From the Editor Nov/Dec 2014
Dear Friends,
I don’t often read fiction (unless it masquerades as news about Israel). But when Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code came out in 2003, I decided to pick up a copy and see what all the commotion was about.
It didn’t take me long to figure out many people apparently love a fast-paced detective-mystery-thriller. The novel reportedly has sold more than 80 million copies worldwide.
That means more than 80 million people have read that Jesus Christ was married to Mary Magdalene and fathered children with her. When I finished the book, I said to myself, What rubbish.
Then Christmas rolled around. In their usual attempts to rewrite history, the Arabs decided to stake their claim to Jesus:
“We must not forget that Messiah [Jesus] is a Palestinian, the son of Mary the Palestinian,” reported Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, the official newspaper of the Palestinian Authority (PA), in November 2005.
Also rubbish.
In May of this year, Pope Francis visited the Holy Land. He conducted a Roman Catholic Mass at Manger Square, outside the Church of the Nativity in PA-controlled Bethlehem. Covering the event was Al-Hayat Al-Jadida.
In the newspaper’s op-ed on May 27, Alaa Abu Ammar wrote, “The image placed behind the Pope’s podium was beautiful indeed: it showed Jesus, peace be upon Him, as a baby wrapped in a Palestinian keffiyeh….Although this image is a symbolic Palestinian national idiom, it is also truthful, since the son of Mary was a Palestinian, and this is the truth, not speculation.”
No, it is rubbish.
More lies and misinformation probably have been disseminated about Jesus Christ than about any other person who walked the earth.
So at this joyous time of year when we celebrate His incarnation, we devote this issue of Israel My Glory to the genuine Jesus. Here you’ll find the truth about the one and only Savior, who loves us.
The prophet Isaiah wrote of Him, “For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given;…and His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace….Upon the throne of David and over His kingdom, to order it and establish it with judgment and justice from that time forward, even forever” (Isa. 9:6–7).
To that we say, “Amen and Amen.” Merry Christmas to all of you from all of us at The Friends of Israel.
Waiting for His Appearing,
Lorna Simcox,
Editor-in-Chief