50 thoughts on “FWOTW: HopeOfIsrael.net”

    1. What’s odd about that is it’s a quote from Corrie Ten Boom’s “The Hiding Place.” Her father, Casper Ten Boom, said he pitied the Nazis because they were “touching the apple of God’s eye.” I don’t understand why it’s this place’s tagline…with an exclamation point, since “touching the apple of God’s eye,” is a bad thing.

      1. Zech. 2:8: “For thus saith the LORD of hosts; After the glory hath he sent me unto the nations which spoiled you: for he that toucheth you toucheth the apple of his eye.”

        You’re right; touching the apple of his eye IS a negative thing to do. The other Bible references I found described guarding or keeping the apple of His eye, but “touching” is in a negative context.

        (I remember that Corrie ten Boom reference too. What a man her father was!)

  1. The second thing listed on their site is their “Legal Defense Fund” that needs replenishing! Go figure!

    Typical on two accounts:

    1. Protruding their hands into your pockets for money straight away and…

    2. Needing legal advice and defense because of their ignorance and lack of diligence to be learned properly in the fields of which they meander!

    Waste of precious time!

    ~~~Heart 😯

  2. Website looks entertating, but, alas, I have no time to marinate in the craziness today. 🙂

    But in the spirit of the feigned fundy fixation on all things Jewish . . .

    My sister, who completed the program at West Coast Baptist “College” and is now employed part-time by same, goes every summer to Miami to take part in a program where they go door-to-door witnessing to “the Jews.” When asked how they knew whether the people they were encountering were in fact Jews, she just smiled knowingly and said they have a rich Jewish man who tells them where the Jews live. Given the wholly racist implications of this endeavor, I am delighted to report that the only Jew they “reached” last summer was one they hit (but did not injure, fortunately) with their minivan.

    Mostly, they waste their time tooling around Miami listening to Radio Disney, eating out a lot at places like Red Lobster and Olive Garden (the rich Jewish man is oh so very rich, you see), going to the beach (don’t worry, guys and girls go separately) and occasionally throwing fits because certain gated communities in wealthy enclaves of Miami persecute them and exclude them “in violation of their First Amendment rights.” (Hmm . . . why would the evangelization of RICH JEWS be such a tempting prospect to local MOGs???)

    1. One a UM youth mission trip to Miami a few years ago, we passed the Holocaust Memorial on our way to visit Miami Beach. It was dark on our way back. We decided to stop and check it out, knowing it was closed. The lighting was cool. As we are standing there, an older security guard came over and said, “Your a Christian Youth Group from up north, and would like to go inside?” I laughed and said we are a youth group from up north, but know its closed. I also asked how he knew we were a youth group – we didn’t have a church van, and weren’t wearing tacky t-shirts. He said that every summer, a group stops by. He was very nice, and unlocked the gate, just said we needed to be out before the night crew came by.

      We had to use our cell phone lights to read signs. Because it was dark with landscape lighting it made the experience very somber. Some of the kids had been to the Holocaust Museum earlier that summer and said the memorial was more meaningful.

      We ended the evening by forming a circle, sang Just As I Am, prayed for the salvation of Isreal, and gave the guard a Chick Tract, and said we hoped we would see him in eternity.

      I’m kidding about the last paragraph, we were a United Methodist youth group, not IFB.

  3. I was teaching on eight things we are to pray for from Scripture. One of these is the Peace of Jerusalem. The usual passages are Psalm 122:6 and Isaiah 62:6&7. I made the comment that this doesn’t seem a command to pray for Jews to regain Israel, but a prayer for peace, and that true peace only comes from a relationship with God as Savior. There are many different ethnic people groups in Jerusalem, and the only way there will be true peace is for them to understand God’s love and grace. Just like for everyone else, and that maybe we should be less concerned with politics and more concerned with sharing the true Hope of the Bible.

    I keep forgetting that even in Fundy Lite, you have to use caution when tipping sacred cows.

    1. In fundyism, I’ve never heard it as a command for them to regain the land. I’ve always heard praying for the peace of Jerusalem is no different than praying, “Come quickly, Lord Jesus” since there is anything but peace in Jerusalem and probably won’t be until Christ returns.

      Maybe I’m not seeing something, but I still agree with that statement.

      1. @Larry– Maybe I had the “pleasure” of growing up under a different brand of lunacy. I have heard that Jerusalem will not have peace until Israel is restored, so we should pray toward that end. The fact that even under David and his descendents there was no peace never entered any sermons I heard. But then, Fundystan isn’t known for consistent thought processes.

        I agree with your statement, that there will be no peace until the Kingdom, but in my younger days I heard a lot of bizarre end-times preaching.

        Looking back, I wonder if the preaching I heard that Christians should do what they can to get Jews back to Israel really wasn’t a form of Zionism, but rather a strange form of racism.

        1. Racism is the first word that comes to mind when I think of Dispensationalism. When I studied eschatology for myself without a school-imposed or preacher-recommended SystematicTheology to guide me, I realized Dispensationalism is the only prop upholding the Pre-Trib Rapture theory. Ryrie’s Dispensationalism Today clearly states that the defining characteristic of Disp’ism is maintaining the Church and Israel as separate, but he doesn’t explain what is meant by that–national Israel? Believing Israel? Ethnic Israel? The wacky conclusions like Christians in the Heavenly Jerusalem while Jews are stuck with in the Earthly Kingdom are terrible.

  4. Do they not know that Jews use Hebrew Scriptures, not the KJV? Like how they are going into synagogues to talk. I’ve taken confirmation groups to the synagogue, but never to convert them.

    1. I was wondering about that. Then I remembered that God used the Translators of 1611 to correct mistakes that had been made by the many copyists of history. Which makes their original language copies obsolete.

      Makes you wonder if He could have used the translators to fix mistakes, why He didn’t just “preserve” it perfectly all through history for anyone not speaking Middle English. You know, in their own language.

      I guess the Trail of Blood dudes were too busy to preserve, so Anglican and Catholic scholars had to take up the slack.

      as I digress, again……………..

      1. Maybe that IS what happened! And the whole “Calvinistic KJV translators” story is a myth perpetrated by the Devil to get Bible Believing Christians to think they owe a debt of gratitude to those apostates.

  5. A few years back my old church had one of the head guys from this group come and give a presentation and preach.

    The few things I remember:

    1) He asked for money.
    2) He preached for a looooong time
    3) He asked for money
    4) He kept coming down and preached directly at me
    5) He asked for money

  6. While in the cult I sat through a five day “revival” meeting and Dan Fried was the screamer, oops I mean preacher. He screamed and jumped around like a psychotic nut for five looooooong days.
    I complained and was told by my pastor to talk directly to Dan. I did. CERTIFIED WACKO!

    1. I must have went to the same meeting as you did! Dan walked over to the expensive grand piano and literally started beating the hell out of it until someone from the church came over and closed it. 🙄

  7. I know these guys too. I (sadly) attended one of their conferences in Rome, GA years ago where they extorted money from my dad. I just couldn’t believe it. 😡

  8. From the photos, it doesn’t look like a big turnout crowd compared to the number of speakers! What’s with the white papers all over the floor???

  9. It annoys me that going to different pages in the same website will automatically open a new tab. I have enough tabs open on my own, thanks :/

    Also, if you try and go to the gift store, you have to enter a password. The password is the answer to a question. The question is, “In what year did the United States become a nation.” I don’t know the answer to that. I could google search it in 30 seconds, but I don’t care enough. Do they want people’s money or not? And why do they assume every visitor to their site is American?

      1. 1776 was when the colonies declared their independence; the current government was formed when the constitution (written in 1787) was appproved (1788, I think).

        Being a new nation probably started when America won the Revolutionary War (effectively 1781; possibly when the treaty was signed – 1783).

        So, there’s a lot to choose from.

        1. After further consideration I am going to go with 1776. That is when all of those Fundamental Baptists signed the DoI. 😆

  10. Years ago this conference was held in Resaca, Georgia at the southern IFB Mecca …… Faith Baptist Camp. “The General” (Sammy Allen) allowed Dan Fried to have his meeting at the campgrounds. I went a every yeat it was held there and Phil Kidd was the main preacher every night! It was the most bizarre meeting EVER!

  11. So, looking around the site I see their “gift store.” Upon clicking the link, I was informed that these were not items for sale, but were gifts in appreciation for specific donations.

    To enter the gift store, one had to answer a question. “Wat year did the United States become a nation?”

    As a good history student I answered 1789. After all, that is when the Constitution of the United States was sent out and ratified.

    Alas, it was the wrong answer! They told me to try again, and suspicion entered my mind. Surely they didn’t mean …. They couldn’t be so ignorant as to think ….

    Yes, indeed. They required the year 1776. The year in which the American Revolution began, but not the year we actually became a nation. Good students of history know that the Articles of Confederation, ratified in 1777, did not make us a nation, but a loose assembly of thirteen “sovereign” states (nations). There was no unity, no central government to which the thirteen states need bow as to a final authority. It was not until 1789 that the Constitution actually created a strong central government that the States had to recognize was to govern the Nation.

    And so, the HopeOfIsrael.net joins a multitude of other conservative and fundie purveyors of ignorance. What a shock! What a disappointment!

    1. Okay, I’ll admit I probably would have answered, “1776” as well, 😳 as officially breaking off from Great Britain was an important start. I do remember all the fuss of the Bicentennial in 1976, not much went on in 1989. All the same, I see your point, and the importance of recognizing the differences as regrading just when our country was really started.

    2. Maine and Massachusetts residents know that the Revolutionary War (or as Beka calls it, “The War for Independence”) started 19 April 1775. Various incidents of discontent had occurred earlier of course, most notably the Boston Tea Party in 1773.

  12. Can’t quote their own Bible correctly, can’t read their own history books correctly, but certain sure they have The Truth. SFL: The arrogance of ignorance.

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