Bartholomew's Notes

Plans for the Day of Prayer For Israel (noted by me back in March) are heating up. Charisma News offers an update:

International Prayer Day For Jerusalem Enlists 50 Million Christians

Christians from around the world are expected to join a massive army of intercessors to pray for Israel next month. Inaugurated by Eagles’ Wings ministry based in Clarence, N.Y., the annual Day of Prayer for Jerusalem is slated for Oct. 3.

ASSIST adds that:

More than over 40,000 churches globally have confirmed their participation to mark the Day of Prayer for the Peace of Jerusalem, said Rev. Robert Stearns, co-chairman of the October 3 event to be held near the Knesset parliament building in Jerusalem, Israel…The Day of Prayer for the Peace of Jerusalem, which is being called for the first Sunday of every October, has garnered the active support of such evangelical leaders of influence as Ted Haggard, Jack Hayford, Glenn Plummer, Ravi Zacharias, Jane Hansen, Benny Hinn, and hundreds of others.

Plus, as an added bonus:

Leadership of the Day of Prayer for the Peace of Jerusalem announced that Dr. Pat Robertson, a leading evangelical figure, will be the keynote speaker at a massive gathering to be held in Jerusalem on Sunday, October 3.

With straight face, Day of Prayer organiser Robert Stearns tells us that:

“We can think of no more appropriate leader to address this event than Dr. Robertson, who has lived a life of spiritual passion, moral clarity, sound thinking, and influenced millions around the world to pray for the peace of Jerusalem.”

Well, I’m not surprised to see that the “moral clarity” of Pat “Liquor Officer” Robertson (a.k.a Pat “Diamond” Robertson; Pat “Chinese Forced Abortions” Robertson; Pat “Wild Oats” Robertson) includes support for ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians. As was reported by the American Council for Judaism:

At a Washington rally in October, The Forward (Oct. 18, 2002) notes that, “Thousands of Evangelical Christians waving Israeli flags cheered as Knesset member Benny Elon called for the ‘relocation’ of Palestinians from the West Bank into Jordan…Elon, whose Moledet Party advocates the ‘transfer’ of Palestinians to Arab countries, said that a ‘resettlement’ of the Palestinians is prescribed by the Bible…Pat Robertson was the main speaker during the pro-Israel rally…Dismissing the legitimacy of the Palestinians’ claim to the land, and particularly to Jerusalem, Robertson said that ‘the Palestinians are really Arabs who moved there a few decades ago.'”

The veneer that this event is about “peace” is also undermined by dehumanising statements from Charismatic leader Jack Hayford in Charisma News:

Hayford sees Israel’s role in the end times as a turning point for the church because of the prophetic season. “I don’t mean how you read the prophetic handbook,” he said. “I mean recognizing that this is a moment that God is at work in our world. It’s manifest first in the recovery of Israel, the challenge to that recovery by hostile forces that are more than political forces. They clearly are spiritual forces that are antichrist-nourished, antichrist in spirit.”

Hayford feels no need to clarify whether by “hostile forces” he means the religious and political extremists among the Palestinians and Muslims, or any opposition to Israeli expansionism and Jewish supremacy, but I think we can safely assume the latter.

As I’ve noted more than once previously, most Christian Zionists are against either a Palestinian state or equal rights for Palestinians in a bi-national state. Palestinians are supposed to either leave or accept Israeli overlordship. No doubt for white Christian fundamentalists in the American South this brings a warm glow of nostalgia, but if it is true that Stearns really has 50 million Christians from around the world behind him, then the religion is in rather bad shape.

Meanwhile, the Michael D. Evan’s book American Prophecies, which declares that the very existence of Arabs is a mistake caused by Abraham’s lust, continues to top Amazon.com’s bestseller lists, puffed by Joseph Farah. According to WorldNetDaily:

Bible-believing Christians are rallying around Evans’ book, which supports President Bush and charges Clinton with the lack of moral clarity that led to the terror crisis worldwide.

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