Who is Anthony Abma?
Evangelical Pastor Anthony Abma spent much of his adult life as a Christian missionary ministering to communities worldwide. Throughout his many years of giving sermons & writing about his faith, he has consistently expressed strong evangelical views. It is all a matter of public record for those who do a little research.
Today Pastor Abma is the CEO of Return O’ Israel, an organization purportedly committed to fighting for Jewish “sovereignty” in Israel. They are partners with at least one other Jewish organization on the scene today in Israel.
As I intend to prove, Anthony Abma is no friend of ours, despite his alliances with many religious Jews in Israel, and his assertions of having no evangelical agenda. Furthermore, I intend to expose those grotesque protestations from fellow Jews, who insist that Abma is a righteous gentile. As I will show in this article, this is untrue. And considering the forthcoming evidence, any Jew who will continue to make such false declarations will speak volumes about his personal character.
In truth, what has been disseminated about Abma in the past is more than enough for any honest person. Any Jew who would defend such a man either doesn’t know anything about him or is lying.
Many of his Jewish supporters were repeatedly warned about Abma for some time now. On occasions too numerous to count, we have shown them the kind of evidence that should have been enough to alarm them and compel them to sever all ties.
And yet there is even more damning evidence today, which will lay to rest any residual stubbornness in a person who possesses an honest bone. The finale of this article includes the most recent discovery. It is shocking. My heart skipped a beat when I first saw it since it confirmed what we knew intuitively. It exposes Abma for who he truly is once and for all.
Additionally, it will destroy the false narrative propagated by his Jewish supporters who continue to defend him. I cannot emphasize to the reader how important it is to carefully read this entire article. (Don’t just skip to the end!)
The Final Frontier
Anthony Abma and others with his evangelical mindset view Israel and the Jewish people as the “final frontier” for bringing the gospels. Yet as with many other missionaries today who find themselves working directly with Jews and Israel, he must be incredibly careful with his words.
“Pastor Tony” or “Bro’ Tony” masks an evangelical agenda by using those seemingly innocuous terms like “restoration”, “sovereignty”, & “redemption”. These are clever code words for missionaries, that I’ve discussed at great length in previous articles.
Like a cunning rat seasoned by years in the trenches, Abma and other evangelicals have refined the art of gnawing their way into the Jewish camp by using deception. Essentially, they chew away at the weakest elements of the Jewish community. This is accomplished by exploiting the following:
Sentiments: They exploit Jewish fear of alienation, isolation, and the neurotic need to be loved and supported by gentiles
Opportunists: They seek out people who crave attention, status, power, recognition, and who frequently adopt roles as leaders, spokespeople, dealmakers, players, & machers, for Jewish communities.
Economic: The promise of capital gain, economic aid, or benefit is tempting for many. Evangelicals will often assist Jewish businesses to curry favor with communities.
Political: Providing the classical evangelical support for Israel regarding political matters is always a clever way to draw close to Jews. It needn’t always be a large organization like CUFI. Even small evangelical groups can provide big megaphones.
At the core, evangelicals exploit a variety of the standard Jewish neurosis that one also sees with the classical Jewish liberal. It’s just another version of the undignified behavior stemming from a need to be loved by non-Jews. It is precisely why Jews often befriend gentiles (including secular, and non-evangelical) who have their own ulterior motives for “supporting them”. In these instances, these gentile supporters provide nothing at all. Unlike evangelicals, they usually end up taking money rather than giving it.
(Look at the hasbara scene and you will see many examples of Jews who complain about certain gentiles they previously celebrated in hasbara circles. Quite often the aggrieved party is a former supporter of the pretend advocate. Observe the scene and notice that many of today’s gentile heroes often become tomorrow’s villains. Sometimes it is unwarranted. Often, it is well-deserved since the damage is apparent. It often boils down to unscrupulous people who exploited Jewish causes for money.)
Anthony Abma understands what Jewish audiences do not since they lack an understanding of evangelical theology. Jews who forge friendships with evangelicals rarely consider the cost of these strange relationships, and they are often indifferent or apathetic to learning the truths of evangelical theology and contemporary tactics.
Every evangelical understands this. Missionaries understand those code words which act as euphemisms for the processes of bringing the gospels to Jews in stages, utilizing “friendly” tactics and the language of “relational evangelism”.
As one of the newer organizations on the scene today that is fronted by an evangelical leader, “Return O’ Israel” claims to be pro-Jewish. Their agenda is apparent to any counter-missionary expert.
While their website offers what at first glance seems to be a relatively benign ABOUT section explaining their purpose, a careful reading of the text is revealing:
“As a Christian partner of the Ribonut / Sovereignty Movement within Israel, our goal is to provide international Christian support towards the actualization of full Jewish sovereignty in Israel. We believe that this will bring about the future Redemption of Jews and Christians. While there are many pro-Israel Christian organizations, Return O' Israel is an NGO whose primary focus is complete Jewish sovereignty.”
Aside from the immediate problem of “restoration” which masks the true intention of spiritual restoration, there is no future shared redemption between us. Given the status quo, what future mutual redemption scenario satisfies Christian OR Jewish theology? There is no scenario.
Pastor Abma knows there is no such shared image. His unspoken sentiments are his evangelical dream. As he sees it, by helping to bring about “Jewish Restoration” (Jews eventually accepting the gospels) such a redemption is indeed possible.
Pastor Abma’s online teachings from his years of ministering across the globe expose that his moderate image is undeserved. His oft-stated desire to bring “spiritual restoration” to Jews requires little sophistication to understand.
Documentation of Abma’s past missionary work (including in the Philippines) can be easily found online. The screenshot to the left explicitly states that he was a missionary.
Unfortunately, major "religious" media outlets in Israel give him a forum to write on such topics as Chanukah, Tisha Baav, and his Christian based understanding of the "shekinah". It wasn't that long ago that the notion of an evangelical writing about Torah on such a forum would have been anathema!
Sadly, too many religious have aligned with evangelicals in the past twenty years. The reasons are obvious. Evangelicals willingly open their wallets. They ask very few questions, provided you open the door to them in return. There is always an exchange, even if Jews don’t see it. If evangelicals did not receive tangible benefits in return, they wouldn’t donate a penny to Israel. This could be a land grant or a building permit for a missionary center. It could be by creating a headquarters in a religious community as a center for evangelical volunteers. But it is always something concrete.
For some time now, my colleague and I have been looking into Abma’s past. We have discovered sufficient evidence of his evangelical agenda and have shared this with Jews who work with him. We have tried extremely hard to convince those Jews aligned with Abma to sever their relationships.
Unfortunately, time and again we experienced disappointment. Few Jews have shown the intellectual courage to act on the evidence. We have found that whenever we provide evidence, the inevitable response is to call us liars and disseminate libel and slander. After seeing the final bit of evidence at the conclusion of this article, the reader can decide for himself who is crazy.
During a recent campaign to inform the Jewish public about Abma and related dangers of evangelical associations, Pastor Abma posted a long-winded comment on the “Abraham’s Shield” Facebook page, assuring us of his “righteous” intentions. (Abraham’s Shield is a new grassroots effort to counter missionaries that was co-founded by myself and my colleague Moshe Schwartz.) Unlike past responses where he resorted to threats, this time Abma chose a conciliatory tone.
One who doesn’t know any better about evangelical savviness might have been impressed with what he wrote. It sounded nice and reasonable. But unfortunately, it is nothing more than a lie. A Paulian ruse of cleverly worded distortions, evasions, and outright untruths, which is justified by doctrine as a means of spreading their message.
I am sharing Abma’s comment and our responses. It is important that Jews read his comments to see how clever evangelicals can be, and how easy it is to become flattered by the shrewdest of them. We addressed only the most salient points.
Note: This was not an exercise of engaging in theological dialogue, debate, or discussion with an evangelical, which I believe to be forbidden according to halacha. The reader will notice that our responses are generalities even when he purports to cite “Jewish sources”. Abma wouldn’t understand Jewish sources if they were surgically drilled in his cranium. Yet he posted publicly, and it would be irresponsible not to immediately shoot his points down (metaphorically of course).
To those Jews who might feel inclined to justify teaching Torah to evangelicals (a complex subject), don’t cite the Rambam as proof. I am aware of Rambam’s famous statement. According to Rambam’s famous reasoning in his well-known articulation about teaching Torah to a Christian versus teaching a Muslim, (in the proper context, he permits it to the former but not for the latter for reasons which are also beyond the scope of this article), today’s evangelical cannot be taught Torah because the ensuing harm is apparent. Whereas with the (non-evangelizing) Christian referenced by Rambam, where Rambam essentially asks, “what’s the possible harm”, the harm with evangelicals is obvious.
A non-evangelizing Christian may either accept (good) a Jewish explanation or reject (neutral) a Jewish teaching. Engaging in complex discussions with evangelicals only helps enables them to further refine their well-known techniques of distortion. As such, our responses reject his position by merely responding to his false explanations and then moving on. Abma is unfit for any theological discussion beyond this.
The response went as follows:
Our “Abraham’s Shield” organization is responding to Pastor Anthony Abma, CEO of “Return O’ Israel”, a partner organization of “First Fruits: Building Israel’s Heartland. Pastor Abma is attempting to refute our assertions regarding his evangelical agenda. Please refer and read Abma’s comment on the Abraham’s Shield Facebook page in its entirety. It is essential to understand what we are responding to.
Attention Anthony Abma:
We will only address and respond to those explanations/comments which we believe capture the fundamental problems with your life’s work and overall ideology. These points reflect critical themes that require serious attention.
Point #1: Anthony, your incorrect reading of the Prophets refers to those who call out in Hashem’s Name, & not to those who call out in the name of another. It truly will be a “House for all Nations”! But exclusively for those nations who call out in the name of the One and Only Hashem. Most importantly, it will not be available to those who spiritually preyed upon Jews prior to the building of the Temple, whether out of love or otherwise. You missed the most essential point!
Point #2: You completely dodged the evangelical issue. Understandable because you can’t really answer that honestly without completely rejecting an evangelical doctrine that wouldn’t go well with your peers back home. Of course, you can always prove us wrong & unequivocally reject all forms of evangelism in this very post! And don’t try to use “restoration” with us. We understand the true theological meaning of that term, and we will expect a full explanation of that as well.
Point #3: What do you mean by full or complete spiritual restoration? Don’t just give a vague answer about “the land” since we both know that your beliefs go well beyond that. Please give a complete theological response because theology drives you.
We both know that an honest answer will require that you first renounce all forms of evangelism, all such communities, denominations, & churches, and an immediate severance on your part of any remaining connections. That’s always an option. But that’s also not sufficient.
Reasonable Jews would still have concerns that you aren’t just taking a page out of Paul’s theological playbook and wearing a mask, but it would be a start. Naturally, it can’t happen overnight, and you would be required to go through a lengthy period of publicly rejecting evangelism in any form, and constant reiterations of your newfound principles in speeches, articles, lectures, etc. It will take time to earn the trust of any sensible Jew.
Point #4: As far as citing the “Abraham Accords” as supposed proof of the possibilities of change among the nations and their relations with Jews (as so many “right-wing” Jews have done), we have as much confidence in them as we did with Oslo. We see it as a complete farce forged by flawed (and worse) men.
The difference with Oslo is that on the surface these accords don’t require outright territorial concession. Yet by not annexing all liberated areas, it accomplishes the same thing because spineless leaders will now view it as even more verboten than it was previously, out of fear of damaging relations with our new “friends”.
*Please don’t get side-tracked about your support for Jewish sovereignty with “Return O’ Israel”, because it all falls within the same category of understanding the theological agendas of evangelicals. We do not perceive the spiritual enemy to be a friend against a physical one.
Arming nations that we believe to be unworthy of trust is not a victory despite the contrived exclamations of false peace, forged solely for economic interests. Quite the opposite! Without belaboring the point, we do not support it. We do not see it as a miracle but one of folly. It represents nothing, as seen by the continued hostility of the UAE & others in the United Nations.
In any event, to the extent that one is a committed evangelical with theological intentions (nefarious from the Jewish perspective regardless of the “loving” intent of the messenger) he is not a friend of ours and he must be opposed, regardless of past historical occurrences or contributions with known non-Jewish supporters. Finally, had any Jew have been aware of any evangelical efforts on the part of such personalities, he would have been required to oppose them regardless of the individual’s merits and contributions. But the issue is moot. You sir are no Wingate or Patterson.
Point #5: God sends messengers and G-d also sends false messengers. He sends blessings and he also sends plagues. And the spiritual threat masquerading as a friend is in the latter category and he is to be vociferously opposed.
Point #6: The nature of the contemporary “realization” by many Christians (regarding the flawed tactics of the past) is precisely why smart evangelicals use relational evangelism today. It is the reason relational evangelicals put conversion on the backburner. To build relationships and further the sexier end-goals that can never be accomplished without trying something less overt and provocative. One of the main end goals for all evangelicals (including those who embrace relational tactics) and realize past “mistakes” is to spiritually “restore” Jews, is it not?
Point #7: What you call a Bible teacher is what is commonly known in your line of work as missionary work. You were a missionary and the evidence suggests that you are still one, albeit more seasoned and cleverer from experience.
No doubt, in your head and heart you conceive of your work as fueled by what you believe to be righteous. It is certainly not Hashem’s Will, or you would be disseminating the Seven Laws of Noah.
Trying to convert Hindus to your faith might be preferable to what they are currently worshipping (albeit still falling true of their true mandate). But if you’ve converted Muslims you’ve done a disservice to them theologically since their monotheism (if little else), while obviously flawed in its overall essence and tenets, is nevertheless a purer monotheism (as it relates to Hashem’s Oneness) then the one you offer.
You were a career missionary and we do not trust you. Every shred of evidence screams out that you are still one. Writing for the kinds of religious Jewish publications that you cite proves nothing. We are aware of those articles and have personally read them.
These (Jewish) media outlets and personalities are part of the problem. They are in bed with evangelicals for many years for reasons apparent to all intelligent principled Jews, hence the many “Torah” schools for the Nations, evangelical volunteerism, tour companies, etc. It doesn’t impress committed Jews that other Jews have publicly faltered on matters that affect the Jewish collective. Many religious Jews are outraged by their behaviors.
Point #8: We will not engage in a discussion about the individual Jews that you aligned with and cited in your response. How you personally feel about them is irrelevant to us. Their problematic associations are of grave importance and they are unprecedented in history. Such individuals are fundamentally flawed in their belief systems and actions because they do not understand (or care to) evangelical theology and intention.
All evangelical intentions, whether with fire and brimstone, or loving smiles and contrived “brotherhood” are harmful. Most egregious of all, such individuals have consistently ignored the warnings from counter-missionary experts who understand the evangelical playbook.
We can go on all day. Stop playing word games. They do not impress us. It’s simple, and every true evangelical will confirm this: Evangelicals evangelize! If they no longer believe in evangelizing, then they are no longer evangelical.
There are fundamental beliefs to Judaism, and one may claim to be a believer of Hashem. But if he retains a diametrically opposed fundamental belief relating to Hashem, he can call himself a believer in Hashem & Torah, but his actions and beliefs would indicate otherwise.
An evangelical who doesn’t evangelize, or even more, who opposes evangelism really isn’t much of an evangelical, is he? He may call himself one, but he is only distorting the classical meaning.
We are not concerned with these people because they are not to be taken seriously. They are obviously not evangelical, or they are lying and using the doctrine of Paul to be all things to all people.
Now for some specific questions:
What is your belief regarding "the Rapture"?
What is your belief about the 144,000?
What about the period of the tribulation?
What happens at the end of the tribulation?
What do you mean by the full spiritual restoration of the Jews?
We are asking for comprehensive responses since we both know that these are serious theological concepts for you, and only complete fully fleshed out answers are of any worth. It isn’t a lengthy article that we require, it is the quality that we are interested in. So kindly forget about forming a clever long-worded exercise in diversion, which will be apparent to us. We are asking for complete answers which articulate a full rendering of your theology. We await your response. Good day.
Donny Fuchs
Moshe Schwartz
Cofounders of “Abraham’s Shield” & “StopHayovel”
Anthony Abma & The Rapture
Prior to submitting this article, we received one last response from Abma. True to his character till the end, he refused to properly respond to our long inquiry requesting comprehensive, detailed answers to our questions.
In typical evangelical fashion, he continued with his tactics of evasion, diversion, platitudes, duplicity, and outright lies, as indicated by his assertion that he was not an evangelical!
He refused to respond to the serious questions pertaining to his belief about the rapture, the 144, 000 Jews, and the pre & post tribulation periods of normative evangelical theory.
Nevertheless, some of his past writings offer a partial glimpse into his beliefs. The enclosed screenshot above partially shows what Abma believes about “the rapture” and “the 144,000” Jews. It is very telling. He clearly describes his twisted fantasy whereby committed Orthodox Jews, who are far from the gospels & “virgin-like” in their knowledge of them, are ultimately drawn to them
His use of Zechariah 12:10 is not surprising. It is a classical evangelical distortion of the true verse found in Torah, that is so often used by missionaries as an imagined “proof” and is a notorious means of propagating an anti-Semitic motif.
Those Jews who befriended Abma never saw fit to heed our warnings and our evidence. This screenshot and many others were shared ad nauseum in articles and visual presentations. They never thought to dig deeper and do some research of their own. They likely never even read these candid remarks of his even though they were shown these screenshots on multiple occasions. Evidence like this should have been sufficient, and yet it never is with certain people.
I promised a great reveal at the end of the article, and I will not disappoint the reader. First, I want to share statements from two Jews, assuring us how righteous Anthony Abma is. (I have omitted their names.)
Abma Apologist #1: “Donny Fuchs what bothers me is that I help Anthony abma who believes that Jews are untouchable. That missionary work on jews is forbidden. Which is why he is not accepted by mainstream evangelizists. But you wouldn't know that because you never ask.”
Untrue. We repeatedly contacted this Jewish supporter. At every opportunity he blocked us on multiple social media outlets, thus eliminating any ability to communicate with him.
Abma Apologist #2: “whomever is writing this stuff is a complete putz (or multiple putzs). Its the only response to this bizarre behavior. the people writing this have no idea who Gedaliah Blumor Anthony Abma really are and what they believe and stand for. but i know this type of back and forth energizes these few putz's to continue writing these lies and, at a minimum, completely misrepresentation of what are the facts. I saw Gedaliah's post to Fuchs and it was very innocent. Let's have a conversation with all those involved on Zoom since we have nothing to hide and I would love to some of your "proof". In any event, the Jewish response should be to explore in- depth the issues here in light of "zedek zedek tirdof". shabbat shalom”
My colleague and I were amused at his remarks. Purporting to want a civil exchange does not jive well with the inclusion of an ad hominem attack in the very first sentence. In any event, both individuals illustrated that they hadn’t seen or analyzed any of the materials we’d sent them, and they confirmed for us that they were unwilling to answer questions.
Here is a brief section of Anthony Abma’s initial comment on the “Abraham’s Shield” Facebook page (a portion of the comment which is embedded with a link in this article), where he protests our unwarranted “assumptions”. Abma bemoaned:
“Contrary to what has been assumed and published - my work abroad as what I refer to as a Bible Teacher, is entirely different from that of my endeavors with Jews both abroad and in Israel. To be absolutely clear – I have NO ulterior motives or hidden agenda to convert Jews - and have never done so.”
Anthony Abma, you are a liar! Here is the terrible evidence you surely never thought the world would see. The problem is that you didn’t cover your tracks well enough. I would love to be a fly on the wall when you see this.
Let every Jew who ridiculed and slandered my colleague and I over the years, carefully read the following screenshot. Exhibit 1A shows incontrovertible proof that Anthony Abma is as bad as we say he is. It is proof that Abma lied about his true beliefs. As the screenshot reveals, he did something much worse than mere lying.
From the March 2013 Believers Newsletter- For those with bad eyes, Anthony Abma wrote:
“In January I had the privilege of baptizing a "Sabra" (native born Jew) who comes from a long family line of Rabbis. In fact, he had even studied to be one - but quit and left the "law" of Judaism before being inducted into fulltime Rabbinical service.
Our first meeting with Brother Zev and his wife was in October after our Israel tour.We were brought together by an amazing set of circumstances. Though Brother Zev and his wife had come to faith in Yeshua and were attending Messianic Churches in Israel, he struggled with the teaching that Yeshua was the second person of the trinity - as nearly all Messianic Jews believe.
We spoke of the visitation of God in these last days and of the truths that were restored by the 7th messenger to Laodicea. As Zev and his wife continued to study and read the words of a Prophet, their souls were illuminated to the truth in God's Word. They realized that the ONLY correct baptism - is in the name of Yeshua the Messiah. With joy we were able to fulfill their desire by baptizing them in the Jordan River as you see here. Please pray for their continued spiritual growth and the spread of Truth in Israel among those who were "blinded".
Pastor Anthony Abma, the CEO of Return O’ Israel baptized a Jew in Israel. In the screenshot above he brags about the privilege. To every Jew who defended this spiritual murderer of Jews, I have one thing to say: rend your clothing and don sackcloth! For every pinhead who ever told us (as if they knew and as if missionizing only refers to the final baptismal dunk!) “show us proof that he converted someone”. Here you go. An open admission from Abma explaining how he proudly baptized a Jew. Forget about apologizing to Moshe Schwartz and myself. You have a world of bigger problems. You have a lot to do in the form of repentance and public declarations. Any proper teshuvah process will require a new commitment on your part to severing connections with evangelicals and in advocating against any such alliances.
Unfortunately, there is more. From the February 2013 Believers Newsletter. In the screenshot to the left (Exhibit 1b), “Brother Tony” writes:
“Space does not permit my sharing the things currently taking place in Israel. I can assure you that there is unmistakable evidence of the Spirit of God moving. Jews are hearing through the Elijah ministry of restoration, that Yeshua is not the second person of a trinity, but Emmanuel, which is God with us. Jews have recently been baptized in the name of Yeshua, the Messiah not merely the titles of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Jews are also recognizing their promises in the Word unlike any time in history- and acting upon it.”
Yet again, Anthony Abma brags that “Jews have recently been baptized in the name of Yeshua”.
Game. Set. Match.
The Verdict
Pastor Anthony Abma is a missionary. By his own candid admission, he personally baptized at least one Jewish soul in Eretz Yisrael. Let every good Jew recognize the significance of this act of spiritual violence against our people.
One Jewish soul that is lost to the world is akin to the loss of an entire universe. The loss of progeny and the death of generations.
One Jewish soul that is lost to our people is akin to the murder of a Jew. It is spiritual death.
We Jews once waged a long and protracted guerrilla war (much longer than eight days) against the greatest military machine in human history. We did this to stop the likes of Anthony Abma from spiritually murdering our people.
Had any of us known about this outrage back in 2013, when Abma baptized this unfortunate confused Jew, we would have been obligated to break the Shabbat, drive down to the river, and rescue him from Anthony Abma, yemach shmo v'zichro. With or without the Jew’s approval.
A Time for Repentance
Those Jews/Jewish organization who defended or supported Anthony Abma, are required to make public declarations (social media is a great forum) stating that they erred terribly and that because of their actions, they caused great damage to the Jewish people. Considering the newly released evidence which proves without a doubt (in his own words!) that Abma is our enemy, ANY individual Jew or Jewish organization who continues to associate in any fashion with him, Return O’ Israel, or any affiliated organization, will have to answer to The Almighty one day. They will be tarred with Anthony Abma’s missionary sins.
Those Jew who read this and comprehend the import of this outrageous discovery also have an obligation to publicly call out this chillul Hashem. Those who shirk this duty should never open their mouth again when it comes to opining on the missionary problem affecting world Jewry. We all have an obligation to reach out to those Jews aligned with Anthony Abma, and DEMAND on behalf of the entire Jewish nation that they immediately cease this sinful association.
Those Jews who continue in their ways can no longer be called mere enablers. After all, Anthony Abma proudly baptized a Jew. Those who continue to work with him are now collaborators with a man who baptized a Jew. Once upon a time, Jews accepted the sword rather than submit to baptism.
As we have promised, “the receipts” are now out there, as far as Pastor Anthony Abma is concerned. The CEO of Return O’ Israel is an evangelical missionary.
We provided absolute proof. The microscope is now on everyone who fails to act accordingly.
“Shimu Shomayim Veha’azini Eretz”
Hear O Heavens, and Listen, O’ Earth.”
