Israel Introduces Bill to Outlaw Teaching The Gospel of Jesus Christ

Israel Introduces Bill to Outlaw Teaching The Gospel of Jesus Christ

Violators sent to Prison

Chris Menahan | InformationLiberation

Two influential members of Israel’s Knesset [YaakovAsher, Moshe Gafni] have introduced a bill to outlaw teaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ in Israel and sentence violators to prison.

Israel already bans Christians from proselytizing minors but this new bill will go even further and “ban any and all efforts to tell people about Jesus.”

From All Israel News, “EXCLUSIVE: Two Knesset members propose legislation to outlaw sharing the Gospel in Israel and send violators to prison – could it become law?”:

JERUSALEM, ISRAEL – Is it possible that the Israeli government this year could pass legislation making it illegal for people to share the Gospel message in the very land where Jesus was born, raised, preached, died, buried and rose from the dead?

Unfortunately, yes.

As Palm Sunday and Easter approach – the two most sacred days on the calendar for those who follow Jesus as both God and Messiah – two members of the Knesset (Israel’s parliament) introduced a bill last week that would ban any and all efforts to tell people about Jesus.

The bill would send violators to prison.

[…] The proposed legislation would outlaw all efforts by people of one faith who, in any way, want to discuss or try to persuade people of other faiths to consider changing their current religious beliefs.

The punishment for doing so would be “one year imprisonment.”

If the conversation is with minor – someone under the age of 18 – the punishment would be “two years imprisonment.”

This bill would apply to people having spiritual conversations with Israelis of any religion.

However, in their official explanation of the bill, the two Israeli legislators specifically emphasized the warning to stop Christians, in particular.

The bill’s primary objective, therefore, appears to be making it illegal for followers of Jesus (“Yeshua” in Hebrew) to explain why they believe that Jesus is both Messiah and God with the hope that Israelis might consider following Him.

The bill does not only make a simple personal conversation about Jesus with another individual a crime.

It would also make it illegal for “someone who solicits a person – directly, digitally, by mail or online – in order to convert his religion.”

Thus, producing and publishing online videos explaining the Gospel to Jewish or Muslim people in Israel – and to those of any other religious faiths – would suddenly become illegal.

Publishing books, other printed literature, online articles, podcasts, or other forms of media that explains the life and ministry of Jesus and His message found in the New Testament would also become illegal.

So would discussing the Gospel message via email, text messages, written letters and/or on social media, including answering questions initiated by people who don’t follow Jesus.

All Israel News has the full text of the bill.

This is how Christians are treated when they preach the Gospel in Israel:

A new Pew Research poll in America found that Evangelicals have a +39 favorability rating towards Jews but Jews have a -40 favorability rating towards Evangelicals.

Anti-Christian attitudes are even worse in Israel.

In 2019, the pro-Israel Christian TV broadcasting network Daystar had their headquarters burned to the ground by suspected Jewish extremists who were never caught.

The Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem warned last year that “our presence in Jerusalem is under threat.”

“Our churches are threatened by Israeli radical fringe groups,” Patriarch Theofilos III said. “At the hands of these Zionist extremists the Christian community in Jerusalem is suffering greatly. Our brothers and sisters are the victims of hate crimes. Our churches are regularly desecrated and vandalized. Our clergy are subject to frequent intimidation.”

Just last month, a Jewish extremist from America desecrated a statue of Jesus inside a Jerusalem church.

“We cannot have idols in Jerusalem,” the Jewish-American vandal said. “This is a very serious matter, we cannot worship stones of false gods in Jerusalem.”

A poll from Gallup released last week found that Israel is losing support among American Democrats, though support among Republicans – especially Evangelicals — remains strong.

For the first time ever, Democrats said “their sympathies in the Middle East now lie more with the Palestinians than the Israelis, 49% versus 38%,” Gallup reported:

Today’s attitudes reflect an 11-percentage-point increase over the past year in Democrats’ sympathy with the Palestinians. At the same time, the percentages sympathizing more with the Israelis (38%) and those not favoring a side (13%) have dipped to new lows.

Sympathy toward the Palestinians is also at a new high among political independents, up six points to 32%. However, more independents still lean toward the Israelis (49%).

Republicans’ views are unchanged, with nearly eight in 10 (78%) continuing to sympathize more with the Israelis while 11% side with the Palestinians.

All Israel News said the bill to outlaw teaching the Gospel in Israel has a solid chance of passing now that Orthodox and ultra-Orthodox Jewish members control the legislature.

“These members are far more aggressive in this legislative session than ever before in pushing for legislations to be passed that advance their theological worldview,” All Israel News reported.

Follow InformationLiberation on TwitterFacebookGabMinds and Telegram.

**********

(TLB) published this article by Chris Menahan from Information Liberation with our appreciation for this coverage and perspective

Header featured image (edited) credit: Knesset members Yaakov-Asher-Moshe-Gafni-Outlaw-Teaching-Gospel

Emphasis added by (TLB) editors

••••

••••

Stay tuned to …

 

••••

The Liberty Beacon Project is now expanding at a near exponential rate, and for this we are grateful and excited! But we must also be practical. For 7 years we have not asked for any donations, and have built this project with our own funds as we grew. We are now experiencing ever increasing growing pains due to the large number of websites and projects we represent. So we have just installed donation buttons on our websites and ask that you consider this when you visit them. Nothing is too small. We thank you for all your support and your considerations … (TLB)

••••

Comment Policy: As a privately owned web site, we reserve the right to remove comments that contain spam, advertising, vulgarity, threats of violence, racism, or personal/abusive attacks on other users. This also applies to trolling, the use of more than one alias, or just intentional mischief. Enforcement of this policy is at the discretion of this websites administrators. Repeat offenders may be blocked or permanently banned without prior warning.

••••

Disclaimer: TLB websites contain copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available to our readers under the provisions of “fair use” in an effort to advance a better understanding of political, health, economic and social issues. The material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving it for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material for purposes other than “fair use” you must request permission from the copyright owner.

••••

Disclaimer: The information and opinions shared are for informational purposes only including, but not limited to, text, graphics, images and other material are not intended as medical advice or instruction. Nothing mentioned is intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.

Be the first to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.


*