Welcome! Thanks for letting me come into your heart. It feels as though it was yesterday that I mailed out my first blog. Also, more and more people are now starting to read my blogs. To all of you, WELCOME and THANKS!
I might not have started to write my blogs had it not been for Rev. Dr. Alex Awad, Human Rights Attorney Jonathan Kuttab, and Jonathan Brenneman representing Palestinian Christians and the Bethlehem Bible College. God works in mysterious ways.
In February 2020, I’ve gotten wind that they’ll be in Orlando, FL. The Bethlehem Team graciously offered to meet the local pastors in Melbourne, FL. Though we canceled the ‘Pastor and Leadership Conference,’ I continued to e-mail messages to the pastors, not yet envisioning my e-mail messages would evolve into two blogs per week.
I started with slightly less than 300 e-mail addresses. Today, we send two blogs each week to more than 1,200 e-mail recipients and share them with our 3,200 friends on Facebook and 8,000+ connections on LinkedIn. We’re spiritually anticipating reaching our first 100 million readers. Why not? With God, everything is possible. Frankly, if we’re going to help change the way America thinks about Israel-Palestine, we must work toward a united front. Not one person or entity can do it alone.
I write about the Israeli-Palestinian Quest to Co-exist with hopes of witnessing a future Israeli-Palestinian Thrust to Trust.
Every Monday, I touch on time-tested theological concepts by referencing the pastor of billions, Saint Pope John Paul II.
On Wednesdays, I focus on a relevant Theo-geopolitical issue.
I often quote passages from my book, ‘Christian Zionism … Enraptured Around the Golden Calf.’
Please visit www.surrenderIsraeltoGod.com or www.abrahamavankempen.com and click on the button ‘blog.’ Or go directly to https://abrahamavankempen.com/blog/
Also, please visit www.buildingthebridge.eu. Scroll down the homepage and click on an article that interests you. Warning! There are thousands of newsworthy items in our archives. You might be interested in our daily newsfeeds, which we receive and disseminate without prejudice:
News from Israel: https://buildingthebridge.eu/news-israel
News from Palestine: https://buildingthebridge.eu/news-palestine
Global Perspective https://buildingthebridge.eu/global-perspective
When asked on my first day in kindergarten, ‘where were you born,’ I sparkled with pride: ‘Palaestina!’ Palaestina, pronounced in Dutch, sounded so exotic.
Later, I realized I was born a refugee, on board a British ship on the Red Sea, between Africa, Asia, and Europe; on Israel-Palestine’s outskirts, with dual nationality, English and Dutch. I am more European than most, but I look Kamaāina (Hawaiian), a long story. To complicate matters, I was born a Jew. My mother was a Jew. I live a life without borders.
The Region is home. Inside my soul, I am attached to the splendor of its many colors, tints, and hues. I understand intuitively why neither the Palestinians nor the Israelis will ever leave.
My story is the story of many Jews. We are blessed with diversity. That we are one immortal pure-race tribe, exclusively begotten from the seeds of Abraham, is spiritual. Physically, it is improbable and genetically implausible.
Nonetheless, myths abound. What is not mythical is that many indigenous Palestinians are more heritably linked to the Ancient Israelites than most European Jews who have wandered into the Region, seeking refuge from 1,900 years of persecution, especially after World War II. Historically, many Jews in the Diaspora descend from pagan converts into Judaism.
Will a shared identity prompt the ‘cousins’ to share the land? Is there another choice?
‘Christian Zionism … Enraptured Around a Golden Calf’ pits the Holy Trinity of Zionism – One People, One Land, One God – against the Holy Trinity of Christianity – ALL people, ALL nations, One God.
The New Testament’ in-gathers’ and redeems ALL people, not just one tribe; ALL the nations, not only one state; indeed, glorifying the ONE ‘I Am’ with Many Names – in Hebrew: Hayah asher hayah, ‘I Will Be Who or How or Where I Will Be’ or just Eloah; or, in the Arabic sound-alike, Allah.
Our New Covenant 1) frees Modern Jews from their Jews-only, ancestry-ghetto-mentality; 2) renounces Modern Israel’s obsession for possession of a Land once promised and fulfilled; and, 3) refutes the Israeli proclamation: ‘What is mine is mine, what is yours is mine also.’
Christian Zionism … Enraptured Around the Golden Calf’ aspires to gently hammer Christians into fully embracing the Good News about the Spiritual Kingdom of God. Many Evangelicals unwittingly sideline the Gospel’s stance on the Promised Land by replacing the Promised Land with Modern Israel. Christian Zionists confuse Biblical Zionism with Pagan-Zionism, their Golden Calf.
Will Evangelicals rediscover New Testament Revelations?
When theology becomes too puzzling and perplexing even for the theologian; and geopolitics, too convoluted for the politicians; students, scholars and researchers, and just plain folk from all walks of life come out of the woodwork to help disentangle the ambiguities, to combine the contradictions creatively.
What sort of people are they? People with common sense!
Thank you for being part of my world.
With Every Good Wish to You, I am,
Sincerely,
Building the Bridge Foundation, The Hague
Abraham A. van Kempen
Senior Editor
*‘Christian Zionism … Enraptured Around a Golden Cal” (2nd Edition)
e-book version $ 3.33
Paperback 33.30
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