On June 5, Breaking Israel News will hold its inaugural Prophecy in the News Conference, bringing together some of the most prominent Jewish and Christian voices shaping and reporting what God is doing in Israel today. Among them is Kade Hawkins, founder of the influential Christian news site Prophecy News Watch, who believes that the conference meets an important need to discuss the challenges of reporting prophetic events as they unfold in the news.
Hawkins, CEO and founder of Prophecy News Watch, specializes in biblical prophecy associated with current global events and changing political platforms.
“It amazes me how Bible prophecy can be hidden in plain sight,” Hawkins told Breaking Israel News. “People intuitively believe that seeing is a matter only of opening one’s eyes. Frequently, people fail to perceive very major things happening right in front of our eyes, a phenomenon known ‘perceptual blindness’. There are important correlations between perceptual blindness and how people view and interpret the news.”
“To overcome this, I believe that a new perspective is needed,” Hawkins said. “The same piece of news can be perceived differently by many people. In this day and age, we need to understand how the Biblical lens shapes our understanding of current events.”
This Biblical perspective on the media will be the main focus of the conference, which will be held at the Jerusalem Bible Museum as part of the celebration surrounding the 50th anniversary of Jerusalem’s reunification. Hawkins will make up part of the 5-speaker panel entitled “Prophecy and the News: Pitfalls and Promises”. The panel will touch on responsibly reporting prophecy in the digital age and coping with skeptical and biased mainstream media. Likud MK Yehudah Glick will also speak at the panel.
To Hawkins, it is clear that understanding the times we live in would be inexplicable without a guidebook.
“The Bible contains detailed prophecies about the end times we are living in,” Hawkins explained. “There is just no way to fully understand much of what is happening today apart from those prophecies.”
As a student of the Bible, Hawkins believes it is essential to view the world from this perspective.
“One-third of the Bible is prophetic in nature,” Hawkins said. “To ignore prophecy is to ignore the content and context of scripture. Prophecy serves to tell us some things that God wants us to know about the future with 100 percent accuracy.”
Hawkins quoted Isaiah to illustrate his point.
Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things that are not yet done; saying: ‘My counsel shall stand, and all My pleasure will I do’. Isaiah 46:10
“At the same time, it teaches us how to live holy lives in the present,” he added.
In the age of the internet, Hawkins believes the Bible is an essential aid.
“‘Watching’ is not only knowing what to watch for but wisely using our time to filter the overload of information we receive,” Hawkins said. “We need to discern fake news, test the things we hear, question and validate information and think for ourselves.”
Much of Hawkins’ work involves connecting Jews and Christians, a relationship he feels is sorely needed on both sides.
“Many Christians in North America do not know what is happening in Israel,” he lamented. “By reporting on the news from Israel in partnership with Israel-based news organizations, we can report first-hand accounts of what is happening on the ground from an Israeli and Jewish perspective.”
The Prophecy in the News Conference is open to the public and will be streamed live online for those who cannot attend in person.
