WATCH VIDEO: How should Christians pray, and where can they give, as Hamas wages wicked war against Israel?
My conversation with the Middle East bureau chief for CBN News
JERUSALEM, ISRAEL – Over the past 36 hours, I’ve been inundated by emails, text messages, phone calls, and WhatsApp messages from people all over the world asking if my family and teams and I are safe, asking what in the world is happening over here, asking why it’s all happening, and asking how they can make a difference.
Thank you so much.
These are all great questions and we’re doing our best to provide answers here on ALL ISRAEL NEWS, on my TV program on TBN – THE ROSENBERG REPORT – and on radio and TV and podcast interviews.
Yes, by God’s grace, and your prayers, we are all safe so far.
But it’s a fast-moving and dangerous situation here so please don’t stop praying.
As Day One of Hamas’ wicked war against Israel unfolded on Saturday, one of the live interviews I did was broadcast by the Christian Broadcasting Network at their studios in Jerusalem.
“I believe October 7th, 2023, is going to be a day that lives in infamy,” I told Chris Mitchell, CBN’s veteran Middle East bureau chief, while we were on the air.
Fifty years exactly after the massive surprise invasion of Israel by Egypt and Syria in October 1973, Israelis were once against being blindsided by a horrific attack we did not see coming.
“This is Israel’s version of 9/11,” I noted. “This is Israel’s own Pearl Harbor.”
The first objective, of course, has to be repelling the Hamas attack and finding and liberating the Israeli hostages seized by Hamas.
The next objective will have to be punishing Hamas and crippling its capacity to wage another such attack in the future.
Then will come the soul-searching and the government investigations.
How in the world did Israel’s political, intelligence and military leadership let such a disaster take place?
Why was the border with Gaza effectively unguarded yesterday morning?
How could the IDF not have picked up on clues that such a massive and bloody attack was coming?
What happens next?
How can Israel protect itself and win this war without inciting the wrath and hatred of a world just waiting for us to make a mistake and be so sure that this is all our fault to begin with?
HOW CAN CHRISTIANS HELP IN THIS PAINFUL, CRITICAL HOUR?
That said, there are other questions that Christians around the world should also be asking.
Among them:
How exactly should we pray?
Where exactly can we give to make a difference?
When the live CBN broadcast ended, Chris Mitchell graciously allowed me to interview him and pray with him.
Given that he’s been living in Jerusalem and covering the wars and rumors of war here since the year 2000, I asked him for his unique take on what was unfolding, how Israelis were reacting, how the government was initially responding, and what was likely to be Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s next steps?
But I didn’t simply want his assessment as a journalist.
I also very much wanted his perspective as an Evangelical Christian who knows the Bible well and cares deeply about all Israelis and Palestinians and about the Church in Israel.
Chris is also a wonderful and faithful prayer warrior who always prays with me before every interview we’ve ever done.
I encourage you to watch our conversation in full.
It’s not long – it runs only about 11 minutes.
Please also share the video with family and friends and your church congregation on social media.
I think you’ll find it helpful to know how to pray as this unprecedented and bitterly painful war unfolds.
After all, we are only in the early hours of this new war.
It could very well go on for many days – even weeks – and become much more deadly and much more painful.
LEARN, PRAY, GIVE AND GO
One of the mottos we use at The Joshua Fund – the ministry that my wife, Lynn, and I started in 2006 to bless Israel and her neighbors in the name of Jesus – is that we wanted to educate and mobilize Christians to “learn, pray, give, and go.”
After all, the more you learn about God’s love and plan for Israel and her neighbors – and the more you learn about the urgent, pressing, and specific threats, challenges opportunities, and needs of Israelis and their neighbors – the more you can pray for them in a specific and focused way.
The more you pray for Israelis, Palestinians, and others in the region, the more likely it is that God will put it on your heart to give financially to ministries that are truly making a difference here, touching people’s lives with the love of Jesus Christ.
And the more you become prayerfully and financially invested in the people of the Epicenter, the more likely it is that you will be moved by the Spirit of God to go to Israel and see the country and her precious people for yourself.
That’s the heart of the mission of The Joshua Fund – and ALL ISRAEL NEWS – to help Christians all over the world “learn, pray, give, and go.”
We don’t want you just to be generally aware of what’s going on here.
We want you to become actively involved.
To want to make a difference, and know how to truly make a difference.
Since 2006, for example, The Joshua Fund has invested nearly $100 million in providing humanitarian relief to care for the poor and needy in Israel and the Arab world. We train and equip and refresh pastors in the Epicenter. We fund the distribution of tens of thousands of Bibles. We built the first legal Christian radio station in the history of Iraq. We bring Christian pastors and lay people on tours of Israel. We hold conferences and Epicenter Briefings to educate Christians about God’s love for Israel and her neighbors. We also take delegations of Evangelical leaders to meet with top Arab, Muslim and Christian officials and experts in the Middle East and North Africa.
Since 2020, ALL ISRAEL NEWS has been the only daily, digital news organization based in Jerusalem, run by Israeli followers of Jesus, serving Christians around the world with exclusive reporting about what’s happening here, exclusive interviews, exclusive polling, and expert and insightful analysis from a biblical worldview.
When so much of the global media is so bitterly biased against Israel and against Christians, ALL ISRAEL NEWS provides news and analysis you can trust – especially during times of war.
Both organizations work closely with each other to serve Christians who care about the people of Israel and the Arab/Muslim world and want to know how to help.
Would you, then, consider making a generous financial contribution to either The Joshua Fund or to ALL ISRAEL NEWS, or both?
Thanks so much for praying for us and investing in us, especially right now.
It means a great deal to us and allows us to do what God has called us to do, knowing that we are not alone.
May God bless you now and in eternity for standing with us.
Joel C. Rosenberg is the editor-in-chief of ALL ISRAEL NEWS and ALL ARAB NEWS and the President and CEO of Near East Media. A New York Times best-selling author, Middle East analyst, and Evangelical leader, he lives in Jerusalem with his wife and sons.
