Palestine Reflection #2: Speaking in Tongues

When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them. Luke 2:1-4

The Delegation Begins

Greetings from Bethlehem, West Bank, Israel/Palestine. I am leading a delegation (tour) from the group Pentecostals and Charismatics for Peace and Justice (PCPJ), of which I am a member. We will be touring the West Bank and Jerusalem. The purposes of the delegation are:

To create relationships between American Pentecostal pastors and leaders with Palestinian Pentecostal pastors and leaders,

To hear the stories of life in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict from the perspective of Palestinian Pentecostals, among others, and

To learn about Palestinian Pentecostal eschatology (eschatology is the Christian understanding of the return of Jesus, etc.) from Palestinian Pentecostal ministers.

Historical Background on the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

In the late 1800s, Jews began to migrate (back) to a land that has gone by many names throughout the millenniums; Israel and Palestine are among these names. Some sought a safe place away from the killing and oppression that had plagued them for almost 2000 years since the Romans forcibly removed them from the land, creating what is known as the diaspora. They felt they needed a homeland, a place where they could gather and create a region for Jews. Others went farther; they sought to create a nation for Jews.

Violence would soon erupt between the Palestinian Arab population and the immigrant Jews. To make a very long story very short, a war erupted in 1948 between the Arabs from surrounding countries and the Jews. The nation of Israel had been established. Egypt and Jordan annexed what was left of Palestine. Later, in the 1967 war, these territories, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, were won by Israel, but were not annexed. They remain occupied to this day, 42 years later.

Where We Are From

Many American Christians are well aware of Christian work being done in Israel: there is a growing movement of Messianic Jews (Jews that believe that Jesus is the Messiah), U.S. Christian ministries have been paying for Russian Jews to move to Israel, and missionaries are being sent to assist in the conversion of Israelis to Christianity.

Back home, the majority of evangelical Christians believe that the rebirth of Israel and the second coming of Jesus are linked, according to Biblical understanding. Many evangelicals politically support Israel the nation. They believe God gave the physical land to Jewish people thousands of years ago and that it still belongs to them. They believe that the West Bank and the Gaza Strip need to be evacuated of Arabs and all the land inhabited by the Jews.

Can I Get a Witness?

“The problem is, we were here when the Jews began arriving. The idea of ‘a people without a land for a land without a people’ is false. We, the Palestinian people, live here,” proclaimed Bishara Awad, President of Bethlehem Bible College, an Evangelical and Pentecostal institution founded to train pastors since 1979. “The Jews have had terrible things happen to them, the pogroms, the Holocaust. These things happened in other parts of the world. Why do we have to be punished for what others have done to the Jews?” Bishara became a Christian through the work of an American Pentecostal missionary many years ago.

The Israelis killed Bishara’s father. “I have chosen to forgive the Israelis.” This Christian pioneer has many stories to tell about the Israeli takeover, the occupation, and the land confiscation. “My problem is not with the Israelis, it is with the Zionists.”

Just down the road from the college is a concrete wall going straight through a Palestinian neighborhood. The Israelis call it the Separation Wall. Palestinians call it the Apartheid Wall.

Nihad Salman was more reserved when we asked him about the conflict. As the pastor of Immanuel Evangelical Church in Bethlehem, his main call is to minister to local Palestinians, not politics. His church is well organized and very active in evangelizing and discipling new Christians. When pressed with our questions, he began to open up. “The American missionaries in this region were busy within Israel, supporting ministry to Jews. They had forgotten about us.” Pentecostal tours would roll through Bethlehem to see the sights, and then go back to Israel to go to church and meet pastors. “It is as if we didn’t exist.” Nihad’s congregation has left the American-based Church of God and is now an independent congregation.

While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks by Night

“That was our old house over there until the Israelis took it from us,” proclaimed Sonia, a Palestinian woman and member of Immanuel. As we sat on her porch with her family, she told us the story of how the Israelis came into her neighborhood near Bethlehem and began to confiscate land. She lives across the street from the field where the angels appeared to the shepherds to announce the birth of Jesus. Up on the hilltop you can see the Israeli settlement, a group of apartments that form a neighborhood in the middle of a Palestinian semi-rural area. “Do you see all the land on the other side of the Israeli road? All that land was taken when that road was made for the Israelis to get to the settlement.” Much of that land belonged to her husband’s family.

“I saw a film about Christians in the United States and how they are very lax in their relationship to God.” I began to defend my subculture, stating that about 1/3 of Americans are Evangelical believers, even Bush. “But Bush wanted to change things in Iraq and Afghanistan by killing people.” I told him that most American Evangelicals thought that the wars were a good idea, and that it is an honest mistake that many Christians make. “How can you be a Christian and support killing?” I was speechless.

Almost all the Christians we have met have family that has been killed in the conflict.

Speaking in Tongues

For the people at Bethlehem Bible College and Immanuel Evangelical Church, the occupation of Palestine and its relationship to the western Christian church is something they cannot comprehend. These people are tongue talkers, Pentecostal believers that practice “Holy Ghost fire,” miracles, and the like. How is it then that tongue talkers in other countries are supporting Israel in the taking of Palestinian tongue talker’s land? “How can they have a theology that will forcibly remove us from our land?”

“Shouldn’t justice preclude any Last Days theology?”

YouTube of the Day:

This week’s YouTube is about the Wall in Bethlehem.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNlcH7Tejd8

Picture of the Day:

This weeks’ first picture if of Bishara Awad during his presentation. In this picture, he is explaining his Biblical understanding, that the Promised Land (Israel) of the Old Testament has become the Kingdom of God because of Jesus. The second picture is of members of our delegation with Nihad Salman.

“The ultimate end of all revolutionary social change is to establish the sanctity of human life, the dignity of man, and the right of every human being to liberty and well-being. ” – Emma Goldman

-John Harris