Well, Gershon Solomon certainly was a friend of our ministry and our family. Well, this week we're starting the month of December, the time of the season, the time of Christmas, and it's also the time of the Jewish holiday of the Festival of Lights or Hanukkah. And we thought we would get a head start on it this year, talking about Hanukkah and why it's important. And our good friend, Paul Scharf, Church Ministries representative with the Friends of Israel Gospel Ministry, serving in the Midwest. He's coming to the program today. Paul, welcome to the program again. Thank you, Jimmy. It's great to be back with you. Paul, we've covered a lot during the Jewish holidays. You have some very important information to help us to understand why these events are important to us. Why do Christians know so little about Hanukkah? Oh, Jimmy, you know, it's interesting. Someone once told me, and I believe it very much to be the truth, that in our sector of the Christian world, thinking of us as, you know, as dispensationalists, as strong conservatives in our particular sphere, often our weakest area of knowledge is Church history, compared to other things like the Old Testament and the New Testament and theology. And sadly, we're often even weaker in Church history compared to other brothers and sisters in Christ in other portions of the Christian world. But you know, if we're weak in church history, I'd have to say our knowledge of intertestamental history, what happened during those 400 silent years between the Old Testament and the New Testament, it's sort of like a black hole. I mean, we know almost nothing about a time that is so vitally important, Jimmy, and let me tell you why. It's the time in which God was working all things according to the counsel of his will. Ephesians 1 11. He was working all things together for good to those who love him. Romans 8 28. He was working all those things to bring history to a point to the fullness of time when he would send forth his son born of a woman born under the law into that world that he was overseeing through those 400 silent years. a world that has implications that reverberate well into the New Testament church era, so that when Jesus did come, all the world, all the people, Luke 3.15 tells us we're in expectation. And that's why it's so important for us to know about the events behind Hanukkah and this time of the intertestamental period. wow that is fantastic paul and i love it first of all we're talking about you know those pages in our bible and a lot of times people don't understand this but it's the pages from where malachi ends and matthew begins and that's the black hole that you're talking about 400 years. I love that verse that you use. Christ was brought forth in the fullness of time. That's Galatians 4, 4. And as you look at that, I love to teach that at Capernaum, when we go there, that God had a plan to bring his story, history, into fruition, to bring it about. And I love that. So is Hanukkah important for Christians? It absolutely is, Jimmy, just for all those reasons that I've listed and more, because Hanukkah happened in the 160s. The events behind the celebration of Hanukkah, we should clarify, happened in the 160s before Christ, and that's in this intertestamental period, and it's such a pivotal, important time. It's a watershed moment in the history of the Jewish people. It will absolutely set in motion things that will last well into the times of the New Testament, into the life of Christ. As Chris Katulka, our speaker on our Friends of Israel Today radio program, said last year in discussing Hanukkah, he said, you know, there wouldn't be a Christmas without Hanukkah. And that's so important. And yet, Jimmy, sometimes people say, well, Boy, should we really be bringing Hanukkah into the Church? Should we really, as Christians, be thinking about Hanukkah? And I say, well, there's Hanukkah in the Old Testament, there's Hanukkah in the New Testament, there's Hanukkah in the prophetic future. So maybe we should be talking about Hanukkah. Paul, that's so important, and that's why I had you on the program today, so that we could know why Hanukkah is important. Paul, is Hanukkah found in the Bible, and where is it? Well, Jimmy, of course, as we're saying, Hanukkah, the events behind Hanukkah happen in the intertestamental period, in those silent years. But here's the amazing thing. They're prophesied to occur in the book of Daniel, chapter 8, verses 9 through 14. And the inspired interpretation of Daniel's vision later in that chapter, verses 23 through 26, Also, Daniel 11, 21-35, these deal with a leader named Antiochus IV, Antiochus Epiphanes, who is a type of the future Antichrist. And Daniel's revelation, his prophetic predictions about this man and what would happen, the events that are the basis for the celebration of Hanukkah, are so precise that, of course, critical scholars say Daniel could not have written it ahead of time as predictive prophecy. It had to be a late forgery written after the fact, because it's so accurate, it's so complete in its detail of these events that would lead up to the Jewish celebration of Hanukkah. Wow, good stuff, Paul. And we're going to continue on. Hanukkah does begin later on in the month. Exactly on what date, Paul? December 18 to 26 this year, Jimmy. Just perfect timing and plenty of time for our listeners to prepare to Reach out to a Jewish friend during this season. It sure is. Well, we're gonna study it in next week We're gonna pick up we're gonna talk about not only why it appears in Daniel. How does the Old Testament speak about Hanukkah? How does the Old Testament relate to Bible prophecy and how we? approach our Jewish friends about Hanukkah. How should we approach our Jewish friends about Hanukkah? And we'll cover that next week. Paul, thank you so much for being with us today, for starting to whet our appetite. And of course, right before Hanukkah, our friend Steve Herzog with Friends of Israel, your friend, your co-worker, will be with us on the radio to talk about Hanukkah and the Jewish culture of it. But as we're looking at it, we're helping the body of Christ to understand and to start that process, which we already started really at Thanksgiving. We started celebrating Christmas even before Thanksgiving now, but it is important to start thinking about Hanukkah also and how we can reach out to others that look at Hanukkah as important to their lives and then how we can relate that Jesus Christ. Paul, thank you so much. How do they find you if they're looking forward to you? Well, Jimmy, they can find all of my materials for our ministry with the Friends of Israel at sermonaudio.com slash p-sharf, p-s-c-h-a-r-f. In particular there, they can find an article I wrote last year called The Hanukkah Hangup. How do we get past this idea that Christians don't need to know about Hanukkah? And let me give you a clue. Jimmy, for all of our listeners, something that hopefully we can cover to some degree or other, guess what? Jesus celebrated Hanukkah in John chapter 10. So we need to get past that Hanukkah hang-up, and people can find my article on that at sermonaudio.com. Excellent, Paul. Thank you so much for joining with us this week. Thank you, Jimmy, it's always a joy.