A nativity scene display unveiled at the Vatican demonstrates just how far Pope Francis is willing to go in his demonization of the nation of Israel.
The “Nativity of Bethlehem 2024” exhibit features olive wood carved statues of Mary and Joesph in a stable with the infant Jesus resting in a Palestinian keffiyeh-wrapped manger. The “keffiyeh” is a Middle Eastern scarf worn as a symbol of Palestinian resistance, often adorned at antisemitic and pro-Hamas rallies across the globe.
The nativity scene was accompanied by a plaque written in Arabic and Latin and was presented to the Pope by “two Palestinian children,” according to the Times of Israel.
The display was created by artists Nastas Mitwasi and Johny Andonia, who live in the now Palestinian Authority-controlled city of Bethlehem. The exhibit was organized by the Palestinian embassy to the Vatican and the Higher Presidential Committee for Church Affairs in Palestine, which is run by the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).
During the ceremony, Pope Francis insisted that the display should stand as a reminder of the “suffering from the tragedy of war in the Holy Land,” adding, “Enough with wars, enough of violence!”
The unbiblical claims underpinning the display are hard to miss: The often-repeated assertion that Jesus was “Palestinian” and the implication that if Christ were walking the earth today, He would be standing on the side of brutal terrorists who began the war by massacring 1,200 of His Jewish brethren.
The first thing that needs to be established is the genealogy of Jesus, provided in Matthew 1:2-16 and Luke 3:23-38. The Savior of the world was not only a descendant of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, he also emerged from the tribe of Judah through the royal line of Israel’s King David. It is a difficult task to reject the ethnicity of the Jewish Messiah, Jesus Christ, when the pages of Scripture and history declare his Jewishness to be indisputable.
Additionally, Jesus did not live in “Palestine.” As explained by antisemitism expert Olivier Melnick, over one hundred years after the birth of Jesus, the name “Palaestina” came onto the scene after the Romans, in a show of disrespect to the Jewish people, changed the name of Israel to that of their enemy: the Philistines.
“In A.D. 132, a Jewish revolt took place against the Romans,” Melnick described. “Things didn’t end well for the Jewish people, and in addition to a bloodbath of gigantic proportions, Israel was renamed Palaestina by the Romans. The rebranding of the Land with the name of their enemies, the Philistines, was an effort to undermine Jewish history and humiliate the Jewish people further.”
While there are many areas of Scripture that could be used to refute this falsehood, perhaps the most pointed example as to why Jesus does not support “the Palestinian resistance” can be found in Psalm 83. In this prophetic chapter, the psalmist reveals that hatred of modern Israel is indelibly linked to a hatred of Almighty God.
Psalm 83:1-5 KJV – “Keep not thou silence, O God: hold not Thy peace, and be not still, O God. For, lo, Thine enemies make a tumult: and they that hate Thee have lifted up the head. They have taken crafty counsel against Thy people, and consulted against Thy hidden ones. They have said, Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation; that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance. For they have consulted together with one consent: they are confederate against Thee” (emphasis added).
The above passage makes a clear point: the enemies of Israel, who would like the name of Israel erased “From The River To The Sea,” have made themselves enemies of Christ.
1 comment:
Demons do not have any limitations when it comes to demonization.
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