Within the last 5-10 years, we have seen a dramatic change in the spiritual landscape of Israel. The numbers of new believers are shooting up and almost every congregation is growing. The congregation I went to actually doubled! What is going on?
Most of the testimonies of new believers show that at least part of their journey to Jesus involved a search on the internet. About 10 years ago, websites and videos explaining the gospel in Hebrew were created by Israelis. Just over 5 years ago they started really gaining serious traction. Even though there are only 9 million people living in Israel (20% Arab, most of the rest Jewish), these evangelistic videos have been viewed over 25 million times! Moreover, there have been major breakthroughs in Jewish-Arab relations among the believers, in significant part because Jewish and Arab pastors came to study together at Israel College of the Bible.
There is now media outreach in Arabic as well as Hebrew being sent out from Israel College of the Bible, and we are seeing people from all over the Middle East responding – particularly in Gaza. We even have an ex-Al Qaeda member enrolled at Israel College of the Bible in our distance learning programme! The numbers of Israelis coming to faith and the unity between Jews and Arabs in Jesus are extraordinary to see. For a long time, there has been a real chasm of misunderstanding between the church and Israel, with few Christians understanding much of Jewish history or God’s plans for Israel in the future, and few Jewish people understanding the true message of the Gospel.
You can find out more about all these topics at www.oneforisrael.org, the website for the Bible College and media outreach centre in Israel. Please join us in prayer as God is moving so powerfully in these days!
Please pray for:
- Reconciliation between more Jewish people and their Messiah
- Reconciliation between more Jewish and Arab believers
- Reconciliation between Israel and the church
Source: www.oneforisrael.org
