Coloradans For Justice In Palestine will Join We Hold These Truths in Vigil at:
January 16, 2015
We Hold These Truths and others will hold a vigil for peace, life and justice at Resurrection Fellowship, at various hours, during its three day, Israel Summit, Stand Firm event. You may be sure we will be orderly and legal, and the police will be notified of each appearance. We will make this letter available to leaders of other area churches. This letter represents the views of the undersigned only.
To: Pastor Jonathan Wiggins
Trustees, Overseers, Others
Resurrection Fellowship
6202 Crossroads Blvd.
Loveland, CO, 80538
Phone 970 667 5478
dkline@rez.org
Dear Pastor Wiggins:
I am saddened to learn you are holding a three day session which you call, Israel Summit, Stand Firm. Your “Christian” organization is openly honoring a country that has, in the last six months, slaughtered about 2500 Palestinians who live within land Israel claims to be within its borders. About 500 of those killed were Palestinian children. I am in sympathy with you, for you are deceived as I once was, but you are now deceiving others.
Your distorted statement in your vision for this Israel Summit reads:
“We are to acknowledge and seek after the blessing God promised to those who will bless Israel, and to refuse to silence the life changing Gospel of the lord Jesus Christ to the end of the earth.”
It is distorted because you are attempting to blend Jesus, the Peacemaker, together with Israel, the warmaker. No one can honor both.
Today’s Israelis neither worship Jesus, nor did they kill him. They simply borrowed “Israel” for a name. Jesus told the Pharisees of his day in Matthew 8,“Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do“. Pastor, please do not associate Jesus with today’s political murderers.
I note that you have among your speakers, George Morrison of Faith Bible Chapel, in Arvada, CO, who is on the executive committee of John Hagee’s Christians United For Israel. Mr. Hagee is on public record for praying “in Jesus’ name” that the United States would go to war against Iraq in 2003 and in 2007 calling for a preemptive strike on the people of Iran. Do you agree with Mr. Hagee’s prayers for war? Israel’s leaders do.(1 & 2)
Christian Zionism is a death cult, and you are leading your congregation into it. And, you are also bringing in several Messianic Christians as speakers. Are you sure they are not Israel followers, who make a pretext of following Christ. In fact, “Messianic Churches” often introduce Christians to talmudic Jewish rituals, that always place Israel on the throne next to Jesus. The acid test of Christian Zionism is the erroneous belief that Israel is the fulfillment of the Old Testament. No, Jesus tells us He is that fulfillment. You are deceiving your followers if you allow them to be taught otherwise by Messianic Israelis.
I saw Gaza under attack in 2002, when Israel bombed without resistance. I call your attention to my own filming of a deadly Israeli chopper raid in Gaza. Will you watch the bombing that killed four and wounded 40? (2)
But that was only a beginning. In 2008, Israel callously named its air attack on Gaza, Operation Cast Lead. The name suggested the pouring of molten metal upon something. Most women and children died of burns, including white phosphorus fires. Israel indeed did cast molten metal upon thousands of women and children’s homes. Between 1,166 and 1,417 Palestinians died, according to Israel’s own count, and no accounting was offered of the maimed and wounded. Only 13 Israeli soldiers were lost, this according to Israel’s own Shin Bet sources.
Pastor, Israel’s brutality is accelerating the killing with each new attack. For, in the summer of 2014, the whole world witnessed the most brutal bombing of all, Israel’s Operation Protective Edge,[3] an organized, racist, ethnic cleansing, aimed at the destruction of the homes and infrastructure needed for the very humble life of the 1.8 million imprisoned Gazans. Israel has admitted it destroyed the power plant, water wells and conduits, sewage treatment facilities, and many health facilities. Few in Gaza can have a full life anymore. There is no way to guess how many will not survive wounds, diseases and deprivation. Yet you, Pastor Wiggins, want to “stand firm” with Israel while Gazans are freezing in the dark without shelter. Do you doubt Jesus will witness our acts? What will His response be?
Pastor, you are not only a moral threat to your own misled congregation members, but you are a financial risk to every citizen in America, for our citizens have funded 24 years of ongoing war that have upset the world’s economy, and placed the USA in $17 trillion dollars of debt, and served only Israel’s interests. And, not one of those wars could exist without the support of Christian Zionists like yourself. Shame on you Pastor! You are tax exempt; you support those who campaign for more war, but you do not pay your share!
My prayer is that you will cancel this event. I will be willing to meet with you at your convenience to talk about this issue, and I am certifying delivery of this letter to you.
Toward the Strait Gate, (Mt. 7:13)
Charles E Carlson
Notes:
[1] “John Hagee with Benny Hinn: Praying for War, In the Name of Jesus,” We Hold These Truths, (c) 2012: http://whtt.podbean.com/e/john-hagee-with-benny-hinn-praying-for-war-in-the-name-of-jesus/
[2] Christian Zionism: The Tragedy and The Turning, Part I, WHTT, (c) 2010: https://whtt.org/christian-zionism/
[3] “Israel’s March to Genocidal Ethnic Cleansing of Palestinians In Gaza,” WHTT, July 22, 2014: http://whtt.podbean.com/e/israels-march-to-genocidal-ethnic-cleansing-of-palestinians-in-gaza/
