Oct. 7 anniversary: Our message to Jewish community

When the shofars in Israel sound this year at Yom Kippur, they will strike an especially mournful note. One year has now passed since the Hamas terror attacks on October 7.

On behalf of our Christian brothers and sisters, and as Evangelical leaders of two faith-based relief organizations that have been helping Israel recover ever since that dark day, we have a simple, heartfelt message: We stand with the people of Israel.

Let’s be clear: no person of moral clarity can overlook the sheer evil of 10/7/23.

On that dark day, Hamas terrorists pillaged innocent civilians in Israeli settlements. They tried to break down safe room doors in kibbutzim where parents huddled with their wide-eyed children. Some terrorists lobbed grenades inside and laughed. Others set the occupied homes aflame and left. A baby was murdered in an oven.

At the Supernova Music Festival, the enemy trained machine guns on defenseless concertgoers, killing 364 civilians. Women were raped, prisoners were tortured, and before the attack ended, 1,180 people were killed. Tragically, 251 human beings — men, women, and children — were dragged into the hades-like maw of the underground tunnel network in Gaza.

Their loved ones fear they may never return.

We have seen first-hand the devastating aftermath. During our trips to Israel since October 7, we’ve toured burned-out, shrapnel-scarred safe rooms. We’ve talked with citizens who miraculously survived the shootings. And we’ve met Israeli officials at the highest levels.

Together with our Jewish brethren, we pray believing that what Hamas meant for evil, The Lord will turn to good. That’s why we feel it is so vitally important for the entire world to know that virtually every Christian we’ve encountered, whether at home or abroad, is crying out for justice on behalf of our Jewish brothers and sisters — there is no moral equivalency here.

In fact, we do not know a single Christian who has flinched in the face of antisemitic pressure to get Israel to relent. Christians in America know that Israel is also fighting for us.

The misled victims of critical indoctrination we’ve seen protesting at elite colleges, shouting into bullhorns at rallies, and spray painting “Hamas Is Coming” near our national monuments will not prevail. They do not reflect the common Judeo-Christian values that form the foundation upon which this country was built. And we have news for the friends of Hamas: Hamas is not coming, and here’s why.

Hamas is not coming because Torah-believing Jews and Bible-believing Christians are uniting today like never before. They are not coming because the shocking violence that the terrorists and their blind followers intended for evil has spawned a newfound recognition that Jews and Christians share a shared destiny. And they are not coming because Jews and Christians — especially the Evangelical community — stand with our arms locked with one another in unity, with a common commitment to defend Judeo-Christian values from heinous assaults.

Examples of the “beauty for ashes” emerging since the Yom Kippur shofars sounded last year:

• Since last October, the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews (The Fellowship) has received stunning support, over $100 million in donations from people of all faiths yearning to help “bind up the brokenhearted” of Israel.
• CityServe has launched a major initiative to help Ein HaBesor, a Jewish community just 3 miles east of Gaza that accounts for over 60% of Israel’s fresh produce. To help get life back to some semblance of “normal,” we’re building a sheltered community and activity center, as well as a complex for family activities and sports-focused trauma therapy.
• Support for Israel now even transcends the sharp partisan chasms that characterize American politics. Both sides of the aisle are speaking out with unapologetic moral clarity in defense of Israel.
• Leading Evangelical Christian organizations have launched major fund-raisers to provide emergency medical equipment, ambulances, and other resources to Israeli hospitals and first responders.
• Tens of thousands of Evangelicals joined the 300,000-strong “March for Israel” rally held last year in Washington, D.C., to protest antisemitism and demand the release of Hamas hostages.
• When Hezbollah recently launched rocket and missile attacks targeting civilian enclaves in northern Israel, newborns were quickly relocated to underground medical facilities built there with Christian support.
• After Hezbollah rockets slammed into a Druze village in July, killing a dozen children who were playing on a soccer field, both the ambulance that transported the wounded to a nearby trauma center, as well as the trauma center itself, were partly funded through The Fellowship.
• Christian leaders also continue to meet with the leaders of Arab nations, seeking common ground in a bid to keep the promise of the Abraham Accords alive for future generations.

Will any of this ease the loss and suffering over October 7 and the ongoing conflict in Israel and beyond? Perhaps not. But in this regard, the symbol of the Yom Kippur shofar seems apt.

For the hollow ram’s horn, known today as an instrument of celebratory praise and whose bold bellow will soon reverberate in synagogues the world over, served another, equally vital function in biblical times.

When the enemy marched on the gates of the city, it sounded the alarm, rallying troops and calling defenders to battle. That’s precisely what the October 7 attacks did. They provided the Western world with a clarion warning, a tragic reminder of something we’d almost forgotten: That Evil still stalks about in this world.

Yes, one year ago, Hamas had its day. But a word to Evil, if we may: We Christians now know you’re coming, and we stand with our friends the Jews.