Dear Friends,

Throughout the course of these thirty-plus years of ministry, I have endeavored to keep one primary calling front and center in our work: evangelization of the Chosen People. Our ministry verse states our purpose very plainly:

“Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved.” (Romans 10:1)

“To the Jew first,” you often hear me repeat. The New Testament makes this very clear. The Messiah is Jewish, the descendant of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and David. He is the promised Messiah and King that will rule and reign forever. While on earth, Jesus ministered to His own people, the Jews. He called twelve Jews to be His disciples. And after Jesus was crucified, buried, resurrected and ascended to heaven, His Jewish apostles planted the first church, whose membership was almost entirely Jewish. Christianity, despite what history has rewritten about it, was founded as a Jewish religion. Granted, Jesus’ plan was to reach out to the rest of the world—the Gentiles—and offer them the same salvation He offered to His own. But in the beginning, the emphasis in evangelism and missionary activity was “to the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Matt. 10:5–6).

It is true that many Jews refused to accept Jesus as Messiah, and as a result, the Gentile Church rapidly grew to outnumber the original Jewish membership. However, God did not revoke the calling to evangelize His Chosen People. His directive—”to the Jew first”—stands as a Biblical command. Unfortunately, the successful growth of the Gentile Church through the ages convinced many, particularly throughout the history of the Catholic Church, that God was finished with the Jews, or even angry with them. This attitude spread over to the Protestant Reformation, with personalities like Martin Luther spewing hatred toward the Jewish people.

But we know that God has never been finished with the Chosen People. They are still the “apple” of His eye. And the world will see—very soon, I believe—that the Jews and the land of Israel are beloved of God, for Jesus the Messiah will return and establish His kingdom, not in Washington, D.C., not in Rome, not in Berlin or Paris or Riyadh, but in Jerusalem!

Much of my work through these past several years has been, by design, a two-pronged approach to fulfilling the Bible’s command, “to the Jew first.” First, direct interaction with the Jewish people about their need for Messiah. Many of our books, television programs and various outreach ministries concern evangelism to the Chosen People. For some time we have been sending teams of missionaries to Israel twice each year to present the Gospel to the family of our Lord.

Second, as an American Messianic believer, surrounded by the most powerful force of Protestant missions—the American Church—I am compelled to teach the Gentile flock of God the roots of their faith—the Jewish roots—and persuade them to take up the calling “to the Jew first” in their giving, in their sending, in their going. And this is honestly becoming more difficult to accomplish as we draw near to the End Times.

American Protestants, even some Evangelicals, are much more apt today to censure Israel and side with its enemies. Who do we have to blame for this? The schools that have taught anti-Semitism or anti-Israel attitudes—actively or passively—to their ministerial students. This lack of concern for the Chosen People or a degradation of sound Bible curriculum concerning Israel, has caused many pastors and teachers to abandon Israel altogether.

In my travels speaking at churches around the nation, I find now only a remnant of Gentile believers that sincerely love the Chosen People.

One of the privileges I have in my pursuit of God’s calling “to the Jew first” is to interact with prominent Jewish people who have yet to give their lives over to Messiah. Recently, I began an exchange with Gershom Gorenberg who lives in Israel and writes for The Jerusalem Report magazine. You will recall that Gorenberg wrote about me (though I had never met the man) in his book The End of Days: Fundamentalism and the Struggle for the Temple Mount. Painting an inaccurate picture (and a negative one) of our ministry, this writer sought to discredit the teaching of evangelical leaders like myself.

I responded to the author, as you read in our November 2002 Levitt Letter. I even tried to meet him in Jerusalem during our fall tour in order to open up a spiritual dialogue, but he couldn’t. But eventually Gorenberg wrote back, asking me not to publish his letter. I told him I would not, though I’m surprised that so prolific an author would be afraid to have an open dialogue concerning remarks he already had made publicly. Let me summarize his main points.

Gorenberg sees no distinction between faith and law—a “convenient invention,” he says—and thus legalism regarding the law is proper, it is God’s will, since God gave the law out of love for His children. He also believes that Christians are disappointed with the Jews because the Jews are not cooperating with the Christian idea of the End Times. Finally, Gorenberg believes that evangelical Christians are ignorantly following traditions rather than Scripture when they espouse literal interpretations of the Bible, which he sees as inferior to the Jewish understanding of the Bible.

Here was my response:

Dear Gershom:

Thank you for your reply to my letter regarding The End of Days. Of course, I’ll respect your request not to publish your letter; I only wish you had shown me the same courtesy of contacting me before writing about me in your book. You chose to assess 30 years of work on behalf of Israel and the Jewish people—including some forty books in five languages and nearly 1,000 television programs—with quotes taken out of context and some rather flippant insults.

It is interesting that you say you met with “many religious figures.” Intensive research is so important when publishing criticisms about individuals; the goal should be to represent each person’s views accurately.

God expresses His love to the Jews—and to mankind—in infinite ways; the giving of the Law was only one of them, but not the end of them. Rather, the Law pointed to one very specific truth: one cannot obey it perfectly on his own. Thus, Tanakh [the Old Testament] is replete with the forward-looking expression of God’s greatest gift of love—the Redeemer of Israel, and of the world—the Jew that would bless all the families of the earth as promised to Abraham (Gen 12:1-3).

Every nation has laws; the Jews are not remarkable because they have laws. What is remarkable is that the Chosen People are God’s channel of blessing to the world through the Messiah, not through the Law. God requires Gentiles to believe in the Jewish Messiah, but not to keep the Jewish Law.

Your estimations of Christians and their faith demonstrate a lack of understanding of the Bible. Biblical Christianity doesn’t require anything but Messiah to come—not a red heifer, not the Temple, not having the Jewish people in the land, although Tanakh indicates that these things will occur at that time. No Biblical Christian ever hated the Jews. And please don’t saddle me and other Biblical evangelicals with the Catholic Church or liberal Protestants; we’re not the same. I’m sure you wouldn’t want to be lumped in with Reconstructionist or Reform Jews. If you’re going to address the subject of Biblical Christianity, today most readily observed by evangelical Christians, then represent it more carefully.

Gershom, not only do many Jews almost ignore Scripture, I’ve met very few Jews who read the Bible thoroughly. I’ve never met a Jew who celebrates First Fruits, the Sunday after Passover (see Lev. 23:10-12). I’ve never met a Jew who calls the festivals by their correct names (see Lev. 23:24-27). I’ve never met a Jew who realizes that the month of Passover is the first month of the year (see Ex. 12:2). I could go on and on.

Jews are supposed experts in Jewish law, prayer books, etc., but I’ve known Christian high school kids to answer Bible questions from the Tanakh better. How can you say they’re reading the Bible when they don’t even have a theory of End Times prophecy? My goodness, Gershom, Israel is the focus of all of the End Times, including Armageddon! Wouldn’t you think someone—a journalist, if not a rabbi—would have concern about what our sages have written so accurately about conditions today?

The real fact is you claim to know the Torah [the first five books of the Old Testament] because of the many laws you keep, which, sadly, are often simply unrelated to God’s Law. You follow without scrutiny rabbinical instructions like arcane Sabbath laws, separation of milk and meat, inhumane divorce requirements, and 10,000 other unscriptural traditions. Then there are the strange costumes of the varied orthodox of Israel, and the almost total rewriting or ignoring of the first 2,000 years of Judaism (from Abraham to Herod), because it would be discovered overnight that what the rabbis are doing is not from the Tanakh. Rabbis are not priests and have no authority to do what they are presuming to do these days. Also, if we read the first 2,000 years, we would understand clearly that the West Bank is Jewish land, for example.

But what God is really interested in is for you and me to know Him intimately, and then to eagerly make Him known to the world. That was His emphasis to Adam, to Noah, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to David, and on and on throughout Jewish history. God’s Word—the Bible—and not the many words of the rabbis and scholars, is what God wants us to know and love and teach (see Psalm 119).

I am not uneducated as a Jew. I’ve heard these stories all my life. The points you make simply cannot be justified from Scripture.

My respect for God’s Law is surrounded by my respect for God’s greater purpose: to redeem Israel, and the world, through Messiah, who can perfectly fulfill all the requirements of the Law for me and for you.

Sincerely yours,
Zola Levitt


Sadly, I have not heard back from Gershom. But I hope that he will not be afraid of future dialogue. His interest in Christianity as the subject of his book might very well have been the open door for the Holy Spirit to draw Gershom to the Messiah. This is what I pray. Perhaps you can help. His address is: Mr. Gershom Gorenberg, The Jerusalem Report, P.O. Box 1805, Jerusalem 91017 ISRAEL.

You, my friends, may know Jewish people within your sphere of influence. Have you taken time to get to know them better? You need not get into a heavy theological discussion with them as I have with Gershom. Talk to them about Israel and the Middle East. Let them know that you support the Chosen People in the Promised Land. Tell them why you believe in their future—because of Scripture itself. Remind them of the prophecies in the Old Testament that point to the Redeemer of Israel, and show them that Jesus Christ is He. Look for an open door through which the Holy Spirit may work to draw them to their Messiah. And then pray earnestly for them to believe.

And as you pray for your own ministry among the Chosen People, pray for us as we take our message to the Midwest. This summer I will again be visiting churches in the Midwest to teach about Israel and Bible prophecy. If your church is interested, please contact Claudia for scheduling information.

Then, in answer to growing anti-Semitism on our college campuses, I will be available free of charge for lectures to student and faculty groups at schools in the Midwest. We must reinforce to our young people that the Chosen People are still chosen, and the Promised Land is still promised!

Also, please know that during the Spring Passover season and in the Fall, I am in the Dallas area for local church engagements. For information on any of these speaking engagements, please contact Claudia at (817) 417-0059.

In the meantime, join me on April 11 for our Passover Seder demonstration at the Biblical Arts Center in Dallas, Texas. Held annually the week before Passover, our goal is to teach believers how to perform this special feast in their own homes the following week. Space is limited. Reservations are required. Please call Tony at (214) 696-9760 for information.

The following day, Saturday, April 12, we will hold another popular Israel Solidarity Day here in Dallas. Join me and Dr. Ergun Caner as we teach, tour and worship together as the family of the Lord among authentic replicas of Biblical and Israel sites, including the famed “Miracle at Pentecost” light and sound show. Only $49, including lunch. Contact Tony for details.

From May 29 through June 8, I will be leading our Pentecost Tour of Israel. Sign up for this 10-day tour or extend your stay through June 11 to visit the rose red city of Petra, a world-famous archaeological site. For your full-color tour folder, please call Tony at (214) 696-9760 during office hours. Or you may also call 1-800-WONDERS (1-800-966-3377) any time. Once you’ve set foot in the Holy Land, your Bible never reads the same!

Finally, make plans now for Father’s Day weekend, June 14–15, in Eureka Springs, Arkansas, touring reconstructed Israel sites and attending the internationally acclaimed Passion Play. For this and all our tour itineraries, contact Tony, our tour manager. Sandra and I look forward to meeting you personally.

Your Messenger,

Zola

P.S. — On March 14, I will turn 32!? (I was born again in the Lord on that day in 1971.) A gift to this ministry is surely the best way to wish me a happy birthday. Thanks!

Zola Levitt Ministries is ECFA approved and has Charity Navigator’s top rating of 4 stars.

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