The Biggest Threat
The greatest threat facing Israel right now may surprise you. It’s not the Iranian nuclear program. It’s not the Palestinian terrorists. It’s not the United Nations or the International Criminal Court. Each of those are a threat, but they are not the biggest threat.
The single biggest threat that Israel is facing, and may ever face, is demographics.
Right now almost two thirds of the people on the whole planet—more than five billion of them—are under the age of 40. Why is that a threat? It’s a threat because support for Israel is concentrated among older people. For the younger generation…the majority of the planet…support for Israel is casual at best, and often opposition and condemnation of Israel is the default position.
There has been a concerted effort made over the past few years to turn the hearts and minds of young people away from supporting Israel. Demonic principalities and powers have used the Internet and social media to spread lies about Israel and the Jewish people and convince the next generation that Israel does not deserve support…in fact, that the Jewish state does not even deserve to exist.
As you read this magazine today, a war against truth is being waged, delegitimizing Israel’s very right to exist. The youth of our generation by and large have rejected a biblical worldview and are embracing the lie that Israel is an apartheid state robbing Palestinians of their homeland. In the name of social justice, they are turning against Israel.
A shocking survey showed that 56% of Americans under 30 say they have an unfavorable view of Israel. 56%!!!! These are the leaders of tomorrow. What will happen if this trend continues?
Tragically, this is not just happening in the secular world, but it is happening even in the church as well. Almost half of younger evangelical Christians do not have a positive view of Israel. While the number among older Americans is still strong (nearly 80%) in support of Israel, the future is coming, and that is cause for alarm.
Years ago I spoke with then Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in Washington, D.C. As we talked I asked him, “What is your eternal legacy?” He was very concerned about his legacy on earth. He hadn’t given any thought to what came next. He said “Mike, no one has ever asked me that question. I need time to think, come back in 90 days.” He had a stroke not long after our first conversation and was never able to answer the question.
Today however, is your chance to answer that same question—what is your eternal legacy—because you can be part of our Ambassador Program. We are working hand in hand with the government of Israel to reach the next generation…and it’s going to be amazing.
This is your chance to leave an eternal legacy. This is nothing less than a global effort to change the future and protect the future of Israel by reaching the next generation.
This is vital. Do not think that the young are not important or that we can wait and see if they will change their opinion of Israel. Many of the people in the Bible who had the greatest impact were in that same under-40 range when God first spoke to and worked through them.
- Daniel was a teenager when he was taken to Babylon
- The disciples were in their teens or early twenties when Jesus called them
- Esther was a teenager when she saved the nation
- Ruth was still in her twenties or early thirties when she chose to go to Israel with Naomi
- David was a teenager when he was anointed by Samuel and fought Goliath
- Joseph was a teenager when he had a vision for the future
- Mary was a teenager when Gabriel came to announce the birth of the Lord
- Jesus’ ministry here on earth ended when He was 33
Today we have an open door to reach the next Joseph, the next Esther, the next young person who will grow up with a vision to save God’s Chosen People and change the future of the entire world through the Ambassador Program. And we must reach them because they are the target of a coordinated attack both with and without the church. There are two major areas of attack on support for the Jewish people, and they are both aimed squarely at young people.
The BDS Movement
A demonic plot has been birthed in hell to destroy the nation of Israel—to literally bankrupt her and curse the nation. It is known as BDS: Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions. It is all about money. The plan is to turn worldwide public opinion against Israel, to isolate the Jewish nation and turn it into a pariah state which no one will be willing to defend. It is a “Curse Israel” movement. And sadly, it is a fast growing and very popular movement. Nowhere is this effort more effective than on college and university campuses across the country.
The BDS campaign officially started on July 9, 2005, when nearly 200 Palestinian organizations met together and called for a worldwide economic boycott to attempt to force concessions from Israel. The main stated goals of BDS are to end the Israeli “occupation” of the Bible lands of Judea and Samaria, and the so-called “right of return” for Palestinians into Israel.
The unstated goal is much darker. The Palestinians have repeatedly rejected the “two state” solution. They do not want to live side by side with Israel in peace. They want the Jewish state to be destroyed. Some are more open about their aims than others, but the desired end result is the same. The popular chant among Palestinian supporters (sadly, often heard here in the United States) goes like this: “Palestine must be free, from the river to the sea.” Of course, the land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea is where Israel currently exists—those who join in this chant are calling for nothing less than the complete and total end of Israel.
Many young people here in the United States have accepted the propaganda that the Palestinians are an oppressed people, who are occupied by a foreign power. This false portrayal of events shapes the way news is reported, and it shapes the way people think. Often people say they want a two state solution, without remembering that 1948 offered a two state solution, which was rejected by the Arabs and Palestinians who immediately launched a war to destroy Israel. They did not want peace then, and a great majority do not want peace now.
Many Christians are shocked to find out their church or denomination is actively working against the interests of the Jewish state…but sadly it’s all too true. On one of my trips to Israel, I met with six leading pastors from the United States who are part of this movement. I could not comprehend the venom exploding from their mouths. I would have sworn they would have made wonderful pastors in the days of Adolf Hitler. As heartbreaking as it is to admit, this is precisely what happened in Nazi Germany before Hitler ushered in the Holocaust.
The anti-Semitic movement that was gaining momentum in Germany at that time did not employ guns or tanks. It was all done in the name of social justice, and Jews were the scapegoats. Unfortunately, the Church was part of it then and is part of it now.
Replacement Theology
There was a time when support for Israel among almost all American evangelical denominations was a given. Today, especially among young Christians, that support can no longer be assumed. The evangelical churches are currently following the footsteps of the mainline Protestant denominations. When Israel was reborn in 1948, there was widespread support. But over time that was worn away.
The combination of a carefully crafted propaganda campaign and a false doctrine known as Replacement Theology undermined support for Israel…and tragically that pattern is repeating itself. What we today call “replacement theology,” or “supersessionism,” is a doctrine that has filtered down through the centuries to the modern church. Replacement theology feeds anti-Semitism through ignorance and lack of understanding. For instance, the Jews were labeled “Christ killers” because of the crucifixion. This led to attacks of every imaginable nature being launched against them. They have constantly faced lack, banishment, attacks, or the threat of eradication. I believe any theological idea that separates Christians from their Jewish roots is unscriptural, with the practical result being that it stunts their spiritual understanding and growth.
Supersessionism is defined as: The theological concept that because the vast majority of Jews in the first century did not accept Jesus as their Messiah, God unilaterally terminated His covenants with the Jewish people and transferred them to the followers of Christianity. It relegates Judaism to an inferior position and recognizes Christianity as the “true” or “spiritual” Israel. Replacement theology rejects the concept that the promises God made to Israel are for this present hour; that instead, they were canceled at Calvary. As a result, this doctrine contends, these promises now fall to the church, which has replaced Israel. The absurdity of this dogma is that if Christian leaders believe God ended His promises to the Jewish people, they must also believe He might revoke His promises to them as well!
This doctrine was widely accepted within the church by the fourth century and has led to a great deal of persecution of Jews by Christians. Some Protestant reformers, however, began to question this practice by the end of the 1500s. Replacement theology, like other misconceptions, rears its head from time to time in an attempt to disavow the relevance of Israel. Although the Catholic Church reversed its stance on replacement theology in the 20th century, many conservative Protestant groups still subscribe to this doctrine.
Embracing replacement theology has led to rampant anti-Semitism in some Christian churches. Jews have continuously faced lack, banishment, violence, or the threat of eradication. This devious doctrine propagates the age-old practice of blaming the Jews for the world’s ills, weighing them in the balance and finding them wanting. It also frees these misled believers from their responsibility to share the good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ with all whom He came to seek and to save, including the Jewish people.
The primary target for the anti-Israel crowd is the 18-to-30 generation—the millennials—all too ready and willing to depart from the literalism of the Bible and verses such as Genesis 12:3 which states, “I will bless those that bless you [Israel], and curse him that curses you.” Rallying behind Palestinians is today a politically correct way of hating Israel and assisting those who seek her obliteration. Israel is a lightning rod for worldwide anti-Semitism. Rather than attack a Jew, anti-Semites now attack the collective Jew, Israel, while hiding behind the cloak of what passes as social justice.
This campaign aimed at American churches, and especially young people is funded by people who are no friends of Israel. George Soros, business magnate, investor, philanthropist, and political activist has long ridden the anti-Israel train. He is known for his anti-Semitism and support of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel. Through the Telos Group, founded and funded by Soros, many people are given carefully crafted tours of Israel and Palestinian lands, designed to reinforce the notion that Israel is the villain and Palestinians are the victims. Other well-funded groups like the New Israel Fund and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund pour vast sums into the campaign to isolate and demonize Israel.
Liberals have a difficult time seeing moral issues clearly because most are moral relativists. They reject absolute standards of good and evil or right and wrong. In their worldview, man is capable of perfection, human nature is on a path towards enlightenment, and the concept of original sin is primitive. These humanists reinvented Arafat as a peacemaker and gave him the facade of a freedom fighter, not a terrorist. In their eyes, those who blow up Jews are driven to such acts because of injustice and provocation. The victims of these crimes are seen as the source of the problem, while terrorists are seen as the innocent and exploited. Victims are demonized and murderers are glorified
In this age of moral relativism, political correctness, fear of offending others, self-justification, and liberalism, we too often sympathize with the murderer and blame the victim; we point fingers at the rape victim and make excuses for the rapist; we blame the innocent for the attacks that kill and maim while the attackers simply become “freedom fighters.” And today’s young people—tomorrow’s leaders—are being fed a steady diet of these lies to turn them against Israel and the Jewish people.
