October 2001 Personal Letter

The letter below was dictated before the terrorist assault on New York and Washington, which occurred at press time. Readers of our letters should not be surprised. We have warned for years of an Islamic assault against democracy/Christianity. We have also said that the U.S. was more dangerous than Israel. Israel is only a pretext for what may become an assault on the whole world of free nations. I certainly hope our government realizes the gravity of this assault. If the Lord tarries and we make no adequate response, there is a chance that the militant Moslems will plunge the world into a new Dark Age. — Zola

Dear Friends,

Those interested in End Times prophecy continue to watch the goings-on in Israel, and especially the media exaggerations of how serious the conflict is. Some people think this “war” is driving us to the Tribulation period. We must bear in mind that it is not war, but an overwhelming desire for peace that will bring on the Antichrist and his covenant, and all that follows (Dan. 8:25).

This unrest doesn’t really threaten Israel and has no effect on the rest of the world. All the hullabaloo in the news over what happens in a nation of 6 million people is really of almost no concern to the billions of us who really operate this planet. The population is so small and their argument is so irrelevant in the world of geo-politics that only those conversant with Biblical forecasts have any real reason for excitement. In this world, those of us with Bible knowledge are rightly on the very edge of our seats.

I sincerely have a concern that this personal letter will reach mailboxes at the empty homes of Christians who have gone on to a better place in the Rapture of the Church! I’m facing the Feast of Trumpets barely two weeks out as I dictate this letter, and the situation in Israel is seemingly perfect for the entrance of the One who will take the Church out of this world, and, in His second coming, provide Israel a well-deserved peace.

I’m just coming from the wonderful Branson Prophecy Conference where I joined a number of other teachers in agreeing that the situation in Israel, if not in Europe, China, the United Nations, etc., merits our careful watching. There’s a wonderful hidden level of joy at these conferences, naturally, since the contemplation of the end of the Church Age promises an unbroken series of blessed events for believers. We do not gloat over the calamities that will befall this world — the entire book of Revelation and all of the Lord’s warnings from the Mount of Olives — but we really do live out that wonderful verse that follows the explanation of the Rapture in 1 Thessalonians 4: “Wherefore comfort one another with these words…” (1 Thess. 4:18).

Along with that coming excitement are the shy expectations of a bride-elect. And why not? That’s just what the Church is, a bride heading to heaven for a magnificent wedding with the Lord Jesus Christ. The happy events portrayed in our upcoming television series Thy Kingdom Come: The Future of the Believers will really be lived by all of us believers from the Rapture to Eternity, an uninterrupted and utterly endless time of beauty and bliss. In my earliest days as a Christian with Campus Crusade for Christ, we were taught a beautiful song which had the lyric, “We are one in the Spirit, we are one in the Lord,” and that perfectly describes the true Church from the moment of the Rapture forevermore.

But there’s work to do in this world even to the last moment that we’re here. We must, of course, “tell it on the mountains so that all might hear,” as the Lord directed me to write in a song a few years ago. We must witness to unbelievers, our friends and neighbors, and especially to the Jews. We must tell the liberal Christians, the ones stuck in the futureless churches, that prophecy is really unfolding. We must get the Catholics out of their pews and confessionals and into the Word while there is time.

And, oddly enough, we must also reach the young men and women studying at our nation’s evangelical seminaries because they are being led astray at this time by doctrines that eliminate the consideration that God is working in Israel. For self-serving reasons, our seminary administrators have turned their backs on the Holy Land and they are instead muddling the teaching of End Times prophecy in front of the very generation that may see it all happen!

We often get requests to recommend good seminaries and we have named them before. Alternatives are Southeastern Baptist in North Carolina, Philadelphia College of the Bible, Cedarville College in Ohio, Tyndale Seminary in Ft. Worth, and Liberty University and Seminary in Virginia, which will be the site of the new Tim LaHaye School of Prophecy in January 2002. There are probably many more, but we just don’t have the resources to keep track of every school. Suffice it to say, the ones we’ve given will teach solid End Times prophecy with special attention on Israel, the Rapture, and other crucial points of knowledge for all Christians.

These seminaries will be most helpful if the end holds off long enough for a generation of young pastors to get a start on directing Christian attention to where it belongs — on God’s Chosen People and their Promised Land.

It fills me with what the Jews call nachis, a word for pride in one’s younger family members or possibly students, to see that our people are able to discern the motives of seminaries. No matter how many letters they receive from “on high,” explaining away our very incisive complaints about what is being taught, our readers are seldom fooled. If there is time, we really need to replace the diplomats and bankers and lawyers who have gotten hold of our best schools and instead put genuine Bible people in those jobs before we lose some wonderful institutions.

I wish everyone could come to such gatherings as the one in Branson and see huge audiences of their fellow believers all “on the same page” with the Lord and feeling that certain underlying excitement. I only wish this could be done in every church, and I don’t know why it isn’t. It could be because many seminaries have done a job on the present generation of pastors and the knowledge just isn’t there in the pulpit. Prophecy is threatening only to the unbeliever; to the believer it is a message of the most blessed hope and it needs to be understood, talked about and enjoyed by all who believe.

Our new series of programs may help a lot since they stress the positive side of the future. Our appeals to visit Israel, if not one of our domestic “Little Israel” tours, should also keep our people focused on the End Times. Avail yourself of one of these upcoming opportunities if you possibly can. The fellowship itself is precious, and the subject — Israel in the crucible of the on-rushing End Times — is critically important.

Below is a schedule of our upcoming domestic Israel tours and the real one in March for those unafraid to visit the proper Promised Land (as I have repeatedly emphasized, you would be taking a break from a dangerous place, the U.S., for a safer place, the Biblical sites in Israel on a guided tour). Please notice that this year you can take a 10-day thoroughly Biblical tour of the Middle East without visiting Israel if you take advantage of our Mediterranean cruise and Greek mainland extension.

November 9–11 marks the first of a brand-new tour we’re calling “Little Israel,” to be held at the Biblical Arts Center in Dallas, home of the stupendous 124-foot-long oil painting called Miracle at Pentecost, which portrays the coming of the Holy Spirit in Acts 2. Travel back to first-century Israel and visit Bethlehem, the Sea of Galilee, the Upper Room, and even sit in the Garden Tomb, all beautifully replicated at the Biblical Arts Center. A full weekend of tours, teaching, and fellowship will make this a visit of a lifetime — all without leaving the country!

Beginning November 23, you can join us for one of our many tours to Orlando’s new Holy Land Experience theme park. The first one runs from November 23–25, followed by a second tour November 30–December 2. Additionally, we plan to provide after-Christmas tours to this wonderful site December 26–28 and December 28–30. By the way, I plan to make myself available to churches in Florida through the middle of January that would like to hear the latest about Israel and how Scripture interprets these events in light of prophecy yet to be fulfilled. Please contact Lawrence at (214) 696-8844 for scheduling.

Don’t miss the new Biblical Greek extension to our popular Spring Tour to Israel in March 2002. Walk in the steps of the apostle Paul, visiting such cities as Thessalonica, Philippi, Berea and others. This Biblical Greek tour can be taken separately or in conjunction with our usual tour to Israel.

And finally, Eureka Springs, site of the famous Passion Play, will be the location of our newest “domestic” tour beginning late spring or early summer 2002. Watch for more details!

For more information, please call Tony at (214) 696-9760 during office hours. You may also call 1-800-WONDERS (966-3377) anytime to request a full-color brochure. [Click here for an online request form.]

And pray for the peace of Jerusalem!

Your Messenger,

P.S. If you know a believer or two who would probably appreciate our newsletters, then please let us send them a sample. [Send us their name and address along with yours to staff@levitt.com] Thanks.