Defender of Israel

By Pat Robertson
The 700 Club

Introduction

CBN Founder Pat Robertson was recently honored by the Christians' Israel Public Action Campaign with its annual Defender of Israel Award. The award was given at a U.S.-Israel Solidarity Rally at the annual convention of the National Religious Broadcasters in Washington, D.C.

The award is given to those who have made major contributions in strengthening U.S.-Israel relations.

In accepting the award, Robertson stated, "It has been my firm belief that evangelical Christians should link hands with our friends in Israel in a bond of friendship which transcends political consideration or mere human emotion. I have reaffirmed time and time again my personal commitment to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the nation of Israel."

Pat Robertson and the organization he founded, The Christian Broadcasting Network, have a long history as devoted defenders of and supporters of Israel and the Jewish people.

The following published address by Pat Robertson on January 30, 1994, details the foundational basis and extent of this unwavering support of the Jewish people.

Thank you ladies and gentlemen.

As we were singing "The Star Spangled Banner" tonight, I felt this is a far more significant event that what's taking place in Atlanta at the Super Bowl, but at the same time, I think the people that are here understand the move of history a great deal more than those seventy thousand or so in that stadium.

I want to share with you just a couple of words because, as Dick said, I am a friend of Israel. I have been, and I am, and I will be. There was something that happened to me that I would like to share with you because it made a deep impression on me. It's changed my life.

In 1974 I was in Israel. It was one of fifteen trips that I had made to the Holy Land, and I had interviewed the then Prime Minister Itzhak Rabin who is now back in office. He had been the Chief of Staff in the victorious Six-Day-War that regained East Jerusalem for Israel. And as I met with him, it was, as you know, the year after the oil embargo. There was a feeling of antipathy toward Israel throughout the entire world because the Arabs were trying, at that time, to tighten the noose around the neck of that little nation. And I felt a sense of pathos in the Prime Minister and those who I had met. That evening as I spoke to the group that was with me, I was in the Intercontinental Hotel on the Mount of Olives, and, as you know, with the big windows there, you look down over the Dome of the Rock and you can see all the old city of Jerusalem. And at that time, I made a solemn vow to the Lord, that whatever happens, however unpopular it would be, whatever the consequences, that I personally, and those organizations that I was in charge of would stand for Israel. And we have not deviated.

I might add, that sometimes when you make a vow, the Lord will test your resolve. Because two days later I was at the Ben Gurion Airport with about three hundred pilgrims seeking to go back to the United States. The flight crews for EL-AL were on strike. I said to them "Look, I'm your friend. I have never done anything to Israel. Why do you people penalize me?" And it was as if the Lord was saying you see what you said and who you are going to support? Do you really mean it? And I said "yes Lord, I really mean it," despite the strike. And fortunately, they took pity on me and let me get on a plane to get out of the country. But in any event, that resolve has been firm in my mind.

There is something that I was reading in the Bible that I think is very significant because it took place in another key nexus of my life in 1967 on June the 5th. We, at my organization, The Christian Broadcasting Network, began building a new studio which was this launching pad for an entire international ministry which now has taken us to about seventy nations and broadcasting all over the world in many different languages and even to a T.V. station on the border of Israel. And on that day, one of our Board of Directors came up as we were beginning the official start of the construction, and he said war has just broken out in the Middle East. And I said I'm amazed at what's happened. And lo and behold, during that Six-Day-War, as it is called, the Jewish forces overcame three nations - Egypt, Syria, and Jordan -- that had come against them. And they won back the Old City, East Jerusalem, for the first time since Nebuchadnezzar had invaded Israel or Judah in 586 B.C.

And if you are, as Dick pointed out, a student of Bible prophecy as I am, you know the words of Jesus Christ that are expressed in the 21st Chapter of Luke's Gospel where Jesus said that Jerusalem would be trodden under foot of the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles were fulfilled. And Christian Bible scholars have looked for centuries for that fulfillment. And in June of 1967, it took place, literally. For the first time, a Jewish state was now in control of the capital city of their nation, the City of David, which had been David's capital, Solomon's capital, and the capital of Judah for all those years. And this was a significant time in history.

This afternoon I began writing down some of the things that have happened in this century because we've almost finished it. Have you ever thought of what an incredible century we've lived through? 1914 began the most horrible war that mankind had ever experienced. The world was plunged into blood. Maybe as many as fifty million lives were killed in trench warfare. It was the most brutal war ever known to man.

In 1917, we had the specter of world-wide communism, a devilish system that was fastened on as many as two billion people in the world as a result of what happened from this group of Bolsheviks. At the same time, 1917, the Belfourt Declaration declared a homeland for Israel.

And then during the twenties, because of the extreme reparations of the allies, Germany was plunged into depression and hyper-inflation and then the world suffered the most devastating economic depression in its history and millions were out of work. There were bread lines, revolutions and confusion throughout the world, and out of that came the rise of another former state socialism, Naziism. And this Naziism, you'd be interested to know, because I've traveled in that area of Bavaria, where Hitler came from. He thought that he was anointed by God for a special task to bring about a resurgence of what he called the Third Reich, a millennium of history. He thought he was the Messiah.

This was not just a political force. Make no mistake about it -- they were deeply involved in the occult, and one of the aspects of it was a hatred of the Jewish people. And there began a systematic annihilation of Jews such as has never been seen or dreamed of, and has horrified people ever since. I am so glad they finally built a holocaust memorial here in Washington, D.C. to honor those brave people who suffered so much.

And I've been in Yad Vashem in Jerusalem and I've walked in what is called the Garden of the Righteous Gentiles -- those who were able to help and stand with the Jewish people in that time of crisis and hide people from the onslaught of this monstrous evil that came across the earth. It not only destroyed the lives of Jewish people, but destroyed the lives of tens of millions of others in an insane conquest which plunged the world into a second world war. And hardly was that war over when we began the cold war, and then the nuclear counter between the two super powers.

I served in Korea just 5 years later -- another war because of the struggle against communism. And not too long after that we had a hideous war in Vietnam. And then, subsequent to that, we had the oil embargo, the shocks that had come through the world. We've had a plague of drugs that have come on the world and now a plague of AIDS that has come. We have had three wars in Israel. We've had a war between Iran and Iraq. The whole world came together -- the United Nations against Iraq and the Iraqi/Kuwait war. And there have been wars in India, and there have been wars in Africa. And there have been famine and starvation and when you look through this century, you think -- how did mankind survive?

I might add that God allowed me to be in Norway last year when Shimon Peres was there. I had no idea that he was going to be there. But now there's a peace treaty and we all yearn for peace in Israel but not a peace that involves surrender. We're not for that. And we insist on the territorial integrity of Israel, and we insist on secure borders. And we insist on the right of the Jewish people to live freely in their homeland without enemies crowding around them to squeeze out their life.

And we see these things happening in the world and we ask ourselves, as this century ends, what about the good? And you think what's happened in this century. We've had the rise of the automobile in this century. The rise of supersonic jet aviation in this century. Not only radio and television as a commercial medium, but now satellite which is what I do. Part of my business is satellite television, and we are incredibly able to communicate around the globe.

One night at eight o'clock, I was driving in my car past Richmond when the telephone in my automobile rang. I picked it up, and it was one of my aids calling me from Kinshasa, Zaire. I think this is incredible. I never dreamed of these communications possibilities. I was recently in Hong Kong, Beijing and Shanghai where all I had to do was pick up the telephone, dial and instantly I was talking to somebody in the United States. It was just as quick as, in a sense, like they say "in a twinkling of an eye."

And on top of that, there have been amazing discoveries in science. We have plumbed the atom in this century. And we are examining DNA and we're beginning to tinker with the very life structure of the universe. We have had medical discoveries and breakthroughs that are nothing short of awesome. We have ultra-scans and machines that can peer in the soft fleshy tissue of a human being and discover problems and pinpoint with incredible accuracies the point of stress that can be operated on by surgeons.

We have entered into an era of unparalleled wealth in our world. And so you have these two things going side by side. And we ask ourselves which one's going to win? The forces of evil, decay, and chaos, or the forces of good and human betterment?

On the one hand, you have a moving away from religious values rapidly in western civilization, and on the other hand, you have one of the greatest spiritual revivals in the Soviet Union and soon in mainland China that we've ever seen in the world. All these things happening together.

But is that part of this prophetic word? Is this the culmination of the Gentile power? Will there be a clash between good and evil? And will it center somehow in Israel? Well none of us have the full answers, but we have a clue.

At this time in the world's history, we recognize the crucial significance of Israel. We don't stand for Israel just because it's a stationary aircraft carrier in the Mediterranean -- I've heard that. We don't stand for Israel because it's the only democracy in the midst of dictatorship and monarchy. We don't stand for Israel just because it's the only real outpost to western civilization as we know it in the middle of primitive feudalism. We don't stand for Israel merely because there are some very influential Jewish people in America. We stand for Israel because as Christians we are grafted into the faith of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And we are one with Israel in a much deeper bond.

And somehow we recognize instinctively and from the Old and New Testament, that God Almighty has chosen the Jewish people as His special possession through whom His revelation has come to mankind, and that we as Christians enjoy that revelation, and we worship together the same God.

And we together, in my opinion are not just friends, but are brothers and sisters. We are part of the root in stock, and , I believe that there is a bond that is growing. To be sure, there has been suspicion. And in the past, there have been things done under the name of Christianity which is absolutely atrocious.

And those of us who are Evangelicals say to those of you who are Jewish tonight, we are your friends. We stand with you, and however easy it is, or however difficult it is, you can count on us as your friends, your supporters, and your compatriots in a struggle to bring forth the fulfillment of the prophecy, and to make this a better world for all of us to live in.

So thank you very much, God bless every one of you and thank you for this great honor.

Middle East TV

When the doors began to open for CBN to broadcast TV programs in the Middle East, Pat Robertson proceeded with a sense of caution and calling.

Caution because he was aware of the prophetic and political significance of this region. Calling because he knew the Lord had given him -- and many other Christians across America -- a unique desire to minister God's love in the land where our faith began.

On April 10, 1982, Middle East Television first sent its signal to the parched lands of the Middle East. Now, 12 years later, MET's ministry outreaches have become an oasis of hope for millions each day across this land.

Serving the People

MET's television transmitter in the Holy Land has faithfully broadcast a message of peace and hope throughout this wartorn region of the world. MET is now a leading source of world news and information and high quality entertainment programs for the more than 11 million people living within reach of its signal.

Proclaiming the Peace

Our reputation for excellence in service has opened doors for Christian ministry like perhaps never before in the middle East. From Jordan to Iraq, viewers write us about how they have been personally touched as a result of a ministry outreach of MET. Now, we are expanding our broadcast schedule for Christian programming to meet this growing need.

Preparing the Way

Every ministry opportunity at MET -- television broadcasts, video ministry, literature distribution or humanitarian relief -- reflects our founding purpose: to offer God's peace and hope to the Middle East while preparing the way for our Lord's glorious return!

"For all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed forever." Genesis 13:15

"And Abram fell on his face: and God talked with him saying...And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee." Genesis 17:3,7

"Moreover I will appoint a place for my people Israel, and will plant them that they may dwell in a place of their own, and move no more; neither shall the children of wickedness afflict them anymore, as formerly..." II Samuel 7:10

"And the Lord gave unto Israel all of the land which he sware to give unto their fathers, and they possessed it and dwelt in it." Joshua 21:43

"And he brought them to the border of his sanctuary, even to this mountain, which his right hand had purchased. He cast out the nations also before them, and divided them an inheritance by line, and made the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tents." Psalm 78:54-55

"Therefore say, Thus saith the Lord God: I will even gather you from the people, and assemble you out of the countries where ye have been scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel." Ezekiel 11:17

"Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; for he hath visited and redeemed his people...As he spake by the mouth of his holy prophets, which have been since the world began: That we should be saved from our enemies, and from the hand of all that hate us; To perform the mercy promised to our fathers, and to remember his holy covenant; The oath which he sware to our father Abraham, That he would grant unto us that we, being delivered out of the hand of our enemies might serve him without fear, In holiness and righteousness before him, all the days of our life." Luke 1:68, 70-75

Scripture references are taken form the New American Standard translation of the Bible.

PatRobertson.com

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