March 22, 2018 Show with Stephen Atkinson on “Jewish Mission: the Biblical Mandate, the Historic Hopefulness & the Providential Provision”

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Cumberland County, Pennsylvania Lake City, Florida and the rest of humanity living on the planet Earth who are listening via live streaming at iron sharpens iron radio .com

This is Chris Arnton your host of iron sharpens iron radio wishing you all a happy Thursday on this 22nd day of March 2018

I'm so delighted to have back in the studio after nearly a year my dear friend

Stephen Atkinson who is the North American director of a Christian witness to Israel and It's my honor and privilege to have you back here right next to me brother

Stephen. Thank you, Chris It's so good to be here today and just to visit with you again. So glad to get caught up Amen, and it's so much better than doing this over the phone

Indeed and not only is the sound quality better when you're sitting here, but it's also a much nicer time of fellowship

I'm looking Very much to get together with you and my new associate pastor at Grace Baptist Church in Carlisle Simon O'Maney Who is from the

Republic of Ireland? I know that you are from Northern Ireland you are an Ulsterman and we promise not to fight

Exactly. Yeah, you took the words out of my mouth We'll take away all the sharp eating implements away from and both of you, but you're both

Protestant though. Anyway, so But I want to give right away our email address here

If anybody would like to join us on the air with a question of your own our email address is Chris Arnzen at gmail .com

Chris Arnzen at gmail .com Please give us your first name at least your city and state and your country of residence

If indeed you live outside of the USA, please only remain anonymous if your question involves a personal and private matter

That's Chris Arnzen at gmail .com chris arnzen at gmail .com

and You have already given your testimony But it was quite a while ago when you gave your personal testimony of how you came to saving faith in Christ but since we are now on first love radio a new reformed network and There are a lot of people

I'm sure not only because of that But we seem to be getting new listeners joining the iron trip and Zion radio audience nearly every day

In fact, we may be getting them every day and I'm just not hearing about it every day but I am hearing reports from people all over the world nearly every day and So there are a lot of people who are

I'm sure unfamiliar with you. Why don't you give? Stephen before we go into What Christian witness to Israel is and so on let's hear something about your own story growing up in Northern Ireland.

Well, I grew up in in Bangor, Northern Ireland in a church -going family

I went to church probably about four times a week if not five times a week to various events

I sang in the church choir from age six. I played badminton.

I Went to a uniformed organization and I was at church Really? It was my social life.

Did you say badminton? I did. Okay, but you pronounced it different badminton badminton That was my you're talking about the the thing with the birdies the it's like a table tennis kind of a thing almost

Yeah, but don't but don't criticize us because that's our an extreme sport Realize that that was my most athletic.

Those were my most athletic days Actually, it wouldn't be table tennis it'd be more like volleyball but with a birdie

Okay, right so I all that to say

I grew up within the church but I Was I was not converted?

I was just a child of the church and in some ways and in The way in the wisdom and care of my parents

I was protected under the orbit of church life, but when

I was about 16, we had a very evangelical youth group in the church and It was at that time that there were quite a number of serious discussions between myself and several others and particularly our intern assistant pastor and At that point

I came to saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and I confessed him as my Lord and Savior and I Was young what you know, what did

I know at that point? But in the Lord's grace and providence, he preserved me and guided me to Further reading and further study and further equipping for the ministry to which he would ultimately call me

And so I'm thankful for my my parents guidance and protection in that though They would indeed say themselves of them both of them have passed, but they would have said that they did not come to faith themselves until after I became a preacher and All these things are in the perfect providence of God and I'm very grateful growing up in in Northern Ireland Which is really

Bible Belt Europe. It's a very strong evangelical community In the north of Ireland so I'm looking forward to seeing my brother from the south of Ireland and I can put on a

Dublin accent if he really Wanted me to and then we can really talk proper together but no,

I'm from the the north now my accents all over the place now anyway, because I've spent too many years in in America and So I need to hone that accent back to the the

Scots Irish Ulster the Ulster Scots. Yes Well now you could tell our listeners about Christian witness to Israel also known as CWI and of course

Your North American division of it. Well, I I you know Going back to the the earlier part of the story.

I I came I went into the ministry very early in life and again had a lot to learn but the

Lord's call was very clear on my life and I entered the the

Presbyterian ministry and then the later the evangelical Presbyterian ministry ministered in Cambridge in England as well as in various parts of Northern Ireland But after about 18 years of regular pastoral ministry,

I got a phone call out of the blue asking me to consider Becoming the deputation secretary for Ireland for Christian witness to Israel.

And so this was a whole Change of ministry, although I had read Puritan hope in my seminary days.

I had a theological That's the book on by Iain Murray. That's correct, which it's interesting that a lot of in fact nearly all postmillennialists

Claim that almost as their handbook and yet Iain Murray is an amillennialist. Yeah. Well As with all of us,

I I'm I'm not sure that all of us have a completely defined position

Whether it's amill, amill with optimistic leanings, amill with postmill leanings and some unanswered premill questions

We we all tend to be in there in the mix. And I think sometimes we we categorize people somewhat too easily and Where the whole thing is a little bit more complicated.

So in my own position, I would place myself in the optimistic amill But I do have those longings

Those those that Puritan hope and very much ally myself with and we'll come on to that maybe later in the show, but Our our forefathers and are those theological giants that we know and love

Many of them had a strong Aspiration and a strong hopefulness regarding the

Jewish people and their salvation. So I I came into that very

Very much green. I really didn't know very much about it, but I was I Wanted to learn and I had the theological longing and now

I wanted to see in practice What was actually happening on the ground with regard to reaching our Jewish neighbors with the gospel of Jesus and it just has thrilled me

I've been 14 years now with Christian Witness to Israel on both sides of the pond and I just day by day by day go increasingly

A greater passion and enthusiasm for the ministry of reaching our

Jewish neighbors for Christ now, I know that This this will dumbfound many involved in messianic ministry across the globe

But Christian Witness to Israel is a decidedly and specifically a theologically reformed

Mission to the Jews. Yeah, and people think that's oxymoronic they think what do you talking about Calvinists and reformed people don't care at all about the

Jews and Sometimes that might be true, but that's not universally true obviously and The Christian Witness for Israel also you mentioned that you are an optimistic on Millennials They do not hold to any specific eschatological position.

Yeah, we don't accept that we hold to a reformed position so our staff all would you know sign to one of the reformed confessions and but we don't take a specific eschatological position because our bottom line is we want to see

Jewish people saved and that again is the biblical position and none of none of the reformed confessions

Hold to a specific Eschatology no, no and you know, I'm PCA and the

Westminster Confession Doesn't hold to a specific eschatological position But it does have the aspiration and it does have the a very specific longing for Jewish people to hear the gospel and to come to the

Lord and I think that's what I want us to return to my beef if we can call it that with with with dispensationalism is is largely the fruit of particularly radical dispensationalism where the fruit of that leads into all kinds of distractions pertaining to Gospel mission to the

Jewish people so we get more interested in land issues than in the Lord or we get more interested in a rapture than the

Redeemer or we get more interested in knowing the specific secret or the timeline or We get distracted on a ton of different areas and the bottom line is

Jewish people do not hear the gospel You know if we're selling books and reading books on the latest insight into the end times

What has that got to do with Romans 10 1? What does that got to do with the biblical mandate of longing for and praying for and intentionally?

seeking the salvation of the Jewish people and Therefore, you know my burden my reformed burden and Corporately CW eyes reformed burden is simply a biblical burden to reach the

Jewish people with the gospel And I have friends in dispensationalist circles. I preach even in some dispensationalist churches

My burden for them is that they will not get distracted by some of the silly stuff that is out there but rather focus on the gospel because the bottom line is the bottom line and That is that the

Jewish people will come to meet their maker one day and have we told them about Jesus yes, and Reformed people are not completely exonerated from Guilt when it comes to hobby horsing on certain issues that eclipse the gospel you even have reformed

Christians and ministries that so focus on their own understanding of eschatology

Whether it be post millennialism or amillennialism that they rarely discuss anything else

So it's not just the dispensational folks that yeah that are guilty of that But we're good at we're good at discussing and and discussing

Often lets us off the hook or at least seems to let us off the hook with regard to doing

You know and and here we are here discussing Jewish evangelism and and it's comfortable

We're sitting, you know comfortably in a studio talking about these issues that are scriptural that are dear to our hearts but meanwhile

There are Jewish people out there and they're not hearing the gospel And so it is not enough for us just simply to discuss or to hold conferences or write books or read books

We need to be intentionally evangelistic and just a couple of days ago.

I was in a certain Jewish area Of a certain city that will be nameless and I was

I was there because I wanted to see Jewish life I wanted to see Jewish people up close and personal and I wanted

I was with another brother and we were just looking at possibilities for actually Engaging the

Jewish community in this particular location So my desire is not simply for us just to talk about it or to talk about it theologically

But actually to get and specifically get the church Motivated and mobilized to do

Jewish mission on our doorstep here in the u .s and if you could get into more of the actual history and Outworking of CWI and in fact just another thing that may very much surprise many of our listeners is that chosen people ministries was founded through the evangelistic efforts of Calvinist Presbyterians in the 19th century in Brooklyn and New York City and even the current

Executive director is although I believe he may have dispensationalist leanings. He is a thoroughgoing five -point

Calvinist So it is interesting that these things destroy

Thankfully destroy stereotypes. Yeah, I I think yeah We've got to be careful with the stereotypes and with the categorizing because sometimes it's not as clear -cut as that Mitch Glazer is who as I was speaking of the current executive director of chosen.

Yeah, we we have a good relationship with Mitch we've actually done certain things together with chosen people ministries, and we have a good relationship with Jews for Jesus and Several other

Jewish missions. I'll be going in April to the Lausanne consultation on Jewish evangelism, which is kind of a gathering at a conference of Probably 50 or 60 different Jewish missions that Francis Schaeffer has something to do with Establishing that or no,

I don't know why I'm thinking well, it would it came out of the Lausanne movement. Okay, and so we're the we're the kind of the

Jewish arm of the Lausanne movement and Pretty active and both worldwide and locally here in the

US and I go to that conference very much as a learner I'm I'm you know, we have different theologies within that conference, but every one of us that is there is

Desirous of evangelism. It's the Lausanne consultation on Jewish evangelism and so I'm with my brothers and sisters that are there because they want

Jewish people to hear the gospel and That that I think is where we we need to be together

There are things that we will have different views on but where we can be together we ought to work together and that is particularly with regard to Jewish people hearing the gospel of the

Lord Jesus and As far as the the origins of CWI and also the specific things that CWI both in the

UK and Here in North America. Tell us more about that Well again, I've rehearsed some of these things before with you

But as you rightly say there are folks may be listening in for the first time but CWI began 175 years ago really out of the burden of the

Scottish Presbyterians and And even Charles Haddon Spurgeon didn't he has

Spurgeon preached for us on four occasions at least on four occasions did the annual sermon for our ministry and well, my understanding is that Spurgeon didn't

Take any particular eschatological position or at least that's what I've heard historic pre mill

Yeah, I think that's probably the best category to put him in but he he wasn't

He wasn't hardline on on some of those things his desire as you can see from from his sermons

His desire was to win souls. His desire was to see souls Coming to the knowledge of the

Lord Jesus Christ. And so Jewish mission. Yeah, we have a sermon both online and in print that Spurgeon preached for us from Ezekiel 37 on the dry bones and He very much spoke to that point that the that we are to preach to the dry bones of the house of Israel We are to bring the gospel to the

Jewish people and we are to pray for the wind of God to blow

So in a sense, that's you know Even even through this ministry through your ministry Chris if I can ask people to be praying for the wind of God to come

Upon the preaching of the word and the preaching and our witness our missionaries and their street witness to Jewish people as we preach to the bones and pray for the wind as You know

Spurgeon took that application that the Jewish people will come to life They will come to that new life in Christ and specifically

What does CWI do to bring the gospel to the Jewish people? I know that you travel and you preach at different locations

But what else can you tell us about the the work of CWI? We have missionaries in various locations around the world

You've asked me now about four questions and I need to hold them all in my head because we need to get back to them We need to get our biblical mandate

We need to look at where CWI began and we need to look at what we're doing practically But if I can if we'll probably come right at the circle a little bit, but if I can simply say yes

We have missionaries where Jewish people are and and my longing I've been a preacher for over 30 years and and my ministry of has

Really a ministry to go to the church to be the church and to be

Christian witness to Israel wherever the Jewish people are and so my my passion is to Raise up missionaries and I'm talking already with some potential missionary candidates for the u .s

But also if I can go to a church and make a hundred missionaries from the congregation if I can make the people in our churches aware and Then intentional in reaching their

Jewish neighbors. I get phone calls. I get emails from folks. I've got this Jewish friend How do I reach her with the gospel?

I've got this Jewish doctor. I want to share the gospel with him How do I do that? I've I will take

I will do conferences and weekends in stirring the church And I think you know, maybe

I can bring this right back round to our beginnings in CWI because the ministry began out of a

Scottish Presbyterian burden where many were preaching on the whole subject of Israel particularly from Romans 9 through 11 and those passages that had the aspiration the hopefulness and many of our

Scottish forefathers were preaching this and and praying for the grafting in again of the natural branches and it was out of that that that a that the

Church of Scotland began missions to the Jews and also desired an

Interdenominational mission to begin which was the beginnings of our mission in November 1842

So my point is that theology drives missy ology If we get the theology wrong, we might get skewed in the way in which we

Engage in mission and I feel we are here I think I've spoken on this somewhat before but we are we are here on the most pro -israel country on the planet

But we are skewed in our mission to the Jewish people. We want to buy a tree for Israel We want to stare at blood moons

We want to find the red heifer when our mission should be to bring the gospel To the

Jewish people and it was that burden that was preached all over Scotland in the 1830s that birthed then the mission that we have and my my sense of calling here is to do just that is to birth again a burden for Jewish mission in these shores because 42 % of the world's

Jewish population 42 % of Israel lives in the United States and it's my desire to reach that 42 % and We can get missionaries to do that.

We can put our missionaries on the streets But if I can get the church mobilized to do that Well, you know, that's that's the missionary work multiplied hundredfold thousandfold and We are here today actually to specifically

Talk about Jewish mission the biblical mandate the historic hopefulness and the providential provision

Are you sure you're not a Baptist? Anybody that knows from Northern Ireland we have to alliterate our headings that's a

Baptist thing It's a good practice we need to have those fence posts on which to place our points and they are good

Slogans here to speak about well, why don't you explain first of all what

Jewish mission is? that may sound like a simplistic question, but people will have different answers to that question and Today as you know, there are many people within Christianity who are more concerned about the feelings of Their Jewish friends neighbors and colleagues at work than they are about their eternal souls.

Yeah, and they may never go beyond telling their

Jewish friends that they support the nation of Israel or something like that and They they don't want to scare them away or hurt them.

But tell us about what we need to be telling the Jews well, you know, I Admire as I come over here.

I've lived over here over five years Coming six years. I Admire the very strong pro -life movement that there is in the u .s

We have again similarly strong movement in in in the UK But you guys even to some degree seem

This is maybe too optimistic, but almost to be winning the argument It seems that that the the

Roe v. Wade is still a very live issue. We haven't lost the battle We're still battling and that so your sense of the value of the unborn it is is wonderful to see and as the grandfather of six and soon to be seven grandchildren

We we value The unborn but I want to just put that a little further.

Do we value the born? In other words, do we value? everyone their soul their eternal destiny and Therefore it is not it is not blessing

Israel not to tell them about Jesus It is not blessing Israel to just simply say oh, we love you.

And we you know, we love the land We'd stand with Israel blah blah blah, but we won't tell you about Jesus.

That's that is the greatest tragedy of the pro -israel mindset that I find in the u .s.

And you know, I'm we've already shared this in times past but I Have right in front of me a magazine

From the largest pro -israel organization in the u .s. With over 2 million members

John Higgins ministry, that's the magazine and that magazine I've read from cover to cover, you know

Sometimes it's good to read those we disagree with so that we can actually disagree with them intelligently

Well, I've read the magazine cover to cover and it never mentions Jesus once Wow Not how about Yeshua is that word in there?

It's not Wow You see what happens is the land takes precedence over the

Lord That is that's heresy and in fact John Hagee doesn't even believe

Jews need to Embrace Christ as their Lord God and Savior and trust in his sacrifice

He has gone in print and said those things very clearly and and that's again.

How can we love Israel? how in the world of a so -called

Christian mission can we desired the blessing of Israel and not tell them about Jesus the greatest what the greatest blessing that has come upon your life

Chris is Jesus Christ the greatest blessing that has come on my life We began with my testimony the greatest blessing is the

Lord Jesus Christ. So how can we bless Israel and miss that? How can we how can we have a magazine of 32 glossy pages and never mention his name?

He is he is he who shall not be named and that is a it's not only a tragedy

It's it's it's diabolical It's from the pit of hell if we will not tell our

Jewish neighbors the most important thing in the world And that is Jesus and in actual fact and maybe if I can flip this around to to even the biblical mandate

We've got to recognize that our Jewish neighbors Had concerns for us 3 ,000 4 ,000 years ago, you know, where does where's the mandate for Jewish mission?

well I would I would like us to start in the Old Testament scriptures or in What our

Jewish friends called the Hebrew scriptures they were supposed to be a light to the nation. They were a light of the nations now

I Repeatedly wherever I speak. I often drive us to Psalm 67

Because in Psalm 67 there are key verses with regard to the

Jewish people Having a concern for the nations So so let me let me read just a couple of verses from Psalm 67 and we can we can jump off into mission from that but Psalm 67 think of the context of it think of a little prayer meeting in Jerusalem 3 ,000 years ago

Remnant Israel is praying these words God be gracious to us and bless us and cause his face to shine upon us

That your way may be known on the earth your salvation among all nations and the word salvation has in its

Hebrew root Yeshua within it and So basically this little prayer meeting 3 ,000 years ago was saying please

God bless us so that the nations of the world will know your way and your salvation and His name is

Jesus It's not as explicit that that but they were praying for us And I can't remember when

I was with you last year in April that whether I told this story, but it's worth repeating again I was

I had an interaction with a rabbi online and This rabbi was it was a conference and I was taking part in and the rabbi was

Waxing eloquent as to how Christians should stand with Israel and what we should do we should visit the land and how we should just stand with Israel mechanically and militarily and it's your ally in the

Middle East and The point that he was making was but you must leave us alone That was his point, but leave us alone and obviously with regard to the gospel leave us alone and I I could

I couldn't stand it any longer and I posed a question and My question was this in the light of psalm 67.

I Said to the rabbi and we read psalm 67 to the rabbi in the light of psalm 67 your ancestors were praying for my

Scots I Scots Irish ancestors and Praying that we would come to know the

God of Israel and his salvation Yeah, your ancestors were dancing around a fire wearing bearskins and well, we'll not say what they were wearing

You know think Braveheart and some other things and you that that could yeah, that could really spoil this show

They prayed that we would come to know the God of Israel and His self and we are sitting here in Carlisle, Pennsylvania as a result of that prayer and I simply said

I said to the rabbi, you know Here's my question. Why did you not leave us alone? Your psalm 67

Did not leave us alone They were praying to God to reveal himself

To this darkened world and you're absolutely right your ancestors. My ancestors were were dancing around stone

My ancestors were Vikings on at least on my father's side. There you go. Yeah Totally in darkness, but in the grace and providence of God the light came from Israel and Specifically from the

Lamb of God from Jesus the light to all the nations the light of the world But he did not leave us alone

Israel did not leave us alone. This book is Jewish. The man is Jewish. The message is Jewish. The missionaries were

Jewish They did not leave us alone. So I said to the rabbi. I said why did you not leave us alone, but thank

God you did not leave us alone and you know the story continues later on that evening and things were the conference was

Doing some stuff that I wasn't greatly in favor of but at the end of the evening

Maybe I was just getting a little tired. But in the panel discussion, I said, you know, I really wanted with mr.

Rabbi I wanted to put on a Liam Neeson accent Say I will find you

And I will tell you about Jesus And I think that really is the imperative that drives me and should drive the church because they did not leave

Us alone. They came for us with the truth with the message of the living and true

God. Thank God They did not leave us alone. So please God May we not leave the

Jewish people. Amen. I Have certain skills. They are homiletic hermeneutic exegetical

But we are going to our first break right now And if anybody would like to join us on the air with a question of your own or email address is

Chris Arnzen at gmail .com chris Arnzen and gmail .com

Please give us your first name your city and state and your country of residence if you live outside the

USA Don't go away. God willing. We will be right back right after these messages with more of Stephen Atkinson of Christian witness to Israel Tired of box store

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Stephen Atkinson and we are discussing Jewish mission the biblical mandate the historical the historic hopefulness and the providential provision

Stephen Atkinson is the North American director of Christian witness to Israel which is also known very often as CWI and if you'd like to join us on the air our email address is

Chris Arnson at gmail .com C -H -R -I -S -A -R -N -Z -E -N at gmail .com

please give us your first name your city and state and your country of residence if you live outside the USA well let us now continue where we left off on the biblical mandate

Stephen well I think again we need to whatever we do in our

Christian lives whatever we do in our church lives whatever we do missy a logically it must have a biblical mandate and again what concerns me in the confusing scene is that we are blessing

Israel in a ton of different ways but I don't see it in the scriptures you know brothers my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they'll all get back to the land and build the temple and find the red heifer and start sorry

I didn't read that in Romans 10 there was there was where did that one come from so we need to get back to the scriptures with regard to Jewish mission

I was actually at a conference once where a dispensational archaeologist was raising money because if we find the necessary tools that are required for sacrificing the red heifers and so on we will hasten the return of Christ so in other words

Jesus was waiting in heaven for these guys to finish their archaeological work and so on for the

I've been hearing that for the you know the 14 -15 years I've been involved and I've been hearing yeah they're they're really near they're really near they just yeah to me

I have little interest in that and why would a Christian want sacrificial systems to return because I thought

Jesus said it is finished yeah yeah so I wanted the church to again reassess scripturally what is our mission to the

Jewish people they did not leave us alone in you know the first century Jewish believers realized that we need to take this to the world and so the

Apostle the Jewish Apostle Paul went to every synagogue he could find and every

Gentile square that he could find to tell people about Jesus but we want to notice also that he did not leave his own people alone he did not leave his

Jewish people alone and particularly climactically in the passages of Romans 9 through 11 we read of his burden for his own people his burden for the

Jewish people what was it just a burden for his own people in the same way as I could have a burden for my

Ulster Scots or a burden for my American cousins no I think he had a greater theological burden for Jewish people because theirs is the adoption theirs are the covenants there's the glory and from them is the

Christ according according to the flesh who is overall there was something specific specifically blast about this ethnic people this people that later in Romans 11 are called the natural branches that Paul urgently wanted to bring the message of the gospel to his

Jewish friends and I think again at the end of Romans 8 which is a wonderful passage that speaks of the no condemnation and no separation

Paul is really burdened because but Lord my people have been separate my people are under condemnation no your people are under condemnation and so the

Holy Spirit will move Paul's pen across the page to give the answer to his deep questions and draw him into prayer and longing for the

Jewish people to be grafted in again and any Gentile who has by the grace of God been stuck on as an unnatural branch we too should have this biblical mandate that we do not leave them alone but rather have the longing and prayer great sorrow in our hearts that Jewish people in fact the

Jewish people today are an unreached people group you hear a lot in missiological terms today about the unreached people groups well here here you know here's the announcement

Jewish people are unreached they have about one and a half percent of Jewish people are believers in Jesus and that categorizes them according to the

Joshua project as an unreached people group and I think it's absolutely shameful that after 19 centuries of largely

Gentile Church that the Jewish people are unreached again may it not be so well would you like me to take a listener question before we go to the second point that you wanted to make in regard to the historic hopeful yeah okay we have let's see here we have

BB in Cumberland County Pennsylvania who says that if the walls with separation have been broken down between Jew and Gentile why does there need to be a specific effort to reach the

Jews in any way that would be different than reaching anybody else on the planet that does not know

Christ and she says I am NOT saying this because I disagree with you I am looking for further equipment to respond to others who ask that question absolutely yeah this is a this is a regular point and it's an important point there is neither

Jew nor Greek male nor female slave nor free all are one in Christ Jesus having said that the last time

I looked at my wife she was still female neither male nor female neither

Jew nor Greek is in the sense of status we are one in Christ wonderfully we stuck on unnatural branches are one with Jewish believers we don't have a second -class status they don't have a second -class status and nor does my wife and I we are one in Christ Jesus but to answer further the question is is all mission important yes indeed all mission is important but we find in Romans 11 two specific kinds of missions and that we have the unnatural branches and the natural branches and the

Word of God delineates those who are ethnic Jewish people from the goyim from the

Gentiles and the Word of God in the New Testament delineates those two so therefore I must bow my wisdom to to the

Word of God even as it sets forth those two categories and I think this is really where you know our reformers saw that as opposed to in the and this maybe can lead us a little into the the historic aspect of things you know for thousand fifteen hundred years there was a there was an increased

Gentile ization of the church and even an increased anti -semitism within the the church visible and it really took the

Reformation again for the the desire to come back to reassess some of these passages and it was well

Luther we know said some horrendous things and it really was in the

Westminster divines particularly that we see evidence of deep longings

Puritan hope the aspirations for the Jewish people to be called and so I I say to my

Presbyterian brethren who love their catechisms I say well read read the larger catechism question 191 if you want them to remember it it's not 911 it's 191 and read that and what they say about Jewish mission and the

Westminster divines of the 1600s were longing for the Jews to be called and they specified that so you know to answer your listeners question yes it is important that we have mission to all but this the

Scriptures delineate two specific persons that the natural branch the unnatural branch and our forefathers specifically prayed that the

Jews would be called in the wonderful redemptive plan of God in saving Jew and Gentile by the one method obviously by the

Lord Jesus Christ well thank you BB keep listening to Iron Trip and Zion radio and spreading the word about it in Cumberland County Pennsylvania and beyond well let's now move on to the historic hopefulness in regard to Jewish mission well indeed it was that you know the 1600s and 1700s the 1800s

I think as I as I began our talk you know the in the 1830s there was a growing burden among our

Scots Presbyterians that developed into the mission that that I'm now engaged in and it you know if we look at at the the

Puritans and others they very much had this hopefulness this longing one of the things that deeply concerns me is that sometimes in you know you identified me and I'm I sometimes don't like just being stereotyped but you identify me as an optimistic

Amil I probably identified myself as enough yeah but I went on to say that yeah but I've got unanswered pre -mill questions and a certain post -mill leaning as well so I'm in the mix there but what saddens me most of all is if we don't have the optimism

I think we have a gospel that turns a world upside down that hasn't changed we have a glorious Savior and we have a message to tell to Jew and to Gentile and and please don't church retreat into reformed monasteries to discuss superlapsarianism but don't don't retreat to to have little conferences let's you're taking away the one true joy of my life is arguing over superlapsarianism yeah

I'm challenging you my brother I I just think that sometimes we we we lose and the enemy can can drive us off track can divert us so easily away from the the mission which is the evangel and also having an optimism

I you know we're we're taught to pray you know your kingdom come your will be done on earth as it is in heaven and I really feel that sometimes we hardly pray that we we think okay well your your your wills gonna be done in heaven

I know that yeah heavens gonna be good but we're taught to pray your will be done on earth now that you know some might say well oh that's it that's a post -millennial position

I honestly really don't care what position it is in that sense as long as we're praying it with a historic hopefulness that the kingdom of God would advance that the

Church of Christ would advance and the gates of hell shall not prevail so you know as I look back as I read my forefathers as I read what we would term heroes in the faith biblical scholars godly people they had this hopefulness and particularly the hopefulness pertaining to the

Jewish people and I want that I want that reborn I want that back on the radar of church life in the

USA well that's a perfect place to make our break for our midway break that has longer than our normal breaks grace life radio 90 .1

FM in Lake City Florida requires a 12 minute break between our two main segments of the show so please be patient with us take advantage of this 12 minutes to not only write down information provided by our advertisers that's very important but also write down a question for Stephen Atkinson regarding Jewish mission our email address is

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I need to announce before we return to Stephen Atkinson of Christian Witness to Israel the

North American division of that ministry we want to announce to you that the

Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals is once again hosting the Philadelphia Conference on Reform Theology and it is not being held in Philadelphia it's just affectionately called that in tribute to Dr.

James Montgomery Boyce's conference that he held there for years at 10th Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia the conference these days is typically being held either in Byron Center Michigan or Bryn Mawr Pennsylvania April 13th through the 15th are the dates that it will be held at the

First Christian Reform Church of Byron Center Michigan and April 27th through the 30th or actually

April 7th April 27th through the 29th is when it will be held at Bryn in Bryn Mawr Pennsylvania at the

Proclamation Presbyterian Church that's the one that I intend to go to God willing and the theme is the spirit of the age and the age of the spirit the speakers include

Daniel Aiken Richard Gaffin Daniel Hyde Conrad Mbewe the most powerful preacher on the planet earth as far as I'm concerned pastor of Kabwatha Baptist Church in Lusaka Zambia Africa Richard Phillips another friend of mine who's been on this program many times he is the pastor of Second Presbyterian Church in Greenville South Carolina Jonathan Master who's also been in this program

David Murray who's also been in this program over at the Puritan Reform Theological Seminary in Grand Rapids and Scott Oliphant of Westminster Seminary who

I have not yet interviewed but hope to soon if you would like to register for either the

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Stephen Atkinson on the Jewish mission and our email address is

Chris Arnzen at gmail .com Chris Arnzen at gmail .com and Stephen now it's the time to enter into the historic or continue into the historic hopefulness well there has been again from from the first century a desire to not only reach the

Gentile world but to reach the Jewish world as the Apostle was very intentional going to every synagogue there was a historic hopefulness from particularly the time of the

Reformation we we would have to say and argue that we lost some of that throughout the years of increasing

Romanism and it was reclaimed at the Reformation that historic hopefulness came back onto the agenda and I again as we ended last segment

I want the church to have that optimism with regard to our God with regard to his kingdom and with regard to the advancement of Christ's kingdom on earth one of the things that I when

I engage in any ministry as I over the years look back on where the

Lord has placed me in pastoral ministry and now in this specialized ministry

I think it's important for us to know the field in which we are engaged to know something of the context of which in which we are placed

I remember my very first one of my very first churches was was a little country church and I'm a townie

I grew up in Bangor Northern Ireland I knew very little about what country life was like but one of the first things that I did was to take a day with one of my elders down on his farm to find out what was the farming calendar what was the normal thing that was done on a farm because I needed to know what farmers do when

I was going to minister to them and I think in a similar way if we are engaging in this with a biblical mandate with with the

Saints of old with their historic hopefulness we need to think okay what is the present situation of the

Jewish community where have they come from where are they going what are their desires what is the context of the mission field whether it's for our missionaries as they engage

Jewish community all around the world or my the churches that I visit and the church nationwide here what is the context and so that's why

I've done a little bit of research and by several authors Jewish and Christian with regard to the history of the

Jewish people in the USA and I really find it fascinating to learn the providences of God bringing 42 % of the world's

Jewish population to these shores and I think then as we look at the Providence we've got to ask the question well why are they here and what are we the

Gentile Church largely Gentile Church what are we to do with that strange and amazing

Providence so I want us to to investigate that perhaps and just think through why are they here where have they come from yeah the the percentages of Jewish people in the population of the

United States perhaps especially in New York is astronomical well New York actually was where it all began or more accurately it was called

New Amsterdam back in 1654 23 Jewish souls arrived into the harbor at New Amsterdam four couples two widows 13 children who had been expelled from Portuguese -owned

Brazil and they limped into harbor in New Amsterdam New Amsterdam New Amsterdam later became

New York and 23 became 2 million as it is today

Wow you I would not have guessed that the original immigrants the original

Jewish immigrants to New York would have been Brazilian I would never have guessed that well again we got to trace back the the history a little bit more and it is a fascinating one because as I said

God is this God is sovereign God raises nations God brings down nations

God raises Kings brings down Kings and they are here because he has purposed them to be here and it really

I can summarize it in two phrases that they are here because of expulsion and expansion in 1492 they were expelled from Spain Portugal they were expelled by King Ferdinand and I've got a quote from the

King here's the time of the Spanish Inquisition it's horrendous but the King wrote this the

Holy Office of the Inquisition seeing how some Christians are endangered by contact and communication with the

Jews has provided that the Jews be expelled from all our realms and territories you know this was this was before Hitler this was this was the church this was the

Spanish Inquisition expelling the Jewish people in case good

Catholics would be tainted by the Jewish people a couple of months ago

I was privileged to be over in the UK at some CWI meetings and at the end of my

CWI meetings I took a few days down to Spain where my son lives and I had a few days visiting with my son and daughter -in -law was very precious time but one of the days we took out to Cordoba and Cordoba is the home of Maimonides who is kind of the

Jewish Calvin and their great philosopher but also when I was there they were also known as the

Calvin Klein's I believe you had to lighten it didn't you I was being serious

I'm sorry I'm kidding kidding but when I was there I didn't realize it the reason

I wanted to go to Cordoba was to actually see a statue to Maimonides but I discovered when

I was there there was a museum to the Inquisition and we visited this museum and it was horrendous to see the instruments of torture the very creative instruments of torture that the

Roman Church had devised to produce conversions from the

Jewish people the Jewish people really had three options in at this time of the

Inquisition convert or be tortured or be expelled be tortured and maybe even be killed and so when we look at the fact that the 23 came into New Amsterdam it was really out of an expulsion from Spain that they ended up in the

New World they ended up in Brazil a small Jewish community in Brazil but Brazil at that time was owned by the

Dutch and again it's theology that drives missiology because the Dutch were very kind towards the

Jewish community there was a healthy and growing Jewish community but when Portugal when

Brazil was taken over by the Portuguese then you had Romanism again and so the

Dutch or sorry that the Portuguese expelled the Jewish people from Brazil and they were sent back to Amsterdam that was the safe haven for them

Holland was a helpful place of home and haven for the Jewish people however one ship one ship got stuck at Jamaica and actually it was pirated and the

Spanish and Jamaica decided we're going to seize the ship now in those days of trading the

Dutch overlords and the Dutch financiers said let my people go and they made sure that the

Spanish let the ship go and the ship continued to limp along the coastline from Jamaica and come into harbor at New Amsterdam and if that did not happen we would see

Hasidics wearing dreadlocks we see the two million because of a

Providence I think I think I think you know this down again we I do want to we can laugh about it but we also can be serious about it because I've got to ask myself the question why are they here in the

United States why did they not go back to Holland because in the perfect providences of God a ship of 23 limped into New Amsterdam which later became

New York and the 23 became 2 million or rather became 6 to 7 million that we have now in the

United States Wow and we are in a situation where 42 % of the world's Jewish population are here because in the strange and perfect providences of God they were expelled from Catholic Brazil and they came into New Amsterdam and find a safe haven now things were not all plain sailing if you forgive the pun things were not all plain sailing and there's a another aspect of the history over the next you know few hundred years but they are here because of the preserving purposes of God in that one ship that was kept along the coastline to limp into harbor and I think that's that's a fascinating thing for us to think about as we say okay well we are here

I am here I I'm you know my great -great -great -great grandfather was Scottish but I'm not living in the

United States why am I here because in the purposes of God he has brought me here and brought me here to preach this burden why is the

Christian Church here what is our mission I think our mission is to glorify

God to enjoy him forever and also to share this gospel message with a fallen and broken world you know operation world some of you will know the the book operation world which kind of charts all of the the mission progress and has done so very ably over the decades it's it's not a perfect manual but it's certainly a very helpful manual of mission statistics and operation world says that there are 92 million evangelicals in the u .s.

now I'm inclined to think that that's maybe a little high sounds like okay I knew you would say that what would what number would you place it at I would say there you go probably five million no let me let me let me rephrase that 92 you know you know the reason why

I'm saying that is that I'm actually talking about regenerate people it'd be hard for me to believe that there are 92 million regenerate people yes yes and likewise but if we cut that in half or if we cut that even in a third you're still talking about 30 million and and of varying shades perhaps but in the goodness and grace of God there are there are tens of millions of true believers

I I would believe and they all go to Joel Osteen's church you said you wanted me to talk about that but I'm gonna save that for another yes in fact we are gonna have

Steven Atkinson back to give a book report on Joel Osteen's book your best life now right you read it from cover to cover not because you enjoyed it but you you wanted to be able to speak with firsthand knowledge of the book just as an aside yes you know we talked about this just before we started the show that I was actually given this book by a dear friend and it was it was kind of given me as a joke but I thought okay

I'm gonna read it and so yeah I want to I want to talk about it sometime I think sometimes in our reformed world we we throw rocks at those that we disagree with but we really haven't read their stuff and it's important for us to do that so that we can engage intelligently well some it's important for some of us to do that not

I think that it's dangerous for young naive Christians to do that yes oh absolutely to do with the right motives and so that when

I said that I had read the 300 pages you immediately jumped on that and said oh I've got to have you back and we'll do a book review and so I'm I thought maybe we could do it for about 10 minutes

I really don't want to talk about Joel Osteen for two hours I'm sorry that's yeah we can get on to other things that actually you know almost had

Iron Trip and Zion radio removed from the airwaves on the old radio show of the old radio station that we were on in New York we were almost permanently removed because of the fact when

I was at my brother's wedding reception I had a friend fill in for me and he said what do I talk about and I said do a critical assessment of Joel Osteen's Church and Joel Osteen's theology and so on since he's a pastor of the largest church in America at least at that time that was true and when

I came back I was almost booted off the air because of that the the general manager said that Joel Osteen was her favorite evangelist of all but anyway that I digress let's get back to we digress well back to you know why are they here

I'm I think as I said when I started in ministry I needed to know context so I needed to know what's farming life so that I can engage with my farming community so also here my

Christian friends if I can make an appeal through your radio to the church nationwide let us get to have better understanding of our

Jewish neighbors where they're living yes two million in New York City 600 ,000 in Miami 300 ,000 in Chicago 500 ,000 in LA 200 ,000 in Atlanta 80 ,000 in Cleveland 10 ,000 in Kansas City you name every major city in the

US and there is a sizable Jewish population and so my my question is church what are you doing even major cities in the south in the deep south yeah oh absolutely

Wow absolutely in fact you know I preach quite quite often in Mississippi and Mississippi Delta now some of them have removed from there to other places but every major city has a

Jewish population they're very urbanite they have increasingly become more urbanite and this is again something that we need to to have an understanding of because when they came the first wave was the

Sephardic Jews the Spanish Jews then there was the Germanic or the

German Jews and then the Ashkenazis and the Eastern European think

Fiddler on the Roof and and it's again it's it's the providences of God in bringing the natural branches to our shores and we've got to engage with that mission field and we've got to know what what floats their boat as they say here what is it that makes them tick what are they searching for and you know

Bono had that had that song you know I still haven't found what I'm looking for I think that really summarizes

Jewish life in the USA they came with with great hopes and great desires and they engaged in education they engaged in assimilation they engaged in all kinds of creativity but they still haven't found what they're looking for and this is really my burden that the church will say well here it is here's what you're looking for and his name is

Jesus amen well we're gonna go to our final break right now this is gonna be much shorter than the last one if you'd like to join us on the air our email address is

Chris Arnzen at gmail .com Chris Arnzen at gmail .com don't go away

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I now seeking the approval of man or of God or am I trying to please man if I were still trying to please man

I would not be a servant of Christ hi I'm Mark Lukens pastor of Providence Baptist Church we are a reformed

Baptist Church and we hold to the London Baptist Confession of Faith of 1689 we are in Norfolk Massachusetts we strive to reflect

Paul's mindset to be much more concerned with how God views what we say and what we do than how men view these things that's not the best recipe for popularity but since that wasn't the

Apostles priority it must not be ours either we believe by God's grace that we are called to demonstrate love and compassion to our fellow man and to be vessels of Christ's mercy to a lost and hurting community around us and to build up the body of Christ in truth and love if you live near Norfolk Massachusetts or plan to visit our area please come and join us for worship and fellowship you can call us at 508 -528 -5750 that's 508 -528 -5750 or go to our website to email us listen to past sermons worship songs or watch our

TV program entitled resting in grace you can find us at Providence Baptist Church ma .org

that's Providence Baptist Church ma .org or even on sermon audio calm Providence Baptist Church is delighted to sponsor iron sharpens iron radio and welcome back we are now continuing our discussion with Stephen Atkinson North American director for a

Christian witness to Israel also known as CWI we have been discussing and will continue to discuss

Jewish mission the biblical mandate the historic hopefulness and the providential provision if you'd like to join us on the air the question of your own our email address is

Chris Arnzen at gmail .com Chris Arnzen at gmail .com and please give us your first name city and state and country of residence if you live outside the

USA RJ and White Plains New York wants to know whatever happened to the

Brazilian Jews that immigrated to the United States I have never heard of a community of Jews from a

Latin country in our day and age I actually met a

Jewish believer in San Antonio who was from Latin America and so there's obviously some continuity there but is it a tiny remnant tiny remnant and in answer to the question the

Brazilian Jews were all kicked out they were all expelled the United States sorry of Brazil right right no speaking

I think of the United States of the United States well again over the years there would be the assimilation

I'm sure there is a Cuban synagogue in Miami and I'm sure there may be others

I haven't done enough research to find out if there is a Brazilian Jewish community in the

US but it wouldn't surprise me I think over the years that Brazilian community that entered into New Amsterdam would would simply become

North American rather than Brazilian though it please if any listener has any further information on that let me know yeah because it seems like the

Eastern European Jews have been more tenacious about remaining in their community and keeping their traditions going and so on yeah

I think perhaps even the German yeah that's really interesting as well just to see that because the

German Jews very much loved Germany in fact one of the reasons that Hitler did well one of the reasons that hit in a sense so many perished was that they could not believe that this was happening could not believe that Germany would turn against them because they loved

Germany love German culture and so the German wave as they came to the to the

United States the German Jews became American and they loved the country the

Eastern European the Russian Jewish people tended not to love mother

Russia now these are these are sweeping statements so I'm sure people could could you know challenge the things I'm saying but the the

Russian Jews largely did not get you know not get a good good dealings with the

Russian Orthodox Church for example and so the pogroms think Fiddler on the Roof they were being kicked out of Russia and they really didn't enjoy much of the liberties in Russia when they came to the

US they still tended to have that suspicion and so what you would you rightly say they keep to their own enclave and so we find that the

German Jews largely have enjoyed life in America the

Russian Jews perhaps have kept a little bit more to themselves again you know people could very easily criticize what

I'm just saying but that's that is the impression from what I've been reading at least in the wave after wave the

Sephardic the Germanic the Ashkenazi as they settled here in the

US well where would you like to take us now in our journey here we've come to the point of the providential provision that we were already addressing before the break

I think what you know what I want us to see is if we can really bring it right up to the present and and you where we ended just at the last segment was they still haven't found what they're looking for Jewish culture has has infiltrated so much of American life particularly in in in terms of medicine the legal profession the arts you think

Broadway or think the movies and you have Jewish Hollywood pouring out movie after movie after movie of superheroes and it and it just strikes me that isn't that just the inner longing for someone to save the world you know the the

Superman or the Wonder Woman or the person who's going to come and bring peace on earth from Jewish Hollywood and to me that's none other than the desire for the

Messiah and but they put it in their terms and so my you know as we kind of come towards the end of our time

I want the church to just see that to see the context whether it's the

Germanic or Ashkenazi or Sephardic they haven't found what they're looking for and we need to bring that message to them and obviously this is a very sensitive area when you are evangelizing your

Jewish friends neighbors family members colleagues because unfortunately the way that the way that the left has really brainwashed all of us here in America and perhaps all over the world for that matter it's in some level because you even have

Christians who are terrified over evangelizing Jewish people because this is been this has been made equivalent to anti -semitism when the irony is obviously if you are a

Christian and you believe in the claims of Jesus Christ if you believe in the inerrancy of Scripture if you believe that salvation can only come through Christ it is really anti -semitic not to evangelize the

Jews. That's it exactly and that's where I wanted to really round everything out to get us back to the biblical mandate again and the biblical mandate whatever however offensive it may be there is an offense of the cross but it is the saving a soul from a burning building it's it's that kind of mentality that we need to bring back to our church life do we believe in heaven and hell anymore or has

John Hagee you know so confused us that it we don't need to do any Jewish evangelism my and the

Roman Catholic Church has that position in their modern catechism that the

Jews worship the same God as we do and I have even heard and I'm not I'm not saying that this is a an official dogmatically held position that is universal amongst

Catholics but I have heard on EWTN which is a major Catholic television network

I've heard priests say that we don't we do not need to evangelize our

Jewish friends and neighbors because they are also children of God and I was I was really disturbed by hearing that.

Well you take that to the Apostle Paul when he would go into every synagogue under heaven and tell them about Jesus so why did he do that you know and he's the

Jewish guy so why did he go and tell everyone about Jesus we we need to have that intentionality and in fact

I think in our reformed world we need to bring that evangelistic edge back to our church life.

Yeah Jesus when Nicodemus came to him by night he didn't say to Nicodemus you're good the way you are don't worry about it.

Yeah well it's really interesting you know what how he challenged Nicodemus because he said to Nicodemus you must be born again and Nicodemus was you know what is this stuff what is this born again and and the words of Jesus were

Nicodemus you are Israel's teacher you don't know this you don't know this stuff.

Have you never read Jeremiah 31 Nicodemus? Never read that there's a new covenant with the house of Israel?

Nicodemus have you never read that the law is going to be put into your heart? Nicodemus have you never read Ezekiel 36 that I'm gonna be sprinkling you

I'm gonna give you a new heart and new spirit and put within you and move you to follow my laws?

Nicodemus did you not know that there's a new birth? You see the the born -again thing is something that we

Gentiles have kind of hijacked when really it's a very Jewish thing because it's there and that's why

Nick that's why Jesus challenged Israel's teacher because he didn't know those things but you know my desire is that that we in the church will see that and see the world as as in need and particularly see the

Jewish world as the Lord has providentially placed on our shores this 42 % of Israel if we want to bless

Israel well let's start here now if I can make a plug even and even a prayer request to your listeners please may the church be intentional but please may

God raise up frontline missionaries for us we're currently we have a visa in process for a brother to come to Chicago and we're hoping before the end of this year that he will be with us and we'll be engaging in the streets of Chicago we have another couple of folks that are interested in becoming missionaries and this is at an early stage

I want to raise up another missionary and another missionary and another missionary and please God may there be the support for that as well and and again in the providence of God who was who was it some some famous missionary said

God's work done in God's way will never lack God's resources and I think that's that's the way

I look at it as I as I go forward if we are doing God's work in God's way the

Lord's people will get behind and will support us and so I make that appeal to your listeners that you will get behind us in prayer and pray for more missionaries pray for more workers to the harvest field

I could tell you about my colleagues that I love I met many of them in January in the

UK we were celebrating our hundred and seventy fifth anniversary and it was such a delight to meet my brother who's on the streets of Paris France is the third largest has the third largest

Jewish population after Israel in America Wow France has 500 ,000

Jewish people and half of them are living in Paris and actually if I can put a plug in for our outreach this summer in Paris we are going to be on the streets of Paris for a couple of weeks intentionally speaking to anyone indeed but particularly the

Jewish people there are a lot of Israeli tourists that will come to Paris year on year and we'll be engaging them and you can find details about that on on our website particular our

UK website if I can give the www .cwi .org

.uk and you will find details with regard to our summer outreach in Paris perhaps some of your listeners would not only pray but maybe even support in some way or even think about going yeah we might we might even have listeners in Paris or in France exactly they could come and join us we have listeners all over the world so it would not surprise me in fact very recently a listener in Perth Australia heard me mention that there is a new

Reformed Baptist Church plant in Perth and he contacted me said that he and his wife had been praying for a confessionally

Reformed Church to go to and they visited there last Sunday and they have already made the commitment to make that their church home so you never know who's listening though yeah you never know who's listening but please

God raise up the workers we have other workers in in Amsterdam I met my colleague Assaf in Amsterdam from Amsterdam just last

January and I'm what a lovely brother and the ministry that he has to the

Jewish community in Amsterdam last year we were on the streets of Amsterdam and we actually did a mail shot at every

Jewish home in Amsterdam we we put evangelistic literature in and the mailboxes of every

Jewish home of Amsterdam last summer we are not going to be able to do the same in Paris I'm told from my from my

Paris colleague again there's context to our ministry so we might have to to look at some other options for the way in which we reached our

Jewish neighbors there now when you're doing this street evangelism in these foreign countries is English so prevalent that you don't need an interpreter let's say in Paris or do you have a

Parisian interpreter well our guy in Paris certainly obviously will speak French and those who can speak

French and would like to join us we'd love to have them but there will be certain we actually were guided there are certain areas that we'll be going to that will be more

English speaking than French speaking and so some who are able to speak French we will maybe send them to certain areas of Paris whereas other areas such as you know the

Eiffel Tower we will have our English speakers there because as I said many Israelis will come over and many of them will will speak

English as well although we'll have some Israeli we'll have some modern Hebrew speakers available to that so we're just asking for prayer for that's very specific outreach in the streets of Europe this coming summer and also we have our workers obviously in London at 200 ,000

Jewish people in London and so we would pray for their ministry we're in the north of England in Leeds in the north of England we're in Glasgow a long -term dear friend and missionary from Taiwan is is in Glasgow and and then we have our workers in Israel and again

I met my three colleagues from Israel last January in the UK and I was just so thrilled of that the

Lord had raised up these workers if I can just tell the story of these three in particular we have

David Zadok who is has been with CWI since 2005 and David is a

Jewish believer from way way back and he is the pastor of grace and truth congregation just outside Tel Aviv in Rishon in Israel and he also heads up our translation work and we've been translating into modern

Hebrew a lot of really good literature good reformed literature one of our most recent translation projects was

Ligon Duncan's book on fear not and we've been giving some of these literature to Jewish believers in the

Israeli army Spurgeons checkbook we gave copies of that translated into modern

Hebrew we gave a to every is Jewish believer that's in the Israeli military

Wow and so just just the ones that are already Christians yes but that's to build out the believers but also we were we're producing evangelistic literature for them as well so the

Hagefen publishing if you want to google that and go to Hagefen publishing you will find again the good literature that we're producing classics

Calvin Bunyan but also the modern stuff Sinclair Ferguson and as I said

Ligon Duncan and several others that have escaped my mind at the moment a really good resource of translating into modern

Hebrew to to help the Jewish believing community in Israel the number of Jewish believers in Israel has grown to 30 ,000 in the last you know from 1948 there were 12 and now there's 30 ,000

Jewish believers in the land of Israel Wow so we as Christian witness to Israel are assisting our brothers and sisters in that land and even if I can put in a little plug for CWI North America last year because of God's blessing of us we were able to give $10 ,000 from our funds to help the work in Israel to CWI Israel praise

God so you know as the the resources as the Lord's people are responding we are able to help in the ministry of CWI not only in the

US but also around the world but I know our time is is running out but I just want to we have about 10 minutes we've got about 10 minutes okay let me let me take you to the two other guys we have

Egal who is on the streets and and when I say he's on the streets

I mean that very much so that he's on the streets Egal was saved from heroin addiction

Egal had spent eight years in Israeli prisons because of crimes associated with his addiction but the

Lord gloriously saved him and Egal has been engaging with this the street community let's say where he has been engaging with people who are in addictions and he is showing them the one thing that frees them from that addiction

Egal is is an Ashkenazi Russian -speaking but he's not living in Israel and he is just a gentle giant

I met him as I said in January and what a wonderful work of grace in his life and indeed the the the joys and successes

God God willing and God graced that we are seeing from Egal's very intentional ministry to tell his other buddies who are suffering these addictions to tell them about Jesus and show them the victory that they can have in Christ and so I'll ask you to pray for Egal and his work on the streets and then the third person that that that I met and again my heart warmed to see just this ministry to Israel was

Aviel. Aviel particularly has a ministry to the Holocaust survivors

Wow and you know one of the things I would love to have him on the program some point soon

I'm sure we could arrange that I'm sure we could arrange with some of these folks who would be very willing to come and tell you their story and tell you it far better than I'm telling it but Aviel is he spoke to us in Oxford in January at our 175th anniversary celebrations and I have to say of all the things that we did that day his his message and actually his

English is not as good as some of our other colleagues but he's improving but his the manner of his message really affected me and he said you know the

Holocaust survivors are dying the Holocaust survivors their numbers are decreasing month by month and they they survived the fires of Auschwitz to come and live in Israel and they're dying and they're going to another fire and he again you know stressed this point that their numbers are decreasing and specifically their time is running out and I think again if I can ask your listeners to pray very specifically for our ministry to the

Holocaust survivors if you would like to go online and find our magazine online or even just email me and I'd be very happy to send you a copy our most recent magazine

February 2018 has just a little article of of an outreach that we did to the

Holocaust survivors and if I can simply read this just for a couple of minutes it just gives the picture we had an outreach at Hanukkah last

December in David Zadok's congregation in Grace and Truth congregation and so I'll just read from our magazine it was the most fantastic Hanukkah I ever celebrated said

Joseph Steinberg when the outreach to a hundred and twelve Holocaust survivors finished in Gadara Israel the

December CWI Hanukkah outreach events was hosted by David Zadok and his congregation Grace and Truth we were also joined by 75

Chinese Christians who had traveled to Israel to share the love of Jesus with the survivors the event included songs sung by the

Chinese to the Holocaust survivors the gospel being preached by David and a Christian leader from the

Far East who told the participants we love you and want you to know that Messiah has come to give you eternal life and his name is

Jesus trust in him as the only one who can deliver you from darkness the

Hanukkah event included the traditional distribution of presents the Chinese Christians provided a bag of presents for each survivor who attended which included a teapot and tea obviously from China as well as Hagefen published evangelistic leaflets and books which included one explaining how

Jesus is the fulfillment of Isaiah 53 Joseph says of the outreach in Romans 10 19

Paul writes I will make you envious by those who are not a nation we saw that enviable love demonstrated as tears flowed from the joyful Jewish faces of those who had suffered much hate what a wonderful change in context into which to preach the gospel our hearts were deeply moved and pray that the gospel at these

Holocaust survivors heard and that and the very evident love that they saw will make an eternal impact on their souls praise

God praise God I think we have time for one more question we have

Arnie and Perry County Pennsylvania who wants to know why is it that when a

Jew becomes a Christian it is far more of a horrific thing in the minds of Jews than if he were to become an atheist or a

Buddhist or a Hindu or a New Age practitioner anything else seems to be acceptable except Christianity why is this there are a number of reasons but that he is absolutely right that it is the worst thing we might say for for Jewish families they feel betrayed they feel their whole family heritage has been lost and the person has gone to the dark side and it probably is because of the church history because the

Gentile church as they see it the Gentile church has so persecuted Jewish people throughout history they've been called the

Christ killers there has been anti -semitism from the church fathers and others even even in the mind of a modern -day 21st century even a millennial

Jew well some of them were oh very liberal won't mind that so much but still it's a slur on the family name for them to become a

Christian because I think we need to get it into our mindset that Christianity in our view is something that is believed upon there is an intellectual ascent as well as a heart trust for Jewish people belief doesn't matter quite so much as belonging so belonging to the

Jewish community and belonging to the synagogue is the most important thing and for someone to come to faith in Jesus then you're going outside and that's that's the betrayal the irony is that even with religious

Jews that would seems to be such a betrayal and yet Christians would have far more in common with them

I guess the difference would be is that the Christian would be more aggressively attempting to evangelize them but I mean we share the

Hebrew Scriptures and so on we share the the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob as far as our beliefs

I mean I'm not saying that that Jews who do not worship a Trinitarian God are correct in their worship but I'm but what

I mean is we believe that the prophets and the the the teachings of the

God -breathed scriptures of the Old Covenant are true yes and and we believe that they came for us they did not leave us alone as we began and our desire is to say this is the fulfillment of your scriptures but their their deepest fear is to lose their

Jewish identity and they would say that Christians who win a

Jewish person to the Lord to Jesus to the Messiah to Christ such people are doing worse than Hitler because they would say

Hitler killed our bodies but you Christians if you get your way you kill our very souls

Wow yeah I'm assuming you must mean the real Orthodox or even ultra -Orthodox would have that I'm I would

I would venture to suggest it's it's more than just the ultra -Orthodox that are saying that yes there there are many many

Jewish families who just completely turn their backs and disinherit those that come yes well actually

I know a friend of mine that I haven't spoken to him quite a while but he brought up in a

Jewish home ethnically not religious they didn't keep a kosher home they only in a nominal way celebrated things like Passover and Hanukkah when he was a male stripper his

Jewish family had no problem with it when he became a Christian his family sat

Shiva for him disowned him and his mother even physically attacked his

Gentile wife as Gentile Christian wife at a funeral and had to be physically pried off of her isn't and these were not even religious

Jews so it's quite remarkable yeah well you said sat Shiva you you mean obviously they were considered dead yes yes yes and they did that even though they weren't religious you know they didn't even keep the kosher home and yet they sat

Shiva well I want to make sure that our listeners have all of your contact information I know that the

Christian witness to Israel's North American division is found at CW in a org

CW in a org standing for Christian witness to Israel North America any other contact information you care to give well we have also the

UK website and that's particularly if you're interested in the European outreach in Paris isn't that CW I org

UK CW I org UK and you are available for speaking engagements for churches and parachurch organizations and schools and amen and my wife is the long -suffering wife who lets me do some of these tours and I am very much available to speak in various churches and just stir this burden

I'm currently on the road I live in northwest Arkansas but by this weekend

I'm going to be preaching and in Concord Massachusetts and Springfield Massachusetts so you can imagine the miles that are involved in traveling those distances well

I am going to make sure that I tell my friends in Massachusetts that you will be there shortly and hopefully you'll get some more speaking engagements out of it

I want to thank you so much Stephen I'm looking forward to now joining my friend Simon O'Maney our newest assistant pastor at the

Grace Baptist Church of Carlisle joining him for dinner tonight with you and I thank all of you who listened especially those who wrote in questions today and I want you all to always remember for the rest of your lives that Jesus Christ is a far greater