Monday Morning Music Ministry

12-25-25

Some wars are years, or generations, festering; some start on a random morning, or so it seems. But one thing we seldom encounter is peace breaking out. In the midst of a raging war, interrupting a bloody battle. Yet it has happened. Not many people know about the Christmas Truce. It was a virtual miracle during the first Christmas, in 1914, of World War I – the so-called Great War, surely the most useless of history’s many useless wars.

A few months after war was declared in Europe, by almost every big and small nation on the continent, almost a million soldiers already had been slaughtered. Christmastime had come, and soldiers were mired in trenches that were to become so established that for more than two years the battle line never moved more than 30 miles one direction or another. In that unlikely hellhole a miracle occurred.

Minor details differ but the dispositive facts are acknowledged: Peace broke out.

Soldiers of Germany, England (Scotland, actually), and France, at night, spontaneously sang Christmas carols… and were joined by their “enemies” who could hear across No Man’s Land. Nervous soldiers climbed from trenches to greet their foes, and shake hands; gifts were exchanged, even little trinkets, but also pastries and wine that had been sent from home. They shared pictures of wives and children… sang more hymns… and flares, intended to illuminate battlefields so to aim the cannons, were now shot skyward in celebration. There were tentative, but successful, attempts to communicate.

Of course they communicated. The languages that night were hymns and Bibles and chocolates and cigars. Handshakes and smiles and tears.

A Merry Christmas. A Holy Christmas. Peace on earth… at least in that narrow 27-mile-long battle line, south of Ypres and east of Armentieres, site of the song about les Mademoiselles, that night.

A British soldier recalled the Christmas Truce almost two decades later: We stuck up a board with a Merry Christmas on it. The enemy had stuck up a similar one. … Two of our men then threw their equipment off and jumped on the parapet with their hands above their heads. Two of the Germans did the same and commenced to walk up the river bank, our two men going to meet them. They met and shook hands and then we all got out of the trench.

We and the Germans met in the middle of No Man’s Land. Their officers were also now out. Our officers exchanged greetings with them.… One of their men, speaking in English, mentioned that he had worked in Brighton for some years and that he was fed up to the neck with this damned war and would be glad when it was all over. We told him that he wasn’t the only one that was fed up with it [Frank Richards, “Old Soldiers Never Die,” 1933].

Another history records: [The British Brigadier General G.T. Forrestier-Walker] issued a directive forbidding fraternization: “For it discourages initiative in commanders, and destroys offensive spirit in all ranks.… Friendly intercourse with the enemy, unofficial armistices and exchange of tobacco and other comforts, however tempting and occasionally amusing they may be, are absolutely prohibited” [Stanley Weintraub, “Silent Night: The Story of the World War I Christmas Truce,” 2001]. Officers commanded that their men stopped these spontaneous endorsements of peace. After all, they had wars to run.

How much different would the next day have been – how much different would the world be today – if the Truce had held?

Note that chocolates and cigars were only the presents. The GIFTS were hymns and Bible verses – they brought the soldiers out of trenches; not the prospect of snacks or smokes or a soccer game in the snow.

Christmas. God did not intend for Jesus’s Incarnation, the spirit of that Christmas Truce, to be a one-time miracle; but to be everyday life. He intended that we know-and-show that love and fellowship can be normal, not rare. We can be changed by the Holy Day, not be annoyed by yet another holiday.

“You started it!” “No, you did!!!” Wouldn’t it be great if we all exchanged those words happily, about starting love, sharing affection, and living in Heavenly Peace?

Who “started it”? God did.

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Click: A TRUE account – The Christmas Truce

12-22-25

“Never Again” should be dusted off as a watchword.

This is the third of three parts of a message that has been on my heart. It could have been 30 or 300 parts. It addresses the issue of our times (and has been, and will continue to be); that is, the radical, aggressive role Israel is playing; its eventual negative effect on our country; and American Christians’ role in supporting and enabling malignant Jewish influence. I especially have focused on Christianity’s role in the perversion of Bible passages, which provides a unique role in fostering the increasingly toxic situation.

Next week we will return to a new year and familiar themes.

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Is today’s country of Israel the Biblical Israel of prophecy?

It was taught by eschatologists to be so when I began to study End Times years ago. The “clock started ticking” – for the End of the Age – within the generation after the reestablishment of Israel. But 1948 happened, with nothing since except…

… Israel is a very secular country, in any event hostile to the Gospel.

… the Knesset mostly is filled with lawmakers who believe that Jesus was a false rabbi who deserved to be tortured and killed.

… It is a country, an “ally,” that allows abortions and gay/transition “rights,” even government financing of medical support.

… and is a country that grants limited freedom for Christians; has presided over attacks on believers and churches; and in Gaza the ethnic cleansing of 50,000 people, including 20,000 children it blanket-brands as terrorists.

Many Americans, if they heard a list of Middle Eastern terrorist acts would recoil at such events as these: the bombing of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem and the death of 91 people; the massacre of more than 100 residents of the Deir Yassin village; the kidnapping of two occupying soldiers, their torture and hanging, and their bodies being booby-trapped to explode when attended to; bombs detonated in embassies, airports, oil refineries, bus stops, and airfields associated with occupying forces.

Of course civilized people would condemn such terrorist acts. People have however largely forgotten – or excused – these bits of history, because they were committed by Israeli terror groups like Irgun Zvai Leumi and the Stern Gang, against the British in the 1940s. Leaders from these groups later became “statesmen” of the country of Israel; even prime ministers. They simultaneously orchestrated infiltration of governments and institutions in Britain, the United States, and around the world.

This infiltration has extended from a virtual saturation of ownership of media outlets, news organizations, entertainment studios, religious denominations’ official stands, to personnel — for instance in government. Jews, who constitute less than 2.5 per cent of the population of the United States, have comprised nearly half of presidential cabinet and sub-cabinet positions for decades. There were so many Jews in Biden’s cabinet that minyan jokes (referring to Jewish quorums) were rife. Biden’s children all married Jews (Hunter has a Shalom tattoo). Kamala Harris’s husband is a Jew. The same profiles described previous cabinets; and the same is the case in Trump’s cabinet and family. His grandchildren are Orthodox Jews. Many of the people described above are not merely neighborhood Jews but almost all are committed Zionists, activists in Israel causes, or noted fundraisers, advocates, and lobbyists; sometimes dual citizens.

In the “opposite direction,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was reared in the US, went to high school in Cheltenham PA (where his classmate was pro-Israel commentator Mark Levin) and who encourages Americans to adopt dual citizenship. Americans can serve in the Israeli armed forces without losing American citizenship. The American Jonathan Pollard stole thousands of sensitive US military documents for Israel, was sentenced to life imprisonment, was released by Trump, and was welcomed at an airport ceremony in Jerusalem by Netanyahu. Pollard kissed the ground and recently was honored at the US Embassy itself by the “American” Ambassador Mike Huckabee.

The news media traditionally are lockstep in support of Israel, but not lately (not monolithically any more). American academia traditionally is lockstep in support of Israel, but not lately (facts and images of the massacres in Gaza are changing minds). The political establishment traditionally is lockstep in support of Israel, but not lately (the Jewish lobby AIPAC, which has been exempted from requirements of other lobbyists, has “handlers” assigned to every senator and congressman). The American church traditionally was lockstep in support of Israel, but… largely remains so.

Why? Churches traditionally cling to the questionable interpretation (discussed in our previous essay) of Bible verses addressing a contemporary country in fact being the Biblical Israel of the Old Testament. Why? Many ministries receive great donations from the Israeli government and from American Jews (who retain their rejection of Jesus as the Son of God, of course). Why? Many are afraid that any appearance of criticizing Israel’s government might be seen as embracing the Holocaust. In the meantime, Gaza is a gargantuan pile of rubble. Thousands of civilians, many children, have been slaughtered. Zionists expect America to endorse all, as usual.

But the wheels are coming off the Zionist wagon. A growing number of American Jews themselves are speaking out against Israeli atrocities, ethnic cleansing, and genocide. Among the many Jews going public with declarations of independence from Israeli bullying are Glenn Greenwald, Max Blumenthal, David Smith, Ethan Klein, Jeffrey Sachs, Katie Halper, Gabor Maté, Norman Finkelstein, and Adam Friedland. Prominent Jews like Yiddish singer and actor Many Patinkin are speaking out for persecuted Gazans. Jews like podcaster Andrew Klavan have converted to Christianity and are sharing their testimony.

There also has been a mass exodus away from once-predictable gentile support of Zionism. Decades ago Pat Buchanan recognized Congress as “Israeli-occupied territory” (and was effectively “cancelled” across the media) but today, gentiles are not so lonely in this regard, on a range of issues like the Gaza war and “Greater Israel” expansionism: Tucker Carlson, Ann Coulter, Ana Kasparian, Cenk Uygur, Joe Rogan, Steve Bannon, George Galloway, John Mearsheimer, Candace Owens, Nick Fuentes, Darryl Cooper, John Kiriakou, Dave Chappelle, Zach Costello, and the late Charlie Kirk no longer are silent (except for Charlie, of course). In Kirk’s case he was pressured by a phalanx of wealthy Jews to recant his growing skepticism of Israeli policies. Mere weeks before he was assassinated, he refused and had at least $2-million withdrawn from Turning Point support, amid other pressures to “tow the line.”

The names are difficult to parse – Dave Smith is Jewish; Dr Mearsheimer is not – but the point is not about birth certificates but of chosen identities. Many Jews are realizing that Zionism is not the only path to celebrate being Jewish; but many Christians still fear that criticizing Israeli acts of genocide means that they must, perforce, be anti-Semites. A growing number of anti-Zionists are realizing that influencers have been propagandizing all their lives and from every corner of the media, entertainment, politics, and… from Christian pulpits.

Where does this leave us… what does all this suggest?

If the problem is primarily spiritual – which I have argued: the essence of the misunderstandings, crises, and threats – then the answer also is spiritual. Whether the leadership of the country of Israel and its internal and external policies are consistent with Biblical prophecies, or are separate matters, is something American Christians must confront. Maybe for the first time.

American Christians must decide whether their government should be paying astonishing amounts of money – a large percentage of American foreign aid – to this one little country; and why that country receives favors and exemptions not granted to other countries; and why Israel controls uncountable portions of the American media, the entertainment industry, and the government to the extent that its leaders contemptuously laugh about it. American Christians must decide whether it is safe, physically, to declare independence from Jewish secular influence.

And American Christians also must decide whether we, ourselves, believe that Jesus is indeed the Son of God. Decide whether His words and the spiritual thrust of the entire Bible are true – that every person must meet, embrace, and believe that He died for our sins, rose from the dead, and ascended to Heaven. Jesus fulfilled the Law; He did not scheme to issue exceptions to those who hated Him. And all this was because He loved them. And still does. He offers Himself to all humankind.

… as we should accept and love all peoples, too. None are cast away; none are more special than others. To encourage otherwise is to consign people to hell. We cannot sit back as the world slips into hell on earth today.

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Click: Mary, Did You Know – English, Hebrew, Arabic from Bethlehem

What Scripture Really Says About “Blessings and Curses”

12-15-25

In my previous essay I addressed the disastrous set of circumstances besetting us at the moment – “us” being the world, the international order, peace in the Middle East, the American government and politics; and Christians. I am only one of many who identify Israel as the source – not to say “the Jews,” but expansionist Zionism and the impetus toward Greater Israel – and its influence on American politics and media.

As many people discuss many aspects of these profoundly significant challenges – even to the point where a growing number of Jews decry Israeli policies – I primarily want to address the spiritual factors. The relative paucity of religion’s role is surprising in public debates. Biblical history and God’s injunctions are essential components of the conflicts, however, and continue to exacerbate the dangers… when they should be, rather, informing and guiding us.

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It is ironic that Zionism and the creation of Israel in 1948 might not have occurred without the narrative of the Holocaust, nor have been sustained without charges of anti-Semitism. The irony increases as humanitarian impulses have morphed – most recently over the Gaza campaigns – to ethnic cleansing and genocide. The founder of modern Zionism (ironically, a secular Jew) envisioned a religious country of broad borders where displaced people would themselves displace people. Europeans, mostly, displacing Middle Easterners.

A majority of Jews reportedly consider Israel’s government to be committing war crimes in Gaza; suicides in its military are at the highest rate of any country’s. The world community largely shares these views. Israel however persists in its policies, and in fact has doubled down in justifying its actions. The awful reports of the October 7 attacks provided the trigger for virtual annihilation of Gaza’s already shaky infrastructure, and of many thousands of civilian deaths.

The defenders and sustainers of these policies are primarily of three sources: the extreme Zionist class in Israeli governments; the influence of the “Jewish Supremacist Billionaire class” (I am quoting Jewish critics themselves about influence on politicians and ubiquitous media themes); and American Evangelical Christians.

There are Orthodox Jewish sects, we have noted, that do not accept contemporary Israel as Biblical Israel, believing instead that only the anticipated Messiah’s return can bring that about. Yet American Evangelicals frequently support any and every Israeli government’s claim and action. Many believe that God spares the Jews from needing to accept Christ as a means of salvation. As a group, Evangelicals’ financial support and political pressure are unconditional. Why?

Many American Evangelicals place virtually their entire rationale on the oft-cited passage I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you (Genesis 12:3). Later in Genesis the Covenant with Abraham is expanded, In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.

To Jews and American Evangelicals these promises of God have been interpreted as to mean any people who are circumcised (a condition of the Covenant) are free of God’s other conditions. If they are of a geographic group or are people with certain names or DNAs, or are members of a political party or a country, that is deemed sufficient. If a country called Israel is one that was founded by terrorists or persecutes Christian believers or allows abuse of Jesus followers – they are free of God’s rules supposedly meant for the rest of humankind. A “Get Out of Jail Free” card?

Many Jews and American Evangelicals ignore other portions of the Old and New Testaments: “Abraham’s seed” in His promise was not a string of nephews and nieces, but… Jesus Christ.

Jesus Himself confirmed His centrality to the Abrahamic Covenant. One of myriad times He asserted His divinity and identity as the successor of Abraham and fulfillment of Covenant promises was when He distinguished between Abraham’s seed and Satan’s seed. Accusers wanted to stone an adulteress (John Chapter 8):

“I know that you are Abraham’s descendants, Jesus said to the Jewish mob; but you seek to kill Me because My word has no place in you. I speak what I have seen with My Father, and you do what you have seen with your father.” They answered and said to Him, “Abraham is our father.”

Jesus said to them, “If you were Abraham’s children, you would do the works of Abraham. But now you seek to kill Me, a Man who has told you the truth which I heard from God. Abraham did not do this. You do the deeds of your father….You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. …Because I tell the truth, you do not believe Me. He who is of God hears God’s words; therefore you do not hear, because you are not of God.

“Before Abraham Was, I AM.”

The Biblical record clearly indicates that ancient Jews were Chosen as a people to be the ancestors of Jesus. Subsequently, the spiritual descendants of Jesus are God’s Chosen.

One of the earliest Pauline Epistles, written to correct misunderstandings about God’s heart and will, was to the church in Galatia: Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. God did not say, “And to seeds,” as if of many, but as of one, “And to your seed,” who is Christ (Galatians 3:16). We should note, being grammatical: not countless offspring; but singular – the Messiah Jesus Christ. Abraham’s seed.

Abram (before God chose him, later changing his name to Abraham) was the father of the faith ordained by God, and leader of humankind’s first major monotheistic people. His descendants would be found in Judaism, Islam, and Christianity. Members of all these major world religions commonly and mutually are called “People of the Book” and “Abrahamic” faiths. Muslims revere Abraham (and, similarly, they have a higher regard for Jesus Christ, whom they consider a major prophet, more than do the Jews, who outright reject Jesus and any aspect of His divinity).

My notes here are not shared as Bible lessons. Well, actually… they are, because misunderstanding essential Biblical doctrines has consequences. The world seems to be slouching towards not Gomorrah, but worse: broad international conflict, possible nuclear war, institutionalized injustice. At the other extreme of eventualities is not peace and harmony but mutilated babies and grieving mothers. No positive aspects.

We may grant that zealots are blinded by feelings of insecurity and hatred, perhaps doctrines of Supremacy; and that well-meaning Christians are Biblically ignorant or naive. In any case, sympathy is useless, even deadly, as the world hurtles toward calamity.

To return to my main thesis, begun in the previous essay, the questions I raise finally are being discussed openly by many people. Overdue. But some influencers are blowing smoke, changing the subjects, scattershot-blaming random parties, and kidnapping debates. For instance, Charlie Kirk’s legacy is being eclipsed by charges peripheral to his program (in the weeks before his murder, by the way, he had declared himself free of the Israel Lobby and Zionist influence).

It is tragic that American Evangelicals are major culprits to these malignant trends through their ignorance and prejudice and self-righteousness. They effectively practice divided loyalty and have Chosen to encourage distinguishing between dead babies shown on the nightly news. God forbid!

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Next Week: Are the End Times Beginning?– A final discussion of Biblical clarity and the responsibility, culpability, and choices facing American Christians. The degree to which America – the cultural establishment, the media, the government – has been subservient to foreign influence, and might regain its independence and integrity.

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Click: Lacrimosa

12-8-25

I am preparing a magazine article on what I believe has become the most pressing issue facing America today. I shall focus here on the Biblical and spiritual aspect of the sudden and menacing collapse of what recently appeared to be the dawning of reform and renewal, even revival.

Political reforms were accompanied by an amazing spirit of renewed faith – frequently among the young, and igniting revival in Christian communities. The impact of Charlie Kirk – his life AND death – promised a Great Awakening in America, perhaps around the world.

Almost overnight, the progress and hope, good will and alliances, seem fractured. From many, many sides come distractions. Bizarre unrelated urgencies. Recriminations and bitter feuds between those who recently joined forces. I believe these “speed bumps” and detours are not coincidences. Many of their authors are malignant and are happy to fracture the furtherance of civil peace, progress and prosperity, and the advancement of the Gospel.

I have dug deep, prayed for guidance and wisdom, and… I welcome comments.

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History’s inflection points and paradigm shifts can happen unannounced, catching us by surprise. We often observe the trees but not the forest, as the proverb says.

It is difficult to realize that we suddenly find ourselves today in a time of major, worldwide, and extremely consequential change. At the very least, the trajectories of international diplomacy, cultural assumptions, and even religious understandings are dissolving. Most of us know the elements, but are not connecting the dots. We will be face-to-face with dangerous realities… soon enough.

Christians are at the center of many of those currents, appropriately so because Western societies (home to many of the Faith’s bases) are severely threatened. Ultimately, and importantly, Christianity is relevant to the controversies, conflicts, causes, and conclusions. And ironically it is Christians – for the most part, contemporary Evangelical American Christians – who are the most unaware of their role, the threats they inspire, and the consequences they stoke.

A major source of these disruptions unfortunately has echoes of the sad history of societal turmoil: Israel. Not “the Jews,” not “prejudice,” not “persecution.” Not “the Jewish Question” and all of history’s baggage – and not even the country of Israel, its foundation and existence; but rather its governments’ policies. Eons of discrimination and contemporary, continuous Holocaust tales cloak, and often excuse, the maladministrations and offenses of the Zionist “state.” Plausible blessings and arguable curses have ever been the Jews’ lot, and in our day are intensifying.

Isolating one flash-point of many, I invite attention to Gaza. That strip of sand has superseded “Palestine” as an umbrella-term for lands, peoples, and nearly insoluble dilemmas. Gaza is a non-country (no government, flag, native population, nor identity: an empty place on maps; crowded with 2-million people minus those recently slaughtered). Since the cross-border terror attack on and Israeli festival Gaza is described by every observer as a wasteland of rubble. As previous to the Israelis’ unending ”retaliation,” the Gazans’ access to water, electricity, and food is severely restricted.

A recent survey indicates that 40 per cent of Israelis themselves view their government’s policy toward Gaza as genocide. Sixty-one per cent believe their government intentionally is committing war crimes. It is well-known that the majority of the world’s nations routinely have condemned Israeli policies, not only toward Gaza but the expansionist goals of Zionism. The majority of American Jews disapprove of the Zionist agenda, and many prominent Jews are quite vocal in that regard: Hannah Arendt, Noam Chomsky, Norman Finkelstein, Glenn Greenwald, and Max Blumenthal represent dissident critics of a new country imposed on the sands of Transjordan and traditional Palestine-Protectorate neighborhoods. Today there is a tsunami of Jewish activists including many “Holocaust scholars” who oppose the genocidal policies and in many cases Zionism itself. (So do Orthodox sects that believe that only the coming Messiah can re-establish Biblical Israel.)

However, despite proponents of expansionist Zionism – those who plan for occupation of the entire Levant, from the Mediterranean to the Tigris and Euphrates; from Egypt to Turkey, and the Israeli Military and Mossad (intelligence service) – the most effective Zionists are American evangelicals.

Many Christians have been persuaded by interpretations of the Bible presented to them. Among the prominent persuaders are leaders who regularly receive subsidies from Israel and its proxies. Without blind support from the Christian Right, especially since the wars of 1967 and 1973, Israelite foreign and military policy would not have triumphed as spectacularly as it has. The 10 most recent Administrations would not have become subservient rubber-stamps to Israel.

Pastors, denominations, and ministries have taught their followers to reject any skepticism about, and cancel any opposition to, all of Israel’s policies, even when its government impedes the sharing of the Gospel. Many Christians have been led to believe that Jews have a “free pass” to salvation, exempted alone among all humanity from accepting Christ as their Savior. By their financial and political support, Evangelicals are complicit in genocide and ethnic cleansing that frequently plant seeds of generational resentment, hatred, and dedication to revenge… not merely against festivals on the border of Gaza but perhaps downtown American cities too.

American Evangelicals rightly have been taught to reject racial hatred, the displacement of entire populations, the assignment of collective guilt, suppression of minorities and their rights, and Supremacy as a governing doctrine of an exclusive class. They boo Nazis every week the swastika appears on TV and movie screens. However, they embrace every mirror-image of these actions and policies when practiced by the Israelite government — consistently, virtually without reservation or second thought. Even gleefully.

Why?

How do they avoid seeing a double standard? Many believe the Bible tells them so. “The Jews are God’s Chosen People.” That should not mean that Israel can practice bigotry and genocide, but it has had the stamp of approval of the American government, which decades ago was characterized as a virtual vassal state of Israeli diplomatic and military prerogatives. And, again, the Bible also approves…

Or thus saith Evangelical leaders.

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Next Week: The Chosen People and Abraham’s Seed – “Those who bless Israel shall be blessed.” An examination, seldom undertaken by contemporary Christians, of what Scripture tells God’s people about… God’s people. Biblical history and recent, though suppressed, history.

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Click: Hallelujah