Why are Christians really leaving Bethlehem?

Julie Stahl, CBN News, 8 May 2012

JERUSALEM, Israel Arab Christians in Bethlehem have been suffering from human rights abuses and economic hardships for years. But some are trying to bring a message of hope into their lives. It could be described as a modern day exodus: Christians are leaving Palestinian Arab-controlled areas like Bethlehem in great numbers. "It's my prediction that if the remaining Christians in the West Bank and Gaza Gaza only has maybe a thousand, two thousand Christians," human rights lawyer Justus Weiner told CBN News. "If their needs are not addressed in 10 or 15 or at most 20 years, there won't be any Christians in the cradle of Christianity. This will be a kind of memorial, a museum." Weiner said the threat of persecution, including beatings and forced marriages between Christian women and Muslim men, are some of the reasons Christians have left. Although tourism and the economy picked up last year, uncertainty still prevails. Pastor Steve Khoury talked more about why Christians are leaving Palestinian areas in droves and what his ministry is doing to help, on 'The 700 Club' May 8: He said his experiences growing up as the son of a missionary taught him not only the life of a missionary, but also the struggles and battles of every believer. "God has burdened my heart in a great way," Khoury wrote on his web site. "He has shown me that Arabs can come to salvation; He has shown me that Jews can come to the Messiah, and that the people in Israel are losing hope in life." "Seeing people bleed every day, and seeing a person one day and gone the next because of violence has made me appreciate life," he said. There are only about 15,000 born-again Christians. They face daily persecution by the other two dominating religions. Pastor Khoury has seen church members attacked and discriminated against because of their faith. Several believers under his ministry have been martyred, including his own uncle. The church in Bethlehem has been firebombed 14 times, and Dr. Naim Khoury has been shot at several times in the last 10 years. Nevertheless, Holy Land Missions has reached out to thousands over the years through their many outreach programs, including Calvary Church in Jerusalem and First Baptist in Bethlehem.
www.cbn.com/cbnnews/insideisrael/2012/may/why-are-christians-reallyleaving-bethlehem/

Bethlehem's Christmas war on Jesus

Brian Schrauger2, israel today, 24 Dec 12
It is Christmas Eve in Bethlehem in 2012. Tonight on Manger Road, in Manger Square and on all its thoroughfares, Bethlehem is lit with many-colored lights. Like rivulets they stream down the city's face, falling inbetween vibrant shapes of snowmen and Santas, stars and trees. Why does Bethlehem weep luminescent tears disguised as twinkling strings of light? Until one week ago there was not a single place in its public square that even gave a hint of the reason for this pagan day's redemptive transformation into a holy day. No manger scene, no God-incarnate baby boy. No creche, no cradle, no cross. Even the Church of the Nativity was decorated only by a single large tree. (About one week ago, a nativity scene was hastily erected next to the towering tree.)

www.cbn.com/media/player/embedplayer.aspx?bcid=1627252503 001&width=320&height=180

"I know if you just look deep within their hearts, I know many people have fear and doubt in the unknown and unseen," Pastor Steve Khoury told CBN News. Pastor Khoury leads churches in Bethlehem and in Jerusalem. Part of the congregations' outreach includes Christmas banquets each year, sponsored in part by CBN. Khoury said they do many unorthodox things to bring the message that hope is only built on the solid rock of Jesus. Khoury grew up on the mission field. His father, Dr. Naim Khoury, started Holy Land Missions1 30 years ago.

www.holylandmissions.org

Brian Schrauger is a Christian media consultant who is currently visiting and reporting from Israel and the Palestinian-controlled territories. You can learn more about Brian and his work by visiting BrianSchrauger.com.

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Two thousand years after his birth there was, once again, no room for Jesus in Bethlehem. Early this month Shari Khoury brought this observation to her husband's attention. Pastor Steven Khoury took note. He examined city streets and saw for himself what he had not noticed. The Khoury's live in Bethlehem. Steven was raised there where his father, Dr. Naim Khoury, started Holy Land Ministries in 1980. During the past 32 years Steven, his family and the ministry's congregations have experienced opposition to the gospel of Jesus the Messiah, God's incarnate Word made flesh. There have been threats and muggings, fire bombs and murder. Many believers have fled the region, but the Khoury's remain. Every Sunday, worship and teaching are broadcast from speakers atop their local church's steeple, clashing with Islamic calls to prayer. On December 5, Steven Khoury made a decision. He composed brief words, commissioned graphic art, hired a printer. In the middle of the night and into next day's early morning light, workmen hung the composition on the city's largest billboard. Across an expanse of 1200 square feet, in Arabic and English too, it reads: Jesus: born to die and rose again. Invite him in to your heart so that you too might live And the response? Two weeks later, only days ago, Pastor Khoury received a call. Officials from the city were on the line, informing him that they were being asked to remove the sign. That same day vandals cut power to lights that illuminate the sign at night. The owner refused to repair them, fearing they would only be cut again along with an escalation of damage to his property. The print shop also received disturbing calls. Although the words were never spoken, the message was clear: take Jesus down. Tonight the billboard is still up, lit now by portable lights from the back of a car. The cost is high. Thousands of dollars have been spent. So far individual donations to help with the expense total about $60. 4min video: www.youtube.com/watch?&v=zPtd87E9eNg

remain silent. I will not be a quiet one rebuked by shouting rocks."

www.israeltoday.co.il/NewsItem/tabid/178/nid/23586/Default.aspx?archive =article_title

PA declares Church in Bethlehem to be unlawful

Jewish Tribune, 16 March 2012
JERUSALEM The Palestinian Authority declared a Baptist church in Bethlehem to be unlawful and said that it will no longer receive rights as a religious institution, Algemeiner reported. This decision comes a week after PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad told an audience of Evangelical Protestants that his government respected the rights of its Christian minorities. "They said that our legitimacy as a church from a governmental point of view is not approved," said an assistant pastor at the First Baptist Church. "They said they will not recognize any legal paper work from our church. That includes birth certificates, wedding certificates and death certificates. Children are not even considered to be legitimate if they don't have recognized paperwork." The messianic church was subjected to an ongoing onslaught of attacks by Arabs during the height of the First Intifada. At a recent gathering of Evangelical Protestants, Fayyad said that ensuring the rights of the Christian minority to access their holy sites is, in part, what it "means to be a Palestinian."

PA declares First Baptist Church in Bethlehem unlawful.

In spite of public exposure on YouTube, radio, television and in written press, other Christian organizations in Bethlehem have reacted with resounding silence. So too Christian organizations throughout Israel. Pastor Khoury has no regrets. "Scripture says that if we do not speak up for Jesus, for who he is and what he has done, stones will cry out. With God's help, I will not

Pastor Reverend Naim Khoury noted, however, that animosity towards the Christian minority in areas controlled by the PA continues to get increasingly worse. "People are always telling [Christians], 'Convert to Islam. Convert to Islam. It's the true and right religion,'" Khoury said. The Algemeiner explained that the "church's message of reconciliation flies in the face of the propaganda that permeates Palestinian society. Muslim clerics routinely offer up antisemitic rants on PA television and so-called peace activists have turned the concrete sections of the security barrier in Bethlehem into a canvas for their

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propaganda, which in some instances proffers a troubling fatalism to its viewers." Rev. Khoury noted, "The First Baptist Church in Bethlehem has demonstrated its value to the community over the years and proven itself to be a law-abiding church." He said he will speak to members of the US Congress to draw attention to discrimination that is occurring in Bethlehem, perpetrated by the PA against the Christian minority. "We did let them know that we're not going to go quietly on this. Our church deserves the right to be equally recognized amongst all the other recognized denominations in the PA." After Judea and Samaria were restored to Israel in the Six Day War, the Israeli government opened up churches and holy sites, reversing the policy of Jordan, which closed all Jewish and Christian holy sites during its occupation after the War for Independence in 1948.
Arutz-7
www.jewishtribune.ca/uncategorized/2012/03/16/pa-declares-church-inbethlehem-to-be-unlawful

Naim Khoury: A Brave Bethlehem Voice

Bethlehem's Pastor Naim Khoury is a voice of balance and truth in the Mideast. 20min video:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZqHR3_uV5A

The Deadly Sounds of Christian Silence

by Rabbis Abraham Cooper and Yitzchok Adlerstein, CP Opinions, 28 March 2012
This just in: Get married or baptized in a church adjacent to Jesus' birthplace, and it won't be recognized by the law. You can't make this up. The Palestinian Authority (PA) has just declared that it deems the First Baptist Church of Bethlehem to be illegitimate. No sooner had 600 mostly American evangelicals departed from the Christ at the Checkpoint Conference (CATC) in Bethlehem, then the PA made its startling pronouncement. No reason was given, but people who know the church's pastor, Rev. Naim Khoury, suspect that it has plenty to do with the fact that he has been

unflaggingly even-handed in dealing with Christians, Muslims, and Jews. What does the PA move portend about the future of Christian holy sites and churches in a future Palestinian state? As President Mahmoud Abbas continues to pursue a unity government with Hamas, no one knows whose template for treating religious minorities will be followed. We know the track record of Hamas in Gaza. We know of the attack on the only Christian bookstore in Gaza, now shut down. We know of the increasing frequency of neighbors in Bethlehem, jeering at the shrunken Christian population, calling upon them to convert to Islam. We have seen how the PA, which is responsible to guarantee the site of Joseph's Tomb, stood by and allowed it to be destroyed and then destroyed again, after it was rebuilt. We've watched the trucks of the Waqf, entrusted with the sanctity of the Temple Mount, remove tons of earth from one of the most important archeological sites in the world, with the goal of physically erasing all traces of the Jewish First and Second Temples. We've heard the PA's imams declare that there never was a Jewish Temple in Jerusalem and seen its Muslim allies go to UNESCO to have Rachel's Tomb declared a mosque. CATC participants and others committed to interfaith progress should ask themselves if they feel more optimistic after their stay in Bethlehem about the prospects for a secure Christian future in the Holy Land? We are all witness to a broader challenge to historic Christian communities: there is immediate danger to lives, not only buildings. Some of the oldest Christian communities in the world have already been decimated in the Assyrian Triangle of Iraq. Its churches burned, clergy assassinated, many have tried fleeing to Iraq's north only to find poor prospects for rebuilding shattered lives. While they wait in limbo, a convert to Christianity sits on Iran's death row, awaiting execution for the crime of becoming Christian. In Saudi Arabia, Christians aren't in any danger of dying because it won't tolerate any Christian presence, except foreign workers and VIPs. How bad is it? Reacting to proposed legislation by a Kuwaiti Minister of Parliament to ban all church construction in his nation, Saudi Arabia's Grand Mufti and highest-ranking cleric Abdul Aziz bin Abdullah offered his ruling about the entire Arabian Peninsula: it is "necessary," he said, "to destroy all the churches of the region." In Pakistan, Christians literally live in fear for their lives. And in Egypt, the brutal Maspero massacre of almost thirty Copts, belies the larger problem: intimidation of millions of Egyptian citizens at least ten percent of the Arab world's largest nation is so severe and widespread, that some Coptic community leaders have advised those who can leave the country to do so. Who is pounding on the doors of world leaders about the majority of those Christians who cannot leave? Where is the outrage? Over many years of conversation with our Christian friends, we have learned much and admired the Christian compulsion to speak out against injustice. But we remain puzzled by the anemic response from so many circles when it is Christians themselves who are imperiled. Jews are often criticized for being

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overly protective of their own. And there is some truth to that. But why do Christian leaders seem so unmoved by mortal threats to their spiritual brothers and sisters? Does the universal embrace of Christian love preclude any special affinity for and responsibility towards other Christians? To be sure, we have proudly drawn closer to some who work assiduously to protect the lives of Christians. But why are there so few? We, as an American Jewish (proudly Zionist) NGO raise the issue of the persecution of Christians at the UN, at the White House, and in the halls of Congress. When we report to law enforcement agencies on our Digital Terrorism and Hate Project, the targeting of Christians is high on our list of greatest concern. Why? Not only because in a democracy it is the right thing to do, but also because as Jews we know, that if Coptic Christians cannot live in peace, there will be no peace for anyone in the Holy Land, and if Christian minorities under siege from Pakistan to Nigeria are abandoned, there can be no talk of an era of global peace and tolerance. Rabbi Abraham Cooper is associate Dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center. Rabbi Yitzchok Adlerstein is the Wiesenthal Center's Director of Interfaith Affairs.
www.christianpost.com/news/the-deadly-sounds-of-christian-silence-72238/

"Steven told me that a representative of the Palestinian authority showed up at his father's church in Bethlehem and told him to shut the doors they were closing down the church," wrote Resnik. The Palestinian officials reportedly did not specify why they were closing the church, but Steven, who pastors his own church in Jerusalem, told Resnik that it must be because of his family's support for Israel. Observers have noted with suspicion that the threats of closure of First Baptist in Bethlehem came just one day after the Christ at the Checkpoint conference, which was organized and hosted by Bethlehem-based Christian leaders who do not support Israel's restoration. Messianic blog Rosh Pina Project noted that Salam Fayyad, prime minister of the same Palestinian Authority who gave fresh threats to First Baptist, had only days earlier attended and addressed Christ at the Checkpoint. In 2009, Steven Khoury was interviewed by CBN on the true reason for the suffering of Bethlehem's Christians.
Source: Israel Today

Baptist church that backs Israel troubled by Palestinian Authority

The First Baptist Church in Bethlehem was ordered closed by the Palestinian Authority on Saturday.
This is according to Rabbi Russell Resnik of the Union of Messianic Jewish Congregations. Resnik reported the incident after meeting with Pastor Steven Khoury, the son of First Baptist's head pastor, Naim Khoury.

Pastor Khoury faced Sharia Laws, for supporting the "little Satan" who do not live in submission to Islam.

My comment:
Christians who intermingle with Muslims persecuting Evangelical Christian friends of Israel, are doing the devil's work. The United Nations (UN) and the World Council of Churches (WCC) claim "Palestine" to be a safe area for Christians. This is a huge lie. "Palestine" is truly a safe area for Catholics and dead Christianity, who live in submission to Islamic rules and regulations. Shame on all who starts to present Islamic lies on Israel as the truth. If you are going to escape eternal damnation, you have to repent and beg Jesus of the Bible for mercy.
Written by Ivar
http://ivarfjeld.wordpress.com/2012/03/14/baptist-church-that-backs-israelshuttered-by-palestinian-authority/

Pastor Khoury at desk and shown at Bethlehem's First Baptist Church with congregants and Christian American supporter.

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