“Massacre the Jews, God, hit them with your sword” – Federal Police raided evangelical church in Rio de Janeiro

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Friday’s raid in Rio de Janeiro was part of an operation titled “Shalom” by the federal police against Tupirani da Hora Lores, who heads the Pentecostal Generation Jesus Christ Church, Globo reported. Police confiscated literature there.

Last year, da Hora Lores was filmed preaching and praying with his congregants, saying “Massacre the Jews, God, hit them with your sword, for they have left God, they have left the nations.” His congregants are heard repeating his words passionately.

“They contrived, went with prostitutes, and when they were told to repent they said they’d do it but they lied,” the pastor said, possibly in reference to the forced conversions to Christianity during the Inquisition.

“God, what you have done in World War II, you must do again, this is what we ask for in our prayers to you: Justice, justice, justice!” da Hora Lores shouted at his church, a small and radical evangelical congregation.

Raniery Cavalcanti, a lawyer for Sinagoga Sem Fronteiras, a network of Jewish communities in Brazil, filed a complaint for incitement against da Hora Lores. The Jewish Federation of Rio de Janeiro and the CONIB National Jewish umbrella also took legal actions against da Hora Lores.

The pastor “should have been detained,” Rabbi Gilberto Ventura, the Sao Paulo-based founder of Sinagoga Sem Fronteiras, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. “But the fact police raided his church is already a big development.”

Pentecostalism

Pentecostalism is the fastest growing sector of Brazilian Protestantism. It is made up of Classic Pentecostalism, founded by European and American missionaries during the first half of the twentieth century, and Neo-Pentecostalism, a later generation of indigenous churches that emerged after 1970. The first group includes such significant denominations as the Christian Congregation, the Assembly of God, Church of the Foursquare Gospel, Brazil for Christ, and God is Love. Major Neo-Pentecostal churches include Sara Our Land Evangelical Community, Universal Church of the Kingdom of God, the International Church of the Grace of God, and Reborn in Christ.

Pentecostalism is largely decentralized, both structurally and theologically, although in recent decades significant centralization has begun to occur among the newer churches. Individual churches typically operate independently and autonomously, while sharing certain characteristics, such as a focus on the imminent return of Jesus to Earth (“second coming”) and a belief that intimate contact with the Holy Spirit allows access to Jesus Christ. Unlike traditional Protestant churches, which privilege individual interpretation of God’s written word, Pentecostalism locates the source of knowledge and power in the direct revelation received from God via baptism in the Holy Spirit.

Spiritual gifts (charisma), such as glossolalia (speaking in tongues) and divine healing, are important expressions of the movement. While the older churches emphasize glossolalia, the newer Neo-Pentecostal churches focus on spiritual warfare, especially demon exorcism. The Neo-Pentecostal churches have also introduced the Prosperity Gospel to Brazil, a key belief of which is the power of Jesus Christ and the gospel to heal not just physical and emotional illness, but an individual’s economic ills as well.

With Information of The Jerusalem Post