Israel’s Future: Exchange with Michael Freund
Hi Michael,
Thank you for responding even though you accuse me of being angry and disparaging which means to belittle or bring reproach upon. Nothing could be farther from the truth. It is hard for you, a devout Jew, who apparently rejects the Lord Jesus Christ as his Messiah, to realize how much I really do care for you and the land of Israel, when I plead with you to reconsider the truth of the Lord Jesus and his teachings.
Sandy Shapiro, another Jew who does believe in the Lord Jesus, knows that I love the Jewish people and am just pleading with them to accept him as their Messiah. He knows the story I wrote to you and the others about our experiences is true. Jesus said that Israel would be defeated and scattered just before he was put to death by the Romans and the Sanhedrin. This judgment was because they rejected him. It happened in 70AD. Was Jesus being mean, hateful, and disparaging when he uttered those words? No, he wept over the people of Jerusalem who were about to kill him. He called out in tears knowing what was to happen to them.
Michael, this defeat and scattering of Israel is going to happen again during Daniel’s 70th Week and for the same reason…Israel and all of the Gentile nations reject the bloody cross and second coming of the Lord Jesus as the only escape from the sin nature that sends all men to Hell. Instead of accusing me of an angry tone which is not true, it is my hope and prayer that you confront the truth of the Lord Jesus and his teachings which is yours and Israel’s only hope.
I think that Stan knows this fundamental fact as well, unless he has fallen into the two-covenant heresy which teaches that devout Jews are not required to believe in Jesus to enter Heaven. If he hasn’t, he should tell you the same thing I have just done, and in the compassion and love that Jesus Christ has for you , Michael.
Your eternal friend,
Jack
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—– Original Message —–
From: Michael Freund
To: Jack Hook ; Buz Smith ; Don Polston ; Sandy Shapiro ; David Chagall ; Jason Shapiro ; Bob Isenhower
Cc: zionwarrior@gmail.com
Sent: Thursday, November 02, 2006 5:08 PM
Subject: Re: An appeal of faith to President George W. Bush
Dear Mr. Hook,
Although we have never met, I read your message below and I just wanted to let you know how astonished I was by both its tone and by its anger. For someone who professes to be a religious person, and who so freely invokes the term “love”, you sure have a funny way of showing it.
My appeal to President Bush came straight from my heart, and it is based on my firm belief that the G-d of Israel will save His people from harm, even if our own leaders fail to live up to the challenge (as they are presently doing). President Bush has the opportunity to be G-d’s instrument and tool for saving Israel and the West from the Persian madman – but whether he chooses to do so or not, G-d will in any event deliver His beloved people Israel from the hands of those who seek their destruction.
You are of course free to agree or disagree – but I would have thought that someone who claims to care so much about matters of salvation and faith would be able to demonstrate at least a modicum of basic human decency and respect for those with whom he differs. I do not know what your tradition as a Christian states on this subject, but I do know that I, as a religious Jew, would not disparage others the way you so freely choose to do.
Michael Freund
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—– Original Message —–
From: Jack Hook
To: Buz Smith ; Don Polston ; Sandy Shapiro ; David Chagall ; Jason Shapiro ; Bob Isenhower
Cc: Michael Freund ; zionwarrior@gmail.com
Sent: Friday, November 03, 2006 12:27 AM
Subject: Fw: An appeal of faith to President George W. Bush
To Sandy, Joyce, Jason Shapiro, Don Polston, Buz Smith, Bob Isenhower, and David Chagall,
I am forwarding this newsletter I received to you to further prove how far from the truth of the bloody cross, resurrection, and second coming of Jesus Christ both Jews and Christians have fallen. Michael Freund and Stan Goodenough are professing men of faith who are appealing to another man of faith, George Bush, to quickly destroy the military might of Iran before they can deliver on the Iranian President’s pledge to wipe Israel of the map. They declare to Bush that he is the “only” one on Earth that has the power to stop the destruction of Israel.
Doesn’t that declaration from “fearful” men trouble you at all? They are begging a man, the President of the United States, to save Israel. If this doesn’t remind you of the coming call (already happening) of a fearful world for someone to stop this madness, which will then produce the Antichrist, nothing else will. Our Lord Jesus Christ and his teachings are not mentioned once in this religious appeal of faith. I understand the chilling fear that our Jewish friends have that another Hitler is coming from Iran with new ovens, the nuclear bombs that can, in minutes, do what it took Hitler years to accomplish, the killing of six million Jews.
Sandy and Joyce, you know how much Carol and I love you, the Jewish people, and the nation of Israel. We went to Israel together with Don Polston in 1980 and our lives were changed and bonded together by that experience. Sandy, you and I witnessed the love of Jesus to everyone in our community when we became Christians back in 1978, and even loved those who came against you. They didn’t even know their hatred for you was because you were a Jew, even though they told Jew jokes behind your back. Remember how my old business and banking friends turned on me for financially supporting and staying with you, and how they even tried to get Carol to take over my property and finances which she refused to do. They told her that my association with you and our witnessing together was proof of my insanity. Remember those days of persecution and how we responded by loving them and praying for their salvation? Look at us now my dear brother!
Please come away from this religious patriotic madness that has overtaken you and my other friends this letter is addressed to. I know there were many times over the last years in my attempts to awaken you to this deception I have acted out of anger and pride at times. But you also know that when that happened I asked you to forgive me, not for what I was saying, but how I said it. Jesus Christ and his wholesome teachings is our only hope. Like Matthew wrote, let us be wise men and build our house with the teachings of Jesus who is the rock of our salvation.
Michael, Stan, and even George Bush have been seduced by a political-religious “angel of light”, 2 Corinthians 11. If George Bush was truly a born again man who walks in the power of the Holy Spirit he would meet with his Iranian enemies and plead with them to repent and receive the Lord Jesus Christ. He would humbly declare to them that the “only” way of stopping the death and destruction men inflict upon one another is through the combined power of the bloody cross and second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. He would publicly confess to Iran and all the nations that they all are being controlled by the fallen angels who manipulate all of humanity through the sin nature we are all born with, that Jesus came the first time to save us from.
President Bush would go on to explain that one of the elements of that sin nature is the “pride of this life” which is the root of all militant patriotism whether one is an Iranian or an American. He would confess to them that America has been seduced by false prosperity prophets into fulfilling another element of our sin nature…the love of money and property. He would share with them that when you unite the inherent “wrath” within man with militant religious “pride” and the “lust” of money, you have the ingredients and cause of every war man has ever fought, Ephesians 2:1-7, 1 John 2:16. He would then, with tears in his eyes, say to the Iranian people….”If you still want to kill us Christians who disagree with Mohammed so be it, but know that as you are killing us we will ask the Lord Jesus Christ to not lay this sin to your charge just as Stephen did in Acts 7:51-60. Our Kingdom is not of this world which is why we do not fight you now.
For we know that the day of judgment and condemnation to Hell is coming upon all those who refuse the offer of forgiveness of sin that Jesus provided in his blood on the cross. We know our dead bodies you killed will “rise again” at the return of Jesus Christ to rejoin our spirits that went to Heaven when you killed us, so we do not fear you, but only God who is able to destroy both our soul and body in Hell, Matthew 10:28. We do not want any Iranian to suffer this Hell because we love you and want you to join us in the Kingdom of God that Jesus is going to establish on this Earth.”
Until this true gospel message comes out of the mouth of these “men of faith” I for one will not follow them in their fears and delusions. From a heart of love we must call them out of the satanic darkness that blinds the nations and into Godly sorrow that works repentance unto salvation. All of you know that no man could be elected to anything, let alone to the Presidency, with a political platform based on this true gospel message, for most Americans have themselves refused to “depart” from their own sin nature, and consider what I have just written as “foolishness”. They have instead chosen to be partakers of the political-religious-economic kingdoms that Satan has established, which will be destroyed when Jesus returns, Revelation 19.
As I have written many times it will be the last President and Pope who will hear the cries of fear and come to their rescue by bringing peace to the Holy Land. These men will be the two Beasts of Revelation 13, not the true “men of faith” they claim to be.
American Christians want to wear the dominion “crown” Jesus promised right now, while they stubbornly refuse to pick up their own “cross” while we await the second coming of our Savior. Paul said as he wrote under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit…For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto is who are saved it is the power of God, 1 Corinthians 1:18
Your eternal friend,
Jack
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—– Original Message —–
From: Jerusalem Newswire
To: jdhook@cox.net
Sent: Thursday, November 02, 2006 2:08 AM
Subject: An appeal of faith to President George W. Bush
Stan,
I am attaching below what is perhaps the most important column that I have ever written. It is an appeal to US President George W. Bush from one man of faith to another to take military action against Iran to stop its drive toward obtaining nuclear weapons.
I feel that I am being guided in faith to try and spread this message as widely as possible, so if there is anything you can do to help get it out to a wider audience in the US – especially among Christians – I would appreciate it very much.
Thanks, and G-d bless,
Michael Freund
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An appeal of faith to President George W. Bush
by Michael Freund
Dear Mr. President, I am writing to you because I am afraid. I have been closely following the rhetoric of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad over the past few months, and I want you to know that I am gripped with a sense of fear.
I fear for the future of Israel and for that of the entire Jewish people, as the would-be Hitler of Persia readies to do battle against us with the most horrific of weapons.
I fear for the future of the West, because outside of Washington, few and far between are the leaders with the common sense and courage to stand up to the Tyrant of Teheran.
And I fear for the future of the world, because if Iran’s fundamentalists get their hands on a nuclear weapon, it will only be a matter of time before their extremist allies abroad become similarly armed.
Hence, I am writing to you because I am convinced that you alone understand and appreciate the gravity of the current situation, and I pray in my heart that you will not let it stand.
I appeal to you now, not as a political analyst nor as a newspaper columnist, but as one man of faith to another: Please strike Iran hard with military force, and dismantle its nuclear weapons program, before it is too late.
I know you believe, as I do, that God guides the destiny of men and of nations. And I know you believe, just as I do, that He raised you up to the helm of power precisely at this critical period, to serve as His agent and His instrument in this world.
The God of history has chosen you, Mr. President, just as He did Churchill, and He has entrusted you with a sacred mandate: to save the world from the designs of a madman.
I can tell you that in Israel, a sense of dread has slowly, but surely, begun to sink in. As the Sunday Times of London reported earlier this week, a growing number of my fellow Jews have begun to build underground nuclear shelters adjacent to their homes.
“The shelters,” says the Times, “are built to withstand radioactive fallout, have fortified walls and doors and generate their own electricity and decontaminated air.” Hundreds of such bunkers, reports the paper, have been built in recent months, and “demand is soaring.”
Mr. President, just the other night, I went out with my family for dinner to a restaurant in Herzliya, the city named after Zionist visionary Theodor Herzl, who foresaw the need to establish a safe haven for the Jewish people. Our waitress was an attractive and cheerful young lady who moved to Israel 16 years ago at the age of four from her native Lithuania, where her family had suffered anti-Semitism and persecution.
But when we asked her if she was happy living here in the Jewish state, the smile on her lips quickly faded. Glumly, she answered us with the following words: “That Ahmadinejad of Iran, he scares me. It is a very scary situation.” And indeed it is, Mr. President, because my people are in danger once again. It was just six decades ago that the Europeans tossed us into Hitler’s ovens and turned 6 million Jews into ashes. Now, with no shame, they stand by silently as Iran seeks to do the same.
The United Nations is a lost cause, and we have no faith in Russia, China or international institutions. The sad fact is that most of the world will not shed a tear if Mr. Ahmadinejad succeeds in achieving his dreadful aims.
Here in Israel, our own leadership is tired and weak. They have lost their way, and they are no longer anchored in faith. As we saw this past summer in the Lebanon war, they stumble about as though walking in darkness, oblivious to the danger that stalks us all.
There is only one person now, Mr. President, who can stop this terrifying scenario from coming to pass, and I believe that person is you.
I think of you often, and when I do, I am guided in faith to the fourth chapter of the Book of Esther in the Bible, where the evil Persian court officer Haman threatened the Jewish people with extinction. After Mordechai the Jew got wind of Haman’s plot, he passed along a message of great urgency to Queen Esther: “Who knows, perhaps it was precisely for a moment such as this that you have attained power?” Mr. President, that message was as compelling then as it is today, and I believe it is clearly directed to you too.
The decision you face is not an easy one, and I do not mean to suggest otherwise. But there are moments when a leader, like Joshua of old, must “be strong and of good courage” (Joshua Chapter 1), and not shy away from doing what must be done.
In the case of Iran, there can be no room for retreat or for shrinking back from the task at hand. The stakes are simply too great.
Iran can and must be stopped, and the only way to do so is through the use of military force.
Diplomacy and resolutions are a smoke screen, and you know as well as I do that they will not slow Iran’s steady drive toward obtaining a nuclear arsenal. Only the long and powerful arm of the United States, flexed with all its might, can and will be able to do the job.
Sure, the critics and the nay-sayers will try to tear you down, just as they have been doing since you the day you were elected. They will heap scorn on you, call you a warmonger and worse, and denigrate you and your family for many, many years to come.
But please don’t allow them to deter you or to drive you to despair. Don’t let them drown out that still, small voice within, the one that reaches into each of our hearts and calls out every day: “I am the Lord, and there is none else” (Isaiah Chapter 45).
Mr. President, you know as well as I do that history’s final verdict is not written by academics, nor is it determined by the opinion-mongers at The New York Times.
The one and only verdict, the one that really, truly counts, is the one that is penned in heaven, by He Who gave each of us life. It is to Him, and Him alone, that we will all have to answer.
In just over two years you will leave office. In the greater scheme of things, I am convinced that your legacy will depend largely on the decisions that you make in the coming few months about what to do with Iran.
I urge you, I plead with you: don’t walk out of the White House in January 2009 without having stopped Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Don’t leave the fate of Israel and the Jewish people hanging in the balance.
Remember the promise that God made to Abraham in Genesis Chapter 12: “I will bless those that bless you, and those that curse you I shall curse”.
Note that when it comes to standing by Israel and the Jewish people, there is no middle ground. God delineates two categories, and two categories only: those who bless Israel, and those who curse it.
You are in a unique position to bless Israel, and through it, all of humanity, by removing the nuclear sword from the hand of the Persian executioner.
The same God Who spoke, and said, “Let there be light”, and there was light, surely expects you to do nothing less.
I will be praying for you, as will many others, and I hope that you take this message to heart.
Be strong, be strong, Mr. President, and through you, may we all be strengthened.
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