ELCA Leaders Meet with PLO: A Bunch of Lies

1/25/2015

Just one week ago a delegation from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, which included ELCA Presiding Bishop Elizabeth A. Eaton, held a meeting with a Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Executive Committee member. The ELCA delegation sat with the Palestine Liberation Organization representative listening to the outright fabrications the PLO is famous for creating about Israel. The PLO issued a press release afterward summarizing the meeting. Here is a segment from the press release; please note the sinister lies many of the statements contain -

(The PLO Executive Committee member) “briefed the ELCA delegation on the latest political developments, including current Palestinian initiatives and political options for the future; Israel’s ongoing violations of international law and human rights, including the escalation in Israel’s illegal settlement enterprise, the expansion of the apartheid wall and checkpoints, the annexation and political, geographical and cultural transformation of Jerusalem, the targeting of the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound and its worshipers and Israel’s efforts to incite a holy war in the region, Israel’s most recent horrific war in Gaza, the superimposition of ‘Greater Israel’ on historical Palestine, and Israeli policies of ethnic cleansing, particularly in Jerusalem, Area C and the Negev; the substantial diminishment of Christians from Palestine due to Israeli policies of military occupation; Israel’s withholding of Palestinian tax revenues; and the domestic situation and rift in Palestine, as well as issues of mutual interest and cooperation.” (read here)

So far there has been no press release from the ELCA about this meeting.

6 Comments

Chuck Braun

1/27/2015 12:44:24 am

Lutherans generally don't believe that Biblical Israel will be restored in the End Times, as some other Christians do. Nonetheless, Israel is a democracy, which is antithetical to many in the Islamic world. Israel has freedom of religion. Jews, Christians and Muslims are all allowed to practice their faiths in Israel. While neither side is by any means without sin in the Israeli/Palestinian standoff, at least the Israelis do not strap bombs to women and children to kill innocent people. Israel has only used deadly force in retaliation for Palestinian-based attacks on Israeli civilians in recent times.

As to the treatment of the Christian Church in the Middle East, and their exodus from Palestine, I believe that it is due to hostility from the Islamic community, rather than the Israeli establishment or the Jewish community. At least from what I've read. How can these ELCA people be so blind to the truth?

When 9/11 occurred, the world saw the Palestinians cheer that "the great Satan", America, was struck. Regardless of whatever injustices have been inflicted on the Palestinians, they delight in the thought of the death of Americans, the end of the Jewish presence on the map of the Middle East, and the hoped-for defeat of Christianity. We should be praying for these lost souls, as Jesus Himself told us to love our enemies. But just "making nice" to the Palestinians is not going to turn their hearts overnight. They are still proclaiming themselves to being our enemies, and as long as they remain so I believe we need to defend ourselves.

What the ELCA has done in its cooperation with the PLO is to support the very forces that would have the Church destroyed. And don't forget, in Islamic teaching it is considered noble to feign cooperation with non-Islams to further the cause of Islam. Yes, Jesus said to love our enemies. Jesus would have us pray for our enemies, that they would turn to Him and find His peace. But until these souls for whom He died turn to Him and lay down their weapons, it is sheer folly to support those who delight in the persecution and death of Christianity, America, or Israel.

Shame on the ELCA, and the World Council of Churches. These people who pretend to stand for the Christian faith are advocating policies that would put Christians in danger. The WCC is anti-Christ and is of the world. They have substituted the Gospel of salvation in Christ alone for social "gospel" and "All ways lead to God" universalist theology. And the Roman Catholic Church and even the Evangelicals are turning this way.

Truly, Jesus will avenge the elect speedily. But when He comes, will He find faith in Him on Earth? You don't have to be a premillennial dispensationalist to see the forces which stand against Christ starting to coalesce before our very eyes. Who is on the Lord's side? Does the ELCA confess Christ with their lips, but deny Him in their hearts which are far from Him? Is Jesus merely a social justice advocate from the 1st Century, or is He the one and only Savior who died to pay for our sins and arose gloriously as the firstfruit of His coming new creation? Which Jesus does the ELCA worship, the Divine Savior who is bringing His eternal heavenly Kingdom, or a nice man who just wanted to make this present temporal world a nicer place? The Devil would do everything to make us follow a false Jesus and thereby deny the true Jesus, our Savior and Lord.

Who is on the Lord's side?

H. Porter

1/27/2015 02:42:45 pm

(1 Samuel chapter 15)
[2] This is what the Lord Almighty says: "I will punish the Amalekites for what they did to Israel when they waylaid them as they came up from Egypt. Now go, attack the Amalekites and totally destroy everything that belongs to them. Do not spare them: put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys." [9] But Saul and the army spared Agag and the best of the sheep and cattle, the fat calves and lambs--everything that was good. These they were unwilling to destroy completely.... [10] Then the word of the Lord came to Samuel: "I am grieved that I have made Saul king, because he has turned away from me and has not carried out my instructions." [17] Samuel said, "...The Lord anointed you king over Israel. And he sent you on a mission, saying, 'Go and completely destroy those wicked people, the Amalekites; make war on them until you have wiped them out.' Why did you not obey the Lord?" [26] Samuel said to (Saul), "...You have rejected the word of the Lord, and the Lord has rejected you as king over Israel!" [32] Then Samuel said, "Bring me Agag king of the Amalekites." [33] And Samuel put Agag to death before the Lord at Gigal. (Chapter 28, v. 18) [Samuel said to Saul], "Because you did not obey the Lord or carry out his fierce wrath against the Amalekites, the Lord has done this to you today. The Lord will hand over both Israel and you to the Philistines, and tomorrow you and your sons will be [dead] with me."

The point of all of this is that there is no Divine commandment that forbids the killing of civilians in all circumstances.

1/28/2015 01:15:36 pm

"A man is never condemned to a spiritual punishment for another man's sin, because spiritual punishment affects the soul, in respect of which each man is master of himself. But sometimes a man is condemned to punishment in temporal matters for the sin of another.... thus even the good are punished in temporal matters together with the wicked, for not having condemned their sins.... By the judgment of God children are punished in temporal matters together with their parents, both because they are a possession of their parents, so that their parents are punished also in their person, and because this is for their good lest, should they be spared, they might imitate the sins of their parents, and thus deserve to be punished still more severely." (Thomas Aquinas, SUMMA THEOLOGICA, Pt. 2, Second Part, question 108, article 4) http://www.newadvent.org/summa/3108.htm

1/29/2015 12:07:04 am

As I understand it, the nation of Israel was commanded by God Himself to exact His wrath on the heathen nations which stood against His Hebrew nation. As the wages of sin is death, they were acting as His agent in dispensing this just wrath of the LORD.

But since the Incarnation, Virgin Birth, Atonement and Resurrection of Jesus Christ, the sins committed by the human race have been paid in full by Him. Since there is presently no political nation on earth which acts by direct revelation from God, as the Canon of Scripture is closed and no direct command from God Himself is issued to kill unbelievers, the mandate for "holy war" per se is over. Now we contend and fight for the faith once delivered to the saints with words of apologetics for Christ and by showing mercy first to those within the Church (the least of these, My brethren) and then to those outside the faith. We fight, as Martin Luther wrote in "A Mighty Fortress", with weapons of the Spirit.

Nonetheless, God has given the power of the sword to leaders of political nations. And therefore just wars may be waged by earthly leaders to advance His plans on earth. And unfortunately, as was the case at Dresden, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, innocent civilians did indeed die. But these actions, which ended WW2 sooner, helped ensure the victory over the Axis powers, which stood against both the Church and the world's very existence.

I believe the grave error of the 19th Century Calvinism in America was to equate the Native peoples with the Canaanites, and the white man as the Hebrews. This mindset caused terrible damage to the Native populations. Not that either side was without sin, but perhaps a way could have been found for the United States to allow the Native people to maintain their way of life. If more time would have been spent evangelizing these people with the Gospel of Jesus Christ than trying to exterminate them, perhaps more than the current 5% of Native peoples would be Christians today. But perhaps it's more complicated than that...

I believe that America can never be a "Christian nation", in the sense that the Church is the power behind our government. However, the Church in America is a nation, a Kingdom, in its own right, within the nation. If the Kingdom of believers in Christ would increase in America, we would have a nation of Christians. There will always be unbelievers in America, but it is as wrong of them to stifle the voices of Christians while they get carte blanche freedom to shout their messages which denounce our Lord.

Do I shed tears that terrorists are being killed? By no means. But I am sorry that some people still would wage "holy war" against any other people, post-Atonement. After all, if your belief system really is the only true way, truth and life, will not your deity judge the unbelievers in the end? I would love to see all Muslims, who recognize Jesus as a prophet, come to understand that He was so much more than that. That He is God, and He desires that they would repent and believe His Gospel. The notion that the Deity could come as a human being is considered blasphemous to Islam. But are not all things possible with God?

Is the PLO without sin? No! Is the Israeli state without sin? No. But given the choice between a flawed democracy and sharia law, I'll side with the former of the two...

1/30/2015 01:18:50 am

Chuck, you've brought up an important issue. Killing unbelievers as a punishment for unbelief is the Muslim rationale for holy war, not the Jewish rationale. Over and over we encounter "Kill the unbelievers" in the Koran (e.g., 4:56; 5:33; 8:12-13; 8:38-40; 9:5; 9:29; 9:123; 33:60-61; 47:4). There is nothing in the context to indicate that this is not a universal commandment (for all times and places).

In contrast, ancient Jewish holy wars were limited to the nations that stood in the way of their possessing the land promised to them (Deut. 7:1-6), and to nations that attacked them (as in 1 Sam. 15). In the former case, the purpose in utterly destroying them was to prevent their having a corrupting influence, not necessarily to punish them for wickedness. To my knowledge, one never encounters the generic (or universal) "Kill the unbelievers" in the Old Testament.

1/31/2015 05:46:33 am

(Koran 4:50) O ye to whom the Scriptures have been given! believe in what we have sent down confirmatory of the Scripture which is in your hands, ere we efface your features, and twist your head round backward, or curse you as we cursed the Sabbath-breakers....

(5:33) Those who wage war against God and His Messenger and strive to spread corruption in the land should be punished by death, crucifixion, the amputation of an alternate hand and foot, or banishment from the land....

(8:12-13) When thy Lord spake unto the angels, "I will be with you: therefore stablish ye the faithful. I will cast dread into the hearts of the infidels." Strike off their heads then, and strike off from them every finger tip. This, because they have opposed God and his apostle; And whoso shall oppose God and his apostle...Verily, God will be severe in punishment.

(8:39-40) Say to the infidels: If they desist from their unbelief, what is now past shall be forgiven them; but if they return to it, they have already before them the doom of the ancients! Fight against them till strife be at an end, and the religion be all of it God's.

(9:5) When the forbidden months are over, wherever you encounter the idolaters, kill them, seize them, besiege them, wait for them at every lookout post; but if they repent, maintain the prayer, and pay the prescribed alms, let them go on their way....

(9:29) Fight those of the People of the Book who do not believe in God and the Last Day, who do not forbid what God and His Messenger have forbidden, who do not obey the rule of justice, until they pay the tax promptly and agree to submit.

(9:123) You who believe, fight the disbelievers near you and let them find you standing firm....

(33:60-61) If the hypocrites, the sick at heart, and those who spread lies in the city do not desist, We shall rouse you [Prophet] against them, and they will only be your neighbors in this city for a short while. They will be rejected. Wherever they are found, they will be arrested and put to death.

(47:4) When you meet the disbelievers in battle, strike them in the neck, and once they are defeated, bind any captives firmly--later you can release them as a grace or for ransom--until the toils of war have ended.

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ELCA Leaders Meet with PLO: A Bunch of Lies

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