SPECIAL STANDING WITH ISRAEL ISSUE

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TOP 7
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HOLY LAND

EXCLUSIVE REPORT:
Where Your Israel Donation
REALLY Goes

WITH ANTI-SEMITISM SURGING GLOBALLY,

JACK HAYFORD EXPLAINS WHY ISRAEL NEEDS
THE CHURCH NOW MORE THAN EVER

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FEATURES
O
2013/V
39, N
3
CTOBER

OLUME

UMBER

LEADER COMPENSATION
How much are those in charge of
Israel-related ministries actually making?
By Troy Anderson

WORTH HIS WEIGHT IN GOLD?

Why Yechiel Ecksteins salary matters
By Troy Anderson

Cover Story

Israel in Target
As ongoing disarray in the Middle
East forms an alliance of nations
bent on Israels destruction, who
will stand with the Jewish people
amid the impending crisis?
By Jack Hayford

WHAT YOU CAN DO TO

STAND FOR ISRAEL

WHERE YOUR ISRAEL

DONATION REALLY GOES

5 practical ways to support

Gods chosen people
By Jack Hayford

An exclusive report on the financial

stewardship of Israel-related ministries
and how your donated dollar breaks down
By Troy Anderson

THE ART OF REMEMBERING

How a small-town church is honoring
Holocaust survivors through Spirit-led
artand seeing miracles along the way
By Marcus Yoars

ISTOCKPHOTO/PUSHLAMA

BEHIND THE INVESTIGATION

How we came up with our report
By Troy Anderson

ISRAELS NEW COVENANT MOVE

The Messianic Jewish movements growth is
a sign of the times, yet equally momentous
is the development of a pioneering
Messianic Bible. Could this mark a true
end-times move of the Holy Spirit in Israel?
By Jim Fletcher

A GENTILE WITH A HEART FOR ISRAEL

Daniah Greenberg has a megaphone in
[her] spirit to bring the Word of God to the
Jews in a language all their own. But why?
By Jim Fletcher

TOP 7 REASONS WHY YOU

NEED TO VISIT ISRAEL
Many believers want to travel to the Holy
Land in their lifetime. Heres why you must.
By Wayne Hilsden

CONTENTS
O
2013/V
39, N
3
CTOBER

OLUME

UMBER

D EPARTMENTS
Inspire
Mass youth baptisms on the beach
Christmas giftbox leads Rwandan genocide survivor to forgive murderers
What Mary Pappas learned after battling cancer six times in 30 years
Q&A with Grace Unplugged director Brad J. Silverman

Empower
This months resources: Hillsongs Young & Free, Joel Osteen
breaks out, Bill Wiese answers afterlife questions and more
Reviews: Perry Stone on betrayal, Natalie Grants Hurricane,
R.T. Kendall addresses ambition plus more

Yoars Truly
5 ways we can stand
with Israel during a
critical time
By Marcus Yoars
Straight Talk
How to confrontand
defeatyour fears
By Joyce Meyer

Click to contact Charisma

C H R I S I S H A M P H O T O G R A P H Y, L L C

C OLUMNS

Fire in My Bones
Swearing may be
a cultural norm
today, but Christians
cant justify it
By J. Lee Grady

DAVID MOLNAR

Charisma (ISSN #0895-156X) is published monthly by Strang Media Group, 600 Rinehart Road, Lake Mary, FL 32746. Nothing that appears in Charisma may be reprinted without permission.

Yoars Truly
BY MARCUS YOARS

Our Response to Israel

5 ways we can stand with Gods chosen people during a critical time

mir often woke up with his

sheets drenched from a recurring nightmare: His country
was under attack, and no one would
help. The visions of assault looked
different, depending on the night
from nuclear weapons to bombings
to Holocaust-like death campsbut
the outcome was always the same.
He saw no hope for his beloved Israel.
This was my tour guide, a naturally jovial man who, like most Holy

SEAN ROBERTS

Land guides, had the intelligence of

a college professor and the charisma
of a salesman. A secular Jew, Amir
had led Israeli tours for more than 30
years, included for American evangelicals who, like clockwork, would
try to witness to him about Jesus.
Hed heard the same pitches so many
times he could reciteand refute
every Christianese argument. (It
didnt hurt that his masters degree
was in biblical studies.)

So instead of trying to win him

over with words, I listened to what
was on his heart as often as I could
during our week together. This man
lived, breathed and bled Israel. Ill
never forget how, after telling me
about his nightmares, he explained
that living under a constant threat
of imminent attack (and even death)
is in the very DNA of every Israeli.
Thats just part of living here, he
said. Thats part of being a Jew.

A few years have passed since I

met Amir, and since then the threats
have only increased. Anti-Semitic
rhetoric no longer comes merely
from Muslim extremists; its now
seeping through Europe, raising its
ugly head through government oicials decrying Israels every military
move, academics boycotting Israeli
conferences and a pro-Palestinian
press that rarely tells the full story.
As this anti-Semitism grows and
Israels neighboring countries set
their military sights on the Holy Land,
its increasingly imperative that we
stand with the Jewish people. Here
are ive ways:
1) Pray for the peace of Jerusalem. Prayer can move mountains,
bring down governments and do
what seems impossible in the natural
realm. So its only through prayer
that peace can be sustained in Israels
capital. Yet when believers quote

Psalm 122:6 and mention praying for

the most important city on earth, too
often it translates to an occasional
one-sentence prayer. That wont cut
it considering the forces of darkness warring against humanitys
centerpiece.

No matter how many

politicians try, this
conlict cant be resolved
save for Jesus.
How should you pray, then? Start
by asking God to reveal His heart
for Jerusalem to you. Ask the Holy
Spirit to give you a burden for Jewish
people. Then step back and watch
your prayers change for this critical
area and people.

2) Recognize the importance of

Israel. One of Satans great end-times
deceptionsthats working even
among Christiansis that Israel is
just another country. This diminished
view has yielded everything from
replacement theology to complete
apathy for Israels current dilemma
amid its jihadist neighbors. Amid the
enemys lies, believers must wake up
and realize the vital role Israel has
played and will continue to play in
human history until Jesus returns.
3) Honor our Hebraic roots.
As Gentile believers, we have been
grafted into the tree of God, the
root of which is Israel (Rom. 11).
Paul warned Gentiles to not boast
but to remember that you do not
support the root, but the root supports you (v. 18). Even Jesus pointed
out that salvation is of the Jews
(John 4:22). Its astounding how
downplayed this truth is in Western

Christianity, usually under the pretext

that believers now live under Gods
grace and mercy. But lets not forget
to honor the avenue through which
that grace and mercyand every
blessing from Godirst came.
4) Understand the complexity
of Israel. Many Christians avoid
the Israel conversation because it
mingles politics with faith. Our call
to stand with Israel is not political
but inevitably involves politics. And

because politics involves people

groups, we must resist the temptation to make this a black-and-white,
Palestinian vs. Jew feud. Gods love
extends to every person in Israel.
No matter how many politicians try,
this conlict cant be resolved except
through Jesus. Because of that,
we can ...
5) Join with Messianic believers
in furthering the gospel. Our call
to stand with Israel is not conditional

upon Jews being saved. Yet why not

support those ministries of Messianics whose vision is to see their
Jewish brothers and sisters come to
meet Yeshua HaMashiach?
Charisma readers are among the
most pro-Israel segment of the American church. Lets not stand by idly
while the Jewish people once again
need our help.

MARCUS YOARS is the editor of Charisma. Check out his blog at marcusyoars.com or connect with him via Twitter at
@marcusyoars or facebook.com/marcusyoars.

Inspire
Amazing stories. Real people.

A Tidal Wave
of Baptisms
SIX HUNDRED seventy-three
young people made public commitments to Christ through baptism on
the shores of Daytona Beach, Fla.,
this summer. New Spring Church
in Anderson, S.C., saw more than
2,500 middle and high school students attend an annual summer
camp, dubbed The Gauntlet, where
more than 300 young people were
saved in addition to those baptized.
The event marked the largest
occasion of baptisms in the churchs
history.
We have seen so much healing
and so much brokenness being
completed, says Brad Cooper, the
churchs student director. Were
just so pumped!

CONTRIBUTOR: FELICIA ABRAHAM

P H O T O : C H R I S I S H A M P H O T O G R A P H Y, L L C

WELL SPRING: A record-breaking

673 youth were baptized this
summer at the New Spring
Church summer camp

Inspire

C H R I S I S H A M P H O T O G R A P H Y, L L C

Watch as 673 young people are baptized on the shores of Daytona

Beach, Fla.

Inspire
Forgiveness Even Unto Death
ITS NO WONDER Alex
Nsengimana had nightmares as a
child. After witnessing the murder of
his grandmother and uncle during
the 1994 Rwandan genocide, he ran
from the militia and eventually ended
up in an orphanage.
Haunted by his past, Nsengimana
found hope in a simple gift-filled
shoebox delivered by Operation
Christmas Child, a group dedicated to
helping impoverished children experience Christs love.
I can remember opening it and
being reminded that someone cared,
says Nsengimana, now 25. I hope
that people realize ... their effort
in packing boxes and sacrificing
their time is not in vain. Its going to

change someones life.

For Nsengimana, who now lives
in the United States and interns
with Operation Christmas Child, the
shoebox was the first step toward
healing. Not long after he received
that first box, he was one of 12 children from his orphanage chosen to
go to Uganda with the African Childrens Choir, an opportunity through
which he learned English and visited
the U.S.
Thats when I really came to
know Christ, says Nsengimana of
his time in Uganda, where he began
questioning his life and why he survived. I saw all that God did to save
my life.
But with that realization came

Alex Nsengimana (right) stands

next to one of the men he has
forgiven for murdering his family

another hard truth. I struggled

because I could read Gods Word
and understand that He loved me
and everyone, he says. [But] that
includes the two guys that killed
my family.
While Nsengimana first wanted
retribution against the men who
killed his family members, he realized
he couldnt ask for Gods forgiveness

Inspire
if he withheld the same from others.
And so he began to pray for an opportunity to come face to face with those
two men.
This year, he finally got the opportunity. During a visit with one of them
who is now serving time in a Rwandan
prison, a line of friendship was opened.
My dream and my goal is that we
both can continue to extend that relationship and that he will come to know
the Lord, Nsengimana says.

Its been almost 20 years since the

mass genocide in Rwanda, and Alex still
has high hopes for his homeland. He
desires to return to Rwanda for pastoral
ministry and to help his fellow brothers
and sisters heal.
I know we all face a lot of tragedies,
he says, but we can really never find
peace unless we come to that point of
really letting go and coming to know
the Lord.

QUOTABLE
You have this trend where
more Iraqi Muslims
have become Christians,

followers of Jesus Christ,

converting in the last

15

years than any other time in

Iraq. Why? So many Muslims
are watching radical Mus-

News by the Numbers

lims kill Muslims. There is a

real crisis of conscious-

ness going on right now,

56,452,321

where Muslims are thinking, Is this really us?

6,457,513
Number of people given food, water,
supplies or disaster relief in 2012 by
Convoy of Hope, the Assemblies of God
humanitarian aid organization

Number of people aided

by Convoy of Hope in the
last 18 years

Joel Rosenberg,
New York Times best-selling author
and founder of The Joshua Fund

Inspire
Capturing Kindness on Camera
JEREMY COWART is used to
making people smile for a living.
As a celebrity photographer, he has
snapped the portraits of countless
stars, among them Carrie Underwood, Brad Paisley and Tim Tebow.
But in 2009, Cowart decided to
use his talent to capture the faces of
those who otherwise wouldnt have
the chance to get their photo taken.
Cowart launched Help-Portrait, a
nonprofit organization that recruits
photographers every December to
do four simple things: find someone
in need, take their portrait, print their
portrait and deliver it.
As Americans, we take photography for granted, says Cowart, who
is well aware not everyone has access
to a camera. From the homeless and
widows who have never had a family
portrait to mothers just wanting a

CONTRIBUTOR: SARAH BREED

picture of their newborn

baby, the stories of lives
touched through HelpPortrait are endless.
Help-Portrait gives
them something that
money cant buy: dignity, self-worth, value,
love and hope, says Cara
Davis, online editor for the
organization.
Since Help-Portrait
began, tens of thousands of
photographers, hairstylists,
makeup artists and other
volunteers around the
world have given more than 282,000
portraits to those in need.
Cowart says he wants everyone
to understand that Help-Portrait isnt
just for professionals. If you have an
iPhone, you can help.

Jeremy
Cowart

[Help-Portrait has] been such an

amazing, beautiful, creative way to
love on people, he says. As a Christian, it just goes to show that loving
people where they are and for who
they are is what we are called to do.

Inspire
Still Standing Despite Disease and Death
MARY PAPPAS wasnt sure shed
have a shot at a normal life. Diagnosed with a rare form of cancer
of the thymus gland at the age of
23, she then battled cancer no less
than six timesplus suffered a
miscarriageand lived to tell about
all of it.
In her new book, Courage, Hope
and Healing, Pappas writes of the first
tumor doctors found when she was
a young newlywed, which turned
out to be just one of many. She
endured radiation, chemotherapy,
experimental treatment and surgery
after surgery.
You learn who you are and who
Christ is when youre right in the
middle of your needswhen you are
weak and God is strong, she says.

CONTRIBUTOR:SARAH BREED;

Pappas says she learned to rely

on this truth again when she had her
miscarriage. It was devastating, as
she believed God had promised her
a child.
I thought, Lord, You blew it. I said,
Im not getting up off this floor until
You tell me something, she says.
God did speak, promising restoration and a double blessing.
A year later, she gave birth to
healthy twin boys.
He makes a way when there
seems to be no way, she says. Even
though we go through really hard
things in life, God sees the big picture
that we dont see.
For Pappas, who is finally cancerfree after 30 years, God has not only
restored life, but also is using her to

Mary Pappas

speak into the lives of others. Today,

she is an advocate for cancer patients
and survivors, using her story to offer
encouragement at churches, conferences and retreats, saying God used
her to help those who suffer with
sickness or loss even when she was in
the middle of her own cancer battles.
You never know when youre an
answer to someones prayers, she
says. I want people to know that
they are valuable. Their life can make
a difference.

Inspire

Q&A With Brad J. Silverman

Filmmaker Spotlights Gods Grace on the Big Screen

Brad J. Silverman was climbing the ladder of Hollywood success as an actor, producer and screenwriter when he
discovered his vocational success wouldnt lead him to the happiness he was searching for. After giving his life
to the Lord and finding lasting joy, Silverman made the difficult decision to walk away from the movie industry.
Almost a decade later, hes back in action as the writer and director of a new mainstream film, Grace Unplugged,
geared to families. Charisma sat down with the filmmaker to discuss his latest move.
Charisma: Why did you initially walk
away from the movie industry?
Silverman: I was just so unsatisfied
with life. Nothing was bringing me
joy. My career was actually doing fine,
and I thought if I got to the next level
of success, then Id be happy.
Failure was easy for me; but success is tough. Every level of success
just didnt bring the happiness I
thought it would. And I went through
a couple of years where I was just
crying out, saying What is real in this
life? What is true?

CONTRIBUTOR: FELICIA ABRAHAM

I had a sense of desperation:

Nothing is making me happy and I
dont even know up from down anymore. I questioned everything.
Through that process a friend
of mine invited me to church. And
over time, it was like, what do I have
to lose? Then I started reading the
Scriptures and going to church. And I
decided it was time.
Charisma: So what made you return
to the film industry after being away
for 10 years?

Silverman: I came from Hollywood.

I got saved in Hollywood. I walked
away for a decade and the Lord just
opened up a door for me that I never
saw coming.
Charisma: Your new film, Grace
Unplugged, opens in theaters Oct. 4
and is a modern-day retelling of the
prodigal son story. As the screenwriter, what were you wanting to
accomplish by basing it on that
narrative?
Silverman: Im hoping we prompt

Inspire
a lot of dialogue between families, and
that this movie can be a conversation
starter. At the end of the day, I dont miss
the fact that this is entertainmentand
I think weve made a very entertaining
movie. But when the movie is over and
the audience reflects on what theyve
seen, I want Christians to say, Wow. I
love God.

Brad J.
Silverman

P H OTO: L I O N S G AT E

Charisma: The film is about a worship

pastors tumultuous relationship with his
talented daughter, who wants to leave
the church and explore a career in the
secular music business. Why was this
story important for you to tell?
Silverman: This is a big issue in churches
todaykids growing up and struggling
with making their faith their own. Thats
the journey [the lead character] Grace
goes on. But I also had to tell that story
in a PG way. I have four children, and if I
cant make a film that my teen daughters

Inspire
can watch, I dont want to make it.
Charisma: On that note, how difficult
is it to be a Christian making films
that honor Christ in Hollywood?
Silverman: Its important that Christians dont give up creative control.
As believers, we must have that

contractually, because we are the

light in the darkness. On the flip side,
Hollywood is so much a part of my
life. I was an actor here, and it was a
faithful brother in the Lord who led
me to Christ here, so I dont shy away
from that. I believe Im called to go
into battle; I dont believe Im called

to hide in a bunker and only deal

with Christians. If some people are
called to that, great. Personally, I feel
Im called to be in the streets with
the tax collectors and to do my job as
a filmmaker.

Are You Our Next

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11953

Straight Talk
BY JOYCE MEYER

How to Confrontand
DefeatYour Fears
Wrestling with fear is normal, but God wants
you to push past it by listening to Him

o you ever feel fear? We all do

at one time or another. And
that feeling is never going to
go away permanently. The Bible says
to fear not, but this doesnt mean you
should never feel scared. It means
when you do feel fear, keep going forward and do what youre supposed to
do. Or as I like to say, do it afraid.

Confront Your Fears

It was a great revelation to me

when I realized I couldnt control

the feeling of fear but could keep it
from controlling me. In those difficult
moments in life when there are no
answers or when unexpected change
occurs, Ive learned to not live by my
feelings and instead face the fear
head-oneven when Im shaking in
my boots.
The Israelites are a good example
of people who had to face their fears.
In the Old Testament, God brought

them out of a terrible life of slavery

to take them to the Promised Land,
but they were then confronted with
a different situation that was equally
unpleasant: the Red Sea in front of
them and Pharaohs army behind
them. When the Israelites saw their
dilemma, they actually desired to go
back to their former life of slavery
instead of confronting the unknown
ahead. They preferred going back to
their former life even though it was

miserableall because of fear.

Just picture their situation: the Red
Sea in front of them and the Egyptian
army behind them. What are they
going to do? Moses told the Israelites
in Exodus 14:13, Fear not; stand still
(irm, conident, undismayed) and see
the salvation of the Lord which He will
work for you today. For the Egyptians
you have seen today you shall never
see again (AMP).
Sometimes you have to stand
your ground and speak Gods Word
to get the courage you need. For
example, Romans 8:31 says, If God
is for us, who can be against us?
(NKJV). And Psalm 27:1 reminds us
that if God is on our side, whom shall
we fear?
Confrontation Is Not Comfortable
But there are also times when you
must sufer through something to
defeat your fear of it. For example,

in the early part of my ministry I

had to sufer the loss of reputation.
Back then, many thought women
shouldnt teach and preach, and
thats what God called me to do. So
when I stepped out in obedience to
do it, it wasnt easy. I was asked to

Sometimes you have to

stand your ground and
speak Gods Word to get
the courage you need.
leave my church. I lost friends. And
some people just didnt understand.
I had to confront those early fears
of what others thought of me and
of being diferent. Thank God, He
helped me press through, because

if I had chosen to run from those

situations, I wouldnt be here today.
Become Bold and Courageous
The word fear means to run or
to take light. So when we give in to
fear, were always running away from
something we should be confronting.
God wanted the Israelites to go forward into the unknown. He wanted
them to be so fed up with bondage
that they would be willing to risk
drowning instead of going back to
slavery. God wanted them to be bold
and courageous. And He wants you
to be bold and courageous too.
Notice how the Lord told them,
Stand still. Thats interesting,
because when the emotion of
fear has hold of us and our minds
are thinking one crazy thing after
another, the irst thing we need to do
is get stillget out of the emotion,
out of our head, and check with our

heart by asking, What is God saying

in this situation?
Maybe you are in this position right now and feel like you are
between a rock and a hard place. Its
like you are between the Egyptian
army and the Red Sea, and all of your

emotions are going haywire. You

may feel tempted to call your friends
and ask them what to do. Dont do
that. Start by going to God irst and
waiting on Him.
I encourage you today to stand
still, to get wisdom and direction

from God and His Word, and then

to do what you believe Hes telling
you to do. Ask Him for courage. Then
youll see Him make a way for you
to push past your fear and reach the
promised land He has ready for you.

JOYCE MEYER is a New York Times best-selling author and founder of Joyce Meyer Ministries, Inc. Author of 100
booksincluding her latest, God Is Not Mad at Youshe hosts the Enjoying Everyday Life radio and TV programs, which air
on hundreds of stations worldwide. For more information, visit joycemeyer.org. To read past columns in Charisma by Joyce, visit
charismamag.com/meyer.

WELCOME TO CHARISMA MAGAZINES WEB SITE. LOOK AROUND, CLICK ON THE LINKS AND WHEN
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The ongoing disarray

throughout the Middle
East has set the stage
for an alliance of nations
bent on Israels total
destruction. With Gods
chosen people in target
24/7, who will stand
with them amid the
impending crisis?
BY JACK HAYFORD

I S TO C K P H OTO/N AT H A N P H OTO; S A N K A I

side from the hustling

Watch pastor Jack Hayford explain the importance of Israel for
crowds and rush-hour
every believer
traffic jams that define any
international metropolis,
Jerusalem astounds most of its tourists with how peaceful the city truly
is. While the global media assaults
readers with reports of nearby suicide bombings and young zealots
throwing rocks across Jewish-Palestinian borders, those who live in
Israels capital city know a different
story, a different reality. Theirs is
one of surprising peace in a nation
whose very existence symbolizes the
dichotomy of possessing the land
amid neighborsboth immediate
and far awaywho would rather see
them dead.
To find the violent, conflict-filled story most incorrectly
day: that they are staring down the barrel of a gun, no
think is Israels narrative, all you have to do is drive two or
matter which direction they turn.
three hours toward virtually any nation surrounding the
In Iran, anti-Semitic rhetoric flows from the mouths
Holy Land today. Because although the West heralded
of its top leaderswhether current moderate President
the Arab Spring only three years ago as the dawning of
Hasan Rouhani, ousted madman Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
democracy in nations ruled by tyrannous dictators, the
or Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khameneias they
fruit of these ongoing political uprisings has been anyopenly declare Israel to be a cancerous tumor in the heart
thing but freedom and stability. For Israel, its simply
of the Islamic world that must be cleansed. Who can
increased the shared nightmare most Jews live with each
forget Ahmadinejads defiant vow to the United Nations

I WILL BLESS THOSE

General Assembly in September 2012

that Israel would be eliminated?
In Egypt and Iraq, the ongoing
instability and influence of the Muslim
Brotherhoodyes, even after former
Egyptian President Mohammed Morsis oustinghave propelled Salafist
jihadist military campaigns, which are
also bent on Israels total destruction,
like never before.
Meanwhile, the rise of other
extremist Islamic forces in Syria,
Tunisia, Lebanon, Libya and Yemen
merely strengthens what has become
a resounding cry to see Israel wiped off
the map. And among the few neighboring countries with whom Israel had
established peace treatiesnamely,
Egypt, Jordan and Turkeythese relations have been frayed to a thread.

As Christians, we have a different

script to followone in which we
know who will return to reign physically over this global focal point that
has been dominated with strife and
violence since the days of Abraham.
Why, then, should believers be so concerned over such a tiny speck of land?
What does it really matter?

Why Israel Matters So Much

I am convinced one of Satans
greatest tools that keeps the Western
church in the dark concerning Gods
end-time plan for our world is to minimize or negate the role Israel plays
today. Tragically, rather than stand up
for those whom God has called His
people (Joel 2:18; 3:2; Jer. 50:6-7), wed
prefer to argue over the differences

WHO BLESS YOU,

AND I WILL CURSE
HIM WHO CURSES
YOU; AND IN YOU
ALL THE FAMILIES OF
THE EARTH SHALL
BE BLESSED.

 Genesis 12:3

between supporting Israel as a state versus supporting

the Jewish people.
Some within the church disregard Israels crisis in favor
of the Palestinian plight (whom they argue have equal
rights as sons of Abraham), while others have gone so
far as to adopt a replacement theology perspective that
believes the church, through Jesus Christ, has replaced
Israel when it comes Gods purpose, plan and promises.
All of these viewpoints are not only misguided, they
also come at the expense of Israel at a time when the
church is called to be her strongest ally amid an emergence of nations possessing a demonically driven desire
to see the Jewish people eradicated.
Given this, lets get a few foundational things straight.
Israel is a land about which God saysuniquely, prophetically, redemptively and repeatedly in the Bible,This
is Mine (Joel 1:6; Zech. 2:5-7; Gen. 35:10-15).
God refers to Israel as He does to no other land on
earth. Israel was raised up to be a light to the Gentiles.
Perhaps the most pointed statement regarding the
importance of the Jews is from the lips of our Lord and
Savior Himself. In His conversation with the Samaritan
woman, recorded in John 4:1-26, Jesus is very deinitive:
Salvation is of the Jews (v. 22). With these words He categorically points to the pathway by which the entirety of
Gods program of redemption was brought to earth and
now is present in His Person.
Further, the church at its inception was virtually

entirely Jewish, and it remained so until the gospel began

to spread. Ultimately the gospel spread to Antioch, where
the irst Gentile congregation began and the base from
which the gospel spread into all the world.
In Romans 9-11, the apostle Paul deals speciically
with the question of the Jews role in Gods providence
and purpose.
Within the whole of the Bible, these three chapters

One of Satans greatest tools that keeps the

Western church in the dark concerning Gods
end-time plan for our world is to minimize
or negate the role Israel plays today.
virtually stand alone as an elaboration of the theology of
Gods dealing with Jews.
The Jews were the irstfruitthe irst people
(through Abraham) to understand a covenant God. They
then relayed the riches of that truth to the world, and
through their agency, the Messiah came into the world.
The Word of God calls Jews the root and Gentiles the
branches (Rom. 11:16-27). Were reminded that while
because of unbelief they were broken of, and you stand
by faith, we are not to become haughty but to fear: For if

God did not spare the natural branches, He may not spare
you either (vv. 20-21). When the fullness of the Gentiles
is completed, all Israel will be saved (v. 26)that is, the
present Church Age.
So why stand with Israel today?

8 Reasons to Stand With Israel

God makes a specific promise

of judgmentof being either
blessed or cursedrelated
to Abrahams seed.

We are living in a sobering moment in historythat

calls us, as believers in Jesus Christ, to take a stand with
Israel.Given that we live in a miraculous era that has seen
the Jewish people regain political control of their own
land, which they were without for more than 2,300 years,
and once again become an oicial nation, we could be
people of the last hour. Yet we are not to be passive in the
face of prophecy;we are called to pray with passion,to
intercede andtoministeraccording to the words of the
Savior who said it is not our task to speculate when the
end will be. It is our responsibility todo kingdom business until He comes(Luke 19:13).
This is not about politics; this is about theWord of
God, but the political ramiications are extremely dramatic.
Scripture declares there will come a time when all the
nations of the world will turn against Israel (Zech. 12:1-14).
Ongoing developments in the Middle East inescapably
demonstrate the present moment and make it highly conceivable that this could happen in our time. Accordingly, it
is critical that believers understand the speciic reasons for
why we should stand with Israel today.

1) Divine Order
Every believer is charged to make the Jews a priority in
his or her value system. Why? Because God has. As a result,
we are to render thanksgiving for Gods work via them
as a people.
Understanding the basis of the attention we give
to the Jews has to do with understandingGods divine
orderand things He has said. This involves both a people
and a land (the latter of which we will cover shortly in
another reason).
Remember, the Lord irst selected a people. He began
by selecting a man named Abraham. The Lord said that
through Abrahams seed (in relationship with his wife,
Sarah, giving birth to the promised child, Isaac), all the
nations would be blessed. Through this people, every
human being would have access to the divine blessing of
Almighty God.
In Genesis 12:3, the Lord says in the covenant He
makes with Abraham, 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.
Upon Jesus return to earth, the Lord will judge nations
and deal with them for their decisions, just as He does
individuals. Yet He makes a speciic promise of judgmentof being either blessed or cursedrelated to
Abrahams seed. Its vital that we see this relates not only
to a people (Jews), but also to a land (Israel).
In Romans 9:4-5, we ind a revealing passage that

outlines the Lords purposes for which He chose this

people: who are Israelites, to whom pertain the adoption,
the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service
of God, and the promises; of whom are the fathers and
from whom, according to the lesh, Christ came, who is
over all, the eternally blessed God. Amen.
God chose the Israelites to be the vessels for four overarching things:
1) The adoption: Gods divine choice of the seed of
Abraham as a people.
2) The glory: the manifest presence of God
revealing Himself.
3) The covenants: the commitments that God
makes. These are evident in three forms
through Scripture:
The Abrahamic Covenant. In this foundational covenant, God essentially told Abraham, I will give
you a people and a land, and through this seed
the nations of the earth will be blessed (Gen.
17:2-8).
The Mosaic Covenant. Through Moses, God offered
the revelation of the Law, given as a teaching
means to lead us to Christ: redemption through
the blood of the Lamb (Gal. 3:19-29).
The New Covenant. In Jeremiah and Ezekiel, God
says in words almost parallel: For the time will
come that I will take My Law and I will make a
new covenant with you, and I will put My Spirit

within you (Jer. 31:31-33; Ezek. 36:27).

4) The greatest gift: the wonder of the gift of Jesus
to mankind. John 3:16 explains that God so loved
the world that He gave His only begotten Son. He
gave Him through the Jews, and He came as a Jew.
Jesus Himself, speaking to the woman of Samaria,
said, Salvation is of the Jews (John 4:22).
So Scripture speaks to us very clearly: Were dealing
with the root of everything that has to do with the revelation of God to humankind. The proof of this today is in the
very existence of the Jews as a people and the fact that
theyve been recovered as a nation (Ezek. 37). And now,
the modern-day struggle is over Jerusalem, over Israel and
over the presence of Jews and their right to have a land.
Almost every nation refuses to make an abiding commitment to stand by the Jews and Israel. Only a few remain,
but the Bible says God will honor those who do.

2) Spiritual Link
Our place in Gods present order inextricably links us
with the Jews as a people, and thereby the land of Israel,
according to the Word. When we put our faith in the
Redeemer who came through the Jews, we enter into
a line of those who have trusted God according to His
revealed grace and purpose.
Scripture declares that, spiritually speaking, when you
receive the Lord, you become a Jew (Rom. 2:28-29, Gal.
3:26-29). If you are a believer, you cannot be consistent

with the whole of Scripture and take a position that is

passive toward the Jews and Israel.

3) Gods Promises Over the Land

God has made unique declarations regarding the land
of Israel that have never been rescinded:
Leviticus 25:23The land is the Lords land, and
it is His to assign and dispose of: The land shall
not be sold permanently, for the land is Mine.
Deuteronomy 32:43Rejoice, O Gentiles, with
His people ... He will provide atonement for His
land and His people.
2 Chronicles 7:20God says, [If the people violate Me], I will uproot them from My land which I
have given them.
Psalm 85:1-2Lord, You have been favorable
to Your land; You have brought back the captivity
of Jacob. You have forgiven the iniquity of Your
people; You have covered all their sin.
Isaiah 8:8This land belongs to Father God, and
it is the land of His Messiah: The stretching out
of his wings will fill the breadth of Your land,
O Immanuel.
Jeremiah 2:7The Lord tells the people why
there will come the lossthe destructionof the
city of Jerusalem: I brought you into a bountiful
country. ... But when you entered, you defiled My
land and made My heritage an abomination.

 Ezekiel 38:16God is speaking to people in the

end times who rise up against Israel, and He is
speaking of a confrontation that will take place
in His land: You will come up against My people
Israel. ... I will bring you against My land, so that
the nations may know Me, when I am hallowed
in you.
Joel 1:6; 2:18; 3:2Three times in this book,
the land is referred to as belonging to the Lord:
For a nation has come up against My land
(1:6); Then the Lord will be zealous for His land
(2:18); I will also gather all nations, and bring
them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat; and
I will enter into judgment with them there on
account of My people, My heritage Israel, whom
they have scattered among the nations; they have
also divided up My land (3:2).
Hosea 9:3This refers to the scattering of
Israel: They shall not dwell in the Lords land,
but Ephraim shall return to Egypt, and shall eat
unclean things in Assyria.
Zechariah 9:16The Lord their God will save
them in that day, as the flock of His people. For
they shall be like the jewels of a crown, lifted like
a banner over His land.
When we talk about Israel, we are dealing with: 1) a
piece of property that God has made pronouncements
about and 2) Gods people to whom Hes given the land.

It is a major issue with the Creator of all things, and it is

non-negotiable. Things that God has said uniquely about
Israel have never been rescinded.
Not only does the land belong to God, but also God
has committed the land to Abraham and his ofspring via
Isaac forever (Gen. 17:7-8). Isaiah 54:8-10 reairms this as
the Lord said, With a little wrath I hid My face from you for
a moment; but with everlasting kindness I will have mercy
on you. ... My kindness shall not depart from you, nor shall
My covenant of peace be removed.
The loss of governance by Israel through sin and dispersion has not altered Gods announced commitment to
make it theirs forever. (If you doubt this, read Ezekiel 37.)

4) Media Misrepresentation
Virtually every news report on the conlict involving
Israel today presents Israel as the aggressor, notwithstanding the fact that the hostilities were provoked by
Palestinian or Hamas shellings or rocket ire, against which
the nation had to take action in self-defense. For example,
when Israel gave Gaza back as an efort to establish
grounds for advancing the peace process, within months
the same area became a staging ground by the Palestinians for new unprovoked attacks on Israel.
This represents the futile eforts Israel has faced at
every turn when attempting to negotiate peace, since the
media reports consistently assign responsibility to Israel
as the initiator of aggression, when in fact the action of

the Israel Defense

Forces is only to raise a
shield of self-defense.
Consequently, Israels
present conlict is
neither by its initiative nor perpetuated
by expansionism or
racism on its part.
The general attitude of the world
Jack Hayford

To stand with Israel is not to oppose the

Arab people as an entity, nor to oppose
the rights of Arabs living in Israel.
today regards the Palestinians as the underdog and the
victim, but Israel is defending the land covenanted to
them in 1917 and established by the United Nations
Assembly in 1948. The Palestinian goal is not to secure a
homeland but to drive Israel out altogether. For the sake
of mounting public opinion against Israel, surrounding,
well-resourced Arab nations have never ofered refuge
to the Palestinians. The majority of the world doesnt
know this, and nobody is bothering to tell them because

sympathies are so overridden by other forces.

Remember, this is not about politics, yet the ramiications of this struggle inevitably involve governments,
which are intended to represent people groups. And
among Christians, this is where we often confuse the
matterwhich is why its crucial that we understand ...

5) Arab Rights
To stand with Israel is not to oppose the Arab people as
an entity, nor to oppose the rights of Arabs living in Israel
to a peaceful, politically secure and prosperous life. God
has no disposition against any human being, certainly not
Arabs, who are the ofspring of Ishmael, the other son of
His chosen leader, Abraham. Standing for Israel doesnt
require an anti-Arab stance and doesnt require us to be
loveless toward other people.
Though the world may not understand this stance, we
can defy their logic through Christ. As Jesus said, By this
all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for
one another (John 13:35).

6) Spiritual Warfare
The relentless animosities of sectors of the Arab world
are not merely political causes but are driven by spiritual
powers that will not be satisied until Israel ceases to exist.
Even unbelievers can recognize the uncanny patterns
of vehement anti-Semitic rhetoric shared between the
likes of Adolf Hitler and modern-day Arab leaders such as

Ahmadinejad, Khamenei and their successors. The forces

opposed to Israel are not simply those of people who
dont like Jews. We are caught in the stream of spiritual
forces greater than humanity, forces that cannot be overthrown politically or by the power of persuasion. These
forces can only be broken by intercessory prayer where
principalities and powers are cast down.

or outright brutality inds only a silent response from the

U.N. or the world press.
The hostilities and animosities are just as leveled at
believers as they are at Israel because there is a spirit of
the world that is against all that is called God (2 Thess.
2:4) and all things testifying to His existence, love, worth
and glory.

7) Shared Persecution

8) Gods Summoning

If we think Israelis are the only ones in the line of ire in

this conlict, were deceived. The same spirit driving these
animosities is equally opposed to Christians as to Jews,
and in time will eventually bring persecution to both.
Just as Scripture describes two witnesses that will be
put to death in Jerusalem at the very end of time (Rev.
11), generally the two witnesses that have stood for the
living God throughout history have been the Jews and
the Christians. The presence of the entire Judeo-Christian
ethic, values and testimony is the most assailed religious/
spiritual testimony in todays world and is allowed to
be persecuted with impunity. Too often we hear incidents where such witness exists where violated rights

A biblical assignment and a divine promise summon

our stand in faith, our intercession with expectancy and
our support with promise (Eph. 6:10-20).
We are called to stand with Israel today because we
could be people of the last hour. The Lord has called us
to be people with moral and biblical conviction, walking
wisely and knowing His Word. He will honor those who
make an abiding commitment to stand with the land Hes
called uniquely His. 3
JACK HAYFORD is the founding pastor of The Church On
The Way in Van Nuys, Calif., and founder and chancellor of
The Kings University.

WHAT YOU CAN DO TO STAND FOR ISRAEL

5 practical ways to support Gods chosen people
1) Equip yourself with reliable information,
avoiding bigotry and disallowing blind spots. Recognize the disposition of the popular press. Assess
reports cautiously but not with paranoia. Become
familiar with the basics of history in the Middle
East, and understand the unique dynamics of whats
occurred in the past century.
2) Accept with continuing faithfulness the Bibles
call to pray for the peace of Jerusalem (Ps. 122:6),
and pray that our nation will govern in the light of
Genesis 12:1-3 (I will bless those who bless you ...).
3) Prayerfully consider visiting Israel as a point of
practical support. (See p. 48.)
4) Show friendship toward Jewish people. Affirm
that, as a Christian believer, you stand with Israel as a
point of your Bible-based commitment to God.
5) While acknowledging the terrorist habits of
radical Muslims, be gracious to others who identify
themselves among the people groups in conflict.
Take action because its such a pivotal time. Today
the showdown that we face is so close to becoming
a marshaling of the nations of the earth against
Israel and whoever is left that stands with them. Yet,

MORGUE FILE

ultimately, the final issue will be who is for Christ and

His way and who is not. The Lord has called us to be a
people who will touch people and will stand with moral
and biblical convictions for critical issues. By reason
of whats discussed on these pages, its obvious this is
one of those. Lets take our stand!

BY

MAR

RS
YOA
S
CU

LEFT: JOHN DAVID COOPER | TOP: ISAAC GUERRERO | RIGHT: ISAAC GUERRERO; NAHUM BURGESON | SHUT TERSTOCK

ahum Burgeson had never

Take a virtual tour through the Word of Faith Christian School
held a paintbrush before
Holocaust Museum
attempting what many professional artists wouldnt
dare try. Only 13 years old at the
time, he wanted to convey on canvas
the heart-wrenching pain behind
the Holocaust. He had no fine arts
training and had only begun to learn
about the millions of Jews murdered
during World War II. So he did the
only thing he knew to do: He cried
out to Jesus for help.
Requiring more than 500 hours
of work, his 4-by-4-foot oil painting,
called The Last Witnesses, today
leaves observers speechless with its
detailed rendering of a mountain of
300,000-plus shoeseach unique in color and texture,
tells its own story of remembrance, but also depicts a
representing individual livesfrom an Auschwitz conmultilayered miracle taking place in tiny Spindale, N.C.
centration camp. Holocaust survivors, World War II vetFor starters, the 125-student Word of Faith Christian
erans and international dignitaries have stood before the
School (WFCS) has no art department, no art teacher and
painting and wept, as they have with the other 600-plus
has never even brought in a professional artist to help.
pieces in a Holocaust memorial created by Burgeson and
Instead, students rely on the direct guidance of the Holy
his school classmates.
Spirit through prayer.
Thats because just as each brushstroked shoe repreI know without a doubt it was God that flowed
sents someones life, each piece of artwork in the Word
through us to do this, Burgeson says. When we first
of Faith Christian School Holocaust Museum not only
started, many times we would have a problem getting

Nahum Burgesons
the paintings to
The Last Witnesses
look right. But as we
cried to Jesus, you could see the fruit.
The more and more we cried out, the
better we would get.
Virtually every studentfrom kindergarten- to college-agehas a similar testimony of divine teaching, and
the passion for Israel bleeds through
in each painting, sculpture and model.
The works, all of which are based on
actual photographs, paintings or artifacts, are so impressive that WFCS is
frequently invited to showcase the
massive exhibit around the nation.
To date, the church-based school has
taken the museum on the road (via
multiple 18-wheelers) dozens of times,
from New Mexico to Texas to Florida.
Its been shared at colleges, public
schools, Jewish community centers,
political gatherings and Christians
United for Israel events and has even
been shared with Holocaust survivors
and liberators in Sweden.
I had never seen such work from
students of their age, says Michael
Berenbaum, the founding project

NAHUM BURGESON

WFCS
alumnus
Nahum
Burgeson

A 4-by-6-foot oil
painting of Nazi
soldiers questioning
Jews in 1943 Warsaw

director of the united States Holocaust Memorial Museum

in Washington, d.C. to put it mildly, I was loored. It
showed me what could be done when teachers and students work together and endeavor together to give creative expression to what they study.
Indeed, the project originated from students studying
the Holocaust and, through the Holy Spirits move in the
classroom, their developing a deep-seated love for the
Jewish people. Out of that, God birthed a communal passion to honor what is now a generation literally down to
its last few.
We still have World War II veterans alive who saw the
carnage in the death camps, says Karel Reynolds, director

WFCS StudentS

of the WFCS Holocaust

Museum. We still have Holocaust survivors alive today
who speak to these students and tell them what
happened to them. But soon all we will have left is
their memory. ... the students are well aware that
we must document this history. We must make a
living memorial [so] that people will never forget
what happened in nazi Germany and what happened to the Jewish people.
Observers such as Berenbaum and the many
families with Holocaust connections certainly
appreciate the memorial for its commitment
to continue the legacy of those who sufered.
Yet what most are unaware of is the behindthe-scenes backdrop thats just as remarkable as 125
untrained students suddenly painting masterpieces.

Sharing Persecution
Since 1979, Word of Faith Fellowship, a vibrant Spiritilled church about 70 miles west of Charlotte, n.C., has
endured its own history of persecution. the tight-knit
congregation of 750 people houses WFCS and, for whatever reason, has been a lightning rod for controversy for
more than a decade. death threats. drive-by shootings.
Lawsuits. Investigations. Child abuse allegations. Assault
charges. Boycotts.
the attackssome short-lived, others lasting years and

costing the church millions of dollarshave undoubtedly

left their mark but have yet to destroy believers passion to
see God move.
Amid a season of unusually fierce opposition, including
North Carolinas Department of Social Services taking
custody of some WFCS children, founding co-pastor Jane
Whaley says God reminded the church of the persecution, hatred and anti-Semitism that His chosen people, the
Jews, have so often faced.
All it takes is one lie and one person to believe that
lie for it to spread and have something like the Holocaust
happen, Whaley says.
As the church and school delved deeper into studying
the Holocaust, Whaley says, It took our eyes off ourselves
and put them on God and how He was going to carry
us through this. ... God showed us so much love going
through the persecution that we did, and out of that place
we can impart that love that God has put in our hearts for
the Jewish people. We can reach out and let them know
that God loves them and we love them.
The church not only began to recognize a global resurgence of anti-Semitism, but it also sensed an urgency
to raise a younger generation to discern the times and
understand they could prophetically stand with Israel by
refusing to forgetor reviseHolocaust history.
When you turn on the news today or pick up a
newspaper or listen to whats being said today, you
hear the atrocities that are once again being threatened

WFCS STUDENTS

against the statehood of Israel, Reynolds says. The

students see how living and real history is ... and along
with our pastors, we have purposed in our hearts that
were not going to sit back in our generation. Were
going to stand, were going to support Israel, were
going to speak out and were not going to be silent.
To that degree, Reynolds says every student who

Virtually every
studentfrom
kindergarten- to
college-age
has a similar
testimony of
divine teaching,
and the passion
for Israel bleeds
through in
each painting,
sculpture and
model.
Ninth-grade girls
created a life-size
sculpture of a boy in
Warsaws ghetto

studies at WFCS
WFCS students
collaborated on this
becomes a living oil painting depicting
Hungarian Jews
witness of the
being selected at
truth about the
Auschwitz in 1944
Holocaust. So
far, the schools Spirit-led approach to
education is yielding undeniable fruit:
Students SAt scores regularly rank
among the highest in the region, and
more than 90 percent go on to attend
college (with 95 percent of those
earning honors). Last year, six graduates received full-load scholarships to
law schools around the nation. And all
this from a private school that doesnt
charge tuition, due to what Whaley
says was a directive from God to ensure
the school was an extension of the churchs ministry to
families and the community.

Why Christians?
this ministry mindset continues through the WFCS
Holocaust Museum, as one of the projects most remarkable elements is how God has used it to link the Christian and Jewish communities. Students and leaders have
held exhibits at countless pro-Israel Christian events,
yet some of the most memorable showcases have been
those hosted at synagogues and Jewish community

WFCS StudentS

centers, where rabbis have wept while walking through

the museum and have called it a holy work thats been
ordained by God.
Reynolds says that beyond peoples awe of the artwork
itself, the most common reaction from Jewish observers
especially Holocaust survivorsis a blend of gratitude
and perplexity. She remembers one couple who survived
Auschwitz and married a year after liberation. As they
walked through the Holocaust Museum, their tears lowed
not only from reliving the harsh memories, but also in
disbelief over the question of why anyone would devote

so much to remembering the

horrors theyd been through
and honoring those who
had survived.
They were overwhelmed
that children had done
thisthat young people had devoted so much to
this, Reynolds says. But when they found out they
were Christian young people, they said, Why would
Christians do this? They began to ask some of our
young people, and those young people told them
how much they loved Israel and loved Gods chosen
people and wanted to lay their lives down to speak
out in our generation to bless them, to honor them
and to show them the love of God.
Last year, the Falic family, owners of Duty Free
Americas, sponsored an exhibit at the Michael-Ann
Russell Jewish Community Center in Miami, where
several Holocaust survivors attended and shared stories. Among those was Hungarian Holocaust survivor
Jack Gluck, who had a similar reaction upon discovering the museum: It brought back all of the feelings that I had for the people [who saved me]. I said
to myself, It must have been
WFCS alumna Daniella unbelievable peoplerighCaulder tells visiting
teous Christiansthat saved
students about the
artworks real-life
us. I never had the ability to
history during a 2012
thank any of them, so [when I
exhibition in Miami
Museum Director Karel
Reynolds (second from
right) shows a model
of Jerusalem to rabbis
at a Christians United
for Israel event in
Washington, D.C.

WFCS

WFCS recently
heard about this],
purchased a 9,000I said, I have to
square foot building
for the Holocaust
come back. I
Museums 600-plus
have to see these
pieces
people. Theyre
full of love, full of kindness, and theyre
just beautiful people doing such beautiful things.
Its comments like these that prove
God can take a literal blank canvas or an
actual lump of clay and, even in a childs
hands, mend hearts and meld generations for the sake of His purposes.
And while He is showing Himself to both Christians
and Jews through the WFCS Holocaust Museum, His Spirit
continues to move in that small church in North Carolina
that now puts miracles on display.
We didnt always know what we were doing with the
Holocaust Museum, says Word of Faiths founding copastor Sam Whaley. We just knew God was inspiring us
and leading us to do it. We didnt have any natural ability
to do any of this work, and we didnt have any understanding of the broadness of what it would accomplish or
all the places it would go. We just did it because we knew
God was telling us to. We did it out of our love for the
Jewish people and didnt realize anyone would ever really
see it. But to the glory of God they have.
Its a demonstration of the God who will accomplish

WFCS

His purposes through willing vessels, even when those

vessels dont have the capacity to see the full picture God
doesas was the case with Abraham, Moses and Joseph,
to name but a few individuals in Israels history who took
similar steps of faith.
Were just so thankful God chose us to take part in it
and show our hearts, Sam Whaley says, and hopefully
speak to the whole world about how God wants us to
walk together with and honor the Jewish people. 3
MARCUS YOARS is the editor of Charisma. He has visited
Yad Vashem in Jerusalem and the United States Holocaust
Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., yet his time viewing
the students artwork at the WFCS Holocaust Museum left
him equally as movedand astounded at what the Holy
Spirit can do through yielded vessels.

Where Your
Israel
tionReally
Goes
BY TROY
ANDERSON

An exclusive
report on
the financial
stewardship of
Israel-related
ministries
and how your
donated dollar
breaks down

ISTOCKPHOTO/EWG3D

MORGUEFILE

Israel-related ministries
receive an estimated $210
million in donations each year,
mostly from Christians

t a time when Israel is facing

the threat of nuclear annihilation and many believe the
world is nearing the midnight
hour on Gods prophetic clock, millions
of evangelical Christians are rallying to
support Israel. Even the Jewish communitylong suspicious of conservative, Bible-believing Christiansis
beginning to notice.
The support comes in many forms,
from increased travel to Israel to thousands journeying to Washington, D.C.,
for a festive Night to Honor Israel
event as a part of Christians United for
Israels annual summitand staying
the next day to lobby on Capitol Hill
and ensure the United States remains a
strong ally to Israel.
Many ministries have tapped into this groundswell of
support. Theyve learned that if they highlight end-time
Bible prophecy or anything related to Israel, people seem to
rally more than they do for other pressing issues, such as the
sanctity of life or traditional marriageor even righteous
living, for that matter. Other ministries have sprung up to
take advantage of this newfound interest in the six decades
since Israel became a state. As a result, an estimated $210
million a year flows into Israel-related ministries.

SHUTTERSTOCK/KOBBY DAGAN

Yet Christians interest in Israel is varied and complicated. Much of it stems from an understanding that Israels
formation fulfilled the prophet Isaiahs 2,600-year-old
prophecy that a nation would be born in a day (Is. 66:78). Most believers also carry a biblical understanding that
Israel is key to Gods end-time plan, which includes many
Jewish people becoming believers in Jesus as the Messiah.
While Jews appreciate support from anyone in a world
where they have few allies, it is this last part that gives

most in the Jewish community heartburn.

At the same time, Christians increasing support parallels the noticeable rise of the Messianic Jewish movement
in the past few decades. When Derek Prince, the late Bible
teacher, lived in Israel after World War II, there were almost
no Israeli-born believers in Jesus. Today the latest reports
estimate almost 20,000 and 150 congregations in the
Land (as Eretz Yisrael is called), while globally the reports
range as high as 300,000 Messianic Jewish believers.

When it comes to being wise stewards of what

you give toward Israel, its crucial to understand
some of the glaring misconceptions.
Into this complicated milieu have popped up Israelrelated ministries as diverse as Jews for Jesus, whose purpose is to evangelize Jews, to Christians United for Israel
(CUFI), which promises its Jewish friends they dont need
to fear being proselytized at events. There are compassion
ministries, such as Vision for Israel, and there are activist
movements such as United With Israel. Between these
extremes are ministries that focus on everything from
prophecy and end-time teaching to media and publishing.
This report aims to sort out the basics of whos
who and to diminish widespread confusion over what

some of these ministries actually do. Indeed, there are

considerable diferences among the motives of these
organizations. Yet the average Christian who has a heart
for Israel and wants to bless the Jewish people will often
send a donation to a ministry that touts its support for
Israel without having any idea where that money actually
goes. Worse still, many Christians never bother to bless
Israel because they fail to recognize the importance of
doing soand the confusion over which ministries do
what becomes an easy excuse not to give.
After being aware of these factors and making many
inquiries, Charisma decided to shine a light on some of
the major Israel-related ministries and, speciically, their
inancial stewardship. We researchedas much as we
could, with the ministries cooperationwhere money
is actually going by conducting interviews and pulling
inancial records, all so you can make informed decisions
with your donation. Charismas readership has historically
been among the most loyal and giving Israel supporters in
America, and we want you to be wise stewards as you sow
into what God calls His people and His land.

The Misperceived Rabbi

Wisdom requires discernment. And when it comes to
being wise stewards of what you give toward Israel, its
crucial to understand some of the glaring misconceptions
among Christians. Chief among these is the belief that when
you give to help the Jewish people, your donation actually

aids believers who administer those funds to further the

gospel. The truth is, some organizationsincluding ones
in this reportnot only fail to support Messianic believers,
but often use donations to support initiatives that actually
hinder those brothers and sisters in Christ.
One such example is International Fellowship of Christians and Jews (IFCJ), led by Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein, chief
executive oicer of the Chicago- and Jerusalem-based ministry, who is among the most familiar faces on the Israeli
ministry scene. Eckstein is an orthodox Jewish rabbi from
the Windy City who launched the Fellowship in 1983 with
support from well-known Christian leaders, such as Total
Living Network founder Jerry Rose, the late author Jamie
Buckingham and late Christian publisher Robert Walker.
With the help of Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell, Eckstein also tapped into the interest on Christian TV for
information on Israel and became a ixture at the annual
National Religious Broadcasters convention, pitching
his various programs, from 30-minute infomercials to
teaching series such as Journey to Zion.
Today, programs such as On Wings of Eagles and Guardians of Israel tie directly into supporting IFCJs outreach initiatives while being seen by millions on more than 25 Christian
stations in the U.S. (and dozens more around the world).
For most believers, these programs come across no
diferent than watching Perry Stone or Benny Hinn on
a broadcast airing from Israel, complete with a Bible
teaching about the Holy Land. Eckstein has a charming

demeanor, is telegenic and is an efective communicator.

When he talks about the Torah or Jewish customs, his
teaching comes across like something you might expect
from a Christian teacher.
Thats part of the problem. Many who support him
think hes a nice Messianic rabbi.
Our biggest concern is that a lot of Christians support
his work, thinking they are supporting Messianic Jews
and Messianic ministriesbut hes not a believer, says

Some organizations in this report not only fail

to support Messianic believers, but often use
donations to support initiatives that actually
hinder those brothers and sisters in Christ.
Sue Perlman, associate director of Jews for Jesus. He has
forthrightly said he opposes Jewish evangelism, and when
we tell Christians that, they are shocked because they
have been sending money to him [thinking] that in Jesus
name all this money is going to help Jews come to Israel.
Reaching out to the Christian community and tapping
into its deep love for Israel has not been a wrong strategy
for Eckstein, even if he is an Orthodox Jew. His organization claims to have raised more than $600 million since its
inception, and it has expanded recently to generate more

than $110 million per year in donor money.

Meanwhile, according to 2012 tax returns, Eckstein
raked in more than $530,000 in salary and $670,000-plus
in beneits last year. His total pay is almost ive times the
average direct compensation that executive directors at
similar-sized religious organizations earn, according to a
compensation comparison generated by Linda Lampkin,
the resource director at Economic Research Institute in
Washington, D.C.

People need to be discerning and listen

to God, knowing He is going to bless their
heartfelt gifts to reach Jewish people
in Israeleven if they are misplaced in
organizations like Ecksteins. Sue Perlman
In addition, Mitch Glaser, president of Chosen People
Ministries in New York City, says both his organization and
Jews for Jesus have a global scope unlike IFCJ.
Both [Jews for Jesus] and I lead organizations that do
a lot more than work in Israel and in relief, and Eckstein
and some others only do Israel-related work, Glaser says.
Eckstein is not a believer in Jesus, and his organization
should be viewed as a secular nonproit organization. This
is relected in his remuneration. Believers simply need

to understand the diference. If Christians want to help

Jewish people both physically and spiritually, there are a
number of good options to choose from.
Eckstein did not respond to repeated requests for
comment.
People need to be discerning and listen to God,
knowing He is going to bless their heartfelt gifts to reach
Jewish people in Israeleven if they are misplaced in
organizations like Ecksteins, Perlman says. But its incumbent on us to help inform Christians that if they want to
see Jews come to faith in Jesus, they should be praying
and giving to those organizations that have that as their
No. 1 priority.

Straddling Community Lines

Another example where many unwitting Christians
think they are helping Messianics in Israel is Christians
United for Israel, headed by founder John Hagee and its
executive director, David Brog.
Hagee is undoubtedly the most public face of Christian
support for Israel. Respected in both the evangelical and
Jewish communities, hes even garnered support from
national media celebrities such as Glenn Beck. Politicians
recognize his inluence and curry his support, though this
backired for him when then-presidential candidate John
McCain famously threw Hagee under the bus when a leftleaning Jew accused the pastor of being anti-Semitic. The
charge was entirely unfounded and based on a fallacious

CUFI founder John Hagee

speaks at A Night to
Honor Israel in 2010

misinterpretation of an obscure comment Hagee made in

a sermon years ago.
Interestingly enough, leaders in the Jewish community
were the irst to jump to Hagees defense. They know he
actually may beas conservative Rabbi Aaron Rubinger
from Orlando, Fla., said after attending a CUFI eventthe
best friend Israel has in America. Hagee has long been
an avid supporter of Israel and was inluenced by Derek
Prince and other believers in the 1980s. Since he launched
A Night to Honor Israel in 1981, the events have raised
almost $80 million for humanitarian aid in Israel.
Charisma publisher Steve Strang attended A Night to
Honor Israel in 2004 and was dumbfounded when he saw
checks presented to three groups totaling $2.3 million.
Id never seen anything like it, says Strang, who

JewS FOR JeSUS

was sitting close enough to the recipients to see their

emotional reaction to getting the checks.
To show his love and support for Israel, Hagee gives
the raised money to charities that help the Jewish people.
He makes his decisions on donations with the advice of
Jewish friends. But its well known that none of the money
gets to believers in Israel.
Its a tightrope Hagee has walked for years. Hes friends
with many Messianic believers and is quick to say he is
supportive of believers in Israel. (In fact, several Messianic
leaders were part of CUFIs founding meeting in 2006.) But
to publicly maintain peace with the Jewish community,
which generally rejects Messianics, Hagee keeps his distance, much to the chagrin of the Messianic believers in
Israel who often struggle to raise funds for their ministries.
Hagee also gets Jewish advice from CUFIs own executive director. Brog is the powerhouse behind the Christian
organization, yet hes also a conservative (non-Messianic)
Jew. He brought two other Jews on board: Shari Dollinger
from Atlanta as one of his coordinators and Ari Morgenstern as communications director. Morgenstern ensures
CUFIs messaging is consistent with what Brog wants
which is to convey that evangelical Christians support
Israel, yet (to his Jewish supporters) are also safe because
CUFI will never proselytize.
Brog, who was chief of staf to liberal Sen. Arlen Specter
of Pennsylvania for seven years, is said to run CUFI like a
political campaign. He has talking points, stays focused

and rallies his constituency. Hes well liked by those who

work with him and known for being a brilliant strategist.
But one by one, the higher-proile Christian leaders who
helped Hagee start CUFI are dropping of as the organization becomes more focused on political lobbying.

Its a tightrope Hagee has walked for years.

Hes friends with many Messianic believers ...
But to publicly maintain peace with the Jewish
community, Hagee keeps his distance, much to
the chagrin of the Messianic believers in Israel.
Its no secret that one of the most powerful lobbying
groups in Washington, D.C., the American Israel Public
Afairs Committee (AIPAC), has long wanted a Gentile
arm, and some believe they now have it in CUFI. Jewish
leaders and philanthropists love to attend CUFIs events to
see the genuine enthusiasm and love expressed for Israel.
Though theres still rousing Christian music and prayer at
these events, theres most certainly no proselytizing. As
a result, many wealthy Jews have pumped tens of thousands of dollars into CUFI.
Like Hagee, Brog has learned how to straddle the line
between the evangelical and Jewish communities, and it

shows in CUFIs growth. The organization boasts of having

more than 1 million members, though insiders know
such membership consists of nothing but CUFI having
your email address. Theres nothing to pay, nothing to
sign. And even if you drop out, youre still counted as a
member. Given this, insiders say the number of actual
donors is closer to 30,000 to 50,000.
Meanwhile, little is known about CUFIs inances other
than funds raised. The organization says neither Hagee
nor his wife, Diana, receives any compensation from
CUFI. Yet when Charisma asked CUFI the same questions
asked of other organizations in this reportparticularly
about administrative costs, leader salaries and budgetary
breakdownMorgenstern declined to comment beyond
the following: The focus of Charismas article is on organizations whose missions center on ministry programs
inIsraeland humanitarian aid toIsrael. Having served as
one of CUFIs regional directors, Mr. Strang should be well
aware that CUFIs mission is entirely diferent: CUFIs focus
is on educatingChristiansin America about the biblical
mandate to stand withIsrael. CUFI simply has no place in
this article.
Given the support Charisma readers have given CUFI
since its inception, thats hard to believe.

Faithful With What You Have

Whats equally diicult to believe for most Christians is that there are now more Jews living in the

8,000-square-mile Holy Land than in the entire 3.8 million

square miles of the U.S. For evangelistic ministries like
Jews for Jesus, which celebrated its 40th anniversary in
September, that recent demographic shift and the spiritual openness of Israelis to the gospel demands that missions to the Jews make Israel their No. 1 priority, Perlman
says. We have more missionaries in Israel today than any
other branch of Jews for Jesus around the world, but we
dont have enough.
Because of this need, raising suicient funds to serve
the vision and recruit additional missionaries becomes
even more vital. And with President Obama calling for
limits on charitable tax deductions, Messianic leaders say
its crucial for Israel-related ministries to be good stewards
of donations and to operate without even the appearance
of impropriety.
Although an exorbitant salary and beneit package is
an easy abuse to spot in the world of religious nonproits,
more diicult to determine is whether ministries are actually being good stewards of the donations they receive.
Ive been working with religious nonproits for four
decades, and I can tell you that the vast majority of [them]
operate with a genuine commitment to inancial integrity
and appropriate accountability, says Dan Busby, president of the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability (ECFA). But there are a few exceptions. We say to the
public that when a religious organization spends money in
a manner that may reasonably be perceived by the public

DR. MICHAEL D EvANS

as beneiting its leaders in lavish, extravagant, excessive

and unreasonable ways, that several bad things happen.
First, that kind of conduct damages the organizations
credibility and mission. Secondly, it impacts the credibility
of other organizations and raises the risk that legislators
and regulators will pursue more burdensome legislation.
Busby says its often diicult to determine how and
where ministries spend their funds because there is little
consistency in how the organizations report how much is

When it comes to providing financial

information, there is always a danger of
comparing apples and oranges. Linda Lampkin
spent on administration, fundraising, ministry programs
and humanitarian aid. Lampkin agrees with Busby, saying
there appears to be a bit of creative accounting going on.
Diferent organizations tend to allocate diferently
among programs and administrative expenses because the
incentive is to reduce your administrative expenses and allocate it across all your programsbecause everybody wants
to pay for programs and nobody wants to pay for administration and management, Lampkin says. They have an incentive to report things so they look as eicient as possible.
Yet as Perlman points out, When it comes to providing

inancial information, there is always a danger of

comparing apples and oranges. What one organization
understands as salary and beneits may be diferent than
how another interprets those categories.
For example, Charismas analysis found that within the
category of program services commonly listed on Israelrelated ministries inancial records, the percentage of
expenses ranged from a low of 54 percent (IFCJ) to a high
of 92 percent (Dugit Messianic Outreach Center).
In the case where [IFCJ] reported spending 54 percent
on programs, if we knew they used the same methodology as [Dugit] that spent 92 percent on programs, then
we might be able to draw some conclusions, Busby says.
We might be able to say that one uses their resources
more eiciently than the other. But since the data is so
soft, even the countrys top nonproit attorney testiied
before the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee last
year suggesting the IRS drop program spending from
Form 990 because it was so inefective.

The List
As diicult as it may be to compare eiciency among
ministries, donors can at least be knowledgeable not only
of the types of initiatives covered, but also how money is
being spent. So to help readers pick the best ministries to
support inancially, the following list of 17 Israel-related
ministries highlights how these organizations break down
the dollars Charisma readers often give to them.

International Fellowship of
Christians and Jews
For organizations that operate with a budget well over
$100 million, higher compensation packages among top
leadership is to be expected. But beyond Ecksteins $1.2
million salary and beneit package ($530,514 in base compensation; $673,176 in other beneits), as well as at least
eight leaders earning around $200,000, critics say their
broader concerns about IFCJ involve the percentage of
donations spent on fundraising and a mission that has
nothing to do with reconciling Jewish people to God.
Though oicials at IFCJ (ifcj.org) did not grant interviews or provide inancial information to Charisma, the
organizations 990 tax return shows it collected $113 million in contributions and grants in 2012. In its most recent
evaluation, the independent nonproit company Charity
Navigator reported 54 percent of IFCJs income went to
programs, 7 percent to administration and 39 percent to
fundraising. Charity Navigator gave the organization 43
out of 70 points for inancial health and a perfect 70 out
of 70 for inancial ac countability and transparency. Combined, IFCJ received an overall rating of 51 out of 70 points
(three out of four stars).
Yet not everyone is convinced these ratings accurately
relect IFCJs inancial stewardship.
How can this charity get such a high rating when
over [39 percent] of the funds raised go to fundraising
expenses? one reader on Charity Navigators website

A 1974 Jews
for Jesus
Parade in
New York

I can understand it to a certain extent,

inasmuch as ecksteins approach to Christians, in my opinion, is ambiguous at best
and has misled many in the church who think
he is a Jewish Christian, Brickner wrote. They
do not know that some of the funds rabbi
eckstein collects go to groups that oppose
eforts to tell Jewish people that they need to
know Jesus as Messiah and Lord.

Jews for Jesus

commented. This is certainly not eiciency.
In an auditors report posted on its website, the IfCJ
states its mission is to promote understanding and cooperation between Jews and Christians and to build broad
support and other shared concerns. It is the fellowships
vision that Jews and Christians will reverse their 2,000-year
history of discord and replace it with a relationship marked
by dialogue, understanding, respect and cooperation.
Aside from media programming, the fellowships main
projects include helping Jews make aliyah (return to Israel),
aiding needy Israeli families, assisting the Jewish poor in
the former soviet union and mobilizing Christian support
for Israel. Yet in a Jews for Jesus newsletter in 2007, executive Director David Brickner questioned why so many Christians respond to ecksteins appeals for projects that have
nothing to do with reconciling Jewish people to God.

Jews for Jesus

Celebrating its 40th year of existence,

Jews for Jesus (jewsforjesus.org) reaches out to both
Jews and Gentiles with the gospel through one-on-one
evangelism.
our mission statement, our purpose, has not changed
over all that time, Perlman says. we exist to make the
messiahship of Jesus an unavoidable issue to Jewish
people worldwide. Jews for Jesus is best known as a proclamation ministrywhether its in the public area, on
street corners, on billboards, one-on-one, on campuses,
downtown areas. we are out there meeting the people
who have questions about Jesus, and many of them are
Jewish people.
In 2011, according to an auditors report, Jews for Jesus
received $20 million in donations. of those funds, 16 percent went for administration, 9 percent for fundraising
and 75 percent for evangelism and other ministries.

The ministry uses creative means to find those who

are interested in hearing the gospel, including handing
out more than 8 million hand-lettered pamphletssuch
as I Thought I Was an Olympic Superstar and Jesus Made
Me Koshereach year on the streets. Jews for Jesus also
places ads in secular magazines and newspapers and
on billboards, and publishes evangelistic books such as
Jewish Doctors Meet the Great Physician. The organization
has also released books on prophecy, including Future
Hope: A Jewish Christian Look at the End of the World,
written by Brickner. Perlman says Jews for Jesus has its
best, brightest and youngest staff in Israel today, and the
ministry is committed to growing its presence there as
God provides resources.
People are desperate to hear a message of hope,
Perlman says. For those of us who know Jesus, we have that
message. Our staff is fearless in getting that message out
to others, particularly in places where it can be quite a challenge at times.

Chosen People Ministries

Mitch Glaser, president of Chosen People Ministries
(chosenpeople.com), has a simple rule about how it spends
donations designated for Israel benevolence: We feed
thousands of poor Israelis every month. If somebody
gives $100, $90 will go toward our project of feeding poor
Israelis. Its as simple as it sounds.
Founded in 1894 by Rabbi Leopold Cohn after he

BRIAN CRAWFORD

Chosen People
Ministries
staff shares
the gospel
with the
Jewish people
of Brooklyn
during a
summer
outreach

heard the gospel on the Lower East Side of Manhattan,

the ministry began by offering food, education, job
and English language training programs to poor Jewish
immigrants.
Chosen People Ministries from the beginning always
wedded both benevolence and direct gospel preaching,
as well as planting Messianic congregations, Glaser says.
Today the ministry serves in 13 countries as it evangelizes, disciples and serves Jewish people. In Israel, a nation

where 1 in 5 Israelis lives below the poverty line, the

ministry has several centers that provide food to elderly
and low-income people. It also engagets in various evangelistic outreaches, including eforts on social media
and an Isaiah 53 campaign that features a website
(isaiah53.com), free book (Isaiah 53 Explained) and other
resources to educate Jews about the chapter in Isaiah predicting Jesus cruciixion hundreds of years before it happened. And then, of course, theres the massive awareness
campaign they launched right in the heart of NYC.
We had a 20-by-80-foot billboard going into the Lincoln Tunnel, Glaser says. We had billboards in Times
Square and big signs at bus shelters that said, This
chapter will change your life. We had almost 5,000 people
request the Isaiah 53 Explained book, and we had 10 times
that number come to our website. Weve been following
up and have had a wonderful opportunity to minister
one-on-one, and some Jewish people have come to the
Lord through this.
With $12 million in revenues in 2012, the ministry
spent 71 percent on program services, 11 percent on
administration and 18 percent on fundraising, according
to ECFA.

Christians United for Israel

Despite describing the ministry as the largest proIsrael organization in the United States with over 1 million members, oicials with Christians United for Israel

(cui.org) in San Antonio declined to release any inancial

information or do an interview for this story.
Charisma was also unable to locate any inancial information on CUFIs website or through GuideStar or Charity
Navigator. The organization, whose purpose is to provide
a national association through which every pro-Israel
church, parachurch organization, ministry or individual in
America can speak and act with one voice in support of
Israel in matters related to Biblical issues, is not accredited
by the ECFA.

Jerusalem Prayer Team

Led by founder Mike Evans, the Jerusalem Prayer Team
(jerusalemprayerteam.org) is one of many Israel-related initiatives under an umbrella organization called the Corrie
ten Boom Fellowship. While this fellowship holds weekly
church services in the Dallas area, the Jerusalem Prayer
Team is essentially comprised of an extensive mailing list
that solicits prayers and donations.
Evans is himself half-Jewish, yet he was educated at
an Assemblies of God college. Early in his career he was
known as a Jewish evangelist and once during the 1970s
had the Jewish community in Long Island, N.Y., so up in
arms that his mentor, Jamie Buckingham, had to ly up
and help quell what nearly turned into a riot. Since then,
hes morphed into a New York Times best-selling author
who prides himself on being a journalist.
Yet consistently, those whove worked with Evans

Mike Evans

claim hes hard to nail down. He appears to lead multiple

nonprofit organizations in the U.S., Netherlands and Israel
(according to legal documents), and he has a track record
of reporting on larger-than-life encounters with world
leaders while promising big ventures. His latest is the
Jerusalem World Center, a $15-million, five-story building
in the heart of Israels capital scheduled to open in September 2014.
What funds are needed for this project, however, is a
confusing, albeit frequently highlighted mattermuch of
the Jerusalem Prayer Teams monthly magazine, Called, is

devoted to plans and finances surrounding the Jerusalem

World Center. In the July edition, Evans stated the building
was completely debt-free; the following month, he was
again petitioning partners to give whatever they could
even admonishing those who were cash-strapped to
know that if you have appreciated assetssomething
such as stocks, coins, precious metals, art or real estate
we encourage you to consider gifting these directly to the
Jerusalem Prayer Team. This can provide you a substantial
tax liability savings while blessing our ministry and the
Jewish people in a great way.
Its confusing, often donation-oriented messages like
these that make Evans somewhat controversial and keeps
other ministries at bay. Many charismatic leaders are quick
to say Evans has burned relational bridges with them
often by threatening to sue.
One such instance involved the late Freda Lindsay
of Christ for the Nations Institute (CFNI). Lindsay was on
good terms with Evans until he purchased a key ten Boom
property that CFNI had planned to use for outreach just
as the school was closing the deal. When Evans heard
that Lindsay had publicly criticized him for this, he threatened to sue her. Though he didnt, the conflict resulted
in CFNIs board voting that they would never work with
Evans again.
Neither Evans nor any officials with the Corrie ten Boom
Fellowship, which lists addresses in Phoenix, London and
Colleyville, Texas, responded to requests to provide financial

information or to do an interview with Charisma. However,

the ministry, which has a mission to pray for the peace of
Jerusalem, did submit inancial information with the state
of Washingtons Oice of the Secretary of State showing an
operating budget of almost $10 million in 2012, of which $7
million was revenue. The report indicates that 96 percent of
its $8 million expenses went to program services and that
no one had received contributions that year, though the
state would not verify any of this information.
On its 990 tax return in 2011, the Corrie ten Boom Fellowship reported nearly $5 million in donations, of which
88 percent was spent on program services, 3 percent on
management and general expenses and 10 percent on
fundraising. Though this same tax return listed Evans as
unpaid while his wife, Carolyn, is listed as president and
reported $2,605 in compensation, the Evans upscale
home in Colleyville, Texaswhere neighbors clearly make
multiple six-igure incomesindicates whats on paper
isnt the full story.

Christian Friends of Israel-Jerusalem

As one of the three largest pro-Israel ministries in the
world with headquarters in Jerusalem and representatives
around the world, Christian Friends of Israel-Jerusalem (cijerusalem.org) serves as a ministry of reconciliation with the
Jewish people. It has welcomed more than 250,000 Jewish
people to their homeland through the organizations distribution center near the Jerusalem Central Bus Station.

The ministry, founded in 1985, was present in Israel

when the dry bones began to walk homeespecially
from the land of the north, says Sharon Sanders, who
co-founded CFI with her husband, Ray.
After 2,000 years of Gentile Christian persecution of the
Jewish people, often in the name of Jesus, we are the face of
Jesus which they have never seen, she says. Our compassion, service, love and care relect Him and the love of God,
something they have never very often known in the past.

We are undoing damage done by the

historical church to the Jewish people
in the name of Jesus.Sharon Sanders
We are undoing damage done by the historical church to
the Jewish people in the name of Jesus. We are moving out
of the way the stones of stumbling that have been placed
there by the historical anti-Semitic church and are preparing
the way for Him. We believe that true believers in the Jewish
Messiah, Yeshua [Jesus], have come into the commonwealth
of Israel [Eph. 2:12] through Him and that we are to provoke
the Jewish people to holy envy [Rom. 11:11-14].
The ministry declined to report how much in donations
it receives each year. However, Sanders says 47 percent
of the budget goes toward humanitarian aid; 26 percent

Barry Segal (center)

distributes backpacks
illed with school
supplies to children
as part of Vision
for Israels ongoing
outreach to the
Holy Lands poor

to outreach projects; 22 percent to overhead (including

3.7 percent for ray sanders salary and 2.7 percent for her
salary); 6 percent for publishing and media products; and
1.5 percent for development and public relations.

Vision for Israel

operating a multifaceted ministry dedicated to the
physical and spiritual restoration of Zion, vision for israel
(visionforisrael.com) and the Joseph storehouse distribute
humanitarian aid to poor people and those devastated
by rocket attacks while ofering biblical education, praise
and worship music, and news through the Jerusalem
news network.

vision for israel

since 1998, weve helped over 600,000 israelis, both

Jews and arabs, says Barry segal, president of vision for
israel and the Joseph storehouse, which is based out
of Jerusalem and has an oice in Charlotte, n.C. a lot
of people in previous years have perceived israel as a
modern, wealthy nation that doesnt have social problems
and poor people. a lot of Christians we have met, especially in america, who fall in love with israel ... its almost
like israel can do no wrong and doesnt have any problems. Thats not the truth. in israel, 1 out of 3 children is
living under the poverty line, and about 1 in 4 adults are
living under the poverty line.
To fund its ministries, vision for israel receives about

$3 million in annual donations. Of this money, Segal says,

depending on the ministrys branch, 2 to 11 percent is
spent on administration, 4 to 6 percent on fundraising and
the rest goes to humanitarian aid and other ministries.
Segal says 100 percent of designated income goes to designated projects.
I think its important for people to partner with Messianic Jewish ministries in Israel because it holds up
our arms to do the work, whether its humanitarian aid,
teaching the Scriptures, being a blessing to our neighbors
or being an example in business or military service or any
other segment of society, he says. This strengthens the
testimony of who we arethat were not just doing physical acts of good deeds, but we are also expressing our
faith as the opportunities arise.

DVDs, and social media); medical, dental and eye clinics

in Ethiopia and India; Jewish music and dance festivals;
church plants; and a network of ministry speakers.
Our irst objective is to proclaim the gospel to the Jew
irst and also to the nations, according to Romans 1:16,
Bernis says. Our second objective is to equip you, the
church, by providing education about the Hebraic roots
of your faith, your responsibility to Israel and the Jewish
people, and how you can share Israels Messiah with the

Our first objective is to proclaim the gospel

to the Jew first and also to the nations,
according to Romans 1:16. Jonathan Bernis

Jewish Voice Ministries International

A multifaceted Messianic ministry, Jewish Voice Ministries International (jewishvoice.org) formed through
the merging of two distinct ministries from two distinct
Messianic ministers: the late healing evangelist Louis
Kaplan, who launched a radio and TV ministry in 1967,
and Rabbi Jonathan Bernis, who held mass evangelistic
crusades throughout Eastern Europe and Russia. Since
Kaplans death in 1998 and the merger in 2001, Bernis has
expanded Jewish Voice Ministries International (JVMI) to
include a weekly TV show airing around the world; various
media outlets (magazine, newsletter, books, CDs and

Jewish people.
JVMI brought in more than $21 million in 2012 from
donations, products and other sources, and an auditors report lists almost $32 million in total assets (which
includes property and investments). The same report
shows the ministrys program services account for almost
$11 million of last years $16 million expenditures
approximately 69 percent. Administrative expenses
account for almost $2 million (12.5 percent of total
expenses), while the Bernis-led organization spent $3

million in fundraising (19 percent).

For the past two years, the ECFA-accredited ministry
has been among the highest-ranked organizations by
Charity Navigator, and it earned an overall score of 61 out
70 in 2011, the most recently ranked year.

International Christian Embassy Jerusalem

The International Christian Embassy Jerusalem
(us.icej.org) is a global ministry representing churches,
denominations and Christians worldwide who share a
love and concern for Israel and who seek to repair the historic breach between the church and the Jewish people.
From its Jerusalem headquarters, the work of the ICEJ
reaches into more than 140 countries, including established branch oices in more than 70 nations worldwide.
For more than 30 years, this work has impacted villages and cities across the Holy Land with a benevolence
ministry that has helped the poor, ministered to the sick,
housed the lonely, encouraged the children and cared
for the elderly, according to Daryl Hedding, the ministrys
U.S. deputy director. Our Feast of Tabernacles celebration,
Israels largest annual tourist event, has impacted more
than 100,000 Christians with the biblical perspective of
recognizing the hand of God in Israels modern-day restoration, as well as the need to work with what God is doing
and bless it. Weve also assisted more than 120,000 Jews in
making aliyah and immigrating to Israel.
The Christian Embassy is known for its exceptional

educational work. Through a team of international

speakers, its publications and website, as well as an array of
seminars and small-group study curricula, it has provided
the global movement of Christian support for Israel a irm
biblical foundation and understanding of the complex
issues regarding Israel, anti-Semitism, Jewish-Christian
relations and Middle East events. In fact, through a special
partnership with Yad Vashem, Israels Holocaust Memorial
and Remembrance Center, the ICEJ is educating Christians

The International Christian Embassy Jerusalem

has assisted more than 120,000 Jews in
making aliyah and immigrating to Israel.
to recognize anti-Semitism and how to stand against it.
The ICEJs infrastructure includes independent branch
oices, and so assessing overall inancial numbers for
the ICEJ is diicult. The U.S. branch, with oices in Murfreesboro, Tenn., raised $1.5 million in donations in 2011,
according to the ministrys 990 tax return, and spent 68
percent on programs, while 24 percent went to administration and 9 percent to fundraising.
Charity Navigator awarded the ICEJ U.S. branch 50 out
of 70 points for inancial health and 37 out of 70 for inancial accountability and transparency. Overall, the ministry

earned a score of 43 out of 70 points.

Susan Michael, director of the ICEJs U.S. Branch, said,
Its a shame that by limiting a ministry to a point system,
people arent getting the full story not only of what each
branch oice does, but also the entire scope of the ICEJ,
which is powerfully impacting thousands of lives in Israel
and providing a critical voice in the nations on behalf of
the Jewish people.

We also help support Arab and Ethiopian

congregations, as well as our own Spirit-illed, Hebrewspeaking congregation in downtown Tel Aviv, he says,
adding that after 18 years of pastoring Tiferet Yeshua, the

This is the best time in our lifetime

to reach Israelis! Ari Sorko-Ram

Maoz Israel Ministries

Headquartered in Tel Aviv, Israel, since 1976, Maoz
Israel Ministries (maozisrael.org) is one of the pioneering
ministries of Messianic Judaism in Israel. The ministry, led
by Ari and Shira Sorko-Ram, is committed to reaching
every Israeli with the Good News of their Messiah. Their
tools: publishing books in Hebrew, CDs by contemporary
Messianic worship artists, evangelism outreach, video
productions, social media, humanitarian aid through local
Messianic congregations and leadership training.
This is the best time in our lifetime to reach Israelis! says
AriSorko-Ram.We now are able to partner with leaders
all over the nation to help them reach our next-generation
leaders, impact Messianic music, sponsor leadership conferences and provide practical assistance to those communities under daily duress of attack. We now are making inroads
to touch Israelis in the marketplaceKnesset members,
ireighters, IDF soldiers and poor immigrantsas well as
through our benevolence outreach, istandwithisrael.com.

couple has passed the baton to Asher Intrater and is now

developing an online Hebrew outreach site (viewthis.com)
to reach Israels tech-driven younger generations.
Leaders across the globe depend each month on
theMaoz Israel Report, still written by Ari and Shira, to get
in-depth understanding of current events in the Middle
East from a biblical, political and cultural perspective.
The ministry, which also has oices in the U.S., Canada,
England, Germany, Brazil and Mexico, received nearly $3.7
million in donations in 2012. Of those funds, 5 percent
went to administration, 5 percent to development and 90
percent to program services.

Eagles Wings Ministries

More than just an Israel-related ministry, Eagles Wings is
a global missional community that serves to touch Israel

and the nations with the hope and love of God, to train
the next generation of Christian leaders, and to unite and
empower believers to make a diference in the world.
Based outside Bufalo, N.Y., the ministry has hubs in the
New York City area, Karlsruhe, Germany, and Jerusalem, and
includes nearly 40 full-time team members and an international family of partners, volunteers and friends. Though
Eagles Wings is involved in a variety of strategic projects
around the world, with a unique emphasis on interfaith dialogue and humanitarian care, its Holy Land ties include a
Watchmen on the Wall program that equips Christians to
be articulate spokespeople for Israel and furthers their education through prayer pilgrimages to The Land.
Founder and Executive Director Robert Stearns also
launched The Day of Prayer for the Peace of Jerusalem in
2003, which is now observed every year on the irst Sunday
in October by millions of believers in more than 175 nations.
Eagles Wings latest 990 tax returns from the previous
two years were not available through GuideStar; however,
its 2010 form stated the ministry brought in $2.4 million in
donations that year, of which 67 percent went to program
services and 24 percent went to overhead.

Messianic Jewish Israel Fund

As a unique ministry that supports Jewish believers
in Yeshua within the Messianic body in Israel, the
Messianic Jewish Israel Fund (mjif.org) functions as a
vehicle for Messianic believers in the Diaspora (those

living outside Israel) and Christians to join with Jewish

believers in Israel to provide the assistance they need.
Donations to the fund go towardtemporary living
expenses for poor families, job training, medical and
emergency funding, a womens shelter, soup kitchen,
school supplies, Holocaust survivors, support for struggling congregations, spiritual and inancial support for
the poor, and so much more.
What makes the MJIF so unique is that nearly all of the
funds it raises go directly to believers in Israel, says Executive Director Dotti Solomon. Many organizations raise
funds that go to the general population, which is also
important.However, the believing community in Israel is
in great need of support, as it is very diicult for them.The
MJIF is there for these brothers and sisters to lend a
helping hand.Support has gone to not just one Israeli
ministry, individualor congregation, but hundreds over
the years.All is done with the accountability of believing
leaders in Israel.
The Roswell, Ga.-based MJIF is actually a semi-autonomous subsidiary of the Messianic Jewish Alliance of
America (MJAA) in Philadelphia, which is accredited by
the ECFA. According to 2012 records, this parent organization brought in more than $9 million in revenue, of
which 83 percent went to program services, 10 percent
for administrative costs and 7 percent for fundraising.
Since its inception, the MJIF has seen more than $3 million
raised to bless believers in Israel.

Bridges for Peace

As a Jerusalem-based, Bible-believing Christian
organization supporting Israel and building relationships
between Christians and Jews worldwide, Bridges for Peace
(bridgesforpeace.com) ofers 14 diferent ministries. These
range from several tangible projects, including food banks
in Israel that provide food to 30,000 people every month,
to a program that helps new immigrants during their irst
year in Israel.
Bridges for Peace has two areas of work that our board
has determined are important, says Jim Solberg, the U.S.
national director of the organization. One is showing
unconditional love to people in the nation of Israel and
Jewish people around the world. And the other is an educational ministry, reaching and teaching the church around
the world to highlight the importance of understanding the
Hebraic roots of Jesus and the New Testament.
In 2011, the ministry collected $4.3 million in donations,
according to its 990 tax return. Of those funds, 7 percent
was spent on administration, 11 percent on fundraising
and 83 percent on ministry programs. Charity Navigator
gave the ministry 48 out of 70 points for inancial health
and a near-perfect 67 out of 70 for inancial accountability
and transparency. Overall, the ministry earned a score of 54
out of 70 points (three out of four stars).
Our overall target is to spend about 10 percent of the
dollars on what we consider overhead, Solberg says. The
other thing important to reference is that we totally honor

donor designations. If a donor says, These dollars are

given for food, then those ministry dollars go for food.

One for Israel

One for Israel (oneforisrael.org), a ministry uniquely
designed to support media evangelism among Hebrewspeaking Jews and Arabs in Israel, shares the gospel in
Israel via the Internet and multimedia projects.

We believe that it is very important to feed our

poor and stand with Israel politically. Eitan Bar

We believe that it is very important to feed our poor

and stand with Israel politically, says Eitan Bar, co-founder
of One for Israel and media director at Israel College of
the Bible. However, the single best and most important
way to support Israel is by sharing Yeshua with Israeli Jews
and Arabsand that is what we at oneforisrael.org are all
about: Israeli Jews who share the gospel with our own
brothers and sisters in a relevant way via media.
In an email interview, Bar said the ministry spent
$229,445 over the last three years on online Web ads,
evangelistic advertising, conferences and training, travel,
equipment, and other expenses.

Dugit Messianic
Outreach Center, led
by Avi Mizrachi (right),
supplies free Hebrew
Bibles and evangelistic
materials to unbelievers

none of our donations go into salaries or anyones

pocket, for that matter (i think we are pretty unique in that
matter), Bar said. all our staf is in charge of raising their
own support.

Dugit Messianic Ministries

Dugit Messianic Outreach center (dugit.org) operates
in the heart of downtown tel aviv and reaches out to the
lost sheep of israel by sharing the gospel.
according to the organizations website, its business is

Dugit Messianic Ministries

to minister to the mass population of israelis who bring

a wide spectrum of views and beliefs of their own, thus
making them open to receiving the gospel.
Launched in 1993 by avi Mizrachi, Dugit supplies
free Bibles and evangelistic materials to unbelievers in
Hebrew, arabic and russian. its agape Distribution center
provides food and clothing to more than 80 israeli families
in need each month, and the ministry runs in conjunction
with adonai roi congregation, which Mizrachi pastors.
although the ministry did not follow through on

requests for an interview and

inancial information, its 990 tax
return shows that in 2011, Dugit
received $564,550 in contributions.
Of its total budget, 8 percent was
spent on administration and 92 percent on program services.

American Friends
of Leket Israel
Dedicated to supporting Leket
Israel (leket.org), Israels largest
food bank and food rescue network, American Friends of Leket
Israel has a mission to alleviate the
problem of nutritional insecurity
through the rescue and redistribution of excess food to beneit Israels needy. It is not ailiated with
Jewish or non-Jewish believers but
is simply a relief agency with major inluence in the Holy
Land.
Like other ministries featured in this story, oicials
with the Teaneck, N.J.-based organization declined to
be interviewed for this story or provide other requested
information.
Its 2011 tax return shows it collected almost $3.5
million in donations. Of those funds, 5 percent went

LekeT ISrAeL

to administration, 9 percent to
fundraising and 86 percent to
programs.

Holy Land Community

The late Arni Adams founded
the Holy Land Community
(holylandcommunity.org), a social network of pro-Israel Christians who,
together with Israelis, are creating a
worldwide alliance, with the purpose of
saving Israel and helping the children of
God to live in the Promised Land.
Oicials with Holy Land Community
in San Bernardino, Calif., could not be
reached for comment. The GuideStar
Leket Israel is Israels
database lists the ministry as a regislargest food bank and
tered nonproit but includes no 990 tax
food rescue network
returns. The website mentions the ministrys funding comes from donations
and land it sells on the shores of the Sea of Galilee as gifts
for silver weddings, births and other occasions. 3
An award-winning reporter and editorial writer at theLos
Angeles Daily News, The Press-Enterprise and other
newspapers for two decades, TROY ANDERSON writes
for Reuters,Newsmax,Charismaand many other media
outlets. He lives in Irvine, Calif.

Behind the Investigation

How we came up with this report
Given the magnitude and importance of the mission
of Israel-related ministriesand in an effort to help
promote financial transparency, integrity in fundraising
efforts and the proper use of donationsCharisma
requested financial information from 17 Israel-related
ministries. To begin its seven-month investigation into
the financial stewardship of these ministries, Charisma
requested financial information from each organization, along with an interview with its president or lead
representative. We also obtained the 990 tax returns
that some of the ministries voluntarily filed with GuideStar, which tracks the finances of more than 1.8 million IRS-recognized nonprofits. Under federal law,
ministries are not required to publicly disclose tax
returns, but some do so voluntarily to be financially
transparent.
In its examination of ministry finances, Charisma
also consulted with the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability (ECFA), which accredits various
ministries, and Charity Navigator, an independent nonprofit organization that evaluates American charities.
Of the 17 ministries, the following seven are accredited
by ECFA: Chosen People Ministries, Jews for Jesus,
Christian Friends of Israel, Bridges for Peace, Maoz

SHUTTERSTOCK/ALAN BAILEY

Israel, Jewish Voice Ministries International and the

Messianic Jewish Israel Fund.
Having worked with many of the ministries in the
past and seen their fruit up close through the years,
Charismas intent was not to dig up any figurative
buried skeletons, but instead to inform our readers as
to the unique vision, purpose and scope of ministry for
each organization. We believe financial stewardship
goes hand in hand with this and, as a result, celebrate
those Israel-related ministries that are taking every
precaution to be faithful with what God has given them.

Leader Compensation
How much are those in charge of these Israel-related ministries actually making?
Its often implied that any leader of a nonprofit
ministry or organization who earns more than Mother
Teresa is somehow gouging the public. Obviously, that
isnt true. Running a large organizationwhether a
college, a hospital or a churchis complicated and
requires hard work. By not paying market-rate salaries, the talent needed to run such organizations tends
to go to where he or she can be compensated commensurate with his or her ability. Even Jesus said a
laborer is worthy of his wages (Luke 10:7).
Some organizations dont like to reveal what their
leaders make, however, because they fear donations would decrease if people knew. In the world of
Christian ministries, thats especially trueas proven
by such examples as the short-lived scandal surrounding Franklin Grahams compensation package
as the head of both Samaritans Purse and the Billy
Graham Evangelistic Association.
At the same time, in American culture there is a
feeling that some financial matters should be out in
the open. For example, its required by law that the
public knows the salaries of elected officials. And

SHUTTERSTOCK/ALAN BAILEY

those who
run a publicly
owned comJonathan
pany must
Bernis
publicize the
salaries of top
management
so investors
can make
investing
decisions
based on
whether they
feel those
leaders are looking out for the investor or themselves.
Even the Bible says people do things differently in
the light than in darkness. So in that spirit, Charisma
inquired about the salaries of some of the ministries
leaders.
We found ministry leaders pay ranged from zero
to a high of $1.2 million for Yechiel Eckstein, of the
International Fellowship of Christians and Jews. By

comparison, leaders from three of the other largest

Israel-related ministries earned substantially less:
Jonathan Bernis earned $224,233 in total compensation (salary and benefits), Jews for Jesus Executive Director David Brickner earned $200,000 and
Chosen People Ministries President Mitch Glaser
earned $174,767. (The salary and benefit package of

Christians United for Israel Executive Director David

Brog could not be obtained.)
Among the other ministries, no salary was above
$90,500. And with Ecksteins removed from the equation, the average salary of those leaders willing to disclose their compensationand including those who
take no salarywas $85,856.

Worth His Weight in Gold?

Why Yechiel Ecksteins salary matters
As the head of a nonprofit that is almost entirely
supported by donations, what makes Yechiel Ecksteins compensation noteworthy is its proportion to
his organizations overall income compared to other
ministries.
While the salary and benefit package of the head
of the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews
(ICFJ) is at least five times higher than any other
leader of an Israel-related ministry, clocking in at $1.2
million, Ecksteins compensation is more than double
what the president of World Visiona ministry with a
budget 10 times largerearns. World Visions Richard
Stearns earned $456,718 in salary and benefits in
2011, according to the organizations tax return. But
World Vision has a $1 billion annual budget, whereas
last year IFCJs budget was $113 million.
Meanwhile, Billy Graham, founder of the Billy
Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA), earned
$228,448 in total compensation in 2011, and his son,
Franklin Graham, president of BGEA, earned $115,307.
The organization is similar in size to the IFCJ with $92
million in revenues in 2011.
Linda Lampkin, resource director for the Economic
T H E I N T E R N AT I O N A L F E L LO W S H I P O F C H R I S T I A N S A N D J E W S

Research
Institute
office in
Washington,
D.C., calculated the
Yechiel
average
Eckstein
direct compensation for executive directors at similar-sized religious
organizations and found Ecksteins pay is well above
the average, which is $276,807. The computer-generated comparison showed executive directors at
organizations with similar-sized budgets$100-$110
millionearned anywhere from $163,675 to $389,938
annually.
It is fair to say an executive director at a religious
organization who makes nearly $500,000 annually in
direct compensation and also has significant other
compensation is paid well outside the mean ranges
of executive directors at similar organizations with an
approximate $100 million to $110 million in revenues,
Lampkin told Charisma.

While the global growth of the Messianic

Jewish movement is a living sign of the times,
the development of a pioneering Messianic
Bible translation is equally momentous.
Could this versionnow being used in
synagogues around the worldmark a true
end-times move of the Holy Spirit in Israel?
BY JIM FLETCHER

MORGUEFILE

LIGHTSTOCK/PEARL

hen American
Watch Ray Gannon and Jonathan Bernis from Jewish Voice discuss why the
missionary Levi Parsons
first Messianic Bible translation, the Tree of Life version, is so important
stood inside Jerusalems famed Jaffa Gate
in 1821, the place was choked with
sheepherders, a few colorful merchants and much more poverty than
the young man from Massachusetts
had ever seen. He knew the task
before him and his friend, Pliny Fisk,
would require courage,
perseverance and much prayer.
Theyd come to convert both Jews
and Arabs in this seemingly godforsaken placea place Mark Twain, a
half-century later, would describe as a
dreary, hopeless place, in reference
to what was then called Palestine.
Though both missionaries would die
prophetic. In part, he said, Destroy, then, the Ottoman
in the harsh conditions of the Middle East within a few
Empire, and nothing but a miracle would prevent [the
years, Parsons and Fisk were pioneers in a work so extraorJewish peoples] immediate return from the four winds
dinary and supernatural, one imagines they would be
of heaven.
giddy with delight today at the subsequent results of their
Today, when a visitor stands at Jaffa Gatecrammed
courageous first step.
with taxis, souvenir vendors and a strange mixture of
A Prophetic Word
Orthodox Jews and Palestiniansthe Old City is alive in
The Sunday before their departure, Parsons preached
ways Parsons and Fisk could scarcely imagine. That very
at Park Street Church in Boston, and his sermon proved
destruction of the Ottoman Empire Parsons described is

now behind us in history and, among other things, has

opened the way wide for a glorious reality: the spiritual
restoration of national Israel.
Scripture is illed with prophecies concerning this
reality (see, for instance, Ezekiel 37), and it so happens
we are seeing its fulillment today, almost 200 years after
Fisk and Parsons braved the Atlantic, ierce bandits and
disease to see salvation brought to the Jewsand the
present-day acceleration of this move of God has glory
written all over it.
In his description of the missionary movement in the
Mideast region during the 19th century, Michael Oren, in
his book Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle
East, states that during one 40-year period, missionaries counted 30 total converts out of 20 million souls
in the Ottoman Empire. Longtime supporters of the socalled Messianic Movement calculate there are perhaps
300,000 Jews worldwide who now believe in Jesus as the
Messiah. Much fruit is being harvested among indigenous
Arab populations too.

A Language to Call Their Own

The rise in Jewish converts has many Christian leaders
excited today, and this wave of momentum is buoyed by
a startling development: the worlds irst Messianic Jewish
translation of the New Testament, called Tree of Life: The
New Covenant (TLV), published by the Messianic Jewish
Family Bible Project and led by Daniah Greenberg, Jefrey

Seif and Daniel Kurzweil.

Whats more, Greenberg and her team are
nearing the end of a multiyear project to craft a
translation of the full Bible
speciically for Messianic
Jewish believers.
These Bible translations
are a key turning point
in prophetic history, and
Greenberg and her team
know it.
This is really about the
Tree of Life
children and generations
of Jewish kids who grew
up and needed a Bible, she says. We put it on YouVersion
and have seen 1.3 million chapter downloads just for the
New Covenant since November.
Seif, distinguished professor of Bible and Jewish
studies at The Kings University and project manager for
the translation, says of this Bible project that is openly
called a miracle by those close to it, Scores of Jewish
people have come to faith in Jesus in the last 30 years.
Emerging now, as a result of a number of those faithilled Jews responding to the call to go to seminary, is a
cadre of Messianic Jewish scholars minded to help others
see Him more clearlyas a Jew. One of the fruits of this

development is a brand-new, joint-venture translation

of Scripture produced entirely by dozens of Messianic
Jewish scholars and friends. ... Much as the New Testament
itself is a collective of Jewish voices on Jesus, so too, after
2,000 years, Messianic Jews have now collectively ofered
sage insights on how to better read and understand the
entire Bible.
Greenberg and her team, in the end, will have spent
ive years and raised $750,000 to bring the entire Jewish
Bibleknown as the Tanakhto completion.

A Tipping Point?
But its not just that more and more Jews are coming to
believe in Jesus as the Messiah or that a new Bible translation is giving them access to the Scriptures in a language
native to their Jewish sensibilities and understanding.
Its that many leaders in the Messianic movement now
say the convergence of these things marks a signiicant
moment in history.
Jack Hayford, the legendary evangelical leader whose
heart is closely connected to the Messianic community
and whom Greenberg says has called the release of the
TLV a sovereign moment, well remembers the embryonic
evangelistic eforts among Jews now decades past.
I know for a fact 40 years ago, when I went to Israel
the irst time, conversions were rare, he says. Dr. Robert
Lindsey told me back in 1970 that if they had one convert
in a year [among Israeli Jews], it was considered a good

year. Today its not unreasonable at allas we keep Acts 2

in focusthat the Lord is adding daily to believers among
the Jews.
The conversion rate in Israeland worldwideis just
one reason Hayford enthusiastically supports the work
of the Bible translation team, saying it carries the dual
importance of speaking to Jews in their own language but
also carrying real value for Gentile families. Hayford has

Today its not unreasonable at allas we keep

Acts 2 in focusthat the Lord is adding daily
to believers among the Jews. Jack Hayford

long recognized that rank-and-ile evangelicals know little

about the Jewish roots of their faith, and the TLV can help
overcome that.
The TLV is an explosive, prophetically fulilling tool
for speaking at this hour as an available resource for the
Jewish community globally, he says. It was meticulously
crafted to help a Jewish audience, but any Bible reader
would beneit from it.
Hayford, given his years working with the Messianic
community, intuitively understands the signiicance of the

Bible project and where we are in world history.

Theres no question that there is an increase [in
conversions] in many ways, he says. One reason is the
global move of the Holy Spirit, and in that its impossible
to assess it and not see it as very strong and likely evidence that we are seeing a reasonably rapid move toward
the climax of all things. Just take Israel, alone, back in
the land.

Hebraic thinking was far more dominant

in [the New Testament writers] expression
of biblical faith than their exposure to a
Hellenistic mindset. Wayne Hilsden
Hayford also notices a hunger for the Word of God,
which fuels belief: I think the term I will discuss is not
seeing them as conversions but as people who hold to the
revelation of Jesus as the Messiah. Use of terminology has
a lot to do with how Messianic Jews see themselves and
limits their witness because other Jews who dont know
the Savior would see it as converting to Christianity and
not understanding who the Messiah is. Jesus didnt come
to bring Christianity but to bring people to the Father.
It is that reality that fuels the work of the Greenbergs,

their staf, Hayford and others who have followed in the

footsteps of those original pioneers in the land. One of
those is Wayne Hilsden, pastor of King of Kings Community in Jerusalem, who has a front-row seat to watchand
participateas this historic moment in history unfolds.
King of Kings is the largest Messianic fellowship in Israel,
and Hilsden, while not Messianic himself, has led it for
30 years.
Frankly, up until we received our call in 1981 to serve
in Israel, I had little or no interest in Hebrew roots, he says.
That was 32 years ago, 18 months before we moved to
Israel from Canada. Ever since that call, Ive had a passion
for digging into the Scriptures and the Hebraic milieu in
which they were written.
Hilsden, who completed a master of divinity degree at
the University of Toronto, says New Testament Greek was a
required course in his studies, but Old Testament Hebrew
was only an elective. Having passed on Hebrew studies
altogether, he says hes had to play catch-up the last
three decades now that the Hebraic background of the
Scriptures and the modern Hebrew language comprise a
majority of his work and day-to-day interactions.
In all this, Hilsden has come to realize the importance
of the Jewish mindset on our collective understanding of
the Old and New Testaments.
In my seminary studies, there was an underlying
assumption that New Testament writers such as Paul
and John were more inluenced by Greek culture and

philosophy than their own Jewish heritage, he says. Ive

now come to see that Hebraic thinking was far more dominant in their expression of biblical faith than their exposure to a Hellenistic mindset.
As such, one cannot help but consider the TLV translation an important contribution, again, to the Jewish and
Gentile understanding of the Scriptures.
Truly, in Jerusalem, observers can see the fulillment of
what Hayford knows is the fulillment of prophecy, culminating in the spiritual restoration of the chosen people.
Hilsden is excited to see that up close.
We see the early Jerusalem congregation as our primary model [at King of Kings], but we are far more multiethnic than they were, he says. The irst congregation in
Jerusalem was almost exclusively Jewish. It took the Jerusalem congregation many years to break out of its Jewish
cocoon. Persecution and scattering were the catalysts
to get these early Jewish believers to spread the gospel
beyond Jerusalem and Judea.
The church in Antioch is also a model we look to, in
the way that it was multinational and apostolicsending,
missionalin nature.
King of Kings has carved out a special placeand a
safe placefor believers in Israel to congregate.
We ... strive to follow the ideal of a one new man
congregation as envisioned by Paul in Ephesians 2:11-22.

In King of Kings Community, we have Jewish, Arab and

internationals in fellowship together. The Arab sector has
been the smallest segment, but in recent years, more Arab
believers are joining our ranks and feeling at home.

The Fullness of Time Is Here

Before his young, sacriicial life was cut short, Levi Parsons wrote to his mission board, As it respects gaining
and imparting information, this is indeed the center of the
world. The station must not be relinquished. The door is
already open. Diiculties must be expected; but the good
resulting from a mission established here will be an ininite reward.
The station has not been relinquished. Rather, it has
expanded. That reality excites believers and missionaries
working in various ields, and the expectations are palpable. The growing numbers of believers among Jews and
Arabsalong with the glorious unveiling of the TLV
signal we are living in momentous times.
It is a time Levi Parsons and Pliny Fisk longed to see. 3
JIM FLETCHER is director of Prophecy Matters
(prophecymatters.com) and can be reached at
jim@prophecymatters.com. He writes for online sites,
including RaptureReady, the Jerusalem Post and Beliefnet.

A GENTILE WITH A HEART FOR ISRAEL

Daniah Greenberg has a megaphone in [her] spirit to bring the Word of God to the Jews in a language all their own. But why?

Just as early American missionaries were Gentiles

with a heart for Gods chosen people, so too is Daniah
Greenberg, president of the Messianic Jewish Family
Bible Project that published the first Messianic translation of the New Testament, committed to the people
of Israelfirst because, in 1989, she married a nice
Jewish boy; and second because, as the mother of
three children, she now considers herself a mother
of Israel.
Greenberg, who grew up loving Jesus, says her faith
went through bumps and challenges as she got older.
After a conversion experience in college, which happened in a single visit to a Baptist church, she says she
finally understood the gospel.
Then, when she married Mark Greenberg, she discovered the Lord had more plans for their life.
I got involved in the Messianic community the first
year we were married, when my daughter was born,
Daniah Greenberg recalls. We had met a Messianic
rabbi, and I wasnt attached to a congregation.
That rabbi was none other than Jonathan Bernis

of Jewish Voice Ministries International, whom

Greenberg says invited them into a journey of studying
the Scriptures and Messianic prophecies. When Bernis
asked a simple but profound questionWhy do we
believe the
Bible?Greenberg says she
was off and running toward
the calling that
has since been
placed upon
her life to make
the Scriptures
more widely
available to a
Jewish audience.
I started
studying why
Daniah
we believe the
Greenberg
Bible is real,

she says, reflecting on her response to that burning

question. We know that 300 versions of Socrates
works exist, but thousands of pieces of physical evidence exist that the Bible is true.
Andso goes the implicationno one doubts that
Socrates existed.
It was a moment for Greenberg that cemented the
Bible in reality, and it led to the monumental work she

makes of her life today. What began as a translation

effort for a childrens Bible turned into the work of a
family Bible, as well as a translation of the Bible that
utilizes Hebrew sentence structure, Messiah Yeshua in
place of Jesus Christ, faith as a verb instead of a noun,
and shalom in place of peace.
Today, the Tree of Life translation is used in synagogues around the world.

BY WAYNE HILSDEN

ISTOCKPHTO/LUOMAN; JCARILLET; LASER143; EXTREME-PHOTOGRAPHER

PHOTO CREDIT

PHOTO CREDIT

IN LIGHT OF A
FEW COMMON
OBJECTIONS TO
TRAVELING TO
THE HOLY LAND,
HERE ARE SOME
TRUTHS THAT
SHOULD COMPEL
YOU TO GO

Top 7
Reasons
Why You Need
to Visit Israel

his summer marks our 30th year as pastors

at King of Kings Community in Jerusalem.
My wife, Ann, and I still pinch ourselves
because we get to do this!
From time to time, Ive toured Israel with newbies, and often theyre pastors. Its fascinating to
get a fresh look at Israel throughtheireyes and to
watch their childlike excitement.
I often hear them say, Why didnt I come years
ago? A few have even confessed theyd unwittingly told some lies in their sermons due to their
ignorance about the land of the Bible.
And just recently, George O. Wood, the general
superintendent of the Assemblies of God, preached
for us at King of Kings. Hes been to Israel more
than 40 times! We were encouraged to learn hes
initiated a program to enable every Bible student in
the AG denomination to get to Israel at least once
in their lives.
Excited yet? Here are my top seven reasons you
really need to visit Israelespecially if youre a pastor or
Bible teacher.
1) The pages of your Bible will be made even more
alive and real.This is where Abraham trekked, Joshua
battled, David reigned and the Son of God lived, died,
rose and ascended.
After seeing the land and people, youll teach the Bible
with more accuracy and confidence.

Watch a virtual tour of Israel and find out

the best places for Christians to visit

When well-known pastor Mark Batterson of the

National Community Church in Washington, D.C., came to
Israel for thefirsttime this year, he tweeted, One revelation from our trip to Israel? I read the Bible wrong! Just
knowing the geography adds nuances of meaning. Text +
context = aha!
After youve scanned the topography, heard the
sounds, breathed the air and smelled the scents, youll

paint the backdrop of a biblical narrative with more

vivid colors.
2) A visit to Israel will enable you to pray more
intelligently for the Middle East.Israel is the epicenter of a conflict as old as the patriarchs. CNN and
Fox News cant convey the whole picture.
coming to the land will enable you to better understand the realities.
a visit to Israel will also allow you to meet with Jews
and arabs. Youll get to know their faces and namesas

Istockphoto/stevenallan

well as their storiesand this will inspire you topray for

the peace of Jerusalem(ps. 122:6).
3) You can hear fresh and exciting testimonies
from local believers about how God is at work in
Israel today.Many will tell you how the Lord revealed
Himself in a dream or vision. Local ministry leaders
will share how the body of Christ has grown tenfold in
Israel in the last 20 years.
Getting to know christs body in this land will introduce you to ways you and your church can partner with

local ministriesand receive blessings in return. (See

Genesis 12:3.)
4) A trip to Israel will increase your level of faith
for your nation.The blessing of God is on Israel. Its
very existence is a miracleyouve got to see with your
eyes to believe.
Friends who return to Israel every few years marvel
at the progress thats been made since their last visit.

After seeing the land, youll paint the backdrop

of biblical narrative with more vivid colors.

Israel is a shining example not only of how tosurvive but

thriveagainst all odds.
With limited natural resources, a microscopic piece of
real estate, and existential threats of war and terrorism,
the only explanation of Israels success is God.
5) Israel is teeming with history and culture.Whether visiting archaeological sites, roaming
museums or spending an evening with the Israel Philharmonic, you will be enriched.
6) Israel is a great place for a vacation. Youre
going to spend money on a vacation anyway, right?
We have one of the most ideal climates in the world.

If you come in the winter, its possible to ski the

snow-peaked Mount Hermon in the morning and
swim with the dolphins along the coral beaches of the
Red Sea in the afternoon. We have three remarkable
seasthe Med, the Red and the Deadand, of course,
the Sea of Galilee, around which the Lord did much of
His public ministry.
7) You could even visit Israel for free.Yes, I said
free.Most travel companies offer a free trip for every
seven to 10 people you bring with you.Now whats
your excuse?
If youre a serious Bible teacher or student of the
Word, youve probably spent thousands of dollars on
theological education. Youve invested in building your
library. And you continue to spend money on resources
to keep you current. In other words, you know the value
of investing money in the best tools of your trade. Heres a
thought: Amortize the cost of a trip to Israel over 50 years
of ministry, and its peanuts!
I am convinced that a visit to Israel is a wise investment
in every senseincluding your ministry and those you
serve. Arent you convinced now too? 3
Along with his wife, Ann, WAYNE HILSDEN has been a
resident of Jerusalem since 1983 and is the senior pastor
of King of Kings Community. He leads the King of Kings
ministry team, preaches regularly in Jerusalem and travels
internationally speaking on the restoration of Israel.

Empower

For more reviews,

teachings and
Resources, go to
charismamag.com

Resources for Spirit-led Living

Woman Of Faith Presents Gateway Worship: A Collection

Gateway Worship (EMI)

This collaborative effort between Gateway Worship and Women of Faith includes an
extended version of Revelation Song and draws from a diverse group of worship
leaders and songwriters.

JOINING FORCES:
Gateway Worship
and Women
of Faith come
together to create
a new sound

Empower

Gods Double Agent

Bob Fu with Nancy French

Baker Books
This true account of a Chinese
pastors arrest, imprisonment
and escape as a member of the
underground church in China
gives us a glimpse into the lives of
the millions of Chinese Christians
living out their faith in secret due
to the persecution they face.
Hillsong Young & Free

Overwhelmed
by the Spirit

We Are Young & Free

Hillsong Young & Free

Hillsong
Produced by the youth ministry of Hillsong
Church in Sydney, this new album marks an effort
to reach the next generation for Christ.

James Maloney
Destiny Image
Prophetic minister James
Maloney helps Spirit-filled
believers understand the
Holy Spirit and discover
their gifts and callings.

Empower

Break Out!

Joel Osteen
FaithWords
In his latest book,
subtitled Five Keys
to Go Beyond Your
Barriers and Live an
Extraordinary Life,
Joel
the televangelist
Osteen
and New York
Times best-selling
author explains how
to break free of unbelief,
increase productivity, improve relationships
and accomplish your dreams.

Day 7

Barry and Batya Segal

Greetings From Jerusalem
This Messianic praise and
worship album is Barry and Batya
Segals seventh. Sung in mostly
Hebrew, the music is used for
both dance and worship.

Empower
Amanda and Aaron Crabb

What Happens
When I Die?
Bill Wiese (Charisma House)
The best-selling author of 23
Minutes in Hell tackles questions
about the afterlife while using
Scripture to validate compelling
stories of peoples visits to
heaven and hell.

Return to Me
(The Restoration
Chronicles)

Aaron and Amanda Crabb (Spring House)

Lynn Austin (Bethany House)

After their studio release of Mercy in April, the

live DVD version hits stands this month, showcasing
the fourth album for this husband-and-wife duo.

This fictional series brings to

life Ezra and Nehemiah through
the stories of Iddo and Zechariah.

Mercy (Live)

Empower
Reviews

GRANT
UNVEILED:
Natalie Grant
says her
eighth album,
created out of
postpartum
depression,
is her most
personal
to date

Empower
Hurricane
Natalie Grant (Curb Records)
Five-time Dove Award-winning Female Vocalist of the
Year Natalie Grant has been through a personal storm and
now brings her experience to what she calls her most
personal record to date. Curb Records releases Hurricane,
Grants first project in three years, on Oct. 15.
As a mother of three, Grant suffered with postpartum
depression following the birth of her youngest daughter.
She struggled in that darkness while still touring for nearly
two years until she began the creative process for the new
release. And though her initial plan was to record 10 songs
selected by her record company, she found herself inspired
again.
It completely switched around and I ended up writing
more, she says. Its just like the Lord when I planned it
one way and it went the opposite, like a creative dam
broke. This record was like therapy for me.
Title track Hurricane was inspired by Grants personal
life, as well as the story of Jesus walking on the water in the
storm. The single was released in May and has become the
fastest-rising single of Grants career, striking a chord with
listeners looking for hope while facing their own storms.
Since her debut release in 1999, Grant has been

consistent in her music

projects and touring.
Fourteen years later,
she is still focused on
making an impact on
the culture in which
her three young girls
will be raised.
This is a time when it could be easy for anyone to [stop
and] say, Its been a great career, she says. As a mom
to three young girls, one of the reasons I want fresh music
and relevant messages is because of them. Theyre going
to be looking to the girls Im impacting right now.
Though many of the songs are weighty, Hurricane is still
upbeat in outlook and tempo. As a self-described popmusic junkie, Grant wanted to make fresh, relevant
songs for todays listeners.
I wasnt trying to reinvent myself, but right now
Im more sure of who I am than ever before, she says.
Mostly, I was overwhelmed and in a dark space, [but] this
record is a result of hope. I wanted that to be reflected in
this record. DeWayne Hamby

Empower
The Glorious Unfolding
Steven Curtis Chapman
Reunion Records
More than 25 years after his debut project released, singer-songwriter
Steven Curtis Chapman continues to inspire and entertain listeners with his
trademark acoustic pop songs.
The Glorious Unfolding, Chapmans latest release, places the artist back in
familiar territory as he alternates between up-tempo pop rock and heartfelt
ballads interlaced with messages of hope and encouragement.
The project opens with the rousing title track, followed by the albums
bouncy first single, Love Take Me Over, but mellows with the affirming
Finish What He Started and One and Only You, a companion piece to
Chapmans classic Fingerprint of God. Something Beautiful ventures into
modern pop with a message of grace and redemption.
Years after the tragic passing of his daughter, Maria Sue, the promise of
heaven and seeing her again is still felt in See You in a Little While, A Little
More Time and Michael and Maria. As is his tradition, Chapman includes a
love song to his wife, Mary Beth, with the piano ballad Together.
Chapmans music is consistent if nothing else, even as the landscape of
the music industry has changed and his ministry has evolved. The Glorious
Unfolding is decidedly not a reinvention but a new collection of songs that
fits well in Chapmans impressive catalog of hits. DeWayne Hamby

Empower
The Judas Goat
Perry Stone
Charisma House
Best-selling author Perry Stone once again brings new insight to an
often-overlooked topic with his latest release, The Judas Goat. In this
captivating page-turner, the Bible teacher identifies the characteristics of
so-called friends who would betray you in an instant.
Through the example of a Judas goatan actual term for a goat
that lives among sheep to grow their trust in following him to the
slaughterhouse at the appropriate timePerry unlocks a spiritual
revelation that unveils the trap of false friendships, betrayal and
unforgiveness.
Using additional comparisons to the first churches of the Bible, Stone
exposes the old goats that wreak havoc in todays church.
New and mature Christians alike learn how to cultivate authentic
fellowship within the local church body from this message that offers a
now word to which we can all relate. Will Bolden

Empower
Finding Your Hearts Desire: Ambition,
Motivation and True Success
R. T. Kendall
Chosen Books
What drives us to do what were called to do? Ambition.
R.T. Kendalls latest release, Finding Your Hearts Desire, explains this
human propensity propelling our hidden agendas. Though ambition is
neither good nor evil, God uses it to encourage us to please Himto make
pleasing Him the driving desire of our hearts. As we fulfill Gods will and
plan for our lives, Kendall says, it yields a heavenly reward to be given when
we stand before the judgment seat of Christ.
Kendall motivates us to bypass the applause of man and seek the praise
of God as we become aware of our hidden motives and develop into godly
thinkers. The former pastor also challenges us to understand ourselves
better, learn to be patient and non-judgmental with each other, and to use
our ambition to gloryify God.
Ultimately, true satisfaction will not be found in egocentric endeavors
but in lives that position themselves to serve Gods interests. Self-seeking
profit only forfeits the greatest reward of allGods approval. This book
reminds us that more of God should be our highest aim. Ibelisse Sanchez

Empower
Taken by Grace
Pure Flix
Sometimes forgiveness is extremely tough to come byand the enemys lies make
it even more challenging, as the Pure Publicity film Taken by Grace reveals.
Lucas (Angus Macfadyen, Braveheart), an unbeliever, has lived with an unforgiving
heart since he went to prison, harboring ill will against Trig, the man who killed his son.
Now this father is bent on revenge.
Upon being released from prison, Lucas violates his parole by breaking into a house
and stealing a gun and a bottle of whiskeybut nothing else. Later that evening, at a
campsite, he encounters Shawn (Bradley Dorsey) and his wife, Carrie (Haylie Duff ), a
young Christian couple struggling in their marriage due to Shawns infidelity.
After kidnapping the couple and forcing them to take him to find Trig, Lucas
learns of Shawns adultery and mocks the couples feeble attempt at reconciliation.
Forgiveness, he says, is simply not possible with peopleeven those who believe in
Godwhen someone has been so hurt by another.
Yet when theyre faced with the reality of dying, the couple realizes forgiveness
indeed is possible with God. As they search for grace within themselves, they begin to
feel sympathy for their kidnapper. Lucas, however, continues in his intent to kill Trig.
While the film includes only mild violence and no inappropriate language, the
drama may be a bit intense for a younger audience. The potential threat of violence
looms large throughout the movie due to Lucas unpredictability.
A suprise ending helps make Taken by Grace, set for release Oct. 15 on DVD, a
must-see. And with a compelling story, it reminds us that Gods grace is enoughand
that He can heal any situation and even the most shattered heart. Shawn Akers

Fire in My Bones
BY J. LEE GRADY

Stop Talking Trash!

I never thought Id see the day when Christians would justify swearing

lived a sheltered life growing up.

My Christian parents allowed me
to watch a re-release of Gone With
the Wind at the local theater when
I was 12, and my virgin ears were
scandalized when Rhett Butler told
Scarlett, Frankly, my dear, I dont
give a damn. I had never heard such
languageand I knew that if I ever
talked like Rhett Butler in my house, I
would get a Southern-style whipping.
Fast-forward to today, when

SEAN ROBERTS

profanity has so saturated our culture

that dirty words are unavoidable.
Dropping the F-bomb is a daily
habit for millions of Americans. Jesse
Sheidlower, the editor-at-large of
the Oxford English Dictionary, says
the F-word has lost its shock value.
He says, For most people, its hardly
noticeable anymore.
Today students wear WTF?
T-shirts to school. Ive seen the
F-word indelibly tattooed on peoples

arms in dark ink. Ive heard guys and

girls alike use the F-word more than
15 times in a sentence to simply
describe their day. Theres even a
mock childrens book titled Go the F--to Sleep that was one of the fastestselling titles on Amazon in 2011.
Whats going on here?
Music has certainly played a role
in forcing the F-word on us. (Listen,
if you dare, to any popular hip-hop
artist for proof of this nastiness.) One

song by the rock band Limp Bizkit a

few years ago featured the F-word
50 times. American rapper CeeLo
Green released a song in 2010 called
F--- You, and it was nominated
for a Grammy Award. Meanwhile,
the Motion Picture Association of
America recently relaxed its ratings code to allow more uses of the
F-word in PG-13 movies. (The old rule
only allowed one F-bomb per ilm.)
Im not going on a crusade to
wash out our nations potty mouth.
We live in a free country. And besides,
I dont expect non-Christians to talk
like Sunday school teachers. But at
the risk of sounding like a prude,
I think true believers need to be
reminded that its not OK to talk trash.
This certainly goes for preachers
no matter how young and trendy
they are.
I honestly never thought Id see
the day when Christians would justify

swearing. But it was only inevitable,

since many popular preachers have
emphasized greasy grace while
overlooking our serious lack of

Dropping the F-bomb

is a daily habit for
millions of Americans.

discipleship. The underlying message

these days is: Dont be religious or
legalistic. We have to be relevant to
the culture.
The implied meaning is: Go
ahead and talk dirty. God doesnt
care. Maybe when non-Christians
hear you swearing, they wont label
you a religious nut. Im not buying
that line for three reasons:

1) Filthy talk deiles you and

those around you. Jesus said it is
not what goes into the mouth of a
person that deiles him, but what
comes out of his mouth (Matt. 15:11).
Then the apostle Paul wrote, Let
no corrupting talk come out of your
mouths (Eph. 4:29, ESV). The word
corrupting here refers to rotten fruit
or rancid ish. Filthy talk stinks! Dirty
words have the power to soil you
and the rancid odor will linger in
your soul.
2) Obscene or crude language is
a relection of your inner character.
British preacher Charles Spurgeon
once said, Beware of everyone who
swears: He who would blaspheme his
Maker would make no bones of lying
or stealing.
Ephesians 5:4 says ilthy talk or
crude joking are not beitting a
Christian (ASV). The NIV translates
it this way: Nor should there be

obscenity, foolish talk or coarse

joking, which are out of place. If a
Christian deiantly insists on talking
trash, he has revealed deeper laws
and cant be trusted.
3) Rough language is a sign of
an unsurrendered will. The psalmist
wrote, Set a guard, O Lord, over my
mouth; keep watch over the door
of my lips! (Ps. 141:3, ESV). Mature
Christians invite the Holy Spirit to

inspect every area of their lives:

attitudes, thoughts, grudges and
addictionsas well as coarse language. If you insist on holding on to
carnal habits, you are quenching the
Spirits ire and limiting the low of
His anointing in your life.
The prophet Isaiah recognized
that he was a man of unclean
lips who lived among a people
of unclean lips (Is. 6:5). After his

repentance, an angel touched his lips

with the hot coal of Gods holiness.
We need this miracle today if we
want to speak for God. He wants to
use our mouths as channels of His
life and blessing, but we will never be
His prophets if we talk like the world.
Let the Holy Spirit clean up your
conversation.

J. LEE GRADY was editor of Charisma for 11 years. He now serves as contributing editor while devoting more time to ministry. You
can ind him on Twitter at @leegrady or online at themordecaiproject.org. His newest book is Fearless Daughters of the Bible.

Click to return to the Table of Contents

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