Palm Beach County Democratic Chairman, Mark Alan Siegel angry over the fact that the DNC platform omitted support of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, decided to take it out on Christians. This is just my personal feeling but based on the omission of God from the DNC platform and the inclusion of the liberal homosexual and abortion agenda, there weren’t too many Christians at the Democratic Convention. There may have been a few Cino’s – but very few Christians.
Siegel said that “Christians are not our friends. They want Israel to pursue policies that are antithetical with its security and existence.” ” Christians only want to see Jews slaughtered. ” As a Jew he is “not a fan of any other religion” and feels that “Christians are the worst possible allies for the Jewish state” and it is the “fundamental Christians who want Jews to die and convert so they can bring on the second coming of their Lord.” Isn’t it a little hard for Jews to convert after death? Siegel is also confusing Christianity with Islam – Christians do not need Jews to die before the second coming and if he had ever read the old Testament prophets, he would know that.
Mr. Siegel has been spending far too much time engrossed in Democratic policies and propaganda, which by the way, under Obama, have done nothing but insult and degrade Israel, making Mark Siegel, in my opinion, a Jino [Jewish in name only]. Those fundamental Christians he hates so much are about the only people in America who are standing up for the right of Israel to exist.
I will admit that there are those among Christians, whom I refer to as CINOs [Christians in name only], who hate the Jews, but thank God, they are few. Their basis for the hatred stems from their belief that the Jews killed Christ. They seem to forget that Christ came to this earth to offer himself as a sacrifice so that any who believed on him could obtain eternal life.
At the time of Christ’s arrest and crucifixion, the high priest was Caiaphas, a wealthy Levite, not in the priest blood line of Aaron. Caiaphas purchased the office of High Priest from the procurator Valerius Gratus. It was common under Roman rule for that office to be offered to the highest bidder. While you had to be a Levite to be a priest, not all Levites were in the priest line.
Caiaphas was the son-in-law of Annas, the former High Priest, a wealthy Levite who had also purchased the office himself. Some speculate that even though Caiaphas held the official title, Annas was still the power behind the Sanhedrin.
At that time there were three “denominations” fighting for the souls of those living in Jerusalem. The Pharisees, the Sadducees and the Essenes which can be described as the Formalists, the Freethinkers and the Puritans. While Christ taught against both the Pharisees and the Sadducees, Caiaphas, a Sadducees, set the “state” religion because he was in power. The Sadducees did not believe in the resurrection of the body or the immortality of the soul, nor did they believe in the supernatural or the spoken law that the Prophets taught. The Sadducees only accepted the five books of Moses as their authority.
In his capacity as the High Priest, Caiaphas had control of the Temple treasury, he managed the Temple guards and other personnel, he performed religious rituals and served as president of the Sanhedrin which was the Jewish council and court.
Caiaphas was the sworn enemy of Christ who questioned the authority of Caiaphas and the teachings of the Sadducees. You might remember that Christ ran the money changers out of the temple calling it a “Den of Thieves”. This no doubt cut into Caiaphas’s pocket book. The resurrection of Lazarus also called the authority of the Sadducees’s teachings into question as they did not believe in the resurrection of the body. The miracles that Christ performed were pulling Jews away from the Sanhedrin. Caiaphas was in fear of losing his position of power and authority.
Caiaphas plotted with his followers to have Jesus arrested, tried and crucified. It was Caiaphas that paid Judas to betray Christ. It was Caiaphas that hired people to stage the arrest. It was Caiaphas that incited the crowds before Pilate and Caiaphas that bribed witnesses to testify against Jesus’s during his trial.
It was Caiaphas that voided all of the laws that govern the Sanhedrin: Jesus was arrested and tried at night in violation of Jewish law; he was tried the night before a high Sabbath – passover; by Jewish law no man could be convicted using his own words and there could be no sentence given out on the day of the trial.
Once the religious order had made the decision to kill Christ, they delivered him to Pilate, the governor of Jerusalem – for only the Romans could carry out the sentence. When Pilate could not convince them to release Christ, he washed his hands of the situation and the religious crowd cried that “His blood is on us and on our children, crucify him.”
So while Caiaphas may have been a Jew, his hatred for the Word of God, his love of money, his lust for power and his disdain for the teachings of Jesus led to the crucifixion. There is no way you can blame Jews as a people, many of whom were followers of Christ.
We must never forget that Jesus was not a victim of circumstance. He was the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy. God uses whomever he will.
Isaiah 11:1-5 said he would be a descendant of King David. Micah 5:2 said he would be born in Bethlehem. Isaiah 40:3-5 and Malachi 3:1 foretold of the birth of John the Baptist who would announce the coming of Christ. Isaiah 53:3 let us know that his own people would reject him. Psalm 41:9 foretold of his betray and Zechariah 11:12 let us know that the price of that betrayal would be 30 pieces of silver – the price of a slave. Zechariah 11:13 tells us that the 30 pieces of silver would be used to buy the potter’s field. Psalm 22 foretold of the crucifixion in detail and was taught by Christ while on the cross. Isaiah 53:9 let’s us know that he would be buried with the wealthy and Psalm 16:10, among others, let’s us know that God would resurrect him.
“O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken: Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory? And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.” Luke 25-27
