One80: Testimonies of Transformation

110: From Kibbutz to Christ, Raviv Dror (Israel), Part 2

• OneWay Ministries • Season 4 • Episode 110

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What happens when a brand‑new believer faces mockery at home, financial strain, and a nation at war—and chooses to study harder, love deeper, and answer with reasons instead of rage? Raviv Dror shares his newfound faith and path through doubt, dialogue, and devotion, exploring how apologetics turned shaky mornings into a steady, lived faith.

In Part 2, Raviv explains how apologetics helped him both strengthen his new faith and share it with others. He ends with thoughts on the Israeli war, the Christian response, and how to pray for the nation.

Helpful Links:

Raviv’s book Three in One: Being Israeli, Jewish & Believer IN CHRIST

Raviv’s book The Third Way

Raviv’s Faithful Tales Children’s books, series

Apologetics resources recommended by Raviv:

Dr. Frank Turek, CrossExamined.org 

Prof John Lennox https://www.johnlennox.org/

Dr. William Lane Craig reasonablefaith.org 

Dennis Prager, https://www.prageru.com/

Prayercast Israel

Other resources:

Zionism: A Concise History, Alex Ryvchin


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Raviv Dror:

But I think Israelis and Jews have a special place in God's heart. It's not that he loves Israeli more than other people, but he looks at Israel something, it's different. You know, the story of Israel is God's story. You know, they were mocking me in a way or asking me, you know, that question to mock me, but they wanted to talk about it. They wanted to make conversation. And we used to, because it it's interesting. It was interesting for them, and they understood that what I believe in is not a fairy tale.

Margaret Ereneta:

Thanks for coming back to Raviv Dror's One80 Part 2. Today we'll learn how apologetics helped Reviv not only to share the gospel, but also to strengthen his own new faith in hard times. He also discusses what is happening in Israel, the Christian response, and how to pray.

Raviv Dror:

Then I said, okay, I will go to Israel and I will tell my father and my family, maybe friends, that I'm a believer in God and in Christ. You know, they will thought that I went really crazy. They knew that my wife was, you know, a believer, but they didn't know what it is, and we never talked about it at home. But now they're a son, and I said, okay, I'll go there and I'll tell them I believe in Christ or in God in general, no?

Raviv Dror:

Because Christ for them is a difficult to digest. It's a it's a second phase. They will tell me you're crazy. And then what would I tell them? Why I believe? And then I told myself, I need to learn the arguments about why. You know, we're not we're not believing like with it's not a blind faith. It's makes sense, it's much more logic than the other view of evolution and everything. And there's good arguments. Just I have to know them to be able to pass it on. Not just to fight with them, just to answer.

Raviv Dror:

Like, you know, 1 Peter 3:15. Always be ready to give an answer to those asking you about the hope in your heart. So you have to do it. It's an it's a it's uh almost a commandment. You need to know that. You need to be able to answer about the hope in your heart. So I so I study and I realized that it served two purposes. The problems in my life didn't go away, they just intensified in a way after I received Christ. And uh, you know, you can be a you know what is it, yo-yo believer, one day down, one day up. Like every day you wake up, and as long as the day continues, if it's a bad day, you don't like God. If it's a good day, you thanks God. So I I had mostly bad days.

Raviv Dror:

Economically, I don't want to fall out of faith in a way. It's not falling out of faith, but I don't want to distance myself from God, to go back to the world and to fight. And I want to trust Him, you know, and um apologetic helps me a lot. Apologetic for me was like the legs of the table. And you have to have some legs, you can't hold the table only on one leg because if it will break, the table will fall. You know, you have to have something to build it on. And the apologetic helped me a lot to understand that even if I don't have a way to pay rent next month, God exists.

Raviv Dror:

You know, it's not about if I have a good day or a bad day, it's not about our you know, bank account, it's not about our health. He exists and that's it. You know, take it or leave it. And uh, so it helped me in that way. And I went to Israel first time and I told my father, I went alone without my family, and it was fascinating. Fascinating to uh to talk to him and to talk to others. In the beginning, they were mocking me, and then through the year, it was amazing because they didn't leave me alone, they were mocking me in a way or asking me, you know, that question to mock me, but they wanted to talk about it, they wanted to make conversation.

Raviv Dror:

It was interesting for them, and they understood that what I believe in is not a fairy tale. And my arguments are very, very strong, and their arguments are very, very weak. And um, it it didn't make them, you know, change their belief, maybe. I don't know. But um but apologetic helped me a lot and still helping me, you know, to talk to people, not to be, you know, like, okay, I believe in God, why? Because God, you know, sent his son. But what are you talking about? You know, start from the beginning. You're talking about Jesus, but we don't believe in God.

Raviv Dror:

So, you know, let's start from the beginning. Prove to me that God exists. I don't want to prove, you know, it's not my thing to prove, but if you want to talk about it, we can talk about it with good arguments. And um, and apologetic helped me a lot personally, you know, to build my faith and to strengthen my faith and to and to be able to confront the world, let's say, especially my family, but later a lot, a lot of people here in Israel. And then I wrote a book about it, and uh the book called The Third Way.

Raviv Dror:

I call it the third way because here in Israel we have the in every place, but in Israel is more clear. We have the secular way, like I was. Let's say 40% of Israel is secular, in different grades, but secular, don't believe in God. There is the religious way, ultra-orthodox, orthodox, traditional religion, and there is Jesus, the way, he is the way, he's the truth, the life, and the way. So I called the book the third way, which is Jesus. All those questions that I had when I was younger, I'm trying to answer in the book, but as a novel, like a fiction book.

Margaret Ereneta:

Next, Raviv talks about how the October 7th war affected him, and he wrote another book, and these books will be linked in our show notes.

Raviv Dror:

During the war in uh 7 of October War, I again felt an inner urge to write another book because I saw what happened with anti-Semitism, saw what happened here in Israel, and I felt like the church is not doing its part to stand with Israel, and it hurt a lot now as an Israeli and a Jew and a believer, you know, that I have all those passports, let's say, or identities. And I say, Where are the church?

Raviv Dror:

You see in uh Fox or uh whatever, uh, you know, internet, YouTube, all the things that happen in London, in the US, in the colleges, and every place, Australia, and you don't see any Christian or a church or a group of people stand there with you know Israeli flag and sing hallelujah, sing, you know, that the Israel know that they have a friend. A lot of people, a lot of churches give money, you know, gives money and gave money, which is wonderful. A lot of prayers, wonderful, but I felt as an Israeli that I'm alone. And in this book, it's called Three in One.

Raviv Dror:

I just I speak a lot about Israel. Who is Israel? Who is Israel today? I explain to the church, it's called like a personal letter for me to the church, and explain to the church about us, about Israel, because a lot of people don't know. Israel is a wonderful country, but it's going more and more religious, more and more dark uh spiritually. It's not the kind of religion, it's a Pharisee religion of uh Matthew 23, you know, and it's it's so sad.

Raviv Dror:

When you're secular, you're angry about them. But when you're a believer, you angry in Jesus' anger. You know, Jesus was angry about them, and you see how he related to the Pharisees and the other, and how related to the people. Totally different, you know. So you feel anger inside about how those religious, ultra-orthodox but also traditional religion playing with God for their own benefits, twisting the word of God and calling his name in vain, you know, makes you cry. Because it was 3,000 years ago, 2,000 years ago, and uh and it's the same, nothing changed.

Margaret Ereneta:

I asked Raviv what Christians can do better.

Raviv Dror:

So it's always to pray for Israel, and uh Romans 11 said all Israel will be saved, and we can't expect you know Israel to receive Christ now because Jesus has to come. There is prophecy in Zechariah 12, and three is things that need to happen for all Israel to be saved. But I think the prayer needs to go for individuals, Israelis and Jews. I think especially in Israel, but all around the world.

Raviv Dror:

But I think Israelis and Jews has a special place in God's heart. It's not that he loves Israeli more than other people, but he looks at Israel something, it's different. You know, the story of Israel is God's story, you know. It's all about the land, it's all about his promises, it's all about Jerusalem, it's all about the people, it's all about their scene, it's all about their history. He built his story through Israel. If you don't know Israel, you don't know God. So Christian, they need to help financially if they can, you know, if not, it's not a must.

Raviv Dror:

But most of all, I think they need to study and learn. And learn the Old Testament and ask God to put the love of Israel in their heart. You understand God as a really good father in the Old Testament, you know, because they painting God as a cruel dictatorship, you know, in a dictator in the Old Testament, all the battles, all the killing, all the blood, all the sacrifices, all this, but you learn through reading, you know, who is really your father.

Raviv Dror:

It's like again, I write in the story in one of the books, but it's like when you enlist to the army to a special unit, so you meet your commander, and you in the beginning you hate him, you don't understand why he put you through all those things that he's putting you, all this training, all this, you know, uh yelling, all these um challenges. But then when you grow with him in this unit and you go to battle, you understand, and he goes with you.

Raviv Dror:

You know, the commander goes with you, and he goes in front of you, and you understand why, why he put you through all this severe, severe training, ask Green Berets, ask you know, Navy SEAL, ask all this special unit, and they tell you that they adore, adore their commanders, and they didn't understand the beginning why he was so cruel to them, severe, but now they understand and they can't thank him enough, you know.

Raviv Dror:

All that he put them through just to get to this point in the battle, not to get killed, you know, and to complete the mission. So we are in this good fight, and it is a fight, and you see here in Israel, you see the fight, it's crazy, the spiritual fight. So I encourage all believers to study, to know Israel, don't be ignorant of it. You won't be a complete, you know, person in a way or believer until you know. I'm not saying to be expert, you know, but to to know. And when you will know Israel, you will know who is the enemy and who is our father.

Margaret Ereneta:

I asked Raviv about the spiritual pulse in Israel, especially with the war.

Raviv Dror:

People come to faith, but very, very, very few. We are, let's say we are like 25,000 Israelis that believe in Christ, more or less. The numbers going up, but not dramatically. During the war, I was working in our congregation to give help to you know army units, to kibbutzim, to alert units in the kibbutzim. We were talking a lot, a lot with a lot of people, a lot of soldiers, older people about Christ, you know, conversation upon conversation, you know, we made friends with them.

Raviv Dror:

Uh, we went to visit them sometime two hours, three hours talking about the gospel. And everybody was polite. There were some of them religious, some of them secular, but um the fruit will come. We we believe that the fruit of our work will come in in the tribulation. But um, you want sometimes, you know, to say, wow, you know, I talked to him and he called me and said, Yeah, I want to, I want to believe in Christ.

Raviv Dror:

Tell me more or something. You don't get that phone calls. You know, people like you, they receive the Bible, they receive my books, they receive a little bit of materials, but they you don't see it in in your physical eyes. God knows, and God doesn't count, you know, bodies. He just, you know, say good servant that you went to do it, and then uh good and faithful servant, and then you know, it is what it is.

Raviv Dror:

So so um it's a little bit exhausting, you know. It's uh we know some friends of ours went to Papua New Guinea to evangelize, and you see how many people come to their rallies, you know, how many people receive Christ in a second, you know. And here in Israel you can talk to somebody 20 years and it doesn't work. So spirit, it's a dead spiritual country in a sense, but it needs to be like that. This is a prophecy, and uh and it's okay. We just need to acknowledge this and to receive it and thank God for it that he fulfilled his promises and he still loves Israel with all his heart.

Margaret Ereneta:

And we can join along with that. And then he also explains what he said.

Raviv Dror:

First, pray for the peace of Jerusalem because this is a commandment, you know. We have to pray for the peace of Jerusalem, pray for for Israel as a country, for his security, for his, you know, its uh its borders, it's uh but the other aspect of it is to pray for the people to open their mind and heart to the gospel, to who Jesus is and accept him. It's the only way we have to pray for the for our leaders and things like that.

Raviv Dror:

But uh we want as much as people to be saved now, you know, now before Christ comes, because they will be saved from the tribulation. But if not, at least more and more people to to leave religion um and to look for the way. Wow. Amen, amen. I pray thanks for this time for you and this time together, and uh I pray that this conversation and this uh podcast will help people to understand a little bit more about Israel.

Raviv Dror:

And especially I pray for what I told you, for our nation, my nation, my people to to live this darkness that is in this religious, this ultra-orthodox religion that sounds nice, but like the devil also know sounds nice, and the devil talks like us, but we know. So to get away from the devil arms to Christ's arms, more or less that to understand, yeah, that he is the truth, the life, the truth, the life and the way, and uh no one will come to the father but through him. That is the truth, there's no other truth.

Margaret Ereneta:

Thanks for listening today. To find Raviv's books, check out our show notes. We have links in there. He also provided us with some resources on learning about Israel from a Christian perspective. And I would also love to share with you the story of how God called me to pray for Israel. It's a really wild story, and I'd be happy to share it with you if you email me at stories at one eighty podcast.com. And remember to share our show with a friend. It may be the best news they hear today.

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