangelicals. Veteran journalist and author Frederick Clarkson, in his book Eternal Hostility: The Struggle Between Theocracy and Democracy, (Common Courage Press, 1997), points out that "most evangelicals in [the 20th] century have been pre-millenialists, that is, Christians who believe it is not possible to reform this world until Jesus returns (the Second Coming), which will be followed by a 1000-year rule of Jesus and the Christians.... The key episode in pre-millennial theology is an event called 'the rapture' in which all the saved Christians, dead and alive, are brought up into the clouds with Jesus prior, during or after (depending of the school of theology) a period called 'the tribulation.'" In recent years -- and more so since September 11 -- the "end times" has taken on an almost religio/pop-culture status. It has been popularized in a number of Christian novels, particularly the profoundly popular best-selling "Left Behind" series, co-authored by longtime religious-right leader the Rev. Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins. The "end times" was featured recently in a Time magazine cover story titled, "The Bible & the Apocalypse: Why more Americans are reading and talking about The End of The World" (July 1, 2002). How seriously do American Christians consider the "end times"? According to Time: 36 percent of Americans believe "the Bible is the word of God and is to be taken literally"; 59 percent believe "the prophecies in the Book of Revelation will come true"; 35 percent "say they are paying closer attention to news events and how they relate to the coming end of the world since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11"; and 36 percent "support Israel...because they believe in biblical prophecies that Jews must control Israel before Christ will come again." Sara Diamond, in her seminal book on the Christian Right, Spiritual Warfare: The Politics of the Christian Right (South End Press, 1989), maintains that "Israel holds obvious special religious significance" for Christians. Diamond notes that historically the relationship between Israel and U.S. Christian fundamentalists was not always smooth sailing. That changed dramatically, however, when "popular broadcast ministries, especially those focused on studies of the 'end-times,' drew evangelicals to pay closer attention to Middle East politics." Christian fundamentalists are fond of relating Bible passages to historical and current events. The establishment of the state of Israel in 1948, the influx of Jews from the Soviet Union, the 1967 Six Day War in which, Sara Diamond points out, "Israel captured Jerusalem and began its occupation of the territories known in the Bible as Judea and Sumaria," all feed into the current wave of support for Israel among Christian fundamentalists. Twenty-First Century Politics "End-times" Biblical interpretations are not the only thing that links the Christian Right with the Jewish community. Jean Hardisty, author of Mobilizing Resentment: Conservative Resurgence from the John Birch Society to the Promise Keepers (Beacon Press, 1999), contends that Christian and Jewish fundamentalists in the U.S. have much more in common than one might think. "Many conservative Jews, especially those whose religious practices are orthodox, feel a similar sense of alienation from secular society [as Christian fundamentalists]. Traditional Jewish religious practices are as threatened by modern tastes and practices as are those of conservative Christians." According to Hardisty, Rabbi Daniel Lapin "argues that the proper practice of Jewish faith dictates a belief in moral values that are more closely aligned with those of conservative Christians than with those of liberals, whose 'secular humanism' runs against the grain of all religious practice." Over the past several years, Jewish religious conservatives have become coveted guests at Christian and conservative public gatherings. The ZOA's Morton Klein told The Foward that he has not been asked to support the social agenda of Christian organizations in exchange for their support of Israel. "No Christian leader -- and I talk to almost all of them -- has ever asked me, 'If I speak out in favor of Israel, will you support me on this?'" Klein said. "Never." One would think, however, that all the "rapture" and "end times" talk would raise red flags for Jews. After all, when the day of reckoning comes, they will be amongst those left behind. To disregard evangelicals beliefs in the "end-times" would be "playing with fire," Harvey Cox, professor of divinity at Harvard University, told Time. "I'd be awfully cautious of this alliance if I were on the Israeli side." Cox's admonition was echoed by Gershom Gorenberg, a Jewish expert on the Christian end times. "In my view," he said, "any theology that continues to deny the validity of Judaism and to fantasize about looking forward to the conversion or destruction of the Jews is one that should arouse a great deal of caution among Jews." Published: Aug 01 2002

Reproduced gratefully from TomPaine.com

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