Church Evicted after ’700 Club’ Appearance
A Jerusalem pastor believes his recent appearance on “The 700 Club” could have contributed to his church being forced out of its building in an Arab neighborhood in east Jerusalem.
Calvary Baptist Church in the east Jerusalem is surrounded by Muslim neighbors. Starting a church in this neighbourhood is never easy.
Khoury said things had calmed down until recently, when he toured the United States talking about the struggles facing Arab Christians in the Holy Land.
“I was on CBN and of course I talked about what was going on in the Holy Land, and I talked about needing to grow in east Jerusalem,” Khoury said.
In an interview on “The 700 Club” on May 8, Khoury told Pat Robertson, “Christians are leaving because they are seeing nobody’s standing with them. They’re seeing extremism is growing, anti-Christian agendas growing and that’s the truth.”
In a later exchange, he said, “Unfortunately a lot of people’s mindsets who are considered to be jihadists — that is the ultimate goal [is] to put fear and submission into the heart of every single Christian in the Middle East.”
Within 24 hours of the interview, Khoury received dozens of ugly emails and blog posts. A notice was served to evict his church within 30 days although the rent was paid for a full year.
This is not the first time Khoury’s congregation has had to move. Extremist pressure on their Muslim landlords forced them to move twice before. According to Khoury, the extremist mindset within the whole region is not to see Christian/Christian evangelical agenda to grow.
God answered the earnest prayers of the believers. A Muslim sold out a five storeyed building that meets the needs of the church. Khoury requests Christians to stand with him in prayer.
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