Church and Israel

In this article we’ll look at the connection between the timing of strategic events in Israel and the growth of the Church, with particular reference to the growth of Jewish believers.  God’s promise to Israel was this:

This is what the sovereign Lord says: I will take the Israelites out of the nations where they have gone.  I will gather them from all around and bring them back into their own land.  I will make them one nation in the land (Ezek 37:21)

While these words (and other similar prophecies by Isaiah and Jeremiah) were partially fulfilled in the days of Cyrus in ancient Persia, they were not completely fulfilled at that time.  A future fulfilment awaited.  We need to look at much more recent history.

The return of the Jews to Palestine, as it was then called, from the lands in which they were scattered for the best part of 2000 years, began in earnest towards the end of the 19^th century largely as a result of widespread pogroms in Eastern Europe.  The official Zionist movement, however, was started by Theodor Herzl, a secular Jew, in 1897.  From that time on, thousands of Jews at a time have immigrated to Palestine, and still more are today. 

Besides fulfilling biblical prophecy by returning to the land, it’s interesting to note that statistics show that of all the born-again Christians who have ever lived (i.e. since the time of Jesus) 70% have come to faith since the year Zionism was established - a fact we believe to be highly significant. 

There is a correlation between the prophetic destiny of Israel and the prophetic destiny of the true Church, the Bride of Christ.  To prove the point, the great spiritual revivals of the late 19^th and 20^th centuries - the Welsh Revival and the Pentecostal Movement, for example - broke out at exactly the same time as the Zionist movement was gaining ground and political moves were taking place to create a homeland for the Jews (even though it didn’t happen for another half century).

At the inception of Zionism at the turn of the 20^th century, just 3% of Africans would have called themselves Christian.  Yet, as a result of the work of missions large and small, today over 50% identify with the Christian faith.  In South Korea, 1% of the population would have called themselves Christian back in 1897, yet today believers count for closer to 40%.  The largest Church in the world is in Seoul, Korea, with over 700,000 members! 

Even more remarkably, 70% of the 70% of believers who have come to faith since 1897, have come to faith since 1948 – the year in which Israel became a nation.  So there has been a clear escalation in the growth of the Church worldwide since that time.  Arguably the most far-reaching spiritual revivals have broken out in the years since Israel became a nation again – in particular, the Jesus Movement, and the Charismatic Movement.

Since 1948, the organic, often persecuted and underground Bride of Christ has certainly mushroomed.   In China, for example, the organic Church consisted of an estimated one million believers.  By the time of Israel’s jubilee 50 years later, when Westerners were able to contact the underground Church, there was a thriving community of faith at least 80 million strong.  That represents an increase of 8,000%!  Some believe the number today to be around 150 million, and growing at a rate of over 10 million a year.  All this, since she was forced underground in 1947 – just as the final plans for Israel to become a nation were being put in place.

An article in The Times this week (22 September 2014) indicates that the world’s fastest growing Church today is Iran’s Christian community – rising by 20% a year!  Despite sporadic waves of persecution, and forced underground, the Christian community is estimated at about 400,000, and is swelling rapidly.

In contrast, since the turn of the 20^th century the institutional church in the West has become generally more liberal.  The difference between the growth of the true Church and the growth of apostasy in the institutional church is stark. 

The existence of God came into question back in the late 19^th century, fuelled by Darwin’s theory of evolution, and the growing conviction that rational science negated the need for a ‘God’.  Secular humanism began to rule the day.  Traditional church-goers got disillusioned, especially after two world wars, and so the ‘Christian’ nature of Britain diminished.

Alongside this, the uniqueness and deity of Jesus also began to be questioned.  For example, at the turn of the century, Albert Schweitzer published ‘The Quest for the Historical Jesus’ which questioned Jesus’ motives behind going to the cross.  Later, Rudolph Bultmann questioned biblical history in his ‘New Testament and Mythology’ in 1942. 

Whilst scholars and theologians were publishing their doubts, and continued to do so avidly in successive decades, thus fuelling the national uncertainty about their traditional Christian beliefs, the response of the institutional church was, sadly, disappointing.  As congregations dwindled, and the church seemed irrelevant and unable to address the challenges of the day, the church devised programmes in order to be more culturally relevant and appealing – often compromising the orthodox faith in the process. 

Then, in the year that Israel became a nation, the World Council of Churches was formed.  With the agenda of uniting the institutional church with other world religions, it has developed in subsequent years into a tool supporting the One World Religion – a far cry from the rule and reign of Jesus as King of Kings which the historical events in Israel we’re talking about point to.

In the years since 1948, the Modern era in the West has given way to the Postmodern.  Britain has moved from being largely secular to neo-pagan, embracing endless forms of spirituality far removed from the God of the Bible.  Today the UK is not post-Christian, but anti-Christian.  Believers are increasingly being marginalised and silenced.  The institutional church is struggling for its very survival, having embraced liberalism in many respects.  Liberalism has also hit the organic Church as some Emergent leaders have compromised biblical orthodoxy in favour of the ‘all roads lead to God’ philosophy.  But while liberalism and deception have spread since Israel became a nation again, the true Church has flourished. 

Let’s look again at 1967, the year that Jerusalem was returned to Israel, and the next most strategic event to occur in Israel.  Some important things happened that year which are signs that the kingdom of God is forcefully advancing. 

1967 is the year in which the Jesus Movement began.  This wave of the Holy Spirit attracted many Jewish young people, for the first time.  He opened their eyes to see that Jesus Christ was the promised Messiah spoken of throughout the scriptures, and they became Messianic believers.  There were no Messianic communities before that, but Messianic communities began to spring up from then on, and continue to grow in number.  We believe this to be what Paul was referring to when he said:

Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in (Rom 11:25)

Since 1967, the number of Jewish Church leaders worldwide has grown - and there will be more!

As if to counter this strategic move of the Spirit, this is also the year that abortion was decriminalised in the West.  We are firmly convinced that this was Satan’s response to such a major blow to his agenda.  Be sure that when there is a fresh thrust in God’s purposes, Satan always targets the children!  Remember Pharaoh’s strategy in Moses’ day, and Herod’s when Jesus was born.

If we want to understand the times we need to look for the correlation between events fulfilling Israel’s prophetic destiny and the prophetic destiny of the true Church.  Significant events in Israel have a global impact on salvation history and even though there have been counter-attacks by Satan, God’s purposes are on track and Jesus’ return to rule and reign is now close at hand. 

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