Israel and the Church: Pentecostals as God’s Prophets to Israel
By Ray Gannon, Ph.D.

Recently I had lunch with an outstanding professor at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. We discussed the current political, military and social crises here in Israel. I explained to him that the ultimate hope for Israel was the Second Coming of Jesus. At that suggestion, he came flying halfway across the table and yelled, “Okay, Raymond, okay! But WHEN???”

Living in modern Israel is a bit like living on a remote island surrounded by the irrepressible hostilities of danger-infested waters. There is no reprieve. The Israeli Jews of the modern Zionist state are a people in great pain and political confusion. In spite of the noblest of Jewish efforts to sue for peace, restored Israel’s very real mortal enemies remain determined to bring the Israelis, not only to their knees, but to their corporate national grave.

Everywhere a sense of dread blankets Israeli society. The world expects Israelis to accept daily massacres of Jews as the price they must pay for maintaining a Jewish state. The terrorist organizations are now armed “to the teeth” and have demonstrated they have the capacity to destroy the world’s most advanced tanks. Every day Israeli cities are forced to guard against multiplied hundreds of available suicide bombers who fantasize life in the resplendent hereafter with 72 virgins each. Cars, buses, and pedestrian neighborhoods are shot up daily in the countryside and in city centers. No one knows what to do. World pressure upon Israelis to do nothing is crushing the suffering Jewish masses deeper and deeper into a psychological black hole. The prime minister went on television recently in a vain attempt to foster hope by suggesting, “Israel will not collapse…. We have infrastructure… and music.”

Could Israel collapse under the weight of perpetual terror and international pressure to quietly absorb the “daily dose of Jewish death?” Is Israel automatically assured of continued existence or does biblical precedent suggest a faithless Israel could finally disintegrate? While all this could be debated, it is biblically sure that Israel will ultimately become the spiritual people and nation God has promised. But if the modern prophets to Israel hold their Pentecostal tongues and deny Israel a legitimate opportunity to hear and respond to the Gospel, then to whom may God assign the blame should Israel break down? The biblical prophets were certainly warned.

While Israelis seek genuine comfort and reassurance in the midst of their terrible plight, some Christians only parrot the stale words of archaic heresies suggesting this is to be the miserable fate of the Jews for “their crucifixion of Christ,” the bizarre and ancient charge of “deicide” foisted onto modern lips. Most Pentecostals would express regret for modern Jewish and Israeli suffering but conclude the only true remedy to the current dilemma in Jerusalem is the Second Coming of Jesus, when Israel shall acknowledge “the pierced One” as their Messiah-King and then experience “the salvation of national Israel.” As Assemblies of God people, we officially adopted this eschatological position in our “Statement of Faith” with our original constitution in 1927. Decades later we modified our statement to more carefully link Israel’s salvation with the millennial reign of Christ.

But what is to be our relationship with Israel as restorationist Pentecostals? And what is to be our role of Christian service to Israel in the interim between today and the Second Coming of Jesus? Do we Pentecostals who so enjoy the ministry of “the Comforter” have a divinely issued charge to prophetically “Comfort ye, Comfort ye” God’s Jewish people?

From the earliest issues of the Christian Evangel, the Weekly Evangel, and ultimately the Pentecostal Evangel, two things were crystal clear: (1) Pentecostals enthusiastically endorsed the Zionists’ efforts and celebrated western Jewish fundraising to finance the rapid development of infrastructure in the Promised Land as a social foundation for the eventual restoration of national Israel, and (2) Pentecostals sensed a unique role and opportunity to give the Gospel to the Jewish masses in anticipation of their national restoration and messianic redemption.

At the 1916 General Council in St. Louis two Jewish believers in Jesus, Dr. Florence Murcutt and Mark John Levy, were afforded time on the General Council floor to address the need for Pentecostal engagement in the reconciliation of Israel to Christ. In every decade of the twentieth century the Assemblies of God have endorsed and supported Pentecostal efforts to bring the Jewish Messiah Jesus to the hearts of “All Israel.” Paul’s addressing of the Gentile Christian duty to successfully provoke Israel to spiritual jealousy and faith in Jesus (Romans 11) has been a regular theme of Evangel articles throughout the Pentecostal century.

But in spite of our sending dozens of Spirit-filled Pentecostal apostles to the Jews who have gone out over the last century both in the American homeland and in the Promised Land, Israel remains in a spiritually darkened corner. It is true that there are now more than 100,000 Jewish believers in our world and that reportedly some 80% of them are Pentecostal in practice. But this is still a dismal showing to a God who longs for the redemption of the sixteen million souls of “All Israel.”

The Pentecostal role, the Assemblies of God role, is a prophetic one. The restored to “first-century-Spirit-filled-Christianity” modern Pentecostals can function as a corporate Prophet to the restored “first-century-nation-of-Israel” modern Jews. While we may continue to celebrate the phenomenal rise of contemporary Israel out of the ashes of Jewish history and the Holocaust, we must also bear our Pentecostal responsibilities to bring spiritual life to these reassembling dry bones.

Assemblies of God evangelistic, discipling and Messianic Jewish congregation planting efforts over the past three decades have earned us a certain place of notoriety in the Jewish world. The Assemblies of God always seem to make the standard Jewish lists of those religionists considered most dangerous to the Jewish community. We are in company with the Southern Baptists and Jews for Jesus as well as other far less complimentary associations. Yet this is a very positive indication that we have been engaged to the extent some good for the Kingdom has been achieved. Still, we need to examine our accomplishments against what God would really have us prophetically do as Pentecostals.

Perhaps the role of “Prophet” to Israel seems too stark or hazardous. After all, the prophets in biblical Israel were largely unwelcomed. Some were beaten or even martyred. To be sure, the Assemblies of God will win no popularity contests in Jewish society if the Assemblies of God stand erect to fulfill our prophetic charge.

The prophets in biblical Israel were sent by God with the full realization their message would be rebuffed by many in Israel. But the prospects of social rejection, unpopularity and even accusations of being enemies of the state, could not deter the prophets without their greatly disappointing the heart of God. The prophets preached God’s truth to Israel, not only because they loved the people of Israel and wanted them to escape the doom of unfaithfulness, but they prophesied because they were motivated by their very spiritual desire to have the loving heart of God fully expressed to His beloved Chosen People, defiant as they were.

Being a prophet often puts one in a position of being considered ”politically incorrect,” “phobic” or even “socially deviant.” Functioning as a spokesman for God can lead to repudiation by political powerbrokers and the social establishment. The generation to whom the prophets proclaimed God’s heart despised God’s spokesmen and did all they could to make them ineffectual. They chided, insulted and tried to shame and dehumanize the prophets in an effort to silence the voice of God. How tragic it would have been for later generations of Jewish people had the Hebrew prophets muted their message in the interests of social acceptability! The children of the defiant generation desperately needed that prophetic witness to later recall those God-inspired words and have faith for their divinely established future. This generation of Israel and the next desperately need our witness to Christ.

The restored Jewish nation is currently writhing in political and social uncertainty. Gone are the days when this now affluent modern state needed American foodstuffs, clothing, blankets, heaters, medical supplies or educational materials. Those “comforts” were needed in their time. But what “All Israel” needs today, here in national Israel and in the Jewish world universal, is the Pentecostal administered “comfort” of the Spirit-filled, Jewish-friendly and pure Gospel of Jesus.

Yes, we should engage in priestly intercession for the Chosen People. Yes, we should voice our political support for Israel to our president and congressmen. Yes, we should encourage the Israeli tourist industry by visiting the Holy Land. But the Grand Answer for Israel is what Pentecostals have always known, e.g., Jewish faith in Jesus. Those of us who link Israel’s messianic faith to the Second Coming should be doubly motivated to engage the prophetic Assemblies of God in Jewish witness on all fronts, home and abroad.