On The Isaiah 19 Highway
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New York Summit on Anti-Semitism
By Christine Darg Today a single Jewish state has become the pariah of the nations. is inordinate discrimination against Israel is defamation. I hope you are as shocked as I am that rampant anti-Semitism has returned within living memory of the Holocaust. Even in Britain, Jewish families are uneasy as anti-Semitic incidents have spiralled. Many Jews are asking if they have a future in Europe. Anti-Semitism is the discrimination against, or assault upon, the rights of Jews to live as equal members of society. But the new form of anti-Semitism goes much further and involves discrimination against, or assault upon, the right of the Jewish people to live as an equal member of the family of nations! Called into question is their very right to live as a people – with Israel emerging as the targeted collective Jew among the nations. e primary target of the new anti-Semitism is the State of Israel. Such attacks start a chain reaction of assaults on individual Jews and Jewish institutions. e Hamas terrorists are pinning high hopes on BDS -- boycott, divestment and sanctions. BDS is the latest tactic of anti-Semitism to pave the way for Israel’s destruction. e BDS movement has the veneer of legality, but on whose side of history will we be? College campuses that allow BDS activists to disseminate hate against Israel serve as ambassadors
for Hamas. Activities of the BDS movement embolden terrorists and undermine genuine peaceloving Palestinians whose desire is to coexist with Israel. If BDS supporters cared about Palestinians, they would promote reforms, democracy, freedom of speech and rights of women who live under the tyranny of Islamist terrorist groups. Rather than advancing the cause of peace, the stark reality of the BDS movement is to promote a satanic agenda of hate and destruction of Jews. As Britain’s former chief rabbi, Lord Jonathan Sacks, pointed out, “e politics of hate that begins with Jews never ends with Jews.” It wasn’t only Jews who suffered under Hitler and Stalin. And it’s hardly Jews alone who are suffering today under Hitler’s successors-- the radical Islamists of Hezbollah, Hamas, Al Qaeda, Boko Haram, ISIS, and so forth. e global assault on Jews and the Jewish state is part of a sinister trend that includes attacks on Christians and other minority faiths. Jihad, socalled holy war, is a political and religious equivalent of ethnic cleansing. Ultimately, the new anti-Semitism and the boycott movement against Israel is an assault on democratic and religious freedoms as a whole. Europe will be pushed back into the Dark Ages if the new and deadly antiSemitism is not quickly contained. Today’s anti-Semitism differs from the old
anti-Semitism. In the Middle Ages, Jews were hated for their religion. In the 19th and 20th centuries, they were hated for their race. But today, Jews are hated for their nation state! e Jewish state is the only Jewish country among the United Nations and the only nation whose right to exist is routinely challenged. For a thousand years, the Jewish people were the most conspicuous non-Christian presence in Europe. But today, they are the most conspicuous non-Islamic presence in the Mideast. Human rights do matter, but the disproportion of accusations against Israel makes Jews feel that humanitarian concern isn’t the prime motivation in the number of accusations. More than half of all critical resolutions adopted by the U.N. Human Rights Council have been directed against the tiny country of Israel. Many of the most evil regimes are given a pass. At the annual Jerusalem Post conference in New York City, senior contributing editor Caroline Glick remarked that anti-Semitism has tragically become so common that it is no longer considered a social stigma in many circles to be anti-Semitic! But according to Genesis 12:3, hatred of God’s ancient people brings a curse both upon individuals and nations. e new wave of anti-Semitism intensified in the summer of 2001 at the U.N. Conference against Racism in Durban, South Africa. e Durban conference adopted a resolution equating Zionism with At New York conference Christine Darg meets Israeli Paratrooper Meir Almlam, cited for bravery in Gaza
racism. at evil resolution “gave the abomination of anti-Semitism the appearance of international legal sanction,” said the late U.S. Senator Daniel Moynihan. We must teach every believer that Zionism is a God-driven desire that propels Jews to return to their biblical homeland. (See Ezekiel 37.) Now we’re witnessing a new, more sophisticated anti-Semitism without parallel since the atmosphere of the 1930s. is new antiJewishness overlaps with classical anti-Semitism but is more deceptive because it is being sanctioned as legal. In the past, the most dangerous anti-Semites aimed to make the world Judenrein, free of Jews. Today, the most dangerous antiSemites demand a world free of a Jewish state! e new anti-Semitism is genocidal anti-Semitism and can be seen in state-sanctioned incitement to genocide of Israel by leaders in Iran. Also the Hamas charter calls for continual acts of terror to kill Jews. Yet naïve western politicians demand that Israel negotiate with these genocidal criminals. Any professing Christian who considers affiliating with the BDS movement must take a long, hard look first at Europe’s hate-filled demonstrations which have been replete with genocidal chants to send Jews to the gas chambers. Whose side of history do we want to be? So we’ve come to this: Israel is the only state in the world and the Jewish people are the only people in the world who are the objects of standing threats by governmental, terrorist, and religious groups. Laundering of anti-Semitism through UN resolutions erodes the integrity of the UN and diminishes the authority of international law. Each watchman on the walls of Jerusalem is on the front lines of this battlefield of political terror and collective anti-Semitism against Israel. Israel is fighting for its legitimacy in the family of nations every day. But in fighting anti-Semitism, we are battling for the future of all humanity. Satan himself stands behind the new anti-Semitism because the Adversary understands the fact that the Jewish state must be in place as a platform for the Second Coming. e return of Jesus will signal the end of Satan’s rule on this earth from behind the scenes.
B u i l d i n g Up the By Christine Darg
In that day there shall be a highway from Egypt .... Israel will be the third, along with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing in the earth. e Lord Almighty will bless them, saying, “Blessed be Egypt my people, Assyria my handiwork, and Israel my inheritance.” (Isaiah 19: 23-25) When we first started visiting Israel in 1975, (and then we moved to Jerusalem in 1982), I carried the Jewish people in my heart. I had not yet met or loved the Arabs. Like Ruth, the Jewish people were “my people” because of my earliest childhood memories -- Jesus appearing to me as the King of the Jews, and healing me-and because of my picture books of Bible characters. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph and David were all family to me from my baby crib and because of my parental teaching. en, as we lived and worked in Israel, I was taken by surprise by the extraordinary openness of the Arabs to the Gospel. In those early days of running a news bureau in the 1980s in Jerusalem, I began to evangelize among the Arabs simply because they welcomed me. Happily, I discovered it is their Harvest time! And the Arabs were supernaturally open to me. Dreams and visions were part of my ministry to them, and still continue. In America, I had never witnessed such hunger and openness to the Gospel. And so through evangelistic outreaches among the Arabs, God taught me the big picture of his vision for the region.
While many emissaries to the Jewish people were prejudiced against Arabs, I couldn’t help but love them because of their hospitality and their love for me! Love has its own power, and I had never experienced such receptivity to the Gospel as through the Arabs. I held many outreaches in Bethlehem and Jerusalem’s Old City, and I first learned to pray for the sick amongst the Arabs, who are very open to the miraculous. e Lord began to send me on prayer assignments to Egypt and the surrounding nations. I discovered the amazing prophecies contained in Isaiah 19 concerning a highway that God will build in the Last Days between Egypt, Israel and Assyria, which is yet to re-emerge again as a nation. (Watch this space!) I felt compelled by the Lord on many occasions to build up this highway in prayer and in prophetic acts with other team members. We oen prayed Exodus 3: 7-8: “I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows. And I am come down to deliver them.” e promise that God had made to set the Jewish slaves free was now his rhema word for persecuted Christians in the Mideast and for all those souls held captive behind the Jericho-like walls of Islam. Isaiah 19 oen dominated my conversations with Palestinians who were bewildered by the return of the Jewish people. As I explained God’s vision of
Isaiah 19 Highway the Isaiah 19 Highway, this truth made sense, and I would oen see light dawning on their faces. Over the past couple of decades, the Lord called us to hold bold exploits with Gospel tents at the Pyramids and also at Cairo’s Citadel fortress. But I had not visited Egypt since the Arab Spring revolution in 2011, when Egypt almost descended into civil war. Persecution against Christians by Muslims was fierce, and had it not been for the prayers of the Body of Messiah, who knows how far events would have spiralled out of control. But, thankfully, the Muslim Brotherhood’s leader was toppled, and a more moderate leader, El -Sisi, rose to power. President Sisi has shown considerable warmth toward the indigenous Coptic Christian community, which comprises the largest Christian population in the Mideast. President Sisi has bravely called for reforms in Islam. He is keeping a lid on things, but we must pray that his political advisers will not prevent him from making more efforts to protect the rights of Egypt’s 20 million Christians. Recently the Lord suddenly sent us back to Egypt on assignment. We met with staff from Cairo’s leading evangelical church, called the “Church of the Revolution” because of its proximity to Tahrir Square, where Arab Spring demonstrations took place. At that time, the Lord elevated this church to national prominence because it opened its doors as a field hospital for the injured. e staff welcomed revolutionaries and offered counsel and encouragement amid chaos. To
radical Islamists, the church’s senior pastor spoke words of wisdom, and he ministered comfort to the bereaved. Many Muslims now attend the overflow services, which are broadcast all over Egypt. All revivals begin in prayer. We held prayer meetings in Jerusalem for ten years on one theme-- the irreversible overthrow of the powers of darkness holding a billion souls captive. It is no coincidence that Cairo’s evangelical church also held revival prayer meetings for 10 years. is month we heard from many Egyptian leaders that the Church in Egypt is united as never before. is is because the devil always overplays his hand! What Satan meant for evil has caused Christians to be one, the very goal that Jesus said proves that God sent HIm! Persecution and unspeakable atrocities has served to unify the Body. Pastors who previously had no fellowship are washing one another’s feet. Keep proclaiming with me: Egypt, Assyria and Israel shall be saved! Christine Darg with worship leaders of Cairo’s evangelical church at Tahrir Square
Exploits Ministry Supports Christian Children Who Work Like Slaves in Islamic Pakistan One of our goals is to help to raise up the next generation of Christian leaders in the Islamic world. An outstanding ministry partner in Pakistan is young Pastor Rizwan Fazal, born into a family of a long line of ministers. His brave older brother, Evangelist Anwar Fazal, is the “Billy Graham of Pakistan.” Both brothers have been involved in organizing Exploits Ministry and Operation Blessing events. Pastor Rizwan administers schools for persecuted Christians. Christian Child Laborer We met Rizwan when he was 22, and his ministry was well established even then. Like many who live in the Muslim world, he was called to the ministry through a dream. God said, “My son, I want to use you for my Gospel.” e dream startled him, and the next night, Rizwan experienced the same dream. His father said, “We have prayed for you from the time you were in your mother’s womb.” Rizwan testifies, “I have been working for our Lord Jesus Christ all over Pakistan. I have a school for 300 children in Lahore City, Islamic
Pastor Rizwan during a school assembly
Republic of Pakistan, and I also run three other schools in different villages at factories for poor and needy ‘brick children.’ We provide Bible study Pastor Rizwan and his body guards and classes from first to 10th grade. eir parents are not able to afford school fees, so by faith we provide these children with a free education. We have many volunteer team members, and we are working day and night. We are all filled with the Holy Spirit and fire. We go into backward areas of Pakistan, and many people are joining. ank you, Exploits Ministry. We need your daily prayers and support to continue these schools of mercy in Pakistan. ” Recently over 500 Pakistanis perished due to a heat wave. At that time, Exploits Ministry supplied a generator so the children could have electric fans to help them concentrate in the heat! Continue to pray for Rizwan, his wife Mehwish, and their daughters, Stacey and Hazel.
Was This History’s First ‘Photo’ ?
“Man of the Shroud” has a beard, Editor’s Note: following are excerpts moustache and shoulder-length hair, from a video transcript describing parted in the middle. He is tall and Christine Darg’s recent encounter with muscular. Experts have measured him the cloth purported to be the burial at 5--7 inches or more. Imprints on shroud of Jesus that is kept in Turin, Italy. the cloth include a large round wrist Many believe the image on the wound. (e second wrist is hidden by shroud was caused by a burst of folded hands.) e bloodiest wound is radioactivity at the Resurrection, which Negative Image Shows 3-D Aspects an upward gouge in the right side. scorched the linen, leaving behind a Proponents of the shroud say this was a post-mortem record of Jesus, crucified for our sins. wound because separate components of red blood I didn’t know how I would react to viewing cells and serum drained from the lesion. e side of the shroud in Turin Cathedral. A touching and unexpected aspect was the scene of two honor guards Jesus was pierced aer his death to make sure he was dead, according to the New Testament. dressed in full regalia and bearing swords stationed Punctures around the scalp and forehead on either side of the displayed cloth. e respect and result from a crown, or more accurately, a cap of solemnity of the two guards brought to mind the thorns. e legs and torso are marked with depressed scene in John Chapter 20 of two angels who sat wounds consistent with the distinctive metal dumbells where the body of Jesus had been entombed, one at on a Roman whip. e serene face is swollen from the head and one at the feet. beatings, and streams of blood flow down the foreDetails of the cloth were not fully perceptible as we approached our turn to stand for a few minutes head and both arms. Large puncture wounds in the in front of the shroud. It was time for the changing of feet indicate a single spike was used. All these wounds, and the expression of shalom on the face, the guards who protected the holy relic that many bring to mind the prophecy of Isaiah 53: 5, “But he believe came in physical contact with the corpse and was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for blood of the King of Kings. Jesus’s Passion was on our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace display, whether or not it was a true relic, or just a was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.” life-like illustration of wounds the Lord endured on e face is central to the cloth, and the dorsal the Cross. e 14-foot linen cloth barely showed a side of the body is on the right. e striking negative faint full-length image of a man, front and back, image was discovered in 1898 by a photographer bearing signs of wounds that correspond to the named Secondo Pia. Ever since, people have been Gospel accounts in every detail. However, when wondering: could the Shroud of Turin be the first digitally enhanced by modern technology, the image “photograph” in history, and of the Messiah Himself, is an awesome “show and tell” of the brutality of at the flashpoint crucifixion and Patches along both sides of the cloth are repairs from a fire of Resurrection? scourging. Yet the face As it turns out, in death is one of and this fact was utmost serenity. only discovered A video in an in the 1970s, the antechamber prepared shroud’s image is visitors with informathreetion about the image Scripture says the body was wrapped in a “sindon,” a large cloth of fine linen. The dimensional. on the cloth. We saw a head image is central on the Shroud of Turin A NASA team photographic positive discovered a of the face and a more photograph of dramatic photothe shroud prographic negative duced a 3-D explaining the image’s image when ង many features: the
Encounter with the Shroud of Turin in Italy
placed under an Image Analysing Computer. is discovery implies that the Shroud of Turin is uniquely embedded with distance imaging information and is “dimensionally encoded.” is fact alone suggests that the image could not be a forgery. Such technology was not invented until the last century, so it is inconceivable that a mediaeval artist could have produced such a forgery. Because of the 3-D effect, technicians have even produced a Braille version for blind people to examine. e Gospels inform us that the Lord died at the time of the evening sacrifice at 3 p.m. e disciples had only three hours to remove his body from the cross and to prepare it for burial before the start of the Passover at sunset. e body was put hastily in “fine linen.” (Mark 15:46) e Greek word is “sindon,” and thus sindonology is the term used to describe studies about the shroud. Sindon is used elsewhere in the New Testament, so let’s allow Scripture to interpret Scripture. Sindon was used to describe a large piece of cloth, a garment described in Mark 14: 51- 52. Aer Jesus’s arrest in Gethsemane, “a certain young man (Mark) followed Him, having a linen cloth (sindon) around his naked body. But he le the linen cloth (sindon) and fled naked from the guards.” So sindon is a large singular cloth. A different word was used to describe grave cloths that were wound around the body of Lazarus, whom Jesus raised from the dead. Because there wasn’t enough time before the sabbath to give Jesus a full burial, the myrrh-bearing women came to the tomb early on Sunday morning to finish the job. However, Jesus was already resurrected, leaving behind the shroud that he had passed through, and his facial napkin was folded and le separately. In northern Spain in the Cathedral of Oviedo, there is another piece of cloth believed to be the napkin. If the Shroud of Oviedo is placed over the Shroud of
Turin, the blood spots reportedly match. Radiocarbon dating tests have been largely disputed. Also fascinating are magnified photographs of two coins placed over the eyes (photo le), both minted in 29 A.D. under Pilate. Another argument in favor of the shroud belonging to Jesus concerns pollen and faint botanic images found on the cloth. A Hebrew University botany professor, Dr. Avinoam Danin, studied samples of pollen collected from the shroud’s surface. He authored “Botany of the Shroud,” one of the most convincing books describing the shroud as authentic. Dr. Danin found floral images regional to the Holy Land, and limited only to a narrow window between Jerusalem and Hebron. Enhanced photography also revealed other objects, including a nail, hammer, reed, sponge and rope. e reason these items would be included in the burial is because they had come into contact with blood, and blood is considered sacred. Even today when there is (God forbid) a terrorist incident, teams of Orthodox Jews carefully collect any body pieces and even the blood for burial. e Roman Catholic Church has not taken an official position but describes the Shroud of Turin as “a holy relic, a mirror of the Gospel.” Above all we must affirm the authenticity of the Gospels! e Gospels attest that Jesus, descended from King David, was dead, buried and aer three days and nights, rose from the dead. ese facts were also recorded by Jewish historian, Flavius Josephus, who wrote: “Now there was about this time Jesus ... a doer of wonderful works ... Pilate ... condemned him to the cross ... he appeared to them alive again on the third day.”
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