American bishop and Evangelical Christian leader Robert Stearns accused the Hamas terrorist organization of being worse than the Nazis and the threat of Islamic extremism worse than the Holocaust.
“Nazism was contained within one geographical region and contained primarily around Hitler and his immediate followers,” Bishop Robert Stearns explained to The Jerusalem Post on Thursday morning. “Radicalized Islam is a global virus."
“Israel is not at war; the world is at war,” he continued. “Israel is on the frontlines of a global battle between barbarism and basic human rights and against religious extremism.”
To help fight the battle in the streets of America, Stearns brought a group of 15 pastors to Israel for a three-day mission to visit the South and be briefed by senior officials.
They met with leaders such as Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, Mayor of Sderot Alon Davidi and representatives from United Hatzalah. Stearns said the pastors needed the mission to gain firsthand information and strengthen them to stand with and defend Israel.
Christians for Israel
Pastor Josh Hamlin’s son is now 18. When he was five, he first learned about the Nazis, and he asked his father if a Holocaust could ever happen again. At the time, Hamlin, a pastor based in New York, said that he did not believe so, although there was still hate in the world.
On Thursday morning, a day after he visited Kfar Aza, he said, “The world is experiencing another Holocaust. We want to say that we are with the Jewish people.”
“History has an uncanny way of repeating itself,” added Pastor Juan Rivera from Ohio, who said that in the 1930s and 1940s, there were about 3,000 pastors who stood against the Nazi ideology in Germany and approximately 3,000 who stood with Hitler.
“It was the silent majority, around 12,000 pastors, who felt it was not their role to be political, who did not want to engage – those pastors enabled Hitler and the Nazis to accomplish what they did.
“My assignment is clear,” Rivera continued. “To educate, embolden and encourage – to raise the voices of those silent majority when it comes to Christian leaders for Israel.”
Stearns said he selected the people who attended the mission because they were Christian leaders in their communities, and he hoped they would return to their churches and take a vocal stance on behalf of the Jewish State. If they do, he said, it will permit their congregants and colleagues to be more vocal, too.
When Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, Pastor Cameron Brice from North Carolina was rapidly posting in defense of Israel on his social media platforms and receiving positive feedback. But quickly, the tide began to shift, he said, and he became more apprehensive about posting for Israel.
“After visiting Kfar Aza yesterday, I called my wife and told her I am doubling down,” Brice said. “Seeing the atrocities created in me a resilience, and I am no longer going to hold back; I am not going to be apprehensive but speak up loudly.”
He said, “Coming here was exactly what I needed to be sure of myself and not worry about persecution.”
Pastor Micah Wood from the United Kingdom expressed similar sentiments. He said that “in the UK, the church has to be a pillar of truth and clarity,” but that with rampant and rising antisemitism and a vocal anti-Israel movement, the church has become “paralyzed and unsure how to engage. Therefore, there is no counterpoint to the antisemitic voices in the UK.”
He said, “My objective is to go back and be the voice of clarity and credibility so the church can once again become a pillar of truth and reason that can stand against the antisemitic tide.”
“We are not politicians; we are pastors, called to shepherd people,” added Rivera. “Our assignment is to lead them in what we believe is biblical truth.”
And the Bible, he said, stands for Israel.