For followers of Jesus “the Gospel” is the life-giving message that God became human in his Son Jesus Christ, to seek out and save the lost, destroying the power of sin and death through dying by execution on the cross. Jesus is raised from the dead, empowering his disciples through the Holy Spirit to announce and embody his kingdom for the salvation of the world.
In diabolical contrast, the Israeli Defense Force has launched a intelligence-gathering system they call “Habsora” (“The Gospel” in Hebrew), that identifies human targets of interest in Gaza to kill, knowingly including Palestinian civilians, including women and children. Christians and others who support Israel’s war in Gaza are effectively aligning themselves with this anti-Gospel of death, which diametrically opposes God’s life-giving Gospel of Jesus Christ.
According to Yuval Abraham investigative report published November 30th in the Israeli media outlet +972 Magazine, “A mass assassination factory’: Inside Israel’s calculated bombing of Gaza” the “Gospel”:
“Is largely built on artificial intelligence and can “generate” targets almost automatically at a rate that far exceeds what was previously possible. This AI system, as described by a former intelligence officer, essentially facilitates a “mass assassination factory.”
According to MEM, Middle East Monitor’s December 1st article “Israel’s AI system for target selection [the Gospel] has generated ‘mass assassination factory’ in Gaza”:
“The Israeli army has files on the vast majority of potential targets in Gaza — including homes — which stipulate the number of civilians who are likely to be killed in an attack on a particular target, sources told +972. This number is calculated and known in advance, and the army’s intelligence units also know shortly before carrying out an attack roughly how many civilians are certain to be killed.”
“Highlighting the shocking disregard for civilian life, the report found that the Israeli military command knowingly approved the killing of hundreds of Palestinian civilians in an attempt to assassinate a single top Hamas military commander. “The numbers increased from dozens of civilian deaths [permitted] as collateral damage as part of an attack on a senior official in previous operations, to hundreds of civilian deaths as collateral damage,” one source told +972.”
In light vs. dark contrast, “Jesus was going throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness among the people” (Mt 9:35).
Jesus’ presence as God’s Son and Israel’s Messiah were identified as being “full of grace and truth” (Jn 1:14). He came to “seek and save that which is lost” (Lk 19:10), and “save people’s lives and not destroy them” (Lk 9:56).
Jesus sends John the Baptist’s disciples back to John to report that his actions are in alignment with signs of Israel’s expected Messiah in Isaiah 35:5-6 and Isaiah 61:1.
“The blind receive sight and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the Gospel preached to them” (Mt 11:5).
As followers of Jesus committed to proclaiming and embodying the Gospel, we must refuse aligning ourselves with any nation (Israel and our own countries included) that engages in the killing of human beings, regardless of official justifications. May we prayerfully work to expose and repent of any agreements we have with the powers of death, fully embracing the life-giving power of God, as Paul states clearly in Romans 1:16.
“For I am not ashamed of the Gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.”
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