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Israel & Christians Today
Biblical understanding about Israel
Great openess in Russia for Biblical teaching about Israel
“Doors opened up in an incredible way here in Russia. After speaking at the third Open Conference “Israel and Church” in Moscow in the building of Moscow Good News Church on Friday and Saturday and participating at an Open Forum discussion, on Sunday I was preaching five times with different teachings on Israel at the church of Andrey Dirienko, pastor of God’s Church in Yaroslavl. To our great surprise the openness for this Biblical teaching about Israel was very great.
Today another 'miracle' happened. Boris Vasyukov of EBENEZER and Andre my translator were invited to the headquarters in Moscow of a group of churches that call themselves the Pentecostal Union. They started after ‘perestroika’ set in, the new freedom after the collapse of communism. Since 1989 they have now established over 1700 churches, all over the former USSR. They were eager to know more about how to look at Israel from a Biblical perspective. The founding father was present at the meeting - he is now in his seventies – as well as one of their chief administrators. They now consider starting courses on Israel in their Bibleschools and want to build further relationships with us. We left them with our Russian teaching-materials. And I will be teaching and preaching in some of their churches in the Rostov-area in South-Russia in the coming days. They already invited me back for next year!
Next on our agenda was the meeting with Aleksey Smirnov, the bishop of the Russian Union of Baptist Churches, at their headquarters in Moscow, in preparation of my sermon at the Sundaymorning service in the Central Baptist Church of Moscow. Yesterday the 1700 churches of Pentecostal background started to open up for Israel. Today the same happened with these traditional Baptist churches. I had been meeting with the former leader of the Baptist Union in the USSR Gregory Kommendant when I was teaching and preaching in previous years at the large Baptist Church in Vinnitsa-Ukraine and at a conference in Kiev. Now the meeting with Aleksey took place. Afterwards he came with great ideas: a conference for the 50 Baptists pastors in the Moscow-area in 2012, and in 2013 an interdenominational conference on Israel in Moscow! Our teaching-materials will be welcome for their Bible-schools, just like yesterday! Boris said afterwards: am I dreaming or what?? Hundreds, maybe thousands of Baptist Churches are in the former USSR.
Next meeting was with the Bible School of Word of Life Church. I was invited to speak and teach for 250 Bible-school students and teachers, and after that we had a meeting with Matts Ola, the pastor of Word of Life Church. Over 70 churches they have in Russia today. In the future we will be most welcome, and plans for a conference on Israel came to the table here as well!
Then translator Vadim Aksenyuk and I flew to Rostov for a tour in Rostov and the Southern Federal Division in Russia together with Volodya and Luba Shumtsovy.”
Vadim reports: “We had a meeting at 16:00 with pastors from the town and Willem spoke about Israel. There were 7 pastors and 2 assistant pastors (from churches in area) so there were 9 churches represented. Later in the evening we had a service in the building of the church called “the Church of Jesus Christ” and it began at 18:00. Pastor Aleksander is a bishop for the Astrakhan region. 4 more pastors joined the evening (additionally to 7). We estimate that there were about 250 people present at a meeting that day. Astrakhan region is a place surrounded with regions and countries where there is a strong Muslim presence. Willem’s words were also directed to the understanding what Islam is about and how we should be acting in the last days. We touched the subject of Israel being a “firstborn” and Israel’s election (versus Islam).
We travel from Astrakhan to the north of the Volgograd region. We arrived to the church in town of Mikhailovka just in time to attend the meeting which was at 18:30. We met pastor Anatoliy and his wife Ludmila. After Willem’s teaching pastor spoke to the church and said that Willem’s teaching was self-explanatory, covering a lot of things and made it very clear what God wants from church. Pastor invited Willem to come again and spend a lot more time teaching a seminar or conference in the future. Registration by video-camera was made, and could be available to EBENEZER.
We travelled from the town of Mikhailovka to Volgograd. We met with pastors (Simon Milonga and Bishop Aleksey Rudnenkiy) in the church called “Grace of Jesus Christ”. The Bishop expressed his openness to message and asked Willem to come again once the construction is finished and to teach in the Bible school and also to the church. This bishop is playing an important part in the leadership in one of the major Christian unions in Russia. After the meeting we went to Rostov.
In the afternoon we went to visit a memorial dedicated to the death of Jewish people during the Second World War in Rostov. Between 20.000 and 30.000 Jews were murdered on this site, in 2-3 days. In the evening there was a meeting with a leader of association of pastors (24 churches are part of it) in Rostov and Rostov region. His name is Vladimir Khvalov.
We traveled from Rostov to Novo-Cherkassy. Willem met with a bishop in Rostov region. His name is Pavel Kolesnichenko. We spoke in the church and there were 5 pastors from other churches and about 300 regular members of the church. Pavel also invited Willem to come again and have a seminar for the people in the region.
Willem spoke at the church called “Christ the Savior” of pastor Vladimir Khvalov and there were about 700 people present. There were guest pastors from other towns and churches (together 9 of them). We have seen a positive reaction from senior-pastor and from the entire congregation. After the sermon pastor spoke to Willem and invited him to come to a conference (seminar) to be organized for the pastors from the entire Southern region of Russia. Video from the service is available of the webpage www.hristos.ru
Conclusion:
All the pastors whom we have met have suggested organizing seminars and conferences in their regions and areas of influence. These were initiatives that came from pastors themselves.”
Volodya and Luba, representatives of EBENEZER write: “We were very much blessed by Willem’s visit and his teaching. We are very thankful that he took the time and effort to cover such big distances together with us…[actually almost 3000 KM in a minibus on these Russian roads…WJJG] We saw how God was moving and opening the doors of the churches we visited. God have opened the eyes of many people in the “conservative” churches to the truth related to Israel, Aliyah and the understanding that the Church in the first place should bring Jewish people to Israel and leave it up to God to meet with them there – this is something pastors were wondering about a lot. Willem’s help in our work was tremendous. We believe the seeds which were planted in the churches will bring its fruit and churches will be more involved in helping Israel.”