Hey everybody, Pastor Brett on the island of Patmos for our August installment of Prophecy Update, 2024 August. As promised, we talked about this, how we're gonna do a prophecy update from the island where John the Apostle received the revelation of Jesus Christ. I was talking to our group earlier today about how people say, I like the book of Revelations with the S, but that's incorrect. It's the revelation of Jesus Christ to John the Apostle. And this is a great place to be thinking about Bible prophecy. Of course, I see prophecy all threaded throughout the entire Bible. And everybody says, oh, the book of Revelation is too hard to understand. It's too difficult. And for that reason, a lot of churches avoid the topic of Bible prophecy. What a shame, you know, Revelation is the only book of the Bible that comes with its own embedded promise, that whoever reads this book will be blessed. And it's amazing, whenever A.C. Creek has gone through the book of Revelation as a church, we have been blessed. Like the Lord has just blessed us more than we would ever imagined, you know? And so it's too bad, it's a shame people miss the Bible prophecy in their book of Revelation. But one of the things that, you know, is kind of interesting, John received the book of Revelation when he was in a real dry time. I'm standing on this island and today it's beautiful. I mean, I would live here. You know, I see all the trees here and it looks, you know, really quite sort of Mediterranean. But it wasn't really like that in John's day. It was very barren. There's ancient writings how it was just a barren, rocky island. But it is quite a view. If you can see out here, you know, this beautiful port is where our ship came in and we went up and saw some beautiful sights. But back then, John was in a real brutal time. See, here's the thing. There's quite a story behind how John the Apostle ended up here on Patmos. And it actually starts back with a kind of a crazy world history character. See if you know who this is, as I kind of read these attributes. When he was three years old, his father was murdered. His mother, you know, remarried, but she didn't like him so much, so she poisoned his dinner. And this little boy saw his, you know, new father, stepfather or whatever, killed at dinner table. He became violent. At the age of 12, one of his friends crossed him, so he stabbed him in the back with a knife. At the age of 15, he was married, but could not stand his wife, so he strangled her. He married the second wife, liked her no better, and so had her murdered. He then married the third wife, well, actually before they were married, he found out she was married before, so he killed the husband of the wife he was about to marry. And then his mother was getting a little uptight because her son was showing violent tendencies. And he got upset with her because she was prying in his own personal business. So he had her drowned in her bathtub. He was a short man. He was pot belly. But he had this horrible skin, history tells us. And he had a stench to him. You could smell him. And at the age of 31, He was sentenced to death by flagging or whipping. So he ran down the stairs to one of the servants' quarters and grabbed the kitchen knife and slit his own throat. Anybody know who that was? It was a guy by the name of Caesar Nero. Now you say, Brett, why are you bringing that up? Talk about John and Patmos. You see, Caesar Nero was kind of one of the beginning of the Roman emperors who really started to persecute the church. In fact, you know, that's where Paul comes in. Paul, the apostle, he would have his time in Rome, but eventually be beheaded by Caesar Nero himself. So persecution of the church was starting to become really rampant. And then there'd be 10 waves of persecution by these Roman emperors. And Nero was kind of the beginning of that. In fact, it's interesting because Nero would take Christians, dip them in hot wax, hang them on poles, light them on fire, and then he'd ride in the streets of Rome with these burning Christians and shriek with delight, nakedly, by the way, he'd be riding his chariot, and shrieking with delight, saying, Christians are the light of the world, as they're all burning there. That was the beginning of some serious persecution. A few emperors later, a guy by the name of Domitian comes along, and he was as bad as Nero. Maybe some people argue even worse. Domitian is noted as having killed some six million Christians. If you look it up, there's debate on that. But Domation was the one in power by the time the old apostle John comes to the story. It was Domation who tried to burn John in a pot of oil, boiling him to death there in Ephesus. It was Domation when that was unsuccessful, somehow God miraculously protected John from the oil. So Domation exiled John to this island right here, where he could no longer preach the gospel. It was just a barren desert island. So what do you do when you're stuck on a dry place where you have nothing to do? A lot of us would pout or be bummed, but the Bible tells us what John did, and that's how we know he was here. In fact, let me read to you. This comes from the book of Revelation, chapter one, verse nine and 10. It says, I, John, who is your brother, commanion in tribulation, and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was in the aisle called Patmos, For the Word of God and for the testimony of Jesus Christ, I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day and heard behind me a great voice as of a trumpet." You see, this is where John the Apostle was just hanging out in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and he heard the Lord, his voice, and got the revelation of Jesus Christ. I love this. Because John was in the spirit, that's something for us to remember, to be in the spirit. And John received this revelation, and then he writes the whole thing out. Super simple. Chapter one, he says, I'm gonna write the outline for you. He says in chapter one, verse 19, write the things which you've seen past, things that are present, and the things which shall be hereafter. And the book of Revelation follows that perfect outline quite simply. You know, in this Prophecy Update, I kind of want to focus on that last part, the things that shall be hereafter. And what is, you know, after the church age, the Book of Revelation talks about that in depth. There's a coming up of the church into heaven. You can actually see it when it says, come up hither, come up here, and metatauta, after these things. These are the languages of the Book of Revelation. that tells us it's a sign that we're talking about future events. Revelation six through 19 talks about the great tribulation. And so I think we should take some time maybe on this Prophecy Update and sort of focus in. What are the things that we're seeing today in the world that perhaps, and again, I always like to say perhaps, there's too many people say absolutely this is leading to this or that, but perhaps we are getting closer and closer to that time. I'd like to kind of explore that. Now to explore that and just talk about the days we're living, that's where I think I'm gonna invite my buddy Steve from, you know, Israel. He's living in the United States now, but we're gonna have Steve here come up and chat with us about the days that we're living. What's going on in Israel? What's the latest stuff that's happening in the world? Hey everybody, we're here with Steve the tour guide and what a privilege having him here on the Greece tour with us. Have you enjoyed your time so far? Oh my gosh, it's exceeded my expectations. Yeah, I love the tour that we're on. We're sailing through the Aegean Sea. Steve and I were just in Athens. What was your favorite part of Athens when we were there? Well, I love the Agora and our guide's explanation of Greek philosophy because as I gave in a teaching on the boat a couple days ago, I saw how God was able to use Greek philosophers to prepare them for that time of Christ that you're referring to throughout the tour. That was really, that was good stuff. I mean, the stuff that we wouldn't normally think about, you know, what were the people thinking before the gospel arrived? And that was so cool. And then we made our way from Greece and we got to do kind of a fun goof around day around some of the islands here. But today we're here on Patmos. And, you know, this is a really important part of the Bible story, the Bible narrative where John the apostle received the revelation of Jesus Christ. And with this prophecy update, I was thrilled to have Steve join us, you know, and talk about kind of what's going on. You know, the Bible says really that we as Christians don't have to be ignorant about the days. There's a couple of things we're not supposed to be about is God's plan for Israel. Don't be ignorant and don't be arrogant to the Gentiles. Romans chapter 11 verse 25 talks about that. And also the idea of not being ignorant of the signs of the times. And so Steve, I wanted to kind of talk about Israel. Israel is the epicenter of Bible prophecy as far as I'm concerned. And there's a lot going on. I mean, there's a lot going on in the world right now with the Trump assassination attempt since our last Prophecy Update. That happened, a lot of things. But again, I'm kind of keeping my eye on Israel. I've noticed that when a lot of things are going on elsewhere in the world, sometimes Israel, there's things percolating that a lot of people kind of miss. What are some of the things you're seeing in Israel right now that are just kind of interesting things to keep your eye on? Well, as you mentioned a couple days ago, there was an attack by Hezbollah on the Golan Heights. And what makes that particularly interesting is that the target were non-Israeli citizens for the most part, from Israel's Druze minority. And that particular community on the Golan Heights, most of them have chosen to remain Syrian citizens as Israel captured that territory from Syria. So one has to ask, why did Hezbollah target that particular demographic? I don't know exactly what munition was used and I had told you privately before that it was if it was a drone Drones are controlled by remote from a bunker with a camera. The person knows exactly where that drone is going to land So that would mean it was intentional not an a mistake but if it were a rocket then, you know, maybe a rocket that aired but I Why Hezbollah chose that? Something that could be the tinder that sets off the war with Hezbollah. What they call the unintended consequences. Yes. Those rockets, you know, I remember being there in Golan with you and we stopped where a Katyusha landed. And those seem to be very inaccurate. Some of the rockets Hezbollah is using now, they're higher tech than those Katyushas. Is that right? The Katyushas date to World War II. It's a Russian World War II rocket. Hezbollah is believed to have a quarter million rockets and missiles. And what makes them particularly dangerous, other than the sheer volume, is that Hezbollah has succeeded to acquire GPS guiding targeting ability for many of those rockets and missiles. So in a future full-scale war between Israel and Hezbollah, It's possible that Hezbollah will be able to bring those rockets into government, the parliament building, the Knesset. Israel has a nuclear production plant believed to produce its own nuclear capability. The city of Haifa has oil refineries, which I've heard could kill up to 10,000 people because of the toxins that would be released into the air. So a future war with those abilities can be apocalyptic. And I choose my language. I know we're here on the island of the apocalypse, but you know that I'm not a sensationalist. And I'm telling you that the fallout for such a war can be apocalyptic. Yeah, you know, just the wars of Israel, I feel like Israel has shown restraint. You know, that's a subjective thing. A lot of people think they've done too much with Gaza, but I'm surprised they've been as restrained with Hezbollah, with the Houthis and all the other stuff that's going on around. With that said, the Druze being hit, do you think this could be a situation where Netanyahu, the leader, what does this do for his leadership? Are people wanting him to be more aggressive in the north? You and I have talked a lot about Netanyahu since October 7. Tell us about where he's at in his leadership right now. Well, just like history is a history of ebbs and flows, so are people's personal careers. And boy, Netanyahu has really experienced the ebbs and flows of his career the last couple of years. So following October 7, he was at the lowest possible approval rating. And I would say at least 80% of the population wanted him to resign on the spot. He was stubborn. He refused to do so and became one of three in a war cabinet. that included a guy named Yoav Galant and Benny Gantz. And at the very beginning, many people, including myself, believed that Israel should bypass Hamas, even though the war was started by Hamas, and go right after Hezbollah. Israel would have been in their right to do so because Hezbollah entered the war on its own volition on October 8th as a sign of solidarity with Hamas. So Israel is within its rights and has been since October 8th to go full-on war with Hezbollah. But Netanyahu chose the more conservative route. Do you think there was wisdom in that? Because, you know, world pressure has been profound. Like, I'm shocked at the way the world views the Hamas conflict. If he'd gone north, people would be saying, why is he going up there? They weren't even the people that attacked him. Great question. You know, Brett, that I've been very fair in our past interviews about the Biden administration at the beginning of the war, that they sent two battleship formations, two flotillas with two naval aircraft carriers and, you know, all sorts of things to help Israel. And Biden famously said on his very first trip to Israel, he said he was quoted as saying, don't. Now, it was interpreted as him telling Iran and Hezbollah, don't you jump into the war. But it was a double-sided coin, because he was also saying to Israel, don't expand the war to include Hezbollah. From the very beginning, America has perceived its interest in the war remaining confined to the Gaza Strip, even though I think it's in Israel's interest. And I've always believed so to expand the war to take out the Hezbollah threat, which is by far the more deadly threat long term. Well, I mean, the the the threat is there, whether the wars, I mean, the amount of people they've evacuated in the north. And I mean, it's In some ways, if I lived in the north there, I'd feel like the war has started. Do you think some of the people who live there feel that way? Absolutely. You have between 60,000 to 80,000 Israelis currently living in hotels by the Dead Sea or in Eilat, waiting to go home. And they said that they refused to go home until the Hezbollah issue has been settled. Now, Well, I will say this, there has been a war for the past nine months between Israel and Hezbollah. It just hasn't made the headlines like the Hamas war. Since October 8th, Israel has succeeded to kill about 500 of Hezbollah's personnel, many of whom are senior commanders. It's also destroyed the whole length of Israel's frontier with Hezbollah, about half a mile's worth of brush, Mediterranean scrub, these type of olive trees and stuff that also define that landscape. Israel has used Roman-style catapults. to launch flaming cannonballs, if you will, into that entire length of the border to destroy all the vegetation for about half a mile to be able to better see Hezbollah personnel coming to the border. Israel insists that Hezbollah retreat to what's called the Litani River. which is maybe 10 kilometers, I forget the exact measurements, maybe 10 kilometers north of the present frontier. And many have suggested that Israel has already succeeded to do that. So some would counsel, you don't need to go full on war. Those of us that say that Israel needs to go full on war with Hezbollah, it's to do away with the quarter million rockets and missiles. that I mentioned, many of which have guided the systems. That's an existential threat to Israel and a future war, and many, including myself, believe that Israel needs to neutralize that threat. We are back on the ship here, and the world events have just kind of brought Steve and I back together. We wanted to do a little addendum to our discussion that we began up on Patmos. We've been sailing from the Macedonian region of Philippi, and we're headed back toward Athens. So we thought we'd take advantage of the time and get a little bit caught up. We've been in a bit of a news blackout. So once in a while on the ship, we get some news. But we thought it'd be kind of cool to address some of the things that have been going on in the past few days. Steve, you know, once you talk about these assassinations, it was kind of a shock. Although Israel initially was just very quiet. Meanwhile, the world is kind of freaking out. What's your take on all this? So the two elements of shock in the assassination that got more headlines of Ismail Haniyeh, the head of the Politburo of Hamas. One, it was an attack on Iran to kill him. Now, in the beginning they said that this was by way of a rocket or a missile fired from Israeli fighter jets. The New York Times recently, and by the way, the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, since the beginning of this war, have gotten inside information. They have had their inside sources and have been accurate on previous reportings of stuff like this. So the New York Times has claimed that it was actually a bomb that was brought in or spirited into the room of Henea, actually two months before they killed him, a bomb. that was spirited into the room and hidden there, knowing that one day he would come to his residence in Tehran, and Israel chose to blow him up that way. Now, why that way? Because Israel probably felt that Iran would not be as justified in its retaliation if it was from that kind of bomb rather than an Israeli, a direct Israeli attack. But Iran is treating it like it's been... Like an airstrike or something. That's right. That's right. And that's a game shift. Number two is Ismail Haniyeh was in charge of running the Hamas negotiations that had been going on for months to free the Israeli hostages. And now people are wondering why did Israel kill him when he's the guy who had in the cards, he was the guy who was actually the head of the Hamas negotiating team. Where does that leave the negotiations with Hamas? Now, if I can just add one angle to that, The two leaders of Hamas are Sinwar, who's the actual leader on the ground in the Gaza Strip, and Ismail, the late Ismail Haniyeh, who is operating out of Qatar. Throughout those months, the Israeli media had reported that Sinwar was the more flexible of the two, that Sinwar was putting pressure on Ismail Haniyeh, who's living in safety in Qatar, to not demand the price, the extreme price that Hamas was. So it could be that when Israel eliminated Ismail Haniyeh, they figured, well, great, you know, Sinwar is still able to negotiate on behalf of Hamas. We don't need this guy Ismail Haniyeh. And he's under much more pressure from us to bend the neet and not continue to be stubborn about their demands. Yeah, so interesting the way Israel thinks through these things. And you kind of, do you sense Mossad was involved with the planting of this bomb? Sure, sure. And Brett, if I can just jump in, when we say the Mossad, believe it or not, the Mossad only has a few thousand Israeli employees. Much of what the Mossad has done in Iran over the last 10 years in attacking their nuclear program has been by Iranians who are working on behalf of the Mossad. And that's important. Don't think that Jews or Israelis snuck in there and did this. These are Iranians who are against the Islamic regime, and they've been helping Israel because of their own ideology, because they feel it's in their interest and Israel's interest for that government to fall. That seems like that'd be a dangerous job. Very, very true. I'll leave Turkey out of this. Somebody ran up to me during the Turkey tour with a headline that says, Turkey considering to join Iran's retaliation. It's a very popular line of thought, especially among people in some prophecy circles, because they think Turkey is part of the Gog and Magog thing, and this is the Gog and Magog thing. And as you know, I try to err towards caution. I'm not a sensationalist. Turkey would no way get involved in retaliating against Israel, because it's in currently, currently, that's the key word, currently, a NATO member, which restrains it from being able to do that. The rest of NATO would not accept Turkey starting a war with Israel that could draw NATO into it. So let's forget the Turkey thing. The retaliation is being considered by Iran together with Hezbollah, together with all of its various militias and proxies. And this is where we're now in a new day, a danger zone. Iran wants to retaliate against Israel. It's believed that it would be a combination of rockets, missiles, drones, like the attack in April, whose origin was in Iran itself, together with Hezbollah attacking, because that same day Israel took out the top military commander of Hezbollah. and that maybe the Houthis, the Houthis I don't think have done anything since Israel retaliated against that. You see how force works. That's the language of the Middle East, folks. If you want to learn Middle Easternese, you don't have to speak Arabic. You need to speak the language of force, okay? The problem is that When Iran attacked Israel back in April, Biden put tremendous pressure on Israel, and the famous quote was, take the win. This is a win. You're restrained. Nobody believes this. This is a uniquely American way of seeing things, and even not American, but the current administration. Take the win. The win is turning the other cheek. This time, I do not think Israel will take the win. If Israel is attacked, even if it knocks down all the incoming missiles and rockets, it can't afford to not react. It can't afford to not speak the language of the Middle East. It can't speak in Americanese. It has to speak in Middle Easternese. And this is where the Arabs in Islamic world have greatly erred in the last 100 years in all of its wars with the Jews and then with Israel when it came into being. They don't understand where the Jewish mindset is. They underestimate us. They underestimate our unity to survive. And I'll be honest with you, Brett, since the October 7 attack, where I think Hezbollah and Iran have misread things. They don't realize that Israel is all in on this war. All in. Not just Israel and Israelis, all Jews around the world are feeling the truth of this, that this is an existential threat unlike any threat since World War II. We must be all in. And I think it's causing Iran and Hezbollah and others to miscalculate. And that's how major wars begin. Major wars begin on miscalculations. And somebody may be about to miscalculate themselves into a regional war that they may not want to go to. That's an interesting thing, the underestimation. You know, we see the word existential threat, or words used all the time. And Americans, you know, the climate change is an existential threat. But Israel really has no, it's such a small land, They don't have any wiggle room for one mistake. I mean, October 7th was bad enough, but I think you're right. And the Lord is gonna come back someday and speak the language of the Middle East. When Christ returns, we're gonna see, that's how he's gonna come and deliver Israel from all the nations. So it is kind of an interesting thing to watch. Let me ask you, since you mentioned Turkey, I think, Let me give you my take on that. Turkey flip-flopping from NATO over to not NATO, I could see that happening overnight. I don't think that, and also the whole Gog Magog thing, you're right, there's a lot of people, sensationalists, like this is Gog Magog. I think they've already been proven wrong since a lot of the things we've seen. But I would say that this is it. But I think we have to be really cautious. But at the same time, I would say, in that region of the world, who's in NATO, who's out, I think that could flip-flop at any given moment. With Erdogan or whoever else is the leader there, what's their desires? Do they want to be the caliphate? I can see a lot of things change there pretty quickly. Would you agree that the Middle East could change quickly? I remember back on October 7th, my Facebook page is sort of a blog. You know, I blog on it. And I remember on October 7th, I predicted, and I'm not claiming I was inspired at all, but I predicted where this war could possibly go. I said, in the next few months, you're going to see casualties that shock you. Tens of thousands of people could be killed in both Gaza, Lebanon. Of course, Israel will be accused of genocide. And I said, how far this war goes will shock a lot of us when it's over. And I'm still of that opinion. We don't know when or how this war ends, but based on what's going on in the last few days, again, I repeat, what started out as a local invasion by Israel, by Hamas, could end up changing the whole Middle East. I'm of the opinion that October 7 and its aftermath since I was born, I was born in the early 70s, is one of those few History, trajectory, changing moments. More so than 9-11. And that's not to say that 9-11 was less dramatic. I'm not comparing the suffering Richter scale, but I'm just saying The Bible, as you and I know, is Israel-centric and Jerusalem-centric. And this event is equal, in my opinion, to the Six-Day War and to the 48 War, the milestone events of modern-day Israel's history to change the whole trajectory of Middle Eastern history. And we have yet to see where these pieces of October 7 ultimately fall and settle. That's good. Thank you. That's good stuff. Here on the island of Batmos, John, when he talked about the things which are yet to come, he talked about a one-world government, a one-world religion. It makes me think of 2024. This is an interesting year as far as leadership. There's a lot of elections around the world. There's civil war happening in places like Venezuela. It's crazy, but there's a great vacuum. And I know that we feel that in the United States, this election is going to be very interesting to follow. But with Netanyahu and the Israelis, basically the world's going to have to be set up to receive this coming world leader called Antichrist. How would you characterize the Jews, the mindset of the Jews in these days? Because that's going to have to happen if we are living toward the end times. There's going to become a leader that's going to deceive. Are they primed and ready for that? Or do you think that that's not really seen as obvious? So look, you have two distinct camps today in Israel, the secular majority and an increasingly growing Orthodox and very little in between the two. Among the secular Jews, both in Israel and beyond in the diaspora, there's a Greek word for us since we're in the air. Secular Jews seem to be governed by what's called secular humanism and a certain, in my opinion, naivete about human nature. The Bible tells us that human nature is sinful beyond redemption other than God's own intervention into it, right? But historically, liberal Judaism believes in something which in Hebrew is called tikkun olam, to fix the world, to fix the world through progressive policies. It's those people, the progressive tikkun olam Jewish types that I could see falling for that. But I can't understate, Brett, how much October 7 was a wake-up call to a lot of those Jews who don't even... I can't tell you how many of my friends from the secular Jewish world have said to me, we've lost our faith in the IDF even. We've lost our faith in everybody who claims to protect us. So it could be that there's now a dividing of the way where maybe people are searching for something beyond that naive trust in man, or even naive trust in the mighty IDF. You saw how the IDF let us down on October 7th, didn't even get involved at least in an organized way. There was tremendous heroism even in the first couple hours, but in terms of the army coming under the command and resisting these people, it took up to five to six hours in some of these places. So a lot of my progressive Jewish friends have started to take a step back and no longer trust anybody. So I can only tell you how the current currently is, but I can't predict to you where the bulk of the Jewish people are at the moment. But I have seen a paradigm shift. I can't speak on what I've seen the Orthodox Jews go through, but most of the Jews that I know, at least back in the States, among those progressives, they've had a lot of their progressive bubble popped since October 7th. Yeah, I think that, you know, the people's wanting and their drive to have a really good leader. It seems to me like that's part of the setup. You know, even you and I were talking earlier about how the Antichrist, he's going to win everybody over. And the question is how? The Jews are going to have to think, oh, this guy is pro-Israel. You know what I mean? Yeah. This guy is pro-Israel and he's helped the Jews. I can't imagine some guy who's an enemy of Israel suddenly saying, follow me, and the Jews just falling for him. You see, Brett, and therein lays the problem. We have to be so discerning, so careful. Among the bona fides, if you were, bona fides of this individual that you're talking about is that he will be the most pro-Israel person in history, which is why I'm concerned when even Christians come up to me all excited about this person or that person and say, oh, he's the man, you know, he's gonna save us and all this. And look, he's so pro-Israel too, that just proves that he's God's man. And I'm like, hey, be careful here. Because the Bible warns that the man himself, who you called the Antichrist, his calling card, if you will, is that he starts out as the most pro-Israel person in history. Yeah, that's right. And you know, it's just like Satan, he's a deceiver. That's by title, you know. So we're not saying Trump is the Antichrist for the record. I'm not saying that. Steve's not saying that. But you can kind of see... But we are saying you must have discernment. Right. That's exactly it. You must dig deeper than the news bylines and headlines. Right. And this only comes by a close walk with God. Yeah. Yeah, I think that's the key, is keep our eyes on the Lord, keep our head in the, you know, face in the Word, and not be so easily duped. I think that's going to be the main characteristic. He's going to trick and deceive, you know, lawlessness, deception, a great apostasy, you know, these are marks of the coming of this world leader. And that just should make us be perhaps less gullible, I hope, and eyes on the Lord. When it comes to the, you know, the world governments and world religions, you know, I watched what happened at the Olympics. And, you know, Steve and I, honestly, we've been a little bit of a news-free bubble because we've been on a ship going through the Aegean. But we've been getting snippets of this Olympics and things. But, you know, that secular humanism, A lot of us just go, well, look at the drag queen, how horrible that is. But I see it more of a little bit of, it's just rebellion against God. It doesn't really even matter as much what kind of rebellion, it's just blatant rebellion against God. And it's interesting that in Israel, the LGBTQ communities, it's very accepted and very, but I've noticed that the response to Christians on the Olympics thing, since this is a kind of a prophecy update, I'm concerned, like I think we handle these things wrongly. What do the Jews in Israel think about stuff like this? Are they celebrating what happened at the Olympics? Is that that secular side? The Orthodox, of course, are against it, right? And what I'm going to tell you is sort of sad but not surprising. October 7th so depressed the country that when the President of Israel went to participate in these opening ceremonies he was excoriated by the public saying, what in the world are you doing going to this world celebration when we have maybe up to 40 or 50 hostages, including girls. You know, some of our daughters are teen girls in the clutches of Hamas. This is no time to be part of the global community, a special global community that's been very hostile to Israel since October 7. So, no, I don't think the intention of Israel is on the Olympics at all. I think that all these global celebrations, this reminds us, the Jews, how alone we really are in the world. And you know what, Brett, I've had such a good time on this tour, but don't think it hasn't escaped me when I'm in Turkey and I see the crowds of tourists and the guides are all employed, the tourism industry in Greece is booming, and I'm like, wow, the tourism industry where I'm from is dead. You know, it's like... Everything's reminding me and the Jewish people at large that we stand alone. And if I can say, that may itself be used of God, because what does God really want for us, the Jews, to do? What's really our role in our relationship with Him at this stage in history? I was telling you that I've been reading through the book of Isaiah. And Isaiah, at the time, would constantly counsel the Jewish people, whose orientation was to go to Egypt, one of the powers of the time, you know, to come and rescue us from the clutches of the Assyrians. He always says, go down to Egypt. Like there's a, there's like a... It's like also a spiritual diminution here. Yeah, right. As much as I'm an American Jew who moved to Israel, I'm a dual citizen. This is one of the reasons why I think you like me as a tour guide. I'm equally in both worlds. I'm an American, but I'm also an Israeli. I love America, but The Jewish dependence on America would be called by Isaiah, an act of adultery. We're to look to Yahweh our God as our guarantor of our security. And I think, and I'm hoping that one of the things that come out of these last nine months is that maybe we come to realize, especially as Israelis have read about how the Biden administration has slowed down the weapons shipments, you know, To be at the mercy of anybody, even the friendly United States, the most pro-Israel country in history, it's still not where we should be as a people. God is the one that spoke Jewish existence into existence, and He's the only one that can sustain our existence. And when we look to others to jump into the role of Yahweh, we're in sin. And I think he's trying to discredit those false gods and false, you know, Isaiah likens Egypt to a reed that's so flimsy that if you try to lean on it, it breaks and you go falling with it. The Jewish people have to learn, we have to decouple ourselves from whatever power be in the world, no matter how friendly it may appear and be in the present, it's always that reed that can collapse and disappoint us. Yeah, I mean even the Gog Magog of Ezekiel 38, you know, says that there's going to be the nations are going to be basically, well, sorry for Israel, but there's a few nations that are like protesting bystanders. Right. You know, and some of us see perhaps that's where the United States would be, Saudi Arabia, some others might be saying, you know, You know, you shouldn't be going against Israel like that. But nobody's really going to stand with Israel. And then you've got the book of Revelation that talks about, you know, anti-Christian will then turn and make war against the Jews. There's no one really going to be there. But that's when, you know, you're going to have to fight. Christ appears. This is where you and I have had this phenomenal ongoing discussion for probably the past 20 years. I've always been the pessimist between the two of us about the American future. We both agree that one day America is not going to be there for Israel. I know that you've often said maybe this is because of the rapture that that major pro-Israel component's taken out. And I've always said, nah, I really think it's gonna be because of what we're seeing today. The future of America are these college kids who hate Israel. They don't even know why they hate Israel. I don't think a lot of us realize the rot that's seeped into every stratum of American culture. Those college kids are the future of American leadership. So if this is an event still 10 years away, 20 years away, you'll be surprised just how anti-Israel American get. as that generation takes over. Yeah, I think you're convincing me more and more. I mean, 20 years ago, yeah, I just couldn't see the rot that you're talking about. I mean, I knew it was there, but it's gotten so profound. I could see the United States kind of falling apart with or without the rapture. which is sad as a person who loves the United States, you know, it's sad for us. But, you know, that's where I think we have to keep our eyes on the bigger picture. I'm not into inactivity or, you know, apathy, but at the same time, we know ultimately God is sovereign and he's going to do his work. And that's where we put our trust. He knows what he's doing, you know. Boy, this has been so helpful to be able to talk with you about what's going on in Israel. When it comes to the world, as an average American, what should we be watching in Israel? I mean, there's so many pieces, as what the Bible talks about. the world economy, wars and rumors of wars. As an American, what can we focus our attention on and what are the things that we miss, that an average American might miss? I feel like every time I go to Israel, you open my eyes to something and I'm like, man, I've never really seen it that way. Is there anything that kind of strikes you as, if you could say, this is what you guys should probably have a heads up on? Well, you're going to be a little disappointed in my answer because I'm going to answer thematically rather than about a particular issue. You said watching Israel and one of the things that's concerned me about the Christian world is that they tend to read the first 12 or 14 chapters of Genesis or let's say all the way up to Joseph and then leapfrog over what many of them call the Old Testament, you know I like to call the Hebrew Bible, in this belief that, ah, all that Jewish stuff is no longer relevant. And I would tell them, read the whole Bible, including that what you call, not you, but them, you know, the Old Testament, because most of the stuff that talks about the day that we live in is in those chapters between Joseph and Jesus. So what I would really want to encourage your watchers, Brett, to take from this is that I, who's watching this video, what I really need to do is plow into the Word And at least once in your lifetime, preferably sooner than later, read the Bible from cover to cover. Maybe even get one of those through the Bible and one year guides, you know. Become familiar with the whole Bible because the whole Bible is as relevant as the rest of the Bible. And then you'll understand all this Israel stuff. where it is, as you said, in God's epicenter. The God of the Bible is still that Yahweh of the Old Testament. And if you ask me, what is he doing with all this Israel stuff for the last 100 years of Zionism? I would say he's trying to shout from the rooftops Folks, Jews and Gentiles, I'm telling you that I'm Yahweh, the God of the Bible, and I'm the one fulfilling my covenantal promises, even if they were from 4,000 years ago, with me, the eternal one, a day is like 1,000 years, 1,000 years is like a day. You may be tempted to belittle all that Israel stuff, but I tell you, it's just as relevant and just as current as Abraham's own day. Folks, get into the scripture. Don't be biblically illiterate. You got a great pastor here who gives you great material each week, but even Brett would tell you, don't depend on him alone. He's a supplement. He's the icing, but the heart of the matter is the Bible. And I know that that's Brett's heart. Get into the word from cover to cover, and then you will understand exactly what you're watching in Israel. Man, well said. And the movement to get away from the Old Testament is profound in the church in America. And I feel like in some ways that's why people come to Athey Creek. You know, people say, why are people piling into this church in Portland, Oregon? I think people are starving to know not just the New Testament, but the full counsel of God. And if you don't have the Isaiah and Ezekiel and the book of Daniel, like you're just poorer for that. And I don't believe you can make sense of a book like Revelation, where John received this amazing revelation. Unless you have the book of Daniel, good luck trying to interpret the book of Revelation. I mean, Brett, since you mentioned it, I mean, Revelation chapter 12, if you understand Joseph's visions and dreams with the moon, the star, we all know that that's talking about Israel, right? But the historic church totally either overlooks that or is hostile to it. The Bible interprets the Bible. The one part of the Bible helps to unlock the other part of the Bible. And that's what I agree with you. The book of Revelation is not this enigma. In fact, its very name in Greek, Apocalypse, is about a revealing. It's telling you it wants to be revealed. So if it wants to be revealed, why are we closing it and turning it into this mystery? It's not a mystery. Do you see when Daniel says at the end of his book, seal up the words of this book until the end, and then the book of Revelation says, do not seal up the words of this book until the end. What do you make of that? Well, I feel we're in that end. I mean, I'm not ashamed to admit that I believe we're living in the end times. I heard you say correctly, actually, that in the Christian world, the end times began when the church age began. But I really believe we're at the end times of the end times. And like you said, Israel and Jerusalem are the epicenter of that. And the more these people watching us get hungry to get into the whole Bible, then they too will be able to fully understand and partake in this discussion that we're having. It all becomes relevant when you know the whole Bible. Man, that's good stuff. And I think we need to have you on more often. I love all these times where you're on and talking. So when we get back home, we'll have to get our system more synced up. Thanks for adopting me, Athee Kriegers. Yeah. Well, hey, everybody, thanks for joining us, man. We had a blast here on the island of Patmos. I'm so glad to have Steve here, the tour guide. And we'll see you in a few weeks. Just remember, you know, all this stuff that we talk about, it's all looking really at the world's situation, but really from a biblical Christian worldview. And ultimately we put our trust in Christ. Remember the book of Revelation says the spirit of prophecy is Jesus Christ. So we keep our eyes fixed on him and we put our trust in him. But we're glad you joined us. We'll be back in a few weeks and we'll see you when we get home. God bless you guys. you