Pastor Greg Laurie urges church leaders and Christians to speak out against the antisemitism being demonstrated on college campuses throughout the country.
College students, along with other protestors, are demanding that their universities cut all financial ties with anyone does business with Israel. Pro-Palestine protestors have chanted “Death to America,” “Death to Jews,” and “Death to Israel.”
The Harvest Christian Fellowship lead pastor told ChurchLeaders that when it comes to what began with 100 students at Columbia University in New York City and has spread to Massachusetts, California, Tennessee, and Texas, it has “increasingly [become] clear these efforts are coordinated.”
Laurie believes that America is “repeating” the history of antisemitism that rose alongside the Nazis in Germany and resulted in the Jewish Holocaust.
According to Dani Dayan, the head of the Yad Vashem National Holocaust Museum in Israel, “The ongoing anti-Israel demonstrations at elite U.S. colleges and universities are exactly what happened in Germany in the 1920s, just years before Nazis took over the country.”
Many of the students protesting have “no idea” what they are supporting as they hold up signs and shout, “We are Hamas,” ”Gas the Jews,” and “Final Solution,” Laurie said. “[But] many of them do.”
And what’s “even more alarming,” he added, is “professors, who certainly know what they are doing, are joining these protests.”
Laurie explained that these protestors “fail to understand that the modern state of Israel was formed on the heels of the holocaust where 6 million Jewish men, women, and children were murdered by the Nazis.”
“They realized that they needed a homeland where they could live in peace and prosperity and raise their families,” he continued. “But also the Jewish community has had a continual presence in their land since the first kingdom of Israel, since King David. How could they be colonizers? They are indigenous people.”
Laurie argued, “God gave this land to Israel.”
He went on to ask where the protesters are for the more than 1,100 Jewish people who were “tortured, butchered, and some even beheaded” by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023, along with the 250 hostages that were taken during the attacks.
He said, “Where are the protests for them? Where are the protests for citizens of 17 countries still held hostage? What about for the hundreds of thousands killed this year in Sudan?”
Having viewed unedited footage of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel, ChurchLeaders verifies Laurie’s assessment of what took place. Hamas body camera footage also showed the aftermath of women and children being raped and the attackers parading hostages through the streets of Palestine while people cheered.
The day after the Oct. 7 attack, speaking at the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles, Laurie told the Jewish people that were gathered that day “that as evangelicals we stand with them, we are praying for them, and will do everything we can to help them.”
Laurie added, “This is more important now than ever.”
“As a pastor, I will not stand by idly as this horror unfolds before our very eyes. We are living in a moment where history will judge us,” he said.
One of the great criticisms the church of Germany receives regarding the Holocaust is that “they did not speak out on behalf of the Jewish people,” Laurie said. “We cannot let this happen again.”
“Not us. Not now,” Laurie said. “We stand with Israel, we stand with Jews everywhere, and we stand against antisemitism.”
Bible-believing Christian need to understand that “Jews have always been and always will be God’s chosen people,” the pastor said.
Laurie called antisemitism “evil” and said church leaders and followers of Jesus “must speak out against it loudly and constantly.” Laurie urged Christians, especially pastors, “to speak up for the Jewish people more than ever, now!”
He concluded by praising God that our country isn’t seeing any of the anti-Israel protests take place at Christian colleges. He added, “We should send our kids to them.”
First published here. Used by permission.
