Shaking Off the DustScripture advises us to shake the dust off our feet when we have completed a mission, or at least done our all to complete it. Below is an update on our latest dealings with the seminaries, particularly Moody Bible Institute. In the last few months, we have been distracted by the situation in Israel. That is our primary task, of course, and we consider it an honor to be called to the most important issue in Christianity today: the correction of the media distortions about Israel, and the reassurance that the place is in normal order for a democracy (and much safer than almost anywhere in the United States). The responsibility of attending to the Promised Land and the Chosen People is the most important job at this ministry.
And so it is our responsibility to step in and correct at least the most obvious of false doctrines being taught. The first one we have addressed is Progressive Dispensationalism. Dr. Tom McCall and I approached the seminaries over a period of time and pointed out the errors in this teaching. We even had a face-to-face meeting with Moody Bible Institute President Joseph Stowell in which we stressed the mistake in teaching. Stowell pretended that Moody did not have this problem. I know that many of you have written to Stowell and the others only to receive the usual reassuring seminary letters, off-point and patronizing. Please keep in mind that the seminaries don't belong to the Stowells or the Swindolls (Dallas Theological Seminary) or even to their board members. The seminaries belong to us — the Christian community. These were our finest schools. This mixing up of the Kingdom and the Church Age, as with Progressive Dispensationalism, starts down a slippery slope that finally ends in Amillennialism and Replacement Theology. We have discussed those technicalities in previous issues. Suffice it to say here that we have shined a bright light on this false teaching of Progressive Dispensationalism. We should also mention that this is not the only false teaching going on. We will continue to offer constructive criticism — if necessary up to the time the Lord comes — to put a stop to all seminary prattling and worldliness. In any case, here's a report on what has transpired in the last three months, especially at Moody Bible Institute. It seems that as a part of Moody's "kill the messenger" philosophy, a faculty and staff meeting was held in November, during which our ministry was thoroughly trashed. We are told Moody operates with a "gag order" where faculty is threatened with dismissal if they repeat what is spoken in their meetings (and we are aware of summary firings of faculty members with long and distinguished standing at that institution). Nevertheless, we received an anonymous letter from an attendee of that meeting who disclosed in full what was said. It's rather hard to put a gag on real believers; after all, the Lord stated, "Everyone that is of the truth hears My voice" (John 18:37). As two of Moody's best-selling authors in the past, Dr. McCall and I took personal affront when we heard of the proceedings. First we verified the authenticity of the unsigned letter through two different sources at Moody. (A copy is available to you at this ministry. If you want to read it, please let us know.) After confirming the accuracy of the report, we contacted Moody at once. In particular, we addressed a certain professor who seemed to lead the charge against our ministry and who had been mentioned favorably in our newsletter previously. The professor replied with a voluminous letter full of slippery denials, but we had corroboration that he did say the things the anonymous letter reported. Our next step was to send the anonymous letter to every member of Moody's board of directors, eighteen in all, asking that they look into the actions of the faculty and staff under the Stowell administration. We pointed out that the gag order intimidated those people too much for them to speak frankly to us and that we understood perfectly why the original letter was unsigned. We waited by the week for a reply. That was a difficult moment because to our knowledge — and Dr. McCall and I have both taught at seminaries and attended similar meetings — we felt the board wasn't doing its job. A board of directors should take action when necessary to correct such major faults as this one. They are otherwise what our Lord called "blind guides." A seminary is not adequately supervised when it criticizes a sister ministry in a meeting attended by seventy faculty and staff members. Scripture teaches, "If you bring your gift to the altar and there remember that your brother has aught against you" be reconciled to your brother"" (Matthew 5:23-24). No member of Moody's faculty, administration or board has ever contacted us in any way except to brush us off for our troubles. We are not allowed to rock their boat. But of course we're not the kind of people who willingly subscribe to the gag order mentality. President Joseph Stowell finally wrote us a letter, which we guess was some sort of response to our letter to the board, but it contained nothing but more derision. If I quoted it, you'd be amazed at how the president of an evangelical seminary speaks to brothers in Christ who have come with an honest and godly purpose. Finally Dr. McCall took pen in hand, writing from the heart a letter which I signed with him. He pleaded with the board to respond to us and pointed out that this was their responsibility. Dr. Stowell had taken the position, like the presidents of The Criswell College and Dallas Seminary before him, that we were nothing but rabble-rousers and mischief-makers, and apparently persuaded the board that he could handle us. Dr. McCall's letter to the board is reproduced below. I would wrap up the situation as follows: The seminaries belong to the Christian public, not to the present administrations or board members. They are going liberal in the sense that they are teaching arcane doctrines, ignoring Israel and even the whole study of prophecy. Please see the letter by Andy in "Letters to Zola" of last month's issue for the fact that Dallas Seminary now offers only one prophecy course! A pastor friend of ours examined the Moody Bookstore recently and found utterly no books on prophecy! We feel that it is the responsibility of the entire Christian public, not just this ministry, to protest, to complain, to withdraw funds, to keep students away or whatever it takes to get these seminaries back on a Biblical track. Otherwise we'll lose them in the same way that we lost Harvard, Yale, Princeton, etc., which once were Bible-teaching academies. Past administrations of those celebrated institutions thought they were doing a great thing to turn them into large and well-endowed universities — Moody Bible Institute has established its own bank! — but they took them away from God in order to do that. Our Lord taught that one cannot serve both God and money. The fault in every one of these cases is a love of money and all that it brings. We have pointed out before how broadening the doctrine of the seminaries will increase the enrollment of substandard students (likewise, an increase of their parents' donations, etc.), until in the end what we have is a big, rich, spiritually worthless and wholly ungodly institution. We simply cannot allow these major seminaries to deteriorate in this fashion — and we include Talbot Seminary, Biola College and any number of other lesser institutions all sliding down the same slippery slope. Pray with us and take some action to correct the situation.
Here is Dr. McCall's and my final letter to the board:
Dear Moody Board Member: The only reply was a letter from board president Paul H. Johnson enclosing Moody's doctrinal statement and telling us that the faculty signed it with integrity, which, as we pointed out, could not be true. None of the eighteen board members discussed our complaint or owned up to the faculty meeting and what was said.
Zola's Bulletin Board
...reading the letter from Joni, Sarah, Zvi, David and Yoram gives you goose bumps. It's not for everyone. Not every Christian can go #151; before the Rapture. For mortals who want to see, hear, smell, taste and feel the future Kingdom now, in the flesh, there's our Kibbutz tour (June 5 - 15). You economize a little, miss none of the sites, stay at an authentic Israel cooperative farm and participate in an archaeological dig, shovel in hand! This fall, our Grand Athens/Ultra Tour includes a Mediterranean cruise and runs from August 29 though September 13. Our Grand Petra/Deluxe Tour departs on September 3 and returns on September 13. For more information, please call (214) 696-9760 during office hours or 1-800-WONDERS (966-3377) anytime.
If you live in Orlando or have friends there with whom you can stay, then you can join our Holy Land Experience at a $200 discount. Please see this article for more information about the weekend of May 4, when Zola and our staff will host festivities, praise & worship and teaching at "a new Jerusalem."
Good News: TBN is helping our program to go global.
Do you regularly watch Zola on one of the broadcasts below?
In addition, please indicate whether you would be
able to tape the broadcasts you monitor. We'll occasionally send you
free samples of our Bible-teaching materials as tokens of appreciation.
If we were a secular company and someone like Napster made our best-selling TV programs available for free, we could sue them for lost sales revenue. But we have done this to ourselves — on purpose. We figure that for each sale we lose, at least five extra people are being blessed. At www.levitt.com, you can watch on-demand (anytime) our best-sellers, including The Miracle of Passover, Zola's musical entitled Beloved Thief, our Secrets of the Scrolls Special and even Genesis One, which explains time dilation theories that reconcile science with Biblical accounts of Earth's creation. So why not join the multitudes who are downloading free software and watching Zola's programs that they would otherwise have to either buy from us or miss?
www.ProjectOneSoul.com gives a colorful, riveting slide show presentation of the recent Palestinian attacks on Israel. In 1972 Golda Meir said, "We will have peace with the Arabs when they will love their children more then they hate us (Israel)."
A Note From ZolaDear Friends,
I know I sounded almost defeated last month by circumstances surrounding Israel, the seminaries, and this ministry. But since then I have had a fruitful time of ministry, particularly involving two delightful speaking engagements. The first was at the excellent Calvary Chapel of Salt Lake. I have spoken there before, and even in Ogden, Utah, where Brigham Young University is located, and in small towns where the audience of "Christians" were, in fact, Mormons. To them I simply gave my own experience of going from a satisfying and dignified religion to the "more excellent way" of the New Testament. But the Calvary Chapel church was interested in prophecy, and we went at it hammer and tong (or I should say Tribulation and Kingdom). Their questions were very intelligent, and their interest in Israel bottomless. I could not help thinking how much more alert to the things going on in this world are the good churches who have pastors that teach the Scriptures than are the seminaries that we have criticized right along. It seems that the interest in prophecy on the academic level takes a back seat to increasing enrollments, building buildings, and, in the case of Moody Bible Institute, actually founding a bank! But a church like that one is worth ten of those schools because virtually every member is totally knowledgeable about the signs of the times and the future. The Lord can find a formidable army in even a small church there. And like the US Marines, He has always looked for "a few good men." If Gideon's 300 could defeat the Midianites, and Abraham's 315 could take on the Mesopotamian armies, then there are churches today that can take on this whole world of cynicism, negativism, love of money, and all the rest. My second engagement was in Los Angeles with the Lausanne Consultation on Jewish Evangelism. I did not try to tell those experts anything about witnessing to Jews; after all, I was speaking to ranking members of Jews for Jesus and other effective ministries in that difficult field. I mainly shared a suggestion of Moishe Rosen, a dear friend and the founder of Jews for Jesus, to speak of the kind of Jewish witness our television program does. He called it "The Overheard Gospel," and indeed the Good News is assimilated by Jewish viewers as they luxuriate in the beautiful pictures of Israel and the Jewish teachings that we can share. It is totally sad that the mission to the Jews that Jesus Christ Himself undertook (Matthew 10:5-6) is left in the hands of so few today. After all, Paul in his time said that the Gospel has power unto salvation "to the Jew first," and yet we seem to go to our Jewish friends last. Even Israel, the most important nation in the world today to Christian people, comes out low enough in priority, that when times are tough over there our tours go down to half size. And recently a church in Dallas requested that I make no reference to End Times prophecy when I spoke there. That's rather sad. But I think better days are ahead. I don't have a lot of space for commentary this month, but suffice it to say that things are better in Israel and with our ministry. We have had an overwhelming response to our planned trip to Orlando on May 4-6 for our "American/Israel Tour" to the Holy Land Experience. There is plenty of time for you to join us. Please see the article [here]. As for the real Israel, our sources on the ground continue to reassure us that tours are coming and going without incident as they have right along. Our next two tours will be our Kibbutz Summer Tour, especially recommended for teachers and students: June 5-15, and our Ultra-Grand Tour. It is true! You can have it all. We will again this fall offer our popular Ultra-Grand tour August 29-September 16. This tour includes the Greek Isle cruise, Israel, and Petra. You may also choose the Deluxe tour of Israel Sept. 3-13, or one of one our Grand tours: Grand Athens, Aug. 29-Sept. 13; Grand Petra, Sept. 3-16. For those not wishing to visit Israel itself, we can even arrange to send you back home after the Greek Isle cruise. So many choices! Perhaps we can help you decide. Call Tony Derrick during office hours at 214-696-9760, or call 1-800-WONDERS anytime to request our full-color brochure. I still suggest a tour to Israel for every single person with any interest at all in the Scriptures. If not the real Israel, then please know that we will be undertaking our trips to The Holy Land Experience in Orlando on a regular basis. The Talmud, the rabbinical book of the Law, says that if a man "breathes the air of Jerusalem, he grows wiser," and the air in "the new Jerusalem" in Orlando is excellent, too. Prophecy studies often deal with the Tribulation, the Antichrist, Armageddon and other cataclysms that will befall an unbelieving world. Our upcoming series, Thy Kingdom Come: The Future of Believers, deals with the glorious events prophesied for the believers: the Rapture, the Marriage Supper, the Kingdom, etc. The future for those who believe. Watch for it in the fall! Your support for this heartening project would be very appreciated at this time when we need to send our crew and equipment to the Holy Land. And pray for the peace of Jerusalem!
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 Tiny Israel is surrounded by massive Moslem countries. But the media continues to portray it as an aggressor! |
— W & G
Dear Zola:
We love you and your program. The teachings and music are the best. We love the scenes from Israel. We have been there seven times. My sister lives in a Jerusalem suburb; so when we get airfare saved up, we go visit.
Thank you for every way that you have been and continue to be a blessing to Israel and to the Christians and Jews in the USA.
— F & J H
Dear Zola,
My name is J.O. I live in Paris, Texas. I am 65 years of age, retired, and I live on a very fixed income. I just wanted to write and tell you about what I believe about visiting Israel. I am a born again believer in the Lord Jesus Christ and an ardent lover of Israel and her people.
I believe that anyone who has the opportunity and privilege to go to Israel, and doesn't go, is missing the blessing of a lifetime. It is no more dangerous right now in Israel than it is anywhere here in the US. I am a Jew by adoption and this will be my country someday. If we let Arafat and his henchmen frighten us so much that we are afraid to visit our own country, then we don't deserve to someday be citizens of that country.
I love Israel and all its people very much, and I am so happy to see the stand you have taken for Israel. May the Lord bless you in every way.
Your brother in Christ,
— JO
Zola,
David King's article, "Israel's Right" (below) disturbs me, and you can pull it up for yourself in the web site of the Texas Baptist Standard: www.baptiststandard.com (current issue). I would ask that you respond to this.
Thanks, DR
Israel's "right"
In these days of deep trouble in the "Promised Land," we hear much about Israel's "right" to the land based on the promise of God to Abraham (Genesis 12:1-7). But when this promise is repeated to Isaac, its conditional nature becomes apparent: "For to you and your descendants I will give all these lands" because Abraham obeyed me and kept my requirement, my commands, my decrees and my laws" (Genesis 26:3-5).
Furthermore, any doubt about the conditional nature of God's promise concerning the land is erased by a reading of Deuteronomy 28 and 29, filled with ifs and conditional clauses.
"If you do not carefully follow all the words of this law" so it will please him to ruin and destroy you. You will be uprooted from the land you are entering to possess" (Deuteronomy 28:58-63). "All the nations will ask: "Why has the Lord done this to this land?" It is because this people abandoned the covenant of the Lord, the God of their fathers, " Therefore the Lord's anger burned against this land. " In furious anger and in great wrath the Lord uprooted them from their land and thrust them into another land, as it is now" (Deuteronomy 29:24-28). This prediction came true.
Let us not be guilty of promoting the evil of disobedience or suggesting that God should reward his people by restoring them to the land without repentance and a deep sense of faith in his living Word.
David W. King Marshall
The Abrahamic Covenant is Not Conditioned on Obedience.
This reflects the standard amillennial attitude toward Israel, i.e., the
Abrahamic covenant was conditional, thus the land and all the promised
blessings were conditioned on the obedience of Israel. This view holds
that Israel was not obedient, especially in relation to Christ, and
therefore has forfeited any rights to the land or any other promises.
The premillennial understanding is as follows: The Abrahamic covenant
was unconditional with regard to the ownership of the land, national
preservation, a saved remnant in every generation, and ultimate national
redemption, restoration and blessing in the millennium. What is
conditional is the possession of the land and the reception of King
Messiah. The Tribulation (Time of Jacob's Trouble) is designed, in part,
to prepare Israel to receive Jesus as Messiah and Savior, and become the
obedient nation they are destined to be.
How obedient Israel chooses to be is a matter between God and Israel.
God blesses the nations (and churches) that bless Israel, and curses the
nations (and churches) that curse Israel. Gentiles have no business
determining the worthiness of Israel to occupy the Land God has given
them. Our responsibility is to recognize (like Rahab and Cyrus) that God
has given the Land to Israel, and do whatever we can to support Israel
in its possession of the Land. The Lord has never rebuked a Gentile who
has done this, but rather has blessed all who have.
Tom McCall
Dear David,
Dear Zola,
I am alarmed by your dismissing the violence in Israel as localized fighting. We are at the brink of the tribulation. Even if I accept your pre-trib views, that leaves millions of Jews to face something worse than the Holocaust. And yet you say "peace and safety" while you book your trips. I think you are protecting your business and neglecting your duty. Jesus said be watching and be ready to run, probably because Saddam's missiles are coming. You are telling them, "come on over, all is well." It's like booking Berlin tours in 1932.
— GG
Dear GG,
Where did you learn there was violence in Israel? On CNN? I could only
wish that our own nation had so little violence as that in Israel. We
had a tour there in December and drove the length and breadth of the
place, and saw nothing in the way of violence. All democracies suffer
some unrest, but I should point out to you that no tourist has been
injured in a terrorist action in the history of modern Israel. Don't be
so convinced that there's a war there just because the people who sell
you the news say so. It is not a war, and both sides realize the value
of tourism to the land they both occupy. As far as the Tribulation
period, should it arrive while we're in Israel, then we'll be in heaven.
And finally, do you really think that I would endanger my passengers, my
wife and myself for the sake of my "business"? Please leave the
explanation of affairs in Israel to those of us who get our information
on the ground over there, and not from local scare stories told, not
about prophets, but strictly for profits.
— Zola
For several months now some of you have contributed to our Good News
From a Far Country Fund for our television and travel people in Israel
whose income has been greatly curtailed by the present unrest. We have
passed along your gifts and their reply is below.
Dear Friends,
I am writing this letter on behalf of all of us who have benefited from the fund that Zola created to help us in our time of need. As the days passed to weeks, it was soon understood by all of us working in the field of tourism that our futures would be very bleak indeed; and now that the weeks have moved into months, the situation is not only bleak but devastating. Zola is not a man to sit back and do nothing. Therefore, he created a fund to give us hope and encouragement through these dark days. We have been touched by this action, and appreciate more than words can express the outpouring of love and concern that you have for us.
We are blessed indeed to be reminded in a concrete way that we are not alone, and that not everyone is against us. You are a blessing to us in our time of need, so please accept our voices of thanks.
Some of you may not be aware of this but there are eight levels of charity in Judaism. The third highest level is when the giver knows the identity of the recipient, but the recipient does not know the identity of the giver. The second highest level is when the one who gives is unaware of the recipient, who in turn is unaware of the giver. The highest form of charity is to help sustain a person BEFORE he becomes impoverished. This can be done by helping him find employment so as to make it unnecessary for him to become dependent upon others. We are ready, willing and able to work. If you have been here before, you know that once is not enough. If you are putting off this dream, delay no further. I only ask that you ask yourself one question, is this the will of God for you to be here? If you know the answer is yes, then get your suitcase packed. The "enemy" is the only one who is standing victorious at this moment by you staying away. If you want guarantees of safety, then you will have to wait until you are in heaven, but if you want to stand on something more solid here on earth, then stand on the promises of God. Deuteronomy 31, verse 6: "Be strong and courageous, do not be afraid or tremble at them, for the Lord your God is the one who goes with you. He will not fail you or forsake you."
We would like to thank everyone for their prayers, intercessions, and words of encouragement. Thank you for remembering and helping us.
From the guides and drivers,
Joni, Sarah, Zvi, David & Yoram
For societies that live by telling lies, the lies seem to grow bigger by themselves As one Arab after another piles on the stories — the Palestinians were a real nation, the Jews never lived in Israel, the Western Wall is not holy, Jesus was a Palestinian, etc. — the tales grow more and more fantastic The article below tells of an Egyptian news release that reads almost like a comedy act, and I was practically in hysterics until I realized with some sadness that it was an official publication of the Egyptian Embassy in Washington. — Zola
The Egyptian Embassy in Washington has declared on its official government web site (www.sis.gov.eg) that "Jerusalem has never been a Jewish city." The site reads, "Jerusalem throughout history has always been a Palestinian-Arab city." Then, without missing a beat, the text demolishes its own assertion: "King Nebuchadnezzar invaded the land and forced the Jews to leave their two independent kingdoms. He destroyed the city in 580 BC, set fire to the temple and banned all Jews to Babylon in Iraq. Already then, in 600 BC, the political history of the Jews in Palestine ended." What's interesting is that the statement acknowledges the existence of the Temple, even though the Arabs — and especially the Palestinians — now insist that it is a Jewish, Israeli fabrication.
The author of the text is the Secretary General of the Arab League, Dr. Ismet Abdel Meguid, a respected personality in the Arab world. While he shot himself in the foot by admitting to the existence of the Temple, Meguid then seeks to rewrite history. Though his report devotes two short sentences to David and Solomon, he leaves out the entire Second Temple period, including King Herod and the hundreds of Jewish communities whose ruins are found throughout the country.
 A six-year-old Palestinian boy holds a hand grenade during a protest against Israel in Gaza City. The Arabic on the headband is the word "popular," possibly referring to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine or Hamas. The protest was peaceful, with no casualties. |
Meguid confidently continues: "In the year 636 AD, Caliph Omar conquered Jerusalem. Ever since then, Jerusalem has been an Arab city with an Arab population and language — for the past 1,364 years." This, of course, erases in one stroke the Jews who lived in the city throughout history, the Jewish Quarter with its mountain of archaeological evidence, and modern census results since 1844 that consistently showed a Jewish majority in Jerusalem. The statement also ignores the current Jewish majority in the city.
The web site accounts for this curious version of history by informing us that the only archaeological remains found in Jerusalem are "Arab-Islamic" and "Arab-Jebusite" (another newly-invented ethnic group, since until now Jebusites were classified as Canaanites, with roots in Phoenicia rather than Arabia). Meguid also mentions "Christian-Arab" artifacts, thus retroactively assigning to all Byzantines and Crusaders a vague Arab tribal origin.
The flat denial of any Jewish artifacts is ample explanation for the digging carried out on the Temple Mount by the Waqf (Islamic Trust), in which truckloads of Temple-era artifacts have been carted away by night to the city dump. Since the Arabs claim the Temple never existed, they want to make sure that no one will find any Jewish archaeological treasures on the Temple Mount.
While educated Jewish and Christian readers will recognize that the Egyptian government is disseminating bogus propaganda, other people will be fooled. Some may become convinced that there never was a Jewish presence in Jerusalem and that the Jews have no right to the city.
And that's what this revisionist effort by the head of the Arab League
is all about. It's his contribution to the war for Jerusalem, a war
waged with words as well as weapons.
We so want to believe that our enemies are really just like ourselves; that sacrifice and bloodshed will not be necessary; and that peace and prosperity are the universal goals of mankind.
We want to believe these things so badly that we often ignore unwelcome evidence. That is why Britain did not awake from its appeasement slumber until German tanks were mowing down the Polish cavalry, and Jimmy Carter did not truly understand the nature of communism until Soviet tanks rolled into Afghanistan.
Israelis seem to be awakening now from a prolonged self-delusion that began in Oslo and ended in Camp David. Whether the same lesson has been learned in Washington remains to be seen.
Ehud Barak, by his reckless concessions, has done his nation an indirect service by demonstrating the hollowness of the Palestinians' peace talk.
 THE WRITING ON THE WALL: Palestinians cover a donkey with a 'tallit' (Jewish prayer shawl) in Ramallah. What would become of Jewish holy places in Jerusalem if the Palestinians take over? |
That premise was that the Palestinian question lies at the heart of the troubles in the Middle East. Concern for the rights of the Palestinians, Americans and Israelis convinced themselves, was what kept anti-Americanism and anti-Zionism alive in the Arab world. The Palestinians, once granted a state of their own, would settle happily next to Israel, abandon their claims to all of the territory of "Palestine" and beat their swords into plowshares.
Throughout the past decade, Israel has relinquished more and more land, to the point that Arafat's Palestinian Authority now has jurisdiction over 95 percent of the population in the territories. Yet Arafat has failed to fulfill any of the promises he has repeatedly made to eschew violence, cooperate in arresting terrorists and recognize the State of Israel. Israel bent over backward to understand the perspective of the Palestinians, even teaching their children a warped version of history in which Israel was the aggressor and the Arab population her victim.
At the same time, the Palestinians were circulating hoary anti-Semitic forgeries like the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, promising jihad, or religious war, until the Middle East was cleansed of Jews and teaching Palestinian children there never was a Jewish history in "Palestine."
If the peace process was a snare and delusion, why did the clear-eyed Yitzhak Rabin embrace it? He was motivated by a concern about Israel's relationship with America. Having watched relations decay under Yitzhak Shamir, he worried that without America's support, Israel would be unable to survive.
With Sharon's election, many observers are expecting a hostile Arab
reaction because Sharon was held "indirectly" responsible for the
murders at Sabra and Shatilla, the Lebanese camps in which many
Palestinians were massacred by Lebanese. Once again, the gap between the
two societies could scarcely be greater. Sharon's crushing victory is
ironic because he's never been very popular in Israel. Too rough, too
hard for most Israelis' tastes. Yet they have finally seen the truth of
their predicament — the Palestinians do not want peace. It remains
to be seen whether Israel's friend and sometime tormentor, the United
States, sees it too.
Dear Zola,
I have recently been reading your letters in regards to PD (Progressive Dispensationalism) and the atmosphere at DTS (Dallas Theological Seminary). In one of the letters from last year, you make reference to the sad fact that recent DTS students neither know nor care about Israel and related theological matters about Israel. I am a recent DTS grad (Master of Arts in Biblical Studies, 2000). I wish for you to know that I am a strong supporter of you and the traditional view of Israel. Also, as one who has recently been 'inside' the school, I can tell you that there is a strong emphasis on PD by the Theological faculty, to the extent that I feel my Eschatology course was a waste of my time and money. It was taught entirely from a PD emphasis. The main text was the Bock and Blasing book. None of the major texts by Walvoord or Pentecost were required. The sad thing is that I went to DTS with the main idea that I would have a solid grounding in Eschatology. So please keep up the good work and pointing out the truth.
Sincerely, EL
Pastor EL,
That's funny. Every time we criticize DTS about PD, they pretend they
never heard of the stuff, and they always brag on Profs. Walvoord and
Pentecost. Thanks for your honesty. Other DTS grads have virtually
cursed us.
— Zola
US diplomats cringed on March 19 as a large crowd exploded in raucous applause for Secretary of State Colin Powell in appreciation of his recent gaffe in calling Jerusalem the capital of Israel. Powell, speaking before the annual meeting of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, carefully avoided any mention of Jerusalem or Israel's capital in his remarks, but his hosts were eager to play it up.
"This is one audience that appreciates your testimony before the House International Relations Committee that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel," AIPAC president Tim Wulliger said while introducing Powell to the Jewish lobby group. Powell infuriated the Arab world when he told the congressional committee President George W. Bush was committed to moving Washington's "embassy to the capital of Israel, which is Jerusalem."
The holy city is claimed as a capital by both Israel and the
Palestinians, and long-standing US policy is that Jerusalem's status
must be resolved in negotiations between the two sides. As to God's
view, he had King David make it the capital of Israel 3000 years ago!
. . . who needs friends? Israel has supplied the Palestinian
Authority with over 200,000 vaccinations against
foot-and-mouth disease, amid fears of an outbreak in
Palestinian areas, where health standards are relatively
low. "This is not a new thing; before [the uprising] we
used to take the vaccines from the Israeli side, because
Israel is the first and the main source for us," said Rafaat
Askandar of the Palestinian Ministry of Agriculture.
A translation from the Middle East Media and Research
Institute reveals that the Intifada was planned all along.
"Whoever thinks that the Intifada broke out because
of the despised Sharon's visit to the Al-Aqsa Mosque is
wrong," said PA Communications Minister Imad Al-Faluji
during a visit to a refugee camp in Lebanon. "This Intifada
was planned in advance, ever since President Arafat's
return from the Camp David negotiations."
Now that folks are calling us about our upcoming tour of The Holy Land
Experience in Orlando, Florida, May 4-6, we can answer some further
questions. Those who will not need lodging may deduct $200 and pay $99
to be with our group, which includes admissions, lunches, local
transportation along with the teaching, and praise and worship that we
do. If you're within driving distance, naturally the weekend will be
much less expensive, and we encourage those coming out of the same
church to perhaps hire a bus for the trip, rather than pay individual
airfares. As far as our retail price, it will be $299 all-inclusive from
Friday to Sunday, and that will include a suite for two nights suitable
for housing your family. The suite is equipped with a refrigerator for
snacks, and is located near any number of restaurants.
We will begin our festivities on Friday evening with a praise and worship get-together and an orientation meeting with Zola. On Saturday we will spend the day at The Holy Land Experience guided by Zola and his staff, just as they do on our regular tours in the real Israel. Dinner will be on your own Saturday evening; you will be centrally located in this very attractive resort city. We will drive to The Holy Land Experience on Sunday morning for a praise and worship service, and have lunch together at the site. We will conclude our tour with a service at the Garden Tomb, a replica of the empty tomb of our Lord in front of which Zola will give his communion teaching based on the Passover. This fundamental teaching will be given exactly the same as Zola gives it on location in Jerusalem.
If you wish to stay extra nights, the hotel will accommodate you with a discounted room price, and, of course, Orlando's marvelous sites, including Disneyland, Universal Studios, SeaWorld, the Kennedy Space Center, etc., will be at your disposal. If there is an overflow crowd, we will take the same tour the following weekend, and if you wish, you may sign up for both!
This is a fine opportunity to meet people who watch our program and read
our newsletters, but for different reasons cannot go to the real Israel.
We have examined the site and found it to be very authentic and very
Scriptural.
The Staff at Travel Experience International
A Muslim group is demanding an apology from the Rev. Jerry Falwell for
remarks made to a religion web site in which he said that "the Muslim
faith teaches hate" and that Muslims should be ineligible to receive
government money for social programs. Mr. Falwell, in an interview on
Beliefnet.com,
said that Islam is intolerant of other religions and the
Muslims "should be out the door before they knock" and ask for federal
money. "I think there's clear evidence that the Islam religion, wherever
it has majority control " doesn't even allow people of other faiths to
express themselves or evangelize or to exist in their presence," he
said. "I think that when persons are clearly bigoted towards other
persons in the human family, they should be disqualified from funds."
His comments drew criticism from interfaith and Muslim leaders. Opponents of the Bush plan to subsidize faith-based charities say Mr. Falwell's remarks show what can happen when government and religion are improperly mixed.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations demanded an apology. Omar
Ahmad, the group's chairman, faxed Mr. Falwell a letter accusing him of
disseminating distorted stereotypes. "These offensive remarks are
symptomatic of the very intolerance that you claim Islam promotes," Mr.
Ahmad wrote. "Your destructive rhetoric could lead to discrimination and
even physical attacks against Muslims in North America." Mr. Falwell
could not be reached for comment.
Return to Levitt Letter Archive Index
Copyright © 2001 by Zola Levitt Ministries, Inc., a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization. All rights reserved. Brief passages may be quoted in reviews or other article. For all other use, please get our written approval.
Due to an overwhelming amount of relevant news and letters this
month, we have elected to hold over the concluding part of Zola's
prophecy chapter until next month, praying that the Tribulation
doesn't start in that time! Below is further news from our Battles
with Seminaries.
Therefore we have been distracted from a secondary issue on the same
subject, which concerns the seminaries: they ignore Israel and what is
happening there at a time when God is obviously moving in that nation
every day. Our best Bible schools have chosen, for seemingly very
worldly reasons, to become like liberal seminaries and have quit
teaching about Israel and prophecy in general. This is simply stupefying
after nearly two thousand years of waiting for the restoration of the
Chosen People to the Land, the rebuilding of the Temple, and the making
of a peace covenant (evidently in the near future) with the personality
who will become known as the Antichrist. Our Bible schools choose to
turn away at precisely the time that all these things are taking shape.
Our book Battles with Seminaries will conclude with
this last situation from Moody, and you can place your orders for it at
this time. The book is going to publication very shortly. It covers
nearly ten years of truly constructive criticism of the various schools
we've mentioned, and it verifies that in no case were we treated with
even common courtesy, let alone taken seriously.
When Zola speaks, some churches have combined their memberships to hear
him, and others have had him come for weekends, during which he speaks
at several churches in turn. From mid-July to mid-August, Zola plans to
be in Washington state, Oregon and California, and will speak at
churches in the area. If you know a church who would like to host him
when he's going to be "in the neighborhood," they would save
considerably on travel expense. Please contact Cynthia, in our office,
at (214) 696-8844 during office hours.
