Still standing with Israel even after being attacked by an axe wielding Palestinian sympathizer!
Updated: 1 hour ago
Would you still stand for Israel after being attacked by an axe wielding assailant who left you with four staples in the back of your head? Christian minister Nigel Woodley did and continues to do so. Nigel Woodley tells his story:
Brought up in traditional Christianity in both Baptist and Presbyterian churches I had a good understanding that the Bible is the inspired Word of God. A shorter way of putting it would be to say that the Bible is the Truth. My understanding and faith were greatly enhanced when I entered the Pentecostal movement as a young man. This increased my commitment to God and to His Word. I therefore have instinctively been pro-Israel – you cannot regularly read the Bible and not see that God is the same. So ideologically I was always supportive of Israel believing that the covenant promises and prophecies in the Bible are still relevant.
My ideological support turned into active, open and bold support when I was awakened early one morning in 2014 with these words – “For the Protection of Zion I speak up!” I knew God had spoken but I didn’t understand what He meant until twelve hours later that day when circumstances plunged me and my church into an open confrontation with a Palestinian Solidarity group in New Zealand. A call was given by the Jewish community in our capital city that these people were going to protest the performance of the Bat Sheva Dance Company from Israel who were performing at the New Zealand Festival of Arts. We heard the call and responded because of that word from God earlier “For the protection of Zion I speak up!”
Fifty people from our Church travelled four hours in a bus to bolster a brave Jewish group of twelve in Wellington that Saturday boosting their numbers to nearly seventy. We outnumbered our opponents three-to-one. Our first performance at counterprotesting was not polished, critiqued, or choreographed like our detractors. We had to watch them first to know what to do and how to do it. We were a quiet Church group that had never done this before. By the time it was over we had turned from mice into lions, and we knew we had won a moral victory. “Never again” would we sit quietly by as Israel’s enemies ripped into her. This was our baptism in fire.
Since that time in February 2014, I have led more than fifty public rallies and counter-protests for Israel – some big and some small. Leading a vibrant Church means that I take my people with me. The Flaxmere Christian Fellowship in Hastings has backed our support for Israel and now I operate this advocacy under the trust name of For the Protection of Zion. The Trust has now placed some fifty full-page advertorials in major New Zealand newspapers advocating for Israel since 2017 at a total price of nearly NZ$200,000. We have authored two major petitions to our Parliament calling for national support for Israel. I also set up and lead a coalition of Church ministers for Israel known as the COALITION OF MINISTERS SUPPORTING ISRAEL, or COMS-Israel for short. At present we have 138 pastors and ministers from nearly every major denomination, and we make public statements of support for Israel when she is under fire.
Of course, the opposition tries to intimidate us using foul language, threats of physical violence etc. Online media threats also follow us. In 2015 after our first petition was released to our Parliament in which we called for the New Zealand Government to cease from pressuring the State of Israel to give up its rightful and God-given land, I was attacked by an axe wielding assailant who left me with four staples in the back of my head. I had a very quick recovery, and it did not weaken my resolve but instead stoked my fire. The battle for Israel is not going away; it is only intensifying. 7 October 2023 turned a wave into a Tsunami and now we are still learning how to deal with the results. As a Bible believing Christian, I have no doubt we are on the winning side. We stand with Israel because God does too - Amos 9:15 NIV - I will plant Israel in their own land, never again to be uprooted from the land I have given them,” says the LORD your God.
Nigel Woodley is Senior Pastor of the Flaxmere Christian Fellowship Church in Hastings New Zealand. He is also Chief Advocate of For the Protection of Zion Trust. He leads a Coalition of Ministers Supporting Israel in New Zealand. He has his doctorate in Theology and Biblical studies, his dissertation being “Modern Israel is still Biblical Israel”. This has now been turned into an eBook.
To find out more, a record of Nigel Woodley’s advocacy work can be found here: https://fortheprotectionofzion.com/
Also included on the site is vital information for Christians to better understand Palestinian Liberation Theology which is a false doctrine which has become the springboard from which the anti-Israel Kairos I and Kairos II declarations and documents have been released by a group of Christian churches in the Palestinian Territories. This dangerous and deceptive teaching is reaching out with its tentacles to western nations and gullible churches.
