January 2003

Issued Monthly

JEWS, CATHOLICS, EVANGELICALS---ALL MEET THE SAME HOLY SPIRIT

Part I

In the beginning of my ministry, the late 1940's, two things did not happen: Catholics did not become evangelical and Jews did not become Christian. Suddenly, that changed. And it has changed radically. Church historians will someday look upon this half-century as revolutionary. In 1967, in the Six Days War, Israel regained control of Jerusalem for the first time in 2,000 years. Soon after that, Jesus-believing Synagogues began springing up around the world. Today, more than 300 are scattered across the U.S. and other nations, with some located in Jerusalem. Numerous Russian Jews are accepting Jesus as Messiah.

Why this sudden upheaval in the Jewish camp? The Six Days War fulfilled Jesus' prophecy that Jerusalem would be "trampled by Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled." Luke 21:24. That prophetic earthquake has taken place, Jerusalem has been returned to the Jews, and around the world we are feeling spiritual after-shocks. Messianic Judaism is now the fastest growing religious movement among Jews; significantly, the organization "Jews For Jesus" is more militantly evangelical than its centuries-old Christian counter-parts. Once when I asked a Jewish Rabbi what he thought about Jews For Jesus, he said, "I think they are more Jewish than the rest of us."

According to the Council of Jewish Federations, by 1990, 14% of the 8.2 million American Jews had some kind of positive faith in Y'shua. Today, the number is probably far greater. More than 1,000,000 Jews in the U.S. are quasi-believers in Jesus as Messiah. Like Nicodemus, many are "disciples in secret." Before his death, Albert Einstein, a Jew, and the greatest genus of the past 1,000 years, boldly acknowledged his belief in Jesus. Though many did not realize it, the two spiritual "awakenings," one among Jews, and the other among Christians, were related. The Holy Spirit has simultaneously returned in greater power to people of the "Book"--Christians and Jews.

A few years after the Six Days War, in the early 1970's, the Charismatic Renewal hit mainline denominations--Protestant and Catholic--like a bomb. The Holy Spirit began moving in power in both areas. There has been a dam-burst of Charismatic Catholics turning to Bible-preaching churches seeking the new birth and baptism in the Spirit. Every week, some 140,000 Latin American Catholics are joining evangelical churches. That is 400 converts an hour or 41,000,000, in a ten year period. At least one of these inter-denominational congregations in Argentina has more than 250,000 members. Another such church in Bogota, Columbia, less than 10 years old, has more than 100,000 members--all former Roman Catholic. Recently, Laurie and I had lunch with Christian ministers, Paul and Nuala O'Higgins, he, a former Irish Catholic Priest, and she a former Irish Nun, whose lives were dramatically changed by the Charismatic Renewal in Ireland, and who today are in an exciting evangelical ministry. They are typical of many others. When I was pastor of Grace Fellowship here in Boynton Beach, 65 percent of our congregation was former Roman Catholic and we were never without Jews.

Of the 500 fastest growing churches in North America, 450 are not mainline denominational congregations. Some who were once "denominational" have abandoned that restrictive identity. The wind of change is blowing in every Christian and Jewish quarter worldwide and there is no holding it back.

In an accelerating way, we will see significant conversions taking place world wide--even in Arab nations. I predict R.T. Kendall's recent one-hour and forty-minute Jesus-confrontation with Yasser Arafat will have a shaking impact on Palestine and Israel alike. If I am right, in the next few years we will see mass conversions of Jews with high-ranking Israeli officials openly acknowledging Y'shua as Messiah. God will give them no other choice.

Their testimonies about encountering Jesus and the changes He brought will continue in the February issue. Hear them speak:

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