by Dr. Mike Evans | Nov 28, 2023 | Articles
EDITOR’S NOTE: Recently Dr. Evans hosted a historic Zoom call with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and hundreds of evangelical leaders in America. During that call, Dr. Evans asked his friend of more than 40 years what the most important thing we can do to support Israel is. The answer came immediately—and it is a challenge that you need to hear. So we’re sharing excerpts from that conversation with you today.
ME: Well, this is a very special meeting with our evangelical friends, especially in America. The year was 1980. I met with Menachim Begin. And he said, “Why did you come?” And I said, “Why did I come?” He said it three times, and I didn’t answer. Finally he said, “Do you know why you came?” I said, “No, Mr. Prime Minister.” “Do you know anything?” he asked and I said, “God sent me.” He said, “Mike, when God tells you why He sent you, come back and tell me.” This was the 30th of June.
On the 5th of July, I came back and I went to him and I said, “I know why I came. God told me to build a bridge.” He laughed and said, “You’re going to build the Brooklyn Bridge?” said, “No, a bridge of love between Bible-believing evangelical Christians and the state of Israel.”
He reached out his hand and said, “Mike, I want to build that bridge with you together. And then I said, “There’s one more thing, Mr. Prime Minister. I met the Prime Minister yesterday.” He said, “No you’re mistaken. You met me on the 30th of June.” I said, “His name is Benjamin Netanyahu. Would you give him a job in the government?” He looked at Reuben Hecht and he said, “Reuben, offer him a position under Moshe Aaron.”
There’s no world leader except you, Mr. Prime Minister, who unites the evangelicals of the world. They dearly love you. Can you tell us several things? Number one, how important is the evangelical support of the state of Israel?
BN: Well, first of all, Mike, I learned from you that you’re responsible for all this mess that I’m in. So I’m holding you accountable. [laughter] I thank you for your support over the years and the support of the many friends in your audience. And the answer is that they’re great friends. I’m a great champion of devout Christians because devout Christians are the greatest champion of the state of Israel.
When you look at it, it was first British Christian Zionism and then American Christian Zionism in the 19th century that preceded Jewish Zionism and had a profound impact on the founding of the Jewish state and creating the international support that led to the Balfour Declaration and other things that enabled the rise of the idea of the Jewish state.
And I think that nothing has changed. That is still the most powerful engine of support that we have and one that is based on our common foundations, the Judeo-Christian tradition that is so important and that gives meaning to our lives, gives purpose and gives strength. So I thank you and I thank your audience, not only those who are watching this, but everywhere around the world. Thank you, friends.
ME: Tell me, tell them a little bit about the Netanyahu family. You don’t talk too much about it because you’re very busy, but your grandfather, your father, your brother had a great impact upon your life.
BN: Well, they did indeed. My grandfather was a rabbi and a great orator and a great Zionist leader. He was tremendously impressed and inspired by Theodor Herzl, the father of modern Zionism, the modern Moses. And he became a great disciple of his and went around the world, including the United States, where he gave some 600 lectures in support of founding of the Jewish state.
My father was a great historian who came to the United States during World War II to agitate for a Jewish state. He believed that he had to recruit not only the leaders of America, and he did. He met with many of them, including Eisenhower, as a young man, without any organization.
He was able to impress upon them the importance of founding of a Jewish state because of the common interest that we would have. He said that we would be the strongest power in the Middle East. Eisenhower looked at him and said, “How is that possible? You’re only 600,000 people. You’ll be swept away by the Arabs.”
And he said, “General, you’ve just seen in two world wars how we Jews fight for other nations. Can you imagine how powerful will be when we fight for our own nation?” And Eisenhower bought him before the general staff twice because he was so impressed with his spirit. But my father didn’t only appeal to Jewish interests. He said that we would help America block the Soviet domination of the Middle East. And it all turned
out to be true. But he also appealed to the American people. He believed in the power of America’s people. And he made a great effort to recruit American public opinion support for the state of Israel.
So I think I got something from both of them, certainly inspired by both of them. My older brother, Jonathan, Yoni, was a military commander. He was really a poet, a philosopher, and a warrior. And he fell leading the rescue mission, the famed rescue mission in Uganda on July 4, 1976, the bicentennial of America. There is a lot of…I suppose there are a lot of connecting points that I have not only to my family, but to to the United States of America, who I always believed was the beacon of freedom in modern times and in history.
ME: You’ve built alliances with virtually the majority of the nations of the world, at least the sane nations of the world. How did this transpire?
BN: Well, there’s a rule of politics and that is that strength attracts and weakness repels. If you’re strong, people will come to you. We had to be strong. To be strong, we had to be strong, not only in our faith, in our resolve, but we also had to be strong in the material capacities that make nations strong. The most important thing that you need for strength is a strong military, but a strong military requires a strong economy. I devoted a good deal of my time in office, 16 years as Prime Minister of Israel now, to convert Israel from a semi-socialist economy to a free market capitalist economy. And once we did that, we had all the genius that is embedded in our people, the technological and scientific powers, meet with the forces of the market, and that created this great transformation of Israel into the start-up nation, into one of the preeminent powerhouses of technology in today’s world.
So the combination of economic power, economic and technological power, and military and intelligence power, combined to give us diplomatic power, because now many countries are coming to us to benefit from our prowess in technology and in defense, fighting terror, for example. I have to say that the greatest and the most impressive change has been the response of Arab nations.
We’ve been able to make four historic peace treaties, the Abraham Accords, which we worked out with President Trump and his administration, because Arab countries were coming to us trying to benefit their own peoples, their own security, and their own prosperity. We did it essentially by making Israel strong. If you’re strong, people will come to you. If you’re strong, people will make peace with you.
Nobody makes peace with the weak. You know, I quietly met with a lot of these Muslim leaders during the Trump administration like the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia. It took a while to persuade people even in the previous administration that we don’t have to go through the Palestinians get their consent to try to get peace with the broader Arab world.
That’s what people were telling us for 25 years. They said, “You can’t go beyond the peace that we made with Egypt and with Jordan. You’re not going to get to the broader Arab world if you don’t make peace first with the Palestinians.” The problem with that is that the Palestinians don’t want peace. They don’t want a peace with Israel. They want a peace without Israel. They don’t even want a state next to Israel. They want a state instead of Israel. So if we wait for them, we’ll wait another quarter of a century. We’re not going to get anywhere. And so we decided to go around the Palestinians and make peace directly with the Arab capitals.
And by the way, the Palestinians are about 2 % of the Arab world, but that 2% has been the tail wagging the dog. Once they realize that their hope, their fantasy of destroying Israel is not going to happen, because the rest of the Arab world gradually will make peace with Israel, then they might come around to accepting a Jewish state. And I think that peace doesn’t work inside out the Palestinians and then the Arab world. I think it works outside in the Arab world and then possibly the Palestinians.
But I want to tell you that we’re working now just as we did with the Trump administration with the current administration, the Biden administration to see if we can expand the peace to Saudi Arabia as well. I can’t guarantee that we will succeed, but we’re giving it a good try and I hope we succeed. It’ll be good for everyone.
ME: I want to ask you about judicial reform. In the United States, the Supreme Court justices cannot vote on each other, and the Attorney General is not over the president and the legislature. Would you please explain this, your judicial reforms, in light of the misinformation we’re getting in the media?
BN: Well this raises exactly the issues that are of concern to us. I mean, democracy is based on the idea that you balance the will of the majority with the rights of the minority, really the rights of individuals. How do you balance that? You balance that by having checks and balances between the three arms of government. You have a balance between the legislature, the executive, and the judiciary. In Israel’s first 50 years, that balance was pretty much maintained.
But it was slowly eroded by the most activist judiciary on the planet. And they aggregated for themselves more and more powers of the executive, of the government, and the legislature, the Knesset. What we’re trying to do is bring it back in line, at least somewhat. And of course, that has received tremendous hate and misrepresentation Israel was a democracy, will be a democracy.
I think it’ll be a better and stronger democracy, and certainly one that has checks and balances and not only checks of the judiciary and no balance through the other branches of governments. I think it’ll be a stronger democracy when this is all over. Thank you. On the question of security and tourism, people hear misinformation about protests and all that. They wonder, is it safe to go to Israel? My question is, is going to Israel safer than going to Miami or Chicago? Well, I heard two friends talking about it, two American friends. And one of them said, “Is it safe to go to Israel?” And the other one said, “Well, you know, once you get past JFK airport, it’s fine!”
There’s lawlessness, there’s terror, there are problems. That’s true of every one of the countries in the world, even in the democracies. But I can assure it’s safe and you’ll be, as you know, the people who are watching you and those who’ve been to Israel know that Israel welcomes tourists. But our Christian friends, when they come here, they’re really embraced. I mean, you’ll find this across, there’s some, very few, a small minority who don’t share that view. We’re taking very strong action against them because you are the greatest friends that the Jewish state has. I never forget it. And the vast majority of Israelis strongly agree with me. So please come, you’ll be safe and you’ll be welcome.
ME: Mr. Prime Minister, you are the voice of moral clarity. I know your heroes are Churchill and Reagan. You are the one who stood up at the United Nations and a joint session of Congress against Iran. There’s a lot of concern we have right now because we’re seeing Iranian drones in Ukraine and we’re seeing the possibility of the Russians building a greater alliance with Iran that could potentially create a catastrophic nuclear arms race in the Gulf states. Can you update us on this Iran dilemma?
BN: Well, first of all, I think it’s very important to stop Iran from getting nuclear weapons. Our efforts over the years have slowed them down. They thought they’d be where they are today 10 years ago. So they’re 10 years behind. We slowed them down, but we didn’t stop them. The only way you can stop them, the only way, is to have a credible military threat. And I think that if they don’t see that threat, then they’ll continue, and then you’ll have to exercise the means to physically stop them.
That’s what happened with our action against Saddam Hussein’s nuclear reactor in Iraq. We stopped it militarily. That’s what happened with Syria’s attempt to build a nuclear plant, a military nuclear program. We stopped it militarily. That’s what happened with Gaddafi’s Libya. It was stopped by the United States militarily, not by action, but by the threat. It wasn’t stopped in North Korea, because there was no threat through successive administrations. So now they have the weapons to threaten half of Asia, and they’re trying to build ICBMs, Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles, to reach the United States.
Iran is like 30 North Koreas. Iran calls America the Great Satan. We’re the little Satan. I always tell my European friends, don’t be offended, but you’re a middle-sized Satan. But they’re building long -range rockets and missiles to reach them to nuclear tip. If Iran is not stopped, then Iran will be able to threaten the Great Satan, any part of it, with nuclear weapons, with intercontinental ballistic missiles tipped with atomic bombs.
So we have a common interest to stop Iran’s nuclear program. And again, the one guarantor is that you have a credible military threat against them. And the second is something that has emerged over the last few years, and that is the Iranian people. The Iranian people are rising up in unbelievably courageous protests, where they’re mowed down often. People don’t know. I speak occasionally to Iranian audiences and we can monitor how many people listen to these broadcasts. We often have 20 million Iranians listening and there are 90 million Iranians. Can you imagine the thirst for freedom there?
So I would say, not only have a credible military threat against Iran, but also support the Iranian people, support the broadcasts that are going there, support the free media that is going there. That is perhaps as important as the first thing that I mentioned. As far as Iran and Russia, that’s very disturbing to us. It’s disturbing, one, that they’re selling these killer drones to Russia, and that’s killing obviously a lot of innocent people. But it’s also concerning to us that the other way could also be working, that there would be things that Russia is giving Iran militarily, or in terms of intelligence. And we’re monitoring that day by day. Both things are of great concern to us.
ME: My last question has to do with Friends of Zion Heritage Center. You were actually the inspiration for it. It’s now the largest pro -Israel social network platform in the world. Can you tell us what is the most important thing that the evangelicals can do now and focus on for the state of Israel?
BN: Right now, the most important thing that you can do, in my mind, is to educate your younger generation, to infuse them with your faith, with your knowledge, with your heritage, with our common heritage, to tell them how important it is for history, for humanity, and for our Judeo-Christian tradition, the revival, the return of the Jews to the Holy Land and the reconstruction of an independent Jewish state in the Jewish homeland. I think that’s important. If I had to say, what is the most important thing that you could do? Pass the torch.
ME: Mr. Prime Minister, it has been an extremely great honor. You and I have been cherished friends for 43 years, but you have tens of millions of cherished friends here in America and throughout the world. God bless you, sir.
BN: God bless you. Thank you. Thank you.
View the interview: https://youtu.be/G5SoR0rzjw0
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by Dr. Mike Evans | Nov 9, 2023 | Articles
A war against truth is being waged, delegitimizing Israel’s very right to exist.
ISRAEL IS THREATENED BY A TICKING TIME BOMB.
It’s not the Iranian nuclear program. It’s not the Palestinian terrorists. It’s not the United Nations or the International Criminal Court. Each of those are a threat, but they are not the biggest threat. The single biggest threat that Israel will ever face is demographics. Right now almost two thirds of the people on the whole planet—more than five billion of them—are under the age of 40. Why is that a threat? It’s a threat because support for Israel is concentrated among older people. For the younger generation…the majority of the planet…support for Israel is casual at best, and often opposition and condemnation of Israel is the default position. There has been a concerted effort made over the past few years to turn the hearts and minds of young people away from supporting Israel. Demonic principalities and powers have used the Internet and social media to spread lies about Israel and the Jewish people, and convince the next generation that Israel does not deserve support…in fact, that the Jewish state does not even deserve to exist. As you read this magazine today, a war against truth is being waged, delegitimizing Israel’s very right to exist. The youth of our generation by and large have rejected a biblical worldview and are embracing the lie that Israel is an apartheid state robbing Palestinians of their homeland. In the name of social justice, they are turning against Israel. A recent survey showed that 56% of Americans under 30 say they have an unfavorable view of Israel. 56%!!!! These are the leaders of tomorrow. What will happen if this trend continues? Tragically, this is not just happening in the secular world, but it is happening even in the church as well. Almost half of younger evangelical Christians do not have a positive view of Israel. While the number among older Americans is still strong (nearly 80%) in support of Israel, the future is coming and that is cause for alarm. Years ago, I spoke with then Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in Washington, D.C. As we talked I asked him, “What is your eternal legacy?” He was very concerned about his legacy on earth. He hadn’t given any thought to what came next. He said “Mike, no one has ever asked me that question. I need time to think, come back in 90 days.” He had a stroke not long after our first conversation, and was never able to answer the question. Today however, is your chance to answer that same question—what is your eternal legacy—because I am announcing that we are responding to the challenge given to us by Prime Minister Netanyahu on the Zoom call with evangelical leaders. This new effort of the Jerusalem Prayer Team is a coordinated campaign to change the course of the future—and to save Israel—by reaching today’s younger generations with the truth about Israel and God’s plan for our world. Daniel wrote, “Those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars for ever and ever” (Daniel 12:3). Based on that passage of Scripture this new campaign will be known as
OPERATION BRIGHT STAR
Operation Bright Star is your chance to leave an eternal legacy. This is nothing less than a global effort to change the future and protect the future of Israel by reaching the next generation. This is vital. Do not think the young are not important or that we can wait and see if they will change their opinion of Israel. Many of the people in the Bible who had the greatest impact were in that same under-40 range when God first spoke to and worked through them.
- Daniel was a teenager when he was taken to Babylon
- The disciples were in their teens or early twenties when Jesus called them
- Esther was a teenager when she saved the nation
- Ruth was still in her twenties or early thirties when she chose to go to Israel with Naomi
- David was a teenager when he was anointed by Samuel and fought Goliath
- Joseph was a teenager when he had a vision for the future
- Mary was a teenager when Gabriel came to announce the birth of the Lord
- Jesus’ ministry here on earth ended when He was 33
Today, we have an open door to reach the next Joseph, the next Esther, the next young person who will grow up with a vision to save God’s Chosen People and change the future of the entire world. And we must reach them because they are the target of a coordinated attack both within and without the church. There are two major areas of attack on support for the Jewish people, and they are both aimed squarely at young people
THE BDS MOVEMENT
A demonic plot has been birthed in hell to destroy the nation of Israel—to literally bankrupt her and curse the nation. It is known as BDS: Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions. It is all about money. The plan is to turn worldwide public opinion against Israel, to isolate the Jewish nation and turn it into a pariah state which no one will be willing to defend. It is a “Curse Israel” movement. And sadly, it is a fast growing and very popular movement. Nowhere is this effort more effective than on college and university campuses across the country. The BDS campaign officially started on July 9, 2005, when nearly 200 Palestinian organizations met together and called for a worldwide economic boycott to attempt to force concessions from Israel. The main stated goals of BDS are to end the Israeli “occupation” of the Bible lands of Judea and Samaria, and the so-called “right of return” for Palestinians into Israel. The unstated goal is much darker. The Palestinians have repeatedly rejected the “two state” solution. They do not want to live side by side with Israel in peace. They want the Jewish state to be destroyed. Some are more open about their aims than others, but the desired end result is the same. The popular chant among Palestinian supporters (sadly often heard here in the United States) goes like this: “Palestine must be free, from the river to the sea.” Of course, the land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea is where Israel currently exists—those who join in this chant are calling for nothing less than the complete and total end of Israel. Many young people here in the United States have accepted the propaganda that the Palestinians are an oppressed people, who are occupied by a foreign power. This false portrayal of events shapes the way news is reported, and it shapes the way people think. Often people say they want a two-state solution, without remembering that 1948 offered a two-state solution, which was rejected by the Arabs and Palestinians who immediately launched a war to destroy Israel. They did not want peace then, and a great majority do not want peace now. Many Christians are shocked to find out their church or denomination is actively working against the interests of the Jewish state…but sadly, it’s all too true. On one of my trips to Israel, I met with six leading pastors from the United States who are part of this movement. I could not comprehend the venom exploding from their mouths. I would have sworn they would have made wonderful pastors in the days of Adolf Hitler. As heartbreaking as it is to admit, this is precisely what happened in Nazi Germany before Hitler ushered in the Holocaust. The anti-Semitic movement that was gaining momentum in Germany at that time did not employ guns or tanks. It was all done in the name of social justice, and Jews were the scapegoats. Unfortunately, the church was part of it then and is part of it now
REPLACEMENT THEOLOGY
There was a time when support for Israel among almost all American evangelical denominations was a given. Today, especially among young Christians, that support can no longer be assumed. The evangelical churches are currently following the footsteps of the mainline Protestant denominations. When Israel was reborn in 1948, there was widespread support. But over time, that was worn away. The combination of a carefully crafted propaganda campaign and a false doctrine known as Replacement Theology undermined support for Israel…and tragically that pattern is repeating itself. What we today call “replacement theology,” or “supersessionism,” is a doctrine that has filtered down through the centuries to the modern church. Replacement theology feeds antiSemitism through ignorance and lack of understanding. For instance, the Jews were labeled “Christ killers” because of the crucifixion. This led to attacks of every imaginable nature being launched against them. They have constantly faced lack, banishment, attacks, or the threat of eradication. I believe any theological idea that separates Christians from their Jewish roots is unscriptural, with the practical result being that it stunts their spiritual understanding and growth. Supersessionism is defined as: The theological concept that, because the vast majority of Jews in the first century did not accept Jesus as their Messiah, God unilaterally terminated His covenants with the Jewish people and transferred them to the followers of Christianity. It relegates Judaism to an inferior position and recognizes Christianity as the “true” or “spiritual” Israel. Replacement theology rejects the concept that the promises God made to Israel are for this present hour; that instead, they were canceled at Calvary. As a result, this doctrine contends, these promises now fall to the church, which has replaced Israel. The absurdity of this dogma is that if Christian leaders believe God ended His promises to the Jewish people, they must also believe He might revoke His promises to them as well! This doctrine was widely accepted within the church by the fourth century, and has led to a great deal of persecution of Jews by Christians. Some Protestant reformers, however, began to question this practice by the end of the 1500s. Replacement theology, like other misconceptions, rears its head from time to time in an attempt to disavow the relevance of Israel. Although the Catholic Church reversed its stance on replacement theology in the twentieth century, many conservative Protestant groups still subscribe to this doctrine. Embracing replacement theology has led to rampant anti-Semitism in some Christian churches. Jews have continuously faced lack, banishment, violence, or the threat of eradication. This devious doctrine propagates the age-old practice of blaming the Jews for the world’s ills, weighing them in the balance and finding them wanting. It also frees these misled believers from their responsibility to share the good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ with all whom He came to seek and to save, including the Jewish people. The primary target for the anti-Israel crowd is the 18-to-30 generation—the millennials—all too ready and willing to depart from the literalism of the Bible, and verses such as Genesis 12:3 which states, “I will bless those that bless you [Israel], and curse him that curses you.” Rallying behind Palestinians is today a politically correct way of hating Israel and assisting those who seek her obliteration. Israel is a lightning rod for worldwide anti-Semitism. Rather than attack a Jew, anti-Semites now attack the collective Jew, Israel, while hiding behind the cloak of what passes as social justice. This campaign aimed at American churches, and especially young people is funded by people who are no friends of Israel. George Soros, business magnate, investor, philanthropist, and political activist has long ridden the anti-Israel train. He is known for his anti-Semitism and support of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel. Through the Telos Group, founded and funded by Soros, many people are given carefully crafted tours of Israel and Palestinian lands, designed to reinforce the notion that Israel is the villain and Palestinians are the victims. Other well-funded groups like the New Israel Fund and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund pour vast sums into the campaign to isolate and demonize Israel. Liberals have a difficult time seeing moral issues clearly because most are moral relativists. They reject absolute standards of good and evil or right and wrong. In their worldview, man is capable of perfection, human nature is on a path towards enlightenment, and the concept of original sin is primitive. These humanists reinvented Arafat as a peacemaker and gave him the façade of a freedom fighter, not a terrorist. In their eyes, those who blow up Jews are driven to such acts because of injustice and provocation. The victims of these crimes are seen as the source of the problem, while terrorists are seen as the innocent and exploited. Victims are demonized and murderers are glorified. In this age of moral relativism, political correctness, fear of offending others, self-justification, and liberalism, we too often sympathize with the murderer and blame the victim; we point fingers at the rape victim and make excuses for the rapist; we blame the innocent for the attacks that kill and maim while the attackers simply become “freedom fighters.” And today’s young people—tomorrow’s leaders—are being fed a steady diet of these lies to turn them against Israel and the Jewish people.
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by Dr. Mike Evans | Oct 3, 2023 | Articles
“Christian Zionism” is defined as the support of the return of the Jewish people to Zion (Jerusalem or Israel) by Christians. These Christians recognize and celebrate the Biblical covenant in which God promised certain lands to Abraham and his descendants—forever. This divine land grant, called the Promised Land (or the Land), would be theirs for all time. Since God’s decree, there has always been a presence of Jewish people in the Land, but they did not always rule it or maintain it as the State of Israel. That began to change in the nineteenth century.
The contemporary outpouring of support for the belief in a home- land for the Jewish people surged to the forefront of British foreign policy in the 1800s. It was spread from there to the United States by those who believed in a literal interpretation of the Holy Scriptures: William Blackstone, Cyrus Scofield, Dwight L. Moody, John Nelson Darby, Professor George Bush, and other noted Bible scholars—men about whom much will be written in later articles.
First, the Blackstone Memorial and then the Balfour Declaration began to influence noted politicians who were forced to take a stand—for or against God’s Chosen People. After a decades long battle for the right to possess their original God-given grant, David Ben-Gurion stood before a microphone on May 14, 1948, and declared the rebirth of the State of Israel in Palestine. United States President Harry Truman was the first foreign head of state to acknowledge the new nation, and other heads of states took up the gauntlet to ensure that Israel would survive.
Over the past two centuries, Zionism was sometimes rumored to be a cause generally espoused only by the Jews that Gentiles sometimes supported. Christian Zionism was seen by some as an attempt to force the Jews to accept a homeland as a refuge from anti-Semitism. A hand held out in friendship to the Jewish people was often thought to be a ruse and therefore unreliable.
Christian Zionism preceded Theodor Herzl, and the vast majority of Zionists worldwide were not Jewish.
Prior to the late nineteenth century, blueprints for a Jewish homeland in Palestine had been outlined by Christians. Based on Biblical prophecies, the plans were frequently built on the idea that, Palestine had been deeded to the Jews by God Almighty.
Many European rabbinical groups in the early twentieth century were against Palestine as a location for Jewish settlement. They based their opinions on a belief that deliverance for the Jews would come only through Yahweh’s intervention. This suspicion came not only from Orthodox rabbis but from Reform rabbis as well, for entirely different reasons. The fear was that any progress made in achieving social acceptance in either Europe or the United States would be lost.
Some of the Christian-inspired plans for a Jewish homeland in Palestine had emerged as far back as the seventeenth century. When Herzl introduced Jewish Zionism in 1896 in his book, The Jewish State, alliances with Christian Zionists were rapidly formed. In the Bible Land, colonies sprang up in support of Jewish reclamation. The George Washington Adams colony in Jaffa, Clorinda Miner’s colony in Artas, and the German Templars colony in Haifa, Jaffa and Sarona were excellent instances of bravery and industry. It is thought that those colonies were the first true developments in the region.
Central to Christianity is the idea of a Promised Land with the narrative coming from the Hebrew Bible and God’s promise to Abraham’s seed. Some believe Christians were responsible for developing the idea of Palestine as the Holy Land, when in reality the land was given to Abraham by Jehovah. It was an unbreakable covenant.
God again spoke to Abram: “Lift your eyes now and look from the place where you are—northward, southward, eastward, and westward; for all the land which you see I give to you and your descendants forever. And I will make your descendants as the dust of the earth; so that if a man could number the dust of the earth, then your descendants also could be numbered. Arise, walk in the land through its length and its width, for I give it to you” (Genesis 13:14-17).
After this land grant was bestowed upon him, Abram’s name was changed to Abraham, for God had declared that His servant would be “a father of many nations.” At the same time, He changed Sarai’s name to Sarah (princess), and announced that she and Abraham would have a son, Isaac. The news must have come as a great shock to both, as they were already well past their childbearing years. The covenant between God and Abraham would pass to Isaac and through him to Jacob, and to future descendants.
While much has been said in modern times about the Jews fleeing to Palestine for safety from persecution, pogroms, and the Holocaust, Abram was certainly not a refugee running for his life when sent forth in search of God’s Promised Land. He had no need. He was wealthy and well respected in Ur. He went in faith only because God told him to go. It is important to note that the land given to Abraham and his descendants was a relatively small area when compared to that occupied by Arab tribes. It is also notable that neither loss of their homes nor exile because of rebellion and disobedience had any effect on God’s promise of ownership of the land. The Bible does not indicate that the Jewish people had any desire to increase the area God had defined for them to occupy.
God renewed His covenant with Isaac and again with Jacob. The Torah—the first five books of the Old Testament and Moses’ record of the travels of Abraham’s descendants— shows their steady march toward the Promised Land. When Moses led the exodus of the children of Israel out of bondage in Egypt, the group had grown from less than one hundred to more than 600,000 men, plus an untallied number of women and children. Standing atop Mount Nebo in western Jordan, Moses reiterated the boundaries God had set for the Promised Land.
When the nation of Israel was reborn on May 14, 1948, it was evidence of God’s fidelity to His Word and a clear statement that there is, indeed, hope and redemption available for this world. He said so in His Word and cannot lie:
God is not a man, that He should lie, Nor a son of man, that He should repent. Has He said, and will He not do? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good? – Numbers 23:19
The claim of the Jewish people to Zion has been reinforced by archaeological discoveries: A Hebrew University archaeologist discovered a Jerusalem city wall from the time of King Solomon and said the finding “is the first time that a structure from that time has been found that may correlate with written descriptions of Solomon’s building in Jerusalem.” Artifacts found inside excavations around the City of David and within the Old City, the Temple Mount, and Solomon’s Stables date the Jewish presence in Jerusalem as far back as 1000 BC, during the time of King David.
The utter necessity of a homeland for the Jewish people was undeniably demonstrated when the most horrific event to date—the Holocaust—was launched in Europe during World War II. Adolf Hitler began his systematic and brutal attempts to annihilate the Jewish race. The question of a safe haven became not just a wish, but a critical issue for the preservation of a people who began to seek refuge in their ancient homeland of Palestine.
While battling for a place to call their own, men like David Ben-Gurion stood toe-to-toe against both the British who executed the mandate in Palestine, and with the Arab inhabitants fighting the creation of a Jewish state. By the grace and hand of God, Ben-Gurion and his supporters prevailed. On May 14, 1948, the British withdrew from Palestine, and the State of Israel was reborn.
Since that momentous date, Israel has had to fight for her life—not once but multiple times. Joining the Jewish people in the trenches were sympathetic Gentiles from around the world. With each succeeding battle for existence, new Christian Zionist organizations have sprung up to stand with the children of Israel in their battle to survive.
I am proud to call myself a Christian Zionist—a person who believes that the return of the Jewish people to Israel and the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948 was a fulfillment of prophecy. Christian Zionists may differ on their political views but not on this Biblical view. The one Scripture that unites them all is Genesis 12:1–3, which ends with this promise to Abraham: “I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee.”
by Dr. Mike Evans | Mar 25, 2022 | Articles
Putin attacked Ukraine because he feared the death of Russia. The West is in the midst of high-stakes hostage negotiations with a trillionaire who has the third-largest arsenal of nuclear weapons on the planet. The West has naively defined the terms of the debate, believing that Putin is attempting to rebuild the former USSR. They have waged an economic war and are winning a media war and a proxy war. They will shortly have poured a trillion dollars into Ukraine with aid and weapons, believing they can also win the proxy war as they did in Afghanistan which collapsed the former Soviet Union in humiliation.
The only problem is that the West is playing Russian roulette with a trapped rat who can attack its throat with nuclear weapons. Not understanding why Putin is doing what he is doing and why he is attacking Ukraine may end up being the biggest mistake of the 21st century.
Russia has lost 81 planes, 95 helicopters, 404 tanks, 150 artillery, 1,279 armored vehicles, and 13,500 troops have been killed in Ukraine. The media is seeing this as a tremendous win for the Ukrainians. But it could be just the opposite. It could cause Putin to accelerate the devastation. Remember, Putin thinks he’s fighting for Mother Russia and its very existence. With that in mind, there is no possibility that he would not use a nuclear weapon.
Putin is fighting for the survival of Russia and believes he alone is able to save her. In his mind, he is not the aggressor, but the defender of the motherland. He believes he is defending the true values of the Orthodox faith and social values.
Putin sees the entire world as waging a war against Mother Russia to annihilate it. The Russians have seen Ukrainians with prosperity, driving fancy cars, wearing fashionable clothes, taking vacations all over the world, living in lovely homes, and Putin knows the Russians want the same thing. In his view the nationalism of Ukrainians is Naziism. He is referring to the time in World War II when Ukrainians aligned with the Nazis.
He sees his holy cause as the only way that Russia will survive. President Zelenskyy is in his mind a Jewish gypsy and not even Ukrainian. The fall of the Soviet Union put Russia on ice. Their cultural values were over. A psychological depression infected the nation. The country punched into revolutionary remorse, shutting down all its symbols.
The Soviet Red flag was replaced with a white, blue, and red flag. The state seal was replaced with a two-headed eagle. The national anthem was scrapped in favor of a patriotic song. In Putin’s mind, he’s staring at the grave of Mother Russia, and he and he alone must save her.
Putin really believes he is the savior of the Orthodox Church of the world. He also believes he’s the savior of the world and that Ukraine is an existential threat to Russia. Putin sees the European Union and America as backers of a pro-democracy movement since the Orange Revolution of 2004. He saw the West successfully bring Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and Poland into NATO in 1999. Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia were added in 2004 and in 2008. NATO even considered admitting Georgia and Ukraine.
George W. Bush supported this, but France and Germany opposed it. One Russian newspaper reported that Putin, while speaking with Bush, hinted that if Ukraine was accepted into NATO, it would cease to exist. In the last decade, the U.S. has invested close to $10 billion in Ukraine to promote democracy, funding more than 60 projects. Putin believes the objective is quite clear, to bury Mother Russia.
He sees what’s transpired in Ukraine with its nationalism movement as 100 times more serious a crisis for Russia than America’s Cuban missile crisis. Putin is trapped in a corner believing that he and he alone can only save Russia. He will in fact use nuclear weapons if he believes that it’s the only alternative. Putin has put his nuclear weapons on heightened alert. Putin has almost half the nuclear weapons of the entire world. That’s over 6,255 of the 13,080 in the world, and America has 5,550.
by Dr. Mike Evans | Mar 16, 2022 | Articles
The world is a dangerous place for anyone who is Jewish. Both in Israel and in other nations of the world, simply being identified as a Jew—whether going to synagogue or a kosher market, wearing a yarmulke or other traditional clothing, or even having a name that sounds Jewish—can trigger a sudden and violent…and all too often deadly…attack.
The tragic and devastating murderous assault on the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh in October 2018 was sadly not an isolated incident. Instead, it was part of a tightly woven fabric of hatred and violence that circles the globe. There is no place on the planet where it is safe to go about daily life without concern for Jewish people. They live with a constant awareness of danger.
No people have ever been as plagued, pursued, pressured, and persecuted throughout history than the Jewish people. Many attempts at annihilation have been made, dating all the way back to Pharaoh in Egypt, but none have succeeded. That is because God has made an eternal promise which can never be broken. The Jewish people will always exist. The nation of Israel is the fulfillment of Bible prophecy. No scheme of man or human decree can undo what God has promised.
The Jewish people were conquered and scattered again and again…by the Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Greeks and the Romans who took Israel captive. Following the destruction of the Temple and one final revolt, the Romans dispersed the Jewish people throughout their empire and forbade them from living in the land of their ancestors. For hundreds of years, the Jewish people roamed the earth with no place to call home. They were discriminated against, persecuted, faced the Inquisition and the pogroms. But all those paled compared to the horror of the Holocaust.
During World War II. Germany’s leader, Adolf Hitler, declared the Jews were not the Chosen People, that the Aryan race was. He determined to resolve what he called the “Jewish problem,” and disseminated the belief that the Jewish people were responsible for anarchy, dishonesty, and the ruin of civilization, government, and finance. According to those so-called “learned men,” the purpose of the Jew was to completely weaken Germany and dilute the superior Aryan race. The mustachioed little man mesmerized his listeners with a gravelly, impassioned voice. Never mind that his speeches contained little of actual value. Near the end of 1921, he had come to be known as the der Führer (The Leader).
Though Hitler is long gone, the hatred remains. Today a demonic plan has been birthed in hell to destroy the nation of Israel, to literally bankrupt her and curse the nation. It is known as BDS: Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions. It is all about money. The plan is to turn worldwide public opinion against Israel, to isolate the Jewish nation and turn it into a pariah state which no one will be willing to defend. It is a “Curse Israel” movement. And sadly, it is a fast-growing and very popular movement.
The BDS campaign officially started on July 9, 2005, when nearly 200 Palestinian organizations met together and called for a worldwide economic boycott to attempt to force concessions from Israel. The main stated goals of BDS are to end the Israeli “occupation” of the Bible lands of Judea and Samaria, and the so-called “right of return” for Palestinians into Israel.
The BDS campaign is founded on a lie. And while there are good and well-meaning people who have been deceived by that lie, it is also being used as cover by those who hate the Jewish people. While anti-Semitism is rampant in much of the world, it is still regarded as unacceptable in some quarters. So, the “collective Jew” of Israel replaces the individual Jew, and all of the hatred and contempt that must be concealed in polite company can be expressed under the cloak of BDS. These are the forces of hatred and bigotry against God’s Chosen People that we must resist. We cannot repeat the mistakes of the past and ignore the threats until it is tragically too late.
by Dr. Mike Evans | Feb 9, 2022 | Articles
While much has been said in modern times about the Jews fleeing to Palestine for safety from persecution, pogroms, and the Holocaust, Abram was certainly not a refugee running for his life when sent forth in search of God’s Promised Land. He had no need. He was wealthy and well respected in Ur. He went in faith only because God told him to go. It is important to note that the land given to Abraham and his descendants was a relatively small area when compared to that occupied by Arab tribes.
It is also notable that neither loss of their homes nor exile because of rebellion and disobedience had any effect on God’s promise of ownership of the land. The Bible does not indicate that the Jewish people had any desire to increase the area God had defined for them to occupy. The opposite is true: The annals of Zionism detail how the Jews have been willing to give up land again and again in an attempt to live at peace with their neighbors.
God renewed His covenant with Isaac and again with Jacob. The Torah—the first five books of the Old Testament and Moses’ record of the travels of Abraham’s descendants—shows their steady march toward the Promised Land. When Moses led the Exodus of the children of Israel out of bondage in Egypt, the group had grown from less than one hundred to more than 600,000 men, plus an untallied number of women and children.
Standing atop Mount Nebo in western Jordan, Moses reiterated the boundaries God had set for the Promised Land. The Torah is impregnated in the genes of the Jewish people—those who practice their religion and those who do not. The longing to return to Zion, the land from which they were exiled and to which they understood they belonged, is as innate as the need for food and water. It is their biblical, cultural, and political heritage.
When the nation of Israel was reborn on May 14, 1948, it was evidence of God’s fidelity to His Word and a clear statement that there is, indeed, hope and redemption available for this world. He said so in His Word and cannot lie: “God is not a man, so he does not lie. He is not human, so he does not change his mind. Has he ever spoken and failed to act? Has he ever promised and not carried it through?”
Down through the centuries, the Jewish people have cried and prayed for freedom. From the building of Solomon’s Temple to its destruction in 586 BC to the completion of the Second Temple in 516 BC, from exile in Babylon to the return of the Jews to Jerusalem under Cyrus the Great, Jews have yearned for their homeland and for Zion. Can this have been the very first, visible expression of Zionism—the return of the Jewish people to the land of the patriarchs?
It was toward Zion that the Jews prayed daily. It was of Jerusalem that the psalmist wrote: “If I forget you, O Jerusalem, Let my right hand forget its skill! If I do not remember you, Let my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth—If I do not exalt Jerusalem above my chief joy.” I am a Zionist, a Christian Zionist. Everyone who takes the Bible seriously must be. We must stand with and for Israel.
