Dreams, Visions, and Audible Voices: Salvation is of the Jews
John 4:22 You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews.
I was born almost three months premature on November 23, 1942. My mother was at death’s door due to toxemia, and the doctor had told her that he feared that I had perished. Just as the doctors decided to take me by Caesarean section, my mother gave birth naturally. To the surprise of all, we both survived.
I was two years old when my mother first read accounts of the Nazis’ torturous reign over the Jews of Europe. Like most Bible-believing Christians she was horrified to learn that Germans from Catholic and Lutheran backgrounds could treat the Lord’s ethnic kinsmen in such a barbarous manner. One night she had a dream in which the Lord revealed to her that our family was to identify with the plight of the Jewish people.
Destiny’s Imprint
In the dream it was winter and my parents and I had been incarcerated in a Nazi death camp. The commander of the camp had just been notified that the Allied Forces were en route to liberate the camp. He needed a ploy to avoid the discovery of the camp’s purpose. Therefore, he made an attempt to reduce the prison population quickly and get them as far as possible from the vicinity. He announced over the pubic address system that all that could walk out of the gates before sundown were free to leave. However, no one would be allowed to assist the infirmed or even to carry his or her own children. Those who were left behind would go to the gas chambers and ovens. I was unable to walk as my feet and hands were frostbitten. My parents stood on freedom’s side of the gate and gently coaxed me to hurry as I attempted to crawl after them. Their voices turned frantic as I stopped and struggled to grasp a crust of bread that one of the prisoners had inadvertently dropped. Their pleas were of no avail. The sun went down and the gates closed uniting my fate with those who had been left behind.
The image of my starved efforts to bring the bread to my mouth with frozen little fingers was forever imprinted in my mother’s heart. As I grew to maturity, she would intermittently mention the dream to me. Then she would remind me that we were a Christian family and therefore were spiritually related to the Jews through our adoption into God’s covenant with His chosen people.
Early in 1948 I was five years old. One morning when my mother got me out of bed, I told her of a scary dream that I had during the night. I described how I had seen people fighting in a walled city. She asked me what the people looked like. My immature response was that some of the soldiers were the color of Indians and wore red and white handkerchiefs on their heads. She then told me that she thought I had seen the Jews and the Arabs as they fought for Jerusalem. One day several months later she reminded me of my dream and told me that the Jews had won the battle and that God had again given the Jews their homeland.
At age twenty-four, by almost anyone’s standards I was a success. I was a manufacture's representative for the foremost shoe company in America. My income was high and I led my division in every sales contest. I had a loving wife and three beautiful daughters. A fourth daughter was to come 10 years later. I was a yuppie on the move and I was oblivious to the concept that my success might be the fruit of the prayers of my family. I had long since lost all interest in Christianity and was by no means overtly spiritual-minded. I had concluded that church attendance and a fun-filled life were mutually exclusive.
On July 18, 1967 I was on a business trip to Tennessee. That night I began to wonder just how Israel was able to defeat its Muslim neighbors in the Six-Day War. Remembering the aforementioned dreams and the Bible stories from my youth, the conviction that God had a special relationship with the Jewish people was awakened within me. I therefore suspected that they might have had angelic assistance. Suddenly, I became drawn to the Gideon-placed Bible in my hotel room. I picked it up and began to search for answers concerning the Jews’ success in battle. After reading for a while I began to have this strange sensation that the Bible knew me and was reading me. I also felt that there was an invisible Divine Person in the room watching me. I went to light a cigarette, and as I brushed my cheek I felt a tear. This shocked me, for I felt no emotion and had no conscious awareness that I needed God in my life. Nonetheless, in response to the curious tear, I found myself desiring to kneel and pray for the first time in years. When my knees hit the floor, the fountains of the deep broke forth. I began to wail from the depths of my spirit. Then, I heard myself crying out to God telling Him that I needed Him and that if He wanted me, I was His man.
Covert Prayers Answered
When I arrived home, I promptly told my wife about my experience. I authoritatively announced that we would be taking the children to church on Sunday. She began to laugh and cry simultaneously. She then explained that she, my parents, and a local pastor had been agreeing in prayer concerning my spiritual condition. That week my parents had read Isaiah 45:13 in their morning devotions. It says; “I have raised him up in righteousness, And I will direct all his ways; He shall build My city And let My exiles go free, Not for price nor reward," Says the LORD of hosts. By faith, they had inserted my name and claimed that I would seek the Lord’s destiny for my life. This particular passage refers to the administration of Cyrus, the great Persian king who was a guardian, liberator, and friend of the Jewish people. I can say with an assurance, for me, salvation is of the Jews (Joh 4:22). It was God who supernaturally placed an interest in them in my heart through visions of the night. It was this God-inspired interest in them that led me to the Word of God and brought me back to His throne of grace.
By 1978 I was pastoring a flourishing church in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. At the end of the year we had more money in our coffers than we needed. So, I made the decision to visit the local Jewish Federation and make a contribution toward helping the Jews who were immigrating to Israel from Eastern Europe. On the way home an audible voice spoke to me in my car. It spoke only one word; “Cyrus”. The sounding of that name caused my spirit to be flooded with a revelation. God was commissioning me to teach Christians to pray for the restoration of Israel and the peace of Jerusalem. I was to motivate believers to respect and show gratitude toward the Jewish people. It was my responsibility to play a part in defusing the Christian anti-Semitism that had been injected within the Church over the past 2,000 years. I was to inspire the church by proclaiming that God had special blessings in store for those who would cultivate a loving heart toward Israel and the Jewish people.
In 1979 our church presented its first “For Israel With Love” program. This was a musical variety show designed to show our gratitude to the Jews for the contributions that they had made to us through religion and the arts and sciences. Thirty Jews attended our initial presentation. The following year seven hundred came. The next year, forty-three hundred were in attendance. The following year we had a matinee with three thousand and an evening show with standing room only. Covert attempts to convert those in attendance were the farthest thoughts from our minds. We simply wanted to show honor to those whom honor was due. Our reward came when hundreds offered favorable comments and wrote us unsolicited notes of thanks. Many expressed that they had felt physiological sensations of a warm presence during our presentation. One lady showed an usher the concentration camp identification tattoo on her arm. She hugged him as she cried that it was the first time that she had felt the sensation of love since she had left the death camp at age five.
The Plight of the Jews
Genesis 31:36,38-42 Then Jacob was angry and rebuked Laban, and Jacob answered and said to Laban: "What is my trespass? What is my sin, that you have so hotly pursued me? [38] These twenty years I have been with you; your ewes and your female goats have not miscarried their young, and I have not eaten the rams of your flock. [39] That which was torn by beasts I did not bring to you; I bore the loss of it. You required it from my hand, whether stolen by day or stolen by night. [40] There I was! In the day the drought consumed me, and the frost by night, and my sleep departed from my eyes. [41] Thus I have been in your house twenty years; I served you fourteen years for your two daughters, and six years for your flock,and you have changed my wages ten times. [42] Unless the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac, had been with me, surely now you would have sent me away empty-handed. God has seen my affliction and the labor of my hands, and rebuked you last night."
Jacob’s experience with Laban has been repeated thousands of times with Jews in Gentile nations. Though they have been instrumental in blessing employers and societies, the wages or terms for them to be accepted have been changed countless times. Without question the Jews have been persecuted more extensively and for a longer duration than any other single ethnic group. Interestingly, it might be said that Christians have reaped what they have sown in this regard. The Christian History Institute cites that forty million Christians have been martyred post the crucifixion of Jesus.
The Old Testament records that the Egyptians enslaved the Jews for 450 years. The Babylonians did so for 70 years and the Persians for 84 years. That totals 604 years. This is far longer than the indignities that the Afro-Americans have suffered in our own nation. In addition the Jews have undergone excessive persecution, prejudice and job discrimination in every nation that they have inhabited since the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Their properties and fortunes have been confiscated. Their homes and synagogues have been torched and their families brutalized. In the majority of cases these politically/religiously motivated injustices culminated with their expulsion from those nations. Time after time, they were forced to wander as refugees into other nations only to undergo a similar plight.
Yet, in every nation and culture they have consistently been a blessing. The God of Abraham has always faithfully empowered them to be creative and innovative in the midst of adverse circumstances. They have never failed to bless their persecutors through their God given abilities in the sciences, medicine, the arts, and business. A candid examination would reveal that wherever there have been advances in any society, graced with a Jewish presence, the key figures responsible have, more often than not, been Jewish. The Nobel Prize has been awarded to at least 139 Jews. It is likely that the number of Jewish recipients exceeds that of any other single ethnic group.
It is often said that the most important commodity that one can possess is his health. We have the Jews to thank for many of the advances that have been made in the field of health. Their lead in medical innovations is disproportionate to those of any other ethnicity. Here are just a few of their accomplishments: Vitamins; the concept of a balanced diet for health; the Schick test for diphtheria; scratch test for allergies; the first doctor of pediatrics; the Salk polio vaccine; the March of Dimes; the antibiotic streptomycin; the drug Salvarsan to cure syphilis; appendicitis surgery and pioneering the study of human psychology. In addition, America’s system of public school nursing, city playgrounds and public bath facilities to promote health were launched by the efforts of Jewish citizens. Surely we can make it through life without Jewish help, but not in health!
In the area of religion they gave us: The Scriptures; the concept of One Almighty Loving Heavenly Father God; the covenant promises of the blessings of prosperity, healing and peaceful lives; our prophets and apostles, and most of all, our eternal Savior. We owe the Jewish people a tremendous debt of love and respect for all the contributions that they have made to our spiritual, financial, and physical well-being.
Historical and Spiritual DNA Prevents Jews from Converting to Christianity
God has two covenant people, the Church, and the Jews. The Christian Church is presently incomplete in fulfilling its description as the true Zion or Israel of God. Jesus, when speaking to the Jews, said that He had sheep that were not of their fold, John 10:16. The implications are that He has one flock, but two folds. There is the Jewish fold and the Gentile fold. He will ultimately draw them together into one flock for His glory. Individuals who are permitted to come into His flock must come to God through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. However, His timing and manner of wooing us to the Cross is different for the two respective folds.
Historically, God blesses the Gentiles through the Jews. They gave us our Savior and the revelation of His Lordship through the preaching of Jewish apostles and prophets. These men penned the Bible that directs us to the path of repentance, faith, and salvation. Non-Jewish converts often testify as to how they met the Lord through the witness of the Scriptures, evangelistic preaching, or another believer’s testimony. This is rarely the case with Jews. Most of them will not read the New Testament and are seldom impressed by a Gentile’s testimony of Salvation. The thought of exposure to Christian evangelistic preaching is abominable. In the isolated instances wherein their hearts are opened by the Holy Spirit to receive the testimony of others, it is most often that of a Messianic Jew. For most of them, only the testimony of a fellow Jew would have the remote potential to be deemed as credible. Normally when a Jew finds Christ it is commonly reported that he has experienced a direct, personal, spiritual encounter with Jesus while alone.
Why is it that Jews reject the evangelistic efforts of Gentiles that use the truths of Salvation based upon the Scriptures written by Jews? They find it difficult to comprehend the messages as credible because the Lord has historically often used the Gentiles as instruments to judge them for their disobedience. In biblical times they were judged at the hand of the Egyptians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, and Romans. During more recent history it was the Czarist Russians and Nazi Germans. It is interesting to note that the truth of Jesus’ warning that we are justified or condemned by our words is born-out by the persecutions of the Jews at the hands of the Romans, Russians and Germans. They chose Barabbas to be released and opted that their own Messiah would be crucified in his place. In addition they said, “His blood be on us and on our children” and “We have no king but Caesar” (Mat 27:15-26, Mar 15:6-15, Luk 23:1-25, Joh 19:15). This was a self-inflicted curse. Barabbas was a murderer and political agitator. In 70AD the Romans destroyed Herod’s Temple and lined the streets of Jerusalem with crucified Jews. The Russian word Czar is derived from the word Caesar. The Czars instigated the Pogroms that mercilessly wiped out hundreds of the Jewish inhabitants of Russia Adolph Hitler based Mien Kampf on a book entitled, The Decline of the West by Oswald Spengler. One of its themes was that the world needs another Caesar. Hitler gathered his SS men from the murderers and political prisoners in German prisons.
It should also be noted that what goes around comes around. The Bible says that whoever curses the Jews will be cursed in return (Gen 12;3). The Roman Empire collapsed. The Czarist rule of Russia was ruthlessly ended by Bolsheviks/Communists who had been inspired by the writings of Marx and Engels who were both Jewish. The Communist leader Stalin butchered millions of Russians. The two World Wars coupled with pro-abortion policies have put the German nationality in danger of extinction. In a sense, they are threatened with the eradication that they intended for the Jews. In an attempt to counter-act this, the German government pays those who have children “kinder-gilt”. It is a benefit awarded only to Germans who have children.
Many contemporary evangelicals find it difficult to understand the Jew’s aversion to the Christian faith and the Name of Jesus. They are often mystified as to why their syrupy expressions of Jesus’ love are met with a cold shoulder and in some instances mocking hostility. I believe that there are two reasons for this. One is the historical ignorant inhumanity of those who called themselves Christians toward the Jews. The other is the timing of God’s plan for a mass in gathering of the Jewish people prior to the Second Advent of the Lord.
Most Gentile Christians are oblivious to the negative imprint that the Church has made in the name of Christ on the collective Jewish psyche over the past two millennia. Historically, Christians have demonstrated anything but the love of God to the Jews. Under the banner of the Church and our love for Jesus we have either actively participated in or ignorantly allowed the persecution of the Jews in nearly every nation that calls itself Christian. Our unscriptural, anti-Semitic theology has paved the way for habitual expressions of animosity, social degradation, and forced baptisms. The histories of Christian nations reflect the shameful appropriation of children, unjust persecutions, torture and exiles of their Jewish citizens. For centuries-misguided Gentile Christians chose the Holidays of Christmas and Easter as occasions to perpetrate barbarous crimes against the Jews who lived among them. Because of this, one could say, that it is as though there is something in most every Jew’s historical and spiritual DNA structure that interprets the Cross to be a symbol of disaster. When they are confronted with the Gospel, especially through a Gentile, there is often something that is alerted within them which says; “Danger, danger, fight or flee”. This phenomenon could be compared to the ability of various species within creation to adapt to their environments. If there is a poisonous plant indigenous to an area, the wild life adapts and over time learns to avoid it. Once the adaptation is secure an alarm imprint within their DNA causes all future generations to have an aversion to that which their ancestors found toxic.
The following is a brief overview of what has caused the negative imprint in the Jewish mind that hinders them from embracing Christianity.
The First Century - There was a war between the Jews and Rome. At that time there were well over 50,000 Jewish Christians in Jerusalem. When the Romans assaulted the Holy City the Christians interpreted it as a fulfillment of Christ’s prophecy of Matthew 24:15-17. “Therefore when you see the 'abomination of desolation,' spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place" (whoever reads, let him understand), [16] then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. [17] Let him who is on the housetop not go down to take anything out of his house…“As a result they refused to defend their homeland and fled to the city of Pella that is in modern day Jordan. With Israel’s fighting forces diminished by the exodus of Messianic believers Jerusalem was captured, 600,000 Jews were butchered, 115,000 were exported as slaves and the temple was burnt to the ground. This particular Roman siege took more lives than all the bombings of Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and Tokyo combined.
The Second Century - A Jewish leader named Bar Kokohba led a revolt against Rome. He was defeated in 135 AD and the emperor Hadrian vindictively decided to wipe out the name and memory of Israel. Therefore he renamed Israel after their age-old enemies the Philistines. He called the area Syria et Philistia. Up until that time it had always been known as Israel or Judea the home of the Jews. The word Palestine is a corruption of the word Philistine. Every believer with Bible knowledge should understand that God delivered the land of Israel from the Philistines and gave it to the Jewish descendants of Isaac. During the years in which the world maps of Christian nations labeled Israel as Palestine it was a subtle insult to the Jewish people.
Contemporary Christians must not be confused by the present day arguments over the land of Israel being divided up to accommodate the Palestinians. The land of Israel is God’s land and He gave it to the Jewish people as an everlasting possession. The Scriptures describe a region in the Middle-East that God mandates as belonging solely to the Jews. It stretches eastward from the Mediterranean Sea to the Euphrates River and south to the river of Egypt (Gen. 15:8). God’s original allotment for the twelve tribes of Israel takes in all of the Sinai, Judea, Samaria, and large portions of present-day Lebanon, Jordan, and Syria. Strictly speaking, calling this area Palestine is unjustified because historically there is no such thing as Palestine or a true Palestinian. In 1946 the Arab historian Professor Hitti testified that there is absolutely no mention of a Palestine anywhere in Arab history. In 1977 the PLO leader Zuhair Mohsen stated that the Palestinian people did not exist and that they all belonged to the Arab people. He further stated that the establishment of a Palestinian state was just a name to continue their struggle against Israel in the cause of Arab unity. Emir Feisal of Syria signed an agreement with the Jews on January 3, 1919 wherein he renounced all claims to the area known as Palestine. He said that it should be the territory of the Jews. Between 1933-35, 164,000 Jewish immigrants from Europe paid absentee Arab landowners $20,000,000 for a rocky, sandy and swampy area that we today call Israel. With God inspired skill they created it into a green, productive land for the first time in hundreds of years. In 1937, it was the intent of the Arabs to secure a big Arab state outside of Judea, leaving little Israel for the Jews. Their slogan then was “Arabia for the Arabs and Judea for the Jews”. The Christian community worldwide should insist that they adhere to that slogan. The Jews have a three-fold right to their land; God gave it to them; they repurchased it from the Arabs; they have paid for it with their blood since the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948.
The Fourth through the Sixth Century - St. John Chrysotom, St. Gregory of Nyssa, Hilary of Poiters, and many other noted church leaders preached that synagogues were the caverns of brigands and the repair of wild beasts. Jews were denounced in hundreds of sermons as greedy, lustful, inveterate murderers who were possessed by the devil. Jews were forbidden to serve in any public offices and marriage to one was considered an adulterous union punishable by death.
The Twelfth and Thirteenth Century - In England all Jews and their properties were considered the property of the king. When a wealthy Jew in Bristol refused to pay exorbitant taxes his punishment was to have a tooth extracted for each day he withheld payment. Between 1262-79 AD there were 1,780 Jews executed in London alone. King Edward I ordered every living Jew to be out of his realm by All Saints Day of 1290. The Catholic Church incited thousands of its members to make crusades to the Holy Land to liberate it from the hands of Islamic and Jewish infidels. In England, France and Germany civilians demonstrated their support for the troops by rioting against the Jews at home. They torched homes and synagogues and thousands were killed. For instance, when Richard the Lion-Hearted left England it is estimated that Londoners slaughtered 1,500 English Jews. On their way to Jerusalem the crusaders raped and pillaged their way through the Jewish communities of the Middle East. Their justification for killing thousands and impaling infants on their lances was that they were of the hateful race that had killed Jesus. In reality the Jews were not solely responsible for the death of our Savior. It was actually the Romans who crucified Him due to pressure from the religious sect of the Pharisees. They, in turn were being motivated by satanic influences that were permitted to fulfill the pre-determined plan of God.
The Fourteenth Century - The Black Death plague hit Europe and the Jews were wrongfully blamed. In Spain Jews were coerced through torture to confess to poisoning wells with a concoction made of lizards, frogs, spiders, human hearts, and the sacred hosts. The story spread like wild fire throughout Christendom. In Switzerland, Germany, France, Belgium, Poland and Austria the pattern for sending thousands of Jews to be burned at the stake were the same. First came the accusations, then trials, torture, forced confessions, and then the flames. The “Christians” of Europe were so blinded by hundreds of years of anti-Semitic propaganda that they were unable to deduce that Jews were also dying from the Black Death. The church was too ignorant to perceive that if Jews had indeed poisoned public drinking water that they would have been poisoning members of their own race, as they had to draw from the same wells.
The Fifteenth and Seventeenth Century - The Catholic church in Spain and Portugal had vicious Inquisitions. Jews and Marranos (Jews who had converted to Christianity but were suspected of practicing Judaism) were tortured and killed by the thousands. Those who refused baptism died, their properties were confiscated and their kidnapped children were raised as Christians in homes throughout Europe. Under the leadership of Martin Luther came the reformation and the Protestant church. Luther began his ministry with high hopes that the Jews would follow him into his new church. When they did not he became enraged and began to preach and publish scurrilous sermons accusing them of being doomed to hell as anti-Christ devils who were guilty of ritualistic murders. In his last sermon before his death he called for their expulsion from Germanic provinces.
1648-58 AD - This decade was perhaps the bloodiest in Jewish history until the Holocaust. Czarist Cossacks incited by the Eastern Orthodox Church blitzed through 700 Jewish communities of the Ukraine and Poland. It is estimated that at least 500,000 Jews died. Historians report that victims were flayed alive and left to the agony of a lingering death. Infants were slit like fish before their mother’s eyes. Pregnant women were ripped open and then sown back again with live cats thrust into their bowels.
The Nineteenth and Twentieth Century - Czarist pogroms or purgings of Jews from Russian cities caused thousands to flee to other nations as synagogues and homes were plundered and burned.
1939-45 AD - 6,000,000 European Jews perished in the Holocaust. Hitler appealed to German Christians, whose minds had already been polluted by hundreds of years of anti-Semitic theology, when he wrote in Mein Kampf: “I believe that I am today acting in accordance with the will of the Almighty Creator: by defending myself against the Jews
I am fighting for the work of the Lord.”
After the war it was inconvenient for the European nations to have Jews wandering about as displaced persons. Therefore, the Allied Forces returned scores of thousands to the very camps from which they had been liberated. In reality, only the nationality and motives of their captors had changed. The Nazis had killed them. The United Nations would not allow them to live as free human beings. Tragically, the Jews were not actually completely liberated from the concentration camps of Europe and Cyprus until 1947.
The victorious Allied Forces discovered the Nazi’s cache of gold bullion bars. Much of it had been cast from the fortunes and dental work of Jews who had perished in the work camps. Conscience would dictate that these resources rightfully belonged to the survivors of the Holocaust. It could have been a tremendous asset to help resettle European Jews in new homes and vocations. It would have gone a long way in helping establish the State of Israel as a homeland for Jewish people. However, the Allied Forces shamefully opted to give $44,000,000 worth of it to the industrialists of the nations that had sided with Germany during the war in order to help them rebuild their businesses.
An Important Question
Is there any hint in the Scriptures that there was a potential for something like the Holocaust to occur? I think there is. I do not believe that God orchestrates any form of anti-Semitic acts. I do believe that there is Scriptural evidence that what man intends for evil God turns around for good. In Jeremiah 16:15-18 it says that fishermen and hunters would pursue the Jewish people to get them back to their own land. The fishermen could be the Zionist beginning with Theodore Herzl who entreated the Jews of Europe to return to Israel. The hunters could be the Nazis who relentlessly hunted them down. Without question, had it not been for the population growth within Israel spawned by those two movements, Israel would not have the strength to thwart the intents of Islamics today (Rom 8:28).
The Twenty-first Century - In America and Europe anti-Semitism flourishes through the efforts of the Klue Klux Klan, neo-Nazi and Aryan purist groups. They label Jews as Christ-killers who manipulate the world’s economy for their greed. More often than not they use the Gospel of John and other New Testament passages as their proof texts. Using isolated texts like John 9:22, 19:38 they punctuate that the true Christians were apprehensive of reprisals from “the Jews.” They fail to discern that the authors of the texts were themselves Jews who were referring solely to the Jewish clergy and political leaders who had rejected Christ. These anti-Semitic groups also erroneously assert that the Jews, the Hebrews, and the Israelites are separate, distinctive people groups. They try to persuade their adherents that Christians are the true Hebrews, that the church, independent of future ingathering of Jews, is the sole true Israel of God and that Jews are despicable enemies of God. The Apostle Paul certainly had an excellent understanding of the terms Jews, Israelites, and Hebrews. He claimed to be all three. Though he was born of the tribe of Benjamin he proclaimed before all that he was a Hebrew of Hebrews, an Israelite and a Jew (Rom 11:1, Phi 3:5, Acts 21:39). Simply stated the words Jew and Jewish refer to religion and culture; Hebrew and Hebrews refer to a language and a genealogy which can be traced back to Abraham and Isaac; and Israelites are those born to citizens of Israel or within Israel’s borders.
With this horrendous history how can we Gentiles expect to win Jews for Christ? The truth is that it is unlikely that most Gentile believers will be primary participants in the process through any means beyond intercession and the support of Messianic Jewish ministries that are effective in reaching their kinsmen. In most circumstances, it is a privilege that the Lord has reserved for Himself. He will bring the Jews into His flock, in His own time through a global sovereign move of the Holy Spirit on Jewish hearts. When this happens it is unlikely that there will be a hosts of Gentile missionaries who can claim the credit. We can pray for that day and soften their hearts through acts of gratitude and kindness. However, it is doubtful that our preaching will be a common factor in the conversion of the majority of Jews. The Lord will meet them in Divine visitations as He did with Jacob and the Apostle Paul. He will begin to take them aside individually to reveal Himself to them as their Messiah. These private encounters will be much like that of Joseph when he made his identity known to his brothers in Egypt. As the Messiah’s identity is made known to their spirits they will look on Him whom they pierced and mourn. Jesus will comfort them by telling them that even though they ignorantly meant it for evil, that God meant it for good. In a relatively short time millions of Jews will pass under the rod and into the bond of the New Covenant.
Ezekiel 20:33-37 "As I live," says the Lord GOD, "surely with a mighty hand, with an outstretched arm, and with fury poured out, I will rule over you. [34] I will bring you out from the peoples and gather you out of the countries where you are scattered, with a mighty hand, with an outstretched arm, and with fury poured out. [35] And I will bring you into the wilderness of the peoples, and there I will plead My case with you face to face. [36] Just as I pleaded My case with your fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt, so I will plead My case with you," says the Lord GOD. [37] "I will make you pass under the rod, and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant;
The Jews, as the natural branches of the olive tree will be grafted in among Gentiles who are the wild olive branches. Their initial rejection of the Gospel brought us salvation. Their acceptance will usher in life from the dead or the resurrection of all deceased believers from their graves and the Second Coming of the Lord to planet earth.
Romans 11:11-12, 15, 23-29 I say then, have they stumbled that they should fall? Certainly not! But through their fall, to provoke them to jealousy, salvation has come to the Gentiles. [12] Now if their fall is riches for the world, and their failure riches for the Gentiles, how much more their fullness! [15]For if their being cast away is the reconciling of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead? {23} And they also, if they do not continue in unbelief, will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again. [24] For if you were cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and were grafted contrary to nature into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these, who are natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree? [25] For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. [26] And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: “The Deliverer will come out of Zion, And He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob;[27] For this is My covenant with them, When I take away their sins."[28] Concerning the gospel they are enemies for your sake, but concerning the election they are beloved for the sake of the fathers. [29] For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.
One might ask; “How can we right the wrongs and help prepare the Jews among us for their coming personal encounter with their Messiah? Here are some suggestions.
- You can pray that God will soon send a sovereign move of His Holy Spirit on Jews in every nation.
- You can cultivate friendships with Jews in your locale. As you do so make sure that you treat them respectfully without the ulterior motive of converting them. They are a discerning people and they will be alerted to and offended by insincerity. You will find them fascinating people whom will enrich your life in countless ways when you befriend them for who they are as individuals.
- Invite a Rabbi into your church during the various Jewish holidays. The roots of our worship, covenants, and service to God come from their traditions. You will gain wonderful insights into the Christian faith as you come to understand more about the faith of your spiritual ancestors.
- Consider making benevolent gifts from your church to ministries that are actively engaged in helping immigrants settle in Israel. We have sent them away empty-handed as they were exiled from Christian nations far too many times through the centuries. Numerous gifts now from the Christian community will let them know that the Lord has a new generation in the household of faith.
Blessings Await Those Who Bless the Jews
Genesis 12:3 “I will bless those who bless you, And I will curse him who curses you; And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed."
God’s Spirit has a revelation that He wants to impart to every Christian who desires passage into God's spiritual and material blessings. It is making the decision to cultivate a love for the nation of Israel and Jewish people everywhere. This is a secret passport that for the most part has been neglected by the Church throughout the centuries. Actually, though God in His mercy has blessed us, we have ignorantly refused this vital truth through our misdirected anti-Semitic theology. The Holy Spirit is now compelling us to repent.
We must come to understand that the Lord never intended that there be ongoing enmity between Christians and Jews. One of the primary reasons for Jesus' death on the cross was to break down the wall of enmity between us and reconcile us together to create one new man from the two. As we allow the Lord to cleanse the anti-Semitism from our hearts we qualify to mature and become the completed dwelling place of God in the Spirit. This is the clear teaching of the following passage from the book of Ephesians.
Eph 2:11-22 Therefore remember that you, once Gentiles in the flesh--who are called Uncircumcision by what is called the Circumcision made in the flesh by hands-- [12] that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. [13] But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. [14] For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation, [15] having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, [16] and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity. [17] And He came and preached peace to you who were afar off and to those who were near. [18] For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father. [19] Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, [20] having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief corner stone, [21] in whom the whole building, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, [22] in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.
Please note the words two, both and together. They refer to the Gentiles who were afar off from, and the Jews who were near to, the covenants of God. It is through the blood of Jesus that we both have access through the Holy Spirit into the fullness of the Father's blessings. We are to be joined together as the habitation of God.
If we repent of our ignorant neglect of this vital truth the Scriptures give ample precedents that the Father's blessings of prosperity, physical healing and household salvation will surely follow. Psa 122:6-9 implies that as we love Israel and pray for her, prosperity will be our reward. When the Jewish elders of Jesus' day wanted Him to come and heal a Gentile centurion's servant they knew that they would have to give Him a good reason. When Jesus heard that the man loved the Jewish people and had built them a synagogue, He sent the Spirit of Faith for healing to the man's home and healed the servant (Luke 7:2-10). The first occurrence of the Holy Spirit being poured out on Gentiles to bring salvation and the baptism in the Holy Spirit to an entire neighborhood was prompted by the righteous acts of one Gentile man toward the Jewish people. The angel of the Lord clearly told Cornelius that his gifts to the Jews had come before God as a memorial of his kindness. As a result God graced all of his friends and relatives with the gift of eternal life, Act 10:1-5, 24, 34-48.
Part of our commission as the people of God is to provoke the Jews, the natural descendants of Abraham, to jealousy, Romans 10:19, 11:11. We are to provoke them as they see the covenant blessings that belong to them coming upon us. It must be stated that few Jews are in any way envious of Christians. On the whole, Jews are a creative, industrious people who are well known for their scientific achievements, educational innovations, and business acumen. Unfortunately this is not the case with many Christians. Though, Jesus has promised us the abundant life, far too few are actually demonstrating it to the world. Jews may often hear Christians say, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me”, Phi 4:13. With this boast a discerning Jew might inquire; “Just what have you done through Christ that is more notable than what we have accomplished without Him”?
The Church that sees the end-time harvest of the Jews will need to cultivate apprehending faith that bears evidence that God’s blessings reside on its Gentile membership. Miraculous signs and wonders must become commonplace among us. The Jewish disciples who attracted 3,000 to the Lord on the Day of Pentecost were prophesying about the glorious works that God would do among His chosen people. Clever sermons will not convince the Jewish people of the Lordship of Christ. They will not be moved to investigate His Messiahship unless they see objective proof that He is alive and performing miraculous healings. The visible evidence of the Holy Spirit’s anointing on our lives will prepare them to accept their coming revelations that Jesus is indeed Jewish and their King.
Faith’s Response:
Father, I ask forgiveness for any degree of prejudice and anti-Semitism that I have held in my heart. Lord, I thank you for all the blessings that you have afforded me through the many contributions which your chosen people have made to enhance my life. Lord Jesus, the Jews are your kinsmen in the flesh and I embrace them as my brothers in the Spirit. I praise you for allowing me to see the full restoration of Israel in my lifetime. Lord. I ask you to begin Your move on Jewish hearts. Send your Holy Spirit to visit them with revelations of their Messiah.
Sources
The historical data contained in this book was derived from research of the following:
The Long Way Home , 1997 HBO documentary.
The Last Word On The Middle East , Derek Prince, Chosen Books Pub.
The Anguish Of The Jews , Edward H. Flannery, Macmillan Pub.
The Jewish Connection , M. Hirsh Goldberg, Bantam Books. Pub.
Israel America’s Key To Survival , Mike Evans, Logos International Pub.
The Christian History Institute’s website http://www.gospelcom.net/chi/
All Scripture references are quoted from the New King James Version.
|
