I cried when I say the squalor and anti-semitism that Jews throughout the world are facing.
I believe that the growing influence of Iran in Venezuela is contributing to the rising political pressures against Jewish people. Venezuelan "President" Hugo Chavez expelled the Israeli consulate, and the trimming minority of Jews have fled the region.
Iran is not an ordinary dictatorship, a state headed by Islamic radicals who are not afraid to risk their entire nation and the people living in their country, or the nations of the world in order to usher the Golden Age of Muslim global rule.
I remember watching one woman tear up on Rabbi Yechiel's thirty-minute commercials, a lady who felt compelled to give what she could to help Jewish people make aliyah to Israel.
I wanted to do something good, in part because in those days I was still in bondage to the idea that I needed to do something.
The greatest appeal is the following verse:
| "And I will bless them
that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families
of the earth be blessed." (Genesis 12: 3) Yechiel and his team have interpreted this verse to implore Christians to donate money so that they will receive the blessings of Abraham. Because of the still rampant ignorance in the Body of Christ, this plea is working. If believer were not so foolish or slow of hear to believe, they would know that they do not have to give in order to be blessed. Every blessing has been given to us through Christ: Every believer in the Body of Christ is Abraham's seed, too: "And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise." (Galatians 3: 29) and "Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace; to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed; not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham; who is the father of us all," (Romans 4: 16) So, in Christ every believer is also a child of Abraham, by faith, and we are heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ (Romans 8: 17) We do not receive blessings from God because we give money or assistance to Jewish people, but because on Jewish man, Jesus Christ, went to the Cross, taking our sins and the curse of the law upon Himself that we might receive His righteousness (2 Corinthians 5: 21) and the adoption of sons (Romans 8: 15; Galatians 4: 6) . I cannot help but release some upset at what I cannot help but call pandering and exploitation on the part of Rabbi Eckstein. The very idea that men and women can earn God's blessings and favors by doing good things for Jewish people is patently unscriptural. It smacks of the dead works which the writer of Hebrews mentions: "How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?" (Hebrews 9: 14) Any work on the part of man to get righteousness and grace from God is a dead work, as grace and righteousness are given to us through the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 2: 4-8; Romans 5: 17-19) The more that I see the commercials sponsored by the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, the more I realize that many Jews, like many Christians, are under the curse and experiencing famine and poverty because they are still living under the old covenant of laws and earning God's favor: "For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them." (Galatians 3: 10) and "Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified." (Galatians 2: 16) If the Body of Christ wants to help Jewish people, the best thing that we can do is share with them the Gospel of Jesus Christ: "For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek." (Romans 1: 16) Salvation in Christ grants to us the following: "In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace;" (Ephesians 1: 7) The riches of God's grace provide for us all things: "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me." (Philippians 4: 13) and "But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus." (Philippians 4: 19) and "But I say, Did not Israel know? First Moses saith, I will provoke you to jealousy by them that are no people, and by a foolish nation I will anger you." (Romans 10: 19) How do we prosper, then, ourselves as well as the Jewish people? Through soul-prosperity, based on walking in the Truth (3 John 2-4). We do no one any favors to the extent that we give to people because of their physical or ethnic status. The best thing that we can do for anyone, include Jewish people, is to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ and manifest how the grace of our God, and their God, has so richly blessed us. | |||
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