NRB: David Jeremiah, Kay Arthur and Holocaust Survivor Urge Christians to Rally Around Israel
Pastor David Jeremiah, Precept Ministries founder Kay Arthur, and a Holocaust survivor took the stage at Proclaim 18, the National Religious Broadcasters' International Christian Media Convention, to celebrate the modern state of Israel and encourage Christians worldwide to unite in support of the Holy Land.
During the session in Nashville attended by The Christian Post, Polish-born Luna Fuss-Kaufman first recalled how World War II broke out when she was just 12 years old — yet her family refused to go into hiding.
"I personally believed that if I was a Jew I wasn't going to deny it," Fuss-Kaufman said. "Even so, I was quite young at the time, and it wasn't exactly the most practical thing to do, but that's how I felt."
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It wasn't long before her family was incarcerated in several camps, the first of which was depicted in the film "Schindler's List," she said. Then, her family was shipped to work in a factory in Germany.
Fuss-Kaufman's father and sister perished in the war, she said, but she and her mother miraculously survived. She shared one particularly harrowing instance, where a Nazi killed everyone around them — but ran out of bullets and left.
"My mother was at the other end of the room, absolutely white like chalk, but didn't say a word," she said. "If she would've intervened, I wouldn't be here today to talk to you."
Together, Fuss-Kaufman and her mother survived the war and were liberated, eventually making their way to the United States. Closing her speech, Fuss-Kaufman showed a photo of the striped prison dress she wore for a year and the necklace she today wears around her neck — a Star of David intertwined with the Christian cross.
"There's only one planet, and we have to learn to share the planet," she concluded. "We can't condemn somebody because they believe in a different way than we do. We have to learn that we all need to follow our own religion and our own beliefs, and we have to share this planet or we will destroy civilization."
The unity seen between Christians and Jews at NRB serves as an example and a sign of hope "to those of us who have suffered," Fuss-Kaufman said, applauding the group "for the work you are doing in keeping this world alive."
Jeremiah, founder of Turning Point Radio and Television Ministries, began by stating that God's covenant with Abraham in Genesis 12 includes an unconditional promise to bless Abraham, he said, "and that promise has been lavishly kept."
"Apparently God finds Abraham and the Jewish people to be of enormous importance," he said.
"That point is dramatically illustrated in so many ways, but I've chosen just one. It is illustrated by the disproportionate number of Nobel Prizes awarded to the Jewish people," he continued, pointing out that from 1901 to 2017, about 900 Nobel Prizes were awarded in recognition of significant contributions to mankind. Of that total, at least 195 have been awarded to Jews.
"Of the 7.6 billion inhabitants of the world, about 15 million are Jewish — less than one quarter of 1 percent of the total world population," he said. "That miniscule percentage of the population has won 22 percent of all the Nobel Prizes awarded to date. It's an amazing thing."
"God's promise to bless Israel has been without question, fulfilled," he said. "God promised to bring out of Abraham a great nation."
God also promised to make Abraham a blessing to many, Jeremiah said. "Just think of what the world would be without the Jews. Without them we would have no Bible, without them we would have no Jesus. Without the Jewish Jesus there would be no Christianity. Without the Jews there would be no Ten Commandments."
Finally, God promised to bless those who bless Israel and curse those who curse them, "and He has kept that promise faithfully," Jeremiah said. "No nation in history has blessed Israel like the United States of America, and no nation has been as blessed as the United States of America."
While the issue of who controls Israel is one of the "most volatile" in international politics today, Jeremiah said, "we who know the Bible stand back and we don't worry because we know the right to the Promised Land has already been determined by the only One who has the authority to determine it."
"God's promise and the prophecies of His Word are overwhelmingly challenging us to place Israel in the center of our prayers, of our purposes, and of our protection," he concluded. "What a thrill it is for us to gather here in this place and hold this nation, this prophetic nation, this God-breathed nation, with our prayers and our support."
Bible teacher Kay Arthur said that during her many trips to Israel, she built relationships with Israeli people and reminded them that God gave them the land, much to their astonishment.
"The problems in Israel center around the land and who owns the land and the animosity that comes from the father of lies, the one who is a murderer, who is Satan, who is a deceiver, who is a liar, and it comes against Israel," she said. "You and I have to know the word of God, we have to believe what God says, we have to remember that the Earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof, and He is in charge and He has appointed the boundaries of the nations."
She added, "Israel now is in a war and in a battle for this land, and people keep telling them to give it away, compromise, make peace. But there will be no peace for Israel that will last until the Prince of Peace comes — the Lord Jesus Christ."
"He's not going to come until that last Gentile comes into the body of Jesus Christ," she said, adding that once the last Gentile comes to Christ, "you and I are out of here."
In the meantime, "we've got to get the message out," Arthur said. "We've got to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ ...you and I have a job to do. We've got to know the book ... and then we have to take it overseas."
"May we put the Word of God back in the preeminence of our message, and may we live it, and may we love Israel as God loved Israel, and may we remember that someday Jerusalem is going to be the praise of all the earth," she concluded.
Closing the session, Jerry A. Johnson, president of NRB, said: "We think Christians should remember the modern state of Israel, the Jewish people, and we do need to remember that one of the reasons we need to support the state is that never again should they face something like the Holocaust. They should have a country, they should have a nation, they should have a land, and I'm glad it was the land that God laid out for them in the Old Testament, the Hebrew Scriptures."
