Plucking the Eagle's Wings

Plucking the Eagle's Wings

them. It is easy to understand their feelings, considering all the blood that has been shed throughout the centuries in the name of Christ. I have told my Jewish friends that the religion of the old Roman Empire does not represent all of Christianity. To compare all believers in Christ to the so-called Christians who murdered the Jews during the Holocaust is something like comparing all American Jews to all anti Christian liberals in the country. Neither is an accurate comparison. In terms of persecution, the Roman church has clearly victimized Jews throughout its history. However, many present-day groups such as the Pentecostals, Baptists, Methodists and others, do not follow the older Roman system that dominated the church between the fourth and seventeenth centuries. Jews in Israel and other parts of the world are leery of evangelical Christians because they feel that Christian love for them is based upon a desire to convert them. Actually, our love is based upon the understanding that Jews and Christians worship the same God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Christians and Jews accept the Old Testament as true, and both groups believe in Israel's prophetic role in the end times. Evangelical Christians support Israel because the Bible teaches that the Jews will be the world's end-time evangelists, and Israel will be where the major prophetic activity will unfold in the last days. In the United States, some Jews in the media and in prominent Jewish organizations lash out at Baptist, Pentecostal, and Charismatic groups who emphasize evangelism. But these three groups are some of the strongest supporters of Israel. Can the distrust and misunderstandings resulting from centuries of wrongful persecution be healed in these latter days? Healing the Breach Between the Jews and Christians Since Israel became a nation again in 1948, and since the reunification of Jerusalem in 1967, Evangelical Christians in America and Canada have supported Israel. In recent years, Christians have donated millions of dollars to assist Russian Jews returning to Israel. Despite this gesture of reconciliation, the spiritual rift between many Jews and traditional Christians still exists. Prophetically, we believe that as the time of Christ's return nears, this chasm will close and there will be greater understanding, especially between Israeli Jews and American Christians. James predicted in the book of Acts that God would "return and raise up the tabernacle of

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