John T. Somerville, a former colonel in the U.S. Marine Corps, well understands how Jews might be suspicious and mistrustful of Christians who say they love and support the state of Israel.
Indeed, in his capacity as central regional coordinator for the national organization Christians United For Israel, he demonstrated that understanding on Dec. 12 at the Hilton Garden Inn Park Place on Milwaukee’s far northwest side.
He presented to some 80 people a detailed history of Christian anti-Semitism, from the second century C.E. church fathers all the way to the German Nazi Holocaust. “I wouldn’t trust that,” he said.
But that subject was not the primary reason he came from California to Milwaukee, nor was it the primary message of his speech. Rather, Somerville was the featured speaker at the first event of what organizers hope will be a Milwaukee chapter of CUFI.
And he emphasized that he and the members of his organization – who now, he said, number some 500,000 people nationally – exist to proclaim that “Israel is the center of God’s plans for the entire world” and that “it is our job as Christians to do what God’s word tells us,” namely support the modern state of Israel.
Read the full article in the January issue.
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