PLEASE SAY NO TO CUFI
Dear Pastors Georgiev, Dumanovsky, and Staff of The Russian Gospel Temple, San Francisco, CA.
It has come to our attention that your fellowship will be hosting a Christians United For Israel “Standing With Israel“ event this Friday November 20th, 2015.
We Hold These Truths is a pro-Jesus, pro-peace, and pro-life organization, whose mission is to expose the dangers of Christian Zionism to the Evangelical Church. We have conducted two recent sidewalk vigils; one in Arvada, CO, and the second in Sacramento, CA. Please avail yourself of the resources about Christian Zionism on our website and watch our award-winning movie, “Christian Zionism – The Tragedy and The Turning Part 1”.
Christian Zionism is a terrible, non-theological, political movement that is indirectly supporting the killing of millions of people around the world today, and is a cause of the millions of war refugees we see on our TVs. Followers of The Prince of Peace should have no part in that kind of destruction.
We will be conducting a peaceful vigil outside of your fellowship on the public sidewalk during this CUFI event to educate those in attendance to its un-Christ-like message. We also may be joined by others who recognize that CUFI does not present the Christian message of peace.
Our prayer is that you will cancel this event after reviewing the information below.
From the several CUFI events I have attended, the one common denominator is that Jesus gets left out of the meeting. Since CUFI has a policy not to share the saving message of Jesus, you will only hear Jesus’ name mentioned as “in Jesus Name, amen”; and most often that will be in the form of “Yeshua”. You will probably hear, more than once, Genesis 12:3, but never in the context of Galatians 3:16 which shows that the promises to Abraham were fulfilled in Jesus and not an ethnicity. NO New Testament scriptures will be offered showing Jesus endorsing or supporting a political State. In fact His words of: “Blessed are the peacemakers”, or “My kingdom is not of this world”, or “love your enemies…” will not be uttered at all.
For a thorough exegetical study of how Jesus is the fulfillment of the Old Testament promises and prophecies please review Rob Dalrymple’s excellent book These Brothers of Mine and also a July podcast we held with Dr. Dalrymple as our guest.
In a recent We Hold These Truths post, we also discussed the nature of land ownership in Israel. Christian Zionism is a destructive theology and should be rejected. It is time to expose Christian Zionism as not representing Jesus or His mission to the world.
I am awed by the history of your fellowship and the intense persecution that you have endured in the last 100 years for the cause of Christ. Truly you have passed through the “refiner’s fire.” What confuses me is that much of the persecution that came upon you was at the hands of the Bolshevik Communists. Probably the best-known exposé of the Jewish role in the Bolshevik coup d’état was by Sir Winston Churchill, writing in the Illustrated Sunday Herald of 8 February 1920. Churchill wrote:
“There is no need to exaggerate the part played in the creation of Bolshevism and in the actual bringing about of the Russian Revolution, by these international and for the most part atheistical Jews, it is certainly a very great one; it probably outweighs all others. With the notable exception of Lenin, the majority of the leading figures are Jews. Moreover, the principal inspiration and driving power comes from the Jewish leaders.”
Pastors Georgiev and Dumanovsky, I attended an Assembly of God Bible School, I know the doctrines. God used the AG Church mightily in my life. For that I’m thankful. As I’ve grown in my faith, whenever I see doctrines and practices in the evangelical church that do NOT reflect Jesus’ teachings – I have to speak up. Can you honestly picture Jesus driving a Caterpillar tractor uprooting Palestinian olive trees and smashing their homes? Yet that is what Christian Zionism supports.
I moved into a neighborhood that includes three Christian Palestinian families. Hearing their stories of the persecution and land thefts by the Zionists caused me to rethink my Zionist theology, realizing I was supporting an ungodly secular state that was persecuting my Sisters and Brothers in Christ. Something was drastically wrong with this picture! I began my research into the roots of Christian Zionism (we have many articles and links on our web site to help you), and I found that Christian Zionism is built upon a faulty Biblical hermeneutic, or interpretation of scripture, that does NOT represent the historic teachings of the Christian Church. Christian Zionism supports the confiscation of land by brute force, dispossessing people groups, supporting wars, deceptions, frauds, and murder of innocents – which does NOT represent Jesus!!!
Today’s Zionism is a secular political agenda that has taken scriptures from the Biblical narrative out of context and misapplied those scriptures to Zionism to give it an appearance of legitimacy. There were many Christian pastors and others in the early 20th century that spoke out against Zionism – but their voices were drowned out by the Zionist forces of that day. In 1949 Professor Millar Burrows of the Yale School of Divinity in his book Palestine Is Our Business states: “A terrible wrong has been done to the native people of Palestine…Our own interests, both as Americans and Christians, are endangered. The interests of the Jewish people also have suffered. And we can still do something about it”. He goes on to say: “One thing is certain. Nothing that is essentially unjust or contrary to the Spirit of Christ can be the will of God. Let him who speaks of the fulfillment of prophesy remember Jer. 22:13 – ‘Woe unto him that buildeth his house by unrighteousness’…”
Pastors Georgiev and Dumanovsky, we would welcome any dialog that you would like to have with us during this vigil, or before the vigil through email. We also are brothers and sisters in Christ and our desire is “to seek peace and pursue it”, 1Peter 3:11. Please feel free to contact me with any questions or comments.
Thank you for reading this.
For Jesus and His Kingdom,
Craig Hanson
California Outreach Director
We Hold These Truths
11/15/15
