A group called Palestinian Christian Christ at the Checkpoint – Young Adults recently issued a statement, emailed to a long list of local and foreign Christian believers, calling on Evangelical churches to stand with the Palestinian resistance, even calling it “holy resistance.”
The statement called on believers to repent and commit to work firmly in resisting the Israeli occupation, stressing the need to stand with their brothers who are suffering and in pain, and shedding blood shed for the land. It is noted that their call is for nonviolent resistance.
The statement, however, refused to equate the “violence and domination” of the Israeli regime with the violence of the oppressed. They consider the Palestinian anger to be a “holy anger,” ignoring the violence by the Islamic movements, Hamas and Islamic Jihad, even against the Palestinian people, targeting defenseless civilians.
Regarding the point raised by the statement regarding unity, it must be noted that in John 17:21 the Lord prayed for the unity of believers. Christ did not mean, however in this prayer, outside of the church in society, but rather aimed at a unity founded on being believers. He prayed that believers would be one in showing the attributes of God and Christ to the world.
In the statement they also demanded to confront anti-Islamic ideas. This of course raised doubts about who wrote this statement, and particularly what is their hidden agenda?
Many Christians have expressed their rejection of this statement, considering it too far from the teachings of Christ and his great commission: “Go and make disciples of all nations.”
It is worth noting that some so-called Christian clergy in the Holy Land allow themselves to make statements on behalf of all Christians here. For example, this statement included Christians in Israel while referring to them as “Palestinians,” but in fact many Christians reject in Israel this name since their roots are Syrian or Lebanese, as the majority of the inhabitants of Galilee, or even European. At other times, we read in the statement “from a Palestinian Christian viewpoint”, and in fact, this is the writer’s view alone.
Also important to note that quite a few Christian youth reject this trend and consider it unrepresentative. Emphasizing their love for their homeland and the Palestinian people, but with a Christian emphasis, overwhelmed with the love of Christ.
Some consider this approach to be unfair in which on one hand it singles out Israel policies, while on the other hand fails to address the extremism of Islamic movements such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad against the minorities among them, as an unfair logic.
Finally, as one teach has said: “If we read the four gospels carefully we will discover that Christ never clashed with the political forces at the time, despite knowing of their corruption and oppression, and even his personal suffering at their hands. He did not clash with society in its outdated customs and traditions, even though many of them were incompatible with his message. The message of Christ was related to the individual and not to the community. Christ saw the misery of mankind, in light of politically unjust and socially corrupt conditions. But he did not lead a political revolution to liberate from the oppression of repressive regimes, nor did he ignite a social revolution.” In short, the Lord Jesus’ mission was not to achieve social justice or to call for peace and equality among peoples, as many (theologians) claim today.
The Bible teaches that if the sins of anger are not confessed, Satan will be given a foothold in our lives. Therefore, we must not tolerate evil, anger and hatred. These sins distort the Christian testimony and harm us spiritually and physically. This is completely different from the message conveyed by the Palestinian Christian Youth Group of Christ at the Checkpoint, as it justifies “holy anger.” Remember: We do not wrestle against flesh and blood.