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ChristianView Network director Philip Rosenthal draws a parallel between the threat posed by the Persia of Esther’s day and the Iran of today. The question that Esther faced was whether or not to speak up. We face the same question today, he says.[/notice]
Sunset last night (Thursday, March 8), marked the end of the 14th day of Adar, the date prescribed in Esther chapter 9 for the Jews to remember their deliverence from the evil plans of the then Prime Minister of the Persian empire, Haman to exterminate
Currently, we are faced with a repeat situation, where Iranian (Persian) president Mahoud Ahmadenijad is threatening to destroy Israel, saying “This origin of corruption (Israel) must be wiped off the face of the earth”. Tens of thousands of their missiles are aimed at Israel, while they use oil money to fund the terrorist armies of Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza (both of which express similar aims).
Nuclear threat
Right now Iran (formerly Persia) is developing nuclear capabilities. Israel doesn’t believe Iran’s claim their nuclear plans are peaceful. At worst it would give Ahmadenijad the power to start a nuclear war in the Middle East.
A more likely scenario, however is that with nuclear weapons, Iran and their funded surrogate terrorist armies will be emboldened to even more aggressive action against Israel and the West.
On Tuesday this week, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu spoke in America. His comment on the idea Iran just wants nuclear electric power: “Yeah. Right… Israel reserves the right to defend itself.”
Against the argument that this could provoke further hostilities, Netanyahu held up a letter from the American government to Jewish leaders explaining that they did not want to bomb Auchwitz death camp because “Such an effort might provoke even more vindictive action by the Germans.” Israel previously launched pre-emptive strikes to stop Iraq’s nuclear programme and before that against Egypt’s build up of fighter aeroplanes.
South Africa is one of the few countries in the world which supports Iran’s nuclear programme, claiming it is for only peaceful purposes .
SA ties with Iran
They also were one of the few countries to abstain from the UN resolution to send the issue of Iran’s nuclear programme to the security council. South Africa has close business and political ties with Iran. About a quarter of our petrol comes from Iran and Iranians use our cell phone network MTN to make calls. Sasol has a major stake in Iranian oil development. Effectively, some of the money you use to pay for your petrol goes to fund terrorist attacks against Israel, missiles aimed at Israel and this nuclear programme.
But from a positive angle, South Africa is the only country in the world to have developed nuclear weapons and then destroyed their whole programme. This is an example, that Iran can be encouraged to follow.
In Esther 4:14, Mordechai challenged the Jewish queen Esther “For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to royal position for such a time as this?”
Need for courage to speak up
Again today, the Jews in Israel are threatened with extermination by Iran, its funded terrorist armies and its nuclear programme. Like Esther, we need to pray and find the courage to speak up.
The key issue in the book of Esther is: Will you be silent now? Or will you speak up like biblical Esther to defend Israel against Iran’s threats? Add your voice to the one million facebook ‘likes’ to support Israel.
You can also lobby MTN South Africa at investor_relations@mtn.co.za . And you can ask South Africa’s Ambassador in Iran to stop supporting their nuclear programme at tehran.political@foreign.gov.za or phone him at +98 21 2270 2866. And don’t forget, Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani is still on death row.
Why on earth should you be encouraging Christians to support Israel, a country that is based on colonialist dispossession and aggression? It would be far more appropriate to be encouraging Christians to stand in solidarity with displaced Palestinians. Why this concern with ethnic Judaism while ignoring the plight of Christians who have been in the Holy Land since the beginning of the Church but who are on the verge of disappearing – while western Christians celebrate as the land of their birth has become a westernized Zionist themepark?
Macrina is another one suckered by the Islamic anti-Israel propaganda. Amazing how the politically correct liberals are putty in the hands of the anti-Christ Islamists. Reckon they’re both on the same side against God’s kingdom, which is not politically correct. The Christians’ role actually is to reach out to both Jews and Palestinian Muslims with the Gospel, of course.
The Prophet of Islam Muhammad said “War is deception” (Hadith 4:269) In other words it’s okay to twist the truth if it will advance the cause of Islam. There is very good reason to believe that the validity of Palestinian claims in Israel — even of the reality of an entity called the Palestinian nation — are obscured by layers of political and spiritual deception. Israel is a tiny speck of the Middle East that is not controlled by Arab Islamists. It is disingenuous to state that the Jews have absolutely no right to that territory. These are not issues we will be able to settle here. But I agree with Observer that as Christians we are called to point both Jews and Muslims to Jesus. We also need to show brotherly love to Arab Christians caught up in the war which is being waged in the spiritual, physical and propaganda realms. But one inescapable reality is that Israel is surrounded by Islamic regimes which are guilty of outrageous human rights abuses and in which Christians are relentlessly persecuted. The “supreme leader” of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, says Israel is a cancer that must be cut out. Iran is a nation that sentences its citizens to death for becoming followers of Jesus Christ. As Christians we do need to be concerned and to speak out against the prospect of such a regime becoming a nuclear power.
Observer and Andre,
For the record, my perspectives on Israel, Palestine and the Middle East more generally, have been largely shaped by contact with Middle Eastern Christians (and some Jews) – first by reading, and later by extended stays in the Holy Land and Syria. In fact, the only Muslims I remember speaking to were simply ordinary people who were very grateful to realise that not all western Christians bought into Zionist propaganda. Of course, the facts should just speak for themselves.
To suggest that Palestinian claims are based on deceptions sounds as if you are buying into the “land without a people for a people without a land” myth propagated by the early Zionists. That this is nonsense has been soundly documented in various forms and only someone who is willfully ignorant could believe it to be true. It is, however, a myth that is deeply offensive to Palestinians.
Moreover, your comments about Islam display a frightening ignorance about a very complex situation. Quite apart from anything else – such as, for example, the vast differences between the Shiite Iran and the Sunni movements elsewhere – the radicalization of Islam has a lot to do with western policies in the region and with the alliance of the so-called Christian West with Zionism. And comments like yours just feed into that.
I just find it very, very sad – and quite scandalous really – that it is people who claim to be Christians who are propagating such ignorance and hate.
Well said Andre, we are standing with you & Israel
Jews as well as gentiles have to believe with all their hearts that Jesus is the Messiah to be saved from the penalty of their sins which is eternal hell. Jesus paid this penalty at calvary. Please read Jer Chp 31 V35 + V36 So we see that Israel will always be a nation before Almighty God. He alone will save Israel.