Saint Jerome (340 AD), author of the Vulgate, the earliest translation of the Bible into Latin, was the first to call the Holy Land the Fifth Gospel. This powerful man of God felt a pull to the Holy Land, sequestering himself in Bethlehem to do his translation of the Bible. He wanted to be in the very place that Jesus inhabited. Should we be any different?
In the last four decades millions of people have traveled to the Holy Land to visit Jerome’s the Fifth Gospel. In fact, according to the Israel Tourism Ministry, 2.67 million tourists traveled to Israel in 2022 alone, a huge spike after Israeli tourism took a big hit (just like tourism all over the world) due to the coronavirus pandemic. While COVID-19 ravaged the world, 2020 saw a mere 831,000 tourists arrive in Israel but 2021 was worse with only 397,000 visiting the Holy Land making the 2022 spike a welcome trend for Israel. October 2022, a beautiful month weatherwise in Israel, saw the largest number of pilgrims, 333,500 to be exact.
It will come as no surprise that tourism has not reached the same pre-COVID levels of 2019. That year saw a record 4.55 million travelers to Israel, of which 970,000 departed the United States for a walk in the land where Jesus spent 3 of His 30+ years teaching, ministering and healing.
Of the 2.67 million in 2022, 858,000 arrived from the United States. Further, according to the Israel Ministry of Tourism, over half of all visitors to Israel are Christians. Even though, according to The Holy Land Journey: Evangelicals and Israel Travel, less than 10% of evangelicals worldwide have ever set foot on the Holy Land. Among those who have traveled to the Holy Land, 52% expressed a high level of interest in returning, with another 43% expressing a moderate interest in returning to the land of the Bible. My experience has been that anyone who has toured that incredible country, goes home planning their next trip!
Apparently, among evangelicals, the question of safety is the overriding cause of not packing for a trip to Israel with only 18% feeling that Holy Land travel is extremely safe. The fact that 95% of previous evangelical travelers would consider a return trip to the Holy Land is a pretty powerful recommendation for getting over that idea that the land of the Bible is not a safe destination. These folks who have traveled to Israel and would certainly consider going again have something important to tell first-time fellow pilgrims. Only 8% of those who have been privileged to walk where Jesus walked left believing that Israel was an unsafe destination.
Often as we sit in our homes and churches reading the Bible without the context of the Holy Land, we view the ancient Israelites as only a murmuring and kvetching people. We see them moaning and groaning through 40 years of wandering in the desert, after all even Moses apparently got tired of them and the desert. But a visit to the fifth Gospel opens up another possibility, there is beauty in that desert, you will realize that it’s a place of God’s extravagant handy work. Humans are agonizingly short sighted, yes the Israelites murmured and told Moses they wanted to go back to Egypt, but I can’t help but think that during some of their time in that wilderness they celebrated and worshipped God because they were captivated by the same canyon vistas and water carved wadis that will captivate you. That’s what a pilgrimage to the fifth Gospel can do, it can change how you view the very people God chose to bring His redemptive plan to the world. They were and still are chosen and we are part of the family of God because of them.
Christian visitors to the Holy Land will tell you, to a person, that their faith and Biblical knowledge was enhanced and transformed by the trip. There are so many ways that Christians are blessed and inspired by traveling to Israel…walking where Jesus walked, traveling, studying and worshipping with like-minded people, actually stepping into Old Testament Bible passages you have studied for years and finding that the historicity of the Bible is completely accurate…all these reasons, and a few more below, make a trip to the Holy Land, an absolute must for those with the time and means to go.
You will never be the same.
Rich and I can attest to the fact that you will never be the same after a faith-based tour to Israel. Our first trip to the Holy Land was in 2007. Rich was invited to go as a pastor and when it turned out a roommate was needed for him…I reluctantly agreed to go. (If I hadn’t, he would have refused the trip and we would not be the people we are today.) Over the years we had heard countless people tell us two things: 1) our lives would be changed and 2) travel to Israel was safe. Today I know those things to be true, but back then I was as skeptical as the next person!
When we returned, we couldn’t put down our Bibles, our maps, our history books….our enthusiasm changed how we taught Bible Studies, how we viewed Middle East events and affairs, and best of all…our walk with the Lord became closer, realer (if that is a word), and much more intimate. All those feelings get stirred up again each time we step onto Holy Land soil.
Your Bible will come alive.
I know as committed Christians and followers of Christ you study your Bible, hopefully daily, you read devotions that speak to you and point you to areas in your life where God wants to work. In Israel the Bible becomes not only God’s plan for saving the world, full of spiritual revelations and applications, but an accurate history book. Being able to attach actual places, scenery and archaeological finds to passages make the scriptures easier to remember. The Bible becomes so real, so true, so unchanged that it is hard to put down, and easy to defend.
You will encounter Jesus in a new way.
As much as we like to think we read the Bible in the way it was intended, we are all influenced by our surroundings and bound by our own culture and times. Think about the art of the ages that depict Jesus as fair-skinned and blue-eyed. It’s not that artists were in error…just that they were influenced by their culture. We read that Rahab was a prostitute and assign her that status of our culture, not realizing what exactly that meant in the days of Joshua and Jericho.
Studying the life of Jesus in His context and culture gives you new insight into His parables and teachings. When you stand on the Mount of Beatitudes and hear His words 28 “And why worry about your clothing? Look at the lilies of the field and how they grow. They don’t work or make their clothing, 29 yet Solomon in all his glory was not dressed as beautifully as they are” and see the actual flowers and beauty He was referring to, the passage comes alive with meaning and context.
You will see prophesy fulfilled and miracles.
While traveling in Israel, we are surrounded by prophecy fulfilled and the faithfulness of God to His Word. We see that the Jewish people have been gathered from the North, the South, the East and the West; from every nation to which they had been dispersed; first by ship and then by planes; and assisted by the Gentiles; all just as the Bible foretold. God is fulfilling His promises made to the Jewish people, which means Christians can also trust Him. He is a faithful God and His Word is true!
Israel is a miracle. A small country the size of New Jersey with a population of 9.73 million (as of March 2023), born one day in 1948 just as Isaiah said in Chapter 66, verse 8 “…has a nation ever been born in a single day?” Out of the ashes of the holocaust and dust of the desert, in just 75 years, they have created a thriving and prosperous land of milk and honey. A land that leads the world in innovation, technology, science, medicine, security, agriculture and water conservation. Did you know that since 1966, thirteen Israelis have been awarded the Nobel Prize, the most honorable award in various fields including chemistry, economics, literature and peace? In fact, Israel has more Nobel Prizes per capita than the United States, France and Germany. It has more laureates, in real numbers, than India, Spain and China.
You will meet the “Apple of God’s Eye.”
Most of us understand that the Jewish people are God’s Chosen People, but we don’t have an appreciation for what that has meant for them. The Jewish people have carried a calling that no other people on earth have been called to; to be the vehicle of God’s redemptive plan. This calling put them directly in the line of fire and they have suffered mightily throughout history as a result. To meet Israelis face to face, mingle with them, talk with them, travel with an Israeli guide like Ezer who knows the Bible from cover to cover and who’s own father charged up the Golan Heights in 1967, is the beginnings of insight into their unique place in world events, and often the highlight of a faith based trip to Israel.
It’s the only country where Hebrew is spoken.
You may not understand much Hebrew, Ezer our guide will teach us new words each day, but Israel is the only country where Hebrew is spoken as an actual living language. This is pretty amazing as the language was dormant and out of non-religious use for almost 2,000 years. In the past century, wise Israelis have toiled to create new words for everything from television and internet to mundane modern words like commute (in Hebrew, yomiyut, which combines the Hebrew words for day and moving to sound like the English word ‘commute’).
It’s where it all started and where it will all end.
It is the land into which Abraham first walked from Ur, the land which God promised to Abraham and his descendants and where Armageddon will be fought. Monotheism started here, Isaac, Jacob, Sarah and Rachel lived here. This is the land that all armies and nations have, for generations, aspired to conquer and control…and still do! This is where David triumphed over Goliath, Solomon built the Temple, Jesus called His disciples and from where Peter and Paul took the Gospel on the road. Whatever reason speaks to you, the fact is….you need to take the dreaming about a trip and transform that into packing for a trip to Israel.
Come to the Holy Land, read the Gospel of Jesus through your feet, your eyes, and the people you meet. Join us on our next tour to the Holy Land, from rafting down the Jordan River to standing on the Temple Mount, it will be a transforming visit to the “Fifth Gospel.”
Tours to the Holy Land 