Socialist Theology in the Assemblies of God in Brazil

By Julio Severo

Socialist evangelicals in Latin America have become revolted that C. René Padilla, who was scheduled to deliver the main lecture on Theology of Integral Mission at FAECAD (Assemblies of God Evangelical School in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) in March 10, 2017, had his lecture cancelled. His lecture would be sponsored by World Vision Brazil.

In an article titled “Welcome to the Past! In Solidarity to Dr. C. René Padilla, Now Nicknamed a ‘Marxist Christian,’” published by the left-wing Latin American Theological Fellowship, Harold Segura decried the cancellation and assured that the Theology of Integral Mission has nothing to do with Marxism.

His article purports, according to his own words,

“To express that I am uncomfortable with the cancellation of the lecture and my uneasiness with the reasons that justified it. To cancel such lecture by labeling as Marxist a lecturer as Padilla is to ignore what Marxism is, is to ignore who René Padilla is and forget the way a theological reflection is done.”

Segura also said,

“I think that what happened in Rio de Janeiro is a sign confirming what we are seeing also in other Latin American nations: a resurgence of past discussions. The return of old Christian squabbles of the 1970s and 1980s, when TIM appeared. In that time, those daring to talk about social responsibility in the churches were labeled communists; those venturing to preach in defense of social justice were under suspicion of Marxist militancy, and those believing in preferential option for the poor were excluded for being undesirable liberation theologians.”

In his Twitter account, Segura showed solidarity to Padilla and also to the gender ideology, by saying,

“Do you know what is gender equality? UNESCO explains key concepts for discussing in a very informed way.”

Actually, UNESCO does not explain gender equality. UNESCO advocates and promotes it. In 2012, UNESCO and other UN agencies asked Brazilian president to criminalize “homophobia.”

The gender ideology is one of the main left-wing banners promoting the homosexualist agenda. But Segura does not accept the label “Marxist” even when he carries its banner.

He decries the defeat of several left-wing governments in Latin America, and he recognizes that most these governments were promoting the gender ideology. He recognizes that Socialist President Dilma Rousseff was impeached especially by the Evangelical Parliamentary Caucus, among several reasons, over the gender ideology.

He sees these defeats as throwbacks to the Theology of Integral Mission (TIM). While he tries to defend TIM as a non-political theology, he cannot help lamenting over the political defeats of the Left in Latin America.

About 50 years ago, C. Peter Wagner warned in Latin American evangelical congresses that TIM was Marxist. In 1969, when participating in CLADE (Latin-American Congress of Evangelization), Wagner distributed his book that affirmed that the mission of the church is to prioritize personal salvation and warned of the dangers of leftist theology. He gave his book because evangelical leaders were beginning to praise TIM.

In the 1st Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization in 1974, while Padilla was leading efforts to promote TIM, Wagner was leading conservative efforts against TIM.

Nevertheless all resistance decades ago, TIM grew internationally. Today, thanks to John Stott and his incredible work of make-up and enabling, TIM dominates Lausanne as an elegant social theology. Wagner’s resistance has been forgotten and TIM Latin American theologians have prevailed.

In 2014, Lausanne paid Wagner’s resistance back in the same coin, by holding in Brazil a meeting of Lausanne leaders against Wagner and his apostolic movement. The meeting was led by TIM leaders, especially Rev. Valdir Steuernagel.

In my 2013 e-book “Theology of Liberation vs. Theology of Prosperity,” there is a special endorsement by C. Peter Wagner, where he said,

“It is very important to be aware of the inroads that Marxist ideology has made into some branches of Christianity. In Latin America the nice-sounding concept of misión integral (integral mission) has turned out to be a thinly-disguised platform for leftist politics. Julio Severo understands this and he skillfully exposes these potentially harmful ideas in his book, Theology of Liberation vs. Theology of Prosperity. In it he helps bring forth the reality that even deeper and more permanent social change from poverty to prosperity can be effectively produced by proclaiming and practicing the biblical doctrine of the kingdom, opening the door for the transforming power of the Holy Spirit. This is a book that I highly recommend!”

For information on how to get the e-book “Theology of Liberation vs. Theology of Prosperity,” click ON THIS LINK.

Wagner’s warnings 50 years ago and today are very important. If TIM has nothing to do with Marxism, why do its adherents defend the gender ideology and the left-wing governments in Latin America that promote this ideology and several other anti-family ideologies?

Padilla’s lecture on Theology of Integral Mission at FAECAD was publicized within its institution in a very subtle and discreet way.

By the explosive reaction of TIM adherents, I suppose the lecture was cancelled.

Marcos Habib, a Brazilian who introduces himself in his Facebook as a “follower of Jesus Christ” and “communist militant,” said,

“There is again the litany of conservative ministers against the lecture at FAECAD (Assemblies of God Evangelical School) with René Padilla. Shi***ng boring people. They do not know the Theology of Integral Mission, but they criticize it as if they did it. What these people really want is to control church-goers. When there are church-goers engaged, there is a church fighting for the emancipation of the oppressed and the poor. Who is Julio Severo??? A talker, spoilt and a sh**.”

Rev. Mateus Feliciano, a theologian and TIM advocate, sent me a private message asking me to remove articles against TIM and Padilla; if not, he would report me. And in his Facebook account he asked publicly,

“Gang, I ask your assistance to remove a post of religious intolerance and deceptive information here in Facebook. Please, read this post and report!”

Religious intolerance because of a Christian view disagreeing with socialism and TIM?

Yet, my warning probably came too late. In his article of solidarity to Padilla, Harold Segura assured that in February 2016 he delivered the main lecture at FAECAD. He spoke about the Theology of Integral Mission and ecumenism.

I had thought that Padilla would be introducing TIM for the first time in the Assemblies of God. Segura has already done it. Padilla would only reinforce the initial introduction. TIM is already present in the Assemblies of God in Brazil through their most important theological institution.

Segura informed his readers that he is travelling to São Paulo, Brazil, to speak at the congress Integral Mission: Ways and Perspectives in the 21st Century. The congress is happening this week.

According to Segura, this major TIM congress will be sponsored by World Vision Brazil, and will have several speakers who are TIM advocates, including René Padilla, Ariovaldo Ramos, Ed René Kivitz, Valdir Steuernagel (whom he called a friend and former director), Christian Gillis, Carlos Pinheiro Queiroz, Ziel Machado and Regina Sánchez.

Ariovaldo Ramos, one of the main TIM advocates in Brazil, is famous for having defended socialists Hugo Chavez and Dilma Rousseff. Why then try to say that TIM has nothing to do with socialism and politics?

TIM adherents praise Marxists and advocate Marxist politics, including the gender ideology, but do they refuse the label “Marxist” for their theology?

Valdir Steuernagel is a powerful leader in the Evangelical Church of Lutheran Confession in Brazil (ECLCB).

ECLCB has international liberal leaders. Rev. Walter Altmann, a former ECLCB president, is the moderator of the World Council of Churches and he is an international theologian renowned for defending Liberation Theology (LT).

Steuernagel is known in Brazil as a TIM activist and internationally known for his leadership roles in the Lausanne Movement and in the World Evangelical Alliance.

From this pro-LT and pro-TIM liberal environment, what can result? A homosexualist theologian called Andre Musskopf.

With Altmann, ECLCB is in the Liberation Theology forefront.

With Steuernagel, ECLCB is in the Theology of Integral Mission forefront.

With Musskopf, ECLCB is in the Gay Theology forefront.

Of course, Steuernagel is not more prominent in TIM advocacy than Calvinist Ariovaldo Ramos and Caio Fábio.

TIM has no problem to walk hand in hand with Liberation Theology and Gay Theology.

Yet, if you cannot call TIM and its adherents socialist and liberal, so it follows that you cannot call ECLCB and its leaders liberal and socialist.

If Segura, Padilla and other liberal evangelicals want to defend the gender ideology at ECLCB and other liberal denominations, they will be warmly welcome there.

Yet, why do they insist in conquering the Assemblies of God, the largest evangelical denomination in Brazil?

Portuguese version of this article: Teologia socialista na Assembleia de Deus no Brasil

Source: Last Days Watchman

Recommended Reading:

Theology of Integral Mission

A Charismatic Response to “The Growing Crisis Behind Brazil’s Evangelical Success Story”

C. Peter Wagner, Pioneer in the Apostolic Movement and Pioneering Fighter Against Theology of Integral Mission, Goes on to Glory

Do Not Be an Enabler of Evil! Lessons from Lausanne

Lausanne, Theology of Integral Mission and Israel

Karl Marx’s Spirit in Lausanne: Theology of Integral Mission

Theological Faggoting: Liberation Theology and Theology of Integral Mission Environment Producing Gay Theology in Brazil

Brazilian Pentecostals: Church Growth Endangered by Socialist Embrace

Liberation Theology and Neo-Pentecostalism: A Leading Challenge to the Evangelical Churches in Brazil

The Religious War between CIA and KGB in Latin America

Why Does The Christian Post Espouse Leftism in Brazil?

By Julio Severo

The U.S. version of The Christian Post rightly addressed the recent World Vision flap on gay “marriage” by quoting prominent evangelical leaders. Their responses were mostly conservative. The first World Vision (WV) stance favoring this faux marriage was universally disapproved among conservative Christians. Its repentance was welcome.

In no way, the Christian Post condemned these conservative leaders and their views.

In a strange twist, the Brazilian version of The Christian Post decided not only to publish nothing from its U.S. version on the WV flap, but it also addressed it from a liberal viewpoint. The only article by the Brazilian Christian Post on this issue was “Obsessão evangélica sobre homossexualidade está fora de controle, relata autora” (Evangelical Obsession about Homosexuality Is Out of Control, Says Author), by Luciano Portela.

The author is Rachel Held Evans, who in a recent CNN article said, “I then felt betrayed when World Vision backtracked” on gay “marriage.”

In this article, she condemned conservative evangelicals as Albert Mohler and the Assemblies of God denomination for their opposition to the initial WV pro-gay “marriage” decision.

Evans’ liberalism is obvious. In her personal blog, she said, “As I advocated for the election (and re-election) of President Obama, I confess I grew somewhat embarrassed by the pro-life cause.” Of course, Obama is an avid advocate of gay “marriage” and abortion.

Evans is a columnist in the leftist The Huffington Post. She is scheduled to be a speaker at the Festival of Faith & Writing, April 10-12, 2014. The event, which purposes to train a new generation of Christian writers, will be held by the Calvin College, which is connected with the Christian Reformed Church.

Portela, the journalist of the Brazilian Christian Post, kept quiet about the endemic liberalism among many American Calvinists in his “Evangelical Obsession about Homosexuality Is Out of Control, Says Author.”

He also kept quiet about the church affiliation of Richard Stearns, the president of World Vision. Stearns attends the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A (PCUSA).

Most Brazilian evangelicals, even Presbyterians, do not know that PCUSA is pro-sodomy, liberal, anti-Israel, pro-abortion, etc.

A time ago, a Presbyterian minister in Brazil told me that he did not know that PCUSA was so liberal.

If Portela did not quote prominent U.S. evangelical leaders and their views on the WV gay “marriage” flap because Brazilian readers are not familiar with them, so why did he choose an American liberal author who is less known?

Brazil has its own liberal problems among evangelicals, including the Brazilian branch of World Vision, whose director, Ariovaldo Ramos, said,

“Everybody who, in everyplace, fights against poverty, for the human liberation, for justice and rights available to everybody had, in Hugo Chávez, a reference of commitment to the poor and the oppressed.”

He also said,

“The best we could say of someone is that, because he lived here, the world became better! We can say this of Hugo Chávez!”

Apparently, some form of liberalism has hit the Brazilian Christian Post, which has published articles by Rev. Johnny Bernardo, who has a long history of affiliation with the Communist Party of Brazil and recently supported the decriminalization of marijuana in Brazil.

Portela’s article “Evangelical Obsession about Homosexuality Is Out of Control” is not a condemnation of a liberal American author and her radical agenda, but of conservative evangelicals who are fighting to preserve their churches of the deluge of progressive obsessions.

Cristianismo Hoje, the Brazilian version of Christianity Today, retweeted the article, increasing still more the doubts of readers who see its difficulty of clearly condemning the apostasy of those who call themselves Christian and support the so called gay “marriage.”

“This whole situation has left me feeling frustrated, heartbroken and lost. I don’t think I’ve ever been more angry at the Church, particularly the Evangelical culture in which I was raised and with which I for so long identified,” wrote Evans about evangelical leaders who opposed to the WV’s initial pro-gay “marriage” stance.

“I confess I had not realized the true extent of the disdain and stigmatization many Evangelicals have toward LGBT people, nor had I expected World Vision to yield to that disdain and stigmatization by reversing its decision under financial pressure. Honestly, it feels like a betrayal from every side.”

For a “Christian” author who is not frustrated and heartbroken over Obama and his pro-abortion and pro-sodomy agenda, it is natural for her to want World Vision to remain faithful to progressive principles, including gay “marriage.”

This is a betrayal of the true Gospel. But who said that progressives have this Gospel? Gay “marriage” will never be a betrayal of the progressive gospel.

Why is the Brazilian Christian Post siding with it?

Christian Post should do a necessary work of exposing U.S. Protestant liberalism among Brazilian audiences, and vice-versa.

Brazil needs less, not more, liberal evangelical examples.

Portuguese version of this article: Por que o Christian Post adota o esquerdismo no Brasil?

Source: Julio Severo in English

Recommended Reading:

After Pressure, World Vision Reverses Policy on Hiring Gays

Homosexual “Marriage” and the Last Days

US wants to combat anti-homosexuality movement worldwide

Leading the world by evil example: Obama and gay “marriage”

Anti-Israel Activist Speaks at Open Doors Brazil

“Bishara Awad is interestingly silent about Muslim persecution of Christians in Palestine. There were large numbers of Christians in Palestine just a few decades ago, but they are disappearing. Will Awad say that the culprit is ‘Israeli occupation’?”

By Julio Severo

In early May 2013, Palestinian Christian author Walid Shoebat warned that “Jesus at the Check Point” would soon be speaking at a church near you. “Jesus at the Check Point,” which is a “Christian” organization with a socialist twist, is touring the United States to muster support to alleviate “Christian Persecution.”

According to Shoebat, “The main dynamo and sponsoring agent of these tours is Bethlehem Bible College in Bethlehem, Israel.”

While the warning of Shoebat, published on WND last May, was being directed to Americans, Bishawa Awad, founder and president emeritus of Bethlehem Bible College, was visiting churches in Brazil, including as a keynote speaker in a major conference commemorating the 35th anniversary of Open Doors Brazil in the same month of May.

Brazilian Leader Shaken by Awad Speech

He was also a keynote speaker at a major SEPAL meeting of progressive ministers in Brazil. The ministers’ meeting commemorated the 50th anniversary of SEPAL, a Brazilian organization which trains and empowers Brazilian evangelical leaders and ministers. Ezion Geber, who attended it, told that after hearing Awad’s speech he would have to abandon many paradigms. He said (as recorded originally here in his blog in Portuguese: http://archive.is/rRsPM),

Dr. Bishara Awad came from Bethlehem, in the West Bank. He is a Palestinian, Christian, founder and director of Bethlehem Bible College. He began his speech on Psalm 11:3: “If the foundations are destroyed, What can the righteous do?” (NKJV) He spoke about his story… his family. His father died in the 1948 war, and his mother, with her children, was sheltered by Muslims, in Jerusalem. He spoke about Israelis occupying the land… Just as Romans did in the past… Today, Jews are the ‘oppressors.’”

I thought in my paradigms which made me see Palestinians as hindrances for Israel. I thought in the education that indoctrinates me to see a triumphant Israel… and I read the biographies of the founders of Israel, as Golda Meir, Moshe Dayan, Ythzak Rabin… and I was moved by each victory of Israel in the wars in 1948, of Sinai in 1956, the Six-Day War in 1967 and the Yom Kippur War in 1973.

Now I am hearing a Palestinian Christian talking about the love of Jesus…

It is a big clash, I have now many paradigms to renounce… God help me…

Bishara Awad, Ezion Geber and Marco Cruz of Open Doors Brazil

King David, the beloved author of the Psalms (most of them, at least), was from Bethlehem. I can hardly imagine David returning today and be told by Awad, “Bethlehem is under occupation.”

David asks, “Who is occupying my city?”

Awad’s answer: “Your Jewish people, of course!”

Clash Between Awad and James Dobson

Awad is better known for attacking Dr. James Dobson in 2002. Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family, is a prominent pro-family and pro-Israel Christian leader. He had denounced Palestinian activist Dr. Hanan Ashrawi and her speech in an American college. Dobson denounced:

1. Ashrawi had association with Yassir Arafat and the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO).

2. Feminist Mother Jones magazine has described Ashrawi as “a wealthy, Christian, feminist, ex-Marxist.”

3. Dr. Ashrawi’s non-profit organization, MIFTAH, received $850,000.00 a year directly from Yassir Arafat.

4. In 1998, Ashrawi told Al-Hayat Al-Jadeeda, an official newspaper of the Palestinian Authority, that the Holocaust is “a deceitful myth which the Jews have labeled ‘the Holocaust’ and have exploited to get sympathy.”

Dr. James Dobson

Dobson was completely correct in his denunciation, because Arafat was a prominent Islamic terrorist trained and supported by the defunct Soviet Union. For such necessary denunciation, Bishara Awad chastised him publicly, saying that Dobson was “an instrument of hate and division” and that Dobson’s denunciation was tantamount to “the hate propaganda and deceitful ways of the enemy of righteousness.” American liberals supported Awad’s complaint against Dobson.

What did Awad want in Brazil?

Brazilian Government: Pro-Palestinian Occupation of the Promised Land

If his mission was, among other things, convert people and institutions to a pro-Palestininan stance, Awad had no need to meet representatives from the Brazilian government, which blatantly supports Palestinians and their cause of occupation of the Promised Land. In 2010, the socialist Lula administration donated more than 10,000,000.00 dollars to the Palestinian Authority.

The Lula administration made Brazil one of the first nations in the world to recognize “Palestine” as a state — a state occupying the land God promised to Jews, not to other peoples.

And under this intense political climate of support for Palestine, Brazil hosted last year the world’s biggest pro-Palestine event, officially supported by major liberal theological figures and the World Council of Churches, an anti-Israel organization supported by the defunct Soviet Union.

Leonardo Boff, the most prominent Liberation Theology advocate in Brazil, showed the same support for the event. He said, “It is our duty to be on the side of the Palestinians.”

Why was Bishara Awad in SEPAL, which represents many Brazilian churches, when his cause is largely supported by powerful socialists in the Brazilian government and media? Brazilian churches have been the last pro-Israel bastion in face of the massive leftist pro-Palestine forces in the secular society in Brazil. Does Awad align Brazilian churches with these forces?

Anti-Israel Boycotts

Was Awad’s tour in Brazil a beachhead for “Jesus at the Check Point”? “Jesus at the Check Point” participants (secular and Christian socialists) have one consensus: Israel should be boycotted because Palestinians are victims and Bethlehem is under Jewish occupation!

Speakers at “Christ at the Checkpoint” conferences have called for boycotts against Israel for a long time. On April 1, 1933, just one week after taking power in Germany, Nazi leader Adolf Hitler ordered a boycott of Jewish shops, banks, and businesses.

Over the past few years a number of Reformed denominations and ecumenical organizations have issued statements condemning the alleged Israeli “occupation” of Bethlehem and other lands historically and biblically belonging to Jews, and have chosen either to support campaigns to boycott Israeli goods and divest from multinational companies operating within Israel, and/or to denounce support to Israel as a “heresy.”

In a letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury Dr. Rowan Williams (June 2011), Naim Ateek, whose Palestinian Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center (‘Sabeel’) was represented at the Christ at the Checkpoint Conference, described Jewish and Christian Zionists as “a greater threat to us [Arab Christians] than the extremist Islamists.” (Paul Wilkinson, Church at Christ’s Checkpoint, p. 5.)

This stance is especially espoused by the World Council of Churches.

The motto of “Jesus at the Check Point” is “non-violent resistance against the Israeli Zionist occupation.” “Zionism is the obstacle to peace,” they write, and they want to “educate evangelical Christians” to “understand the Bible from a Palestinian liberation theology perspective,” which openly supports a “divided state” as the solution for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Its “Christ at the CheckPoint,” held March 2012, was led by Bishara Awad and his family. Several Christian groups expressed opposition to this conference. According to the Jerusalem Post, Dr. Jürgen Bühler, executive director of the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem (ICEJ), said in a statement ahead of the event that the conference’s theological stance “can easily lend itself to anti-Semitism and anti-Israel propaganda, as some of the Checkpoint speakers have proven in the past.”

Jerusalem Post reports that “Among the speakers was Rev. Stephen Sizer, a British minister who has spoken out harshly against Israel and met with radical Muslims, including Hezbollah.” Stephen Sizer is not alone in championing the cause of Palestinian liberation theology throughout the Muslim world. Two of his closest friends and colleagues within the movement are Gary Burge and Donald Wagner, both of whom are ordained ministers within the Presbyterian Church (USA), the world’s biggest pro-abortion and pro-homosexuality Presbyterian denomination, which has called for boycotts against Israel. They have been very active in the Evangelical Christian-Muslim Dialogue, and the work of Sizer has received praise from Tony Campolo, Hank Hanegraaff and the late John Stott. (“Prophets Who Prophesy Lies In My Name”, Christian Palestinianism and the anti-Israel Crusade, pages 14,16)

In spite that “Jesus at the CheckPoint” is involved in the Palestinian liberation theology, Awad freely preached his “Palestinian” gospel in several Brazilian churches last May.

A Socialist Speaker at Open Doors Brazil

His most important opportunity in Brazil was to speak in the 35th anniversary of Open Doors Brazil. Jeff Taylor, president of Open Doors International, was also one of the speakers.

I am not surprised at a socialist Palestinian Protestant speaking at Open Doors Brazil. Ariovaldo Ramos, one of the most prominent socialist evangelical leaders in Brazil, has already spoken in some Open Doors events. Ramos has praised socialist dictator Hugo Chavez and he is an influential Brazilian advocate of the Theology of Integral Mission, an evangelicalized version of the Marxist Liberation Theology. (You can find more information on it by downloading my free e-book here: http://bit.ly/15AJmMC)

Ariovaldo Ramos

Ramos’s socialist profile was never a hindrance for him to minister at Open Doors Brazil in the administration of former Secretary General Carlos Alfredo de Sousa, where Ramos delivered speeches, devotionals and even wrote articles in the Open Doors website.

One year ago, I exposed an article by Open Doors Brazil supporting Marxism revolutions as a solution to destroy persecution against Christians in Muslim nations. I challenged them to correct it and show the reality: Marxism and Islam are mostly behind Christian persecution. They refused it. Their secretary general was eventually removed.

Talking to the Current Open Doors Brazil Secretary-General

Talking days ago by phone to Marco Cruz, the new Secretary-General of Open Doors Brazil, he has made it clear that he is not familiar with the Palestinian Liberation Theology. About the Awad case, he said that his visit as a key-note speaker at Open Doors Brazil had been scheduled several months earlier, during the administration of the former Secretary-General. The main responsible for this schedule was Open Doors International.

I explained to him the involvements of Awad and that everything he represents is a deviation of the Open Doors’ mission, which is to help the persecuted church. Cruz made it clear to me that in his administration, as far as it is possible for him the focus of Open Doors Brazil will be Jesus and the persecuted church. This is more encouraging news. Yet, what about Open Doors International?

Has Open Doors International Lost Its First Love?

In 2004, Awad said, “Brother Andrew comes to see us at least two or three times a year, and he was our keynote speaker at the graduation and the 25th anniversary of the Bethlehem Bible College of this year. He is a close friend.”

I find strange that Open Doors International, which began its ministry by helping Christians persecuted by Marxists, now is willing to have an alliance with socialist “Christians,” including Bishara Awad.

Muslim Persecution of Christians

Awad is interestingly silent about Muslim persecution of Christians in Palestine. There were large numbers of Christians in Palestine just a few decades ago, but they are disappearing. Will Awad say that the culprit is “Israeli occupation”?

According to CBN News, the U.S. State Department’s International Religious Freedom Report for 2012 shows persecution against Christians and Jews is on the rise, especially in Muslim countries.

Christians are fleeing Palestine, for example, not because of “Israeli occupation,” as Awad would have us believe. Christians fleeing Muslim nations is a universal trend, because of Muslim violence.

Why would this reality be different in Palestine, which is mostly Muslim today? Why would radical Muslims be willing to tolerate Awad and his family? Surely, they are helpful for anti-Israel propaganda and disinformation among Christians.

Professors at Presbyterian University Mackenzie

This propaganda went unchallenged in Brazil. Open Doors Brazil opened many doors for Awad in Brazil. Awad spoke also at an “apologetics meeting” in the Trinity Christian Church, led by Paulo Romeiro, who is a professor in the Presbyterian University Mackenzie in São Paulo, Brazil.

Romeiro, in his turn, opened his online TV show for Awad to impart his Palestinian vision to Brazilians. According to a Brazilian witness, Awad told his Brazilian audience that the source of oppression against Palestinian Christians is Israel — the same language he used in SEPAL.

Romeiro is a former director of the Christian Research Institute in Brazil. This institute was connected and founded by its American counterpart, Christian Research Institute, led by Hank Hanegraaff. Might Romeiro have been influenced by Hanegraaff, who considered support for Israel a “heresy”?

Just because he is a professor at Mackenzie, you cannot say that Romeiro has all of these leftist proclivities. But some of his Mackenzie friends have, especially Ricardo Bitun, a professor whose students in this prominent Brazilian Presbyterian university say that he teaches that “Liberation Theology can change the church.”

Coincidently or not, on the called “Palestinian cause” Liberation Theology and the Theology of Integral Mission have stances similar to Awad’s: Israel is the oppressor. Ricardo Bitun was one of the main speakers at the recent “Conferência Missão na Íntegra” (Integral Mission Conference), the biggest event advocating the Theology of Integral Mission in Brazil.

In its turn, Mackenzie hosted the biggest Protestant youth meeting in Brazil last November, under the leadership of Ariovaldo Ramos and other leaders of the Theology of Integral Mission. It was the biggest leftist Protestant youth event in Brazil.

Mackenzie has also been denounced in my blog for its rabid cessationists. See my article A Charismatic Response to “The Growing Crisis Behind Brazil’s Evangelical Success Story.”

Palestinian Liberation Theology

So I would not be surprised at apologists serving interests of anti-Israel propaganda. Nowadays, most Brazilian apologists have served, in a way or another, socialist causes. Liberation theology, and its evangelicalized version Theology of Integral Mission, has been the main inspiration for many Brazilian Protestant leaders and publications taking a stance against Israel to support a Palestinian occupation of the Promised Land.

Liberation theology has marred the Gospel and God’s plan for the Jewish people and their Promised Land.

In Israel, the same theology, embraced by Palestinian Protestants, has provoked the same havoc. Palestinian liberation theology purportedly focuses on the humanity of Jesus of Nazareth, misrepresenting Him as a Palestinian living under occupation.

Identifying Jesus as “a Palestinian living under an occupation” has become normative for Christian Palestinianists, and a powerful propaganda weapon in their anti-Israel crusade. This identification was most evident in the Easter message which Naim Ateek preached in Jerusalem on April 9, 2001:

“Here in Palestine Jesus is again walking the via dolorosa. Jesus is the powerless Palestinian humiliated at a checkpoint, the woman trying to get through to the hospital for treatment, the young man whose dignity is trampled, the young student who cannot get to the university to study, the unemployed father who needs to find bread to feed his family … In this season of Lent, it seems to many of us that Jesus is on the cross again with thousands of crucified Palestinians around him. It only takes people of insight to see the hundreds of thousands of crosses throughout the land, Palestinian men, women, and children being crucified. Palestine has become one huge Golgotha. The Israeli government crucifixion system is operating daily. Palestine has become the place of the skull.” (“Prophets Who Prophesy Lies In My Name”, Christian Palestinianism and the anti-Israel Crusade, page 7.)

But Palestinian liberation theology “Christians” are not alone in their mission to misrepresent Jesus Christ. Palestinian Muslims are their powerful allies. According to a Palestinian Media Watch article of December 24, 2010, “One of the ways the Palestinian Authority attempts to create a Palestinian history is to deny the Judean/Jewish nationality of Jesus, and misrepresent him as a ‘Palestinian.’” (“Prophets Who Prophesy Lies In My Name”, Christian Palestinianism and the anti-Israel Crusade, page 8.)

In fact, as Dr. James Dobson denounced, Palestinian “Christian” feminist Hanan Ashrawi, through her group MIFTAH, received $850,000.00 a year directly from Yassir Arafat. Muslims are willing to make extraordinary sacrifices do advance their anti-Israel propaganda, even by funding “Christians,” even by supporting Palestinian gay activists, provided that they fulfil their mission of anti-Israel propaganda.

Only “Spiritual Israel” Entitled to the Promised Land?

Why would Open Doors be willing to have Awad, an ally of Palestinian liberation theology advocates, as the key note speaker in its most important conference in Brazil? Does not Open Doors believe that the Jewish people are entitled to their Promised Land?

According to WND, Open Doors subscribes to Calvinist author and pastor John Piper’s views of Israel. Piper’s views are as follows:

The promises made to Abraham, including the promise of the land, will be inherited as an everlasting gift only by true, spiritual Israel, not disobedient, unbelieving Israel.

Therefore, the secular state of Israel today may not claim a present divine right to the land.

So Open Doors has a “spiritualized” answer for its stance not supporting the modern state of Israel and the Jewish claim over the Promised Land. But at the same time, Open Doors has no hard time supporting Bishara Awad, who has a strange alliance with Palestinian liberation theologians and Muslims to defend a divided Promised Land. This alliance is necessary, because Bethlehem is under occupation by their common enemy: Israel.

I think that if David were supernaturally brought to life again, he would be able to judge this case. I am unable to see him siding with Muslims or Palestinian liberation theologians. This theology just uses the true Gospel as a platform for Marxism and its deceitful “liberation.”

Of course, David would cry to God over the condition of modern Jews, but never betray his posterity by delivering the Promised Land to Muslims and liberation theologians.

Yet, we have no David to decide the case. What about a truly spiritualized answer? If, as Piper and other Calvinists see it, the true Israel is the spiritual Israel, then are we, the spiritual Israel, under the responsibility to occupy Israel and expel Muslims and the heretical liberation theology “Christians” from the Promised Land?

I fear that both solutions — David’s and the spiritualized answer — would not satisfy Awad and Open Doors.

For the sake of the truly persecuted Christians, Open Doors would be wise to not get involved in Awad’s liberation theology sympathies and messes and a cultural and spiritual war that it is unable understand.

Portuguese version of this article: Ativista anti-Israel faz palestra em Portas Abertas do Brasil

Spanish version of this article: Activista anti Israel ofrece conferencia en Puertas Abiertas de Brasil

Source: www.lastdayswatchman.blogspot.com

Recommended Reading:

Brazil to Host World’s Biggest Pro-Palestine Event

Palestinian Gays Want World Boycotts against Israel

What every Christian should know about Israel