Ger-05 Israel's Predicament
Art Katz

Arthur "Art" Katz (1929 - 2007). American preacher, author, and founder of Ben Israel Fellowship, born to Jewish parents in Brooklyn, New York. Raised amid the Depression, he adopted Marxism and atheism, serving in the Merchant Marines and Army before earning B.A. and M.A. degrees in history from UCLA and UC Berkeley, and an M.A. in theology from Luther Seminary. Teaching high school in Oakland, he took a 1963 sabbatical, hitchhiking across Europe and the Middle East, where Christian encounters led to his conversion, recounted in Ben Israel: Odyssey of a Modern Jew (1970). In 1975, he founded Ben Israel Fellowship in Laporte, Minnesota, hosting a summer “prophet school” for communal discipleship. Katz wrote books like Apostolic Foundations and preached worldwide for nearly four decades, stressing the Cross, Israel’s role, and prophetic Christianity. Married to Inger, met in Denmark in 1963, they had three children. His bold teachings challenged shallow faith, earning him a spot on Kathryn Kuhlman’s I Believe in Miracles. Despite polarizing views, including on Jewish history, his influence endures through online sermons. He ministered until his final years, leaving a legacy of radical faith.
Download
Topic
Sermon Summary
In this sermon, the speaker reflects on the issue of God's glory and his governance over creation. He shares a personal experience of visiting a plant where F-16 fighter bombers are manufactured and expresses concern over nations spending vast amounts on armaments, even those who can least afford it. The speaker emphasizes the need to understand the severity and goodness of God, as well as the importance of recognizing God's judgments as part of his mercy. He also shares his own journey of experiencing unexpected challenges and being thrust into the world, drawing parallels to Israel's history and the need for repentance.
Sermon Transcription
We're unsparing in bringing the proclamation of God's necessary judgment also became the prophets of restoration. If we refuse the one, we will not be the candidate for the other. This is not just an idle matter of historic curiosity, but a profound principle of God. Because the church itself is called to be prophetic, and to interpret even for their nations the meaning of its own history, and speak of those things that are future. And not to retract from hard things. Because if you retract there, you'll not be able to speak the message of comfort. It's Isaiah that speaks, comfort ye, comfort ye my people. But only after they have received double for their sins. Then is their warfare over. Don't comfort them prematurely. Don't abort the necessary chastisement and dealings of God. For when they will have fulfilled their purpose, then shall the nation be comforted. Yes, the redeemed of the Lord shall return, when mourning and sighing will have fled away. First mourning and sighing. Then everlasting joy upon their heads. It's God's dealing with Israel that instructs us about God. It's the failure to recognize how far God will go with his own nation. That has given us a soft and sentimental view about ourselves. So Paul speaks about the severity and the goodness of God. We want to major in the goodness. Paul speaks also about the severity. For what is the mercy of God except in the context of judgment? To remove judgment from mercy is to remove mercy. So we have to eat the entire lamb of God. That was the first requirement in the first Passover. Eat the lamb, leave nothing behind. Don't pick and choose that which you like. We need the whole lamb. The judgments of God as well as his mercies. For if you could understand his judgments are his mercies. We need to welcome them. Even for ourselves. As well as for Israel. For when God's judgments are in the earth, the world will learn righteousness. And not in any other way. Jesus himself was the object of God's judgment. Christ crucified is the statement of God's judgment against sin. Could we have been instructed on the sinfulness of sin without that visible judgment? That he was willing himself to bear it. This is the very nature of God. Who doesn't dissolve the judgments, but fulfills them. Even in himself. And this offended his own disciples. Who were disappointed at his crucifixion. So after his resurrection appearance, with the two on the road to Emmaus, whose faces had fallen, they were disappointed and rejected. Their human and religious hopes had been disappointed. And what did he say to them? O fools and slow of heart, not to believe all that the prophets have written. You selected the good parts, but you left out the hard parts. Ought not the Messiah to suffer and die before he ascends to his glory? Don't you understand the central principle of God? That is intrinsic to all reality. That is unavoidable. That is not to be circumvented. The issue is not success, the issue is glory. And if there is to be a glory, there is to be a suffering. And he can say this to our generation. O fools and slow of heart, to think that Israel is going to attain to its glory, without first suffering, the things that I was required to bear, so also must they, for their suffering is proportionate to their glory. They have an ultimate destiny before all nations, that can only be fulfilled out of a broken priestliness. Are we doing okay up there in the technical department? So Lord, precious God, instruct our understanding. We are soft, sentimental, and human, all too human. We have not understood all that the prophets have spoken. We have made the cross a decoration around our necks, and in the architecture of our churches, but we also shrink from it. We have no stomach for its pain. We want a way that does not require suffering. And so we have forfeited the glory also, for which we will be eternally ashamed. Thank you that the history of Israel is for us. These things are written for us, upon whom the ends of the age have come. Instruct us, Lord, and obtain our surrender to the whole counsel of God, to God as judge, righteous judge, with joy, not with reluctance. I guess I have to to love his judgments, as we love his mercies. For what is God without judgment? He is the God of our own making, our own choosing. Even if we label him Jesus, he is a projection of our own humanity, and therefore a false God, a false religion, a false church, without any ability to be a witness of the world or to be a saving instrument for Israel. Oh, speak to us, Lord, and obtain our surrender to the judgments of God. We thank you and give you praise. In Jesus' name, Amen. Well, if we had all kinds of time and could go verse by verse, the texts are full of these things, but in chapter 5, after the description of the hard things that must fall upon Jerusalem and upon Israel, where he stretched out his hand in verse 25 and struck them and the mountains quaked and the corpse were like refuse heaped up in the streets, but for all that his anger has not turned away and his hand is stretched out still. Do you know what my commentary says at the bottom of the page? The past judgments did not lead to repentance, so God's anger is still unabated. Nothing has changed. His hand is stretched out still. How can Israel bless all the families of the earth except out of a broken and contrite spirit, not in its present arrogance, who do not see the unbroken dealings of God that have not yet obtained what he has for Israel? And so we can rightly expect the judgments that conclude the age but you say, brother, what about the Nazi Holocaust? Your book contends that that was a judgment, a fulfillment of God's word of what would befall Israel in the last days. Yes, but how have we realized it in our experience and understanding? Has it brought the necessary breaking and contrition? Have we acknowledged that we have received double for our sins? Have we acknowledged our sins or the sins of our fathers or our own? The statement that we have come with at the end of the Holocaust is not that we repent but never again. What does that imply? That this was not a judgment coming from the hand of God. This is some aberration in history. If Hitler had not lived we might not have experienced it. It's a freak event in history we would have taken advantage of in our helplessness. But now, as the number one military power in the Middle East, the great air force nuclear deterrent never again. As if we ourselves can affect our own destiny. So long as that is our mentality that man is in charge of his affairs and that the flesh of our arm can save us how shall we bless all the families of the earth? So what hinders us from agreeing with the prophets? I think the key is in what happened in Isaiah's experience himself. He was given a vision of the king high and lifted up. I wish I could articulate what is in my spirit. I have been touching on this in the previous sessions but not sufficiently. It's our failure to share with Isaiah his vision of the king that makes us to shrink from his prophetic judgments. Once you glimpse the king and his glory and his throne then you understand then it follows that in order to achieve that in the earth to a nation that has been so long apostate and unwilling judgments must come judgments must come because your vantage point is the issue of the king his enthronement his rule over creation and that brings everything into the correct perspective including Israel and God's purposes through her the church itself the purpose of our own salvation everything comes into focus when we see the king and the kingdom but what did it take for him to see that? chapter six verse one in the year that king Uzziah died I saw the lord sitting on a throne high and lifted up so what do you think? mere coincidence circumstance a way of bringing a chronological date or is there a conjunction between the death of this king and the revelation of the king we do err because we do not understand the scriptures we have read them too casually we have glossed over these significant holy ghost details here is what I am suggesting that the death of king Uzziah was the key to the revelation of the king who is king we need to identify who our Uzziah is and that must be brought to a death or we will never agree with God we will never see as God sees we will never be willing for the sacrifice and the suffering either for Israel or for ourselves we have not seen the king and what obscures our seeing is that we are filled with a lesser kingdom my ministry my church my denomination my nation something had to die for him something has to die for us and I'm not saying that that is a necessarily sinful thing it may well be an honorable thing it could even be a God-given thing it's not that it's necessarily sinful but it has just obtained proportions beyond God's intention and had obscured your seeing and filled your contemplation over the lesser thing by which you missed the greater I had a brother come up to me after this afternoon session why do we have to pray that his kingdom come on earth as in heaven why do we have to pray that his kingdom come on earth won't it come by itself does it require our prayer you do err brother because you know not the scriptures nor the power of God what do you think the kingdom of God is some cheap phrase a little invocation a little formula it's ultimate it's the issue of God's glory it's his governance over his own creation in righteousness and in equity by which nations will study war no more turn their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning horns if you only knew what nations are spending for armaments the smallest of them who can least afford it whose people live at the threshold of starvation who never see a dentist in their lifetime they have to have F-16 fighter bombs how do you know that because the Lord allowed me to visit the plant where they are manufactured I will never forget the experience the price tag is unimaginable beyond millions these technical these pieces of supreme technology instruments of death and I saw the names of the nations painted on these planes ready to go Thailand Indonesia the most insignificant of nations has to have this piece of equipment because the neighbor has one an issue of prestige power, authority threat, intimidation we cannot know what is being expended Israel itself is the second or third greatest nation selling armaments to the world America is number one Russia is number two big, big business nations will study war no more there's not going to be another Balkan situation that is insoluble by men in their ethnic pride and arrogance the Lord will rule over them in equity and justice from the throne of Zion or he'll not rule over them at all the issue of Israel is the issue of Zion Zion is the place of the Davidic kingdom that can only be occupied by a son of David in the city of David in Jerusalem in Israel but not as she is presently constituted but will become appropriately in view of the kingdom as a result of the final dealings of God don't think that this is a view unique to me the view that is a novelty is the one that is the Christian Zionist prevalent view present Israel will succeed there will be some troubles yes . they'll overcome them and then progressively over a period of time Israel will be the fulfillment the prophetic fulfillment this is a novel view the historic view shared by David Barron Adolf Safir I know you don't know these names the most eminent Hebrew Christian Old Testament commentators of the 19th century Kyle and Dalich whom I have quoted earlier before the advent of the state of Israel these Old Testament commentators agreed there was a consensus of agreement there must be a necessary preliminary return something that will agitate a contention against it that will result in a friction of expulsion a final dealing and sifting of God and a return and I will restore you and I will return you the book of Amos ends with and I will plant you in the land and you will not again be rooted out the prophets are full you will not again be afraid you will not fear terror all that present Israel is now experiencing has been prophesied as will be their final historic experience culminating in an expulsion from the land and a final sifting and a return of a surviving remnant the redeemed of the Lord will return to Zion though they didn't leave it in that condition something has happened to them in their expulsion in that life and for fear that I'll not have opportunity tomorrow to speak of it I have now to say that you need to consult Ezekiel chapter 20 from verse 33 classic text a classic text I will meet with you in the wilderness of the nations and there I will contend with you strive with you and there I will meet with you face to face and you will come into the bond of my covenant and under the rod of my authority that is how the redeemed of the Lord return to Zion something happens as result of their expulsion and sifting through the nations God meets with them in the wilderness of the nations in the out of the way places that Jews would never otherwise frequent because it would not be safer than in any urban city any center they need to be in the wilderness the wilderness is a stripping experience in which you review all your categories and what was important to you when you lived in prosperity and affluence in your condominium in Toronto or Los Angeles now has lost all coherence and meaning you are stripped lost defenseless and in flight from persecution and God says in that condition I will meet with you that's the condition in which he met with me 37 years ago in flight uprooted moving through the nations not from external persecution but from an internal collapse of all my categories the arrogant opinionated man the vehement atheist the one who most opposed Christianity was stripped even of my categories as well as my possessions moving through the nations as an auto stopper totally dependent on the mercy that would come to me from those who would pick me up that's another view of reality a truer reality than when we fly first class that's the illusion that's the deception as some of my kinsmen have only painfully learned on September 11th he's a still small voice and we Jews have been filled too much with our own opinions we need to be stripped even of that that we might hear the voice of the God of our fathers and be turned I was sharing with our pastor here earlier this evening what makes me so convinced of the truth of what I am proclaiming to the church though it's a painful view to consider that just when Israel seems within reach of establishing itself as success as indeed I was in my 34th year as a professional as a teacher then suddenly the bottom falls out and you're thrust out into the world and into the nation so that I'm speaking not only from a view that I believe is sustained through all the prophets the classic biblical commentators of previous generations but my own experience of the last 27 years of my believing life for we ourselves are living in the wilderness of our nation nothing I asked for nothing I desired ironically I was living just outside of New York in a 17 room house with 5 bathrooms my wife loved this house and the Lord brought me supernaturally to a property where we presently are in the wilderness of America northern Minnesota 10 miles from the closest town population 200 and the headquarters of a North American Indian nation the headquarters of a North American Indian nation small village yeah, town I must ask you a question North American Indians And you're a Jewish believer, and you're called to your own people. And New York is your own birthplace and home city. And you left that to go out into this nowhere place against the shrieks and cries of men who said you're a fool. And you've been there for 27 years. And Charisma magazine thought you were dead, who had now gone to publish my statement on the recent catastrophe in New York. They thought I was dead. They hadn't heard from me. Where is that Jewish personality who was known by Kathryn Kuhlman and circulated in the 1970s? Hidden in an obscure location. Why? Because as a speaker in that locality, waiting to go back to my nice home and charismatic lifestyle, they said, oh, there's a property for sale. Would you care to see it? Why not? Let's go for a ride. So they take me out in the car to this remote boy's camp that has now gone bankrupt and is for sale. And there's a chain over the road. No trespassing. So I stepped over it, and when my foot came down, these were the exact words that God spoke to me. Dominion, the name that the property now has borne for many years, what does Dominion mean? But rule, the sovereignty of God, end-time teaching center, community, refuge. That's all he said. That's all he had to say. My wife has never been persuaded. She didn't hear that. She didn't want to give up her beautiful Gothic home. Are you sure that God has spoken? It was such a still, small voice, that if I wanted to dismiss it as being only a figment of my own imagination, the Lord would have allowed it. And he would not have penalized me. I would have gone on to be a charismatic success. But I chose to hear this still, small voice. Refuge for whom? It didn't mean anything to me. The Lord spoke. I was obedient. We came. And within a short time, we had a community of 55 people, Jesus freaks, that didn't have a penny to their pocket. No one who ever came to us had anything to bring, only to take. And we were poor for 10 years. We lived beneath the poverty level established by the government. It was a fiery furnace of faith. And what's the purpose? That there's a day coming that is not distant. When Jews will be in flight in North America from persecution, and we will have prepared a place for them, 100 miles south of the Canadian border, where I have just visited before coming here, and found out how porous that border is, just across one point of the river and one point of a lake, you're in the United States of America. We are in the coldest place of the North American continent. It's been a long history of struggle and suffering. But in the more recent years, the Lord has shown us other places cold in the same way. So what is beginning to surface is a linkage of such places of refuge, from Canada to Mexico. I'm finding them in Europe. God will establish them in the world. For he says in the prophet Amos, I will sift you through all nations. Either I've made a terrible mistake, and have misspent 27 years of my life, and suffered unnecessary struggles, or we are a pioneer for you, to establish a reality to which you yourself are called. Or brother, I can understand refuge, but why community? You lose your privacy. And there's so many difficulties with people when you live in that kind of intensity of relationship. Is that necessary? Can't we continue our privatistic lifestyles? And still be to the Jews what we must? No. You cannot imagine the condition in which they will come to you. Suddenly uprooted, having lost everything, in flight for their lives, watching some of their own children or daughters or sons killed. In America, a global hatred against the Jews, a fulfillment of what Jesus himself spoke, that there's a trouble coming that will exceed anything that the nation has previously known. This is that trouble, and they were unprepared for it, and come to you in that condition, and you're extending yourself toward them? What if you're caught? You'll be accused of being a Jew lover, and these are the people that have upset the world and its economy. You'll suffer on their behalf, and your willingness to take that risk will reveal to them what the church has never yet been able to communicate, that by our mercy they shall receive mercy. We have never fulfilled what Paul has spoken. We have never moved them to jealousy. Only to indignation and to contempt. Our last historic opportunity to fulfill the mystery of which Paul speaks, that by our mercy they will receive mercy. Do you have mercy to give? It's not the concept of mercy. It's not the doctrine of mercy to which we mentally subscribe as being true. It's the actuality of mercy. So tell me, you dear Austrian saints, when have you needed the mercy of God last, in order to conduct church, or anything? I'm speaking to you tonight from the mercy of God. I was so empty, so lacking in inspiration. Nothing. If anything comes, Lord, it's your mercy. I'm living by your mercy continually. I'm bringing an unpopular view. My critics and adversaries are increasing. And the awareness of the church is so limited. In the few meetings you have to turn the world upside down for them. And communicate something that will make them patently uncomfortable. The subject of judgment. Last day's calamity. Apocalyptic disaster. Jews in flight. There's no way to succeed. Unless I receive mercy. To communicate the very subject. And if it takes a mercy to communicate the subject, in which everything in us resists, what will it take to fulfill it? I preached this in the church, that by our mercy they shall receive mercy. And a woman cried out of the congregation. She said, Brother Katz, we don't even have mercy for each other. How shall we have it for Jews? Exactly. But we would never have been aware of it. And would have lived in indifference to it. If it had not been for the subject of Israel. And what God is requiring from us for them. That must first begin with us. Which will make the church the church. For a church that is without mercy is not the church. It's an institution or a society or a culture. The issue of Israel is for our sake. It compels us to be the church. In ways that we would never have chosen. That's why Paul finishes his statement in Romans 11, with his great praise. Oh the depth of the riches. Both of the wisdom and knowledge of God. Who has given them and it shall be given again. For of him and through him and to him are all things. To whom be glory forever. You dear saints. If you are not to be another flash in the pan. Another momentary phenomenon. Another evangelical success. The jealousy for God's glory must become central. You will not be willing for the suffering of becoming a community. You will not be willing to suffer to become a community. Unless you are jealous for his glory. Community is a suffering. Humiliation. You can't hide behind your Sunday face. You are with the same saints on Monday. And they hear you when you... Tell them what a great saint you are. The door slams behind you. And you go to the prayer meeting. Founder of the community. Anointed man of God. Tell them what a great saint you are. And they have all heard that. Because we're living close enough. That the truth cannot be concealed. And we have to live in the truth. Which is a humiliation before it's a glory. Or we'll have no mercy to give. It will take the corporate collective strength of a tested community. To be to the Jews what we must. Not no single individual. However much he is a spiritual virtuoso. Can be to them in patience and courage. What we must. They will test us. They have always tested the church. Even Luther has failed the test. And Chrysostom and many of the apostolic giants. Reacted against the Jews. Because they're so abrasive. So irritating. That we lose our spiritual strength. Calm. And that will be our test. What will it show? Oh, we could be nice Christians under normal circumstances. But what if we are stretched? What if we don't have all that much food to offer them? What if it's the time of the Antichrist where you cannot buy yourself without the mark of a beast? And you've laid up some things for your own family. Then here come these Jews. Will you be willing to share? Emptying your own supply? And they won't even be grateful? And how will you respond? Under their irritation and provocation. Is the test of the truth of your spirituality. And I want to say. Ten thousand Sunday services will not obtain that. But the daily trial. Of living together as the community of God's people. Is the very place where God shapes his divine character. And establishes it in us. You move in this direction. And you're going to come into a new experience of the opposition of the powers of darkness. They've not bothered you till now. And why should they? What threat have you constituted to them? They yawn when they look at your activities. Jesus they know and Paul they know. So they are formidable. Authentic apostolic giants. But who are you? You move in this direction. Of apostolic and prophetic authenticity. Moving from our privatistic evangelical church situation. Into the increasing reality of the church as community. And they will take a new interest in you. They will take note of you. For now you constitute a threat to the kingdom of darkness. For what is the community of God? But the expression of another kingdom. Oh the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God. He knew what we needed. He knew the privatistic mode that would settle upon us. That even our church architecture is modeled after the world. Past of audiences. Looking up to the elevated platform. In services provided by credentialed ministers. So in contradiction with the apostolic beginning. When you come together Paul said. Each one of you has. A tongue, an interpretation, a prophecy, a hymn, a song, a revelation. He expected that the church would feed itself. Each member would supply. He never visualized the passivity to which we are accustomed. And are willing to pay for. So that we would be absolved from all responsibility. To be active participants. Israel will compel us to become the church. Even in their unbelief. Especially in their unbelief. Will they be the provocation that we need. To see whether our attitude to them is only sentimental. Which will go up in a moment. With a puff. When it's tested. Or whether what we have for them is the love of God. Which we don't even presently have for each other. We've not been tested there. Because the unconditional love of God cannot fail. Sentiment will fail. Sentiment will fail. And those who today are the most excited and emotional toward Israel. May be the ones who will turn most vehemently against her. When she fails in their expectation. And becomes a disappointment. And the shame and the scandal in the world. How then will you identify with them? The least of these his brethren. Are they your brethren? If they are his brethren. Even while they are in their sins. So I want to conclude by reading from this great Hebrew Christian commentator of the 19th century. With whom I'm in complete agreement. He says to spurn the prophetic testimony of ultimate judgment. To spurn. To put it aside. Absolutely. Because you have no stomach for judgment. You much rather believe in the success of the state of Israel. Than that there must be a judgment that precedes a restoration. Is likely due to a sanguine sentimentality. You're more sentimental than you are apostolic. More humanistic than you are spiritual. And your response to the issue of judgment reveals it. It's really a shrinking from the cross. And a clinging to our humanistic view. That celebrates success more than the glory of God. For the church in the world is for Israel. For our marriages. What do you want your marriage to be a success or a glory? Success is comfortable. Sexual compatibility. Sexual compatibility. Companionship. All of the warm benefits. It's good for us. To be successful. But what would a marriage be as a glory to God? Will we give him the permission to trouble it? And raise issues that we would not otherwise have to experience. That go beyond accidental compatibility. Where you want to spit your guts out. You're so frustrated. You're so stupefied by the differences. And where do they come from? It was not like this before we were married. The Lord is after something much deeper than compatibility. And your enjoyment of each other. Marriage is a mystery. Paul says in Ephesians 4, I speak not of marriage, but of the church. Making the two one. Are we willing to suffer inconvenience? Stupefying misunderstanding. That leaves us helpless. And any ability to make resolutions. Casting us upon God. Bringing us to new depths of prayer. Because I'll stop if I'm going this way or that way. So that in the end, he could affect the reconciliation. That is enduring. And true. And established in God. By the work of his Spirit. And not the accident of compatibility. One is a success. The other is a glory. Are you willing for that in your marriage? Are you willing for that in your church? You want a happy fellowship? A nice Sunday message? Or you allow God to bring you dry seasons? Where the pastor himself is stupefied. Lord, I have prayed. I have fasted. Where's my anointing? The Lord falls to the ground. And I look at their faces. And they're disappointed. And they're indicting me for my failure. Not understanding. That they are being tested. In their identification. And their loyalty. Even when they're not being blessed. They can endure the dry season. For that is when the roots go down deep. Because when the storms come. And you're only thinly and shallowly planted. Your trees will topple. But if your roots have gone down. Searching for water. Even a drop. Because you're not getting it on Sunday. When the winds blow. Your church will endure. It'll be a glory to God. There's a suffering that precedes the glory. Unavoidable. It's intrinsic to reality itself. The Lord himself was not exempt from it. Nor can Israel be. Nor are we. So. I want to pray for such a church. In Innsbruck, Austria. The Lord must have such an intention. Or I would not be here. And how opposed these meetings have been. From well-meaning men. Thinking that I was going to encourage anti-Semitism. To speak of catastrophes that must come. Chastisements and dealings. To prepare a people for his kingdom. So I know you have a destiny. I know you have a call. It goes back into the early 1980s. When your pastor heard me in South Africa. He remembered me all those years later. Whatever is said about this controversial man. He has sufficient respect. And remembrance. To allow him to share. Despite the critics. You have a destiny. And I want to pray for you. Thank you Lord. Are you willing to receive this destiny? Are you willing for this calling? Or do you prefer just to be ordinary Christians? You'll be eternally embarrassed. For when he comes you bring his rewards with him. To give to every person according to their works. So Lord I bless this people. Appointed ones. And that's what we have asked of you. In every meeting that we've had. We don't care how many. We're not looking at numbers. But bring every appointed soul. As prepared. For this word and for this call. Establish something. That will have consequence. And you have done it. So Lord I bless them. Watch over your word. That it would not fall to the ground. Or return to you void. But it will be fulfilled. Give this precious people a renewed vision of the cross. The centrality of suffering. Before the glory. And the jealousy for the glory. That will enable them to endure whatever comes. I bless them. Hear from them even now. You hear from them. Anyone who would dare even speak to you. From their seat. And transact something. Before we conclude the service. That you wait to hear from them. Their willingness to serve you. By being to your people Israel what they must. And are willing for every preparation. That they should not fall short of you. Yes even if necessary the troubling of their marriages. Troubling of their fellowship. Whatever troubling. That will bring the impartation of your character. Your patience. Your courage. Your unconditional love. We give over our sentimentality. We give over our humanistic notion. Establish us in the abiding reality. That we will not fail. Whatever it takes. Can you pray that? Out loud. Before the Lord. Before witnesses. Whatever it takes Lord. I'm willing. Just to say that much. Whatever it takes Lord. I am willing. From this night. Enroll me. Enroll me. Fit me for this purpose. Enable me to be part of that kind of fellowship. That community. Bring me from sentimentality to the divine love. I'm willing for the deaths. Of disappointment and humiliation. But I want to be faithful in that day. So begin with me now. When that day is not too distant. And when it comes. It will come suddenly. But may it not find me unprepared. Take me at my word tonight. I invite you. I release you. To bring whatever is needful. To fit me for that day. In Jesus name. Is that your prayer? Pray it. Your own words. Something like that. Whatever it takes Lord. He'll hear you. As will the powers of the air. They'll no longer pass over you lightly. You'll be regarded with a new respect. Even with fear. For you have crushed a Jew. Into the land of commerce. You speak.
Ger-05 Israel's Predicament
- Bio
- Summary
- Transcript
- Download

Arthur "Art" Katz (1929 - 2007). American preacher, author, and founder of Ben Israel Fellowship, born to Jewish parents in Brooklyn, New York. Raised amid the Depression, he adopted Marxism and atheism, serving in the Merchant Marines and Army before earning B.A. and M.A. degrees in history from UCLA and UC Berkeley, and an M.A. in theology from Luther Seminary. Teaching high school in Oakland, he took a 1963 sabbatical, hitchhiking across Europe and the Middle East, where Christian encounters led to his conversion, recounted in Ben Israel: Odyssey of a Modern Jew (1970). In 1975, he founded Ben Israel Fellowship in Laporte, Minnesota, hosting a summer “prophet school” for communal discipleship. Katz wrote books like Apostolic Foundations and preached worldwide for nearly four decades, stressing the Cross, Israel’s role, and prophetic Christianity. Married to Inger, met in Denmark in 1963, they had three children. His bold teachings challenged shallow faith, earning him a spot on Kathryn Kuhlman’s I Believe in Miracles. Despite polarizing views, including on Jewish history, his influence endures through online sermons. He ministered until his final years, leaving a legacy of radical faith.