Pat Boone: The Song Exodus 'Came Out of the Bible' - CBN News Jerusalem, Israel

Pat Boone: The Song Exodus 'Came Out of the Bible'

Chris Mitchell, CBN News 03.16.16  Jerusalem, Israel

Christian singer Pat Boone won an award for his impact on culture in Jerusalem recently for writing the title song to the 1960 epic film, "Exodus."

There is such a strong connection with the song that some call it Israel's second national anthem.

"It came out of the Bible and I knew two things: one that everything in the Bible from beginning to end was written by Jews, about Jews, and for Jews – not all Christians even realize that and not all Jews – what we call the Old and the New Testaments, are all about Jews and about God working with His chosen people, and we Gentiles can get in on it if we accept the God of Israel," Boone told CBN News.

The Friends of Zion award includes the song, written in the shape of a harp translated into Hebrew. Boone originally wrote the words on Christmas Eve on the back of a Christmas card. That card is now displayed in Yad VaShem, Israel's Holocaust remembrance museum in Jerusalem.

"I think this song Exodus – and the privilege I had writing the words for Ernest Gold's great melody – is part of the most significant time in my life and maybe significant moments – maybe one of the main reasons I was born," he said.

Boone told CBN News that this honor is one of the highlights of his life.

"I can't imagine any other thing in my life, other than my marriage and my own salvation, that mean as much as this," he said.

The Friends of Zion Museum honors Christian Zionists who gave their lives to save the Jewish people during the Holocaust and supported the establishment of the modern nation-state of Israel.

Chairman of the Board Yossi Peled is a retired general and former government leader. Born in Belgium in 1941, a Christian family hid him to keep him safe during the Nazi genocide.

"From the age of six months until I became 8 years old, I was raised by a Christian family and I went to church every Sunday and crossed myself and crossed the bread before eating and prayed to Jesus before going to bed," he recalled.

Peled said he's proud to be part of the Friends of Zion vision.

"It's an outstanding vision about the history of this nation…not only the story because nothing is new basically in the story, but it's new in the way it represented it," he said.

Watch here: Pat Boone in Israel

Hollywood, Church Honor Late Actor Dean Jones by John Waage CBN News Sr. Editor

Hollywood, Church Honor Late Actor Dean Jones

By John Waage

CBN News Sr. Editor

Saturday, November 14, 2015

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LOS ANGELES- Friends, family members and people from the Hollywood community gathered Saturday at Church on the Way in Van Nuys to honor the life of Dean Jones, stage and screen star who died September 1 at age 84.
  
Jones is best known for his starring role "The Love Bug" and other Disney films of the 60's and 70's.  Friends drove several Volkswagens, including two that appeared in the movies, to the site of the service to honor him.
  
Despite Jones's film and theatre success, the emphasis in the memorial service was on his deep Christian faith and the spiritual legacy he left to friends and family.
  
Several speakers also recognized his work on behalf of persecuted Christians and people of other faiths from around the world who have been threatened with death.
  
Pat Boone, a friend of Jones for decades, hosted the service.  The Rev. Jack Hayford served communion.  Hayford is the founder and former pastor of Church on the Way, where Jones and his wife served as elders.
  
Boone, a fellow elder, noted that Jones had now put aside his earthly body, and has heard the Lord saying, "Wait until you see the home I have prepared for you, so that where I am, you may be also."  
   
Jones's wife Lory and others in his family testified to the inheritance of faith and love he left to them.  His son-in-law recalled, "I literally never heard him utter an unkind word about anyone--ever."
   
In addition to dozens of film acting credits, Jones played the apostle John in a one-man stage production, "St. John in Exile," which one reviewer called" "phenomenal."
  
His fellow actor and friend, Emmy Award winner Gavin McLeod, delivered a message by video, praising Jones's ability as an actor and as a mentor in the Christian faith.  He said God "has us all in special places to get the word out that Jesus is Lord."  McLeod closed his message with a gesture from one of his television characters, Captain Merrill Stubing of "The Love Boat."  His voice choking with emotion, he said, "Dean Jones, I salute you."

The Exodus Song (This Land Is Mine) by Pat Boone

Mountains of Israel

Western Wall celebration

All of it...and more to come.

Kids in Israel 

Judean hills 

Haifa - Mediterranean Sea coast

The Promised Land of the Jews. 

God gave them this Land.

Pat Boone Gives 'Exodus' Song to Holocaust Memorial

By Chris Mitchell 

CBN News Middle East Bureau Chief

Thursday, February 28, 2013

  

   Pat Boone in Israel

JERUSALEM, Israel -- In 1960, the movie "Exodus" told millions around the world about the birth of the modern Jewish state.

The film's Academy Award-winning score had no words because no one's lyrics could satisfy the composer, director and producer -- that is until Christmas 1961.

"I put the needle on the record and I hear buum, buum and the words 'this land is mine' came into my mind, and I said that's the story, the whole story of Exodus!" Pat Boone told CBN News during a recent trip to Israel.

Boone said he picked up the nearest thing he could find, a Christmas card, and began to write.

"The first words were, 'This land is mine' and by the time I got those words written, the next words came, 'God gave this land to me,'" he explained.

The words of "Exodus" spread throughout Israel and gave hope to young boys like Shaya Ben-Yehuda, the son of Holocaust survivors.

"We grew up very much in the feeling that during the Holocaust our people were abandoned," Ben-Yehuda told CBN News. "But listening to this song and understanding we were not alone any more, that was something that was very special for me.  And since I first heard it I kept listening to it all the years."

Years later, he became international director of Yad Vashem, Israel's renowned Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem. Ben-Yehuda asked Boone for a copy of the words to "Exodus." Boone went a step further, giving Yad Vashem the original.

"Connecting those words with the story of the survivors who came and built this country despite what happened to them and [to] have these words in Yad Vashem, I think it's something that will give a message to future generations," he said.

For Boone, the moment was profound.

"To me, this is one of those moments, one of those two or three moments in my life I consider the reason that I'm alive, and I think God's purpose for me to be here on the earth," Boone said.

The Christmas card will become part of Yad Vashem's permanent collection.

During the ceremony, organizers played a version of "Exodus," sung by Boone years ago at Masada, the ancient desert fortress that overlooks the Dead Sea.

http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/insideisrael/2013/February/Pat-Boone-Gives-Exodus-Song-to-Holocaust-Memorial/