Review by Charles Gardner — 
When a Palestinian flag is discovered flying on top of a remote hill in England’s beautiful Lake District, something is surely amiss. And it proves the trigger for one man’s search for truth in a world that has seemingly gone mad.
A new book by prolific author Steve Maltz – his 35th – is perhaps his most important yet. In Now Everything Changes (SP Publishing), he challenges us all, in a most engaging way, to face up to the realities and consequences of the October 7th massacre in Israel.
It’s short and sharp, but not so sweet. For it may offend. The author uses fictional characters Derek and Dawn Courtney, with little knowledge of the Middle East conflict and certainly no axe to grind, to wake up a sleepy world (and church) to the monster of antisemitism that has stalked the globe for so long and which no-one seems to understand.
Steve uses the well-known story of the Christian doctor who was asked by King Frederick the Great of Prussia for irrefutable proof of God’s existence. “The Jews, your majesty!” was the doctor’s reply. No other nation has been hated so much and yet survived millennia of pogroms and attempted genocide while mighty empires have come and gone.
He deals well with the land, and why it legitimately belongs to the Jews, and to the controversial issue of Palestinian refugees, used as political pawns to justify continued vilification of Israel as a supposed uncaring oppressor instead of being absorbed by their neighbors as Israel has done for Jews expelled from Arab lands. And he outlines how ‘Two-State Solutions’ have already been offered on several occasions but rejected by Arabs each time.
The bald truth is that the likes of Hamas have absolutely no intention of peaceful co-existence with the Jews. Their clearly stated goal is to exterminate them. And yet, in our upside-down world, it is Israel, not Hamas, that is accused of genocide.
Too many have bought into this lie which, in the end, has them siding, not just against Israel, but against God himself. It is this aspect that greatly concerns the author, a Messianic Jew (i.e. follower of Jesus), as much of the Christian Church (at least in the UK) is either ambivalent on the subject or downright antisemitic in practice.
Tragically, the Church has a long history of antisemitism, especially as perpetrators of much Jewish persecution during the Middle Ages. Even the great reformer Martin Luther stained the gospel message in this way.
As the author concludes: “The fence is creaking. Too many are sitting on it. It’s either one side or the other. You choose.”
The book is available from sppublishing.com
