JERUSALEM, Israel – Christians around the world are standing against what they call a United Nations' attempt to rewrite history in the Holy Land.
It all started when UNESO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) passed a resolution ignoring Jewish and Christian ties to Jerusalem's Temple Mount. One major result: Christians joining with Jews to condemn the move.
"This is a horrendous scandal which should never have taken place because the United Nations is a global body to represent the entire world, to represent all world religions, every interest of the different communities and very in a blatant way, sided with an Islamized agenda to basically Islamize the Holy Land," Dr. Jürgen Bühler, executive director of the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem (LINK), told CBN News.
To make matters worse, the U.N. body made its decision during the biblical Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot) as thousands of Christians celebrated the festival in Jerusalem.
"They were scandalized," he continued. "They said, 'These are our places. These are places where we worship. These are places which I find in my Bible. How it comes that the United Nations tells me now this is an Islamic site – places which Mohammed or none of the Muslim sages ever visited?'"
Bühler decided it was time for Christians worldwide to take a stand.
"We tell them please give a history lesson to UNESCO. Take a Bible. Go to the bookshop and purchase a Bible, highlight some of the places where it speaks about Jerusalem, Hebron, Bethlehem, the Temple Mount, whatever it is, and send it to the UNESCO and tell them, 'All these are places that are holy to us and we are absolutely scandalized that those places are being Islamized today,'" he said.
Many experts call the Bible one of – if not the most historically accurate – document in history.
In the Old Testament alone, Jerusalem and Zion are mentioned more than 800 times. Another 161 mentions are found in the New Testament, not including the various other synonyms.
Bühler sees the U.N.'s dynamics as a deck stacked against Israel. That's because there are 120 Muslim nations and other non-aligned countries in the world body that almost always vote against the Jewish state. But, he adds, that's not the real scandal.
"So this is a dynamic which you cannot change, but the real scandal is that even places like Italy, the Catholic nations – they should know better – they say, 'Oh we abstain from vote. We don't have an opinion if Jerusalem should be called Jerusalem or al Quds, so that's not understandable why even Christian nations didn't take a stronger stand than that," he said. "And even countries like Mexico or Brazil – that have a strong evangelical community – even didn't vote against it, but they even supported that call."
According to Bühler's calculations, Christians from dozens of countries have already responded, sending hundreds of Bibles to the Paris headquarters of UNESCO.
It's a unique opportunity not only to take a stand against injustice, but to share the Word of God as well
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