Confirmed: U.S. Chief Facilitator of Christian Persecution

Raymond Ibrahim

Prominent indicators confirm that the U.S. is the chief facilitator of the persecution of Christians around the world today.

Senator John McCain and Syrian “rebels”

According to the recently released 2014 World Watch List, which ranks the 50 nations where Christians are most persecuted, Syria is the third worst nation in the world in which to be Christian, Iraq is fourth, Afghanistan fifth, and Libya 13th. All four countries receive the strongest designation, “extreme persecution” (other designations are “severe,” “moderate,” and “sparse” persecution).

Aside from being so closely and harshly ranked, these four nations have something else in common: heavy U.S. involvement. Three—Iraq, Afghanistan, and Libya—were “liberated” thanks to U.S. forces, while in the fourth, Syria, the U.S. is actively sponsoring “freedom fighters” against the regime, many of whom would be better labeled “terrorists.”

The Syrian situation alone indicts U.S. foreign policy. According to Reuters:

Open Doors, a non-denominational group supporting persecuted Christians worldwide, said on Wednesday it had documented 2,123 “martyr” killings, compared with 1,201 in 2012. There were 1,213 such deaths in Syria alone last year, it said. “This is a very minimal count based on what has been reported in the media and we can confirm,” said Frans Veerman, head of research for Open Doors. Estimates by other Christian groups put the annual figure as high as 8,000.

While most Americans are shielded from the true nature of the war by the U.S. media’s reluctance to report on it, Arabic media, websites, and activists daily report and document atrocity after atrocity—beheadings and bombed churches, Christians slaughtered for refusing to convert to Islam, and countless abducted for ransom or rape—at the hands of those whom the U.S. supports.

It’s enough to point out that “the largest massacre of Christians in Syria,” to quote a top religious leader, was left wholly unreported by any major U.S. news network.

At any rate, the statistics speak for themselves: Syria, which used to be religiously tolerant, is now, in the context of the United States’ trying to bring “democracy” to it, the third worst country in the world in terms of “extreme persecution” of Christians.

The Blaze reports that Dr. David Curry, president of Open Doors,

charged that the Obama administration has essentially declined to make the protection of religious minorities a priority . . . “There are many instances where the vacuum of leadership and spokesmanship has created a real problem,” said the human rights leader. “I would say that every significant data point on this year’s ‘2014 Watch List’ is worse—and I think a factor in it is a lack of leadership from Western governments including . . . the U.S. in terms of religious freedom.”

But it’s worse than that. Far from taking any action or providing leadership—or simply ceasing to support the terrorists responsible—the Obama administration recently tried to go to war with Syria on behalf of the “freedom fighters,” amazingly, in the name of “human rights” (Apparently the unsubstantiated rumor that Assad massacred people is enough for the U.S. to go to war, but the ongoing and well-documented massacres of Christians and other civilians at the hands of the opposition is not enough for the U.S. to stop supporting them.)

What’s worse, even the most misinformed mainstream-media-watching American today knows that the so-called “Arab Spring,” which was hailed to justify U.S. support for “rebels” of all stripes—in Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood (which months ago destroyed some 80 churches); in Libya, al-Qaeda, which has turned Benghazi into a terror zone; and now the “freedom fighters” in Syria—is not what it was touted to be.

In other words, at this point, whenever the U.S. intervenes in an Islamic nation, Islamists come to power. This is well demonstrated by the other three nations to which the U.S. brought “democracy” and where Christian minorities suffer “extreme persecution”:

Afghanistan: The supposedly “moderate” Karzai government installed by the U.S. upholds many of the draconian laws enforced by the Taliban—including the apostasy law, fiercely persecuting those who seek to convert to Christianity—and, in 2011, under U.S. auspices, it destroyed Afghanistan’s last Christian church.

Iraq: After the U.S. toppled Saddam Hussein, Christian minorities were savagely attacked and slaughtered, and dozens of their churches were bombed (see here for graphic images). Christians have been terrorized into near-extinction, with well over half of them fleeing Iraq.

Libya: Ever since U.S.-backed, al-Qaeda-linked terrorists overthrew Qaddafi, Christians—including Americans—have indeed suffered extreme persecution. Churches have been bombed; Christians have been tortured and killed (including for refusing to convert); and nuns have been threatened.

Surely a common theme emerges here: Where the U.S. works to oust secular autocrats, the quality of life for Christians and other minorities takes a major nosedive. Under Saddam, Qaddafi, and Assad, Christians and their churches were largely protected.

Moreover, while George W. Bush was responsible for Afghanistan and Iraq, the argument can be made that, back then (2001 and 2003), this pattern of Islamic radicalization that erupts once autocrats are gone was less well known than it is today. There weren’t many precedents.

Conversely, the Obama administration has had both Afghanistan and Iraq to learn from—and yet still it supports Islamists and jihadis. But by now, what happens once they assume power—religious persecution, terror, oppression—is no longer a secret.

Incidentally, those who care little for the fate of Christians or other minorities in the Islamic world would do well to remember a simple truism: Wherever anti-Christian elements come to power, anti-American forces come to power. The two are synonymous.

Put differently, Muslim persecution of Christians is the litmus test of how radical an Islamic society has become. In all those Muslim nations that the U.S. has interfered in—Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Egypt (till the Egyptians revolted, to the chastisement of the U.S.), and now Syria—the increase of religious intolerance is a reflection of the empowerment of forces hostile to Western civilization.

I am often asked, “How can we help persecuted Christians?” At this point, one must respond: “How about starting with getting the U.S. government to stop being the chief facilitator of Christian persecution?” Altruism aside, it would be in the interests of all who value freedom, religious or otherwise—and especially their descendants.

Source: Raymond Ibrahim, via Last Days Watchman

Recommended Reading:

ISIS Praises John McCain For Helping Them Invade Iraq

Presbyterian Church USA Criticizes Israel, Ignores Christian Persecution

Why Does Christian Persecution Get Worse In Every Country The U.S. “Liberates”?

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

Palestinian evangelical in “propaganda tour” of Brazil

Christian leader questions group's sponsorship of 'anti-Israel' message

Michael Carl

A Christian leader in Brazil says he’s alarmed by what he regards as a campaign by evangelicals to spread pro-Palestinian and anti-Israeli propaganda.

Julio Severo, a pro-family activist and blogger, told WND he’s concerned about a speaking tour in Brazil that features Bethlehem Bible College President Emeritus Bishara Awad in support of Open Doors, International.

Severo told WND that at an event in Brazil, Awad spoke of “the Palestinian plight provoked by Israel.”

“He did not mention anything about Muslim violence against Christians,” Severo said.

Severo worries that the tour will gain credibility because of the sponsorship.

“I am only a very small Christian, and to expose Open Doors for opening doors to such anti-Israel, Christian Palestinianism is a big challenge,” Severo said.

He said his concerns are both political and theological.

“In the speech, he repeatedly mentioned that he and his people are under occupation,” Severo said. “As a Christian, he didn’t give the Israeli point of view.”

Bethlehem Bible College is the host of the controversial Christ at the Checkpoint Conference. The Jerusalem Post quoted Awad as being critical of American evangelicals’ support of Israel.

“Many Christians support Israel whether it is right or wrong, but don’t look into the issues of peace and justice,” Awad said. “If that’s being political then fine, but unfortunately, some people, instead of coming and listening and participating, just attack us. We want to have serious engagement with Zionist groups, and have open forum for ongoing dialogue.”

Awad told WND in an interview that his ethnic background is an important factor in how he sees the Palestinian-Israeli issue.

Bishara Awad

“I am an Arab and my people are under occupation. But I am also a Christian and love the Lord Jesus,” Awad said. “My people are suffering greatly under the occupation. The economy is terrible and my people are under great economic stress.

“We aren’t suffering at the hands of the Muslims in Palestine,” Awad said. “Some people don’t want to believe this and that is their right.”

Severo is skeptical and he points to a report by the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America. In that report, Awad is quoted as saying an Israeli-built wall completely encircles Bethlehem.

“We have many problems in this land. We are under military occupation. The Israelis built a wall around us and this wall goes around Bethlehem,” Awad said.

But the committee report points out that a map shows that the wall doesn’t completely encircle Bethlehem.

However, Awad added that he knows the situation would only be more severe for his people if Bethlehem and the Palestinian Authority territory were under the control of the surrounding nations.

“Looking at the countries around us, like in Syria and in Lebanon, there certainly is persecution of Christians, and Christians are leaving. The people here are leaving because they don’t like to be under occupation,” Awad said.

“However, if the tables were turned (and an Arab neighbor controlled the territory), I would be very scared because of what I see around those countries,” Awad said. “I see how the Muslims are treating people and how they’re ever treating their own people. They’re killing their own people. There’s no mercy; there’s no love.

“It’s becoming more and more extreme with extreme Muslims. Even some moderate Muslims are happy about what’s going on in Syria with Muslims killing Muslims,” Awad said.

“The Middle East is in an uproar altogether, and I’m afraid the table will be turned around one of these days and the Palestinians will be under a worse regime than right now under Israel,” Awad said.

But Awad emphasized, “I don’t want my people to be under anyone’s control, under anyone else’s guns.”

Open Doors spokesman Paul Estabrooks said neither Open Doors nor Bethlehem Bible College is anti-Israel.

“Bishara thoroughly enjoyed his trip to Brazil celebrating OD-Brazil’s 30th anniversary. He was there to promote OD, not to promote his school or Palestinian causes.

“I spent one week at BBC and heard not one word of negativity toward Israel,” Estabrooks said.

Estabrooks explained that there is a significant theological debate surrounding the Arab-Israeli conflict and even whether Israel has a right to the land the modern state of Israel occupies.

Awad said he and Bethlehem Bible College reject what is termed by critics as “replacement theology,” the belief that the Christian church has taken Israel’s place as the inheritor of God’s covenant blessings and promises.

“I do not believe in replacement theology, and I believe in the right of Israel to exist,” Awad said.

Estabrooks confirmed Awad’s claim.

“He expressed that he does accept Israel as a nation and he does not personally, nor does the Bible college, hold to replacement theology. In recall, he thought that his emphasis at the meeting was just on the New Covenant, not on anti-Israel propaganda as charged,” Estabrooks said.

In a search of the Bethlehem Bible College website, the college’s “FAQ” page has this comment about the relationship between the college and Israel: “Due to Israeli occupation, Bethlehem residents have lost thousands of dunums of land for the purposes of Israeli settlement construction and the building of the separation wall.”

The site says, “Political violence during the 2nd Intifada and the continual loss of land have created a desperate economic situation in the city of Bethlehem, which has an unemployment rate of 22.4 percent, the highest in the West Bank.”

The college has not responded to WND’s requests for comment.

Estabrooks said: “Let me assure you that Open Doors also does not endorse or propagate replacement theology nor are we in any way anti-Israel as a nation of God’s chosen people. Neither have I heard this expressed or taught in my many experiences at Bethlehem Bible College over a 20-year period.’

Estabrooks explained Palestinian Christians have a different view of Israel, because they are both Palestinian and Christian.

“Furthermore, Christians I have met in Palestinian Israel are far more aggrieved at the mistreatment they receive from Israelis than the minimal challenges presented by Palestinian Muslims against them. Is it not understandable then that Palestinian Christians might express publicly the frustrations under which they live each day?” Estabrooks asked.

Estabrooks said that Open Doors subscribes to Christian author and pastor John Piper’s views of Israel. Piper’s seven points are as follows:

1 God chose Israel from all the peoples of the world to be his own possession.

2 The land was part of the inheritance he promised to Abraham and his descendants forever.

3 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.

4 Jesus Christ has come into the world as the Jewish Messiah, and his own people rejected him and broke covenant with their God.

5 Therefore, the secular state of Israel today may not claim a present divine right to the land, but they and we should seek a peaceful settlement not based on present divine rights, but on international principles of justice, mercy, and practical feasibility.

6 By faith in Jesus Christ, the Jewish Messiah, Gentiles become heirs of the promise of Abraham, including the promise of the land.

7 Finally, this inheritance of Christ’s people will happen fully at the Second Coming of Christ to establish His kingdom, not before; and till then, we Christians must not take up arms to claim our inheritance; but rather lay down our lives to share our inheritance with as many as we can.

Portuguese version of this article: Evangélico palestino em “turnê de propaganda” no Brasil

Spanish version of this article: Evangélico palestino en “tour de propaganda” en Brasil

Source: WND, via Last Days Watchman

Recommended Reading:

Palestinian Gays Want World Boycotts against Israel

Brazil to Host World’s Biggest Pro-Palestine Event

What every Christian should know about Israel