Sid: Now well a little over a year ago I got a telephone call from an Arab pastor in Israel in Northern Galilee. He said he was watching me on television. Because our show It’s Supernatural people throughout all of Israel can see that television show. He wanted to call me. My guest is Hani Shahadeh, and Hani why did you want to call me?
Hani: As you mentioned I watch your program in Israel in the English language and also the translation also in Arabic there. I watch you in different languages in the Middle East. The thing that really attract my attention was the thing that you declared by the end of that show that the one new man for Jews and Gentiles as one new man in Jesus Christ. That is my dream, that is my vision. I felt I want to call this man of God because I share the same vision because we have lived all our lives in turmoil here and wars and we just want to see this one new man coming together as one in Jesus.
Sid: Hani as you know the President of the United States, President Bush, has stated he wanted his legacy to be that there be a two state solution in the Middle East. The western wall and parts of Jerusalem would be part of the Palestinian State and if you could talk to President Bush at this moment what would you tell him about his plan?
Hani: I would tell him first of all I respect your intention to bring peace, but he should know as a Christian that there is no peace in this land or in the heart of any person or in any other land without the Prince of Peace our Lord Jesus Christ. That’s one, second thing this peace plan is not doable and not realistic and it’s not going to be done, it’s just not realistic.
Sid: Huh, you know that you’re in the Middle East, I know that, I’m in the United States and the reason that I know this that there are so many scriptures that I’d love to tell President Bush; I’d love to show him Joel Chapter 3 that says, “In the last days the judgment will be triggered on nations and it will be over one sin.” And this what God says in Joel Chapter 3 “For dividing up my land.” And then Psalm 105 verse 8-11 summarizes what most of the Old Testament says, “That God has given the land forever unconditionally and for a thousand generations.” He says three different ways to the Jewish people. So when someone does a humanistic thing they get a humanistic result. But this is worse because you’re tampering with what God calls His land and dividing it. Hani I want my Mishpochah to get to know you a little bit; you come from quite an unusual family in the Middle East. Tell me about your parents and your grandparents.
Hani: First of all in Israel we have about 130,000 Christians who have Israeli citizenship and they mostly are in Galilee and they come from an old historical Christian background. And they’re mostly the historical church belonged in the beginning to the Greek Orthodox Church. Thank God for the missionaries who arrived to the land of Israel after 1917 that is the English mandate over the land of Israel. And my grandpa was a policeman in the English police force and he was in charge in a prison called Akko Prison.
Sid: I was actually there at the prison.
Hani: Well, his picture is still there actually and my Dad’s picture is still there in the museum.
Sid: In fact my wife and I and my sister and brother in law who live in Israel we had dinner at a nice little restaurant in Akko. (Laughing)
Hani: (Laughing) Actually he received the Lord in the early ‘40s and he became an evangelist and he implanted many churches in Galilee, yet he was a policeman. You know the English people put so many Jewish leaders in prison to stop them from Aliyah coming back to the promise land. And my grandpa was in charge of some these people were influential people like the first mayor of Haifa Ava Hoeshe and Moshe Dayan and others. And he helped these people to be in touch and contact with outside world with their brethren, with their families and he help in his own way to smuggling things for them. And actually Katameel Moshe who wrote the book in Hebrew “Behind the Walls.” He wrote there was an Arabic speaking officer there who helped us do things and made life easier for us, meaning my grandpa.
Sid: Now why did your grandfather do this, this was life threatening for him?
Hani: Yes, I asked him personally, he’s now with the Lord. He said to me “This is the promise land that God promised Abraham and his seed and God’s word never changes, the earth and the heavens vanish but let his word stands forever.”
Sid: Now with you personally at age thirteen you became a believer, but you then were in a minority in a country. Here in the United States we Jews are in a minority but you were in a minority in Israel. You began to be very upset with the Jewish people even with that wonderful heritage. Would you say that it’s fair to say that you actually hated at one point the Jewish people?
Hani: Yes, and it’s a…I didn’t want to be any place where the Jews were, I just didn’t want to be any more like in a beach or in towns, big cities of Israel. Yes, I just withdrew from my heritage and I started to develop a grudge against the Jewish nation. Being a minority is not pleasant, right?
Sid: Sure.
Hani: I struggled with this issue which was not really something that I spoke about, I just kept it in my heart.
Sid: What about the Old Testament? And here you’re a believer in Jesus, but you reached the point where you didn’t even want to read the Old Testament because it talked about God’s love for the Jew and the Jews belong in Israel.
Hani: Yes, I didn’t want to hear it, I didn’t want to read it, I didn’t want to read the word Zion. I just had, I just locked my mind on that issue that thing of the Old Testament I just ignored it totally and even in the beginning of my ministry I just preached from the New Testament. I am pastor.
Sid: Yes but you were actually pretty far away from the Lord and I guess the root of bitterness will do that, but at nineteen you were in an automobile crash, tell me about that.
Hani: It was driving in the northern part of Galilee coming back from fishing and the car went down a valley and before I fainted because the car just went down and I prayed. I said, “Lord if I die, it’s fair, but if I live I’ll live it for you,” and I woke up and I looked at myself, there are no cuts, there is nothing, there is no harm done to me. My clothes were full with pieces of glass.
Sid: How was the car?
Hani: The car was totally crashed, totally crashed! I had not even one scratch.
Sid: Would you call that a miracle? I would.
Hani: Indeed, nobody believed that I am alive; they took me to hospital for check up. But when my family saw the car they assumed that I’m not alive.
Sid: Now you did you follow what you said, you said from what you just told me “Lord if I die it’s fair, but if I live I’m going to live for you.” Did you decide to do that at this point?
Hani: Yes, yes I did and actually gave myself to the Lord and I went for the ministry. I actually started training for the ministry and unfortunately I got involved that Episcopalian Church, right.
Sid: Um him.
Hani: And they actually are very liberal and they teach replacement theology and other…
Sid: I’ll tell you what, hold that thought will pick up here on tomorrows broadcast. You’ll find out about a major revival, a major move of God that is happening in northern Galilee among the Arab people. Actually worldwide God is removing the scales on the eyes of Arab people on the eyes of Jewish people. And that’s why our television show “It’s Supernatural” is in the Middle East; we’re on a Farsi language station which means that countries like Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan; among others where they speak Farsi. “It’s Supernatural” is in Farsi in other places where they speak the Arabic language, “It’s Supernatural” they can get in the Arabic language. And by the way God’s been working on the Soviet Jews for a long time, that’s why I’m pleased to tell you that our television show “It’s Supernatural” is now in the Russian language and it literally cover all the former Soviet Union. Why? Because this is God’s time for the one new man, for the Jew and the Moslem to become one new man, the middle wall of separation come down. President Bush put your efforts in the God Peace Prize, forget the Nobel Peace Prize they’ll only be peace when Jew and Moslem come to know the King of Jews, Yeshua, Jesus the Messiah.
