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Why Does Mike Evans Have a Museum in Jerusalem?

Answer No. 4

That’s a good question. It’s not only a good question, it is a question that deserves an answer. Because the question is so important, it follows that the answer must be also. But, if the question is simple, the answer is not. Rather, it is multifaceted. There is no single answer. But, when all of the facets that comprise the answer are presented, there is no longer a need for the question to be asked.

This, then, is the fourth facet of the answer. Please continue to follow this series of articles from beginning to end. Somewhere along the journey you may find the answer for yourself, even before we finish.

 

Facet #4 – To Continue the Legacy of Love of True Christians for the Jews

The Apostle Paul, himself a Jew and a Christian, explained that “the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable” (Romans 11:29). Immediately prior to that statement, he clearly indicated that he was speaking of the children of Israel, saying that “they are beloved for the sake of the fathers.”

The LORD made certain great and precious promises to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Those promises are in the form of covenants, which means that they are irrevocable. That is the matter to which Paul was speaking.

Bible-believing Christians – not those in name only, who, whether for personal, ecclesiastical or political gain, claim themselves to be – have always harbored a special love in their hearts for the Chosen People. Sometimes this is difficult to understand because of the highly-visible, anti-Semitic doings of those who, by using the name “Christian,” do so in vain. One simply cannot believe the Bible to be true and, at the same time, not love the Jews.

The minds of millions of the centuries were corrupted by the darkness that ensued when the rulers of the early centuries A.D. kept the Scriptures from the common man. However, once the written Word of God became available, and men began to read it in earnest, those who have loved the LORD have had a compassion for all mankind and, in particular, for the Jews. Gradually, out of the masses of those who had been misled and who, therefore, persecuted the Jews, grew a remnant of believed and loved the LORD God with all their hearts and minds and strength. These are the true believers.

These are the people represented by the Casper ten Boom family, Rev. William Henry Hechler, Jan Karska, Major Orde Wingate, Miep and Jan Gies, Irena Sendler and Oskar Schindler. They are people of the Bible, people of compassion. The Mike Evans Museum is in Jerusalem to tell their story, but it is also here to remind Jerusalem, Israel and the entire world that these people did not simply leave a legacy behind. The legacy continues, and we are proud to be a part of it.

We honor those who are Righteous among the Gentiles as a reminder that their righteousness is the righteousness of God and that their love is the love of God shining through them. We may call them Christian Heroes, but they are not really heroes at all. They are simply servants of the Living God who cannot help but love the Jewish people and seek their good.

Mike Evans has a museum in Jerusalem because we must keep the legacy alive.

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The Ten Boom Family

Ten Boom Family - Mike Evans Museum“It would be an honor to give my life for God’s ancient people.” ~ Casper Ten Boom

Casper ten Boom was a man of deep and precious faith in God. He raised his family in the Calvinist tradition of the Dutch Reformed church. He made his living as a jeweler and watchmaker in Haarlem, the Netherlands. But it was not what happened in his shop that defined his life, so much as it was his dedication to the LORD and his commitment to raise a godly family. Although he was surely proud to carry on the business he inherited from his father, it was far more important to him that he carried on the weekly prayer meeting that his father began in 1844.

One must work to support a family, but the desire to continue a prayer meeting must come from something else deep within. The reason for the ten Boom prayer meeting was specifically to pray for the Jewish people and the peace of Jerusalem, a directive from Scripture (Psalm 122:6) that all true Christians willingly follow.

It was that commitment to Scripture, to God and to the Jews that started the prayer meetings, and it was that same commitment that resulted in its temporary end in 1944.

When the Nazis invaded Holland, the ten Boom family’s love for the Jewish people compelled them to work with the Dutch underground to hide and rescue as many Jews as possible from the clutches of persecution and death. Casper built a hiding place behind a fake wall in his daughter Corrie’s bedroom in the small family home about his shop. That tiny space could hold up to six people at a time, but they had to remain standing and absolutely quiet in the event that the Nazis searched the ten Boom home, which, in fact they did from time to time.

The Nazi’s suspicion that the ten Booms were assisting Jews to be moved to safety was confirmed by a Dutch informant. The Nazis managed to arrest a total of 35 people, including the ten Booms, on February 28, 1944. However, despite their best efforts, they missed the six Jews who were in the hiding place behind the wall. The ten Boom family was split up and sent to different prisons and concentration camps. That is the only reason the organized prayer meetings stopped. Casper, who had said that “It would be an honor to give my life for God’s ancient people,” died at the age of 84, only 10 days following his imprisonment. Three other members of Casper ten Boom’s family died, either in prison or as a result of being imprisoned. His daughter, Corrie, survived and lived until her 91st birthday in April of 1983.

Through their efforts, it is estimated that the ten Boom family helped to rescue some 800 Jews from the Nazi reign of terror, now known as the Holocaust. There is a tree in the Garden of Righteousness at the Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem, planted in 1968 by Corrie at the behest of the museum.

But, what of the prayer meetings that appeared to come to such a tragic end in 1944? The Corrie ten Boom Fellowship was established by Dr. Mike Evans as a ministry of the Jerusalem Prayer Team, as part of his and its commitment to continue praying for the Jews and for the peace of Jerusalem. Small groups no longer gather at the ten Boom residence every week, but rather, people all over the world pray daily for the requests shared through the online presence of the ten Boom Museum.

The faith that motivated the ten Booms to pray for the peace of Jerusalem still moves Christians to do the same today. The family’s legacy lives on as an example of how true Christians should, and do, love Israel and the Jewish people. We are pleased to be a part of preserving the story of the ten Boom family in the Mike Evans Museum and the Friends of Zion Heritage Center.

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Anthony Ashley-Cooper
British Visionary – Friend of Zion
Bringing the Dry Bones to Life

“Oh, pray for the peace of Jerusalem; they shall prosper that love thee.” ~ Psalm 122:16

That simple directive from Psalm 122 was inscribed on the interior side of a ring worn by Anthony Ashley-Cooper, better known in the pages of history as the 7th Earl of Shaftesbury. One of the things for which the philanthropic British aristocrat is most noted is being distinguished as the first major politician to put forth a definitive proposal for the creation of a Jewish homeland, which he did in 1839. However, that is not entirely true.

The first politician known to have suggested restoring the Jewish people to the Land of Promise was actually Napoleon Bonaparte, but it was his notion that eventually caught the attention of Lord Shaftesbury. In Napoleon’s quest to restore the empire of Alexander the Great, he realized that Jerusalem and the surrounding area was a lynch-pin for maintaining political and economic stability in the region over which he wished to rule. The master strategist made a proposal to the Jews:

“[France] offers to you at this very time, and contrary to all expectations, Israel’s patrimony. Rightful heirs of Palestine – hasten! Now is the moment which may not return for thousands of years, to claim the restoration of your rights among the population of the universe which had shamefully withheld from you for thousands of years, your political existence as a nation among the nations, and the unlimited natural right to worship Jehovah in accordance with your faith, publicly and in likelihood forever (Joel 4:20).”

Being a student of the Scriptures, Shaftsbury knew that the Bible foretold a return of the Jews to what was then called Palestine. Being an astute politician, he was also aware of Napoleon’s plan that never came to fruition. Although it is almost certain that Shaftebury’s mission was prompted more by his Judeo-Christian worldview – which was not necessarily widely held at the time – nonetheless, he also saw the same political and economic advantages for the British Empire.

Our purpose is not to question motive, however, so much as it is to promote awareness that Lord Shaftesbury’s commitment to the Word of God, not his use of it to his political advantage, drove him to use his influence to whatever extent he could to promote the idea of creating a homeland for the Jews. He wrote to the British Prime Minister that, “There is a country without a nation; and God now, in his wisdom and mercy, directs us to a nation without a country. Is there such a thing? To be sure there is, the ancient and rightful lords of the soil, the Jews!”

Perhaps because of both his Christian and political connections, Shaftesbury gained support from both spheres. While those strange bedfellows engendered the usual watered-down results of the inevitable outcome of trying to accomplish a singularly beneficial outcome from divergent agendas, the result, nonetheless, paved the way for the Balfour Declaration and the eventual establishment of the State of Israel.

We do well to understand that the LORD has turned the hearts of men and women of influence and other visionaries to lay the foundation for the nation of Israel. Let us never forget what Solomon said in Proverbs 21:1 – “The king’s heart is in the hand of the LORD. Like the rivers of water, He turns it wherever He wishes.”

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Why Does Journalist Mike Evans Have a Museum in Jerusalem?

Answer Facet No. 3

That’s a good question. It’s not only a good question, it is a question that deserves an answer. Because the question is so important, it follows that the answer must be also. But, if the question is simple, the answer is not. Rather, it is multifaceted. There is no single answer. But, when all of the facets that comprise the answer are presented, there is no longer a need for the question to be asked.

This, then, is the third facet of the answer. Please continue to follow this series of articles from beginning to end. Somewhere along the journey you may find the answer for yourself, even before we finish.

Facet #3 – Because God Always Keeps All His Promises

Jehovah God has given many great and precious promises to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and their descendants. Israel has, over the centuries, seen many of those promises come to pass. But the LORD is not finished. There are other promises that are being kept and others that are waiting to be fulfilled. As so many TV infomercials have proclaimed, “But wait! There’s more!” To that, we would add the colloquialism, “You ain’t seen nothin’ yet!”

As Journalist Mike Evans noted in his book Why Christians Should Support Israel, “The fact that the Jewish people exist is a miracle. The rebirth of the Nation of Israel is a miracle. The restoration of the Hebrew language is a miracle, as are the return of the Jewish people to their homeland and the reunification of Jerusalem.” He put it succinctly when he added, “You either support Israel or you oppose Israel. It is that simple.”

We know that, while Israel has been established and continues to prosper, its greatest glory is yet to come when Messiah defeats the enemies of Israel, ushers in His kingdom here on Earth and rules from Jerusalem. One thing that unites every God-fearing Jew and every God-fearing Christian is that we believe the Jehovah is God and there is no other God besides Him. We also share the knowledge that, “God is not a man that he should lie; neither the son of man that he should repent: Hath he said, and shall he not do it? Or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good (Numbers 23:19)?” But it is more than just knowing. It is believing.

The author of the New Testament book of Hebrews describes faith as the “substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen (Hebrews 11:1).” He is specifically addressing the Biblical truth that “without faith, it is impossible to please Him,” in verse 4. To further substantiate that, he includes a very important phrase – “this is what the ancients were commended for.” In other words, men like Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses and Joshua fully expected that God would keep all of His promises.

We believe that too.

The psalmist reminds us that, “He remembers His covenant forever, the word He commanded, for a thousand generations, the covenant which He made with Abraham, and His oath to Isaac, and confirmed it to Jacob for a statute, to Israel an everlasting covenant, saying, “To you I will give the land of Canaan as the allotment of your inheritance (Psalm 105:8-11 NKJV).””

Jehovah continues to keep all of His promises. We believe that there has never been, nor will there ever be, a promise that He will not keep. Since His promises to Israel are clear, therefore, we embrace those promises and stand with Israel in the expectation and certainty that God will do what He has promised to do.

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William Henry Hechler: Friend of Zion

Rev. William Henry Hechler - Mike Evans MuseumRev. William Henry Hechler died on January 30, 1931. On February 2, 2011, eighty years and three days following his demise, a tombstone was dedicated and placed at his grave, which had previously been unmarked. The inscription below his name reads:

A Lover of God, His Word
And His Ancient People.
Tireless Adversary of Anti-Semitism
Friend and Counsellor of Theodore Herzl

Theodore Herzl could not have imagined that, within weeks of publishing his ground-breaking pamphlet, The Jewish State, his work would find an enthusiastic supporter from a Christian chaplain. In 1896, long before the internet afford the luxury of putting anyone’s work before the public eye, were it not divinely ordained, it is difficult to imagine that a singular man, a Gentile, who himself had published The Restoration of the Jews to Palestine according to the Prophecy, would be rummaging through book stalls in Vienna and end up with Herzl’s pamphlet in his hands.

Even if it does not seem to be a miracle to us, it did to William Henry Hechler. In his own work, published just a couple of years earlier, Hechler wrote that the days of Jewish salvation would begin around 1897 and that, “It is the duty of every Christian to love the Jews.” Herzl’s publication was unpopular with many Jews for political reasons. Hechler’s work was rejected by Christians who had never seriously studied the Prophets.

Individually, it is likely that their singular works might have drifted into oblivion. Both men had passion and wisdom. Herzl had a vision. William Henry Hechler had something else. He had connections.

Hechler was determined to share what he had deduced from reading Biblical prophecy, he also saw Herzl’s The Jewish State as affirmation of his reasoning. He reached out to Herzl and, ultimately, did what he could to engage his contacts in the Germany hierarchy to support Herzl’s Zionist proposition. It would be a mistake to say that their combined efforts opened the door to the establishment of the Jewish State, but it might be accurate to say that it would not have happened without them. There was widespread resistance to both their vision and their efforts, but they laid a foundation upon which others would build.

At the dedication of the headstone, Jerry Klinger, the president of the Jewish American Society for Historic Preservation, said, “It has long been recognized that, without Hechler’s intercession and support, Herzl may have simply remained an obscure, eccentric Viennese journalism. The course of Zionism, and possibly the very founding of the modern State of Israel, may not have been successful.”

Israeli Ambassador, Ron Prosor, also remarked, “The support he gave to Theodor Herzl is symbolic of the understanding that is found today among our Christian friends, of the eternal connections that exists between the Jewish People and Eretz Yisrael.”

In the annals of history, it may be fitting to say that William Henry Hechler was the very first Friend of Zion.