In what some are calling a fulfillment of scripture, 200 Christians and Israeli Jews met in Israel’s Knesset at the end of February to study the Bible together.
American-born Israeli Orthodox Rabbi and Knesset Member Yehuda Glick hosted the study, cosponsored by the Knesset Caucus for the Encouragement of Bible Study; the Schindler Society, a Christian organization that introduced Bible study in the U.S. Congress; and Israel365, a group which strives to connect Christian Zionists with Israel.
“Of course, there is nothing new about the Bible being studied in the Knesset,” Rabbi Tuly Weisz, director of Israel365, wrote in an article for the Jerusalem Post. “Israel’s first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, was an avid reader of the Bible…yet the Schindler Society is adding an important element that has not – and could not have – existed until this day. Emerging from the pro-Israel Christian community, this week’s Bible study is the fulfillment of one of the most beautiful descriptions of Jerusalem.”
Jim Garlow and Rosemary Schindler, founders of the Schindler Society, were unable to attend the event. In a video they shared why they pursued the Knesset Bible study.
“We stand with Israel because God promises to bless us if we do and since it is His plan to bring the Jews back to their homeland, we are to support God’s wonderful plan,” Garlow said. “The Christians are there to listen, not lead. We come as learners.”
One Christian leader present at the Bible study was Dean Bye, international director of Return Ministries, which is based in Canada and has a branch in Israel called Aliyah Return Center.
“It’s humbling. I pray that the Lord will grant many more Christians to have this experience,” Bye told CBN News.
Glick summed up the event in light of scripture.
“It’s exciting to see how the words of the prophets are really coming about,” he told CBN News. “We have people from all over the world who come to study Bible from Jerusalem, exactly as Isaiah said.”
“Now it will come about that in the last days the mountain of the house of the Lord will be established as the chief of the mountains and will be raised above the hills; and all the nations will stream to it.
And many peoples will come and say, ‘Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; that He may teach us concerning His ways and that we may walk in His paths.’ For the law will go forth from Zion and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.”
Isaiah 2:2-3