Israeli flag mirrors beliefs.

Byline: Jeff Wright The Register-Guard

There's an Israeli flag flying over a house of worship in south Eugene these days, but don't assume the banner belongs to anyone's synagogue.

Instead, it's the Church of the Harvest, a 250-member Christian congregation, that has been flying the Star of David in front of its building on Fox Hollow Road. The flag has generated plenty of curiosity, and even some sparks of anger, Pastor Brian Cuff says.

"We're not trying to make anyone mad, and we're not against what anyone else believes," Cuff says. "Our purpose is to let people know we're here and what we're about."

The church recently completed a $10,000, three-flagpole project and began flying a U.S. flag, with an Oregon flag beneath it, on the middle pole. The poles all stand at least 32 feet high and the flags measure 4 feet by 6 feet.

About two weeks ago, the Israeli flag went up on the second pole, and Cuff is awaiting a special-order flag for the third pole. That flag, modeled somewhat after the Israeli flag, will have two red horizontal stripes on a white background, with the word "Jesus" imprinted in the middle.

Cuff says the Israeli flag and Jesus flag are intended to mirror his and his congregation's belief in God's covenant with humanity as foretold in the Bible - embracing the Jews as God's original Chosen People as recounted in the Old Testament, and Jesus as the sole means of eternal salvation as outlined in the New Testament.

Cuff is a believer in the "end times" - a time of calamity preceding the Second Coming of Jesus on Earth - and views Israel's existence as a necessary precursor.

"Israel is a miracle country," says Cuff, 44. "It disappeared in 72 A.D. and reappeared in 1948 - that's a divine event. The end times could not have happened before 1948."

Cuff is active in Christians United for Israel, a new national lobbying group that supports Israel's claims to the land "by biblical mandate."

Cuff says it only makes sense that Christians should support Israel, given Jesus' Jewish roots.

At the same time, he acknowledges that his biblical world view anticipates a time when Jews will have to choose between Christian faith or eternal banishment. "Christians have their job, and Jews have their job - each has its place in God's plan," he says.

Cuff and his co-pastor wife, Kelly, founded Church of the Harvest in 1994, moving to several rental locations - including one property owned by Temple Beth Israel - before acquiring their existing church building in 1999.

The couple grew up together in Brooks near Salem and graduated the same year from Gervais High School. Brian Cuff served 7 1/2 years with the Army military police before attending the Rhema Bible Training Center in Broken Arrow, Okla., a suburb of Tulsa.

The center, like Church of the Harvest, is affiliated with Word of Faith, a movement within Pentecostal and charismatic churches that views health and prosperity as available to all believers through faith. Many within the movement also believe in physical healing.

The Cuffs, who said they felt drawn to start a church in Eugene, have four children between the ages of 3 and 22.