The Presbyterian Infamous Resolution

Now, Religion in the News: a report and comment on religious trends and events being covered by the media. This week’s item is from Israel Christian News, August 20^th, 2004, with the headline: “The Presbyterian Infamous Resolution—Some Presbyterian leaders have hijacked the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church to pass an outrageous anti-Israel resolution. There is not the slightest doubt that this resolution is bound to inflame anti-Semitism. Is this what guided the resolution leaders? The overwhelming majority of Christian churches, both Protestant and Catholic are now promoting friendship and brotherhood love toward the Jewish people after 2000 years of hatred and violence.

“‘Jesus tore down the wall of hatred which separated Gentiles and Jews and made us one,’ said St. Paul in his letter to the Ephesians:2:14For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us;
See All....

“Not for the Presbyterian Resolution leaders. The root cause for promoting anti-Israel resolution is the old vicious anti-Semitism. Millions were killed in Africa, but these resolution leaders did not raise their voices. Sudan promotes genocide against black Christians, but not a word of condemnation by these Presbyterian elders. A genocide of black people continues uninterrupted in Darfur, Western Sudan. No mention in a Presbyterian resolution. Muslim terrorists continuously and brutally kill Christians, even before the state of Israel was established.

“Yet, the Presbyterian resolution leaders are not even shocked. Only Israel disturbs their peace of mind. Why? Because those who resettled Israel are Jews, many of them are Holocaust and Muslim terrorism survivors. Peel off the varnish and ugly anti-Semitism appears. This the real cause of the anti-Israel resolution. Never mind what St. Paul said to the Ephesians, never mind Christian love. The resolution leaders prefer Christian hatred.”

Tom: Dave, a little background on this. The General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church, by an overwhelming vote, 431 to 62, adopted a resolution to, well, calling actually for a divestment campaign from corporations doing business with Israel.

Dave: In other words, they want to isolate Israel, cut them off from food, supplies, technology, equipment, and so forth.

Tom: Right.

Dave: They want to destroy Israel.

Tom: Yeah. Now, this is Presbyterian USA.

Dave: But, there are a lot of other churches did the same.

Tom: Right, but again we’re talking about a little less than 500 people.

So we’re not saying that, you know, all Presbyterians are in favor of this, but certainly these people who have voting rights, they’re anti-Semitic. I don’t know how you could come to any other conclusion.

Dave: How you could read the news, Tom, about suicide bombers continually attacking Israel—how you could fail to know the truth that in every Mosque, on the streets over loud speakers, in the schools, it’s taught, hatred of Israel, that Israel must be destroyed. There ought to be enough information out there—get our video, Israel, Islam, and Armageddon. That will tell you. The things that we write, there are many, many books out there that will tell you the facts that the Muslims are determined to annihilate the Jews. Okay? And they’re continually attacking them. The Jews never say they’re going to destroy the Arabs, the Palestinians so-called. The Jews don’t start wars. They don’t attack them. How you could know this, and then blame Israel, and say we’re going to destroy Israel, we’re going to put Israel out of business. We’re going to make it impossible for Israel to exist, and we’re going to put pressure on corporations that do business with Israel. In order to do that, Tom, you’ve got to have a very twisted mind

Tom: Well—

Dave: To come up with something like this.

Tom:  Well, yeah, and I think this is subversive. Well, Dave, in 1987 the Presbyterian Church came out with a statement: “Never again to participate in, to contribute to, or in so far as we are able to allow the persecution or denigration of Jews.” Now—how do these two mix?

Dave: They don’t Tom, but let me try to explain it a little bit further. Presbyterians are Calvinists. This is a Calvinist doctrine, Reform Theology, which denies the legitimacy of Israel. In fact, which says the church has replaced Israel, that Israel has been excommunicated. You know, they’re like Reconstructionists and it’s a Catholic doctrine, actually. An awful lot of Catholicism hung on in the Reformation. This is a “reformation church,” this is reformation doctrine. It goes back to Calvin, it goes back to Luther, another leader in the Reformation, and I’m not saying that everything about the Reformation was wrong. We give Luther credit for standing up to the Catholic Church. On the other hand, he was as anti-Semitic as you could possibly be. Burned down their synagogues, [tore] out their tongues, you know, and so forth. And that goes back to Augustine. And it goes back to the Catholic Church. So, that is behind this. It’s not some new idea that they came up with.

Now, when they talked about Jews back there in 1987—maybe their conscience was smitten a bit and they’re talking about anti-Semitism—they would probably distinguish between anti-Semitism and Israel. But if they would read their Bible, for example, Jeremiah 31, beginning at verse 35, “God says, if Israel does not exist, there’s no sun in the sky. There are no stars in the sky; the whole thing is finished.” There are hundreds of passages in Scripture where God promised that He would restore Israel. And, in fact, verse 35 in Jeremiah 31 begins, “If Israel ceases to be a nation….” So, these people would distinguish, “Oh, we’re not against Jews; we’re just against that nation over there that calls itself Israel, that really has no legitimate claim to that land.” In fact, it’s the land God gave them and He has promised them that He would bring them back. And we are seeing the beginning of the fulfillment of that. And they are opposed to it as the Catholic Church.

Now, let me just quote Pope Pius X way back in 1904. He said, “We cannot prevent the Jews from returning to Palestine (he called it), but we could never condone it.”

Tom: Dave, the Presbyterian Church. Somebody says, “No, they’re not anti-Semitic.” Why aren’t they divesting their portfolio, which, I think, is in the billions from China, Russia, all these other places? Pick a….

Dave: Sudan.

Tom: Yeah, there you go. This is anti-Semitic.

Dave: Saudi Arabia.

Tom: This is anti-Semitism.

Dave: Right.