Church of Scotland Censors ‘Inheritance of Abraham’ Report

In May, the Church of Scotland published a major report on Israel-Palestine entitled the Inheritance of Abraham. Under pressure from the Zionist Lobby, however, the report was swiftly removed from their website and a revision promised.

Read the original report here and the heavily redacted revision here with changes highlighted.

A ‘before and after’ comparison is both illuminating and depressing. It shows that what was promised would be a minor rewrite of the introduction, to provide “context”, actually became a major rewrite of the whole document.

It appears the Church of Scotland has censored itself and limited its own theological discussion under intense pressure from the Israeli ambassador, the Board of Deputies of British Jews, the Scottish Council of Jewish Communities and the Council of Christians and Jews.

In particular:

The section dealing with the writing of Mark Braverman has been heavily edited so as to remove his most penetrating comments on the Holocaust and Jewish ‘specialness’.
A reference to Jerusalem as ‘the most contentious religious and political issue’ has been deleted.
The quote from Ben Gurion (‘The Bible is our mandate’) has been removed.
All references to the book of Joshua in relation to the occupation of the land have been removed.
The reference to “the violence used to deprive some 750,000 Palestinian people from their homes” has been toned down.
References to the State of Israel have been amended so as to dilute criticism of the state and to remove any suggestion that it is ‘an ethnic democracy’.
The reference to Luke 4:25-30 (Jesus’ rejection by the Jews in Nazareth) has been deleted, along with the sentence ‘Jesus offered a radical critique of Jewish specialness and exclusivism, but the people of Nazareth were not ready for it’.
The reference to Paul’s writings about the Jews in Romans 11 has been deleted, along with the sentence ‘No part of the New Testament gives any support to a political state of Israel beyond that to any other state. All are challenged to the same requirements for justice and the protection of human rights for all their inhabitants’.

The only part where the revised report has been strengthened is the very final sentence, where the Church of Scotland says it should urge the UK government to “remove existing illegal settlements” in addition to stopping further settlement expansion.

In no sense did the original report disenfranchise anyone from legitimate rights to citizenship in Israel and Palestine, merely the claim made by some Zionists that the Bible mandates an exclusive right to the land for the Jewish people alone.

On the contrary the Hebrew Scriptures repeatedly insist that the land belongs to God and that residence was always conditional. For example, God said to his people, “‘The land must not be sold permanently, because the land is mine and you reside in my land as foreigners and strangers.” (Leviticus 25:23).

The following notes are a summary of chapter 4 of my book Zion’s Christian Soldiers.

They amplify and explain the significance and purpose of the Promised Land, its geographical boundaries, the conditions for residency, the nature of the Kingdom and concept of land in the New Testament.

Read more here or you can download a copy as a PDF. The Promised Land from the Nile to the Euphrates.

A summary of the book as a whole is also available entitled Seven Biblical Answers to Popular Zionist Assumptions.

Marc Ellis has written a useful commentary on the Church of Scotland report Exile and the prophetic: the Church of Scotland weighs in

“Woe to you who add house to house and join field to field till no space is left and you live alone in the land. The Lord Almighty has declared in my hearing: “Surely the great houses will become desolate.” (Isaiah 5:8-9)

The losers? Genuine interfaith dialogue between Jews, Christians and Muslims, willing to engage honestly with our sacred texts, openly share our theological convictions and aspirations for a just and lasting peace in Israel-Palestine based on justice, mercy and reconciliation.

The indigenous Church in Palestine are learning to our shame that they cannot rely on the wider church to advocate for them or speak biblically and theologically on their behalf.

Watch this space for the Kairos UK Report due in August. No doubt its authors will come under the same pressure.

Invitation from All Saints Cathedral, Cairo

The Episcopal/Anglican Diocese of Egypt

Transformed by Truth

During the Munich Crisis of September 1938, as Hitler rallied his forces and the world slid inexorably toward war, more radios were sold than in any previous month. In this atmosphere of tension, Orson Welles and his staff prepared for their weekly Mercury Theater radio play. Auspiciously, on the night before Halloween, listeners found themselves listening to the innocent sounds of “Ramon Raquello and his orchestra”, only for the music to be interrupted by the first of a series of increasingly alarming news stories.

First came reports of several explosions of “incandescent gas” observed on the planet Mars, then after a brief interlude of more music came a hook-up to Princeton Observatory professor Richard Pierson (played by Welles) who assures the listeners that there is nothing to be alarmed at. Then there are reports of a meteor impact in an unassuming place called Grover’s Mill. Even today Grover’s Mill is a sleepy little hamlet…, but that night it was going to become the centre of the universe as the beachhead for a Martian invasion advancing on New York City, brushing aside American defenders and destroying dozens of familiar place names along the way. An emergency government announcement gave credence to the story, and huddled about their radios, panicked listeners (all over the USA) began to bombard local police stations with calls. From Trenton comes the account.

“We were petrified. We just looked at each other, scared out of our wits. Someone was banging on our front door. It was our neighbour across the street. She had packed her seven kids in their car and she kept yelling, come on, lets get out of here.”

Henry Sears, then just 13 years old, was doing his homework when he heard the first news flash of the invasion. Taking the radio down into the tavern below which his mother owned, he and a dozen or so patrons listened with mounting fear to the broadcast, until the men jumped up and announced they were going to get their guns and join in the defence at Grover’s Mill[1]. People packed the roads, hid in cellars, loaded guns, even wrapped their heads in wet towels as protection from Martian poison gas. In an attempt to defend themselves against aliens, listeners were oblivious to the fact that they were acting out the role of the panic-stricken public that actually belonged in the radio play.

People were stuck in a kind of virtual world in which fiction was confused for fact. H.G. Wells wrote War of the Worlds in 1898, in response to the unification and militarization of Germany. The reaction to the dramatic retelling of Wells’ story, shows that what we believe can affect how we behave. The truth transforms us. One reason Wells was so popular, is because his book was based indirectly on fact. We are indeed at war. But I don’t mean against the so-called “Axis of Evil” made up of Syria, Iran and North Korea, which our politicians tell us is the cause of the terrorism and threats to our democratic peace loving values. The ultimate ‘War of the Worlds’, behind which every other war is merely a skirmish, is described in Ephesians 6.

“For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” (Ephesians 6:12).

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How to Handle Temptation

It was the first day of the school holidays. Bright, sunny and warm. But mum told young Sam that he was not allowed to go swimming with his friends that day. He must wait until tomorrow when she could supervise him. When he returned home for lunch she noticed his hair was wet. “Samuel!” his mother scolded, “I told you not to go swimming today.” “I couldn’t help it, Mum. I walked by the lake and it looked so clear and inviting. I was only going to stick my feet in it for a minute, and the water was so warm and felt so good on my legs. I just couldn’t resist!” he said with a big wide smile. Mum looked at Sam and said, “One question son, why did you take your bathing suit with you when I said you couldn’t swim today?” “I didn’t trust myself Mum, so I took it with me just in case I was tempted.” Last week we considered three key words which James uses to describe the path to spiritual maturity: Slavery, Adversity and Perseverance.

“Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” (James 1:2-4)

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Council of Christians and Jews Initiative to be Welcomed

Now that the dust has settled on the decision of the Church of Scotland to withdraw their report, The Inheritance of Abraham, temporarily, so that the foreword can be rephrased after complaints from some Jewish groups, the initiative of CCJ to call a meeting of both sides to resolve misunderstandings and find common ground is to be welcomed.

Some of the reporting has been intemperate to say the least. In the Jewish Chronicle, for example, we read ‘This church report on Israel sets the clock back 70 years’ , ‘A damaging document‘ and SCoJeC Rebukes Church of Scotland Over Report. Sadly, Scottish Friends of Israel claim ‘Once again racism raises its ugly head in the form of anti-Semitism at the Church of Scotland.’

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Some Assembly Required

or, the Pathway to Spiritual Maturity (James 1:1-12)

It only has three words. But it’s a phrase that can make the toughest of men shudder. Women seem immune. Furthermore simply saying these three words to a man will usually result in nothing more than a tilt of the head and an accompanied look of curiosity. But have the average man read this short phrase on a pamphlet, box, or carton and you will almost immediately see his jaw tighten and large beads of sweat cover his forehead.

“What is the phrase?” You ask. “Some assembly required!” I am going to share with you a story that is deeply personal but common to those men, like myself, who are afflicted with an aversion to the before-mentioned phrase. This type of confession, however, is rarely shared in public and only in hushed tones, and usually reserved for conversations with only the closest of male friends.

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Open Air Service: Sunday 19th May

Duggie Dug Dug’s Crazy Science

Becoming a Contagious Christian: Our Testimony

Let me share with you my personal testimony….

For much of my life I was blissfully unaware of dark secrets in our home. On two occasions our Bishop visited he found me vacuuming the carpet. Our previous church, St John’s Stoke in Guildford, at the time, had more carpet than any other church in the Diocese. The Bishop wondered if this was why I had appointed – to clean the church carpets. But I was not a happy bunny. I became increasingly dissatisfied with our vacuum cleaner and sought counselling. I tried replacing the bags and checked the mechanism to see if it was blocked. I will never forget the day I found enlightenment and fulfilment in this area of my ministry. That morning I had already vacuumed the floor as usual. I had given up for the last time, went to a superstore and invested in our very first Dyson. I brought it home and vacuumed the same room once more. To my shame I had to empty the machine three times… I became a new man. I would get the Dyson out and show it off whenever visitors came to the house. I explained the power of its dual action cyclone. How the air inside reaches a speed of 924 mph creating powerful G forces that spin out the dust into a solid mass.

Whereas a traditional vacuum loses 50% of its suction after just one room, even with a clean new bag, a Dyson maintains 100% suction 100% of the time. Charles Dyson perfected his revolutionary machine after producing over 5000 prototypes. So impressed with the power of a Dyson, we bought a newer, more powerful machine, last year and donated our older Dyson to the Church. Is your life blessed with a Dyson? I will gladly give a demonstration if you remain sceptical. I am looking forward one day to owning the newest Dyson which is a robotic version guided by remote sensors so it will clean the house all by itself. But my next acquisition will probably be the Dyson bladeless fan. I cannot imagine life without a Dyson, or why anyone would not want to own one.

“Jesus said “I am the Light of the World, whoever follows me will never walk in darkness.” (John 8:12).

In the story recorded in John 9, Jesus went on to prove it was true. Jesus did something that had never ever happened before in all of history. Jesus gave sight to someone who had been blind from birth. And through this miracle he wants to teach us something very wonderful too. I want us to retrace this man’s spiritual journey from darkness to light.

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The Inheritance of Abraham?

The Church of Scotland is to be commended for their report, The Inheritance of Abraham? published a week or so ago but swiftly removed under pressure.

In no sense does the report disenfranchise anyone from legitimate rights to citizenship in Israel and Palestine, merely the claim made by some Zionists that the Bible mandates an exclusive right to the land for the Jewish people alone.

On the contrary the Hebrew Scriptures repeatedly insist that the land belongs to God and that residence was always conditional and must be shared. For example, God said to his people, “‘The land must not be sold permanently, because the land is mine and you reside in my land as foreigners and strangers.” (Leviticus 25:23).

The following notes explain the significance and purpose of the Promised Land, its geographical boundaries, the conditions for residency, the nature of the Kingdom and concept of land in the New Testament. They are a summary of chapter 4 of my book Zion’s Christian Soldiers. You can download a copy of the chapter The Promised Land from the Nile to the Euphrates. A summary of the book as a whole is also available entitled Seven Biblical Answers to Popular Zionist Assumptions.

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