A friend wrote to me this morning that we must encourage other friends to visit Israel now, because we don't know if future opportunities will continue to visit due to the uncertain times we are living in. That is also my conviction.
We must seize the day and take advantage of our window of opportunity to visit the Holy Land. The Israeli cabinet is already expressing concerns about the possibility of another virus outbreak.
Now, while Israel is once again saying “welcome” to both vaccinated and unvaccinated, we should have the presence of mind to invest in our spiritual lives by jumping into this potentially limited window.
Another friend commented on one of my Facebook posts about Israel, “Only God could give me the gift of loving a place I’ve only visited one time so very, very much.” She added, “I have tried to explain to people what it means to visit Israel... go if you can go while you can.”
After tourists have been locked out of Israel for nearly two years, some of us lovers of the Land have learned the painful feeling of what it must have been like to be a Jew in the Diaspora— longing to walk the streets of Jerusalem and to trek through the beautiful valleys and hills of the Land— but unable to reach it due to corona’s closed doors.
For decades, Evangelical Christians have relished visiting Israel and enjoying all the fruits and benefits of the land for which you have paid with blood, sweat and tears. A closed door has been very disconcerting to Christian Zionists.
The world has become a less safe place and will continue to be perilous according to end-time Bible prophecies that the sages referred to as “birth pains.”
Some Christians are hesitant to spend money to travel because of the economy. Having made over 300 trips to the Holy Land, I can testify to the many ways that God himself has financed my trips. Some of my friends have come on our tours as many as 50 times, and we have always discovered that when we are determined to visit and bless the land and the people, God makes a way financially.
The miracle of human history is that the Jewish people have survived as a nation in such a hostile neighborhood after being dispersed from the Holy Land for nearly 2,000 years.
I have repeatedly said, especially to men and women in the ministry, please do not stand in a pulpit and preach about the Bible without having visited the land of the Bible. Also, let the Bible be your tour guide and be sure, if you visit with a group, that you are subjecting yourself to guides who believe in the Bible.
It is my prayer that many believers will learn the biblical truth that Israel is still God’s nation and that God’s perspective is to see the world through Israel – the apple (pupil) of His eye (Jeremiah 31:35-37 and Zechariah 2:8). There is no better way to discover this truth than to visit the Land.
God’s faithfulness to the Jewish people in our generation should inspire us to pause and take what I call a “selah” moment to offer up praise to the Lord in the certainty of the fulfillment of all of his prophetic word in our amazing times.
Christine Darg is the co-founder of the Jerusalem Channel.