MidnightCall Magazine
In this issue:
- Before the Last Flood — By Norbert Lieth
- Gaza Flotilla: Aggression or Self-Defense? — By Arno Froese
- Far East AsiaTrendsToday – Part III:Geo-prophecy or Geopolitics? — By Wilfred Hahn
News From Israel MagazineIn this issue:
- The Myth of the Al-Aqsa Mosque: Part 1 — By Herbert Novitsky
- ON THE HORIZON:
- Obama Honors Jewish Heritage Month
- Building an Electronic Human Brain
- ‘Iran Critics Must Get Rid of Nukes,’ Says Turkish PM
- Israel Joins Prestigious OECD Club
- Israel Accepted after Unanimous Vote
- Spy Satellite Successfully Launched
Vatican Vows to Stop Missionary Activity on Jews
In his welcoming address to Pope Benedict XVI at Jerusalem’s Heichal Shlomo, adjacent to Jerusalem’s Great Synagogue, Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi Yona Metzger said that the pontiff had agreed that the Catholic Church would cease all missionary activity among Jews, and thanked him for the gesture.
Metzger opened by congratulating the pope on his arrival to “our holy land - the land to which we prayed to return during 2000 years of exile... And, with God’s help, our meeting today is taking place in the Land of Israel, in our city of Jerusalem - the eternal capital of the Jewish people.”
Speaking of the necessity of dialogue between the faiths, Metzger said that “if a historical meeting such as this, where the head of the largest religion in the world meets in Jerusalem with the head of the Jewish religion, had taken place many years ago, much blood would have been spared and senseless hatred averted.”
Metzger also mentioned the pope’s visit to the Western Wall, which is a “house of prayer for all nations”, but lamented that “unfortunately there are those who have transformed their houses of prayer into warehouses of weapons and terror”.
“One thing alone still threatens us all”, he said, “the use of religion as a means for the killing of innocent people".
He concluded by calling to establish “an international body, a UN for religions alongside the UN for diplomats and statesmen. There, side by side, around one table will sit the representatives of all the religions. Even those coming from countries that still lack diplomatic relations between them, will sit together to solve conflicts and differences of opinions arising from a religious cause.”
“It is my heartfelt blessing that together we will merit to add love, mutual respect and peace in our world,” the rabbi ended his speech. “For each people will walk in the name of his God; And we will walk in the name of the Lord our God....”
http://www.jpost.com, 12 May 2009
Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi Yona Metzger proclaimed the message of the European Union’s motto, “United in Diversity". He quoted Micah 4:5: “For all people will walk every one in the name of his god, and we will walk in the name of the LORD our God for ever and ever.” This emphasized the distinct difference between Jews and all other people in the world. His proposal to establish a religious United Nations will certainly come to pass, for we read in Revelation 13:8: “And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him [the Antichrist]….”