GNITN - Special Edition

Israel At War – Day 116

Our Bonhoeffer Moment

We Must Remember

It was only a few days ago that we commemorated International Holocaust Remembrance Day and sadly, there are some who still don’t think the killing of Jews during WWII ever happened. Such historical blindness is aiding and abetting the rapid rise of antisemitism around the world and on university campuses where one would think they would know better. However in the halls of higher learning hatred for Jews has been fomenting for years and now we’re seeing the cup of that disgust spilling over into our streets and on social media. Misinformation and outright ignorance of the facts of this dark chapter in history is currently fueling these antisemitism movements, movements that are at the same time supporting the terrorists who raped, tortured, kidnapped, and killed Israelis on October 7th. All one needs do is simply use the power of the Internet to bring this history back into view and perhaps minds will be changed and hearts can be softened. Unfortunately, hating Jews is in vogue now and it is sad to see. But there are some who are trying to inform those in the Congress of the United States that support for Israel is greatly needed now.

Up To The Task

In an article from CBN.com we read about people who are visiting Capitol Hill tomorrow to raise awareness for the nation of Israel and the Jewish people:
A significant event takes place on Capitol Hill on Wednesday as dozens of Christian pastors and Jewish rabbis will walk the halls of Congress together, meeting with lawmakers from both sides of the aisle.

Their task is to speak up for the state of Israel and the Jewish people. They will remind the representatives and senators about the urgency of the situation as Israel continues its war against Hamas and fights to free the remaining 100+ hostages being held by the terror group.

Robert Stearns, founder and executive director of Eagles' Wings Ministries will be one of those religious leaders. Stearns appeared on the Tuesday edition of CBN's The 700 Club to talk about why it's important for Christian and Jewish leaders to meet with lawmakers.

Stearns offered his overall opinion for doing this:

"The issues facing Israel are not really isolated in any way to Israel itself. The battle that Israel is facing is a battle that affects the whole world," he explained. "And the need is for Christians to take a stand, an educated stand, in this moment as never before."

"So tomorrow, we're going as rabbis and pastors, Democrats, Republicans coming together. This is an American issue. This is a human issue. And it's absolutely necessary for us to lift our voices," the Eagles' Wings founder said.

Wolves In Sheep’s Clothing

He will bring up the issue of the United Nations workers helping Hamas:

One of the issues to be discussed will be the revelation that employees of the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees in Gaza were suspected of taking part in the Oct. 7 terror attack by Hamas on southern Israel.

"It's absolutely one of our core talking points tomorrow," Sterns noted. "Because the issue that we're facing right now is we're in this moment that scripture warned us about where 'those will call evil good and good evil'. The United Nations, which is supposed to be safeguarding human rights around the world, is absolutely culpable in terrorism, in Israel, in Gaza. This is now proven."

Stearns rightly calls for us to wake up to what is really happening in Israel:

"I want to say The 700 Club has been warning for years that we have got to wake up to these realities that Israel faces in the Middle East," he continued. "And I want to encourage Christians around the world to begin praying as they have never prayed before, and to begin speaking to their pastors, and their denominational leaders. It is time to get educated and involved in the battle for Jerusalem because this is a battle for human rights all around the world."

US Is Out Of Touch

The CBN report quotes Stearns as saying that our government is woefully ignorant about history in the Middle East:

Speaking on the subject of the Senate Democrats' proposal of a two-state solution for Israel and Palestine, and their intention to create legislation to make it the policy of the United States, Stearns reminded viewers that "Israel accepted a two-state solution from the very beginning."

"The Palestinians have been offered a two-state solution even prior to 1948," he pointed out. "The Israelis have accepted this over and over again. The Palestinians have rejected this over and over again. The greater Arab world has rejected it. And now, that you've got a radicalized population in Gaza funded by Iran, supported, going through Qatar, how are we supposed to think when you've educated a generation of children in Jew-hatred?"

He said something we’ve known for some time about the indoctrination going on:

"When you've educated a generation of children telling them that Israel is going to be wiped off the face of the map and a global caliphate is going to be reinstated, how do we think that this is tending towards peace?" Sterns asked. "The battle that Hamas is fighting is not a battle for a Palestinian state. It's not a battle for the Palestinian people or their future. It's a battle to establish a global caliphate – Israel is the Little Satan; America is the Big Satan. And when we see this unbelievably obtuse thinking in the State Department and also in America's institutions of higher learning, it's absolutely terrifying."

Stearns brought up how we can help, starting with Pastors and Rabbis:

Stearns said viewers can help the pastors and rabbis in their meetings tomorrow with lawmakers by first praying.

"Second of all, I'd ask them to call their pastors and say, 'Pastor, where are we standing on Israel? How do we support?'

"This is the hour for all Christians to rise to our spiritual heritage which is based there in Jerusalem, and become informed ambassadors on behalf of Israel and the Jewish people," Stearns added.

Our Bonhoeffer Moment

The article added this quote by Stearns on the times we’re living in:

"We are in a Bonhoeffer moment. Dietrich Bonhoeffer tried to rally the church in Germany as he saw the evil of Hitler arising. As he saw the storm clouds on the horizon, Bonhoeffer began to lift his voice. Only 16% of the churches in Germany sided with Bonhoeffer and stood against the evil of Hitler. And we saw what happened. America must not repeat this mistake. This is our Bonhoeffer moment and we need to rise to it," Stearns noted.

Stearns also has a message given to him by those who survived the October 7th massacre and it is a sobering one:

"I have been with significant Jewish families and leaders over the past weeks who literally, I'm not being sensational here, who literally have looked at me and said, 'If things keep getting bad, do you think there are people who will hide us?'" he told 700 Club host Gordon Robertson. "This is the level of terror that's striking in the hearts of the Jewish people. Because we've talked for 75 years, 'Never again. Never again.' And yet we see in the halls of America's best universities, in the far-left of the Democratic Party, we see absolute confusion, ignorance, and collusion with evil."

Silence Is Not An Option

Bonhoeffer has a few significant quotes that bear repeating now and they involve our involvement and also are lack of involvement:

“We are not to simply bandage the wounds of victims beneath the wheels of injustice, we are to drive a spoke into the wheel itself.”

Stearns and others will no doubt be trying to get lawmakers to remember this sentiment. For his part Bonhoeffer went back to Germany to do just that. He was safe in America and rather than live out the rest of his life here where he could have been happy he escaped the Holocaust, he elected to go back into the belly of the beast and do his best to wake up at least his fellow believers to resist Hitler. And he paid for this with his life as he was hung just weeks before Germany surrendered. And he cautioned people like us that we must not sit idly by while the attacks on Jews is happening all over again by uttering these famous words:

“Silence in the face of evil is itself evil: God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.”

Stearns ended his interview with these words:

And so, the Jewish people are understandably scared as never before. Having said that, thank God there is today a strong state of Israel that is resolute. That is firm. That is well able to defend their borders. And I believe that Israel is going to rise to this crisis," Stearns said.

"And we remember the words of Psalms, 'He who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep,'" he concluded.