James Kaddis’s love for and loyalty to Israel and the Jewish people stretches back to the 1970s.
His Egyptian-born Christian parents arrived in Los Angeles not long before James, the second of their four children, was born.
The elder Kaddises were committed to teaching their offspring about loyalty to God and, crucially, His favored people, the Jews. This was a family tradition. Mr. Kaddis’s grandfather was a Presbyterian minister in Egypt for 65 years and Mrs. Kaddis’s dad was a Baptist minister for 35 years in their native land.
The family emigated to Southern California in the late 1960s. And no one was surprised when the outgoing James grew up to graduate from Downey High School and became Pastor James Kaddis.
His now widely recognized advocacy for Israel and the Jewish people is not merely because he is the leader of the Calvary Chapel in Signal Hill.
Pastor Kaddis spends his days in his Signal Hill studio reaching out to a nationwide audience, making videos on multiple platforms – and delivering radio sermons – for his millions of followers, who count on his advocacy for Israel.
“We were raised with a love for what I always refer to as God’s ancestrally chosen people, the Jews.” – James Kaddis
“We were raised with a love for what I always refer to as God’s ancestrally chosen people, the Jews,” the pastor told the Journal. “My dad was committed to teaching us the Bible and advocacy for Israel,” a single concept as far as he was concerned. “We never had to have a conversation that said ‘advocate for Israel.’ We knew that is what you do. We were taught ‘we love Israel.’”
To cement his pro-Israel education, Kaddis related a story told by his Arabic-speaking grandmother he visited every week growing up.
“She talked about when the family lived in Upper Egypt, not far from Sudan,” he said. “She told me that during wartime when they were growing up she did not allow my father or any of my aunts and uncles to listen to Egyptian radio,” said the pastor. “She said it wasn’t real news. The only radio they were allowed to listen to was Israeli radio. My grandmother said the Jews were telling the truth and the Egyptians were lying.”
Kaddis said his ancestors were very supportive of Israel. “They understood what the Bible said about Israel. They weren’t betting against God.”
Describing his family’s history, he said they were “pure-blooded Egyptians who go back to the days of the Pharaohs.”
How did his ancestors become so ardently supportive of the Jewish people in a land where that was not a popular viewpoint?
When speaking of Israel, Kaddis refuses to use the term West Bank. “I say Judea and Samaria for a reason — to educate people.” To any Christians or others who resist his aggressive advocacy for Jews and Israel, the pastor pushes right back. He looks skeptics in the eye and challenges, “Have you listened to the news, even looked at a small portion of recent Israeli history? You will quickly realize God is doing what he said he would do in the Bible. We are watching a manifestation of Ezekiel 37 coming to pass. It tells us God would plant his people back in the land, never to be plucked out again.While contrary opinions occasionally arise online, he said the number is insignificant.
Kaddis speaks plainly and without histrionics when he seeks to persuade audiences of his pro-Israel convictions, especially when he alludes to Israel’s rivals.
“If you go to Israel today — and I have been there eight times, taking church groups — you will know right away,” he said, “the greatest benefits coming to the Palestinians are those who are productive members and citizens of Israel.
“Instead, Hamas, Hezbollah and other groups choose to fight Israel, to cause problems. You have to understand their ideals are not to make peace. It is in their charter to say they must destroy every Jewish life to obtain what they call their ideal. It doesn’t work.”
Not surprisingly, in Egypt, Kaddis’s parents ‘met substantial resistance from Islamists” about their belief in Jesus. His grandfather, the Presbyterian minister, was not as outspoken about Israel in 20th century Egypt as Kaddis is in contemporary America. “He wasn’t living in a situation where it was conducive for him to speak out,” said Kaddis. “People were aware of my grandfather’s positions, but they could not speak as vocally as I do.”
In October, he marks his 30th anniversary in the ministry. “I have been a lot more vocal the last two-and-a-half-to-three years, because all of this craziness started happening from the virus,” he said. “It gave people some weird kind of justification to start acting with a totalitarian mechanism that has been very anti-Israel [and]anti-God.”
However, he converted the situation into a positive. “I became a lot more vocal when that started,” he said. “By God’s grace, He gave us a tremendous platform. On YouTube alone, we average about 2 million views a month. We produce roughly 100 videos a month, a large portion of which are videos supportive of Israel.”
After a long run on radio at KKLA-FM, Kaddis’s “Countdown to Eternity” program recently moved to pray.com, called the No. 1 app for daily Christian prayer and Bible audio where he reaches “something like 300 stations.”
Kaddis and his wife Nicole are the parents of two adopted daughters who are sisters, ages four and one-and-a-half. The proud father had the closing words. “Nicole is a speech pathologist,” he said. “But when we got the children, she walked away from that. We did not adopt children to have them be babysat.”
