Yesterday, the Day before Christmas, Eddie had problems with the orthodox Jews in Arad and they harrassed the Congregation, too, but the Beersheva Congregation bore the brunt of the attacks. Below is the entire letter from the pastor in Beersheva.
Subject: Orthodox Jews attack Jewish believers in Jesus
Yesterday, about 500 Orthodox Jews broke into a Messianic service in Beersheva, Israel and attacked the Jewish believers. Here is a first-hand report from the pastor and his wife. Please spare a thought for the Israeli believers that God would give them His strength to be a witness to the true Light of the World.
"Shalom on Israel and goodwill towards you all!
Yesterday (24 December) at our Shabbat service to worship and celebrate God our Savior,
we found ourselves confronted by a throng of about 500 men, women,
and children who had come to prevent us from baptizing two
believers. Apparently they had heard the good news from Arad, from
which the two belong to the congregation there, and the plan was for
a number of them in the congregation to come over to Beer Sheva and
participate with us in the holy-day celebration, and the immersions
would take place in the baptismal on our congregational
property. The religious opposers of the good news forced their way
into the grounds of the "Old House", creating a disturbance and
claiming that they were going to rid Beer Sheva and Israel of us. I
won't quote some of the things mentioned.
When they first entered, and before we realized that this was an
organized event, we told them that they were welcome to stay and be
part of our service. Once they began to make noises and wander
throughout the house and property, more showed up and so did the
police. The police at first let it go on, as long as we were
agreeable, but once it became crystal clear to all what was
happening, the whole mood and atmosphere changed to wild religious
frenzy and hostility. They began to dance and sing "Am Israel
Chai" (The people of Israel live), which we even joined in for a
bit, but it was evident where all this was leading. They began
overturning chairs and knocking things around, all the time concerned
about the baptisms. When they discovered the pool, they went wild,
and began to even push the police around, who by then had called in
reinforcements. They threw tables and other objects into the pool,
including me, in the process of which my multi-focal glasses were
also broken. They threw to the bricked ground our specially
high-wattage overhead projector, which is necessary for our
semi-outdoors facility. One brother was hit with a fist on the jaw;
at least another one was spit on pretty much; a couple of cars
received kicks and dents; the front gate handle and lock was torn off
and damaged; and the part of the fencing around the top of the wall
of the house was broken down. Everyone keeps asking me how I feel
after getting hit so many times, but apart from being pushed into the
water (and we're only supposed to be baptized once!), I don't recall
other blows. A policeman did grab me by the throat in all the
confusion and unruliness. Even children participated in the
destructive and profane acts, and the parents admitted to teaching
them to behave that way towards us!
The police handcuffed a couple of the more violent who had hit the
brother and resisted the police, but after the chief Sephardic rabbi
Deri arrived to what was in fact an illegal demonstration and
invasion of private property -- and "religious" property, at that --
the police let the two go with a warning. Whether this is collusion
on the part of the police and the religious authorities I don't know,
but the police find themselves in the moral dilemma of protecting the
citizens of Israel on the one hand, and of themselves disliking the
conduct and attitude of the religious extremists and of not wanting
to believe in Yeshua as the Messiah, the Son of the living God and of
the likes of us Jews who do believe in Him.
We are turning over to the police some video footage that was taken,
and some other photos, so that they have some visual evidence of the
nature of the disturbance. It is the nature of men doing what they
think is the will of God to claim that we provoked them to act in
self-defense, rather than they being held liable for breach of civil
and even criminal law. Just as with the ongoing anti-messianic
demonstrations in Arad, if the religious were to do and say to
Muslims what they do to us who believe in Yeshua, they would probably be dead by now. Thank God for His Spirit in us which is not the spirit in anyone else! One of the girls who was going (and was in
another location today) to be baptized today is over 18 and the
daughter of a believing family. In other words, according to Israeli
law regarding freedom of religion, she falls into the category of
continuing in the faith group into which she was born. Yet the
religious extremists do not recognize any law when it comes to
leaning on their own understanding.
But praise the LORD, He rescued the day and after a couple of hours
of all this we went ahead and had our modified :-) service, praying
for the police, who were still around in force, and for the lost
sheep of the House of Israel, most of whom still do not know who or
what they are doing or resisting. Some rocks were still being thrown
over the wall after the crowds were eventually dispersed. Apart from
concern over the security of the property, we are all in a good
spirit and thankful for knowing God as our Father and His Son, the
Lord Yeshua the Messiah."
In the name of the exalted and glorified Savior,
Howard and Randi
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Lura and Eddie Beckford, Arad, Israel
E-mail: lura_eddie@hotmail.com