Pioneering in Europe
and Revelations in Israel
After nearly a year in Texas, David and Maria left for Europe. By this time several Children of God (COG) communities were flourishing in the U.S., and David was already looking for new regions to evangelize. They traveled extensively, scouting out possible locations for new outposts.
David and Maria spent several months in Israel, where David had hoped to establish a COG commune. He was soon disappointed to find, however, that there were actually very few similarities between his brand of Christian communalism and the cooperative lifestyle of the Israeli kibbutzim. Additionally, the Jewish state was officially opposed to missionary activity, thus making it unsuitable for his zealous young Christian evangelists. In early 1971 he wrote:
[Israel's] leaders are harder than ever, and have made it even more
difficult, if not impossible, to preach the Gospel amongst them, so that Israel has become almost
a closed nation to the Gospel. Any nation which forbids the preaching of the Gospel to its
younger generation and closes its doors to new missionaries, freezing the status quo to the
formalized, organized churches who are little or no different from themselves, is shutting out
the true Gospel of Jesus Christ. … In Israel only Jews can be first-class citizens. The
rest—Christians, Arabs, and others—are a discriminated minority, and on the bottom of
the totem pole of Israeli society, living in fear and segregation. [1]
While in Israel, David reversed his position on one of his fundamental doctrines, namely that the Jews were God's chosen people, above other peoples. At the time he explained:
There's no such thing as a Jewish Christian, any more than there's
such a thing as a gentile Christian, or a black Christian, or a white Christian, or a male or a
female Christian, for all are one in Christ Jesus! You're only a Christian, that's all you are in
God's eyes—just a Christian! He doesn't see your color, your nationality, or your sex or
any other damned fleshly characteristic! ... You either belong to Jesus or you don't! To hell
with all the rest of the differences, discriminations, and prejudices! [2]