Saturday, February 27, 2010


Laporte, Minnesota
August 2006


‘That through your mercy (Israel) also may obtain mercy… The question is: Do we have a mercy that we can extend?’





At right, 'mercy' was withheld in the first Ha Shoah ('Holocaust')




'The issue of mercy is the key issue of the End – that they might obtain mercy by the mercy that you extend. The question is: Do we have a mercy that we can extend? Have we received mercy? Are we conscious of that mercy? Do we recognize that what we have been receiving these days is mercy? This purest mercy is what has gone forth over these tables?*
"But, if we don’t see it as that – we’ll have an attitude of matter-of-factness. We cannot obtain it as mercy, and we cannot extend it as mercy. So, we need to become much more mercy-conscious that mercy is not a platitude, that mercy is not a doctrine. Mercy is an existential reality. And, that we’re living by the mercies of God that are new every morning. The mercies that endure? Are we conscious of that, of how frail our lives are?


Maybe that's why God will bring a stud like me into a place of such sickness and dependency that my fever is up or down in such variables as cannot be contained, just to show me the frailty of this life.
" 'It's not you, Katz. The breath that's in your mouth is my mercy. That you came to this school out of it - without inspiration... And if anything has been taking place of any consequence - it's my Mercy!'
"So, I’m enjoining the church to appropriate mercy in a palpable existential way such that you’ll have it to extend. But, if mercy is only for you a doctrine, only a statement of a rhetorical, verbal kind and not an actuality, that’s not a mercy that can be extended to them. They will not need a statement; they will need a reality. And, we’ll have it in proportion as we have received it – and are continuing to receive it.
"Our every day is a mercy. The church needs to become conscious of the mercies that are new every morning that endure forever. We live by His mercies. We’re capable of nothing. Anything that comes is of His mercy. It’s not only our initial salvation; it’s our continuing salvation. It’s the privilege of the school. It’s the privilege of relationship.

As I lay on the hospital bed, and I thought of the band of souls with whom I’m knit and those over the years. I cherished each one as a gift from God, a mercy. I'm seeing the saints in a new light, a deeper appreciation as being the very extension of God’s mercy.
"So, that’s the heart of it at the End – that we will have a mercy to extend when, if they don’t receive it from us, from who will they receive it? And, if they don’t receive it from us – they will perish. For they will be in the place of ultimate extremity. They will be banged out of shape. They’ll be nigh unto death. They will be dark and despairing and without hope.
The people who died in the Holocaust weren’t necessarily the physically weakest. They were the people bereft of any hope. Those who survived had some hope by which their life was sustained however much on a thread."


We’re going to have a people come to us who’ll be totally emptied of any confidence which they formerly have had in themselves, in man, in the world. And they’ll be devoid of anything and be the objects of abuse from forces of hatred calculated for their annihilation. And in that condition, they’ll need our mercy. They’ll need it physically. They’ll need it psychologically. They’ll need it emotionally. They’ll need it spiritually.
"The issue is: will we have it to give? Will we be willing to give it when to be observed giving it makes you a candidate for persecution? It’s not a mercy that you’ll be able to give at your convenience. It’s a mercy that you will give at sacrifice. And when you’re willing to give it at sacrifice for them when they are everywhere hated – how can they not be moved to jealousy and say, ‘What is it with you? What is different about you? Why aren’t you joining them and hating us as everyone else? Why are you willing to take these risks? Why are you being kind? Why are you extending yourself? Why are you making yourself a candidate to be persecuted yourself? What did we ever do for you that you should be extending yourself for us?’
"That’s the mystery."


*2006 summer Prophetic School

(Go to http://benisraelblog.blogspot.com/ to view Ben Israel Fellowship blog)

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Bad Nauheim, Germany
October 2004

'But a Germany of What Kind?'

(Katz was one of several speakers who attended a three-day conference, billed as a gathering to promote "…building bridges between the nations and Israel – setting up partnerships with Israel in sharing the gospel – unifying the Body – sending volunteers to Israel – power evangelism – prophetic evangelism – setting up five-fold ministry teams – setting up bridges between business enterprises in Israel and in the nations.” He chaffed at his single occasion to address the audience.)

'I'll be giving you the heaviest message of which I am able. It is so heavy you’ll not be able to understand it in one hearing. You will need to study it more than to read it.
“So, we have come all this way for one message. But let it be such a message as to be worth all the distance and all the expense, sinking something very deep into the foundation of the church of this land."
He spared no harshness toward the "new" generation of Germans, prodding them for their vulnerable history as architects of the Holocaust... confronting the believers before him with a stern, almost intimidating demeanor, addressing them directly and without any pulpit patronizing, emphasizing the word "you" accusingly.

'To forfeit taking the gospel to the Jew first is a woe unto you. It will be as much a threat to your apostolic character as it was to Paul’s. Of course, you’re not yet a church that even is able to understand what such a loss means, which is already a statement of that loss because you have too long ignored the mandate of the gospel to the Jew.

"You have lost the distinctive that makes the church 'the church.' For the issue of the 'gospel to the Jew first' is the issue of the gospel, and the issue of the gospel is the issue of the church. And the issue of the church is the issue of the nation. And as recent history has revealed, the loss of this nation affects all nations. More than we understand, as Germany goes, so goes the world. "But a Germany of what kind? A Germany that is not affected by the presence of an apostolic church in its midst is a danger and a threat to all civilization.
"History has revealed that, and we stand now even presently before the possibility of yet another such unthinkable repetition. If you forfeit the issue of the gospel to the Jew NOW, you condemn the church to irrelevancy, to leaving a spiritual void in the land, a nation that is not tempered and affected by the presence that God intends through the church of an apostolic kind. And what could be more dangerous for the world than a Germany that still harbors imperial ambition and has already assumed a foremost place in the European Union of nations?
"And if that 'Japheth' nation is not somehow touched and affected by the issues from 'Shem,' it will be condemned…
"God never intended a separation of the sacred from the secular. The sacred is to affect the secular, to temper and to modify, and to bring even such humane consideration into the exercise of its power in order to save it from that unbridled secularism that results in bestiality.
"And, the issue of the Jew is the issue. Because 'they are the enemies of the gospel for your sake' because it makes bringing the gospel to them a greater requirement."


His words boomed louder, like distant thunder growing closer and becoming more threatening to his paralyzed audience that listened wide-eyed.

"...We are all called to be pilgrims, strangers and sojourners in the world. And, to a pilgrim path. And the Jew is compelling us to find it and to walk in it – unbeknownst to themselves.
"Even in their unbelief and even in their apostasy, their formidable presence in our midst compels US to wholly review OUR life and purpose and meaning, and OUR ‘lifestyle’ itself. And if we will obey, if we will respond, God will not only have a restored Israel, he will have a bride for the bridegroom adorned for him, having his glory because it shares his consecration and his totality.
"The Jews bring US to this necessity - or else we will continue to be content with so much less.
"Paul saw something more than Israel’s redemption; he saw the church’s transfiguration compelled by the crisis that the Jew represents that can only be met in an apostolic way, not by individual virtuosos. But by a church that is a body that is integral, that is related, and that is authentic and shares the calling and purpose of God.
"The issue of the gospel to the Jew, especially in Germany, is not some ethnic consideration, as if they deserve consideration only as gypsies. What Germany needs is a large purpose of meaning. "If it will not receive God’s purpose, it will serve evil. These are the 'powers' that brought Nazi-ism into your land and took possession of the whole apparatus of state by which the whole of civilization was threatened, and one-third of Europe’s Jews was exterminated; these powers are not defeated by military defeat. They still brood in the air over the nation, awaiting their next opportunity when there will be a spiritual void into which they can come.
"And this is created by a church that has forfeited its identity because it has forfeited the gospel in forfeiting the Jew.
"Your nation’s future is at stake. And, as your nation goes, so also goes the world.
"You need to be saved from trifles, to be saved from some ersatz substitute. For the true relationship with the Jew that is more than blowing his shofar. However tedious, you must be taught what 'hell' means. And, who has had more opportunity historically to know that than any other nation - and may yet know it again unless the church be 'the church.'
"That is why this room is half-empty, because your pastors and counselors have warned you not to attend and to hear a man who is 'anti-Semitic' because he believes Jews are responsible for the death of Jesus.
"These last days will require all from Germany - beyond 'all' that your fathers were willing to give and who wanted only a beggarly Christianity without a heart for the apostolic faith.
"It has been a woe unto us. May it not be a woe again. We are without excuse. With hundreds of thousands of Jewish kinsmen in our midst, what a test of fidelity to the truth for those rightly called the 'enemies' of the gospel, who have every right to be its enemy, seeing how it has been depicted for them by those who made their blood to flow in every German hamlet and town!"

Suddenly, a woman cried out unintelligibly from the back of the audience, gasping with loud guttural shrieks and groans. People jerked around to see. Katz and his translator were even surprised. Others began to weep. Such a validation of a "message" instantly transformed it into an "event." *

*From

katz:
'Return' to Ben Israel
Parable of a Legacy


Copyright 2010 (unpublished)

(Go to http://benisraelblog.blogspot.com/ to view Ben Israel Fellowship blog)

Tuesday, February 23, 2010


CAMEROON - 2005
'It's a remarkable grace to be able to preach, having passed through that traffic congestion...'


At right, the driver maneuvers with seven passengers; pedestrians,
vehicles of every size and sort, going in all directions, slalom around the potholes.

T
he two million citizens in Cameroon’s most populous city, Douala, navigated such treks across moon-scape surfaces of gouges and ruts, forbidding any smooth travel in lieu of horrific traffic congestion and paralyzed chaotic intersections. Katz’s astonishing suggestion in his first speaking appearance boggled the minds of visiting out-of-town pastors and leaders, many who had expected lectures on modern preaching methods, catchy theological technique and attaining ministerial success. He began expounding “a message for Africa” with a quotation from Solomon’s proverbs:

“‘Righteousness exalts a nation’ …There are daily occasions for righteousness or the neglect of it. Even in the small things, and in the every-day things. The issue of righteousness should ever be before us as the church. Because the church is intended as already the leaven of a kingdom to come, a certain presence within society of a moral kind…
“If we will not exert a moral influence in our African society, from where shall it come?
“What is moral is to insist upon the dignity of what is made in God’s image, and not to go along with conditions that degrade men and rob them of their essential humanity. This is the devil’s business – to deform and to assault what is in the image of God. The devil hates God and hates God’s image in men. And we, the church, have an obligation to stand for what God has created in his image.
“So, just in the trip coming here tonight...”

Katz’s French-speaking interpreter stopped suddenly, not expecting what came next.

“…We had to pass through your typical traffic. Of course, you have lived with it for so long that, for you, it’s normal. I want to tell you that I’m not speaking from the perspective of a white man from America. I’m speaking from the perspective of a prophetic man from heaven!
“Your traffic conditions are immoral! They’re degrading! To fight for position, one car edging the other, belching smoke, bumper to bumper. So much time to pass through an intersection for the want of a simple traffic light! And due respect for order that the traffic light represents so that men can move in order, await their time without competing and striving – because otherwise it’s contrary to God’s image in man.
“You may think I’m picking on some absurd issue, and you can find examples much worse than what I’m describing. But such conditions should not be tolerated. They need to be opposed by the church that stands for God, stands for righteousness, stands for what is moral, and for man in God’s image!
“It’s a remarkable grace to be able to preach, having passed through that traffic congestion and just sitting in the back seat. If I had to drive it, I would have become immobilized.
“How does one become spiritual and able to speak the word of the Lord after you have been fighting your way through conditions like that?
“And those conditions can be remedied. Those conditions can be altered – when the church makes it an issue! And expresses its concern, as it ought, to establish a traffic light that obliges men to observe the structures of ‘law and order’ for their benefit.
“Don’t you understand there’s a struggle between darkness and light that’s taking place in the earth, and the powers of darkness, the principalities and powers of the air, want to prevail in the world? And they are unchallenged, and they run the show? And they stand for chaos and destruction. God stands for light and righteousness. And sends his ‘kingdom come in earth as it is in heaven.’
“Order is intrinsic to the nature of God, and we need to respect it, to desire it, to see that it functions, and that men do not circumvent it because they have money, or influence or can bribe their way. All men should stand equal before the law. It is a fundamental, foundational necessity for the integrity appropriate to human life.

“So, somebody needs to go to the legislature, who are indifferent to this condition because they don’t have to face it daily. They are living in very elect suburbs with beautiful palatial residences and chauffer-driven cars. They don’t have to fight these conditions. They’re living in a place of unreality, and they’re not at all affected by what is degrading men in this city every day.
“So, would it be improper for a committee from the church, a committee of concerned Christians, representing a network of churches to have collected tens of thousands of signatures, and to go to the legislature and present them as a moral requirement to establish a traffic light at critical intersections – because it’s righteous?
“Well, I know that you are not accustomed to thinking or acting like this because it’s not ‘spiritual’. And, we’re not concerned with the world, and only with spiritual things.
“You’re doing God disservice not to recognize that this is a spiritual issue because there’s a moral question here that affects the whole character of life in Africa and degrades men rather than exalts them in God’s image.
“If you’re going to have moral concern, you’re going to be required to have political expression. And what begins with a traffic light – needs not end there! This is more than just an improvement. This is the issue of structure and of order that dignifies human life and gives men a better sense of themselves, and the respect and esteem for their own humanity that pleases God.
“The powers of the air will be terrified if the church begins to think like this and acts like this. Because when you begin to install order, the powers of darkness and chaos are set aside. You’re making a statement of a kingdom kind, of a godly kind that breaks their influence, and if you keep it up, they’ll be required to release their captives. So, they prefer that you remain passive and live in these conditions. After all, they have gone on for so long, and we’ve gotten used to it and learned to live with it. That’s not a reason to continue with it – because righteousness exalts a nation!
“God will be blessed by the traffic lights, by the sense of the order. Something will come into the atmosphere of a city that has taken the pains and the expense to establish these elementary conditions appropriate to human beings made in God’s image.”

The message to the nation of Cameroon, at least from Katz in the spring of 2005, was about morality, righteousness, and petitioning government for relief from human degradation – by first installing traffic lights!
The message was unique – and uniquely Katzian.*


*From

katz:
'Return' to Ben Israel
(Parable of a Legacy)
Copyright 2010 (unpublished)

Sunday, February 21, 2010


With Philippe Bodi (second from left) at a
fellowship on the Serbian/Rumanian border,
circa 1980.





'It's going to do wonders for us'

“I think we’ve been living in a criminal way with our misuse of resources and with such affluence and comfort that would have boggled the mind of the richest potentate in times past…
“I believe with all my heart, without knowing to what degree and to what length, but we shall face a great time of severity and trial. And, it’s going to do wonders for us!...
“There is simply not going to be any way that we can stand and survive in our own aloneness – except that we cleave to each other.
“We’re going to pass through a necessary crisis of disillusionment, and face our lives as they really are, however threadbare, and begin from there before God to see and live in honesty and in truth.
“We’re going to learn what it means to confess our sins, our faults, one to another that we might pray one for each other that we might be healed.”
“And, it’s going to do wonders for us.”
– 1974

“It’s interesting that in the two principal cases where God describes the character of the koinonia of the first church as being together that there is an economic as well as a social statement being made. If there is no economic consequence, then any performance of pseudo-koinonia is deception and death.”
– 1992

“I have never played the game, and I once asked a more current, internationally-recognized prophet, ‘How is it that I’m not invited to your prophetic functions, seeing that I have the history in this calling long before any of you?’
“He said, ‘Art, the reason you’re not invited is that you are not an ‘in-house’ prophet. We can’t count on you to go along. You might upset the apple cart.’
“What I recognize in this flush of the new prophets is a fraternity of mutual, self-congratulatory men who affirm one another, and I do not fit in with that environment. They know it, and so I am not in that dimension.
“I am not known, or if I am known, I am either little known or scorned.”
– 2001


(Go to http://benisraelblog.blogspot.com/ to view Ben Israel Fellowship blog)

Followers