Last weekend's conclusion of the global Isaiah 62 prayer and fast for Israel was an overwhelming success, but there was one aspect about it that took the attendees and many members of the Jewish community in Jerusalem by surprise. Before, during, and after that prayer meeting, a large number of ultra-Orthodox demonstrators harassed and even attacked some who attended the event. They called the participants "missionaries" and the protests turned violent.
Hundreds of Jews and Christians gathered together this week for the 7th annual Jerusalem Prayer Breakfast. The meeting follows the biblical command to pray for the peace of Jerusalem. Representatives from nearly 50 nations joined this year’s event. Michele Bachmann, co-chair of the prayer breakfast and dean of Regent University’s School of Government explained, “It’s very simple. It’s not political. Our mission is to pray for the peace of Jerusalem.”
One of Jerusalem’s ancient landmarks is taking a giant leap into the world of technology. Visitors can now not only see the ancient stones of the renovated Tower of David Museum but also touch and follow its history.
The U.S. and Israel are both responding to dangerous new escalations from Iran, this week, in the form of a new ballistic missile and reports on the construction of a potentially bomb-proof underground nuclear facility.
On Pentecost Sunday, hundreds gathered on Jerusalem's Southern Steps, just below the Temple Mount, to pray for Israel. It began a historic evangelistic effort to reach the world.
One week ago, the headlines in Israel forecast yet another existential threat to the coalition government led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. After months of protests by the opposition parties to judicial reform, the debate over the 2023-24 budget presented the next possibility for the government to fall. Some members of the religious United Torah Judaism Party were unhappy with the allocation process and publicly declared their opposition to the two-year budget plan, which posed a major problem since the coalition could not survive without passing the budget. After a marathon debate that continued from Monday and Tuesday into Wednesday, however, the Knesset passed the second and third readings of the budget by a 64-55 margin, prompting praise from the prime minister and blistering criticism from the opposition.
Against a backdrop of growing anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial, Christians who are descendants of Nazis are asking forgiveness from Holocaust survivors, their descendants, and the Jewish people; and this move is leading to a greater sense of unity. Jerusalem's Deputy Mayor, Fleur Hassan-Nahoum, welcomed the Christians to the city.
One goal of the millions of Christians taking part in the May 7-28 Isaiah 62 Global Fast and Prayer is seeing God fulfill prophecies that Israel will be a light and bring salvation to the world. An Israeli Jewish man and Canadian Christian woman have joined forces to try to make sure that destiny happens. Some people ask if a true believer in God can have a real and profitable relationship with someone of another faith. That's what Gil Pentzak, who is Jewish, and Ruth Fazal, who is Christian, are discovering in the land of Israel. Fazal is a Canadian concert violinist who felt God call her to get much more involved with His holy land and His chosen people. She came to Israel and began learning Hebrew from Gil Pentzak, a deeply religious Orthodox Jewish man and Hebrew instructor at Ulpan Aviv.
On May 15th, the United Nations hosted an event marking the "Nakba," an Arabic word meaning catastrophe. Palestinians use that term to describe what happened to them when the State of Israel was born in 1948. Recently, another meeting held in Jerusalem showed a very different view of history. The event at the United Nations' New York headquarters included ambassadors from dozens of nations, and featured Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. During his remarks, Abbas compared Israel to Nazi propaganda chief Josef Goebbels and declared the Nakba is ongoing. Yet, attendees at a "Declaration Day" gathering in Jerusalem insist that the real catastrophe is the Palestinian Authority's half-century of attempts to eliminate Israel as a nation.
Best-selling authors Brock and Bodie Thoene are no strangers to the subject of Israel's history and current events from their popular series of novels, Zion Chronicles, Zion Covenant, and A.D. Chronicles, among many others. However, they faced some new challenges in their work on The Elijah Chronicles, a five-book series combining strong fictional characters and prophetic signs amid today's headlines.