The Executive Director of Christians Care International, Don Horwitz, speaks with PneumaReview.com about anti-Semitism, the relationship between the Church and Judaism, and his own journey to help the vulnerable and abused in the former Soviet Union.

PneumaReview.com: Please tell us a little about yourself, your religious background, family, and your involvement with Christians Care International.

Don Horwitz: As the grandson of Russian Jewish immigrants who fled for their lives from Ukraine in 1917, I have always maintained a strong connection with my family’s heritage. Many of my family members were lost, or survived the concentration camps of the Holocaust. During repeated visits to Russia and Ukraine, I witnessed the horrific humanitarian crisis that was taking place in the former Soviet Union. People of all ages, including orphans and the elderly, were suffering from neglect and abuse, with no hope for a healthy future.

Don interacting with children at a Christians Care International’s special education center in Odessa, Ukraine.

After much thought and prayer, I decided to act by adopting my three daughters from an orphanage in Irkutsk, Russia in 1997. All three of my girls suffered from deep psychological scars resulting from years of severe abuse and maltreatment.

Here in the U.S., I was able to get help for my daughters, but I was deeply troubled about the thousands of children left behind, trapped in cold, heartless orphanages in the former Soviet Union.

I decided to create a charity in Moscow to help children aging out of orphanages acquire therapeutic services, independent living skills and job training so that could move forward with their lives. With a professional background in film, I also began producing a series of films and TV programs for Phil Hunter, the founder of Christians Care International, formerly known as 49:22TRUST, about the suffering of Jews in the former Soviet Union. This was my first exposure to the work of Christians Care International.

PneumaReview.com: How did you, as a Jewish man, come to lead a Christian ministry, Christians Care International?

Don Horwitz: A Christian man, Phil Hunter taught me more about Judaism than I had learned from my own family. Phil became a father figure in my life and I worked with him for several years making films before he became terminally ill. After Phil passed away, his family asked me to take his place in leading Christians Care International.

Before saying “yes,” my first reaction was, “How can a Jew run a Christian ministry?” After many hours of prayer, I realized that it would be a unique opportunity to strengthen the relationship between Christians and Jews, and that as a Jew, I would be able to open new doors for the ministry within Israel and the Jewish communities the organization serves.

Introduction

The purpose of this article is to reveal the initial development of the teaching on the Holy Spirit in the life of Alexander Campbell, founder of the movement named the Disciples of Christ. Campbell’s pneumatology must be placed within the context of American history in the nineteenth century. Beginning with the influence of Cane Ridge and Millennialism on his theology, his weak pneumatology led to an insipid work of the Spirit through the denomination’s history. However, in the charismatic renewal of the twentieth century, Don Basham stood boldly against the rationalistic atmosphere of his church and became well-known for his teachings on deliverance and casting out demons. Consequently, the initial aspect of the paper contains the early history of Campbell’s pneumatology. The second part is a revelation of the charismatic Spirit’s work in one of Campbell’s followers, Don Basham. Though the two appear theologically different, the thesis of the paper is that the operation of the Holy Spirit is the amputated element of Campbell’s theology which is renewed by the baptism in the Holy Spirit in Don Basham and the mainline churches.

Alexander Campbell (1788 – 1866).

The indigenous growth of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in America has a remarkable background and history. As Alexander Campbell searched for a way to end partisan bickering among Presbyterians in Scotland, his company of Christians became one of the largest church movements in American history. As Kevin Ranaghan wrote in his journalistic description of the movement, “one type of revival movement, called Campbellite stressed the word of God well enough, but the word as understood and interpreted by ‘good common sense.’ From the somewhat more rationalistic revival emerged the Disciples of Christ in the north and the Christian Church in the south.”[1] Because the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) had a diluted pneumatology, the Spirit’s presence was submerged in the past 180 years limiting revival and renewal in its members.

Cane Ridge

Interior of the original meeting house at Cane Ridge, Kentucky. Image: Chris Light.

Cane Ridge became known for its unusual manifestations of the Spirit. Though many churches were calm and quiet places of reflection, this experience was diametrically different. Leroy Garrett recorded in the The Stone-Campbell Movement, a graphic description of the “exercises” manifested at Cane Ridge:

They consisted of laughing and singing, the jerks, falling and even screaming and barking. The falling and screaming would sometimes go together, leaving the subject as if he were dead. The jerks were mostly a head movement, which sometimes agitated the whole body. Some people became amazingly acrobatic, for they would stand in one place and jerk backwards and forward with their head almost touching the ground…witnesses would see people on hands and knees in the woods, making the noise with uplifted hands, and would report that ‘they barked up trees like dogs.’[4]

This event was a Pentecost experience before Azusa Street was a reality. C. Dwight Dorough in The Bible Belt Mystique added that “persons were very often favored with visions and heavenly singing.”[5] This early nineteenth century worship was a precursor to what the twentieth century would encounter with the fullness of the Holy Spirit. Yet, Alexander Campbell, a rationalist and devout reader of the intellectual philosopher John Locke never incorporated emotional worship into his church.

Tim Morris and Don Petcher, Science & Grace: God’s Reign in the Natural Sciences (Wheaton: Crossway Books, 2006), 352 pages, ISBN 9781581345490.

Morris (PhD in cellular and molecular biology) and Petcher (PhD in elementary particle physics) originally hoped to write a book about a theology of science for an explicitly Evangelical audience that had some familiarity with the science and religion dialogue. They realized, however, after beginning that a more general audience would also benefit from an introduction to a Christian perspective of the relation between science and religion. The main goal of the book, in fact, is to suggest ways in which the people of God can think faithfully about science, and yet not allow science to dictate the meaning of the gospel. Morris and Petcher thus attempt to develop a “theology of science” (i.e., science shaped by theology) that employs Christian convictions about God’s faithfulness to his creation. While more and more scientific advancements seem to challenge basic beliefs in Christianity, the authors assert that there is truly no dissonance between the two when viewed appropriately. Science and religion, according to the authors, dovetail nicely and both serve to increase the adoration of God.

Morris and Petcher successfully provide a Christian perspective as to the power of science as well as its limitations. For those who see their science as separate from their faith, this book will be challenging. Morris and Petcher discuss how science is inextricably tied to one’s worldview. Therefore, the interpretations of scientific analyses impact one’s worldview.

Tim Morris

Don Petcher

A basic outline of the book could be presented as discussions of four relations: 1) humanity’s relation to God, 2) humanity’s relation to itself, 3) humanity’s relation to the world, and 4) God’s relation to the world. Pneuma Review readers would be well served by a close reading of the first three chapters of this book, as Morris and Petcher give a wonderful review of the rise of the scientific methodology in the modern world. I will focus my review, however, upon the second section of this book wherein Morris and Petcher attempt to emphasize the centrality of the Trinity in the original creation, its redemption, and the sustenance of creation. Morris and Petcher, both, are Reformed in their theology. As a consequence, their theological extrapolations may be at odds with various readers of the Pneuma Review. For example, in speaking of the Trinitarian roles within creation and its sustenance, they assert that the persons of the Trinity have essentially the same roles as they have in redemption. Implicit, then, is primacy given to Christ in creation and somewhat relegating the Spirit to a peripheral role. One perceives a strong Christological focus throughout this book. For example, many of the roles traditionally given to the Spirit within the Trinity are given to Christ by Morris and Petcher in this book. It seems to me that they errantly equate Trinitarian with Christological. This way they reassert the Son’s activity within the created world but perhaps unintentionally denigrate the Spirit’s role within the world. In fact, Morris and Petcher relegate the Spirit’s role to be one of mere sustenance within the created world (107). In so doing, Morris and Petcher seemingly belie the opening chapter of Genesis. It is evident that the Spirit was the member of the Trinity that was the immediate cause of order arising from primal chaos (Genesis 1:2). My criticisms of their expansive Christological focus notwithstanding, Morris and Petcher have produced a fine introduction to university students and laymen alike regarding how Christians should approach the science and religion debate. All in all, this book is ultimately concerned with viewing creation as an expression of the glory of God.

Reviewed by Bradford McCall

Publisher’s page: http://www.crossway.org/books/science-and-grace-tpb/

Pastor Jack Hayford, President of the Foursquare Gospel Church purchased a special run of this book and mailed a copy of this book to every minister in his denomination. Hayford has traveled to Israel many times in the past 40 years and has known Don Finto for more than 30 years.

Finto spent 25 years as pastor of Belmont Church in Nashville. Now in his mid-seventies he is active with the growing community of Jewish believers in Jesus. This interest which began 40 years ago has taken Don to Israel often; and the insights and experiences that he gathered over these years give him unusual insight to the move of God in the mid-east and across the world.

Finto divided his book into two main sections. The first reviews the tremendous growth in the Christian church over the last half century across the world. No other period of history has experienced this sort of Christian expansion. Finto discusses his opinions of what the conversion of several hundred thousand Jews to faith in Jesus portends for the world in general and for the country of Israel. He writes that 40 years ago there was not a single congregation established to foster the continuing Jewish identity of Jews who believe in Jesus. Today there are 400 or more congregations throughout the United States, the former Soviet Union, Latin America, Israel and other countries.

Moreover, these congregations are not covert. They do not have to be silent and are featured in Jewish newspapers and on national television. The congregations include people from all ranks of the community. 7,000 of these live in Israel, all over the land and in every walk of life.

Finto continues with reviews of the growing church in Africa, the effects of 25,000 new believers a day in Latin America, Africa and China. That is 75,000 believers a day. 60 million Nigerians profess faith in Christ; and other African countries besides Nigeria are experiencing significant growth in believers. We read of success and persecutions, victory and defeat but a church growing in ways that have not been seen in the 20 centuries of its existence.

South Korea has 60,000 churches and 40 percent of its population are professing Christians; South Vietnam has seen 800,000 conversions in the last 25 years. 150,000 Muslims have come to Christ. Finto describes corporate and individual conversions.

I found his review of the growth of the Kingdom fascinating. We are so assailed with negative criticism of the church and Christianity from many quarters that it is good to remember that we are a triumphant church and that this triumph is being acted out in vast numbers across the earth.

The second part of the book has an eschatological bent. Finto tells the reader of his personal interpretations of various prophetic texts and how and when they are and will be fulfilled.

I am glad that I was one of the Foursquare pastors that received a copy of this book. It is an interesting and lively read that will add to your understanding of what is really happening across the earth and challenge your thinking on what is yet to come.

Reviewed by H. Murray Hohns

Publisher’s Page (As of May 2019, this title in print by Chosen Books): http://bakerpublishinggroup.com/books/god-s-promise-and-the-future-of-israel/358911