Holl-06 Israel's Final Restoration
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.
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Sermon Summary
In this sermon, the speaker reflects on personal failures and the challenges faced in relationships and teaching. The State of Israel is mentioned as an opportunity to recognize and address difficult situations. The importance of community support and preparation for handling captured terrorists is emphasized. The speaker also raises questions about the depth of our relationships with others and the need for vulnerability and patience. The sermon references Oswald Chambers' book "My Utmost for His Highest" and mentions various booklets on topics such as Israel, the church, and the Holocaust.
Sermon Transcription
Thank you for a lovely introduction. It's my privilege to be here. I'm the one who's being honored. And my only fear is that I will spoil everything. Everything has been so lovely till now. But you don't know what you're getting. I wish that you had had a chance to read something of the booklets that are now on the back table. Some in English, some in Dutch. About Israel and the church of the last days. A famine for the hearing of the word of the Lord. Not that it's not being spoken, but it's not being heard. You'll be tested tonight. A powerful statement on Romans chapter 6. The heart of the gospel. Which you should have obtained with your baptism. A little booklet on the true conversion. Many saved, but few converted. This is in Dutch. This should be in Dutch. The spirit of truth. But my Dutch publisher is a year late. My German publisher is late. In a book that I can't even hold up for you. And a book that I can't show you yet. It's called the Holocaust. Where was God? I have the chutzpah to raise the question. And the answers are frightening. Because in that booklet I not only attempt a biblical explanation of the Nazi Holocaust. But I speak a warning of a Holocaust yet to come. That if the word of Jesus and Daniel and other of the prophets be true. That if the word of Jesus and Daniel and other of the prophets be true. Then this coming Holocaust will completely overshadow the Holocaust of the past. And the Jews are not prepared for this at all. Nor is the church prepared for this. If I'm right in my understanding. And many would love to see me wrong. I would love to be wrong myself. Then this catastrophe should come upon world Jewry. But if I'm right. If I understand the prophetic scriptures correctly. It's a warning that needs to be sounded. The French edition of the Holocaust book which is in print. Is now number 7 on the 10 most purchased French books in Switzerland and France. And that in only a few weeks. Because it is explosive and controversial. And that's where I'm going from here. French Switzerland, Lausanne, Geneva. Lyon, France. Where evangelical ministers want to meet with me. Kiev in the Ukraine. Where messianic pastors want to meet with me. Who are happily encouraging Jews to come to Israel now. And want to understand my position. When I say to extend such an invitation. Is to bring Jews from the frying pan to the fire. Is to bring Jews from the frying pan to the fire. So I'm a prophet who constantly keeps an eye on catastrophes. I've only had 2 messages in my last trips to Israel. The first one which is about 7 years ago. Which I spoke 7 times in the land and 3 times in Jerusalem. Listening to the howls and shrieks and screams of people who were antagonized by it. Listening to the howls and shrieks and screams of people who were antagonized by it. Cats, you haven't changed. You're as loveless as ever. Because my message has always been Ezekiel 37. The necessary death and resurrection of Israel. Not as a happenstance. But the necessary death and resurrection. Which we have no more disposition to consider. We have never considered this. In the same way as the disciples didn't consider the fact that the Messiah would have to die and then be resurrected. Actually we have the same attitude as Peter. But now for Israel's suffering. Let this be far from you. Let it not be unto you. Can't you succeed without it? After 50 years of statehood? Thousands of years in exile? Don't you deserve now to succeed? There's a must and an ought. Jesus rebuked Peter with the most severe words. Get thee behind me Satan. Get thee behind me Satan. Because you smell the things and you taste the things that are not of God but of man. That is quite encouraging. While he had such a great compassion for his Lord. He was very humane and compassionate. And that is the best attitude that man can produce. But also the one that Satan likes to use. To keep the Lord from his necessary, redemptive death. Jesus said to his disciples after the resurrection. We have thought it had been he who would have restored the glory to Israel. O fools and slow of heart. Not to understand all that the prophets have spoken. Ought not the Messiah to suffer and die? Before he ascends to his glory? We deserve that rebuke today. Because we think that the issue of Israel is the issue of the success of its state. Because we think that the issue of Israel is the issue of the success of its state. But there is something much greater that is at stake. It is the glory of God forever. And as far as I understand the scriptures and God's way of working that there has never been an access to glory. Except through death and resurrection. So let me pray. Father, protect us, keep us from your rebuke. Do not let our well-meaning intentions get in your way. Our human mobility for Israel keeps us from recognizing its necessary destiny. There is an ought and there is a must. There is something intrinsic to the faith. It is rooted in reality itself. It is intrinsic with God. There is a suffering and a death that precedes the glory. Oh, open our hearts to understand it. And open our lives to embrace it. For Israel will not have a chance except that there is a church that understands and prepares itself for the imminent catastrophe, the necessary death that must come to pass. In the name of Jesus, help us. Help me to bear such a word as this before so precious a people as this who have such a right heart Give them courage and stamina to bear the hard words of God. I thank you and give you praise. In Jesus' name, Amen. Well, I mentioned the message given seven years ago, spoken seven times. I am a foolish man who thinks much of the significance of numbers. Seven means completion. And when I finish arranging the days of this trip, beginning in Holland with this gracious invitation, taking me to France and Germany, Switzerland and France, as I've mentioned, the Ukraine and Russia, the Ural Mountains in Central Asia, and ending in Finland, where every invitation has been withdrawn, because I found out that the churches that had invited me were outgrowths of the Toronto Revival. And somehow they had learned that I had raised some questions about that phenomenon. So they refused to have me, unless I can endorse that revival. So we're still going by faith. Maybe the Lord wants to give me a rest at the end of the trip. Seeing that I've just come back from France, and five weeks in Africa, and we'll be going to Guatemala in September, and Canada in July, and Southeast Asia in 2001, to bring the strange message the Lord has been pleased to give. Well, what was your last time in Israel, Ut? Almost four years now. We had a conference for which no Messianic congregation would open its doors, for a man who was saved in Jerusalem, 36 years ago, and had been coming almost every year, in which they used to say that when Art comes to Israel, to Jerusalem, the Word of the Lord comes with him. But they don't say it anymore. And so we had to have the conference in our hotel. And not one soul came whom I've known for 25 to 30 years. Only one woman to enjoy our food, and to harass me while I was speaking. And when I got home from the trip, there were two letters waiting for me. One signed by 13 of the most eminent leaders of the world, one signed by 13 of the most leading significant men in Israel, many of whom whom I've known over a quarter of a century, condemning me as a false prophet, giving aid to the enemy, harassing the church, and being terribly in error. One letter came from a Dutch brother whom I've also known over a quarter of a century, 30 years. His was a much kinder letter, but equally as offended with me. And this is my answer to him. I'm tempted to read it. I have two Bibles with me tonight, and three papers. And I've fasted all the day, and five days before we came, and I'm trembling. How do I proceed? How do you break into the consciousness of the church? That already has such a tender affinity for Israel and the Jews. And speak those things that must necessarily come to pass. A good point of beginning is one of the great issues that have been raised. It's the issue of the time of Jacob's trouble. It's mentioned in Jeremiah chapter 30. In Daniel chapter 12. Jesus in his Olivet Discourse in Matthew 24, Luke 21. Matthew 24. Luke 21. This is where he said that there's a trouble coming. That eclipses all troubles that have ever been known since the world began. And if it were not cut short, no flesh would survive. He spoke about the abomination of desolation. That initiates this time of trouble. Citing Daniel. Referring to Jeremiah. So there's a whole body of prophecy that referred to a last day's time of trial for Jacob. Wherever Jacob is. Not only in the present state of Israel. But Holland as well. And South Africa. Johannesburg and Pretoria. Cape Town. 100,000 Jews. 100,000 Jews. So I was speaking to the church for the first time. Prepare yourself. For a time of affliction to come upon the Jews of your own nation. In a global anti-Semitism. Of the fiercest kind. Where a Jew will not be safe anywhere in the world. I faced some hostile audiences. Of the Christian Zionist kind. Who did not want to have their world upturned. Didn't want to have to consider such a scenario. And I watched God in one night turn them completely around. So at the end of the night I could say to them. Pray for me. I'm going now from South Africa to Zimbabwe and Zambia. Black nations. That will be the route of flight of escape. Out of your South African cities. For a surviving remnant of Jews. And I had to speak this to the black church. Pray for me. And they did. I'm a believer now 36 years. And I have never found a time when the issue of the exegesis of scripture. This is a Greek word, exegesis. The drawing out of the true meaning. I have... I have never seen a time like this. Where the ultimate meaning of the Lord Jesus Christ. Concerning the interpretation of the word. Is more critical than now. Especially the prophetic scripture. Which in several ways. Wasn't the valley of dry bones fulfilled in the Nazi time? Weren't Jews literally reduced to valleys of bones? Why then do you say this is a future event? Because the text itself indicates that. In verse 11. When they themselves say. We are cut off. We are without hope. We are as dry bones. In that moment. For which God is still waiting. For the people of Israel. To make such an acknowledgement. God turns to a son of man. He is released. He is released. By Israel's own acknowledgement. Of the truth of its condition. Prophesy to these things. That they might live. That they might live. God is still waiting to hear that acknowledgement. What came out of the Nazi holocaust. Was not that we are cut off. We are as dry bones. But something of an entirely different character. More in keeping with our Jewish character. Our indomitable self-sufficiency. Our never-ending. Never again. If you go to Auschwitz today. Where I have been many times. Treblinka. Where I was on my last trip to Poland. And in other death camps. You see in six foot tall letters. Or as it was in Treblinka. In German, French, English. In German, French, Jewish. In English. Never again. God is still waiting. What kind of God is this? It raises this question. How far will he go? Is it the one holocaust sufficient? Not if it has not obtained its end. The brokenness of a nation. Who is called to more than the issue of successful statehood. Is called to be a servant son. Of a priestly kind. To the nations. To the Goyim. To the Arab nations. You do err. Because you don't understand. What is our ultimate destiny and call. And how far God will go to obtain it. We are too success oriented. In your own life and in your own church. And project that kind of mentality onto Israel. The point of contention between my Dutch brother and myself. He says that the time of Jacob's trouble has passed. It's all okay now. Israel may be going through present difficulties. But over a course of time. Things will improve. There is no necessity for your apocalyptic scenario. Israel's suffering has passed. What an astonishment. To believe that the Nazi time was the time of Jacob's trouble. When the scripture makes it clear. That it must have its inception in Jerusalem. Through an anti-Christ figure. To stop sacrifice that had been initiated. After three and a half years of a false covenant of peace. In which Israel recognizes it has been duped. That it was a false peace. And negotiated with an anti-Christ figure. Who now demands to be worshipped as God. It's a historic moment. That has not yet come. And it triggers the whole explosive devastation of Israel. To which I believe will be an expulsion again into the nations. Either in flight from the terror of that violence. Or in actual captivity. Or being cast out into the nations. Even to the farthest corners of the world. In which God says, I will return you. That's your future. And you'll be able to compare two returns. One essentially initiated and negotiated by man. The Zionist state. To which orthodox Jews do not yet subscribe nor acknowledge as valid. Because they believe in their understanding of scripture. And rightly so, in my opinion. That that prophetic fulfillment can only come through God. Not through the allowance of his providence. But the actual intervention of God. Demonstrably and visibly. Before the face of all nations. As well as hopeless Israel itself. That they might know that I am the Lord. Who has spoken and performed this. Fifty years of present Israel. Has not brought that acknowledgement. And never will. It's remarkable how mature men can come to their opinions. When the scripture so clearly shows that this time of Jacob's trouble has its initiation in Jerusalem itself. How can you say that it was the Nazi time? This does not initiate in Europe or in Germany. But in the land. And there was no state of Israel in that Nazi time. My whole debate with my colleagues and my brother. Has opened to me a whole contemplation of the cross. After 36 years in the faith. 25 years in community. Traveling the world in the Lord's service. In a difficult marriage with a Gentile wife. In our 35th anniversary. I realized that every issue in the last analysis is the issue of the cross. We are not speaking about an idle matter of difference of opinion. That's why I have fasted today. To keep myself from the Shabbat table. Because what is at issue tonight is not a message or a man. Or a reputation. But the issue of life and death. Of eternity itself. If this catastrophe is coming. And we have no anticipation. And made no preparation. And made no proclamation. We will be implicit and involved in Israel's death. There is so much more than I can express. The issue of rightly interpreting the prophetic word. The key, I believe, is given to men who are actually living. And the key to this is... And the key to this is given to men who are actually prophetic. To be truly prophetic. Because I believe that the critical issue today for the church. Is discerning the true from the false prophets. And classically what has been the difference between them throughout all of history. One says, peace, peace. And heals the wounds of his daughter lightly. And the other says, coming judgment. Disaster. Catastrophe. Repent now. And come into the ark of safety. Where there is a judgment that must come. Because it says in Jeremiah, your sins will exceed that of your fathers. And anyone who reads the Jerusalem Post regularly. Knows that that prophecy is being fulfilled. Jews practicing torture. The exploitation of foreign workers. The highest rate of abortion in the world. Where the first two abortions are free for every Israeli girl serving in the military. Satan clubs and witchcraft. High school extortion gangs. That brand students with their cigarette butts if they'll not give them some shekels. The highest rate of the abuse of women in physical, battering violence and murder. There's a whole catalog of sin. I take no delight in announcing it. But your naivety requires it. Because you have a romantic sense of us Jews. You think that somehow we're some special kind of humanity. We're all little Davids. Didn't you read that President Weizmann was indicted for taking bribery of almost a half million dollars while in office. A scandal. The highest position of the state. And questions now about the misuse of funds by Israel. The former Netanyahu while he was in office. And also Barak in the way in which he obtained funds for his own political campaign. And why not? Is there any man good? If God were to mock or nickety, who can stand? Do you think we have some special virtue? Or are we man? Depicting for all the world what man essentially is. And what he will do in the perpetuation of his own interest. When he has not access to God. I have a prophetic way of understanding present Israel. Given not to succeed. But to fail. Who else could have attempted it in half a century? To take a malarial wasteland and transfigure it into a high-tech civilization. Take a narrow liturgical language, Hebrew. And make it into a modern secular tongue. In a nation that wants to be like all other nations. The Hong Kong of the Middle East. The second greatest internet computer software giant outside of California. And succeed in doing it. Well that's when my life collapsed. When I succeeded. Born in the depression years. Raised without a father. By a mother struggling to sustain a household with two sons. I became in my later years a professional. A teacher. And my mother could quell. Do you know this word? To quell. Having achieved what I sought. I recognized my failure in my success. I could raise the great questions for my students. But I could not myself answer them. Especially in the failure of my marriage to a German wife. In which my good will and reason failed. The Zionist state of Israel has given us opportunity. To see the truth of our condition. As we would not otherwise have ever acknowledged it. What do you do with a captured suspected terrorist? If he has information that can be extracted. That might save another bombing in Jerusalem. Or a bus in Tel Aviv. So the Orthodox won't have to come with their plastic bags. And take the body parts off of the telephone wires. Is such a one going to voluntarily give information? Without coercion? Toward our necessary destiny? We are required to employ means. That we would never have considered as Jews. While we were living in ghettos in other nations. Rightly did a scholar proclaim. Power corrupts. And absolute power corrupts absolutely. Even Jews. Or should we say especially Jews. Of course we have the greater calling. We have the greater honor. We have the greater history. We have the law. We have the prophets. And for us to violate against God. We will suffer double for our sins. What gives my perspective an additional strength. Is not only my confidence that I'm speaking out of an office that God has given. But also the knowledge that I have received this service from God. But also my own history during the last 25 years. We have been living for 25 years in North Minnesota. Of course that doesn't mean anything to you. But I can tell you it's very primitive. It's cold. It's the coldest place on the North American continent. Our temperatures are always lower than Alaska. We are 100 miles from the Canadian border. 8 miles from the closest town. Population 200. And we've been there for 25 years. And I'm from New York. And I'm educated in California. I'm an urbane, cultured man. What am I doing in that primitive location? Preparing a place of refuge for Jews in flight. In North America. In the United States of America. In the country that Jews have obtained their greatest success. Their greatest security. God called me. By a word. End time teaching center. Community. Refuge. Where my foot came over the chain in the entrance to the property. When I put my foot over the chain that surrounded the territory. And it was actually a boys camp that went bankrupt. That was the only thing the Lord told me. Or we have made a mistake for 25 years. Trying to become food sufficient. Particularly at a time when we may not be able to buy nor sell. If Antichrist is going to expel Jews from their places of safety. If Antichrist is going to expel Jews from their places of safety. And is that not a time that we get the number marked on our foreheads or on our hands? And that we can no longer buy and sell? How are we going to provide for ourselves? Not only for ourselves. But also for the stream of refugees that are going to come. Who to their least. Who have seen naked. And hungry. And exiled. Thrown away. Who have come from far away. Northern Minnesota. Out from Canada. Zimbabwe and Zambia. In the most remote locations in Southern Africa. Under brutal and primitive conditions. Because God says in Ezekiel chapter 20. From verse 33. I will meet with you. In the wilderness of the nations. Face to face. And I will plead with you. And there you will come into the bond of my covenant. And into the rod of my authority. So that the redeemed of the Lord can return to Zion. As the redeemed of the Lord. With everlasting joy upon their heads. And mourning and sighing fleeing away. Oh you dear saints. You need a teacher more than a prophet. So look at the booklets. And there you will have more detailed explanations. Of the frequency in the prophetic scriptures. And I will return you. From every place wherein I have scattered you. With a fury poured out. How else should modern Jews find themselves. In Northern Minnesota or Southern Africa. Except a fury poured out. Has driven them suddenly out of their places of security. The Buddhists. Have brought them out of their places of security. To places like these. The remnant of them that will survive. Will survive because of you. Or they will not survive at all. Point. But how do you read Matthew 25? Prophetically. Jesus separates the Gentiles. Of all nations. One by one. He determines their eternal destiny. The righteous inherit the kingdom of God. But the wicked. Who say. When did we see you hungry, thirsty, naked and in prison. And they say Lord when did we see you. They say Lord. But they could not recognize the Lord. In the least of these his brethren. God is going to sift and tear. God will sift Israel. And taste. I will shake you as one shakes corn in a sieve. And not so much as one kernel shall fall to the ground. I will sift you through all nations. Because it is not only the Jew that needs to be sifted. But the nations themselves. And the people who say Lord, Lord in the nations. And have no ability to extend mercy. To a people who will be universally despised. Hated and pursued. Blamed for the collapse of everything in the modern world. Which collapse is coming. But the righteous. Will extend mercy. They cannot help themselves. Their righteousness compels them. When it will be no more convenient for them. To extend mercy to the Jews who are the least of his brethren. Than it was for Corrie ten Boom and her family 50 years ago. Then you will be tested. You who love the Hebraic choruses now. And all of the Jewish and Hebraic resonance of worship and celebration. What will that day reveal? Remember how assured that Peter was. Lord, though all the world deny you. Yet will I deny you never. And so said they all. Until the night of terror came. And the one who made the loudest professions. Denied Jesus with oaths and cursings. I don't know the man. What shall we say? We need not only to prepare physically for Jews in time of flight. But spiritually. To be able to bear the situation. To make it known. To sound a warning. To be able to receive them. Not out of a sense of grim religious obligation. But God says, I will meet with you face to face. They've got to see something more than religious obligation. That holds its breath waiting for them to pass. They've got to see the unconditional love of God. Under the most trying circumstances. When they will be at their worst. Their least politeness. Their greatest irritation. Believing that they are again suffering a Christian crime. They will be stretched to breaking. Until the moment that they almost burst. And they will get irritated. And they will not even be grateful. For your sacrifice. And your risk that you are walking. What will that reveal in you? The Lord said. The end time teaching center. This community. A refuge. You know what I've come to realize? In 25 years. No community, no refuge. Community is more than the casual accommodation or coming together of the saints. We are 25 or 30 of us. Living together on the same property. I'm not their employer. I'm only a brother with them. And a difficult brother. But they're all difficult. Daily irritations and trials. Because God says in Romans through Paul. That by your mercy they can obtain mercy. And a woman cried out in a church years ago when I preached that. Archie said, we don't have mercy for each other. How shall we have it for Jews? Only a community can bear the weight and the responsibility the impact of Jews in this condition. Because they have already had a history of bearing one another. Because they have already been dragged into each other. They have already carried each other's problems. How does that appeal to your own private life? Where you can come together so joyfully on Sunday. Or in a conference like this. But Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. The daily thing. Reveals the truth about condition. And better that that truth should be revealed now. While there's yet opportunity to alter it by the grace of God. Then we should reveal it to Jews. Because we show it to the Jews for whom we are the only hope in those last days. Are we living in such a vital relationship with our brothers and sisters next to us? Or are we ourselves easily touched and easily irritated? I'm reading from Oswald Chambers. My utmost for his highest. Do you read him? Daily? Every day? Selection for the day? Together with the psalm for the day? The chapter from the book of Proverbs? In your daily devotional time? Before you go off to business? Or attend to the family? Or any such thing? The issue of the last days for the church is the issue of its devotion. Because there's a young man that Satan has been seeking to destroy. Throwing him into the fire and into the water. He foams at the mouth with fits under demonic manipulation. And the disciples could not cast it out. And Jesus said to the father, How long has this been going on? Since childhood. Since its infancy. Since its birth as a people. Satan has been out to destroy the Jew. Throwing him into the fire and into the water. And he's coming into the earth. And he's trying to destroy the Jews. For he knows his time is short. And he wants not just to harass the Jew. But so as to destroy him. And the disciples could not cast it out. And they were more spiritual than you. They had walked with Jesus. But they came to this ultimate test. And had not the faith. Had not the authority. To deal with this ultimate demonic manifestation of the kind that is coming into all the world in the last days. And will seek as its last activity the annihilation of the Jew. Will you be able to cast it out? They took Jesus aside privately after he had delivered this child. Because when he commanded that demon to get up from him. He shook him one last time like a rag doll. And left him for dead. There was not so much a deliverance that was needed. As a resurrection. And Jesus stretched forth his hand. And lifted him up. This is beyond your present spirituality. Why could we not cast him out? Well, because this kind. This ultimate kind. Cometh not out. But by prayer and fasting. Prayer beyond petition. Prayer that is communion. Prayer that is communion. That is in the presence of God frequently. And obtained in the early morning hour. In the cold draft on the floor. In your little private devotional room in Holland. A sense of God. As God. That is greater than all of the reality of evil. And will overcome it. Because it knows the God who is greater. Devotional. These are hard words to consider. And only the righteous will succeed in that day. Who are in communion with his risen life. Righteousness is not our correct behavior. It is the abiding reality of God who alone is righteous. We live in the presence of God who creates our righteousness and righteousness. And we obtain that by having communion with him. Communion. So that we can bear his word. Because he has things to say. That have been too hard for us. We cannot bear it. He cannot reveal it. We cannot get it. Until his life has had his way with us. His risen life. And then we understand. Yes. There is a need for resurrection. Resurrection is the key to glory. But it does not come without a death. From which Jesus himself was not absolved. How then Israel. Say that again. Jesus himself was not exempt from the requirement of that death. The Messiah must suffer. Must die. Before he ascends to his glory. What then Israel. Who is going to be an eternal glory for God. A diadem, a jewel, a necklace in the hand of the Lord. A nation of priests. Who say of their Jerusalem. God is our righteousness. It has become the city of righteousness. It has become the city of righteousness. A nation of priests. Who minister to all nations. Out of a brokenness. Required of sons. Who are chastened by the love of the Father. There is a chastening coming. Must come. May we be able to bear it. May we be able to warn in advance of it. May we be able physically to prepare for the receiving of them. To reveal God's mercy. Not out of obligation. But out of joy. For the privilege. Of revealing to this broken people. The reality of their God. That they might return to Zion. As the redeemed of the Lord. Though they did not leave it in that condition. Let me pray for us. May I pray for us. Lord, if I am in error. If I am raising up an unhappy speculation that will not come to pass. One that we need not anticipate. Nor make any preparation. Because after all we think we are going to be ratcheted out before such a time. Then let this speaking this evening come to nothing. Let it be like a vapor that dissipates away. But if it is true. Let the word haunt us. Bring us afresh into your scriptures. Where we will see the word devastation. Ruin. The land made desolate. The cities that are left without inhabitants. The Jerusalem that will be rebuilt upon its own ruins. Open our eyes to see. What you have so prolifically described. That we might be forewarned. And give a warning. To the naive and unsuspecting. Upon whom this will fall suddenly. Bring us of age. To fulfill our destiny. As a church that can be to Israel what it must. When they shall become the least of these your brethren. We shall not join the world. In our disappointment that have failed Israel. But receive them. As the brethren of the Lord. Even in their sinful condition. That they might be redeemed. And meet God. Through our Gentile faces. That will not be irritated. Will not be disappointed. Will not be resentful. But show the unconditional love of God. I bless this church Lord. It is nothing to fast five days. Or one day. For a message as significant as this. In a nation that has already shown itself heroically toward the Jew. And will have yet one more occasion. Before the end comes. May it not find them unprepared. Because you have sent your word into their midst. Through a precious woman whose spirit was touched. By a man of whom she had never heard. And though she had been warned by others. And though she had been warned by others. And other speakers had a reason not to come. And still persisted in having him. And calls him the man of God. Bless her. Bless her. For the salvation that shall come to a remnant of Israel. For a door of utterance that has been opened this night. Out of this deepest faith and love. Watch over this word Lord. To perform it. Let it be historic. We thank and give you praise. For taking the initiative. Coming into our midst. And speaking to us as sons and daughters. Who can hear your hard word. And know in our deepest hearts. It's true. And do it. By the grace of God. To the eternal praise of your glory. In Jesus name. Amen.
Holl-06 Israel's Final Restoration
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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.