There is a certain irony in the law being proposed by two legislators in Israel’s Knesset. Especially in light of the very last recorded words of Jesus Christ prior to his Ascension.
“But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” — Acts 1:8 (NKJV)
The city of Jerusalem, and what we now know as Israel and Palestine were once the very center of the ‘splash’ from whose ripple effects Christ’s gospel would someday extend to cover the entire planet.
Now, a law is being proposed to criminalize the preaching of that same Gospel.
The bill was introduced by Knesset Members Moshe Gafni and Yaakov Asher, who are ultra-orthodox Jews. The legislation, “Prohibition of Solicitation for Religious Conversion,” would amend Israel’s penal law from 1977 to say the following,
“(a) someone who solicits a person, directly, digitally, by mail, or online in order to convert his religion, the punishment – one year imprisonment; and if the person was a minor, the punishment – two years imprisonment.”
The proposal also says, “Recently, the attempts of missionary groups, mainly Christians, to solicit conversion of religion have increased.
“At times these attempts do not involve monetary promises or material gains and are therefore not illegal according to the current law, but the many negative repercussions, including psychological damages, warrant the intervention of the legislature. –CNS News
The natural response of many would be outrage at the possibility of someone being arrested for their faith. Such a response ignores Christ’s own words that the preaching of a genuine gospel would be met with hostility by those who do not accept Christ as Lord.
But there is another reason not to focus on that detail. It misses the bigger picture.
Why is such a law being proposed now, rather than, say, thirty, or fifty years ago?
A law like this looks a lot like the ‘anticonversion’ laws India started passing when the gospel was spreading like wildfire there.
Does this look to you like a law passed by someone standing confident in their position of strength? Or does it seem more like someone shouting at the waves of the sea as a beach gets washed away?
God eventually gets the last laugh. And it usually involves ‘flipping’ someone like the Apostle Paul from one of the greatest opponents to His mission, to one of its greatest spokesmen.
Psalms of War: Prayers That Literally Kick Ass is a collection, from the book of Psalms, regarding how David rolled in prayer. I bet you haven’t heard these read, prayed, or sung in church against our formidable enemies — and therein lies the Church’s problem. We’re not using the spiritual weapons God gave us to waylay the powers of darkness. It might be time to dust them off and offer ‘em up if you’re truly concerned about the state of Christ’s Church and of our nation.
Also included in this book, Psalms of War, are reproductions of the author’s original art from his Biblical Badass Series of oil paintings.
This is a great gift for the prayer warriors. Real. Raw. Relevant.
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