Saturday night

The Christians United For Israel meeting was good. I learned two new terms, "Righteous Gentiles" and "replacement theology." There were about 500 people in attendance. The beginning was too long, filled with far too much fluff about sister city stuff, and speakers that no one really cared about, giving out awards to people no one knows. The best speaker was the keynote speaker and he was dead last, followed only by a benediction from a pastor and a blessing from a rabbi. The beginning was so boring and long, that some people began leaving! We drove too far to leave early and good thing because the last speaker, David Brog, was worth the wait.

He began by explaining that he is the executive director of Christians United For Israel and he is not Christian. He is Jewish. He said people often assume he is a Messianic Jew (that's a Jew who believes Christ is the Son of God) or a Jew for Jesus person (that another similar group). But he's neither. He's a Jew for Judaism! The whole audience chuckled. The night was one big history lesson. He was bold even mentioning the phrase Christ killers, which I just heard in the movie Fiddler On The Roof, and the Crusades. He said that the story of the Bible is not finished. The story hasn't ended yet.

Which brings me to define replacement theology. Replacement theology has fostered anti-Semitism throughout history. He used the word so many times I actually remembered it. This is a concept which David explained affected people's thinking to such a degree that it has led to all kinds of aggression toward Jews by Christian groups. Replacement theologians say that God has rejected the Jews in the place of the Gentile Church, because the Jews failed to believe. The Church "replaces" the Jewish people because the Jews are rejected by God, no longer the chosen people. It's bogus theology. It really helped me to understand how anti-Semitism came into existence in the first place. I'd always wondered about that. I've marveled at people who hate Jews because I just don't get it.

What happened, he says, is that every instance in the Bible that says Israel, modern Christianity perceived to mean the Church, essentially kicking the Jewish people out of their own Bible. But! If you have a literal interpretation of the Bible, and I do, then Israel means I-s-r-a-e-l. And prophecy about Israel is about I-s-r-a-e-l.

Righteous Gentiles refers to the people who courageously hid and protected Jews during the Holocaust. A lady did a drama piece about Corrie ten Boom, a Christian protestant in Holland who put herself and her family in danger to hide Jews from the Nazis. The Dutch family got caught by a spy and all died except for Corrie. Even Corrie's 84 year old father was put in prison where he died in days. I've heard and read of Anne Frank but until last night I'd never heard about Corrie ten Boom. We all wonder, if we went back in time, would we be a Righteous Gentile. None of us can know, can we? But we like to hope and think we would be.

He said what happened in WWII could never happen now because the Jews aren't alone now. They have friends. Us.

They played "Hava Nagila" twice and I wanted to go down and dance but my group fairly rushed out of the building immediately after the last speaker. Boo hoo. And the 13 year old boy next to me asked me if I was Jewish because I knew most of the words. I thought he was cute. I wondered why he was staring at me so while I sang. I thought I had something wrong or something. Heh.

I got home Friday night at 1:15am. I got up at noon Friday morn and looked awful and had a headache all day. Today I felt all recovered. Today I just kicked back. We watched the first half of Cecil B. deMille's "Ten Commandments" and I'm pleased because our son is enjoying it.

Hmmm. Off to bed for me now. Have a lovely Sunday day.

Greater is he that is in me than he that is in the world. Paraphrased from 1John 4:4