Michael D. Evans

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Michael D. Evans is an author, award-winning journalist, commentator and the head of several prominent international non-profit organizations in the U.S. and Netherlands.[1]

Evans has written 42 books[2] and has provided analysis and commentary on Middle East affairs for a variety of media.[3][4][5][6] He has appeared on many network television and radio shows including Good Morning, America, Cross Fire, Nightline, The Good Morning Show (Great Britain), and appears frequently on the Fox Network,[7] CNN World News, NBC, ABC and CBS. His articles have been published in The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, The Washington Times,[8][9] The Jerusalem Post[10] and others.

He serves as the Executive Director of The Corrie ten Boom Fellowship, as well as Chairman of the Board the Corrie ten Boom Foundation in Ha’arlem, Holland,[11] which operates the ten Boom Holocaust Museum. He also founded The Jerusalem Prayer Team with a reunified Jerusalem’s second mayor, Ehud Olmert.[12] It is a direct outreach of the Corrie ten Boom Fellowship. He founded Churches United with Israel, Inc., the Middle East Media Group, the Mike Evans Museum, the Evans Institute of Middle East Studies, The Jerusalem World News and TimeWorthy Books.


Evans is a Christian Zionist who with Prime Minister Menachem Begin was one of the founders of the present Christian Zionist Movement.[13][14]

Biography

Personal Life and Faith Development

Michael David Evans was born in Springfield,Massachusetts June 30, 1947 to a non-practicing Jewish mother whose parents were immigrants from the Soviet Union. Following his discharge from the United States Army, Evans moved to Texas where he earned an Associate of Arts degree from Southwestern Assemblies of God College. He speaks of early life as abusive and painful at the hands of a troubled alcoholic father.

At age 11, he had what he describes as a dramatic encounter with Jesus Christ, during which he received assurance of God’s love for him and a promise that he would be used by God. Evans says his Jewish roots have given him a special appreciation for the people of Israel and have caused him to spearhead many ministries in support of Jews and Israel.

Mike Evans’ wife Carolyn is the founder of Christian Woman of the Year Association. Mother Teresa, Elizabeth Dole, Ruth Graham, Shirley Dobson, Dede Robertson, Dodie Osteen, and other distinguished women are among those honored during the past twenty years.

Mike and Carolyn Evans have four children, Michelle, Shira, Rachel and Michael II, and seven grandchildren.

Journalist

Evans is a member of the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. For more than three decades he has covered strategic events worldwide, such as the Middle East Peace Conference[15][16] in Madrid and the 43rd General Assembly of the United Nations’ specially convened session in Geneva. He most recently covered the International UN Conference on Afghanistan[17] in The Hague, Netherlands, and the Durban Review Conference[18] in Geneva, Switzerland.

Evans arranged an exclusive interview on Fox News Network with Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad during the 65th U.N. General Assembly in New York City in September 2010. The interview, conducted by Eric Shawn of Fox News, can be viewed here.

On July 13, 2007, Evans appeared on MSNBC debating with Arianna Huffington and Pat Buchannan while discussing his book, The Final Move Beyond Iraq. The discussion can be viewed here.

He also appeared on MSNBC with Tucker Carlson to discuss Iran’s aggression toward Israel and the West. That video can be viewed here.

Documentary Producer

Mike Evans has produced 18 documentaries based on his books about Israel—many of which have won him Excellence in Media (EIM) Angel Awards. EIM is a California-based 501(c) 3 non-profit organization describing itself as dedicated to quality family-oriented programming in all facets of communication. Others who have received EIM Angel Awards include Tom Hanks, Tom Poston, Jane Seymour, Red Buttons and many other notable celebrities.

His best-known production, Let My People Go, was written in 1988. It spotlighted Natan Sharansky Natan Sharansky, who was convicted of spying for the U.S. and imprisoned for nine years in a Soviet Concentration Camp known as the Gulag, where physical and mental torture, as well as sexual abuse, occurred on a regular basis.

Evans joined with other activists, including Sharansky’s wife, Avital, with assistance from East German lawyer Wolfgang Vogel, New York Congressman Benjamin Gilman and Rabbi Ronald Greenwald, asking President Ronald Reagan for Mr. Sharansky’s release as well as the release of nearly 400 Jewish prisoners from President President Mikhail Gorbachev. Sharansky was the first political prisoner ever released by Mikhail Gorbachev due to intense political pressure from Ronald Reagan and his administration.

Mike Evans also worked with a Dutch government official to encourage the opening of the doors of the Dutch Embassy in Moscow to the Jews of Russia.

The ten Boom Fellowship

Mike Evans purchased and restored the Corrie ten Boom house in 1983. The Corrie ten Boom Fellowship is a non-profit 501(c) 3 corporation governed by a board of directors. It gains no direct or indirect funding from the State of Israel, nor do any of Evans’ organizations. He has served as the chairman without salary for decades.

The museum is housed in the former home of Casper ten Boom and is dedicated to telling the story of his family which harbored, fed and found safe houses for as many as 800 Jews during the Nazi takeover of Holland during World War II. The museum can also be viewed online in 20 languages.

Ten Boom family members were eventually betrayed by informants and were sent to concentration camps where most died, except Corrie ten Boom, who went on to tell the story of the family’s work with the Resistance movement. Her autobiographical book, The Hiding Place, was published in 1971 and made into a full-length feature film of the same name in 1975 and starred Jeannette Clift and Julie Harris.

Upon purchasing and restoring the house, Mike Evans created the Corrie ten Boom Fellowship,[19] an organization that follows in the tradition of the ten Boom family by continuing to pray for the peace of Jerusalem. The Fellowship also encourages Christians to exercise their faith by helping the Jewish people, praying for them and for the peace of Jerusalem in accord with the scriptural mandate in Psalm 122:6.

Jerusalem Prayer Team

Mike Evans began the Jerusalem Prayer Team in 2002, which raised money for Ehud Olmert's New Jerusalem Foundation.[20] and more recently funded the construction of the Friends of Zion Heritage Center[21] in Jerusalem.

From that platform Evans has met with dozens of heads of state, including Barzani from Kurdistan, President Cristiani of El Salvador, the president of Philippines, President Musevani of Uganda, as well as many foreign ministers, ambassadors, prime ministers and kings. He has worked closely with Israel’s prime ministers for three decades.

The Prayer Team also raises funds to meet humanitarian needs of the Jewish people in Israel providing coats, blankets and home repairs for those in need. The ministry has a website that includes articles about the people of Israel, the problems being faced by her leaders and other pertinent topics.

Members are also invited to post their prayers for Israel and the Jewish people on "prayer walls" that are actually web pages with hundreds of prayers uploaded by people all over the world. The prayer walls are open to all—not just members of the prayer team.

More than 300 national Christian leaders, including Pat Robertson, Tim LaHaye, Joel Osteen and John Maxwell are supporters of the Jerusalem Prayer Team. It receives no funding from the State of Israel and its official statement says it "believes that God loves Arabs in the Bible as much as the Jews." Press Release, January 2009

Mike Evans Museum

The Mike Evans Museum (MEM), also known as the Friends of Zion Heritage Center, is located in the Jerusalem World Center in Israel’s capital city of Jerusalem. The museum honors the Jewish people and those Gentiles who protected them from persecution and helped them create and establish the nation of Israel. The museum is at 20 Yosef Rivlin Street, directly across the street from the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s Jerusalem Museum of Tolerance and Center for Human Dignity.

The idea of establishing the museum occurred during Dr. Michael D. Evans’ first trip to Jerusalem in the 1980s. During that trip, which he refers to as “Seven Days of Destiny,” he had the opportunity to meet and begin an enduring friendship with Benjamin Netanyahu. In a separate meeting with then Prime Minister, Menachem Begin, Dr. Evans shared his desire to establish a museum in Jerusalem in the future. The prime minister called the idea, “a bridge of love between Christians and Jews.”

The museum opened its doors to the public in January 2015 as a ministry of the Jerusalem Prayer Team. The museum is funded by the Foundation for Righteous Gentiles in Israel.

The MEM includes

  • The Promise Theatre featuring an introductory video presentation from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
  • The Valley of Dry Bones and the Hall of Dreamers that portray the history of the Jews from the Old Testament prophet Ezekiel through the experience of the Diaspora, prophetic Scriptures that relate to the rebirth of Israel, and the stories of influential Christian Zionists.
  • The Visionaries of the Promise that tells the stories of leaders who shared Theodore Herzl’s vision of Der Judenstaat, who lent their support and helped to lay the foundation for the establishment of the nation of Israel.
  • The Military Heroes exhibit introduces military and political leaders who acted on behalf of the Jewish people to make the vision of an independent state a reality.
  • The Christian Heroes exhibit focuses on Christian men and women who took extraordinary action to save the lives of Jews during the Holocaust under the Nazi regime during World War II.

Author

Evans has written extensively on the Middle East, Christian Living, Prophecy and Iraq. His works include 37 fiction and non-fiction books. The 2010 novel, titled GameChanger is a fictional work set in the U.S. that suggests how the next extremist terrorist attack could bring America to a standstill, potentially changing the way we live forever.

Evans has also documented how concessions made during earlier administrations have led to the great peril of the Jewish people in his book, Jimmy Carter: The Liberal Left and World Chaos. His book, Atomic Iran, pinpoints the ways Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has planned to "wipe Israel off the map." Evans shows how recent activity by the President and his allies in the Middle East poses a significant threat to Israel and Jews everywhere.

A complete bibliography of all Mike Evans' published books is below.

Speaker

In addition to his work as a commentator, author and documentarian, Mike Evans is a widely sought-after speaker, having spoken over 4,000 times from the Kremlin Palace in Moscow to the World Summit on Terror in Jerusalem and the Knesset.[22] He has spoken at countless Middle East Summits, prophecy summits and church conferences, where his broad perspectives on the Scriptures, prophecy, the Middle East and Christian faith are widely valued and deeply cherished. He has spoken at more than 3,000 churches worldwide. He also connects with prayer partners around the world by opposing to black propaganda staged by Christians against Israel[23].

Mike Evans has been invited to the White House several times and was also invited to the State funeral of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. As one who frequents the Middle East, Mike Evans has met with hundreds of Israeli government officials over the years and he works to connect with local leaders, prime ministers and ambassadors alike.

One of Dr. Evans more recent addresses was to 3,000 attendees and a worldwide television audience at the Restoring Courage events hosted by Glenn Beck in both Caeserea and Jerusalem, Israel during August 2011. See video excerpt.

Dr. Evans has dedicated his life to telling the story and to encouraging the people of Israel. He recently spearheaded the establishment of the Mike Evans Museum in Jerusalem, officially called the Friends of Zion Heritage Center. The Mike Evans Museum[24] is yet another way of communicating that story that so many so-called Christians have tarnished, so much so that the Jewish people – God’s chosen – have been unable to comprehend.

The Friends of Zion Heritage Center is unique, simply based on the use of 21st century technologies that make it a museum of experience that takes visitors well beyond the ordinary and expected. It is a place where this love story is unfolded for all to acknowledge and receive. Not a typical museum, it highlights among other things: cutting-edge technology[25], Heroes of Israel[26], Righteous Gentiles [27].

Honors

In 2006, Mike Evans was granted an Honorary Doctor of Political Science by [www.gcu.edu Grand Canyon University], Phoenix, AZ.

In February 2003, Mike Evans received the Ambassador Award for his support of and work with the Jewish people. He was a keynote speaker at the inaugural Jerusalem World Summit in Jerusalem, October 2003, and joined such notables as former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Vice Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. He has also addressed the Knesset in Jerusalem and Ariel University in Ariel, Israel where he participated with Prof. Robert Aumann, Nobel Prize laureate and Supreme Court Judge (Ret.) Dalia Dorner, President of the Press Council in Israel.

Books

Mike Evans' books that have made the New York Times Bestseller List include The Final Move Beyond Iraq: The Final Solution While the World Sleeps,[28] The American Prophecies,[29] and Showdown with Nuclear Iran,.[30]

Watch an interview with Mike Evans about the book

View the Trailer

Watch an Interview with Mike Evans about the book

Articles

In Multiple Publications

  • Happy Fourth of July, Israel. Jerusalem Post, July 3, 2011
  • Jerusalem, Too Divided for Peace. Washington Times, September 10, 2010
  • Jimmy Carter: We can have peace without you. Jerusalem Post, August 25, 2009
  • Jimmy Carter's Myopia. Washington Times, February 22, 2009
  • Netanyahu and Obama. Washington Times, February 22, 2009
  • Father of the Iranian Revolution. Jerusalem Post, June 20, 2007
  • Prime Minister of Jerusalem. Jerusalem Post, February 4, 2007
  • I Smell Madrid All Over Again Jerusalem Post, November 29, 2006
  • No Iranian surprises. Washington Times, July 27, 2005
  • Here for Tabernacles. Jerusalem Post, September 28, 2004
  • Iran's Overtures to Iraq Should Worry US. USA Today, July 8, 2004
  • A President's Indiscretions Hurt a Nation. Philadelphia Inquirer, June 25, 2004
  • Holding Jesus Hostage. Jerusalem Post, April 25, 2003
  • For a Christian Road Map. Jerusalem Post, April 22, 2003
  • America the Target. Jerusalem Post, September 30, 2002
  • U.S. Christians Launch Pro-Israel Network. Jerusalem Post, February 16, 2001
  • Where's the Outrage. Wall Street Journal, 1997

Articles in WorldNet Daily

Filmography

A producer of full-length feature documentaries, Evans has created many that tell the story of the Jewish struggle for freedom and statehood and the forces that threaten her stability.

  • Showdown with Nuclear Iran**
  • Atomic Iran**
  • Israel, America’s Key to Survival**
  • The Final Move Beyond Iraq 3/2007
  • Jerusalem City of Tears from 2002
  • The Shaking Begins 11/1995
  • 7 Years of Shaking 10/1995
  • Jerusalem DC 7/1989
  • The Return 1989**
  • Let My People Go 7/1988 Produced and Director by Marshall Flaum **

Double Asterisk denotes Angel Award Winners, bestowed by EIM—Excellence in Media, Palm Springs, California.

References

  1. Who is Mike Evans?. Middleeastmediagroup.com (2011-04-28). Retrieved on 2011-05-05.
  2. Books by Mike Evans. Amazon.com. Retrieved on 2011-05-05.
  3. Mike Evans on Media. Youtube.com. Retrieved on 2011-05-05.
  4. playlisto (2005-09-14). Mike Evans on Martha MacCallum. Youtube.com. Retrieved on 2011-05-05.
  5. Mike Evans on MSNBC. Youtube.com. Retrieved on 2011-05-05.
  6. Mike Evans on Israel Broadcasting Authority. Youtube.com (2009-07-01). Retrieved on 2011-05-05.
  7. Mike Evans on Fox News. Youtube.com. Retrieved on 2011-05-05.
  8. By 5:45 a.m., Wednesday, January 28, 2009 (2009-01-28). Jimmy Carter's Myopia. Washingtontimes.com. Retrieved on 2011-05-05.
  9. Evans, Mike (2010-09-10). Jerusalem, Too Divided for Peace?. Washingtontimes.com. Retrieved on 2011-05-05.
  10. Mike Evans  (2006-11-29). I Smell Madrid All Over Again. Jpost.com. Retrieved on 2011-05-05.
  11. Greetings from the Chairman. Tenboom.org. Retrieved on 2011-05-05.
  12. Olmert on Mike Evans. Jerusalemprayerteam.org. Retrieved on 2011-05-05.
  13. Challenging Christian Zionism. Christianzionism.org. Retrieved on 2011-05-05.
  14. What is Christian Zionism?. Withgodonourside.com (2007-01-25). Retrieved on 2011-05-05.
  15. Madrid Middle East Peace Conference. http://www.ismi.emory.edu.+Retrieved on 2011-08-23.
  16. Middle East: Let the Game Begin. http://www.time.com.+Retrieved on 2011-08-23.
  17. Remarks at the International Conference on Afghanistan. http://www.state.gov.+Retrieved on 2011-08-23.
  18. UN Durban Review Conference. http://www.un.org.+Retrieved on 2011-08-23.
  19. Mike Evans, Chairman of Corrie ten Boom Fellowship http://tenboom.org/corrietenboomhousec29.php
  20. Entous, Adam and Rabinovitch, Ari. How Israeli PM wooed, and lost, Christian dollars. Reuters. Retrieved on October 8, 2012.
  21. Friends of Zion Heritage Center.
  22. Knesset Speech. Middleeastmediagroup.com (2009-12-07). Retrieved on 2011-05-05.
  23. Christian groups call on UK to ban settlement goods. Jpost.com (2012-06-20). Retrieved on 2012-06-22.
  24. Mike Evans Museum. Retrieved on 2014-12-15.
  25. Cutting-Edge Technology. mikeevansmuseum.com (2014-12-15). Retrieved on 2014-12-15.
  26. Heroes of Israel. mikeevansmuseum.com (2014-12-15). Retrieved on 2014-12-15.
  27. Righteous Gentiles. mikeevansmuseum.com (2014-12-15). Retrieved on 2014-12-15.
  28. The New York Times, June 10, 2007 Paperback Best Sellers, Nonfiction, #5
  29. The New York Times, August 29, 2004 Paperback Best Sellers, How-to and Miscellaneous: Hardcover, #4
  30. The New York Times, October 29, 2006 Hardcover Nonfiction, #17

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