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We are a Christian Fellowship meeting in North London with a strong interest in teaching the Bible and understanding our time in
the light of Bible prophecy
Chief Rabbi speaks out
Britain’s Chief Rabbi, Jonathan Sacks, raised a major controversy by
granting an interview to The Guardian, given the title Israel set on a
tragic path, says chief rabbi. In it he warned that Israel is adopting a
stance that is incompatible with the deepest ideals of Judaism and that
the current conflict with the Palestinians is corrupting Israeli culture.
He also criticised the Palestinians for failing to respond to Israeli peace
moves and called for both sides to listen to one another, hear each others
anguish and anger.
The Guardian hailed the Chief Rabbis courage to speak out, as did a
number of other rabbis in Britain and in Israel. But letters to the Jewish
Chronicle (30/8/02) accused him of giving comfort to Israel’s enemies and
sowing the seeds of discord within the Jewish community. The Israeli
Embassy responded by saying, In this war of self defence, Israel maintains
the highest moral ground and adheres to a strict ethical code.
The political reality is that while most Israelis would like to have a peace
agreement with the Palestinians, they know that the Arab world still has a
desire to eliminate the Jewish state altogether. Israeli Defence Force Chief
of Staff, General Yaalon, told a gathering of rabbis in Israel that the
current Palestinian leadership is trying to destroy Israel step by step.
The first step is to establish a Palestinian state with international
approval. The second step is to use that state to dismantle Israel.
Arafat used this strategy during the days of the Oslo Accords signed in
1993. By 1995 it was becoming clear to Israeli intelligence that he remained
a sworn enemy of Israel and that he had only signed the agreement with the
intention of breaking it once his power was consolidated. This fact was
generally suppressed to avoid upsetting the peace process. As a result
tragic mistakes were made leading to the deaths of many in Israel. (Haaretz
16/8/02).
Today the world is pushing Israel once again to sign an agreement with the
Palestinians leading to a settlement on the basis of Israeli withdrawal from
the territories occupied in 1967, including the Old City of Jerusalem.
Israel has been traumatised by two years of suicide terrorism with evidence
of Arafat’s collusion in this, so there is not much trust left on Israel’s
side to make such an agreement.
The international community is desperate to get an agreement under way so it
can pursue its own agenda in the Middle East without the troublesome
Israel Palestinian conflict. The intervention of influential moral voices
like Rabbi Sacks is very helpful to this cause by softening up Israeli and
world Jewish opinion so that they will be willing to make sacrifices for
peace and overlook the fact that nothing has changed the Palestinian
leadership still seeks the destruction of Israel.
With this in mind it is interesting to look at further articles taken from
Rabbi Sacks new book The Dignity of Difference, featured in The Guardian,
where he is billed as the rabbi who wants to fix the world. He writes
of the need for a covenant framing our shared vision for the future of
humanity.
In this cause he makes some very radical statements about monotheism and the
Bible. The proposition at the heart of monotheism is not what it has been
traditionally taken to be: one God, therefore one faith, one truth, one way.
On the contrary it is that unity creates diversity.
The key narrative is the Tower of Babel. God splits up humanity into a
multiplicity of cultures and a diversity of languages. Gods message to
Abraham is: Be different, so as to teach humanity the dignity of
difference.
Can I, a Jew, hear echoes of Gods voice in that of a Hindu or Sikh or
Christian or Muslim?
This kind of thought goes down very well in globalist circles and fits in
with the desire to bring people together through a multi-faith concept that
all gods are equal. It does not fit in at all well with the text of the
Bible.
Babel (meaning confusion) is the same word as Babylon, the source of
spiritual wickedness throughout the Bible. Its founder was Nimrod whose name
is connected to the Hebrew word marad meaning to rebel. In the Talmud he
is depicted as a persecutor and would be destroyer of Abraham. Abraham’s
role and subsequently Israel’s role was not to teach the dignity of
difference, but the folly of idolatry and the uniqueness of God who alone is
Creator, Redeemer and Judge.
God made a covenant with Abraham giving to him and his descendants through
Isaac and Jacob the title deeds of the land of Israel (Genesis 15.7-18,
17.18-21). It is a sign of the reality of that covenant God that today his
descendants are back in that land after centuries of dispersion.
The fact that there is no peace in the land also ties up with the prophecies
of the end of days, in which we read of the time of Jacobs trouble
(Jeremiah 30.7). However much Rabbi Sacks pleads for tolerance and peace,
radical Islam will always seek the elimination of Israel. This too is
prophesied in the Bible where we read of the nations surrounding Israel
making a conspiracy in which they aim to cut them off from being a nation
that the name of Israel be remembered no more (Psalm 83.4) and the rest of
the world pushing Israel into a phoney peace deal described in Isaiah 28.15
as a covenant with death based on lies and falsehood.
Peace and justice are good ideals, but they will only be achieved by Gods
intervention, not by a false union of religions. Zechariah 12.3 tells us
that Jerusalem will be a burdensome stone for all nations and that at a time
of world conflict over Jerusalem Jewish people will be saved by looking to
one who has been pierced (Zechariah 12.10). Who is this about? Yeshua,
Jesus, the Messiah who has come once to fulfil the prophecies of the
suffering servant dying as a sacrifice for sins and rising again from the
dead. He is coming again soon to fulfil the prophecies of the reigning king
and bring peace and justice to Israel and the world.
On the issue of monotheism Yeshua disagrees with Rabbi Sacks. He says, I am
the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but by me.
John 14.6.
