Christ at the Wall

by: Michael D. Evans

While in Jerusalem building Israel’s first Christian Heritage Center to celebrate the heroes and history of those who helped the Jewish people and the State of Israel, I realized the Christ at the Checkpoint Conference was taking place in Bethlehem the week of March 11-14, the same week I was in the Holy City. This event was attended by supposed Evangelicals who blindly think they are also helping Israel and the Jewish people.

This annual conference attempting to mobilize the support of the Evangelical world heard representatives from various organizations. These included the World Council of Churches, Willowcreek church, a US church with over 25,000 members and 9,000 associated churches, another mega-church Pastor Joel Hunter, and a member of the National Association of Evangelicals, Terry Berg, a professor from Wheaton College in Illinois (a school founded by Dr. Billy Graham), and Bobby Wilson, president of Oral Roberts University. All lent their support. Speakers, mostly evangelical, were ostensibly attending in the name of social justice.

From this conference have come movies such as “The Little Town of Bethlehem” and “With God on our Side.” This group proffers in the name of social justice that most, if not all, of the blame for the Middle East Conflict lies with Israel. The attendees seem to completely ignore the issue of Muslim anti-Semitism that portrays Jews as pigs and apes. The conference promotes conspiracy theories concerning the Jewish people controlling the media and banks worldwide. These deluded prophets buy into the myth that the land of Israel belongs largely to the Palestinian people.

Christ at the Checkpoint is an organized, ideological machine to educate and dissuade American Evangelicals from holding a pro-Israel view. The Evangelical Zionists are condemned as well as is the biblical worldview held by Evangelicals. The security wall which has become the target of their movement was built in the early 2000’s after hundreds of terrorist attacks which killed or maimed thousands of Jews—only because they were Jews. The demand is basically that Israel tear down their wall. In reality what they call a wall is basically a fence.

This is a convenient marriage between two groups who embrace Replacement Theology. In this belief, the Old Testament is completely rejected, and the New Testament is used to delegitimize Israel under the banner that the Church has replaced the Jews and made null and void promises to them because they are charged with having crucified Christ. It’s a revisionist theology used to support an ideological war.

I dealt with that theology head-on at the Madrid Peace Conference in 1991 when I debated Dr. Hanan Ashwari, a Christian Palestinian, on the topic of Bethlehem.  She declared, “Bethlehem is a Muslim town where the first Palestinian Christian, Jesus Christ, was born. My response to her was, “Bethlehem is the Jewish town where the Jewish Messiah, Jesus Christ, was born.”

Those rallying behind Christ at the Checkpoint hold to a core belief that since the Church has replaced the Jews, everything historically and biblically tied to the Jewish people now belongs to the Church. Replacement theology has gone viral throughout Europe. It has been embraced by the Church of England, as well as the Presbyterian Church in the United States, as well as other denominations.

Seventy-three years ago, J. Oswald Chambers, an early twentieth century evangelist and teacher, visited the Evangelical Church in Germany whose members were among the most highly-educated in the world. It was the nation that gave birth to the Protestant Reformation. Chambers declared concerning Hitler, “They love him, from the largest churches to the smallest, they love him. They believe God sent him. They tell me the trains run on time; national pride has been restored; the economy is wonderful.” Not surprisingly, Oswald was right; they did love Hitler. Not only were they blinded, but they bought in to the ideology of Replacement Theology.

That damnable doctrine taught in the churches and in the schools fueled and fed the Third Reich.

In Bethlehem at the Christ at the Checkpoint Conference not a word was said as sixty rockets were fired at Israel by Palestinians from Gaza during the meetings. Examples from the actual manifesto of the meeting should be closely scrutinized:

• Any exclusive claim to land of the Bible in the name of God is not in line with the teaching of scripture.
• For Palestinian Christians the “occupation” is the core issue of the conflict.

Another point to be considered when studying the inequity of conference speakers is: Thirty-two of the thirty-four speakers are advocates of Replacement Theology, vocal critics of Israel’s right to exist. The PLO supported the enterprise using Evangelical language and imagery to blame Israel, and Israel alone, for Palestine suffering.

While peaceful, law-abiding Palestinians live in Israel unmolested and prosperous, Jews are unable to live in Bethlehem for fear of death—or for that matter in any biblical city controlled by the Palestinian Authority. Several years ago, two schoolboys skipped class to go hiking, Yakob (Kobie) Mandell, 13, formerly of Maryland, and Yosef Ishran, 14, were brutally murdered. Their heads were crushed when they were stoned to death. They had climbed into a cave at the Wadi Haritun, fifteen minutes’ walk from their home. Their blood was used to smear anti-Semitic slurs on the walls of the cave.

Two young Israeli reservists, Vadim Nurzhitz and Yossi Abrahami, accidentally took a wrong turn in the direction of Ramallah and were taken into custody by the police. Those two young men were beaten, stabbed, had their eyes gouged out and their bodies dismembered as Palestinians held aloft their blood-stained hands as the crowds jumped and cheered in celebration. The soldiers’ bodies were tossed out a window of the police station and stomped by the frenzied mob. One of the bodies was set afire. Soon after, the mob dragged the mutilated bodies through al Manara Square in the city as a victory celebration took place. I attended the funerals of these four young men whose only crime was being Jewish.

A number of years ago, I debated Rev. Al Sharpton on MSNBC during a segment of Chris Matthews’ “Hardball.” Rev. Sharpton held the same position as those who support Christ at the Checkpoint. I said to him, “Imagine if you will that you were the mayor of Harlem and the Ku Klux Klan launched hundreds of missiles into your city, killing thousands of black residents. Are you telling me you would defend the KKK? That’s precisely what you are doing on this show all in the name of Christ and social justice.”

When the disciples asked Jesus what would be a sign of the end of the age, He said that many false prophets would arise and deceive many. It appears that we are nearing the end of the age.

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Dr. Michael Evans is a #1 New York Times bestselling author. His latest fiction book, Born Again: 1948 is available at www.TimeWorthyBooks.com.