Christian Cult - Japanese
April 3, 2025
l イントロダクション
マタイ 24 章・ルカ 21 章のオリーブ山の訓戒でイエスさまは偽教師、偽預言 者、偽クリスチャンに関して警告されました。 私が救われて間もなかった頃、 その箇所を読むと私の頭の中にはエホバの証人やモルモン教などのことが浮か びました。今世紀になって、また特に過去この 20 年間でカルトが急増している ことは紛れもなく聖書の預言した通りであり、そのことに疑問はありません。 ですが、それはイエスさまが主に警告していた偽教師や偽預言者ではありませ ん。イエスさまは終わりの時代に現れ、選ばれた者たちをも騙そうとする者た ちのことを語っていました（マタイ 24 章 24 節）。
もちろん選ばれた者たちが騙されるなんてあり得ないという人たちがいます。 ですがそれ自体が嘘です。起こりもしないことをイエスさまが何度も警告する ことはありません。それはそうとして、イエスさまはクリスチャンを騙す人た ちに関して警告していました。モルモン教やエホバの証人に騙される人がいる なら、それは救われて間もない人か、物事を何も知らない人たちです。救われ て 3 年、4 年、5 年経った人たちはそのような人たちの犠牲にはなりません。
l 人から始まる カルトにも神学的な「カルト」と社会的な「カルト」があります。ですが、
この二つはどこかの時点で必然的に合流し、ひとつとなります。
あなたがたはめいめいに、「私はパウロにつく」「私はアポロに」「私 はケパに」「私はキリストにつく」と言っているということです。 キリストが分割されたのですか。あなたがたのために十字架につけ られたのはパウロでしょうか。あなたがたがバプテスマを受けたの はパウロの名によるのでしょうか（1 コリント 1 章 12 節－13 節）
人々は「パウロにつく」、「ケパにつく」、「アポロにつく」と言っていました。
「私はキリストにつく」と言っていた人たちは「どんな指導者をも認めず、指
導者の必要性も感じない。イエスが私たちのリーダーだ。牧師の権威など認め ない」と考えていました。人々は「私はあの人につく、あの人につく」と言い、 人を教祖に祭り上げてしまいました。
カルトの行うことは、関心を人間に向けること、時には死人に向けることで す。今日のカルト――福音派のカルト――でも創始者が生きていた時より、死 んだ後のほうが人気のあるカルトが存在します。
アッセンブリーズ･オブ･ゴッドはウィリアム・ブランハム（William Branham ※１）が生きていた時にも彼の考えを退けました。E・W・ケニヨン
（E. W. Kenyon ※２）の考えはペンテコステ派主流にとっては忌むべきもので した。「神の子たちの現れ・後の雨運動」、「再建主義、神の国は今」などのよう
なものは、40年代から50年代のアッセンブリーズ・オブ・ゴッドを含め、ペン テコステ派主流によって一般的に退けられていました。カルトと見なされてい たのです。これらかつてはカルトや異端と見られていたものは、現代急激に台 頭してきており、今日でもブランハムを信奉する者たちがいます。
カルトのリーダーは死んだ人物であることもあります。それはエホバの証人 やモルモン教のようなカルトのことではなく、真実の福音を信じる人たちのカ ルトです。人がそのような団体の中で救われると問題が発生します。モルモン 教徒が救われても何ら問題はありません。ジョセフ・スミス（Joseph Smith） は偽預言者だと分かっているので、モルモン教全体も偽りの道に入っているこ とが分かります。エホバの証人が救われても何ら問題はありません。チャール ズ・テーゼ・ラッセル（Charles Taze Russell）も偽預言者だったので、ものみ の塔も終わっています。ですが「クリスチャンカルト」を通して人が救われる と大きな問題が発生します。クリスチャンカルトとは神学的には「教会」です が、社会的に「カルト」である団体です。
そのように神学的にだけ「教会」で、社会的にカルトである団体は次第に異 端的になってきます。背教的な教えに引き込まれていくのです。ですがそのよ うな団体も最初は真実の福音をもって始まりました。
このような団体を通して救われると、人は真に新生したために、指導者が霊 的、心理的な影響を強く持ち、指導者からコントロールされるようになります。
私は「神の子ら（The Children of God）」という団体を通して新生しました。
クリスチャンになって最初の 5 年間はそのような団体と関わっていました。も うひとつは「聖書を理解する教会（The Church of Bible Understanding）」と いうものでした。また別のクリスチャンカルトは「聖書は語る（The Bible Speaks 別名 Greater Grace）」というものでした。そのようなカルトがなぜそ れほど危険かというと、真実の福音を伝えているからです。エホバの証人やモ ルモン教を排除する方法でそれらは排除できません。大きな問題がそこにはあ
ります。その団体に属している人と、そのような団体を通して救われた人は束 縛の下にあります。霊的に、そして心理的にも縛られてしまうのです。
l カルトの第一のしるし パウロなど使徒たちがこのような精神に反対していたことに注目してくださ
い。パウロがあなたを救ったのでしょうか？救いをもたらしたのはイエスであ って、福音であり、教会ではありません。ローマ・カトリック教会は救いの道 具だと自称し、司祭によって執り行われた秘跡によって、人が救われると教え ています（エクス・オペレ・オペラート）。これらの団体はキリストを宣べ伝え ますが、キリストとその団体との区別はつけません。
パウロは後にガラテヤ人への手紙で「肉の行ない」（ガラテヤ 5 章 19 節）「党 派心（20 節）」と呼んだカルトの第一の性質を非難していました。
「党派心、分裂、分派」（ガラテヤ 5 章 20 節）カルトの第一のしるしはパウ ロが「党派心」と呼んだものです。党派心の罪は、特定の団体が自分たちだけ が聖書の真理を握っていると主張するところに発生します。党派心を生むもの のひとつにグノーシス主義があります。グノーシス（Gnosis）とは「神秘的知 識」を表すギリシア語から来ています（1 テモテ 6 章 20 節「霊知」）。
ローマ・カトリック教会内にあるグノーシス主義は「センサス・プレニア
（sensus plenior）」――聖書の「完全な意味」というものです。聖書にはより 豊かな意味があることは事実ですが、ローマ・カトリック教会の主張している ことは、教皇がペテロの後継者であるために、みことばの意味を間違いなく定 義でき、それを基礎に教理を作ることが出来るということなのです。
グノーシス主義においては、聖書の釈義が大事なのではなく、聖書について 語る指導者の言葉が重要視されています。
ジョン・ウィンバーの運動である「ヴィンヤードムーブメント」は初代教会 にも存在したクリスチャンのグノーシス主義に基づいています。例えば、ヴィ ンヤードや後の雨運動、カンザスシティーの預言者などの基本的な教えは、再 建主義であり、「ヨエルの軍隊」と呼ばれるものです。
「町を襲い、城壁の上を走る。 主の命令を行なう者は力強い」
これはいなごに譬えられています。歴史的な背景からこれはネブカデネザル の軍隊で、悔い改めないユダを裁くために神が用いた軍隊です。ですがこれは また黙示録に登場する反キリストの軍隊の象徴でもあります。ヨエル書に登場 したいなごは黙示録でも再び現れています。それゆえ、この軍隊が何であれ、 終わりの時代に登場する反キリストの軍隊であり、ヨエル書 2 章 20 節には「わ たしはこれを滅ぼす。その臭いは天にまで立ち上る。それを西の海に追いやろ う」とあります。ヴィンヤード運動はこれが自分たちだと教えています。神に 裁かれ、滅ぼされる軍隊に入りたいと思う人たちがもしいるなら、ヴィンヤー ド運動に入るべきです。神の子たちの現れや後の雨運動もしかりです。
彼らにとっては聖書が何を語っているかは問題ではありません。神秘的知識 が語ることだけが重要なのです。「神さまが私だけに見せてくださった」という ようにです。
コープランドとヘーゲンは共にケニヨンの教えに頼っています。イエスさま が十字架上で「完了した」（ヨハネ 19 章 30 節）、また「父よ。わが霊を御手に ゆだねます」（ルカ 23 章 46 節）と言ったにもかかわらず、ケニヨン信奉者たち は「十字架上ではイエスさまではなくサタンが勝利を得たという啓示を、私は 受けた。イエスさまは三日三晩地獄で拷問を受け、サタンとひとつの性質とな り、そのサタン付きのイエスさまは地獄で新生し、死人からよみがえった」と 主張します。このようなものはイエスと全くの別人物であり、買い取ってくだ さった主をも否定する偽りの福音です。
繁栄の説教者たちもそうです。「神は私に 啓示を与えて下さった」と言いま すが、これらはみなカルト的です。
それには何よりも次のことを知っていなければいけません。すなわ ち、聖書の預言はみな、人の私的解釈を施してはならない、という
ことです。なぜなら、預言は決して人間の意志によってもたらされ たのではなく、聖霊に動かされた人たちが、神からのことばを語っ
たのだからです（2 ペテロ 1 章 20 節－21 節）
この節の直後に「パレイサズーシン（pareisazousin）」――「偽りの傍に真 理を置く」というギリシア語が登場します。そのような人たちは聖書預言の解 釈などを自分の解釈次第であるかのようにみなしてしまっています。それゆえ 聖書が何を語っているかが大事なのではなく、その指導者がどう語っているか が重要視されているのです。
l 人の上に立とうとする者たち これらの二つの特徴（党派心とグノーシス主義）が重なれば、第三のものが
来るのも時間の問題です。
イエスさまはニコライ派の行いを憎みました（黙示録 2 章 6 節）。ニコライ
派がどのような人たちであったか歴史から知ることは出来ません。使徒 6 章に 列挙されている執事たちのうちの息子がニコライで、ニコライ派は彼に従って いたのではないかという推測がありますが、誰も分かりません。このような話 は伝承から来たものです。ですが私たちが知ることが出来るのは「ニコライ派」 のギリシア語における意味です。「ニコス（nikos）」は「抑圧」、「ラオディクー ス（laodikeus）」は「民」という意味です。彼らは自分たちを支配層に押し上げ たのです。
次のような主のことばが私にあった。「人の子よ。イスラエルの牧 者たちに向かって預言せよ。
（ヘブライ語で「羊飼い」と「牧師」とは同じ言葉です）
預言して、彼ら、牧者たちに言え。神である主はこう仰せられる。 ああ。自分を肥やしているイスラエルの牧者たち。牧者は羊を養わ なければならないのではないか。あなたがたは脂肪を食べ、羊の毛 を身にまとい、肥えた羊をほふるが、羊を養わない。弱った羊を強 めず、病気のものをいやさず、傷ついたものを包まず、迷い出たも のを連れ戻さず、失われたものを捜さず、かえって力ずくと暴力で 彼らを支配した。彼らは牧者がいないので、散らされ、あらゆる野
の獣のえじきとなり、散らされてしまった。（エゼキエル 34 章 1
節－5 節）
聖書的なリーダーシップは模範によるものであり、他者を支配するものでは ありません。イエスさまはこのことでパリサイ人を強く非難しましたが、これ が初代教会にも入り込んでしまっていました。
「党派心」のあるところには大抵の場合、「グノーシス主義」があります。人々 は「あの先生は私たちより聖書に精通しておられるから」と言います。
ある時、本当におかしなことを語る人がいて、完全に異端でした。ですがそ の人は聖書に関して非常に深い洞察力を持っていました。自分の知名度を気に している指導者たちに気をつけましょう。本当に賜物のある人が、自己崇拝す る人々を容認している時には警戒しましょう。人はそのような人に関して「私 たちは先生のしていることが理解できないが、先生は私たちよりも神に近いお 方だ。深い洞察力を持っておられる」と言います。深い洞察力を持っているの は事実かもしれませんが、聖書の語ることと正反対を行っているなら、「あなた がたが仕えようと思うものを、どれでも、きょう選ぶがよい」という状況と同 じです（ヨシュア 24 章 15 節）。ですがそのような時点になると、従っている人 たちはもうすでに強い束縛の下に置かれています。
次に来るものはニコライ派の行い、重いくびきを負わせることです。「我々に 異議を唱え、我々に挑戦するとは君は一体何様のつもりなんだ。君は反抗的な 霊を持っている」と指導者は語ります。
l カルト指導者の人格 法医学の精神科医も同じことを言うと思いますが、カルト指導者の人格は独
裁者の人格とほぼ同じものです。アドルフ・ヒトラーやジョセフ・スターリン を含む多くの独裁者たちに関して、法医学の精神科医による評価が下されまし た。精神科医の一団が 1940 年代のイギリスやアメリカ連合軍に対するアドル フ・ヒトラーやジョセフ・スターリンの人格評価を行った際、彼らはあること について意見が一致しました。それはヒトラーやスターリンは、スターリング ラードの戦い（1942・1943 年）やバルジの戦い（1944・1945 年）で戦う勇気 は持っておらず、強制収容所の人々に強制したことを自分たちが行うのは明ら かに耐えられなかっただろうということでした。
カルト指導者は独裁者のようなもので精神的に不安定です。カルト指導者は 人格的に精神不安定であり、より精神不安定な者たちを回りに集めることによ り、その人たちをコントロールし、彼らを通して人々のもとに行きます。カル ト指導者は、一緒に怒鳴りつけてくれる者無しには、ほとんど誰かと関わろう としません。カルト指導者は基本的に自分の言うことを繰り返すだけのオウム のような人物を送り出します。カルト指導者は精神不安定であり、その部下、 代理人もまた精神不安定で容易に操作されてしまう人たちです。
すべての人が同じ訳ではありませんが、ひとつのことは確実に言えます。あ る人が新生したなら、その人は霊的に変化し始めます。そして霊的に変化する と、心理的に変化してきます。神は人を内から外へと変えていきます。イエス にあって成長するにつれて、その人はキリストにあって安定していき、共にキ リストにある者たちと和合するようになります。クリスチャンのカルトではこ れが起こりません。クリスチャンのカルトとは神学的には「教会」ですが、社 会的に「カルト」である団体です。その人たちはキリストにあって安定するこ とがありません。彼らの安定は指導者との関係性に基づいてしまっています。 程度の差こそあれ、カルトに属する者はすべて同じです。
再建主義神学に陥っている大半の「ハウスチャーチ運動」は、どの程度カル ト化しているかで差があるだけです（1990 年代から始まったハウスチャーチ運 動は、新使徒改革を通してキリストが再臨する前に、この世に神の国を打ち建 てることを目指してきました。その中で悪名高いのがピーター・ワグナー、シ ンディー・ジェイコブス、リック・ジョイナー、ビル・ジョンソンです）。みな 同じ道をたどっています。そのようなハウスチャーチ運動とエホバの証人やデ イビッド・コレシュが違う点は、ただ彼らの方がより深く堕ちて行ってしまっ ているということだけです。神学的には「教会」であっても社会的に「カルト」 である教会は時間が経つと確実に異端の教えを持つようになります。ささいな 誤りではなく、根本的な誤りです。「神の子ら」もそれをし、「聖書を理解する 教会」もそれを行いました。時間が経つとそのようなものは教理的誤りに陥る のです。しかしそれはただの始まりに過ぎません。
このような人たちは精神的に不安定なので、自分たちが知らないことを知っ ている人を恐れます。
私たちは教育を崇拝すべきではありません。アポロとパウロは正式な学問が
ありましたが、ペテロとヨハネはそうではありませんでした。そうであっても ペテロとヨハネの持つ使徒の権威はパウロのものに劣ることはありませんでし た。しかしながらペテロは手紙の中で「これらのことは複雑だ。パウロがそれ
らを説明するほうが良い」と語っています（2 ペテロ 3 章 15 節－16 節参照）。
ある人の知性が十字架にかけられ、知性に頼らず、キリストに頼ることを学 べば、知性はとても良いしもべとなります。「知性」は良いしもべですが危険な 主人です。ですが「無知」は死をもたらす主人です。「知性」は良いしもべです が悪い主人です。「無知」は悪いしもべであるだけでなく、死をもたらす主人で す。
このような人たちが神学校や聖書学校、ギリシア語を読める人々を無意識の うちに貶めるのが見受けられるでしょう。彼らはその人々を恐れるでしょうか ら。彼らは自分の知らないことを知っている人々に出会うと、自分の団体の中 でその人々を貶め、卑下し、笑い者にせずにはいられないでしょう。彼らは原 語のギリシア語やヘブライ語を読め、神学校に行った人たちが自分たちにとっ て脅威であると知っています。それは独裁者たちと同じです。彼らは自分が持 っていない知識を持つ者を恐れるので、結果その人たちを貶めるのです。「そん なもの必要無い」と彼らは言います。そしてそれ自体は事実であることを言い ます。「大学には博士号を持ち、ギリシア語やヘブライ語が読める者が多くいる が、彼らは地獄へ向かっている。彼らは救われてもいない」彼らはその点を強 調しますが、コインの裏側を見ようとはしません。彼らは人をコントロールす るのに見合うことだけを強調します。
独裁者やカルト指導者たちを見ると、彼らは自分自身が精神不安定であるた めに、人々を同じく精神不安定にすることによってだけコントロールすること が出来ると分かります。
l 教理の誤りを越えて 最終的に彼らは教理の誤りに陥ります。ですが必然的にある時点からふたつ
の事柄――両方同時とはいかなくとも――が起こります。最初のものはエゼキ エル 34 章に記されたような金銭的不祥事です。「あなたたがは私腹を肥やすた めに羊をほふるが、彼らの生活を見てみなさい」（エゼキエル 34 章参照）
ひとつの例が、ネズミが出るような犯罪率が多いスラムに信徒たちが住む一
方で、5 機の飛行機を保有し、バハマで二人目の妻と休日を楽しんでいる指導者 です。ある人はニューヨークシティーの劣悪な地域に住み、一日 14 時間カーペ ットを掃除し、すべてのお金をそのカルトに寄付しています。その寄付の名目
はハイチに住む子供たちに与えるためだといわれています。もしかすると寄付 金の一部がそこに届いたかもしれませんが、確実にそのお金はその指導者と彼 の妻しか乗らない 5 機の飛行機のために使われたことでしょう。
金銭的不祥事が最初のものです。そこには大抵の場合、格差が見受けられま す。奉仕は仕える立場であるはずなのに、牧師たちは「先生」と呼ばれる栄誉 と、世俗社会では得られない金銭的な地位を得ようとしています。世界的に見 て、これらのことはペンテコステ派の牧師たちの中に見られ、神学的な理解は ないがしろにされ、お金や繁栄が強調されています。（このようなことは、仏教 カルト「幸福の科学」にも見られるものです。神道の神官でも家から霊を追い 払う振りをして、人を恐れさせ、お金を巻き上げています）
このような人たちの中に多くの場合、見受けられる二つ目のものは性的不祥 事――性的不品行です。それは明らかになるまで、ある期間は内密に行われま す。
短期的にカルトを見ると、これらが脱出するための警告です。そこにはある 形でグノーシス主義と関連した「党派心」の罪があります。そして他者が気付 いてこなかったとする教理の偏りがあり、支持者たちはそれに傾倒しなければ なりません。その時点で脱出しなかった場合はその次に金銭的不正があり、金 銭の搾取があります。非常に多くの場合、金銭の搾取を行うためにその人たち は什一献金などの聖書の教えを歪曲します。そしてそこには不品行――大抵の 場合性的なものがあり、異常な性的嗜好を持つ者までが時には存在します。
l どのようにして生じるのか 新約聖書から読み取れるサタンの最初のトリックは、4 世紀に教会を異教化
する以前、教会をユダヤ教化することでした。といってもこれは教会を「ユダ
ヤ化」することとは違います。教会は事実神学的にユダヤ的なものだからです。 イスラエルは本来の根です（ローマ 11 章）。聖書はヘレニズムの観点から理解 されるべきではなく、ユダヤ・キリスト教の観点から理解されるべきです。主 はみことばをご自分の民、文化を持つ国を通して啓示されたため、私たちはそ れを理解しなければなりません。聖書的キリスト教を理解するためには、聖書
的ユダヤ教をまず神学的に理解することが必要不可欠です。イエスさまは律法 を成就されました。サタンの最初の誘惑は人々を律法の下に置くことであり、 本来キリストを指し示すものとしての律法を違った形で用いることでした。
これは慣習とは違います。イスラエル系ユダヤ人の家族を持ち、ガラリヤで 生れた子供を持つ者として、私たちは文化のためと、未信のユダヤ人への証の ために過越の祭りを守っています。ドアにはメズザーもあり、家庭でヘブライ 語を話しています。ハヌカを祝えば、プリムも祝い、ユダヤの祭りの多くを祝 います。私たちは日曜に教会に行き、土曜日――安息日にはメシアニック系の 交わりに参加します。従ってサタンが教会をユダヤ教化したということは、自 分の文化の中でユダヤ人に福音を伝えようとして文化を守ることとは違います。 これは間違っていません。また第一コリント人への手紙 9 章でパウロが語って いるような、証のために文化を採用した人たちによるユダヤ人への伝道も同じ です。問題となってくるのは律法を守ることが、救いや聖化に必要不可欠だと 誰かが主張する時です。そのような人たちは「あなたたちは恵みによって救わ れたけれど…」と言います。
律法を守ることが救いに不可欠だと言われる時にはそれは「律法主義」に陥 っています。聖化のために不可欠だと言われる時、また救われた人があれやこ れをしなければならないと言われる時、それは「ノミアン主義（Nomianism）」 と呼ばれます（その言葉はギリシア語の「ノモス」から来ています）。
今日、二つの契約の下で生きようとしている二種類のグループに気をつけな ければなりません。ひとつはメシアニック運動の過激派です。これにはアーノ ルド・フルクテンバウム（Arnold Fruchtenbaum）のようなメシアニックの良 い教師や、新約聖書のユダヤ的背景の理解を助けている人たちなどは含まれて いません。またユダヤ人に伝道するためにユダヤ的文化の枠組みで礼拝してい る人たちもこれには含まれません。問題なのは、律法を守ることが義務だと教 える人たちです。
デイビッド・クリス（David Kriss）という人がメルボルンにいますが、彼は 危険な人物です。しかし彼だけが過激派メシアニックではありません。イング ランドでは最終的に刑務所に入れられたフィリップ・シャープ（Philip Sharp） という人がいます。彼はイスラエル人の妻と子供を捨て、集会で自分を王なる メシアとして崇めさせていました。彼は「メシアニック・ジューイッシュ・ラ ビ」でした。ある人たちは狂っています。クイーンズランドにはある種のハラ
ハー共同体がありますが、私はそこに近づくことさえもしたいと思いません。
再度強調しますが、これにはアーノルド・フルクテンバウムやアルト・カッ ツ（Art Katz）のような人は含まれていません。私は良い人たちのことを言っ ているのではなく、おかしな人たちのことを指摘しています。ですがメシアニ ック・ジューだけが隔ての壁を再建しようとしているのではありません。二つ の契約の下で生きようとする人たちが他にもいます。それはセブンスデイ・ア ドベンチストです。デイビッド・コレシュ（David Koresh 信者の集団自決を 引き起こしたカルト指導者）の信奉者たちの大半がセブンスデイ・アドベンチ ストでした。
二つの契約の下で生きるような、深刻で根本的な教理の誤りに陥ると、人は さらに深刻な誤りに陥りやすくなります。いったん根本的な教理の誤りに陥る と、自動的にその人はより深刻で、より危険な誤りに対して無防備になります。 ただそこにあるのは程度の違いだけです。
デイビッド・コレシュについて記された記録を読むと信じ難いものですが、 福音派のカルトでも不可解な事を人々に行わせた
Staying The Course Amidst Isolation Rubin Rothler LLB, LLM Living in Israel one gets the feeling that the metaphorical walls are closing in. Israel's reputation is being tarnished all over social media and the mainstream media, and this is reflected in massive public disdain towards this country. We are constantly told that there is near consensus amongst academics and commentators that a genocide was committed in Gaza. The very legitimacy of the state is brought into question. The majority of Americans are now hostile towards Israel. There is real fear that the next U.S. administration will turn against Israel. Even if this were to happen passively, by the U.S. refraining from exercising its veto power towards Security Council Resolutions condemning Israeli actions this could be catastrophic. Internally it is a fractured society leaning increasingly right wing which further alienates Israel from world opinion. An example in point is how Ben Gvir mocked the most recent participants of a global aid flotilla to Gaza. Such conduct further agitates outrage at Israel. The left-wing media presents the ruins of Gaza as a mortal wound in Israel's side. When the world observes this level of carnage no degree of public relations can ameliorate the sense of indignation towards Israel. We can liken the situation of Israel to that of a depressed person. All he sees is hopelessness and gloom. But this isn't the first time that the Jewish nation has been faced with such darkness. Things change and we don't know how the geo-political map will reconfigure in the future. We need to ride out this storm and keep going. On a historical note, the situation is reminiscent of what our ancestors faced when we returned from the Babylonian exile to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. Nehemiah was faced with constant lies and conspiracies designed to entrap him by hostile actors: Sanballat the Horonite, Tobiah the Ammonite and Geshem the Arab. They employed deception, slander and ridicule in order to maintain their political eminence. There was also a certain sense of abandonment amongst the Jews in Israel then as in our own day. We read in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah about the anguish of the leadership in Israel concerning the lack of assistance from the Babylonian diaspora towards the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem and the Temple. Only 20% of the exiles returned to the land. It was largely the poor who returned. Most of the affluent, established Jews remained in Exile. This is a continuing theme in Jewish history. It is also important to observe that from its very beginnings there were bible believing Christians who spearheaded the return of the Jews to their land. The idea of organizing a return of the Jews to Israel began as a Protestant Restorationist objective that can be traced to 17th century Puritan England. The protagonists of the Cromwellian Republic viewed themselves as the new Israel fighting the Papist forces of Satan. Alongside this, interest grew in the notion that biblical prophecies pertaining to the return of the Jews to Israel were a necessary precursor for the return of Christ. The growth of the British Empire in the 19th century lent political clout to Christian Restorationism with specific missions to the Jews established. Although there had been a longing to return to Israel as written in the thrice daily Amidah prayer, Jewish Zionism arose in the midst of mid nineteenth century nationalism and was further fermented by European antisemitism. It was an altogether secular enterprise. Although Israel's situation appears rather stark, we can draw strength from the Providence afforded to our ancestors in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah when they too were faced with defamation. This is also an opportunity to grow closer to our natural allies in the evangelical world who from the beginning of Zionism were steadfast supporters of the project to establish a Jewish homeland in Israel. (Author is an Israeli American lawyer academically qualified in British and in U.S.A. law, and a graduate of the School of Oriental & African Studies, London. He is a Jewish believer in Jesus and is currently based in Israel).
Signs of the Times Tony Pearce Left, right or center – is our democracy in danger “Things fall apart, the center does not hold. Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world.” W.B Yeats ‘The Second Coming. ’ Labour’s losses in the council elections and the battle for succession to their unpopular leader Kier Starmer have raised the possibility that we may soon have our seventh Prime Minister in ten years. Local elections saw Reform and the Greens make sweeping gains, leading Green Party leader, Zack Polanski to say that we are seeing ‘the end of the old two party system’. Maybe we are. In which case what comes next? Will we head to the far left, the far right or will the center hold on to power? Or will it end with ungovernable chaos as unqualified people take control of local and national government? Behind all this there are fundamental questions, ‘What is government for? Who does it represent and where is it going?’ According to the Bible (Romans 13) the purpose of government is to promote good and restrain evil. The government has the right to raise taxes for the common good of society and people should pay them. In 1 Timothy 2 Paul encourages us to pray for the government that ‘we may live a godly and peaceable life’. In other words, pray that the government will create an orderly and peaceful society and not interfere with our right to set up communities that teach and preach the Word of God. The situation becomes more difficult when we see government promoting things which are harmful and restraining things which are good and clamping down on freedom of speech with a threat to our ability to live a ‘godly and peaceable life’ Since becoming a Christian in my early twenties, I have wrestled with the question of how our faith applies to contemporary political issues. I started this quest on the left politically after leaving university and working as an English teacher with sympathies for Marxism. I then became a born again Christian in 1970, and joined my late wife Nikki in evangelizing the radical left, by handing out leaflets at their marches and demonstrations in London and attending their meetings to discuss matters of faith and politics with them. We had some good discussions with people and hope we made some consider the Christian alternative. However as we looked at Marxism from a Christian point of view and its practice in Communist countries, we understood that behind this ideology there is a strong anti-christian spirit. It denies the existence of God and promotes the idea of human perfectibility by our own effort. This is exemplified in the words of the Internationale, the socialist battle hymn, ‘No saviour from on high delivers, no faith have we in prince or peer, our own right hand the chains will shiver, chains of hatred, greed and fear.’ This Antichrist spirit led to the persecution of Christians in the Communist countries of eastern Europe, the Soviet Union and China. Far from creating the socialist paradise on earth that Lenin wrote about in ‘Socialism and Religion’, it created a society ruled by hatred, greed and fear, controlled by secret police, prison camps and responsible for the death of millions. In western society we have witnessed the growth of ‘cultural Marxism’ a movement aimed at infiltrating and changing society from within, rather than fomenting the workers’ revolution. Labour’s Fabian Society, with its (now discarded) logo of the wolf in sheep’s clothing, has been engaged in this process since the beginning of the 20th century. Social change really took off with the permissive society in the 1960s, which succeeded in changing traditional values, especially in the area of sex and the family. It replaced biblical values with a new ‘morality’ that is fundamentally anti Christian. These ideas have permeated large swathes of our society including the education system, the judiciary, the Civil Service, much of the media, mainstream political parties (including even the Conservative ‘wets’ and parts of the established church). Melanie Phillips describes the results of this in her book, ‘The Builder’s Stone.’ ‘Having decided that the West was rotten to the core, western elites set out to create a new culture that would usher in the brotherhood of man and eradicate hatred, prejudice, and war. Their Brave New World junked biblical religion with all its constraints on behaviour and revolved instead around self gratification. Everybody had the right to live as they wanted; nobody could say that their way of life was better or worse than anyone else’s; no one had the right to say that their culture was better than any other culture. That was ‘racism.’ At the heart of all this was the doctrine that there was no such thing as objective truth. Everything was relative; everything was a matter of opinion. Because there was no truth feelings became more important than facts. So the West abandoned the codes of morality, conscience, truth and lies, personal responsibility, and duty to others in favour of a culture of the self. In the process it junked its inherited traditions and biblical codes on which western culture was based.’ Britain changed from being a society that respected values based on the 10 Commandments and the teaching of Jesus Christ to one that discarded them for relative values. Ideas of ‘diversity, inclusion and equity’ became the norm, together with and a form of ‘tolerance’, that is really very intolerant if you oppose it. This ‘tolerance’ means accepting the virtues of multiculturalism and humanism and believing that all gods are equally valid or true (or none are). We must also accept that all lifestyles and family arrangements including homosexual and transsexual ones are just as valid as traditional two parent heterosexual families, with a father and mother committed to each other in lifelong matrimony looking after their own children. As society accepts this radical change in how we view culture, morality and religion, we are told not to criticize other cultures and world views or imply that they are anything less than equal to the culture, morality and faith derived from the Bible. All this has not improved society. Instead we have a collapse of values with no central idea to hold it together, just a group of competing ‘communities’ which are often only united in opposition to the traditional values and culture of Great Britain. A good example of this is the ‘red – green alliance’ of radical leftists and Islamists who come together to denounce Israel and campaign to ‘globalise the Intifada’. In practice this means a world wide war against Israel and Judaeo-Christian society and a desire to replace it with their version of either Islamism or Communism. However if one of them were to come to power, you can be sure that the Islamist’s would get rid of the leftists or vice versa. In fact that happened in Iran’s 1979 revolution, when Islamist supporters of Khomeini and Communists came together to get rid of the Shah. Then the Islamists seized power, turned on the Communists and wiped them out. Alisteir Heath wrote in the Daily Telegraph: ‘Ruined by decades of political vandalism, the Britain we knew and loved, a land of stability, pragmatism, and ancient freedoms, is no more. Today’s UK is uglier, impoverished, volatile and disorderly. We’ve lost our level-headedness. Anger and frustration have become our defining emotions. Our institutions have wasted away, and we have been taught to despise our history. The decline of family, community and faith have led to alienation, dependence on welfare and the rise of novel ideologies, mostly secular but also sectarian, turbocharged by social media. While the state becomes unnervingly authoritarian, the air reeks of insurrection and every variety of extremism. The British public’s sense of betrayal is as well-founded as it is dangerous. The machinery of state is incompetent and self-serving, a vehicle for social engineering in the global interest.’ Criticism of this process now risks being classed as ‘hate crime’ with a growing authoritarian society monitoring social media posts and public teaching of alternative ideas in ways which risk shutting down free speech in our society. A Christian teacher Enoch Burke is currently in prison in Dublin after he was suspended from his job and jailed after refusing to accept and teach transgenderism in the school. Nick Timothy, Shadow Secretary of State for Justice, got into trouble when he questioned mass Muslim prayer in Trafalgar Square. He wrote: ‘Mass ritual prayer in public places is an act of domination. The adhan – which declares there is no god but Allah and Muhammad is his messenger – is, when called in a public place, a declaration of domination. The domination of public places is straight from the Islamist playbook.” He is right in this. Allah hu Akhbar actually means Allah is greater, greater than your God, Muhammad is greater than Jesus and the Koran is greater than the Bible. Tim Dieppe of Christian Concern for our Nation wrote: “The fact that we have mass Islamic prayer in Trafalgar Square at all is indicative of the massive culture change that we have seen in the last few decades. A culture change that was not voted for or ever agreed to by the British people. And, a culture change that can hardly be described as having been entirely beneficial to our culture as a whole. I only need to mention grooming gangs involving mostly Pakistani Muslim men , sharia courts, honour crimes, terror attacks, the assassination of an MP, an attempt to blockade Parliament, mass antisemitic marches through London, a convicted terrorist standing for local elections, sectarianism, and many other examples to make the point. Earlier this month, the Government gave Muslims special protection with the adoption of an official definition of anti-Muslim hostility .” You are not really supposed to question this in public life today. A message circulating on social media is an apt commentary on all this. ‘First they overlook evil, then they permit evil, then they legalise evil, then they promote evil, then celebrate evil, then persecute those who call it evil.’ Soviet dissident Solzhenitsyn wrote: ‘A Communist system can be recognised by how it spares criminals and criminalises its opponents.’ The root cause of all this is the rejection of God and biblical values. The 18th-century French philosopher Joseph de Maistre coined the phrase "people get the government they deserve." David Pawson followed up on this idea, arguing that in democratic societies like ours, the moral and spiritual condition of a nation's citizens is directly reflected in the leaders they elect. If the general public abandons moral truths, they will inevitably vote for governments that reflect those same compromises. David Pawson taught that God may use governmental leadership to judge or bless a nation, depending on the people's obedience. He noted that Hebrew prophets saw wicked rulers as a form of divine judgement on a society that has strayed from God's laws. Therefore a nation's ultimate hope rests on repentance rather than just political change. His conclusion is that Christians should actively stand for moral truth in society. He believed that the church is meant to influence culture upward, and that a decline in national morality inevitably leads to deteriorating governance. Sadly much of the church today has become the ‘salt that has lost its savour’ through compromise with antichristian forces in society and government. It may be too late to save our country and western democracy as social and economic pressures create a collapse of democracy and push us either towards anarchy or dictatorship. Yeats’ poem quoted at the beginning of this article ends with the enigmatic line ‘Some rough beast slouches towards Bethlehem to be born.’ Most likely he is referring to the coming anti-Messiah who is labelled the Beast in the book of Revelation. Many believe his is now waiting in the wings to replace the true Messiah (born in Bethlehem) and bring in the dictatorship prophesied in Revelation 13. The Bible indicates that the Beast or Antichrist will have power for a moment, but it will be short lived and doomed to destruction at the Second Coming of Jesus Christ to the earth. Then the kingdoms of this world will become the kingdom of our God and of His Messiah and He shall reign forever and ever (Revelation 11.15) and the ‘government shall be on His shoulder’ (Isaiah 9.6). Maranatha come Lord Jesus. Water, water nowhere and not a drop to drink. (Apologies to the Ancient Mariner) While nations worry about supply of oil and gas as a result of the war in the Gulf and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a much more vital commodity for human survival is water. And it is in short supply in a growing number of nations. As of 2026, over 25 countries face extremely high water stress, with the most severe crises located in the Middle East and North Africa. This region is home to the world's most water-stressed nations, including Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Yemen, and Libya. India and Pakistan face critical water scarcity due to overexploitation of aquifers and population density. Much of Africa , Somalia and Ethiopia in particular are facing severe shortages due to drought and climate change. Mexico and parts of the United States (particularly Texas and the west coast) are experiencing significant water shortages and declining groundwater levels. Iran is facing a severe, multi-year water crisis as of May 2026, with major cities like Tehran, Mashhad, and Karaj approaching the point where taps could run dry due to depleted reservoirs. Groundwater is depleted across most of the country, and nineteen provinces are experiencing severe drought. The crisis is driven by a combination of climate change and decades of poor water management, including excessive dam construction and inefficient, water-intensive agriculture. China is facing a severe, multi-faceted water crisis defined by extreme scarcity in the north, widespread pollution, and mismanagement, threatening its food supply and economic growth. Several countries are significantly affected by upstream dam construction that reduces downstream water flow, causing, environmental, and diplomatic crises. These countries include Iraq, heavily impacted by dams built on the Tigris and Euphrates rivers by Turkey and Iran, leading to reduced water for agriculture, destruction of forests, and increased sandstorms. Egypt and Sudanface significant water security risks due to the Ethiopian Grand Renaissance Dam on the Blue Nile. Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Laosare affected of dams built by China on the upper Mekong River One country which bucks this trend is Israel. Israel manages its water resources by transforming a chronic shortage into a surplus through large-scale desalination, extensive wastewater recycling, and a centralised national water carrier system. The agriculture sector has shifted away from freshwater, using treated effluent instead. Advanced drip irrigation technologies are widely used to minimise waste. Israel has exported its water technologies to countries around the world, particularly Africa where it has given advice on how to use limited water resources to great effect. Without water no society on earth can survive. Bible prophecies indicate that water shortage and pollution will be a global problem in the last days. Most obviously no water equals no food, so famine is an inevitable result of water shortages. Jesus warned of this as a sign of the last days in Matthew 24.7. Revelation 8.10-11 speaks of something called ‘Wormwood’ falling on rivers and springs of water causing it to become bitter and many to die from drinking it. Prophecy speaks of the two great rivers of the ancient world, the Nile and the Euphrates, being affected by a crisis causing the Euphrates to dry up (Revelation 16.12) and the Nile to become contaminated and its waters turn foul (Isaiah 19.5-11). Isaiah 24 speaks of a curse devouring the earth in the last days causing the earth to be ‘defiled (or polluted) under its inhabitants.’ According to the New Scientist, there are massive amounts of water hidden deep beneath the Earth's surface. Scientists have found evidence of a reservoir of water three times the volume of all surface oceans combined, located roughly 250–400 miles underground within the mantle. It may be that the Lord will release this water to replenish and clean up the earth in the Millennial kingdom when ‘waters shall burst forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert. The parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water.’ Isaiah 35. Zechariah 14.8-9 says, ‘In that day it shall be that living waters shall flow from Jerusalem, half of them toward the eastern sea and half of them toward the western sea; In both summer and winter it shall occur. And the Lord shall be King over all the earth.’ Zechariah 14.8-9. See also Ezekiel 47. Rethinking Russia Things are not going well for Vladimir Putin in his ‘special military operation’. Four years after invading Ukraine in February 2022, Russia is not making advances and actually losing ground. Russia is losing as many as 25,000- 35,000 casualties a month and over 1.2 million have been killed and wounded since the war began. Ukrainian skills in drone warfare have destroyed large quantities of Russian equipment, tanks, armoured personnel carriers, artillery and rocket systems, helicopters, and naval vessels. Russia is spending an estimated 40% of the entire federal budget on the war effort. As a result of this and western sanctions, Russia is increasingly unable to fix chronic infrastructure problems at home. During the bitter Russian winter thousands of people were left without heat, light, or even water. All forms of transport, trains, trucks and planes, are facing logistical problems, making it difficult to transport goods and people across the vast Russian regions. Russia is on the way to an infrastructure collapse that will likely take decades to recover. Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov warned the State Duma that Russia's faltering economy risks stoking a 1917-style revolution. He demanded urgent financial and economic measures by autumn to avert a potential economic collapse. This raises the danger of the Russian Federation fracturing. The Caucuses are restive, the far east is looking to China and Siberia is facing an acute problem as a result of melting permafrost, causing buildings, bridges and pipelines to collapse. In the present circumstances it is hard to see how Russia could lead the Gog and Magog invasion of Israel (Ezekiel 38-39). Some have said that it is more likely that Turkey is the lead power in the War of Gog and Magog. They say that Meshech and Tubal are not Moscow and Tobolsk, but regions of modern Turkey. Erdogan’s Turkey is backed by an Islamist world view hostile to Israel, seeking the recovery of its Ottoman Empire. He has his eyes on taking control of Jerusalem. Turkey is possession of a large land army already stationed in the region, some of it occupying part of Syria. The alternative is that the War of Gog and Magog is some way off, possibly part of Armageddon, giving time for Russia to recover from its present distress. We wait and see, but meanwhile spare a thought and a prayer for the people of Ukraine and Russia, suffering as a result of Putin’s futile war, oppressed by his corrupt dictatorship and facing an economic and social collapse caused by his failed policies.
Trump's Visit with Xi Rubin Rothler LLB, LLM The tempest path of Sino-U.S. tensions came to a head during Trump's first term in office with the outbreak of Covid. Many commentators believed that the deterioration in relations was in terminal decline and that a major confrontation in the straits of Taiwan was fast looming. Trump held China responsible for the spread of Covid, insisting that he would pursue reparations. The election of Biden halted this commitment. Biden sought a non-confrontational policy towards Beijing. In the aftermath of the disastrous premature withdrawal from Afghanistan handing that country over to the Taliban and the Russian invasion of Ukraine under his watch, Biden became too preoccupied to assertively engage with China. Chinese State media portrayed Trump's visit as being rather unremarkable in the context of other foreign dignitaries lining up to meet Xi, pointing out that just a week later Putin would arrive in Beijing. China manifests that it is winning the trade war that Trump began in 2018, beating America at its own game of capitalism. They frame the U.S. as being in a position of weakness because China is able to source whatever products they buy from the U.S. elsewhere like oil from Canada, and soybeans from Brazil. The oil, soybeans and 200 Boeing's Xi agreed to purchase from Trump were presented as a mere gesture to placate Trump as China has already bought 350 Air Buses in the last year. China would have the world believe that it is only semi-conductors where America has the edge. Here China hints that it is not likely to buy H200 Invidia Chips because it would mean that China will always lag behind the U.S. in building their AI tech. China's major contention and concern is that the U.S. may impose export controls to contain China. China's strategy instead is to invest massively on indigenous innovation. China wants to become an innovation powerhouse that will export its own Chips to the Global South. China is fast catching up with America's lead in AI with the launch of Deep Seek and they claim similar progress with Chip making. China is now ostensibly only eight months behind the U.S. on Large Language Models. Running contrary to this narrative Trump insists that China is desperate to trade with America. China's economy has now peaked. Emblematic of this stagnating growth is rising youth unemployment. China is no longer America's biggest trading partner. Trump has shifted manufacturing back to the U.S. and Trump believes that China can't revive its economy without America. Lined up to meet Xi with Trump were the heads of some of America's biggest Tech Corporations. Corporations like nvidia seek a relaxing of export controls for Chips as they want short term profits, ignoring the risk that China will reverse engineer this technology. More broadly, China and the U.S. are playing a geopolitical chess game spanning the globe. Trump outmaneuvered China in Latin America with the removal of Maduro from power in Venezuela. China is exploiting its influence on Iran in order to get Trump to refrain from taking more active steps towards the defense of Taiwan. Indeed, Trump didn't say anything about Taiwan during his visit. Trump's instincts are of a transactional approach towards alliances, where he is only willing to underwrite defense assistance if allies pay up as an insurer would. It is also important to note that saber rattling the Taiwan card also serves the CCP agenda to distract internal dissent concerning the state of the Chinese economy. Most imminently Trump needs China to pressure Iran to open the Straits of Hormuz and get oil prices down before the midterm elections. China has largely insulated itself from the Gulf energy impact due to stockpiles. Trump would also like China to stop providing Iran with GPS for its missiles. Other Chinese weapons systems and technology sold to Iran have failed to perform well against U.S. and Israeli military hardware. Matters boil down to a leverage between whatever Trump can do on Taiwan, China can do on the strait of Hormouz with Iran. Human Rights concerns, espionage and the alarming rate of Chinese acquisition of U.S. land have been placed on the back burner for the time being. (Author is an Israeli American lawyer academically qualified in British and in U.S.A. law, and a graduate of the School of Oriental & African Studies, London. He is a Jewish believer in Jesus and is currently based in Israel).
Moriel & Jacob Prasch request prayer for Phil Malone and family “Please keep me and my family in prayer. My mum passed away on 13th May at the age of 93. It's a time of mourning, but may it be a time for the Gospel of Christ to be preached to my unbelieving family, especially my brother.”
Moriel & Jacob Prasch request prayer for Sister Joanne Rizzetto, wife of Pastor Dave Rizzetto of Church of The Open Door in New York City. Joanne has developed painful complications and adverse side effects from medications following knee surgery. May The Lord intervene for healing and give guidance to her physicians. Lord, we humbly ask you to intervene in the life of our dear sister. We know you can do all things and that you hear our prayers and consider your servants. Please put a stop to the adverse reaction. Restrain and reverse its effects and restore our sister so that she can continue to serve you in the ministry that you have called them to. We do glorify Your Name. We don't ask as those who treat you as our debtor, but as those who have tasted your goodness and found such mercy and compassion at your feet. Grace and peace and mercy be with Joanne and Pastor Dave.
Will Lebanon miss its golden opportunity? Rubin Rothler LLB, LLM Converging new facts on the ground have transformed the political landscape in Lebanon. With Assad removed from power in Syria, a vital lifeline of arms supplies for Hezbollah originating in Iran has diminished. Hezbollah suffered considerable losses in its last round of fighting with Israel. The decapitation of its leadership with the targeted pager attack inflicted a severe blow. Hezbollah's new leader Naim Qassem is a weak substitute for the charismatic Nasrallah who was assassinated by Israel in 2024. Hezbollah in its frail state foolishly fell into line with Iran's instruction to join the fighting against Israel following the recent American-Israeli war with Iran. This was contrary to the wishes of the Lebanese government which was fearful of the inevitable destruction that would be wreaked by the Israeli response. The differing attitudes to Israel amongst Lebanon's population is reflective of its ethnic composition. The predominant groups in order of plurality are Christians, Shia Muslims and Sunni Muslims with a smaller minority of Druze. The major concern of most Christians in Lebanon is the dire state of their economy. They have no appetite to further their plight by invoking Israel's rage. During the colonial inter war period the French envisaged the demarcation between Lebanon and Syria as carving out enclaves for Christian and Druze control. Within Lebanon there would be a shared government that by convention would have the Executive power split between a Christian President, a Sunni Prime Minister and Shia Speaker of Parliament. The Christians in southern Lebanon (particularly Maronite Catholics) saw themselves as being anthropologically descendants of ancient Phoenicians as opposed to an Arab identity where the Arab Christians were largely Eastern Orthodox. The schism between the Maronites and the Arab Eastern Orthodox dates back to the time of the Crusades. The Maronites were culturally French, speaking French as their main language and held precedence in much of the Lebanese economy. The first threat to Lebanese stability and cohesion was settled by the U.S. Eisenhower administration in 1958 which landed Marines in an amphibious operation. A repeated attempt at this by the Reagan administration in 1983 ended in a military disaster for the U.S. due to suicide bombings by Iranian controlled terrorists. Israeli efforts to bring in stability during the Lebanese Civil War in conjunction with its Lebanese Christian allies led by Major Saad Haddad likewise came to calamity when the Sabra and Shatila revenge attacks took place following the assassination of Lebanese leader Bashir Gemayel. The ''Good Fence'' policy of an Israeli friendly free Lebanon zone in Southern Lebanon eventually ended badly following Menachem Begin's second incursion into Lebanon called ''Shalom HaGalil'' aimed at stopping the PLO rocket attacks on Israeli border communities like Metulla, Kiryat Shmona, Naharya, Rosh Hanikra, Tzfat and Carmiel. The proxy Israeli occupation from the Israeli border to the Litani river became an imbroglio that many in Israel viewed as Israel's Vietnam with widespread domestic protest and a collapse of morale within the IDF. Eventually Israel absorbed Christian war refugees from Lebanon, while the Vatican and most of the Christian world turned their backs on the Lebanese Christians. Lebanon was then saddled with two states within a state. The first was in the aftermath of Black September in 1970 when King Hussein of Jordan defended his Hashemite throne and government from Yasser Arafat's attempt to take over Jordan due to Jordan having a 70% Palestinian Arab demographic majority. The Jordanian legion drove tens of thousands of its pro Arafat Jordanian citizens into Lebanon, creating a population base for the first state within a state under Arafat. However the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and other factions had their niche interests. Courtesy of the Israeli Air Force Arafat relocated what he saw as his government in exile to Tunisia. This was a missed opportunity by the Lebanese government to assert its autonomy and full territorial control by making a Camp David type peace with Israel inclusive of economic and mutual security provisions. Instead an Iranian backed Syrian intervention replaced Arafat's state within a state with a new one that morphed into Hezbollah. The fall of the Assad regime and the Israeli counter-offensive against Hezbollah re-presents Lebanon with the opportunity that it once lost. The predominantly Christian controlled Lebanese military could and should operationally coordinate with the IDF, to obliterate and remove Hezbollah as the Israelis relieved Lebanon of Arafat's state within a state. Such a rapprochement would likely have strong American and possibly French and British support, allowing Lebanon to be at a non-combative peace with Israel along the lines of Egypt and Jordan, and now some of the Emirates. The natural comradery of the Lebanese Druze community with the Israeli Druze and the pro-Israeli Druze of Syria would additionally re-enforce a regional harmony, as would the Maronite Christian community in Israel with their co-coreligionists in Lebanon. (Author is an Israeli American lawyer academically qualified in British and in U.S.A. law, and a graduate of the School of Oriental & African Studies, London. He is a Jewish believer in Jesus and is currently based in Israel).
PASTOR JOHN ANGLISS It is with profound sadness that we learned of the temporary separation from our friend and brother Pastor John Angliss. We look forward to being reunited with John in the millennial reign of Christ and indeed in God's Eternal Kingdom. Jacob Prasch visited John a few weeks ago in the UK while John was in hospice care having been diagnosed preterminal in his illness. While medically correct, it was of course a misdiagnosis. John is now cancer free and is alive and well in the presence of Jesus awaiting us in glory while his mortal body is being renewed for resurrection and immortality. In the meanwhile, during this temporary season of bereavement we do request prayer for his beloved wife Mary and for his congregation, The Ark Fellowship in England near Reading, England. Because he has recently arrived in the USA and is scheduled to address the Moriel Canada branch conference in Winnipeg, Jacob Prasch will regrettably not be able to attend the memorial service in Britain. Our condolences however are very much with Mary and our brethren in the UK who like us knew and loved Pastor Angliss. John was one of a minority of faithful voices who upheld a traditional biblically based Pentecostalism in the era of counterfeit revivals and apostasy that overtook most of British Pentecostalism. John was a faithful friend of Israel & The Jews standing on the prophetic purposes of God for Israel and the salvation of the Jews. John was a loyal friend to Moriel and Jacob Prasch and a colleague of David Pawson and Derek Prince, both of whom likewise stood by God's promises to Israel. John was also a founding leader of CMFI - the Christian Ministerial Fellowship International, former pastor of Three Mile Cross fellowship , and former board member of Focus On Israel (a Pentecostal Ministry to the Jews). While this separation is temporary, John's eternal gain will be our temporary loss. O GRAVE - WHERE IS THEY VICTORY, O DEATH WHERE IS THY STING ? Hosea 13:14 / 1 Corinthians 15: 55-57
We made it this far: Israel at 78 Rubin Rothler LLB, LLM Since the last anniversary milestone of Israel at 75, we have been embroiled in relentless wars. Citizens had little respite to enjoy this year's festivities, coming on the heels of a lull in fighting on the Iranian and Lebanese fronts. We are constantly waiting for a breakthrough on the horizon that will normalize our relations with our neighbors and secure our position on the world stage. It is acutely exhausting to be the focus of the world's attention. But also there is a sense of inevitability accompanying the Zionist project. Specifically that Israel is destined to be central in the wider region and global affairs. Why is this? Is it due to it being a western transplant? Being geographically positioned on the crossroads of three continents? Religious believers would point to prophetic fulfillment. It is short sighted to only look at how our problems are rooted in today’s' reality. Greater forces are at work that will dictate the direction that Israel is heading. The Jewish diaspora will likely find itself in a growing precarious position that will lead to increasing Aliyah (immigration to Israel) and will perhaps ferment the emergence of a second Jewish commonwealth that will not need to heed international pressure in the same way that todays' polity finds itself doing. In this light it is interesting to ponder how our posterity would view our predicament and gains. And I frame matters in these terms with intentionality. We are enmeshed in a seemingly intractable conflict with the Palestinians, and yet Israel has made great gains particularly in the technological fields. There is a current of thinking that perceives Israel's way out of its quagmire is by making itself indispensable to technological advancements. We don't know how tomorrows' world will be shaped by the rapidly advancing AI revolution but so far Israel has proven to be uniquely adaptable and innovative to technological change. This has proved to be a boon to Israel's economy, as have offshore natural gas discoveries being developed in concert with Greece, Greek Cypriot and American energy interests that are geographically and strategically removed from any Straits of Hormuz shipping impediments that strangle the Persian Gulf deposits shared by Qatar and Iran. On another note we should contextualize the situation. How different are Israel's challenges from other nations? Is Israel any less stable than other countries (particularly in the region)? Israel doesn't find itself uniquely challenged to define its identity (most European countries do also, particularly in light of immigration). Nor does the government experience any more volatility than other comparable democracies. Israel's real problems lay in the nature of how its Jewish citizens desire to govern themselves. It is arguable whether the judicial reform protests that occupied public discourse in pre-October 7th Israel would have led to serious civil strife. But it is without doubt that this impasse was allayed by the external attack. The underlying tensions remain unresolved and there are many ways that they could play out. It has been framed as a battle for Israel's soul. Israel's enemies predict that Zionism is imploding and that the State won't survive another 5-10 years. Supporting this claim, they point to Israel's increasing alienation and growing pariah status on the international stage. Our Prime Minister has been indicted for war crimes at the International Criminal Court. Even public opinion in our staunchest ally the U.S. has turned sharply against Israel. With 80% of the Democratic Party being anti-Israel in a growing climate of anti-semitism we have even witnessed the shift of Alan Dershowitz to the Republican Party which must be seen as emblematic of a trend. There is apprehension in Israel of a post-Trump America dominated by the Democrats. However, these seeming incontrovertible facts may be offset by other measures of fortitude. This may be partially countered by the high investment by Silicon Valley in the Israeli Hi-tech sector, making Israel an asset for purposes of Research and Development in America's AI race against China. New opportunities for economic relations have also been opened with Arab nations through the Abraham Accords and with the powerhouse India. Furthermore, it is difficult to imagine a world in which Israel's technological prowess will not carry the sway of western decision makers in the long run. Israel's 78th anniversary is a moment to take pause and not catastrophize what the future may behold. The entire world is currently in a state of transformation and Israel is not an outlier in this context. (Author is an Israeli American lawyer academically qualified in British and in U.S.A. law, and a graduate of the School of Oriental & African Studies, London. He is a Jewish believer in Jesus and is currently based in Israel).
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A critical juncture in NATO'S future Rubin Rothler LLB, LLM NATO was originally established in 1949 to keep the Russian hordes at bay from toppling those European countries not forked over to the Soviet sphere of influence at the Potsdam conference. Europe lay in ruins. Britain had passed on the torch of global hegemony to the U.S. by tacitly acquiescing to the decolonization of its Empire when Churchill and Roosevelt agreed terms of the Atlantic Charter for the post-war new world order in 1941. So from its start NATO was very much an American driven endeavor. American money with the Marshall plan was propping up western European economies and its military might was forming the bulk of their defensive capabilities. The lopsided nature of this dynamic has informed how tensions have persisted and recently erupted in the Alliance. During the Cold War the U.S. felt obligated to shoulder the costs of underwriting Europe's security in light of the broader interests to keep the Soviet's in check. Following the fall of the Iron Curtain European complacency became a sticking point with the 'peace dividend' further exploiting American largesse. European NATO allies spent ever smaller percentages of their GDP on defense expenditure at U.S. expense. Now in a multi-polar world U.S. and European perceived threats are less aligned. This was first tested in the aftermath of September 11th when for the first time NATO elected to trigger its article 5 collective defense protocol. And since then the U.S. has sought to continue to expand the traditional theatre of operations beyond Europe's borders. No longer is Russia perceived by America as being a proximate existential threat to its interests, but rather containing Chinese expansion in the Pacific arena. Parallel to NATO a discrete 'five eyes' intelligence sharing alliance comprising the Anglo-sphere (the U.S., U.K., Canada and New Zealand) emerged. This stands at the center of the U.S. – U.K. 'special relationship'. A relevant question would be can this signals intelligence (NSA-GCHQ) partnership persist should the U.S. withdraw from NATO? Conventional thinking would have led one to believe that with Brexit the U.K. would naturally pivot towards closer U.S. relations but under Starmer the U.K. is distancing itself. European powers misrepresent the present conflict as an aggressive, rather than defensive U.S. adventure while they themselves are more likely to be at risk. In this the Starmer government resembles the Labor party led committee for nuclear disarmament in the 1980's. It opposed the Thatcher supported deployment of U.S. cruise missiles in response to the Soviet SS20's pointed at Britain's cities. The British left branded their response to Soviet strategic escalation to U.S. aggression. This time however there is for the moment no Thatcher to bring common sense into an equation dominated by emotionally driven ideologies in the face of an aggressor with definite aims. In terms of the Russian-Ukraine conflict we are reverting to the old question dating back to the Napoleonic war era: to what extent is London happy with the European nations fighting it out alone for dominance of the continent. Britain was never willing to accept a single power in control. Many variables will dictate what kind of world emerges from the current conflicts in Ukraine and Iran. How will power be extracted from potential gains? What will be the strategic impact of this? What is sure, in the age of Trump this pattern of reliance on U.S. muscle is becoming quickly exhausted. Dating back to the Roman Empire, a factor in the decline of major powers has always been astronomical military spending, a budgetary demand that the U.S. under Trump is no longer willing to shoulder alone. (Author is an Israeli American lawyer academically qualified in British and in U.S.A. law, and a graduate of the School of Oriental & African Studies, London. He is a Jewish believer in Jesus and is currently based in Israel).
