Interview: Walking in God’s Miracles
On 16 November 2024, Rev Willem J.J. Glashouwer turned 80 years old. He is still very active as a pastor and speaker and hopes to continue with this, as long as he can. “Moses began when he was eighty!”, he tells passionately. I visited him and his wife Marianne in Amersfoort, the Netherlands.
You weren’t a believer at all, as a young man. Why?
“In my childhood and teenage years I turned away from faith. I was pretty rebellious and threw God overboard. I started to believe in evolution. Darwin, Marx and Freud became my heroes. I have no recollection at all of my childhood faith. I was pretty much out of tune within our family and went through life as a kind of ‘angry young man.’”
How did you finally come to faith?
“My father [who was a pastor too: ed.] was virtually blind and therefore had to be driven to all of his speaking engagements. Once I had my driver’s license, I had to drive him as well. On one occasion, a (Dutch) missionary from Jordan, an associate of my father, was visiting. When my father was due to speak somewhere, I would usually go to a pub for a game of billiards, but this time, my father asked me to stay with him at his meeting. Afterwards, my father asked my opinion about the meeting, while all three of us were back in the car. Inwardly I was furious and told him that the Bible isn’t true and historically unreliable. I also said that I thought the missionary (who was in the car as well) “had overwhelmed the old folks with his shouting”, and that it was all about money. The atmosphere in the car did not get any better.
After taking my father home, I had to take the missionary to the city of Baarn, the Netherlands. He invited me to come in and continue our conversation. It was like that all week. Finally, he said to me: “Why don’t you put this to the test by making a decision in favour of God and Jesus?” After that final conversation I parked the car at the roadside and said to God: “If You are real, I will give You everything.” Nothing happened. I was angry and said to myself: “I’ll never do that again!” But during the night I woke up and I found myself praising God. There was an overwhelming presence and deep inward praise. The second night I had the exact same experience, but this time the praising was even stronger. The third night it was so strong that my heart almost burst. I felt that I couldn’t take any more of the joy and glory. I said to the Lord: “I know that you are real and I will serve You the rest of my life.” “That never disappeared and I never doubted Him again.”
“I know that you are real and I will serve You the rest of my life.” “That never disappeared and I never doubted Him again.”
How did Marianne and you get to know each other?
“We knew each other from secondary school acting in a play called: ‘The Miser’ by Molière. I played Cleante, the happy-go-lucky son of the miser who squandered everything. Marianne played his loved one: Mariane!” Marianne adds: “When we married, Willem was still a theology student, I was an executive secretary. So, we lived on my small income on a boat on a canal in the Dutch city of Groningen.”
The two of you also worked at the Dutch Evangelical Broadcasting Company (EO).
Willem: “After my studies, I felt unable to become a pastor. My father was one of the founders of the Evangelical Broadcasting Company (EO). There was virtually no one who wanted to stick their necks out to help that would-be broadcasting company. We really had the desire to spread the Gospel, but we also loved modern media. That’s when I started to produce and direct programmes and develop multimedia. Marianne became a TV presenter. We worked with the EO for twenty years and witnessed the broadcast company expand greatly. Around 1977, I founded the Evangelical College, together with Prof Dr Willem Ouweneel and two other pioneers. We offered young people a gap year to give them some sort of injection, to enable them to survive at University as a Christian. We also witnessed that work grow large and it still exists.”
Ultimately you became a pastor
“I hadn’t finished my theology studies in Groningen in my younger years and I felt guilty about it. My father parted company from the small Reformed Congregation of the Dutch town of Tull en ‘t Waal. They then appealed to me to assist in the congregation’s pastoral work. I could then also finish my theological studies at the Theological Faculty of Utrecht. We decided to accept the appeal. A week later my father passed away. Therefore I never could hear from him what he thought of my becoming a pastor. It was a very small congregation that could give us almost no income. But if God calls, you simply have to obey.”
In that period you became seriously ill
“During a TV recording in Jericho (Israel), I became unwell and collapsed. They put me against the car and when I regained consciousness, we carried on. Back in the Netherlands, I had a medical examination. It turned out that a large tumour, the size of a grapefruit, which caused tremendous pressure on my brain fluid. Within a week I found myself on the operating table. Halfway through the operation, the surgeon wanted to stop because he couldn’t take it anymore. He could look from above right through my nostrils. The team urged him to finish the operation anyway. Later the doctor told us that it was a miracle the operation was a success, “because I know what I did to your brains.” There were a lot of Christians praying for me. Through a TV documentary I made about a Jewish boy who survived the horrors of the war in Poland, there had been contact with ultraorthodox Jews in Israel. When they heard about my illness, they organised a Minyan(ten Jewish men) at the Western Wall, for which they travelled especially from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. God has answered the prayers of Christians and Jews. And, so He called me to serve the Church and Israel. Now I am eighty years of age and still healthy. Marianne and I still serve Israel and the Jewish people: the miracle of God in our days. Israel, the great sign of hope in this world.”
How did you get involved with the work of Christians for Israel?
“When I was recovering from the major operation, Karel van Oordt, the founder of Christians for Israel, came to see me. He said: “We are looking for a new chairman. We prayed for it and we want to ask you.” We didn’t know much about Israel and were astonished. But Karel said: “Many Christians like dead Jews, the Jews in the Bible, such as Moses, David, Peter and Paul. And they like Jews who are yet to be born, the future generation of Jews who will be called to bless the entire world again from the prophetically restored Israel. But who will stand in the gap for the Jews today? Who is going to fight replacement theology? We didn’t dare to say no. And so my speaking engagements about Israel in all kinds of Churches and gatherings started.”
How did your thoughts about Israel change?
“In particular due to acquiring a Biblical understanding about the everlasting covenants of God with Israel. By starting to see that the Lord God Himself has established all covenants with Israel of which the Bible speaks, I began to understand. I then wrote the book ‘Israel on Its Way to its Rest’ which later became ‘Why Israel?’ Translations into dozens of languages started the international work. Today new translations are still being added.”
What have you witnessed due to the work of Christians for Israel?
“Karel van Oordt had a vision to convert the Church, to give Christians a Biblical view on Israel. He was especially keen on making the Church understand the message, to make atonement for its guilt and remove stumbling blocks. Then we also started the (Dutch) newspaper ‘Israel Aktueel’ to refute the lies about Israel in the media. The message has taken root quite well. Theological reflection has been initiated. Thousands of ministers and pastors also read the magazine ‘Israel and the Church’. A ministry must speak prophetically, God is working and He is leading the world towards His future.”
How do you reflect on the past while focusing on the future?
“I am not looking back, my focus is firmly set on the future. My schedule is packed until the end of next year, with major conferences lined up in many different countries. We hope to continue building. Moses started at age 80 and as long as it is day we will keep going. The Lord truly provides strength. Just this morning I read in 1 Chronicles 29:12: “In your hands are strength and power to exalt and give strength to all.” We experience that daily. God equips us for what He calls us to do. None of this is our work, but it is His work through us. In that, we witness God’s miracles. So many times, I’ve found myself simply standing and watching in awe. To Him be all praise and honour.”
