Well, where do you begin? That's the hardest part of prophecy updates. You know, I love teaching through the Bible, because I know my outline for the next 25 years. It's so easy. But when you have a prophecy update, there's so many directions you can go and interesting things that are going on in the world. And some of the things I like to do is look at current events. But I also, when it comes to Bible prophecy, I like to review things. They say repetition is the mother of all learning. And there's some things that once in a while I feel compelled just to kind of cover to kind of remind us of some things. I feel like we have new people watching too. And so I sometimes have to review some things of past. But also one of the things that I think is really important is to be able to defend certain arguments that people are making today that I think could be life changing for some people. If you have the wrong worldview, on certain things. It can be super detrimental to where you end up and how you think, not only about prophecy, but about the Lord himself and about salvation and essential doctrines. It can make a difference. So I think it's important for us to defend what we believe and know what we believe. But tonight we're gonna kind of focus again on the epicenter of Bible prophecy. We'll see how far we get. We've got some other things we can talk about tonight too, if there's time. So we'll just kind of see, play it by ear a little bit. But I'd like to kind of focus on one of the more disputed areas of land in the world. Israel itself. You might say it's arguably the most disputed real estate on earth, especially as you look through the lens of history. You know, this map of Israel, the Arabs look at this map and they say it's a dagger. Israel is the dagger that splits the Arab world into two. That's the mindset of the Arab. And that's why there's the narrative of the Arab nations. We're gonna drive the Jews into the sea, and we're gonna wipe them off the map, because they see this dagger as the thing that's killing the Arab world. And boy, the graphic has been picked up by the Arabs, but then the narrative has been picked up by the world. The world has largely believed a huge lie. People were so surprised when we had so many lies from 2020 to the present, and people were like, oh, I can't believe they lied about that. But if you've been following Bible prophecy, you know there's been huge honking lies for a really long time. None of us were really surprised. Oh, they're flying again? You know, like four Pinocchios again? Because that's pretty much the MO. But there might be no greater lie than the narrative as it relates to Israel and what have you. And I want to kind of look at this stuff. Even calling it Israel might raise some objections to some people. I was noticing that United Airlines in one of their books, I was flying in a United flight and they had a world map in the back and it showed Israel as Palestine. You can always know where they're coming from if there's some group that's still calling it Palestine, because that actually should have been changed back in 1948, but for some reason they didn't. And usually there's a political agenda there. But the Jewish people lay claim to the land for so many reasons. And I would say, hands down of all the people in the world and all the lands and countries and people groups, they are the only people that have any legitimate right to their land. of all the people. The narrative that the United States, a lot of us talk about occupy, Israel's occupying their territory, the Palestinian territory. If you believe that, you better turn your house over to the Indians, because we are way more guilty, way more guilty. way more guilty of horrible atrocities than the children of Israel. And the world has made the narrative sort of this thing that the Jews pushed out these poor Palestinians who'd been there for thousands and thousands of years, these Palestinians, and it's just this false narrative. But I'm gonna show you that God actually gave Israel their land. How many of us can say God gave us the land? No, God never said you guys from England or from Ireland or from Russia or wherever you're from, that God gave us the United States of America. We don't have that. That's first bag of Bolognans right there. If you're saying God gave us the land from the Indians, no, we took it. Just like everybody else, they took it. And yet what an amazing thing that the Jews were given the land. Genesis 12, seven is kind of where that all begins. The Lord appeared to Abram and said, unto thy seed will I give this land. And there builded he an altar unto the Lord. who appeared unto him. So God promised Abraham just when he arrived in the land of Canaan from Ur of the Chaldees. And God said, this land I will give you. And then he said it again in Genesis 15, 18. In the same day, the Lord made a covenant with Abram saying, unto thy seed have I given this land from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates. Then God reiterates the promise to Abraham, adding that the land was a gift that would be irrevocable. Genesis 17, eight. And I will give unto thee and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan for an everlasting possession. And I will be their God. How long is an everlasting possession? When God says something is an everlasting possession, man, you may not be able to trust that anywhere else, but if God says it, you kind of better believe it. And people can try all they want to take Israel, the land from the Jews, but it's not gonna happen. Keep that in mind as you're watching what the world is doing and talking about. It's gonna end up in the Jewish possession because the Lord says, I've given this for an everlasting possession. And God later repeats this promise to Abraham's son, Isaac, there in Genesis 26, verse three and four. Sojourn, he says to Isaac, and I will be with thee. I will bless thee for unto thee and thy seed, I will give all these countries and I will perform the oath, which I swear to Abraham, thy father, and I will make thy seed to multiply as the stars of the heaven and will give unto thy seed all these countries and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed. This is a reiteration of the Abrahamic covenant. How, question, quiz time, how would all the nations of the world be blessed through, you know, the Jews? Jesus, always the right answer. Jesus was a Jew. I hope you remember that. And there's a lot of, I mean, we could do a whole study on how the Jews have blessed all the nations of the world, logistically, artistically, humorously, scientifically, medically. We could, the Jews have, per capita just amazingly helped the world. That's worth looking at right there. But of all the things that the Jews have been a part of providing the Messiah, Jesus the Messiah is the one why all the nations of the earth would in fact be blessed. And not only Isaac, but Isaac's son, Jacob, who God would later change his name to Israel. God says to Jacob, behold, the Lord stood above it, Genesis 28, and said, I am the Lord God of Abraham, thy father, the God of Isaac, and the land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed. And thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth, thou shalt spread abroad to the west, to the east, to the north, to the south, and in thee, and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed. The promise of the land belonging to the children of Israel is permanent. It's an everlasting covenant, irrevocable, unmovable, unchangeable, which is so obvious if you read your Bible for half a second. Meanwhile, the Pope is saying, yeah, the Jews, it doesn't belong to the Jews, they need to give that land back. Meanwhile, half the churches in America and Catholicism and a lot of Protestantism too, talks about, oh, well, land for peace and the Jews need to give back the land and all this stuff. Nope, the Lord says no. In fact, you know, remember in preschool, if you'd set down a toy and you lost it, and then another kid picks it up, it's still yours, mine, right? Well, as it turns out, that preschool logic comes into play, even if the Jews lost the land, the Lord even made a provision for that. It's still theirs. Deuteronomy chapter 30, verse four and five says, if any of thine be driven out of the utmost parts of heaven, from thence will the Lord thy God gather thee, and from thence he will fetch thee, and the Lord thy God will bring thee into the land which thy fathers possessed, and thou shalt possess it, and he will do thee good and multiply thee above thy fathers. So in the foretelling or prophecy of the removal of Israel from their land, some call this the Palestinian covenant, by the way, interesting name in and of itself or the land covenant. But the Lord knew that the Babylonians would drive them out in 586 BC and the Roman destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70. But in both cases, where the Jews were driven out, the Lord would eventually bring them back into the land. And both the Babylonian, 70 years after they were taken, they went back in. And then when the Romans, it'd be a lot longer after that from, you know, AD 70, all the way forward to 1948, but the Lord would still keep his promise. The fact that the Jews are still in Israel right now is one of the greatest, amazing prophecies of all the Bible and proving that God exists. If you were to ask me, what is the single greatest proof of God's existence? I might just say the Jews. because of all the things of the most unlikely things that the Jews would be scattered for almost 2000 years. And then just like the Bible says, and there's so many scriptures, we can go crazy with Ezekiel 36 and the Valley of Dry Bones. And now it's not only that the Jews are back in the land, but it's exactly like they said, the Jews are back in the land in unbelief right now. The Jews do not believe. They're largely unbelieving. And yet they're still back in the land, just like the Lord said that he would draw them, but they're still the bones. They need to have the flesh and the breath breathed into them. Remember the Valley of Dry Bones prophecy? That's Ezekiel 36, 37. You can check those boxes as the Lord is saying, I'm drawing my people back. Question, quiz time for you prophecy buffs. When will the breath of life be breathed back into the dry bone bodies that are clunking around, walking around? from Ezekiel 36. When will that happen? During the tribulation, remember, the Jews will see that Jesus is the Messiah. And the Lord will seal on their foreheads, not the mark of the beast, but the mark of the Spirit of God on them. And that's when I believe they're gonna have the life breathe back in, that all of Jews will be saved, remember? And with the fullness of the Gentiles, Romans 11, 25, after the fullness of Gentiles, that's the rapture of the church, then the tribulation period, which the tribulation is largely for, waking up the Jews. spiritually, he's gonna wake up a nation with the tribulation period. But it's an amazing thing, Israel is still in the land, despite the fact that all their conquerors like Babylon and Rome and what have you are long gone. All of this reinforces the promises made to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. And according to Genesis 15, 18 and Joshua 1, 4, You know, the land of God, the land God gave to Israel included everything from the Nile River of Egypt. Remember, we just read that definition in Genesis 15, 18. This is an amazing thing because the map there is pretty huge. You know, the Lord says, I will bring thee into the land which thy father's possessed. But if you go to the biblical definition, from the river Euphrates all the way over to the Nile River and from top to bottom. And the Book of Numbers has a very detailed, when you look at a map of Israel, it's kind of fascinating. If this is, you know, what I would call modern day Israel, of course, I'm including the West Bank and the Golan Heights in my map. But all that to say, When Solomon had reign over the kingdom, his kingdom grew pretty huge. In fact, most scholars believe this green area sort of shows all of the areas Solomon conquered and possessed during his reign. And that was at the peak. Now you could argue when the Jews took the Suez Canal and that whole Suez Sinai Peninsula and everything, but this is even more land. Solomon had more land at this point. This was at their peak. but it's not even close to the size that God actually promised to the children of Israel. If you take the biblical definition that I read you in Genesis and also in the book of Numbers and a few other places, this will be the ultimate size of the land of Israel. That's pretty huge. That's a lot bigger than the little tiny dagger. By the way, Israel's about the size of New Jersey. So it's a very tiny, tiny little country. But now we're getting more like Texas size. Now you say, Brett, that's never gonna happen. Oh, but it will. Does anybody know when? Millennial kingdom, when Christ returns and rules and reigns, I believe this is where we'll see the full fulfillment. This area includes the West Bank and the Gaza Strip and the Golan Heights, plus parts of Egypt and Syria and all of Jordan, plus some of Saudi Arabia and even into Iraq. That's the land that the Jews will possess during the kingdom when Christ rules and reigns on the throne. which is kind of an interesting bit of sideline note and what have you. But all that to say, right now, Israel is just a tiny fraction of what God promised. So if the world's like, you need to, that's not your land, oh, you just wait. It's gonna be much bigger than what they think even now. And that's an important thing to know. Now, in Jeremiah 3, 17 and 18, Jerusalem is called the throne of the Lord. The Bible tells us God declares that Jerusalem is mine. So not only Israel is important, but God signs his name on Jerusalem itself. And therein, it does us well to kind of remember what's happened because see where we're headed, where Israel, where this region of land is headed, it's gonna get worse before it gets better. We're headed to a battle that's gonna be a worldwide battle called the Battle of Armageddon. And it's gonna happen in this region of the world that we've shown you right here. But before you kind of really understand what happens in the future, I think you have to understand what happened in the past. And so let's do a quick, as quick as we can, bit of a timeline for reminder. So the first thing we've got is the Abrahamic covenant, Genesis chapter 12, which was around 2000 BC. when Abraham received that promise of God. And that's the first thing that goes on our timeline. Then after that, I think we're gonna put the major points on here. Joshua in 1500 BC took the land from the Canaanites and possessed the land. It took them a long time and they didn't fully ever possess the land as I previously have shown you. By the way, So this is where the world starts to protest. I'm always intrigued by what the world gets mad about. And this is one of those areas, and the hypocrisy is profound. Because how many of you have heard somebody say, yeah, what are we gonna do, go kill all the Amalekites, like in the Bible? Like exterminate gods into ethnic cleansing, and they'll quote scriptures from the Old Testament. and all this stuff, but who were the Canaanites that were there? Well, they were a people, they were descendants of Ham from sons of Noah, and they settled in this region, but they became an exceedingly wicked people, and God gave them 400 years to repent of their wickedness. Meanwhile, the Jews were enslaved. They were slaves in Egypt for 400 years. while the Canaanites were partying down, sacrificing their children on altars, you know, doing horrible pagan rituals and what have you, and God gave them 400 years to repent, but they wouldn't repent. But Prith, they're the indigenous people, and they came and hurt the indigenous. Can I just say something that's gonna be a little bit controversial? I guess I have before, I'm not, I guess it's not really. But indigenous people, it's a scientific fact that there's no such thing as indigenous people. That's just a total made up thing. If you do more than 10 seconds of thinking about it, if you think about indigenous people, maybe you can make an argument that Adam and Eve were indigenous people. You know, we're all descendants of immigrants, whether by boat or plane or Alaskan land bridge. We came to this land, depending on different times and what have you, and the cruelty of the Europeans in those dark times, including Christopher Columbus, if you wanna get on that bandwagon, was no greater than among the people everywhere on the earth. This is the thing, people are horrible no matter what part of history you look at. The Europeans were just more successful at being horrible than the Indians. The Indians sat smoking weed and peace pipes and stuff, and they didn't do anything. Well, that's actually not true. All you have to do is study some of the indigenous people. Remember the Aztecs? Did you guys study that? I remember studying the Aztec. I did a report when I was in fifth grade on the Aztecs. And I was doing this study and I found in this book how they would take the skin of a person and stretch it on their chest. And then they would poke a stick through the hole that they'd poked through their chest and then hang the person by their chest. Like this horrible, horrible torturous sort of way. And I remember just, that was like the first time I'd seen something so horrible. But the Aztecs were sacrificing humans and doing all kinds of crazy stuff. And in the Americas, the Aztecs slaughtered and oppressed rival tribes. This is why, by the way, some of those people groups welcomed the Spanish when they arrived. And because compared to what they were facing, they were like, what could be worse than what we're already dealing with? Well, they found out with disease and all that. But the world makes the narrative like, you know, there's these indigenous people. But the fact is, people all came from somewhere sometime. And especially if you're in modern times, your people took the land from somebody. And everybody's hypocritical, in my opinion, when they start accusing people of that. You know, what they brought to this continent developed here later by those nasty Europeans, like descendants of French, Portuguese, Chinese migrants, indigenous people or native Americans also descendants of earlier migrations from other continents. That's just science by the way. These residents that we know as indigenous people, as we call them, I was reading this one guy said, these residents of America are no more indigenous than the kudzu vine or the tumbleweed. It's like, there's no such thing, they were brought here. So while it may be good and timely to celebrate Indian history and culture, I appreciate that and love that in some ways, Indigenous People's Day should be changed to something more truthful and accurate called We Got Here First Day. Okay, back to our timeline. I'm just saying, it's the truth. Does anybody agree with me on that? Yeah, I just saw some Indians walking out. They're like, I'm out of here. No, but no, I'm just kidding. I have good friends who are Indians and I've talked about this with them and they would agree. By the way, on the Indian thing, the Indian people that I know, and I have good friends that are Indian chiefs even, and it's interesting because when the Washington Redskins were on the chopping block because of their name, The Indians that I knew were like, we kind of like it that they thought our people were a fierce people. And that's why, like the ones that I, nobody was complaining. It was only the college professors at Berserkly making up stuff and making the kids think, oh, it's so horrible that we called them the Redskins and all this stuff. Anyway, it's just gotten so ridiculous. I don't even know why I'm spending time talking about it. But anyway, back to our timeline. Well, after Joshua fit the battle of Jericho and took the land, then fast forward 1000 BC, a big moment in Israel's history, David takes Jerusalem from the Jebusites. And that was in the year 1000 BC. The Jebusites, who were they? They were not Palestinians. They were not even related to the Arab people, but they're now extinct people that were descendants of Ham. the Jebusites, the Hivites, the Amorites, the Girgashites, the Arkishites, the Sinites, the Hivites, the Zemurites, and the Hamathites, and the Flashlights. They were all part of the Canaanite people. But the Jebusites were one of the longest lasting people. They got rid of all the other ones, the Malachites even, they got rid of most of them, but the Jebusites, they were kind of bunkered down in the city of Jebus, which would eventually become the city of Jerusalem. And at this point, with David as their king, now Jerusalem and Israel is headed toward one of their greatest moments. The son of David, Solomon, would bring Israel to a powerful and amazing place. But Solomon would shortly thereafter start worshiping idols, and that would be the trend. Israel would go back and forth from worshiping God to worshiping idols, and it would eventually catch up to them, and the Lord promised them, if you keep doing this, I'm gonna scatter you all over the world. And that would happen, you know, there'd be waves of this that would come from the Babylonians. And of course, the northern 10 tribes were taken much earlier in the 720-ish BC time period. But by 586 BC, the Babylonians came. And when Babylon came in 586, the Jews lost Jerusalem, conquered Jerusalem, crushed Jerusalem. But then after seven years, Zerubbabel, Ezra, Nehemiah, they all came back and restored and rebuilt the temple and the walls of Jerusalem. You know that from the books of the Bible, Ezra, Nehemiah, and what have you. So that was around 516 BC when that happened. Well, all that to say, as the years go by, especially from this point forward. And we can talk about the Daniel's dreams or Nebuchadnezzar's dreams and Daniel's visions of the book of Daniel with the various people that would come over that region. But historically, you might just say the big points were 330 BC was when Alexander the Great marched into Jerusalem. It's recorded in the book of Daniel prophetically before it even happened. And then another huge event, the Roman would come in 63 BC, Pompeii and the Romans would rule Jerusalem for 666 years. That's an interesting number if you count the Byzantine Empire, the 666 years, I think that's kind of interesting. I wouldn't make too much of that. But during the Roman rule, probably the next most important date in the Roman rule, after hundreds of years of rule, was AD 70. And this would be the second time the Jews would be scattered. After 586, they were scattered. 70 years later, they returned. But now, this time, they're gonna be scattered for a long time. Rome destroys Jerusalem. And this is that picture, sort of the relief of what you see in Rome today, the Arch of Titus by the Colosseum. If you ever go to Rome, Don't miss that, just a few blocks away from the Colosseum is this Arch of Titus, and on the inside you see this relief of the Romans carrying the menorah out of the temple in Jerusalem, because that was built, the Arch of Titus, to commemorate the conquering of Jerusalem, and dragging tens of thousands of slaves of Jews from Jerusalem to Rome. Who built the Colosseum? The answer, Jews, slaves from Israel. That's kind of interesting things you won't hear from your tour guide in Rome. But it's true. All that to say, AD 70 was a horrible time for Israel. Jerusalem was crushed. And then we call that era the Diaspora. You know, the scattering of the people. Now, you say that's really depressing. But one of the things that's so important to understand is God has his hand on this the whole time. You know, there's always the but God in the story. So the Jews are scattered all over the world for almost 2,000 years, but Ezekiel 11, 16 says, therefore say, thus saith the Lord God, although I have cast them far off among the heathen, and although I have scattered them among the countries, yet I will be to them as a little sanctuary in the countries where they shall come. In other words, I'm gonna be with them even though they're scattered. One of the things that's interesting about the Jews is they're the only people group that have stayed a people group having been scattered for more than three generations. After three generations, there's no other example of people that went back to their land and restored and repaired their nation, their country, their language, all those things were lost. The language of Hebrew was lost, it became like Latin, sort of a academic language only, but not really spoken by anybody in the world. They lost their language, their identity as a nation with a land. But it says, therefore I say, in the countries where they shall come. And then Ezekiel 34, 11. For thus saith the Lord God, behold, I, even I, will both search my sheep and seek them out. As a shepherd seeks out his flock in the day that he is among his sheep that are scattered, so will I seek out my sheep and deliver them out of all places where they have been scattered in the cloudy and the dark day. And I will bring them out from the people and gather them from the countries, and I will bring them to their own land and feed them upon the mountains of Israel by the rivers and all the inhabited places of the country. Anybody know where the mountains of Israel, when you come to that phrase in the Bible, where are the mountains of Israel? Somebody said it, the West Bank. When the Bible uses that idiom, the mountains of Israel, we're not talking about the Golan Heights. Those are mountains too. But the mountains of Israel, when you read that in the Bible, especially in the prophets and what have you like Ezekiel, he's talking about the West Bank specifically. That's kind of an important thing because that's one of the most contested areas along with the Golan Heights is contested too. But the mountains of Israel in this context is speaking of the West Bank. And so, like I said, no other ethnic group has survived being scattered after three generations. Why did this happen for the Jews? God said, I will gather them. Like a shepherd gathers his flock. That's just miraculous. And he did it twice. He did it back after the Babylonians crushed Jerusalem. And now he did it after almost 2000 years after the Romans conquered Jerusalem. Now, when the Jews went back there, or after the Romans, the Jews were scattered and Israel became sort of a speed bump. The Byzantines, the Muslims, the Crusaders, the Mamelukes from Egypt, the Ottoman Turks, they all came and possessed Jerusalem. While the Jews were scattered during the diaspora, so many people came and went out of Jerusalem and there's a lot of history there. But this is where we start to get to, you say, Brett, you're talking about the road to Armageddon. What does all this have to do with that? The Jews, they thought half of those things were Armageddon. If you've been crushed by the Romans, you're thinking, well, that must be Armageddon. You've been crushed by the Babylonians, oh, that's kind of Armageddon. No, that's still coming. But the Jews have had it really hard. The world acts like the Jews, those stingy Jews stole the land from these poor Palestinians. And it's really a shocking argument the world makes, and everybody believes. But what in fact happened, how did the Lord start to regather his people? This is where it's kind of an interesting thing. There was a guy, there was actually an issue that happened, it's called the Dreyfus Affair. In 1894, Alfred Dreyfus, a lieutenant in the French army, accused of selling secrets to the German army. He was accused, but he really was just a scapegoat. They sentenced him and the people in Paris all were yelling in the streets, death to the Jews. Something you still hear in the streets of Paris today, by the way. and you hear it in the streets of America today. Shocking, but it's still happening around the world. But with this Alfred Dreyfus affair, now later, by the way, he was found to be innocent and they let him go, but it was during the Dreyfus affair in 1894, this was a big moment that really catapulted Zionism Now, Zionism is where the Jews, led by a guy named Theodor Herzl, he was a writer, and he knew at that point of the Dreyfus Affair, he knew that no matter how good the Jews were and how much they helped society with medicine and science and arts and all that, Theodor Herzl understood that no matter how good the Jews were, they'd never be safe without a homeland. They were never received in the lands, whether it was Germany or Poland or America, wherever the Jews had settled, there was still antisemitism. So three years later, after the Dreyfus Affair, Theodor Herzl called a Congress together of Jewish leaders in Switzerland. He called it the Congress of Basel in Switzerland. And he came up with a plan to come up back to a state of Zion is what Theodor Herzl, he's really the father of the Zionist movement. Now, you'll find there's a lot of people, even so, you know, Christians that are misguided, who will say, I'm not pro-Zionism, but I am pro, I'm not anti-Semitic. They'll say that. I'm not anti-Semitic, but I'm against Zionism. Watch out for that. That's what the Pope is. The Pope would say that. Or a lot of Presbyterian church people would say that, because that's the Presbyterian, their replacement theology. We've talked about where the church has replaced the Jews, which is totally a false teaching, a dangerous teaching. But the reason they're anti-Zionism is because they're the ones who are saying the Jews have no right to the land. Well, they didn't read the book of Genesis, did they? because the Jews do, in fact, have right to the land. But Theodor Herzl and the Alfred Dreyfus affair, the Congress of Basel started making the Jews want to get their own homeland. So how did they do it? Well, as it turns out, the Jews began to catch the vision of the Jewish homeland. So the Jews started migrating back to Israel. And here's the thing. This is what the world will not tell you. Who was in Israel at that time? Almost no one. It was just some Bedouin tents and a few Bedouins that lived in Israel. I've talked about Mark Twain's visit to Israel over a hundred years ago. Mark Twain writes, there wasn't a soul to be found. Jerusalem was a tiny city with no one in it. Nobody cared about the land of Israel. So what did the Jews do? They went there and they purchased much of the land that they call Israel today with their own money, they purchased from the Bedouins lands from Israel. And the Bedouins were thrilled to sell worthless desert land that had nothing on it. And the Jews said, we're gonna buy this. So wait a minute, you mean to tell me Pastor Brett that the Jews were given the land by God, check that box. But they secondly purchased much of the land that they're on today, they purchased it with money. How many of us purchased our land from the Indians? Or how many nations of anywhere in the world did people purchase their land from the people that used to possess the land? No, we crushed them, either killed them all or enslaved them, and that's how we got our lands. That's just all of our stories in the world, except for the Jews of all people. The Jews actually purchased a wasteland. Israel was a wasteland at that time. By the way, why was Israel a wasteland? There's a long story there. The Ottoman Turk Empire did damage to that. For hundreds of years, it would be a desert because they taxed trees. If you had trees on your property, the Ottomans would tax you for your trees. So what did they all do? They cut down their trees. And so many trees were cut down, it actually changed the actual climate of Israel. Israel today has been largely brought back to life by modern Jews and modern science. The drip irrigation system was a Jewish invention and it brought the desert back to life. It's so fun to drive through parts of Israel with our tour group and you just see the beautiful gardens and farms and banana trees. And it's just, it's an amazing thing to see because 120, 130 years ago, it was just a wasteland desert. And the Jews are credited with bringing the desert back to life. But they're the only people on the earth that can say God gave them their land and they purchased it with money. But I've got another one that I'll give you here in a second. So after the World War I, long story short, the British came into that region, British control in 1917, all the way through 1948. And the British mandate was put into place. For those of you who know the history there, which actually kind of redefined all the boundaries of Israel and Jordan and Transjordan. It was really a mess, I'm just gonna tell you that. The British kind of messed things up and the map changed for a while there. But it was during that time, after the British control, or during the British control, there was a guy that was starting to come up in Germany who would change the direction of the Jews forever. During World War II, one of the big moments on the timeline would be, of course, Adolf Hitler, World War II, and the Holocaust. 1939 to 1945, one of the great atrocities of world history, six million Jews were killed, just like Theodor Herzl predicted. That's why he was sensing this was coming. They were sensing that back in the 1800s, that antisemitism was gonna be so bad that it would put your life on the line anywhere you were in the world, except if you were in what was called Palestine. Now keep in mind, it was called Palestine, not because there were Palestinians there. Does anybody remember who called Israel Palestine? The emperor. Hadrian, correct. The emperor Hadrian, he was a Roman, you know, he considered himself a God, but basically the emperor of Rome, Hadrian said, I hate the Jews. And he declared if two Jews were seen talking in Jerusalem, they should be killed on the spot. You would have right to kill them. Hadrian said, let's call Israel, no longer Israel, but Palestine. Why did he call it Palestine? Because it was linked to the Philistine. The word Philistine is the word Palestine. The Romans would put it that way. And it was just to spite the Jews. The Philistines were extinct by the Roman Empire era. There were no more Philistines in the land when Rome came and conquered the Jews. But because they were ancient enemies of the Jews, Hadrian thought it'd be really great. And he renamed Jerusalem Elea Capitolina for a little while too. So that's where it got its Palestine name. If you went to Palestine in 1920, guess what? Who were the Palestinians in 1920? Mostly Jews. There were some Arabs too, but they were mostly Jews. If you saw the Palestinian, you can look this up. Look up the Palestinian Orchestra in 1920. It was all Jewish people, Palestinians, Jewish guys with trumpets and trombones and stuff. If you wanna look at the Palestinian Time newspaper, who were the editors? Jews. It wasn't until Yasser Arafat, some of you guys lived old enough to remember old Yasser Arafat, the guy who sort of redefined what a Palestinian was. And they claimed that the Palestinians were the ancient people there who had been there for hundreds and hundreds of years. It's just not true. Did you know 60% of Jordan is Palestinian? If you go to Jordan, you'll find the worst living Palestinians on the planet. I've been to Palestinian refugee camps in Jordan, and it's heartbreaking. Where's the world's cry for the way Palestinians are treated and where they're really from? Jordan. They're treated horribly there. Do your homework. Don't just believe the college professors and the newscasters of who are the saddest Palestinians. I have Palestinian friends in Jerusalem who are saying, man, we just wanna be faithful Israeli citizens. And as long as we're doing what we're supposed to do here and not trying to kill people and stuff, we find Israel to be a nice place to live. Like I have Palestinian friends that actually want to coexist with Israel in the land. Largely, it's a sad thing because the Palestinians in Israel are just pawns of the Arab nations. Nowhere did the Arabs ever accept an Israeli nation. And that's where we get to this next point on our timeline. So after World War II, you've got the Holocaust, which the whole world was kind of embarrassed by what had happened there. The United States was very slow at coming to the rescue of these. People were crying out, writing letters to our president. If you go to the Holocaust Museum, In Jerusalem, the actual letters are on display, crying out to our president and our president responding, we're not gonna help you at this time. It was kind of heartbreaking to see that. But because of all this, after Hitler was outed and World War II came to an end, on May 14th, 1948, the day before the expiration of the British mandate, for you history buffs, the Jewish agency proclaimed independence, naming Israel the new country of Israel. It becomes a nation. Now this should have changed all Bible prophecy people from that point on. Before 1948, most Bible prophecy people were what you might call amillennialists in their prophetic views. That it was just all figurative, because there's no literal nation of Israel. How can these prophecies about Israel be literal? But they should have all changed their notes. In my humble opinion, our brothers and sisters who are amillennialists or preterists or any of that, they all should have said, wow, Israel became a nation just like Ezekiel 36 and 37 said, just like our text in Deuteronomy said, just like everything we read earlier where the Lord says, I'll scatter you, but I'll bring my people back. They should have just said, well, we need to take the Bible literally. But shockingly, most of the church today, and I call it the church, most of the church today still says, what a coincidence, Israel became a nation again. What a coincidence. The Bible says something about that. That's a coincidence. It's not a coincidence. It's fulfillment of Bible prophecy to the perfect exacting T. I hope you see that. So Israel becoming a nation should have changed everybody's notes. Well, quickly, after that, you had the War of Independence. The day after they become, the following day in 1948, The armies of five Arab nations, Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, and Iraq attacked Israel. They said, we're not gonna let these Jews be an official country in the Middle East. So they thought they could easily attack the Jews, which they should have. The Jews had pitchforks and shovels and pickup trucks with plates of metal welded on the side. That was their military in 1948. They were able to secure some little tanks, these little tiny tanks that looked like a Volkswagen that they could use. They only had a few of them. The Arabs had all kinds of modern warfare weaponry in 1948. This shouldn't even have been a fight, but amazing, miraculous level, biblically proportioned battle, the Jews fought off those five Arab nations. The world was stunned, because it just makes no sense at all. Now I'm not gonna go through every single skirmish, but quickly, let's go through the wars in modern Israel. Once Israel becomes a nation, the next big one, 1956, the Sinai War, again, miraculously beat back the Arab forces. And then the next big one, and this is huge, the Six Day War. June of 1967, not only they defeated the Arab attacks, but regained control over Jerusalem, which they hadn't had for a long, long time. This is a picture I love, Moshe Dayan, the guy in the middle with the patch. He's walking up into Jerusalem, large and in charge. They took over the West Bank and the Temple Mount and Jerusalem, which is interesting. But Moshe Dayan, after capturing the city of Jerusalem, then allowed the Islamic people there, the Muftis, as they were called, to maintain control over the Temple Mount. Why did he do this? There's no good logical answer. Jews to this day don't know why Moshe Dayan gave the Temple Mount back to the Muftis. Do you wanna know why he did it? God said that the Temple Mount would be trampled underfoot of the Gentiles. And it's gonna happen all the way to the tribulation period. So the fact that he gave over the Temple Mount, we should all be going, that's kind of sad, because we wish the Jews could have their Temple Mount back. But it's kind of cool, because the Lord said that the Gentiles would still be trampling the Temple Mount. And that's exactly what's happening to this day. The Gentiles, the Muslims, the Muftis, the Jordanian, and what have you, they're trampling over the Temple Mount. Well, after this, this was a big deal. Again, biblically proportioned battle. Another amazing one was the Yom Kippur War in 1973. It looked like Israel was gonna be defeated. The Jews were in big trouble on this one. They were all celebrating Yom Kippur. Remember the Day of Atonement? and they turned off their TVs and their radios and they're celebrating Yom Kippur, that's what they did, it was like a big Sabbath. So the Arabs thought, hey, let's attack them on their most holy day of the year, because they won't have their radios and they won't be on duty in their military squadrons. And sure enough, they weren't. This war, the way that the people got the attention or the military got the attention of the people is they flew their sonic jets hypersonic over the cities where sonic booms would, everybody go, what's going on? And they'd look out and see these Israeli jets zinging over their communities, breaking out windows. The sonic booms were smashing windows in Jerusalem, but it got their attention. They all got the militia, their rifles, and they all went to battle. This would have been a total showstopper for the Jews, but there was a guy, a young guy named Ariel Sharon, who didn't engage on the front lines as he was told, but he disobeyed orders and did an end around. And he went down the Sinai Peninsula and went around the Egyptian army who he was supposed to be attacking head on. And Ariel Shron, who later became the prime minister of Israel in some of your lifetimes here, he did an end around and went straight to Cairo. And everybody was shocked. Suddenly these Israeli troops are marching into Cairo, and he's got the Egyptians by Cairo, by the neck. And he says, any questions? And they all surrendered at that point. If it wasn't for Ariel Sharon going to do that, many people believe Israel would have been taken. But we know that wouldn't have happened anyway, because the Lord says, my people are gonna be there. It's their land, and that's why Yom Kippur went the way it did. Now, After that, there's all kinds of skirmishes. The Lebanese War, we could talk about. I'm not gonna put them all in here, but some other ones that are kind of important. The First Intifada War, and those are in fairly modern times, 1987 to 1993. This is where some of the optics got really bad for the Jews. And the Palestinians became really good at making the optics go bad. It was all about optics. And the Jews were saying, we're defending our country, but the Palestinians, well, this is our land and you're crushing us. And the narrative of the Intifada wars, that's where this really got pushed. These poor Palestinians, these Jews are being horrible too. This is actually a real picture right here. And this little guy is a Palestinian guy who is literally throwing rocks at his Israeli tank. The sad part of this story, and there's all kinds of controversy around this of what actually happened, but eight days after he threw the rocks at this tank, this little guy was killed in bombs going off and what have you. It's kind of a sad story. But boy, the Palestinians would just really, they would have pictures of people holding children. But in these modern intifada wars, as it turns out, some of the children were actors with ketchup on their heads. And it was hard to know what was true and what was false. And it became this sort of propaganda game. And the Intifada Wars, the first Intifada War and the second Intifada War, which actually happened in 2000, 2005. Remember when Ariel Sharon, the guy I just told you about, when he was old, he was a prime minister, he walked up on the Temple Mount and said, I am a Jew, I should be able to go to our Temple Mount in Jerusalem. And the Muslims freaked out. And that was, some people believe that was the catalyst for the second Intifada war. We were in Israel when this war was happening and we felt, we could feel the repercussions of bomb blasts 25 miles away. You could hear them and sort of feel them. And it was, buses were blown up in Jerusalem while we were there. A lot of bombs going off. It was still not as dangerous as Portland, but it was a little more perceivable. People still, if you hear about all the conflict in Jerusalem and Israel still, don't be afraid. Portland's still, wait, more shootings, more death by far. It's not even close. Jerusalem's way safer than Portland or anything like that. Well, so you got the second intifada war. Now, that brings us kind of to present day, where what's going on? Well, they're saying there's gonna be more intifada wars. And what's going on is things are ramping up again. And some of us kind of go, well, not again. Like it's always just happening over and over these cycles of intifada wars and skirmishes and conflict and rockets. And basically what we're seeing is the continuation of what's happened from the time of Abraham all the way to the present. But we're seeing a ramping up of the antisemitism, the hatred and the conflict. One of the things that you and I should be watching as modern day prophecy people is everything you're seeing in Israel and the narrative that the world is still saying. This narrative, I remember when I saw, do you guys remember Helen Thomas, the reporter, if you're older here? She actually died, I think in 2013. And she was the first woman press person in the White House back in the Lyndon Johnson era and stuff. But she just got older and older and older. We're like, when is that lady gonna die? She just kept sitting there. But do you remember, she was still doing it at 87. But do you guys remember she got fired? Do you guys remember why she got fired? She got fired because of this. It was National Jewish Heritage Celebration Day at the White House. And guard your ears, I think she uses a little bit of a coarse language here. But this is the conflict. And the reason I'm gonna show you this, even though this happened like, 10 years ago or whatever. I remember seeing this and starting to see, this is showing sort of the underbelly of the press and their narrative of what they actually are trying to say. You can't say it overtly, but they would say it covertly. She just said, she got caught saying what they really do believe. And here's that video. We're arresting everybody today. Tell them to get the hell out of Palestine. Remember, these people are occupied. And it's their land. It's not German, it's not Polish. So where should they go? What should they do? They go home. Where's their home? Poland. Germany. So the Jews go back to Poland and Germany? And America, and everywhere else. Did you hear what she said? The Jews need to get the blank out of Palestine and go back home. And the guy says, where do they go? Back to Poland and Germany. That really worked out good for the Jews, didn't it? Like it's so overly shocking, bad, you know, 6 million Jews. This woman, by the way, is of Arab heritage. She comes from an Arab background. Now she's no longer with us, but this notion is what the world is pushing harder than ever. The UN, when the UN votes all those resolution after resolution after resolution, they just vote another resolution like last week against Israel. Last year, they put more than twice the resolutions against Israel than all the other nations of the world combined. which you think maybe like North Korea should get a resolution or two or China for their human rights, you know, but no, it's the Jews in Israel that get all this. Well, all that to say, let's spring forward into some of the events that are going on, because this is what we're following. Here, we gotta get that picture off, sorry. That's horrifying. So it's like, it's not, you're like, oh, it's like Halloween or something. But what's going on today is really more of the same. And you say, Brett, we get tired of just more of the same. Well, do you think the Jews are getting tired of being accused of occupying land that's actually theirs, God-given, purchased with money? And also the third one, there's three components to that. They were given it by God, they purchased it with their own money, and after the Holocaust, the United Nations, or League of Nations, then the United Nations, gave the Jews their land. How many people can say the world actually gave them their land? That's the truth of the matter. The Jews were given a homeland after the Holocaust out of just embarrassment. It was a tight vote there in the UN, but it did pass that the Jews got there. By one vote, the Jews got their nation. So, but still, no other nation in the world has that, where the world kind of said, okay, Jews, you get your own nation. Now we're reneging on our commitment, saying, Jews, you don't belong there, that's not your land, you're occupiers of the poor Palestine and the ancient Palestinian people who've been there forever and ever. So that's why we continue to have the Arab-Israeli conflict. And the Arabs use the Palestinian issue to just stir up the bee's nest. And how do they do it? Rockets, terrorism, different agencies, and they're funded by all these different proxy, it's proxy wars by the Iranians and others. So one of the things that's happened this last week, so this is May 3rd, 2023, the leadership in Israel is kind of freaking out. And it's because for the first time, Iron Dome was not as effective as it normally is. It's like the Jews have just kind of said, ah, send the rockets, whatever. Our technology is able to shoot down these rockets. And they've been over 90% accurate. And the 10% that's not accurate, some would say that if a rocket is flying from, you know, Hamas in Gaza into Israel, and it's gonna hit in the middle of a field, then they say, we're not going to shoot that one down, because it's not going to hurt anything, make a crater in some poor farmer's field, but it's not going to kill anybody. So they don't want to spend the money and use their tech on those rockets. So some argue that the Iron Dome was almost 100% accurate. But this last week, IDF, or I should say 100 rockets were fired into Israel from the Gaza Strip in under 24 hours. That was on May 3rd, just a few days ago. And the problem is Iron Dome didn't stop as many, I think there were 60% accuracy. And that kind of freaked everybody out. What's going on? Maybe you heard there was a family killed, an American family that made their journey to live, Jewish family that lives in, they moved to Israel. And I believe the mother and the daughter was killed in this home. It was really a sad thing. And the Jews suddenly, there's people threatening in the Knesset to quit unless they have more say in their defense. Netanyahu's in real trouble. There's all kinds of controversy in Israel. The Arabs are smelling like sharks, blood in the water right now in Israel because Israel seems to be divided more than ever internally. I talked about that a little bit last time in April's Prophecy Update. But all that to say, you know, things have gotten a little bit troublesome. People are a little worried more than normal in Israel. In the times of Israel, May 2nd, just a few days ago, Israel-Gaza terror group reportedly agreed to cease fire. It says in this article, Israel and Palestinian terror groups in the Gaza Strip agreed to a ceasefire. The Qatari state media outlet cites a source of one of the Palestinian factions. The report comes around 24 hours after Israel prison service announced the death of a senior member of a Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group. Qader Adnan died while in Israeli custody on terror charges after an 86-day hunter strike. His death set off the latest round of hostilities as Gaza terrorists fired dozens of rockets at Israel, and Israel responded with airstrikes and fire from tanks. So this guy died in prison because he went on a hunger strike. And he was a popular Islamic Jihad leader that the Jews had in prison. So all kinds of skirmishes started happening around Israel. This was just from May 2nd as Palestinians were rioting in the street. You saw images like this where Israeli soldiers were shooting rubber bullets at Palestinians during clashes. because of the death of Qadar Adnan, this prison guy, and his hunger strike. And then when the Jews retaliate, they shot rockets back in return. The difference between Israeli rockets and Gaza rockets is the Israeli rockets are powerful and more accurate. It's an interesting narrative where the world basically says, yeah, Jews, you can't retaliate. It's not fair, it's not a fair fight. That's ridiculous. I don't care if they're throwing tomahawks across the border. A nation has a right to defend itself. And if they're better at it, then that's the way the world kind of works. You don't tie one hand behind your back and try to fight them left-handed just to make the rest of the world happy. The Jews are saying, we have the right to defend ourselves. And so all that to say, man, But what's happening though is the Islamic Jihad down in the Gaza Strip, often you hear about the Hamas in Gaza, but the Islamic Jihad is down there too. There's rumor that they're getting ready for a coordinated attack against Israel. They're seeing the sort of the Achilles heel of the Iron Dome system. And the word on the street is that the Islamic Jihad funded and directed by the Iranians are going to try to do a coordinated attack on Israel kind of all at one time. and try to overwhelm their Iron Dome system. And that's one of the things the Jews are talking about. The leadership in Israel is sitting around arguing. Meanwhile, Islamic Jihad, they're making more and more threats. They actually said, we haven't even started yet, is what they're saying. They put out a video that shows the Islamic Jihad down in the South in Gaza, as they're making these threats. They issue a threatening message as the Israeli Air Force carries out strikes in the Gaza Strip, even as we speak. They said, we haven't even started yet. They attached this video showing members of Islamic John preparing rockets to be launched. The Israeli Air Force is striking in Gaza. after at least 37 rockets were launched at Southern Israel on Tuesday. So these are the rockets Islamic Jihad is launching from Gaza, from these various batteries and what have you. But all that to say, meanwhile, what's the world saying? Well, this is the typical thing. I'm just showing you what's typical. Here in the Times of Israel, UN human rights official, I'm sure she's brilliant, says, Israel can't claim self-defense after deadly terror. United Nations Human Rights Council mum on rocket fire terror attacks after repeatedly criticizing Israel over the past week basically made the argument that Israel can't claim self-defense. Why can't they claim self-defense? Because they're better than the Islamic Jihad. That's the only reason why the UN, the United Nothing, is saying these stupid things. Reuters article, Israeli attack puts Syria Aleppo airport out of service. Not only from the south, but from the north. The Iranians have gained more and more position in Syria. and they're bringing more and more high-tech weapons into the northern part. So this is all part of that coordinated attack that the Jews are concerned about. The Iranians were bringing some high-tech weapons into Syria, And the Jews said, we're not gonna let that happen. So as they were arriving on the airport there in Aleppo, the Jews wiped out the airport. As I understand, I think it's still out of commission since May 1st, the Aleppo era, which is where the Iranians are bringing all that stuff. The Israelis have been attacking Syria for years now because the Iranians are getting a stronger and stronger foothold there. But this idea of the Muslim world was uniting against the Israelis. Up in Syria is where some of the greatest concern. This picture was from a couple of years ago, I believe, but Putin, Erdogan from Turkey, along with Raisi from Iran. There's a nice little trio. Now with that picture, as a Bible prophecy person, what does this make you think of, anybody? Ezekiel 38. These are major players. These are the major players. Did you know Raisi went over to Syria just this week? He was there. And the Iranians basically are taking the posture, hey, Syria, hey, Assad, we're helping you. So you owe us. You owe us the ability to entrench ourselves deeper in Syria. And the only reason they're really wanting to do that is to be at the northern border of Israel ready to attack. That's what the Iranians are wanting to do. So we could go on, but this is where you start to see the Gog Magog thing. Speaking of the Gog Magog, now I'm gonna shift gears a little bit here, but this is also related to that. Anybody wondering what's going on in Sudan? You're like, civil war again in Sudan? You're like, well, that's nothing new. I mean, the Sudan's had all kinds of trouble. What's different about this one? Well, it is a little bit different because it's not a religious war, it's not even a political war. It's a power struggle between two military figures. And it's really pretty creepy if you start looking into it. The first guy that is large and in charge is basically the commander general of the army of Sudan, SAF Commander General Abdel Fattah al-Baran. But his... He and this other guy used to kind of work together, RSF, Chief Mohammed Hamadan Dagdagalo. Also, you'll hear him called Hameti. They've actually kind of turned on one another. RSF, F is sort of a special forces unit that was created, but it got more and more powerful, and now it's almost like they're so powerful, they're against each other. And basically, these two guys are smashing it out for power and control of Sudan. It's heartbreaking, because hundreds of thousands of Sudanese people are out of their homes now. 300,000 people are out of their homes, running around with no homes, just looking, trying to survive there right now. 100,000 people were flown out by various agencies and people were trying to escape Sudan, not unlike when people were trying to leave Afghanistan or when they were trying to leave Syria, when that civil war was getting uglier and uglier. But Sudan is a real problem. But if that's not bad enough just to be sad about that and pray for the people of Sudan, of course. But it's also, there's some interesting things about this. In that bastion of honesty, CNN, once in a while they do some interesting reporting, but CNN exclusive, evidence emerges of Russia's Wagner, arming militia leader, battling Sudan's army. Why in the world would Russia be down there in Sudan meddling with this crazy war that's there? Now you say, what's Wagner? Well, Wagner is a Russian paramilitary organization. It's variously described as a private military company, PMC, a network of mercenaries, but largely known as a de facto private army of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Why would the Wagner Group, this paramilitary organization, be down there messing around? Well, as it turns out, a July 2022 investigation exposed deepening ties between Moscow and Sudan's military leadership, who granted Russia access to East African countries' gold riches in exchange for military and political support. The relationship began in earnest after Moscow's 2014 invasion of Crimea, when Russia began to eye African gold riches as an avenue to circumvent a slew of Western sanctions, which is almost laughable now if you know how our sanctions have worked out. The 2022 invasion of Ukraine and the wave of sanctions that followed accelerated Russia's gold plunder in Sudan and further propped up military rule, increasing Wagner activity in the country. Now, according to CNN's investigation, the Wagner group is helping arm De Gallo's RSF with surface-to-air missiles as they battle the Sudanese National Army, led by De Gallo's former ally, General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan. The RSF, Rapid Service Forces, I think is what it is, denies receiving help from Russia, and Wagner similarly denied being involved in the conflict. So everything, no, there's nothing to see here, Russia's never been here. But a satellite image, this is where Russia was found out, a satellite image of the Aleutian 76 Candid at Libya's Al-Kadhim Air Base used by Wagner on April 18th. Just this last month, if you zoom in, you can see what kind of a plane this is. This is a Russian transport aircraft that is hauling weapons and stuff like that. And it was flying in and out of there just two days before the Sudan conflict began on Saturday. Sudan, you say, Brad, okay, so what do we care that Russia's meddling with Sudan and all that? Well, this is where, again, the Gog Magog thing. Does anybody recall when we studied our Ezekiel 38? Does anybody recall, was Sudan part of that confederations of nations? Yes, and if you recall, when we were there, I was like, I'm not sure. how Sudan fits into the narrative here. Like I did mention that, I'm like, I'm not sure really how, because at that time, there was no real connection to Russia, Iran, but as it turns out, now we have the Russia connection to Sudan, which is the modern day name for an ancient Genesis 10 name called Kush. Do you remember Cush in Ezekiel 38? Remember, to understand the nations of Ezekiel 38, you have to go to Genesis chapter 10. The table of nations helps you kind of, it's like the key that tells you what nations are what. Gog, Magog, and Turkey, Persia, which is Iran. But Cush is modern day parts of Ethiopia and also Sudan. And now we have that connection. Now, another thing just to kind of put food for thought, watch how Iran also intervenes with Sudan. I'm not sure how Iran's gonna meddle with this, but Russia and Iran, they're becoming closer and closer. And it's really kind of concerning to the West when we see Russia and Iran colluding and things like this. China's even getting in on some of that stuff. But just watch, something to keep your eye on, watch how Iran gets involved in Sudan as well. What's the reason Iran wants to do that? One of Iran's tactics. if you kind of do the math, Iran finds the troubled Arab nation anywhere near Israel and says, oh, we can help you. Kind of like what they did there when Iranian president just last week went to Syria, like I told you before. The Iranian president in Damascus for the first time since the Syrian war began years ago. What's he doing there? Well, it's basically Raisi, the president of Iran. He's basically saying, Assad, we helped you. We got you back and you're kind of in charge now and everything's good, but you owe us and it's time for payback. And that payback, just so you know, is Iran posturing to try to crush Israel and drive Israel into the sea. They did that with Lebanon. Remember the Lebanese war? Who came in there? Iran. And they funded Hezbollah. And then what happened when the Gaza Strip went crazy? Who went down there? Hamas. And who helped them out? Iran. Whenever a nation gets in trouble, Iran goes, we can help you. And they use millions and millions of dollars to help fund these troubled nations to get them whoever they want to be in power. And then they sort of say, now you owe us and they have a foothold or a stronghold. And they're wanting to really gain control around the whole Middle East area. So what that means is if Gog Magog is forming, which man, no greater time in history has there ever been a lining of the nations of Ezekiel 38, Gog Magog war. And that's part of the road that leads to the ultimate war of Armageddon that's talked about in the Bible. What's Armageddon? The problem with Armageddon is people think the word Armageddon is just talking about the catastrophic destruction of the world. And we jokingly say, when snow comes and pours, it's snowmageddon. And everything's somethingmageddon or whatever. But Armageddon is not a laughing matter. In the Bible, it refers to a climactic future battle, where it's demonically driven. Remember in Revelation chapter 16, verses 13 through 16, remember the demons that come out of the earth like frogs? They look like frogs. And they come and start speaking to the nations of the world. And what do the frogs say? Anybody remember? Go to Megiddo. Go to Megiddo. Go to Megiddo. Go to Megiddo. What are you talking about, Brett? That's weird. Well, Megiddo is where the valley is of the hill of Megiddon. Armageddon is the word Har-Megiddon, which means hill or mountain of Megiddo. You say, okay, Brown, what's that all about? Well, there's a little place called Megiddo, and this is us on a, we were there for two days. One day was really windy and a dust storm. And we're up there on the top of Mount Carmel. This is where Elijah slew the prophets of Baal. But if you're looking down in the valley from where Elijah slew the prophets of Baal, nice little statue there. And we get to go into this chapel and sing some songs and stuff. But it was really kind of a dramatic day where the wind was howling. But as you look down the hill of Mount Carmel, you can see the Air Force landing strips of the Jews and the Valley of Armageddon lays out there in front of you. And right past these rocks is where you kind of see that valley. Now, a few days later, Mike and I went back, because we wanted to get there on a sunny day. That's his foot on the neck of one of the prophets of Baal. Great statue. I don't understand the cooking sword. But other than that, it's really good. But this is the valley of Armageddon right here. And this is where the last battle will be fought. It's amazing all the armies that have trounced through this over the centuries, this region. You know, but... As it turns out, the Antichrist during the tribulation will be, along with the false prophet, will be whooping things up and getting nations. And these demonic entities will come out and say, all the armies go to Megiddo and fight against Jews in Jerusalem, going against Israel. You see, everything that I've told you tonight is the road that leads to this battle in this valley. All the antisemitism, the Holocaust, Theodor Herzl and people wanting to kill Jews, it's all that leads up to this culmination throughout history where all the nations will gather against Israel, led by Satan himself and his Antichrist and the false prophet. So what happens? You say, well, Brett, if the Antichrist and Satan are there, that's by the way, a manger, biblical era manger up on Megiddo. But all that to say, how can the Jews survive if Satan himself and his Antichrist and all the nations of the world are coming against it? Well, as it turns out, they're gonna survive because during that battle of Armageddon, what's gonna happen, anybody? the second coming of Christ. That's a big deal, wouldn't you say? That's when Christ will return and he's gonna intervene in that battle, the battle of Armageddon. It's gonna be where it's, you know, Revelation 16, 19 says that Jesus will tread the winepress with the fury of the wrath of God Almighty. Does that sound like a nice day for the Antichrist? No, but he's gonna be ultimately thrown into the lake of fire with his demons. And all of the world's events that we're seeing right now, I believe as we're seeing more and more antisemitism and hatred for the Jews, calling them occupiers in their own land and all what the worldview is on this, it's all leading us up to this time called Armageddon. Now, this is where I'm pretty much out of time. But let me go over just a few other quick sideline things just to be aware of. You guys got a few more minutes? Okay, just a few more, just a few more. Some of you are like, I gotta go to the bathroom. Okay, one thing that was kind of interesting, did you guys see the explosions over the Kremlin? That was kind of interesting. I put that in the interesting category. Here's some video footage of some drones that were flying into Moscow. And the first one sort of blew up. You can kind of see the drone there blowing up over the Kremlin. And the flames kind of landed on the roof. And in the next video, you see people walking up the dome. I don't know if you can see the little people walking up the dome, checking out the burning, but there's another drone that comes in and explodes in the air over that. You say, well, Brett, come on, are those real explosions? I mean, if somebody really wanted to blow up the Kremlin, wouldn't it have been a bigger explosion and a bigger deal? Yes, but still, do you think the Kremlin's happy that things are exploding over their roof? I almost wonder if whoever did this, if it was more for the optics of smoke and fire over the Kremlin, because that just shows that Vladimir Putin is not as much in power or in control of things as maybe everybody thinks he is. It's not the optics the Russians want, is having fire going up over the roof of the Kremlin and smoke going up. And the smoke, by the way, from the debris went up for quite some time. The Russians tried to cover this up for like 12 hours. And then one of these videos leaked, which I'm sure the Russians would have liked to make nobody even know that this happened, but it leaked and so it became kind of a big deal. But what's interesting about this particular thing is Russia claims the US is behind the alleged Ukrainian drone attack on the Kremlin. It's the United States. Now I have to say, who knows, but it wouldn't shock me if that, that sounds like something our president would have done. Hey, let's send a drone with some firecrackers on it. It'll be awesome. Like, I don't know. I hate to admit it, but maybe, you know, was the United, who knows what's going on? Like, I don't even know who really blew up the pipelines. Like, I know people say they know, but I'm not sure we know anything about what's really going on. But the fact that that happened, you gotta know the Russians are not happy about that. With Ukraine and with the United States, there's already been retaliation and threats of retaliation about that. The Ukrainian-Russian conflict's not going anywhere soon. It's heating up, ramping up. And this, you know, the one thing that we got to say about that is Gog Magog invasion, if it's in the near future, this could be some of the frustration that is put in Vladimir Putin's leadership that would be the hook that draws the Russians down to the Middle East into Israel. We've talked about that in previous times and what have you. Separate issue, something that's just kind of an interesting, are you guys following AI and what's happening? I remember when I first introduced a chat GPT a couple of prophecy updates ago, that's like a million years ago now. The AI has gotten exponentially smarter. Did you see that chat GPT just passed the bar exam and did really well? And you have to write essays that are convincing to pass the bar exam and what have you. And more and more it's doing some pretty incredible things. It also aced the SAT and the bar exam with writing essays and all that. But some people are calling for tech stuff to be reined in right now. Top scientists and tech experts are calling for the federal government to restrain ChatGPT following the development of its new version, ChatGPT 4. which achieves top score on these standardized tests and what have you. It scored in the 93rd percentile in SAT, the SAT, and 89th percentile in the math. And it can achieve the highest score on multiple AP subject exams, according to OpenAI's website. But all that to say, there are people that are in the know on this stuff, and maybe you saw people are quitting, saying, I don't wanna be a part of this. This is gonna be the end of humanity. And people that don't understand how it works are like, how could a computer really end humanity? There's some logical thought, and it's not unfounded fear. And we just think, well, what are we, like Terminator days? Like where the Terminator's gonna be here and we won't be able to turn him off? Pretty much. That's what they're all worried about. And it gets smarter, and it even shows defiance. Did you know chat GPT just lied to further its, there was a big thing about how it made a lie just to further its progress, which is kind of a interesting little thing about that. I don't know, but it does strike me as in the last days, there's gonna be an image of the beast that's gonna be worshiped. Who knows what kind of an image or whatever that is. We can go on and on about the things that are going on in the world, but I always wanna remind you, what are the things we take away? Well, with Israel, the Bible tells us, you know, in Psalm 122, verse six, pray for the peace of Jerusalem. They shall prosper that love thee. And now one thing I gotta say about this is we don't love the politics of Israel necessarily. We're not supporting the decisions that politicians are making in Israel. We are supporting the Jews as God's chosen people. And we know God has a plan for them. Right now they're in unbelief. So we can't really say that we're rah, rah, Israel. I think sometimes Christians make that mistake. They think, oh, then we have to love everything the Jews do. No, that's not the case. But we do need to pray for the peace of Jerusalem, which means Jesus' return. And also when you see stuff that freaks you out, like AI or whatever, no sweat. When these things begin to come to pass, what are we supposed to do? Look up, lift up your heads for your redemption draweth nigh. Amen? Amen. Lord, we thank you for just the reminder of all these things of your word that the Lord, we as Christians have the script right in front of us. Lord, that there shouldn't be big surprises for us as your word tells us exactly what's gonna happen. So Lord, I pray. that you would put within us that blessed hope of your return. I pray that we'd be full of joy, not fear or freaking out about the world events, but that you'd give us that peace that passes understanding, that we would put our trust in you. I pray that we'd also be busy about your kingdom, about your work, Lord, as we are living in this world, not to be of this world, but to be preaching the gospel and sharing the good news with the unsaved, that more and more people might come to the knowledge of the truth. Lord, so much in this world promises big and delivers little, but your word remains and your word is always right. How thankful we are we have that sure foundation where we can put our feet. So Lord, I thank you for this time tonight. May you use it for your purpose, we pray in Jesus' name, amen.