115 Ohio Clergy pen letter to Ambassador as war intensifies: “Our heart beats collectively for Israel”

ONTARIO — While a ground war appears imminent in Lebanon, a group of Ohio clergy unearthed some Biblical truth in a clergy letter they want delivered to the Israeli Ambassador. Their messenger, Mr. Eeki Elner of the Israeli Leadership Institute, visited the Sar Shalom Center on Thursday to meet with faith leaders. The clergy letter Elner is to deliver was heartfelt.

“Mr. Ambassador, we mourn with you over the tragic loss of the six Israeli hostages who were recently murdered in cold blood by Hamas, said Pastor Russell Stanford, one of the letter’s cosigners and spokesmen for the group of faith leaders. “Our prayers go to their families and loved ones. We regret that the Jewish people are vilified for the alleged “crime” of living in their own ancestral homeland,” the Richland County pastor said.  “Not only has your country’s Biblical right to exist been attacked, our shared Judeo-Christian morals have also been ambushed.

“As one hundred-fifteen faith leaders from Ohio, we would like to thank you for your ongoing efforts in maintaining diplomatic ties between the American and Israeli governments,” Stanford said.  “We are having one of your faith-based ambassadors, Mr. Eeki Elner, send this correspondence to you after he returns from his Ontario, Ohio visit. While diplomatic ties at the national level are unsettled and federal support of Israel tenuous, due to the efforts of Mr. Elner, we confidently report ties between the Ohio faith community and Israel remains unshakeable and support for the Jewish State robust.” 

The group of lead clergy wrote, “One month following the October 7^th massacre, over one hundred-fifty lead clergy from across twenty Ohio counties raised money for Jewish terror victims, prayed for the safe release of the Israeli hostages, and declared the surprise attack on innocent Israeli civilians ‘an act of genocide.”  The faith leaders also stated the Nation of Israel was within its right as a sovereign nation to defend its Jewish and Arab citizens by eliminating its enemies. “While Israel did not start this war or want this war, we believe Israel should hold Hamas and jihadists in the region accountable,” the faith leaders said. 

The clergymen believe that after concluding war on the western front, and beginning preparations for war on the northern front, it could be easy for the Nation of Israel to lose hope.

“Mr. Ambassador, with fifty-two Muslim states and twenty-two Arab states encircling the only Jewish state the size of New Jersey, it would be easy to think your country is outnumbered,” Pastor Mike Rose, another clergy spokesman said. The Crawford County Pastor gave a list of Israeli concerns: “With constant rocket barrages from Hamas and Hezbollah, with missile attacks by the Houthis, with calls for extermination by the Iranian Ayatollahs, with U.N. resolutions calling for Israel’s eviction from your Biblical homeland, and last but not least, with threats by the Biden Administration to embargo military aid, it would be easy for your nation to think you are outgunned.” Rose went on to say,  “But as faith leaders, we want to assure you that there are more with you than with them.”

The Ohio faith leaders went to the Bible when consoling the Ambassador and Jewish State. They referenced the account of King Hezekiah who made prayers on behalf of the Jewish people, and the Assyrian King Sennacherib made threats against the Jewish people and surrounded Jerusalem with his army. According to the Scriptures, an angel of the LORD delivered Jerusalem and struck 185,000 Assyrian soldiers dead in one night. (2 Kings 19). “It is no coincidence a recent archaeological discovery was unearthed verifying this epic Biblical account,” Reverend Rose pointed out. 

In June 2024, ruins with the ancient Arabic name “Khirbet al Mudawwara” were investigated by using modern mapping techniques to identify the remains of the ancient Assyrian military camp from 700 B.C. As a result, archeologists have now connected Ammunition Hill with Sennacherib’s Jerusalem military camp.  Pastor Rose commented, “Isaiah 37 and Second Chronicles 32 also mention this amazing account of GOD striking the 185,000 Assyrians dead, demonstrating that the Biblical Scriptures are authentic, true, and accurate.”

Prior to the miraculous defeat of the Assyrian troops, 2 Chronicles 32 records, “And Hezekiah set captains of war over the people, and gathered them together to him in the street of the gates of the Jerusalem, and spoke comfortably to them, saying, ‘Be strong and courageous, be not afraid nor dismayed for the King of Assyria, nor for all the multitude that is with him: for there be more with us than with him: With him is an arm of flesh; but with us is the Lord our GOD to help us, and to fight our battles.”

Ashland County Pastor Jeff Mills remarked, “Our state’s slogan is ‘Ohio: the heart of it all.’  As lead clergymen representing one hundred-fifteen Ohio congregations across twenty counties, our heart collectively beats for the State of Israel, which is the apple of GOD’s eye.  Ambassador Herzog, no matter how massive the army was that encamped around Israel, against all odds the Jewish State survived. This Biblical account from 700 B.C. of the failed Assyrian siege of Jerusalem is a vivid reminder that the Bible is true and accurate.” Dr. Mills went on to say, “Rest assured, no matter who occupies the Oval Office, always remember the Ohio faith community stands with the Jewish State and her right to the Biblical Promise Land.”

Support from the Ohio faith leaders has been ongoing. Clergy co-signers listed in the correspondence have congregations located in twenty different counties throughout Ohio.  Counties with the most congregations represented include: Richland, Crawford, Ashland, Trumbull, and Morrow. Last April a group of Ohio faith leaders gave a joint statement following the Iranian rocket attack on Israel where ninety-nine percent of the projectiles were miraculously shot down. The clergy cited the Bible passage: ‘No weapon formed against you shall prosper.’

The Bottom Line:

The Bible says in First Kings 19, “King Hezekiah received the letter from the messengers and read it. Then he went up to the temple of the LORD and spread it out before the LORD. And Hezekiah prayed to the LORD: “LORD, the GOD of Israel, enthroned between the cherubim, You alone are GOD over all the kingdoms of the Earth. You have made heaven and earth. Give ear LORD and hear…”

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