It’s been a week. Yes, it’s been a week since Monday when I last posted, and now it’s Friday, so it’s been a week since I last posted. But it’s also been a week, if you know what I mean. We’ve got work going on in the house, it’s tax season, work is picking up, the kids need support, and it’s garbage night. What’s a guy to do?
The good news is that I am going to keep daveolsson.com going for another year with the Daily Broadside. Now that I’ve got three years under my belt, I’m going to explore what more can be done with this exceptionally small publication with famously quiet and loyal readers.
Instead of closing the week with the latest moronic effort by our political betters to deceive us into believing that the walls are really closing in this time on Donald J. Trump and that they’re not building a surveillance state that will eventually help them easily label you as a friend or foe of the regime and limit your personal opportunities and purchasing power, here’s an encouraging story from the Middle East.
An article on Sunday by ALL ISRAEL NEWS first broke the story of the dangerous bill in which two ultra-Orthodox members of Knesset – Moshe Gafni and Yaakov Asher – were determined to outlaw anyone from sharing the Gospel of Jesus the Messiah in Israel, and punish violators with prison sentences.
Nothing like alienating 660 million supporters in a world that hates you.
Sam Brownback – former U.S. ambassador for international religious freedom in the Trump-Pence administration – was the first American leader to publicly sound the alarm about what a threat to religious freedom and human rights the bill posed.
Brownback also became the first to praise Netanyahu for taking a strong stand against the bill.
“Bibi Netanyahu is an amazing leader of courage,” Brownback told ALL ISRAEL NEWS in a text message on Wednesday. “I applaud his quick and decisive move to address what could have become a major issue.”
I’m not sure that such a law would have turned away evangelical support for the nation of Israel, but it would have made it awkward for those evangelicals who visited the holy land and would have earned a rebuke from US lawmakers. Still, it’s clearly a better policy choice to avoid offending the one block of people across the globe who believe not only in Israel’s right to exist, but in the ongoing role that Israel plays in God’s redemptive work.
“For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile.” (Romans 1:16)
The bill, which was withdrawn following Netanyahu’s threat, would have imposed a one-year prison term on anyone caught violating the law. It was conspicuously aimed at evangelical Christians by the bill’s authors.
This bill would apply to people having spiritual conversations with Israelis of any religion.
However, in their official explanation of the bill, the two Israeli legislators specifically emphasized the warning to stop Christians, in particular.
The bill’s primary objective, therefore, appears to be making it illegal for followers of Jesus (“Yeshua” in Hebrew) to explain why they believe that Jesus is both Messiah and God with the hope that Israelis might consider following Him.
Fortunately, the freedom to share the good news of Jesus with others in the holy land remains intact.
Have a good weekend.
Thank you for sharing this particular piece of “news”. Let me remind my brothers and sisters in Christ that Satan (for the time being) is alive and actively attacking our faith.
Phil, thanks for the comment and for reading.
Glad to hear that you’re going to continue your blogging, Dave. Thank you!
Thanks Nancy!