Dr Buhler, ICEJ’s Executive Director:
“We are living in a decisive moment for the Church. Across the whole world, antisemitism is surging at an alarming rate following the October 7 terror invasion. At the same time, Israel is increasingly delegitimised — not only politically, but also within theological discourse. Even within Evangelical and Charismatic circles, old doctrinal errors are returning dressed in new garments and biblical clarity is being quietly eroded.
For this reason, we are urgently convening the Jerusalem Summit. Our aim is to equip Christian leaders to understand and respond to modern antisemitism, to restore biblical clarity on Israel, covenant and the Church, and to strengthen the Church’s public and theological witness in a time of confusion.
Participants will receive usable teaching from leading theologians and experts around the world, pastoral tools and resources ready for immediate implementation in churches, Bible schools and leadership networks.
The Jerusalem Summit (June 9–11, Jerusalem) is especially for pastors, theologians, Bible teachers and leaders responsible for doctrine, education and public witness — for all who love Israel and care about the integrity of the Church.”
The Jewish nation was chosen to be the channel of Redemption to the world. They have paid a great cost for being that channel as the spiritual forces of darkness have sought to destroy them. It is indeed true what Paul said in Romans 15:27, that the gentile Believers in Yeshua owed them a debt of gratitude.
As Christians, we stand ashamed of the Church’s history of horrific persecution in a previous era, so much so that the precious name ‘Jesus’ and the word ‘Christian’ became words of fear and loathing to the Jewish people.
We are thankful that God has restored understanding to much of the Church of the Jewish roots of our faith, and our obligation to His first chosen people with directives like Isaiah 40:1 “Comfort, comfort My people.” But there are many who have not received that revelation, who even hold onto the arrogance of believing the LORD has finished with His people, ignoring the scriptures that declare that He will never forsake them, that He is a God who does not change, and Paul’s horrified exclamation in Romans 11:1, “I say then, Hath God cast away his people? God forbid.”
May every congregation who shrugged their shoulders in indifference to Israel’s heartbreak and struggle and now to the huge problem of Jew hatred in Australia, leaving them out of their prayers and awareness, realise the seriousness of this verse when translated literally. God speaks to Abraham saying, “I will bless those who bless you, but the one who treats you lightly I must curse….” Genesis 12:3I NET.
We dare not, as those grafted into the Olive Tree of Israel, place ourselves under the judgement of God and stand aloof, like the brother of Jacob did, from current Jewish pain.
ICEJ Australia has a fund for practical comfort to the Jewish people in our nation and support for Bondi victims’ families, to push back the darkness of antisemitism and re-build bridges of friendship. Please contact ICEJ if you wish to join us in blessing Australia’s Jews with a generous tax-deductible donation.
When we Stand Aloof
By: Maxine Carlill ICEJ
“As it is written, Jacob have I loved but Esau I have hated.”
The Biblical nation of Israel endured many attacks from their enemies and sometimes God employed those attacks as a means of punishment due to His people’s idolatry or disobedience. However, many Scriptures speak of the judgement facing those nations who have attacked or harmed Israel in any way beyond what He intended. In many passages, harsh judgement is declared for Edom, the nation that sprang from Esau. The small Book of Obadiah tells why.
But firstly,
Jacob and Esau were twin brothers. Esau was born first with firstborn rights which went to Jacob. The story in Genesis 27 ends with Jacob fleeing to Haran from Esau’s jealousy and rage. By the time Jacob and his household return to Canaan, his brother had become the ruler over the area of Mount Seir, the area which became known as Edom. After the two brothers met in a form of reconciliation, “Esau returned… to Seir.” Genesis 33:16
Seir or Sela, is a location known today as Petra – located south of the eastern side of the Dead Sea, today’s Jordan. As a highly defensible location, Edom thought they were untouchable.
But no one escapes judgement for ever.
Obadiah 1:10-12
“Because of the violence against your brother Jacob, you will be covered with shame; you will be destroyed forever. On the day you stood aloof while strangers carried off his wealth and foreigners entered his gates and cast lots for Jerusalem, you were like one of them. You should not gloat over your brother in the day of his misfortune, nor rejoice over the people of Judah in the day of their destruction, nor boast so much in the day of their trouble.
As already mentioned, there were plenty of nations including Edom that gleefully took part in warfare, in raids, and even gloated over Israel’s defeats.
But Edom was family. Connected by blood.
The attack by Babylon that destroyed Jerusalem and took its citizens into exile, as described in 2 Kings 24 and 25 was in 586 B.C. was devastating. (Psalm 137:7, “Remember O LORD against the sons of Edom. The day of Jerusalem, who said, ‘raze it, raze it, to its very foundations’.”)
There were other enemies of Israel that watched as Babylon stormed the ancient city of Jerusalem, destroyed the House of God and carried away captives.
But Edom was family. “You shall not abhor an Edomite, for he is your brother.” Deuteronomy 23:7
Further back in biblical history, before Israel entered Canaan to establish their nation, the Israelites needed a passageway through Edom on their way to the Promised Land. The Edomites refused. Instead, they turned the weary company away from their border with threats of war forcing a long detour.
There were other people groups whom the Children of Israel encountered on their way from Egypt to the Land of Israel who engaged them in battle, doing everything they could to prevent them reaching their goal.
But Edom was family.
Today!
When Hamas entered the gates of Israel in a murderous rampage, much of the world stood aloof, some gloated. Accusations against the victims – Israel – turned them into the perpetrators. Hatred became illogical, frenzied. We had expected rallies of support for the bereaved, broken families of Israel, but before Israel could even begin some measures of defense and potential rescues of hostages, there were rallies against the broken traumatised nation that were allowed to grow in scope and intensity.
It’s sickening to see our streets taken over. We’re angry at the biased reporting by media. We shake our heads with despair to watch a once welcoming country turn on a minority who has unproportionally contributed to Australia’s development in so many areas. But there is something far worse.
It’s the relatives of the Jewish people who have again stood aloof. Family, who have denied help when they looked for kindness and sympathy. Who are these indifferent people?
We, the Christian believers, are linked to the Jewish nation by our Saviour who is the Son of David, the Lion of Judah. Our Messiah was born a Jew and lived as an observant Jew. We share Abraham as the ‘father of many nations’. We are family whether they, or us, like it or not. Ephesians 2:19, “Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household…”
And yet, while the Jews everywhere including Australia, have been held as collectively responsible for the war in Gaza, the silence from most churches has been deafening. There have been compassionate voices, actions of love, from many Christians along with other Australians. But not nearly enough from the Family of God.
We wonder if we are back in the 1930’s in Germany, a feeling held by holocaust survivors who witnessed firsthand the build-up to the unimaginable Shoah and the murder of 6 million Jews. During Hitler’s rise to power, ‘Christian leaders responded to Nazi rule in a wide variety of ways. Most Christian leaders did not speak out against the Nazi regime’s anti-Jewish policies or its persecution of other targeted groups’. (Experiencing History: https://perspectives.ushmm.org/collection/churches-and-christian-leaders-in-nazi-germany).
This time, in our day of instant and visual news, there is no not knowing!
The International Christian Embassy Jerusalem (ICEJ) has watched with alarm the growing and unbelievable antisemitism and declared the situation so serious that they are calling an urgent worldwide summit.
An hour of urgency
Dr Buhler, ICEJ’s Executive Director:
“We are living in a decisive moment for the Church. Across the whole world, antisemitism is surging at an alarming rate following the October 7 terror invasion. At the same time, Israel is increasingly delegitimised — not only politically, but also within theological discourse. Even within Evangelical and Charismatic circles, old doctrinal errors are returning dressed in new garments and biblical clarity is being quietly eroded.
For this reason, we are urgently convening the Jerusalem Summit. Our aim is to equip Christian leaders to understand and respond to modern antisemitism, to restore biblical clarity on Israel, covenant and the Church, and to strengthen the Church’s public and theological witness in a time of confusion.
Participants will receive usable teaching from leading theologians and experts around the world, pastoral tools and resources ready for immediate implementation in churches, Bible schools and leadership networks.
The Jerusalem Summit (June 9–11, Jerusalem) is especially for pastors, theologians, Bible teachers and leaders responsible for doctrine, education and public witness — for all who love Israel and care about the integrity of the Church.”
The Jewish nation was chosen to be the channel of Redemption to the world. They have paid a great cost for being that channel as the spiritual forces of darkness have sought to destroy them. It is indeed true what Paul said in Romans 15:27, that the gentile Believers in Yeshua owed them a debt of gratitude.
As Christians, we stand ashamed of the Church’s history of horrific persecution in a previous era, so much so that the precious name ‘Jesus’ and the word ‘Christian’ became words of fear and loathing to the Jewish people.
We are thankful that God has restored understanding to much of the Church of the Jewish roots of our faith, and our obligation to His first chosen people with directives like Isaiah 40:1 “Comfort, comfort My people.” But there are many who have not received that revelation, who even hold onto the arrogance of believing the LORD has finished with His people, ignoring the scriptures that declare that He will never forsake them, that He is a God who does not change, and Paul’s horrified exclamation in Romans 11:1, “I say then, Hath God cast away his people? God forbid.”
May every congregation who shrugged their shoulders in indifference to Israel’s heartbreak and struggle and now to the huge problem of Jew hatred in Australia, leaving them out of their prayers and awareness, realise the seriousness of this verse when translated literally. God speaks to Abraham saying, “I will bless those who bless you, but the one who treats you lightly I must curse….” Genesis 12:3I NET.
We dare not, as those grafted into the Olive Tree of Israel, place ourselves under the judgement of God and stand aloof, like the brother of Jacob did, from current Jewish pain.
ICEJ Australia has a fund for practical comfort to the Jewish people in our nation and support for Bondi victims’ families, to push back the darkness of antisemitism and re-build bridges of friendship. Please contact ICEJ if you wish to join us in blessing Australia’s Jews with a generous tax-deductible donation.
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