CHRISTIAN ZIONISM - THE MODERN EBIONITES

by Betty Luks
Those who have taken the trouble to study the background to the earliest years of Christianity know the importance of the Greek influence in shaping the development of the Christian Faith. Not so much the influence of the Greek language itself but in the non-submission of the early Greek Christians to the demands of the Judaeo-Christians that they become Judaised before they could be accepted into the fellowship.

The students would know that radiating from the centre at Jerusalem, the westward urge of Christianity was by far the most pronounced and reached the capital of the Roman Empire within ten years of the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ. It was at Antioch, a Greek city, that the disciples were first called Christians.
Hegesippus, a convert, recorded the Jerusalem Christians were split up into a number of factions and were quarrelling over doctrinal points. The factions included the one we know as the Ebionites.
Travelling down to Antioch from Jerusalem, they were insisting the Greek converts had to conform to the rites of Judaism. This matter was thrashed out between Paul and Peter at the very first Church Council, the Council of Jerusalem as recorded in the Book of Acts chapter 15.
At a later date, the Ebionite teaching was declared a heresy by the Church.

What were the main features of the Ebionites' doctrine?
§ They sought to enforce the Mosaic Law.
§ They insisted on the human birth of Jesus Christ.
§ They claimed Paul was a heretic. (Paul argued against the Judaisers.)
§ They looked for the return of Christ to found an earthly kingdom. (The Jews at the time were looking for a very human political Messiah to rid them of their Roman oppressors.)

Jewish historian Professor H. Graetz in "History of the Jews," Vol.II, p.273, tells us how the Judaeans and the elders of the Ebionites "mingled together without reserve," for a time, but "it did not last long."
Again he says: "the closer the Judaean-Christians of the second or third generation approached the views held by the pagan-Christians (Greek-Christians) the further they drifted away from Judaism."

With the help of these brief background details, read the following "Jerusalem Declaration on Christian Zionism," by the Heads of the Christian Churches in modern Jerusalem.

"THE JERUSALEM DECLARATION ON CHRISTIAN ZIONISM"

Statement by the Patriarch and Local Heads of Churches In Jerusalem, August 25, 2006.

"Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the children of God." (Matthew 5:9)

Christian Zionism is a modern theological and political movement that embraces the most extreme ideological positions of Zionism, thereby becoming detrimental to a just peace within Palestine and Israel. The Christian Zionist programme provides a worldview where the Gospel is identified with the ideology of empire, colonialism and militarism. In its extreme form, it places an emphasis on apocalyptic events leading to the end of history rather than living Christ's love and justice today.

We categorically reject Christian Zionist doctrines as false teaching that corrupts the biblical message of love, justice and reconciliation.

We further reject the contemporary alliance of Christian Zionist leaders and organizations with elements in the governments of Israel and the United States that are presently imposing their unilateral pre-emptive borders and domination over Palestine. This inevitably leads to unending cycles of violence that undermine the security of all peoples of the Middle East and the rest of the world.

We reject the teachings of Christian Zionism that facilitate and support these policies as they advance racial exclusivity and perpetual war rather than the gospel of universal love, redemption and reconciliation taught by Jesus Christ. Rather than condemn the world to the doom of Armageddon we call upon everyone to liberate themselves from the ideologies of militarism and occupation. Instead, let them pursue the healing of the nations!

We call upon Christians in Churches on every continent to pray for the Palestinian and Israeli people, both of whom are suffering as victims of occupation and militarism. These discriminative actions are turning Palestine into impoverished ghettos surrounded by exclusive Israeli settlements. The establishment of the illegal settlements and the construction of the Separation Wall on confiscated Palestinian land undermines the viability of a Palestinian state as well as peace and security in the entire region.

We call upon all Churches that remain silent, to break their silence and speak for reconciliation with justice in the Holy Land. Therefore, we commit ourselves to the following principles as an alternative way:
We affirm that all people are created in the image of God. In turn they are called to honour the dignity of every human being and to respect their inalienable rights.
We affirm that Israelis and Palestinians are capable of living together within peace, justice and security.
We affirm that Palestinians are one people, both Muslim and Christian. We reject all attempts to subvert and fragment their unity.
We call upon all people to reject the narrow world view of Christian Zionism and other ideologies that privilege one people at the expense of others.
We are committed to non-violent resistance as the most effective means to end the illegal occupation in order to attain a just and lasting peace.

With urgency we warn that Christian Zionism and its alliances are justifying colonization, apartheid and empire-building. God demands that justice be done. No enduring peace, security or reconciliation is possible without the foundation of justice. The demands of justice will not disappear. The struggle for justice must be pursued diligently and persistently but non-violently.

"What does the Lord require of you, to act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God." (Micah 6:8) This is where we take our stand.
We stand for justice. We can do no other. Justice alone guarantees a peace that will lead to reconciliation with a life of security and prosperity for all the peoples of our Land. By standing on the side of justice, we open ourselves to the work of peace - and working for peace makes us children of God. "God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation." (2 Cor 5:19)

§ His Beattitude Patriarch Michel Sabbah , Latin Patriarchate, Jerusalem
§ Archbishop Swerios Malki Mourad, Syrian Orthodox Patriarchate, Jerusalem
§ Bishop Riah Abu El-Assal, Episcopal Church of Jerusalem and the Middle East
§ Bishop Munib Younan, Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land August 22, 2000

*** For a better understanding of modern Judaism's beliefs we recommend Israel Shahak's book: "Jewish History, Jewish Religion: The Weight of Three Thousand Years."
Another very important booklet for study is "The Australian Heritage Series". It features essays by three Christian theologians on the hatching of Christian freedoms, the basic philosophical importance of the Athanasian Creed and the Christian basis of our law.
Special Offer: 2 copies of "The Australian Heritage Series" free with every copy of "Jewish History: Jewish Religion" $52.00 posted.

THE NEXT PHASE OF THE 'EMPIRE BUILDING'?

Michel Chossudovsky of Global Research sees the Lebanon attack by Israel as a phase in the long-term plans of the US and Israeli neocon leaders - "The Next Phase of the Middle East War". ttp://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14860.htm

Israel's war on Lebanon is an integral part of a US sponsored "military roadmap"
"The war on Lebanon, which has resulted in countless atrocities including the destruction of the nation's economy and civilian infrastructure, is "a stage" in a sequence of carefully planned military operations. Lebanon constitutes a strategic corridor between Israel and North-western Syria. The underlying objective of this war was the militarization of Lebanon, including the stationing of foreign troops, as a precondition for carrying out the next phase of a broader military agenda.

Formally under a UN mandate, the foreign troops to be stationed on Lebanese soil on the immediate border with Syria, will be largely although not exclusively from NATO countries.
This military force mandated by the UN Security Council is by no means neutral. It responds directly to US and Israeli interests. Moreover, the timely withdrawal of Syrian troops, following the February 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri has contributed to opening up a "new space". The withdrawal of Syrian troops served Israeli interests.
The timely pullout was of strategic significance: it was a major factor in the timing and planning of the July 2006 IDF attacks on Lebanon.

In the aftermath of the Israeli bombings and the "ceasefire", UN Security Council Resolution 1701, drafted by France and the US in close consultation with the Israeli government, has paved the way for the militarization of Lebanon, under a bogus UN mandate.

The Next Phase of the Middle East War
Confirmed by official statements and military documents, the US in close coordination with Britain (and in consultation with its NATO partners), is planning to launch a war directed against Iran and Syria. US Ambassador to the UN John Bolton has already initiated the draft of a UN Security Council resolution with a view to imposing sanctions on Tehran for its alleged (nonexistent) nuclear weapons program.

Whether this resolution is adopted is not the main issue. The US may decide to proceed in defiance of the Security Council, following a veto by Russia and/or China. The vote of France and Britain, among the permanent members has already been secured.

US military sources have confirmed that an aerial attack, pursuant to a sanctions regime on Iran, with or without UN approval, would involve a large scale deployment comparable to the US "shock and awe" bombing raids on Iraq in March 2003."

IMMIGRATION AND THE RURAL CRISIS

by James Reed:
Immigration is once more being pushed as a panacea for Australia's rural crisis (The Australian 30/1/06, p.10, "A Land of Opportunity"). Migrants traditionally settle in cities: the 2000 census found that 85 per cent of them settled in metropolitan areas and over 60 per cent chose Sydney or Melbourne. Migration settlement is now being used to allegedly meet a shortage of skilled and unskilled workers. Thus the Migration to Warnambool Project 2005 brought in 100 Sudanese to add colour, richness and excitement to the city.

The problem (one of the problems) with the magical migration philosophy is that migrants are people too. Even if they are refugees from the Sudan the same problems and deprivations that initially forced people to leave the country towns will ultimately cause them to leave and seek ethnic support units in the cities. Hence the initial problem will remain unsolved.

Of course it was never the intention of the elites to solve the long term rural crisis by immigration. At best it is a band aid that has the added advantage of continuing the demographic warfare of migration against rural Australia. Every town and street must become like Cabramatta and Bankstown and the less Anglo Australians, the safer the elites fel in their soft cosy beds.

BEFORE THE AUSTRALIAN ABORIGINES

by Brian Simpson
One of the arguments beloved of the multicultural and immigration lobby is that Anglo-Australians should not resist their demise by ethnic dilution because Australia was not the creation of the British. The Aborigines were the first inhabitants of this land and everybody else is a "migrant". Genocide was committed against Aborigines and only the cleansing blessing of migrants can heal these wounds. Presumably one billion Chinese and Indians brought to Australia would set the scores straight. It is a crazy argument at best.

One of the underlying assumptions behind this metaphysics of madness is that the Aborigines were the first inhabitants of "Australia". Archaeologist Mike Morwood, the leader of the team that discovered the remains of a one metre tall hominid at Liang Bua cave on Indonesia's Flores Islands in 2003, thinks otherwise.
The small human, called by the media "Hobbits" - known officially as Homo Floriensis - was thought by Professor Morwood to have populated Australia before Aboriginal settlers (invaders?) arrived around 60,000 years ago. The Hobbits may have been "pushed out" by the larger Aborigines or - Morwood doesn't say it but it is a logical hypothesis - destroyed by them.

But doesn't that constitute racial genocide? And if it is one of the founding myths, Anti-Anglo racism is called into question. The Anti-Anglo racists' "moral superiority" argument, falls.

I TOLD YOU SO

by James Reed
In one of "Reed's rants" I lamented about the decline of womanhood as witnessed by the behaviour of young women in the bar/nightlife circuit, exhibited in drug taking, alcoholism and sexual decadence. Sure, men are open to such criticism, perhaps more so, but today the establishment media has declared open season on men, so further criticism by me is not needed.

For ladies who may not know, Footie Chicks, a documentary explored one aspect of the decline of manhood - and sadly womanhood. (The Australian 15 June 2006, p.3)
The documentary deals with young girls who prostitute themselves to the gods of football. While the media has focused upon the brutish, disgusting behaviour of footballers towards women (and rightly so) there is a neglected side of the story. Many girls actively seek to have sex with entire football teams!

The article in The Australian speaks of an act on a girl by two footballers at the same time. Horrible, offensive stuff, I agree. But this is the problem we face, which an older - and many now deceased - generation of supporters and actionists did not face: the internal, moral degradation of our race.
The answer lies in a revival of Christian values, to give young people the values that, surely, in their heart of hearts, they thirst for. Our difficulty is that our churches have sold out to globalist one world values that are feeding this crisis of values.
As always, the responsibility for the preservation - or regeneration - of civilisation lies with the individual.

A SNIPPET OF 'MULTICULTURAL' INTEREST

By Canadian columnist Mark Steyn sent to us by Paul Fromm of Canada:
"Two hundred years ago, in a more culturally confident age, the British in India were faced with the practice of Sati-that's the tradition of burning widows on the funeral pyres of their husband. General Sir Charles Napier was impeccably multicultural. He said: 'You say that it's your custom to burn widows, very well. We also have a custom. When men burn a woman alive, we tie a rope around their neck and we hang them.
Build your funeral pyre; beside it my carpenters will build a gallows; you may follow your custom, then we will follow ours.'

As it happens, my wife's uncle was named after General Napier which I guess makes me a British Imperialist by marriage. But India today is better off without Sati. And what's so strange about the times we live in is that even to say that is to invite accusations of cultural supremacy. If you don't agree that India is better off without Sati, if you think that's just dead white-male-euro-centricism, fine, but I don't think you really do believe that.

Non-judgemental multiculturalism, cultural relativism, is an obvious fraud and I think it's subliminally accepted on that basis. I think that, after all, most people, given the choice, don't want to live in anything but an advanced Western society.
They think that pretending that all societies are equal is in a sense part of the wallpaper of living in an advanced Western society. And they think you can contain multiculturalism, they think multiculturalism means your kid has to learn some wretched tribal dirge for the school holiday concert instead of getting them to sing jingle bells. Or that your holistic masseur uses techniques developed from Native American spirituality.

But it doesn't mean that you or anyone that you care about should have to live in an African or Native American society."

HOWARD'S MULTICULTURAL AUSTRALIA BECOMING A BIT OF A WORRY:

Islamic leader warns of more riots Sydney Morning Herald 1st September 2006:
The chairman of the government's Islamic Advisory Committee has warned of more Cronulla-style riots unless the prime minister tones down his rhetoric on Muslim migrants.

John Howard sparked a backlash in some sections of Australia's Muslim community by saying on talk-back radio yesterday that Muslim migrants needed to conform to Australian values by learning English and treating women with respect.
But the head of the government's new muslim advisory committee, Dr Ameer Ali, warned of trouble unless the prime minister backed down. "We have already witnessed one incident in Sydney recently in Cronulla, I don't want these scenes to be repeated because when you antagonise the younger generation, younger group, they are bound to react," Dr Ali told Macquarie Radio.

But Mr Howard today stood by his comments.
"I don't apologise," he told reporters. "I think they are missing the point and the point is that I don't care and the Australian people don't care where people come from. There's a small section of the Islamic population which is unwilling to integrate and I have said generally all migrants ... they have to integrate."

IS THAT RIGHT? THE BOYS ARE ALWAYS LISTENING?

by James Reed
The Bush Administration through its national Security Agency (NSA) and the co-operation of major telephone companies AT, Verizon and BellSouth, has been collecting the phone records of tens of millions of US citizens since 9/11.
Although Bush himself went on TV to lie - sorry - reassure Americans that the Government does not listen to domestic phone calls without court approval, this time people are not as readily convinced. USA Today cited people with direct knowledge of the programme.

The New York Times in December 2005 reported that Bush had authorised the American secret police, the NSA, to eavesdrop on Americans and others inside the US to search for evidence of terrorism without court-approved warrants. After that scandal George must have thought that his troubles were over.

Democrats may take control in November's congressional mid-term elections and control the House of Representatives. No doubt they will bring their own form of chaos. But with them comes the possibility of impeaching George W. Bush. The stress may drive the, already intellectually challenged, President back to his bottle.

FURY IGNITED AS ACADEMICS CLAIM 9/11 AN 'INSIDE JOB'

Readers of the UK's Daily Mail must be sitting up and taking notice, as the 75 or so top professors and scientists of 'Scholars for Truth' break through the mainline news barrier with the Daily Mail publishing their story: 5th September 2006

"The 9/11 terrorist attack on America which left almost 3,000 people dead was an "inside job", according to a group of leading academics. Around 75 top professors and leading scientists believe the attacks were puppeteered by war mongers in the White House to justify the invasion and the occupation of oil-rich Arab countries. The claims have caused outrage and anger in the US which marks the fifth anniversary of the terrorist attacks on Monday. But leading scientists say the facts of their investigations cannot be ignored and say they have evidence that points to one of the biggest conspiracies ever perpetrated.

Professor Steven Jones, who lectures in physics at the Brigham Young University in Utah, says the official version of events is the biggest and most evil cover up in history. He has joined Scholars for 9/11 Truth whose membership includes up to 75 leading scientists and experts from universities across the US. Prof Jones said: "We don't believe that 19 hijackers and a few others in a cave in Afghanistan pulled this off acting alone. We challenge this official conspiracy theory and, by God, we're going to get to the bottom of this."

In essays and journals, the scientists are giving credence to many of the conspiracy theories that have circulated on the internet in the past five years. They believe a group of US neo-conservatives called the Project for a New American Century, set on US world dominance, orchestrated the 9/11 attacks as an excuse to hit Iraq, Afghanistan and later Iran. The group says scientific evidence over the attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon is conclusive proof.
Professor Jones said it was impossible for the twin towers to have collapsed in the way they did from the collision of two aeroplanes. He maintains jet fuel does not burn at temperatures high enough to melt steel beams and claims horizontal puffs of smoke seen during the collapse of the towers are indicative of controlled explosions used to bring down the towers.

The group also maintains World Trade Centre 7 - a neighbouring building which caught fire and collapsed later in the day - was only partially damaged but had to be destroyed because it housed a clandestine CIA station. Professor James Fetzer, 65, a retired philosopher of science at the University of Minnesota, said: "The evidence is so overwhelming, but most Americans don't have time to take a look at this."

The 9/11 Commission dismissed the numerous conspiracy theories after its exhaustive investigation into the terror attacks. Subsequent examinations of the towers' structure have sought to prove they were significantly weakened by the impact which tore off fire retardant materials and led the steel beams bending under heat and then collapsing. Christopher Pyle, professor of constitutional law at Mt Holyoake College in Massachusetts, has dismissed the academic group.
He said: "To plant bombs in three buildings with enough bomb materials and wiring? It's too huge a project and would require far too many people to keep it a secret afterwards. After every major crisis, like the assassinations of JFK or Martin Luther King, we've had conspiracy theorists who come up with plausible scenarios for gullible people. It's a waste of time."

But University of Wisconsin assistant professor, Kevin Barrett, said experts are unwilling to believe theories which don't fit into their belief systems. He said: "People will disregard evidence it if causes their faith to be shattered. I think we were all shocked. And then, when the voice of authority told us what happened, we just believed it."
As the fifth anniversary approached, the 9/11 Scholars for Truth is urging Congress to reopen the investigation claiming they have amassed a wealth of scientific evidence to prove their version of the terror attacks." We haven't heard the end of this matter.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=403757&in_page_id=1770