JERUSALEM, Israel – More than one thousand pastors and Christian influencers are in the Holy Land this week. Organizers call it the largest gathering of its kind since Israel's founding.

A partnership between Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Friends of Zion Museum led to the unprecedented visit.   

Friends of Zion founder Mike Evans told CBN News, "It's the first time in history the State of Israel has officially partnered with 1,000 strategic pastors to commission them as ambassadors to combat antisemitism and reach the youth of their generation.”

Evans believes Israel's fight is not just on the battlefield.

“Right now, there's an ideological war that Israel is losing," he stated. "So, they need the Evangelicals, they need the Zionists, to fight an ideological war. Demons don't clear customs, and this ideological war’s massive. And it's being funded by countries like Qatar and others through an antichrist-type AI, and to pound away with bots and to marginalize people and silence them.”

One of the goals of the gathering is to strengthen Christian support during a time of rising global antisemitism. They say the pulpit must speak louder than the propaganda.

U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee told us, “So it's just, I think an extraordinary time for pastors to go to their pulpits and to speak with clarity and with boldness and to push back on the antisemitism, the bigotry that is being pushed toward Jewish people and toward the people of Israel.” 

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Pastor Jesse Bailey of Southern California and Tennessee's Legacy Family Church observed, "Unfortunately, the pulpit has become quiet about those things. We've allowed cultural voices to speak louder to the congregation than the pastors have on these topics. So it's been motivating to make sure that we go back and bring the message of who Israel is to the Lord. And, our role as Christians is to continue to support and pray for Israel.”

Ambassador Huckabee, a former pastor, sees a rising danger in the Church.

“There is a growing cancer within the evangelical movement in America where people are thinking, Israel doesn't matter," he said, "And there's nothing biblical about our relationship to Israel. This is very dangerous.“

He added, "Because this idea that God will break his covenant or he has broken his covenant with the Jewish people – it borders on blasphemy, because if God will break his covenant with the Jewish people, what on earth makes me think as a Christian, that he will keep his covenant with me?” 

On Wednesday, the pastors went to the Nova Music Festival site where Hamas terrorists slaughtered 378 people and kidnapped 44 others. 

Zac Jiwa, host of The Food, Wine, and God Show, noted, “That was emotional. That was devastating. I have four teenage children in Austin (Texas). We go to music festivals. That's what you do in Austin. And to think about the kind of terror that those young people experienced, it's just unfathomable.” 

Jiwa believes pastors need to see Israel for themselves.

“The narrative that the mainstream media, especially in the US, is, has been fed – or the messages that are out there – I think that pastors and church leaders all need to come and understand and see the truth, the truth about the matter, the true story, and what actually happened here.”

This gathering is a prelude to a massive campaign planned for next year.

Evans said, “We're launching in 2026 a global program to reach one million pastors and one million churches globally, to teach them a biblical worldview so they'll realize God's not canceling any promises to the Jewish people. And He's not canceling for the Christians, either.”